Essential Links in April 2023

Phew. Beginning of the month I went to bed with the COVID virus for the first time. It was definitely a mild version (compared to all the others), nonetheless I was knocked out for almost 2 weeks straight. Then my copy of the Future Organization Playbook arrived and since I was in Berlin anyway, we went to the Book Reveal Party at Dark Horse. It was lovely to meet all the people and talk about their great book.

I was intrigued by the hexagon model that they used in their book and I started to investigate deeper on organizational models and designs. I will come up with a summary of my findings soon.

Here are some inspiring links for April

• What happens, if you put 25 so-called AI agents together in a RPG-like setting like The Sims? Please note: It's not AI! These are powered by an LLM, which sounds intelligent, but isn't.
• Everybody knows User Story Mapping, Jeff Patton's beautiful method on mapping out the stories that a user may experience in your product. What's even more interesting: You can use the mapping method for almost anything that has a time- and functional dependency. Jake Gothelf uses it to map out strategy using OKRs.
• I am tired of reading about AI. The only thing that comes clear is that humans neither are ready for it nor do they understand what's going on. There is a mixture of sense of urgency, panic and unreflected technology obedience. Same with Blockchain a few years ago. However, here's Henrik Kniberg's take on Are developers still needed in the age of AI. And I like his approach trying to get to the bottom of the usefulness and what really is there to win for us.
• beyond tellerand Düsseldorf has arrived and gone by. I wasn't there so I hope everybody had fun. And here is Emily Anhalts great talk on 7 Traits of an Emotional Fit Leader that you should definitely watch.
• OKRs? Quarterly strategy meetings? Why quarterly? Here is Johanna Rothman with a beautiful article about chosing your planning timebox according to the longest time your management can commit. Pretty easy, huh?

Tomorrow is May 1st. I hope the sun comes out and I want you to enjoy the extra day off in Germany. Take care and watch out for each other!