Merely Articles

Read about Agility, product ownership, and generative culture.

How To Strategize With More Agility For Focus and Clarity

Agile and DevOps have taken the tech world by storm, or have they? Less than 20% of organizations have adopted Agile practices up, down, and across their businesses. Organizations that go deep and wide see 60% higher revenue and profit growth. That’s a massive incentive. Yet, with all the thought, time, and money put into scaling Agile, why aren’t more organizations more broadly Agile?

January 25, 2022
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Agile
How To Strategize With More Agility For Focus and Clarity

How To Create More Safety with Three Helpful Ways To Share Risks and Responsibilities

A high-performing culture isn’t concerned with personal power, the rules, or proper procedures. Its only focus is the mission. When the mission takes priority, responsibility is embraced and shared alongside the risks. Noone fears stepping on toes or others trending on theirs. They’re focused on the mission rather than using every opportunity for political leverage or defense.

November 9, 2021
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Westrum Breakdown
How To Create More Safety with Three Helpful Ways To Share Risks and Responsibilities

Three Empathetic Responses to Messengers That Make More Remarkable Leaders

It’s now prevalent for leaders to make attempts at encouraging feedback. You’ve probably been in more than a few all-hands meetings where employees submit problems to be addressed. The problem here is that these problems are often only given lip service by leaders. The result is a facade of interest and engagement—a grand gesture with no substance. 

November 9, 2021
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Westrum Breakdown
Three Empathetic Responses to Messengers That Make More Remarkable Leaders

Five Powerful Activities to Make a Free Flow of Information and Create More Trust

For trust and information to flow freely, cooperation must be high. Cooperation comes in two flavors. The first is when one individual acts on a request from someone else. The second is when a group of people works together to complete work. Both can increase trust and information flow. At Merely, we focus more on the second flavor.

November 9, 2021
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Westrum Breakdown
Five Powerful Activities to Make a Free Flow of Information and Create More Trust

Four Ways to Make Devoted Learning a Part of Your Growth Culture

DevOps, Westrum, and Agile all focus heavily on learning as a necessary trait for high-performance cultures. At Merely, we evaluate our culture by our everyday behaviors, not programs or technologies. For us, we fill every day with learning. It’s encouraged and, more importantly, expected.

November 6, 2021
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Our Way
Four Ways to Make Devoted Learning a Part of Your Growth Culture

3 Values That Define How We Work What We Produce And Who We Are

Value statements should be more than internal or external marketing copy. For Merely, they are a way to hold us accountable in a transparent manner. What are your culture battle stories?

November 9, 2021
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Our Way
3 Values That Define How We Work What We Produce And Who We Are

Day One Happens Once

Day one only happens once. Now, what are we going to do with it?‍In this edition of Off Script, our Founder/CEO talks about the kind of work the team selected for their first sprint. Those choices reflect the priorities our values require of us.

October 18, 2021
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Off Script
Day One Happens Once