Learning with Fist of Five Voting

by

Fist of Five Voting is a deceivingly simple process you can use to check-in, learn, gain consensus, and/or vote to understand where people stand on an issue or idea.  I say deceivingly, because there is so much more you can learn about what is really happening in a team if you are paying attention.

I find there are many tools I (and others) use without being entirely sure of the idea’s origin. As I work on other articles, I realize some people may not be familiar with concepts such as Fist of Five Voting. So I’m working on building these ideas out to fill in those gaps. The source of Fist of Five is sometimes attributed to American Youth Foundation, however I can’t find a reference on their website.

Continue Reading→

Lessons-Learned vs Project Retrospectives

by

I wrote about agile team retrospectives in a recent article and find that the term retrospective can be used in many different ways. I’ve heard people ask, “Did you just change the name from lessons-learned to retrospective?” Although there are similarities, there are some key differences. Let’s review a few types and consider the issues with most lessons-learned meeting.

Release and Project Retrospectives

While agile team retrospectives  have a team focus on celebrating, learning, and improving their relationship on a regular basis, there are other types of retrospectives.

Continue Reading→

Agile Retrospectives Improve Team Relationships

by

I get a lot of questions about agile retrospectives from existing clients who are familiar with agile, those new to it, and folks who don’t use agile (so, yes: everyone!). This is one in a series of posts on retrospectives covering a variety of angles on the subject. [Agile Retrospective Resources has a list of the upcoming articles and many other resources.]

What is an agile retrospective?

Not this kind of retro!
Not this kind of retro!

An agile retrospective (often simply called a retro) is a regular ritual focused on celebrating, learning, collaborating, committing, and improving the team’s relationship.  These items, taken together form the value of an agile retrospective.  There are different types of retrospectives (e.g. release and project retrospectives); though here I am focusing here on regularly scheduled team retrospectives (e.g. sprint retrospectives or iteration retrospectives).

Continue Reading→

Agile Retrospective Resources

by

There is a lot of information out there are agile retrospectives.  I have a number of articles on them and there are plenty of places with information including blogs, websites, and books.

My Articles About Agile Retrospectives

I’m working on a series about retrospectives, and have included a list of articles that are already written as well as some of the future articles.  If you are interested in subscribing to get notified of the next post, please subscribe via email.

Continue Reading→

Agile Area Rugs- Covering Opportunities with Longer Sprints?

by

Will longer agile sprints or iterations cover up opportunities to improve and cause you to view these opportunities as unsolvable problems?

scrum masters with agile area rug

The typical agile sprint size is 2 weeks. What percentage of teams use 2 weeks?  I don’t have statistics on it, but I’d guess over 90%.  I’m working on a product where we are doing 1 week sprints.  It’s a startup and things are changing a lot so 1 week works well.  I also know some teams that use 3 week sprints and it is working for them.  I’m not saying it has to be a certain number of weeks – but please don’t kid yourself with what length will actually work for you.

I’ve seen situations where people are doing 3 week sprints, but then have a 1 week “hardening” sprint.  Personally, I’m not a big fan of hardening sprints.  I can see many “logical” arguments on why people need them, but in the 3+1 week sprints – I’d say stop kidding yourself.  You have a 4 week sprint!  Maybe that is the best you can do right now and you are ACTIVELY working to eliminate the hardening sprint – but if you believe you will always need one you are likely stuck.

Continue Reading→

Thoughts on Professional Coaching

by

I get a lot of questions about coaching – what is it, what do you mean by the word ‘coach’, is it the same as mentoring, is coaching just asking questions… and many more.

Who do you coach?

I coach people.  🙂   These may be individuals, pairs, couples, teams, organizations, or systems.

Can you tell me more about what the word Coach means to you? 

