Resetting: An Invitation to Own What Comes Next

I haven’t published here in quite some time. Not from lack of ideas—if anything, the opposite. After over 50 years of studying and practising software development, management and organisational dynamics, I have more to say than ever about the human dimensions of our work. But I’ve realised I can approach this better.

I was writing from what I thought was important, what I wanted to explore, what I believed needed saying. And whilst there’s nothing inherently wrong with that, it misses something fundamental that I’ve spent decades learning: ownership matters, and invitation is how ownership happens.

The Gap Between Writing and Connection

Here’s what I’ve come to understand: when I write from my agenda alone, I’m imposing a curriculum. I might be right about what’s valuable or useful, but rightness isn’t the point. The point is whether what I’m offering connects with where you are, what you’re wrestling with, what you’re ready to explore.

This maps directly to what I’ve learnt about organisations. Whether you’re leading a development team, managing a department, or setting strategy at the executive level, you’re navigating social complexity. Organisations operate on collective assumptions and beliefs that are often invisible:

• What constitutes good work
• How decisions really get made
• Who gets to challenge the status quo
• What trade-offs are acceptable
• What problems are worth solving
• How people might better relate to each other across hierarchies
• Etc.

These assumptions shape everything, but they’re rarely examined because no one thinks to invite that examination.

And here’s the ironic part: I’ve been doing the same thing with this blog. Operating on my assumptions about what you needed, never actually inviting you into the conversation about what this space could be.

Ironic, given that for 20 years I’ve been emphasising the Antimatter Principle—attending to people’s actual needs rather than our assumptions about them. Apparently I still have things to learn about practising what I preach. This is exactly the kind of blind spot that self-awareness is supposed to catch, and it took my recent hiatus for me to reconnect with the principle.

The Reset

So here’s what I’m proposing—really, what I’m inviting:

Tell me what you want to explore.

Not just topics, though those matter. Also formats and media. Do you want:

• Short reflections or deep dives?
• Case studies from real organisations or conceptual frameworks?
• Dialogues and Q&A or essays?
• Written posts, recorded conversations, podcasts, video shorts, or something else entirely?

I’m super interested in what you’re actually curious about. What challenges are you facing—whether that’s:

• Team dynamics and collaboration in software development
• Middle management’s squeeze between strategic directives and ground-level realities
• Executive decisions about culture, structure, and organisational transformation
• The gap between what leadership espouses and what actually happens
• How self-awareness (individual and collective) shapes organisational outcomes
• Navigating technical decisions with human implications
• Making sense of resistance, politics, and power

And here’s the question that matters most: How can my experiences and insights from a long career help you?

What are you trying to understand? What are you trying to change? What patterns have you noticed but can’t quite name yet?

There are over 1500 posts in the archives here. (and my books and white papers, too). Feel free to mine them for ideas—topics you’d like to see revisited, expanded, updated, or challenged. What sparked something for you but for which you need more exploration? What made sense years ago but feels different now? What concepts need translating for today’s context?

Why This Matters

This isn’t about making the blog more ‘user-friendly’. It’s about something much deeper.

When you own the direction of your learning—when you’re invited to shape what we explore together rather than passively receiving what I decide to present—something shifts. You engage differently. You bring your own experiences into dialogue with what’s offered. You’re more likely to actually use what we discuss because it’s connected to your genuine needs and curiosity, not my assumptions about what you could be asking.

And just as importantly: I’ll learn from what you ask for. Your questions will reveal the collective assumptions and challenges in organisations right now. Your format preferences will show me how people are actually trying to integrate these ideas into their work. This becomes a genuine exchange, not a broadcast. Seems more in tune with the current zeitgeist?

The Invitation

So: What do you want to explore about the human dimensions of work—in software development, in management, in organisational life?

What problems are you facing that feel stubborn or invisible? What assumptions have you started to question? Where do you see the gap between what people say matters and what actually drives decisions? What have you noticed about how self-awareness—yours, your team’s, your organisation’s—changes what’s possible?

What format would actually be useful to you? And how can my half-century of experience serve what you’re trying to learn or accomplish?

You can reach me:

• Email: bob.marshall@fallingblossoms.com
• LinkedIn
• Google Meet (by prior arrangement)
• Mastodon
• Comments on this post
• Or whatever works best for you

I’ve been thinking about what I want to say for a while now. I’m more interested in learning what you want to explore.

Let’s see what we can discover together!

Further Reading

Argyris, C. (1991). Teaching smart people how to learn. Harvard Business Review, 69(3), 99–109.

DeMarco, T., & Lister, T. (1999). Peopleware: Productive projects and teams (2nd ed.). Dorset House.

Marshall, R. W. (2019). Hearts over diamonds: Serving business and society through organisational psychotherapy. Leanpub.

Marshall, R. W. (2021a). Memeology: Surfacing and reflecting on the organisation’s collective assumptions and beliefs. Leanpub.

Marshall, R. W. (2021b). Quintessence: An acme for highly effective software development organisations. Leanpub.

Schein, E. H. (2010). Organizational culture and leadership (4th ed.). Jossey-Bass.

Senge, P. M. (2006). The fifth discipline: The art and practice of the learning organization (Rev. ed.). Currency/Doubleday.

Weinberg, G. M. (1992). Quality software management: Vol. 1. Systems thinking. Dorset House.