Illustrated Agile
I’m writing this in near total darkness during a planned power outage (called load shedding) in a time zone 7 hours ahead of my home in Chicago. Hang on battery…hang on! It’s been almost 8 weeks since I landed abroad to start an Agile coaching assignment. Admittedly, I was nervous. Would I be able to […]
After many conversations and observations over the past couple of years, it would seem a substantial number of organizations aren’t experiencing a meaningful improvement after a move to Agile. Sure, stories are being written, work is being done within sprints, and planning sessions are being facilitated. Perhaps a scaled framework has been introduced, full of […]
If you were to ask a Scrum Master what they do a common response is “we protect the team.” From the context of protecting the team from themselves or an aggressive product owner as Mike Cohn describes, I would agree. Protecting the team from complacency or overwork is a worthy endeavor. For many Scrum Masters, protecting […]
Organizational change will always be an endless journey and this journey will always be personal and unique. This post from a couple years ago mapped out a possible path people may navigate through an Agile change journey and just how unique this experience can be. Many organizations expect a “point a” to “point b” route […]
In Part 1 of Help! My Company is Stuck, we discussed a few of the stagnating scenarios found when organizations are attempting transformative movement towards greater agility and improved culture. In part 2, we’ll dig into a few of the more challenging situations you may be experiencing. Admittedly, many of these will require a coordinated, herculean, […]
My coaching engagements often bring me to organizations well underway with an Agile transformation or have attempted, with little impact, an Agile transformation in the past. After a short time of observation, it becomes apparent some of these organizations are stuck between the old and the new…and the strong pull of the old provides easy […]
I recently watched a documentary about Norman Foster, an architect responsible for designing a wide array of stunning structures such as the Millau Viaduct in France, the Swiss Re Headquarters in London, and the Hearst Tower in New York. The title of the documentary comes from a question raised by his mentor, Buckminster Fuller, early […]
Welcome to resistance…the tension is here. – Switchfoot (from the song “Dare You To Move”) If you are attempting to bring meaningful change into your organization through a transformation initiative (such as introducing Agile or something similar), you will meet resistance. Guaranteed. Your resistance may be a vocal cynic, the skeptical leader, a demoralized workforce, […]
In Peter Senge’s book, “The Fifth Discipline”, he mentions seven learning disabilities often going undetected in organizations. One of these learning disabilities is the tendency for people to identify themselves with their position. Mr. Senge calls this the “I am my position” learning disability and states: When people in organizations focus only on their position, […]
In the post, “Working on a Beating Heart“, we discussed the challenge of improving culture and fixing processes while continuing to deliver value to customers. As organizations attempt to move quickly to improve their workplace and remain nimble, competitive, and viable, there is danger in introducing too much change or in introducing change too fast. […]
Companies are springing up with new thinking about how to structure and lead their organizations. I can think of Spotify, Valve and HubStop just to name a few and I’m sure there are plenty more out there. Every time I hear stories about these companies I am encouraged about what the future holds. I feel a […]
In a previous post, I mentioned how “scar tissue” begins to form in organizations. This scar tissue forms over time as a workforce becomes numbed or even wounded from negative experiences with leaders and co-workers. Organizational scar tissue is very similar to physical scar tissue as it… Can be long-lasting. Just as a simple scar […]