Professional Coaching is the Key to Learning and Finding New InformationThe word ‘Coach’  tends to have a lot of different uses.  When I talk about coaching, I am referring to professional coaching, which in the US, tends to be associated with standards laid out by the International Coaching Federation (ICF).  I view coaching as helping people find the internal wisdom to achieve their goals by moving beyond whatever is stopping them or slowing them down.  Coaching is NOT about telling people what to do or judging them – the coach may be an expert on “coaching” but is not the expert on the person or the goals they have.  This is concept is misunderstood by a lot of people.  A coach is not the person who says “do this” or “don’t do that”!  Coaching is always about the clients agenda – NOT the coach’s!   The coach relies on the client being fabulous, amazing, and wanting to move forward toward a goal!  That sounds over the top to some, but it really isn’t, it’s about having faith in the person!   The key is that as a coach, I need to fully believe that the person (or people or system) I am coaching has the wisdom to solve their challenges.  They might need some help in finding or accessing that wisdom or working through different options, but they can access the information to let them move forward!  This is not always an easy place to stand, but believing in the client is a fundamental part of professional coaching. It does not work without it.

Continue Reading→

Overcoming Team Toxins – Agile Mile High 2013

by

Thanks to everyone who attended Overcoming Team Toxins at Agile Mile High 2013 in Denver, Colorado yesterday! Co-presenting with Erin Beierwaltes from Skipstone Consulting was a blast!

For those of you who could not attend, our team toxin presentation is based on work by John Gottman Phd. He refers to the toxins as the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse because of their ability to wreak havoc on relationships (teams, groups, pairs)! The Center for Right Relationships built on these ideas with a focus on a team based exercise to physically and visually interact with the toxins.

The four team toxins are:

  • Blaming
  • Defensiveness
  • Stonewalling
  • Contempt

Here is a workshop overview:

Continue Reading→

Metaskills Wheel

Embrace Your Agile Superpowers

by

Looking forward to presenting Stop Gambling, Embrace Your Agile Superpowers!

You can find a lot more about Agile Superpowers in this detailed article: Agile Superpowers – Being Agile.

The presentation was co-developed with myself and Stephen Starkey. We will be presenting at the Scrum Gathering in Las Vegas in May. For anyone not heading to the Scrum Gathering in Vegas, I’ll be presenting at the Agile Denver Coaching SIG on 2/21. Stephen may also be presenting in the Chicago area.

Here is the overview of the workshop:

Continue Reading→

Learning from Washington, the Inauguration, and the Constitution

by

Read This If: You’re looking for some interesting observations on scope, change management, and iterations as well as willing to consider that maybe some projects are not that tough, in perspective.

2009 seems to be moving right along! Was 2008 tough or not so much? Will 2009 be better or worse? Are things sometimes LESS challenging than they appear?

The recent inauguration and oath of office that the US President takes has me considering just how small some project problems actually are. I was listening to a NPR story about the oath, and a few things jumped out (note that LISTENING to the podcast provides more than reading the article summary).

So where is the oath found? It is the last paragraph in Article II, Section 1 of the Constitution. It reads “I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”

Continue Reading→

Stopping the Fake Subject Matter Expert (SME) from Derailing Your Project

by

Read This If: You want to ensure you are basing your project’s value on input from a true subject matter expert (for any type of project).

A fake subject matter expert or SME can derail a project. Improvements to your business should be based on the best information you have access to, not outdated or incorrect information. The acronym “SME” seems to pop-up everywhere. I agree that saying “subject matter expert” does not flow as well as SME, but the phrase drives home that the person should be an expert (and in the right subject)!

Subject matter experts are used on projects from IT strategy, to business process improvement, to software development, to organizational change . . . to name a few. They are supposed to impart the wisdom of what is actually happening, and often, what is needed. But if they are NOT an expert, then what? Are you basing the success of your project on poor information?

So what exactly is a fake SME? The basic premise is that they are someone who appears or pretends to be a subject matter expert, but is not. There are many types, but let me outline some of the more common ones:

Continue Reading→