For those wanting some actionable advice (but not too much), there is a nice treatment of this topic in chapter 9 of Jurgen Appelo’s book “Management 3.0: Leading Agile Developers, Developing Agile Leaders”. It’s certainly a great book for any organization involved with software development, but it is also useful for those managing knowledge workers in general.

Words do have meaning and the sooner we get that through our thick, over-programmed, mindless zombie-walking brains the better.  Define your personal values and question everything that has been handed to you by society, parents, history, companies and your friends.  Once we begin defining our own personal heart-associated values can we truly begin having real conversations.  This programming mentality has got to be stopped inside us all and guess what??  Only YOU can stop the programming … so get busy folks.Joe, thank you for ‘ringing the bell’ to our consciousness in what we do and how we act.  Your contribution to this planet is phenomenal and I am thankful that you keep me questioning in your articles.Here’s my mission statement:We are not a company, WE ARE A COLLECTIVE OF CONTRIBUTORS!