Weather and climate: an analogy

Weather and Climate illustration: weather is likened to the notes and loose change kept in your purse and the climate is likened to a graph showing your financial status over a long period of time.

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If weather is like the money in your pocket on any one day, climate is like your net financial worth over time.

I liked this simple analogy to distinguish between weather and climate in a New York Times article by Kendra Pierre-Louis . While there are many causes of extreme weather, keeping this analogy in mind helps keep some overall context even when you’re in the midst of an unexpected cold snap.

Published 18 Aug 2019

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Umbrella and Funnel management style example explained: Todd Jackson's shit umbrella or shit funnel metaphor shown with on the left, the effective manager uses an umbrella to shield their team from a downpour of tasks and requests coming from all directions. This sheltered team are focussed and productive and celebrate their achievements. On the right, in place of the umbrella, the less effective manager uses a funnel as a catch-all, showering their team with actions, sending the team members running scared.

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Rose, thorn, bud is a simple tool for reflection for yourself or your team. The basic idea is to look back at a recent project or how things are going and consider each aspect of a rose: Rose: what are the successes? What's gone well? Thorn: what are the challenges? What could we do better? Bud: what are opportunities with potential? What could we explore or try? If running as a team retro activity or retrospective, you might spend a few minutes individually adding thoughts for each prompt, then talk through each of the thoughts in Rose, Thorn and Bud. A separate but no less important step is often to capture actions from the reflection—what you'll do as a result. If you're conducting retros regularly, consider revisiting actions from previous sessions. I like "rose, thorn, bud" as it's beautiful to consider that a rose contains such different facets, like so many things. I've come across many retro and reflection activities that are variations of these three prompts: "What went well?", "What didn't go well?" and "What else?" A few to mention: The sailboat retro: Goal/vision, Rocks, Wind, Anchor — a nice feature for a team is that this activity places you all in the same boat Glad, Mad, Sad Liked, Learned, Lacked, Longed for Wishes, Risks, Appreciations, Puzzles I liked, I wish, What if Start, stop, continue Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats (SWOT) A reader suggested a fourth aspect of the rose analogy to reflect on as its leaves or roots: what are the unnoticed or behind-the-scenes things that contribute to the rose's success? I've come to consider that it doesn't matter too much what activity you choose to get a discussion going. What matters most is regular reflection, hearing all the voices in a team, and making progress together. One teammate ran an excellent retro by us all finishing early and heading to the pub. I didn't intend it, but some of the products and prints for rose, thorn, bud out to be some of the nicest I have. Also see: Information radiator, MoSCoW prioritisation, RACI, How to peel a Post-it so it doesn't fall down, the upward spiral…Rose, thorn, bud is a simple tool for reflection for yourself or your team. The basic idea is to look back at a recent project or how things are going and consider each aspect of a rose: Rose: what are the successes? What's gone well? Thorn: what are the challenges? What could we do better? Bud: what are opportunities with potential? What could we explore or try? If running as a team retro activity or retrospective, you might spend a few minutes individually adding thoughts for each prompt, then talk through each of the thoughts in Rose, Thorn and Bud. A separate but no less important step is often to capture actions from the reflection—what you'll do as a result. If you're conducting retros regularly, consider revisiting actions from previous sessions. I like "rose, thorn, bud" as it's beautiful to consider that a rose contains such different facets, like so many things. I've come across many retro and reflection activities that are variations of these three prompts: "What went well?", "What didn't go well?" and "What else?" A few to mention: The sailboat retro: Goal/vision, Rocks, Wind, Anchor — a nice feature for a team is that this activity places you all in the same boat Glad, Mad, Sad Liked, Learned, Lacked, Longed for Wishes, Risks, Appreciations, Puzzles I liked, I wish, What if Start, stop, continue Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats (SWOT) A reader suggested a fourth aspect of the rose analogy to reflect on as its leaves or roots: what are the unnoticed or behind-the-scenes things that contribute to the rose's success? I've come to consider that it doesn't matter too much what activity you choose to get a discussion going. What matters most is regular reflection, hearing all the voices in a team, and making progress together. One teammate ran an excellent retro by us all finishing early and heading to the pub. I didn't intend it, but some of the products and prints for rose, thorn, bud out to be some of the nicest I have. Also see: Information radiator, MoSCoW prioritisation, RACI, How to peel a Post-it so it doesn't fall down, the upward spiral

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