Category: Themes

I wrote a few weeks ago about what motivates people in general, and software developers in particular, to improve their performance. Since then, I've been reminded about a conversation I had about a similar topic with a recruiter a few years ago. Many organisations provide benefits to their staff that are related to their products … Continue reading The Chalmers/Clarkson Index

There is a way of thinking about how we influence people that distills styles of influence into "push" influence and "pull" influence. Push influence, either through straight assertion or logical argument, tends to be focused on telling people what to do. Although it can have success in the short term, over time consistently pushing people … Continue reading Push me/pull you

I’ve been in my new role now for a little over five months, and am starting to make some sense of what I am here to do. In essence, my team is responsible for making people in the UK technology sector, and in particular those in the world of software development and others in the … Continue reading Social Marketing

There was an exemplary case of chasing totemic numbers on BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme on Monday morning. A political think tank had published a report that outlined ways in which UK police forces were missing opportunities to save tens of millions of pounds annually by getting civilian staff to replace uniformed officers in back … Continue reading Criminal Numbers

There are some things in life that seem logical, but are just wrong. I remember early in my study of Sociology one lecturer defining this as the Common Sense trap - that there was no such thing as common sense, and that often what appeared to make perfect sense actually didn't. I guess that in … Continue reading The performance management myth

Realising that I haven't updated it for a while... you can find out more about me: On LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/mattballantine On Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/ballantine70 Or on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/#!/mattballantine I'm on Google+, but quite frankly...      

I studied maths until the age of 19. It's no great academic achievement (my A levels were like a night in a 90s nightclub... lots of Es), but it did mean that I did more than my share of Statistics. I don't remember much about it, more than anything because in my subsequent academic endeavours … Continue reading The death of causality

The recent article I wrote about what motivates developers, plus my new-found association to Microsoft, means that I’ve found myself in the interesting position where, from an average of around 300 users a month, I’ve hit around 6,000 in two days. My blog provider went pop as a result. I’ve been thinking about moving away … Continue reading Stop Gap

There was quite a debate in the office with the announcement of Amazon’s HTML5 version of the Kindle Reader at the beginning of the month. Initially, it focused on whether this was just a direct two-fingers to Apple’s rules and regulations about commission on in-app payments for content, and then on the reasons why Chrome … Continue reading When to app…

I found myself in a meeting yesterday listening to a colleague talk at length about how fundamentally software developers were driven by the need to make money. As I get further into my career, I've learned how to both sit on my hands and bite my tongue - not a comfortable experience, but one that … Continue reading What motivates developers?