Categories
Most Shared Organizational Change

Bird Flocks and Simple Change

It was the day I realized just how hard it would be to unwind old organizational habits. Even though it was over 10 years ago, I remember as if it was yesterday. I was a relatively new manager and was about to attend my first leadership offsite meeting. One of the topics of discussion was […]

Categories
Coaching Most Shared

An Exit Strategy for the Agile Coach

My entire mission as a coach can be summed up by answering one question: How fast can I make myself no longer necessary? Well, it’s not as extreme as it sounds but from the first moment I begin coaching in an organization, I’m working to foster an environment where the momentum of change and growth […]

Categories
Coaching Most Shared

8 Ways to Measure Your Impact as an Agile Coach

Legacy is planting seeds in a garden you will never see grow. – Hamilton, The Musical For those of us who are practicing Agile coaches, you know the truth in this quote. We are often gifted with a short window of time to be a catalyst for change and create enough of a spark to […]

Categories
Most Shared Scrum Master

Who Should the Scrum Master Report To?

As medium-to-large companies begin to implement Agile, more and more Project Managers are transitioning to become Scrum Masters. Eventually, this question will come up…who should the Scrum Masters report to in an organizational hierarchy? Or, who should be the leader responsible for goal-setting, feedback, and salary administration for the Scrum Master? This dilemma was recently […]

Categories
Incredible Teams Most Shared Scrum Master Team Building

The Perfect Agile Team

In my soon to be released book, “Becoming a Catalyst, Scrum Master Edition,” I tell the story of a newly formed team working with Agile for the first time. This team had just experienced their first sprint together and, to put it gently, it didn’t go well. When the time came for the team to […]

Categories
In Practice Most Shared Product Owner

8 Symptoms of an Ineffective Product Backlog

Some product backlogs seem to meld perfectly with their team while others are more of a detriment to productivity. An ineffective product backlog will impact the team in many ways. Team sizing activities become challenging, creating tasks from backlog items takes twice as long as it should, and frustration and lack of trust will be […]

Categories
Leadership Most Shared Transformational Leadership

Get On Board or Get Out…A Leaders Ultimate Ultimatum

Last fall the CEO of AOL made the news by notoriously firing an employee during a “company all” conference call. The recording of the audio and transcript of the event was subsequently released to the internet. While the real-time firing made all the news, reading the transcript further reveals the following ultimatum was directed towards […]

Categories
Leadership Most Shared

A Managers Guide to Attending Agile Team Events

I have always been a proponent of keeping most Agile events and rituals open and transparent. If anyone in the organization would like to stop by a daily stand-up session or experience a sprint review, the more the merrier… …with one exception. If you are a manager with direct reports on an Agile team (you […]

Categories
Leadership Most Shared Transformational Leadership

Performance Cannot Be Managed…It Can Only Be Inspired (Part 1)

It’s that time of year again…performance management review season. The topic of performance management seems to be in the spotlight more than usual with recent news from Yahoo! and Microsoft. For many of the early years in my career I was an independent consultant but in 2004 I joined a large company as an employee. […]

Categories
Incredible Teams Most Shared Transformational Leadership

The Curse of Allocation

Have you ever been assigned to multiple projects or teams at the same time? If so, I’m sure you have experienced the “curse of allocation.” You know how it goes. You are assigned to be 25% on this project and 50% on another one. Let’s throw in 20% to support an existing product and another […]

Categories
Incredible Teams Most Shared

It Only Takes One (Handling a Bad Team Member)

It only takes one. The one person who is not mindful of the quality of their work. The one person who is not respectful. The one person who is not pulling their weight. The one person filled with negativity or cynicism. The one person zapping energy and excitement from everyone on the team. If we […]

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Most Shared

The Beauty of Constraints (or, Why Agile Works)

I recently stumbled on this video from musician Jack White and it resonated with me. It’s worth the three minutes. In the video, he talks about inspiration, the value of putting in the work, and using constraints to force creativity. Some really insightful stuff. The way he intentionally sets up constraints to force a unique […]