Two nice reminders about signals of management priorities:

Money is the primary indicator of management priorities...  "We really wanted to give you more to work with, but ..." "Please don't see this as meaning that you aren't important to us..." "This really isn't the year to make our move in your area..."  All these sincerely expressed and well-intentioned comments are designed to help you understand that management is putting resources in somebody else's basket.

Meanwhile:

when you hear your two o'clock appointment say, "I really wanted to meet with you on this today, but ...," you know what is happening.  When you hear a pattern of phrases like that from your management, you are being crowded out of their "work hole" by something they see as more important, or at least more immediate...  When you repeatedly hear, "It's important to me, too, but..," accept that your work is not considered important enough for them to do anything about right now.  Accepting this apparent reality might help you to decide whether you are going to do anything to elevate the importance of your work.

Both from Getting Things Done When You Are Not in Charge.

Neither signal should make you jump to a new job, but they should raise sensitivity for continued signals.

You usually get the first signal at an annual budget discussion.  It's perfectly appropriate to respond with, "What market or business conditions would have to change to justify a higher / full funding?"  Then, if those conditions occur, and you're still not being funded, run for the door; you're stuck in the hamster wheel.

The second one is trickier.  At some point, you probably have to raise the issue on your own.  "Not getting enough face time and attention to my projects is really hindering my ability to move it forward" or "I'm having a hard time convincing the team that the work is important when our meetings with management are constantly canceled."  Sometimes people don't realize the impact of their (in)action, and if you're competent, you're probably good at hiding the deficiencies.  If you have a good manager, she'll want to make sure you're happy and feeling productive, and will respond accordingly.  If not, that's usually sign enough for me that things will not get better.

On fire and slumps

When I left New York for California a week ago I was emerging from one of the most productive development spurts I'd ever had. I didn't know it then but I was about to enter a slump. Since leaving and returning I haven't gotten very much work done at all. I've tried all kinds of tricks to get myself back in gear, but none have worked.

That's Dave Winer.

You frequently hear about a basketball player being red-hot, or a baseball player going into a slump.  How about programmers?

Weird in a way.  After all, it's your brain, just focus it.  Seems pretty simple.

Lately, I've been in a strong productive swing, and feeling great about it.  Part of it is being on a good project.  But I definitely feel it's more than that.  Things just seem to happen.  I sit down to the work and
start drumming out stuff, without even feeling like I'm working.  To some degree, I can't take credit for that.

In the past, I've had some long stretches where every move is a chore.  I had to constantly remind myself to stay focused, purposefully remove all distractions.  Even then, I had to battle the temptations to cut corners (not always successfully).

I didn't realize it, but apparently I was in a slump.

And for the times when things go well, SportsCenter would call that being "en fuego".

The Change Delta

The change delta comes from Getting Things Done When You Are Not in Charge.  I like that delta is the symbol for change, so that makes it easy to remember. 

Any successful attempt at change requires a deep understanding of both what is and what might be.  Interested parties consists of those who want to hinder the process as much as those who want to help. 

At the center is you -- which might be a foreign way of thinking about it. You have a key role to play.  Perhaps the key role.  That's for you to decide.

You might have feet-on-the-ground deep knowledge.  Or, you might be an impartial outside observer.  You frequently hear people use both positions to argue that they can drive the change or help.  Either way, your understanding of these three points is unique.

All this assumes your interest in change lies deeper than merely complaining about the current state of things or dreaming wistfully about possibly futures.

Your problem on one sheet

A3 management process:

A3 is the name for a large sheet of paper (17″ x 11″). With the A3 technique, it is filled up with useful information. Space is intentionally limited to make sure only the most relevant information is shared.

I like the balance between a large sheet and having to fit everything on it.  By the end, it probably does not seem large.  I also suspect that being forced to review the sheet in public with everyone forces other decisions and assumptions out in the daylight; no hidden agendas.

I'd love to see someone use it or at least some real examples.  It'd be difficult to show up to a meeting at my company with one, but then again I once thought doing Agile at all would be impossible at an investment bank.

The real argument against outsourcing

It's clear to me there are only two paths.  One path is to take every repetitive, by-the-book task in your organization and outsource it or mechanize it.  The other path is to take every repetitive, by-the-book task in your organization and give the people who do that task the freedom, the incentive, and yes, the imperative to do something that cannot be outsourced.
Either what you're doing is repetitive, in which case you ought to outsource it, or it's homemade, insightful, and filled with initiative and judgement, in which case you can charge for it.

-- Seth Godin, Meatball Sundae:

Of course, this is only an argument against outsourcing if the organization distributes the power, and everyone runs with it.  Many organizations can't imagine such a scenario and hire people who wouldn't know how to respond.

Middle management is where it's at!

My experience is that the people at the bottom and the top of a typical company are those that feel most restricted in their work.  When the president and the assembly line worker sit down to talk about what they have in common, the demands that others are making on them is likely to come up early.  In a way, the president is the assembly line worker of the larger community the company serves.  However, those of us in the middle have many choices and a great deal of room to test and exercise our powers.

-- Getting Things Done When You Are Not in Charge