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Michael Gray @mikegraycodes.bsky.social · 2d

Just a small amount of facilitation training would go a huge way in a lot of orgs.

Michael Gray @mikegraycodes.bsky.social · May 19

GenAI is a lot like an organisation with low psychological safety.

It will try its best to please you, it won’t challenge you, and when I can’t please you with the truth it will make something up that’s untrue just to satisfy your demands .

Yes I am on a train with too much time in my hands.

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Michael Gray @mikegraycodes.bsky.social · May 14

All very boring isn’t it

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Michael Gray @mikegraycodes.bsky.social · May 2

100% this

Michael Gray @mikegraycodes.bsky.social · May 2

We need to get better at working with complexity, not flattening it just to feel in control and “productive”. That’s where real judgment, and leadership live.

Anything less isn’t simplification, it’s avoidance. And in my book, that’s piss poor leadership.

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Michael Gray @mikegraycodes.bsky.social · May 2

It’s easier to follow a familiar metric than to re-engage with the messy, complex reality it once tried to represent.

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Michael Gray @mikegraycodes.bsky.social · May 2

The real danger? Once a metric’s in place, it builds inertia. It shapes how we talk, what we value, and what we ignore. Even when it’s no longer useful, we keep following it.

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Michael Gray @mikegraycodes.bsky.social · May 2

“Data-driven decisions” sound smart, but too often it just means letting incomplete or poorly framed data make the decision for us. We forget data is only ever a piece of the picture, useful, but never the whole story.

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Michael Gray @mikegraycodes.bsky.social · May 2

But in simplifying it all, we lose the nuance that actually matters. We stop thinking deeply, because the numbers look “fine.”

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Michael Gray @mikegraycodes.bsky.social · May 2

We’ve got this habit, especially in work and leadership, of turning complex, messy, human stuff into clean, objective metrics. It makes things feel manageable, like we’re in control.

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Michael Gray @mikegraycodes.bsky.social · Mar 19

“Vibe coding”…

Phrases like this just make me want to get out of tech. My god.

A bit dramatic, I know, but, I don’t love the direction our industry is headed at the moment. Short-termism in full effect. It’s going to be an interesting few years, that’s for sure.

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Michael Gray @mikegraycodes.bsky.social · Mar 16

No easy fix, but it’s a cycle that keeps repeating. Would love to hear from folks who’ve seen this done well.

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Michael Gray @mikegraycodes.bsky.social · Mar 16

Maybe the answer isn’t big bang migrations but an evolution over revolution approach, gradually modernising and integrating systems instead of assuming a clean break will ever be realistic.

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Michael Gray @mikegraycodes.bsky.social · Mar 16

The result? Companies end up supporting multiple systems indefinitely, missing out on the efficiencies they aimed for.

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Michael Gray @mikegraycodes.bsky.social · Mar 16

It’s a pattern I see all the time. A company merges, or a new system is built. “All new customers will be on the new platform!” But what about the existing ones? Migration is always underestimated in complexity, cost, and risk. So it drags, or never happens.

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Michael Gray @mikegraycodes.bsky.social · Mar 16

Just spent way too long on the phone with EE renewing broadband. The classic story: new customer deals vs. renewal pricing games. But what really stood out? How long it took them to even find my account. Turns out, I’m on their “legacy” system, it took a good 30 minutes of my time.

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Reposted by Michael Gray

Charity Majors @charity.wtf · Mar 13

Psychological safety is NOT about lack of disagreement.

Psychological safety REQUIRES:

* disagreement and debate
* setting standards for behavior and performance, and enforcing them
* telling people things they don't want to hear
* courage, from the bottom up
* humility, from the top down

Matheus Lima @terriblesoftware.org · Mar 12

Controversial take: teams that never argue are often the most dysfunctional ones.

Here's why your team should be fighting more.

terriblesoftware.org/2025/03/12/w...

Why Your ‘Harmonious’ Team Is Actually Failing

Teams often confuse psychological safety with everyone getting along perfectly. I see leaders bragging about teams where nobody ever raises their voice, where meetings wrap up with everyone nodding…

terriblesoftware.org

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Michael Gray @mikegraycodes.bsky.social · Feb 24

Thank you for your AI generated response.

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Michael Gray @mikegraycodes.bsky.social · Feb 24

“Indeed, AI remains only as good as the data on which it was trained, and the increasing volume of data on the internet being generated by AI risks making it less, not more, reliable.” - and here lies the fundamental flaw with gen AI.

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Michael Gray @mikegraycodes.bsky.social · Feb 19

Business/product uncertainty directly increases the complexity of the systems we produce, both software and organisational.

I have no hard evidence this is true but I’m convinced it is.

Michael Gray @mikegraycodes.bsky.social · Feb 10

I can relate, I still hate being told what to do now, especially if I do no understand they why. 😅

With direct interaction, what if you reframe it from advice/instruct, to being curious and asking questions that make them think more deeply. Would that change your perspective on direct interaction?

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Michael Gray @mikegraycodes.bsky.social · Feb 10

Why do you think you lean that way?

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Michael Gray @mikegraycodes.bsky.social · Feb 7

We should. The other aspect to this is it’s part of our role to ensure the system they work within is not constraining. I.e. they feel they can. If the conditions are wrong we can encourage them all we want, but they won’t be able to.

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Michael Gray @mikegraycodes.bsky.social · Feb 7

Global vs local optimisations. The impossible balance 😅

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Michael Gray @mikegraycodes.bsky.social · Feb 7

But shaping the future means thinking beyond that, seeing what’s possible before it’s obvious.

Real change happens over time. It’s about shifting mindsets, evolving ways of thinking, and guiding people on a journey.