Illustrated Agile
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 […]
It will happen to most of us eventually. We are asked (told) to join a team having difficulties and turn things around. The team may be challenged with missed deadlines, dysfunctional relationships and low morale, being over budget or behind schedule, or a lack of discipline and organization – and you are going to be […]
If you are a director, senior manager or manager in an Agile organization, this post is for you. With an organizational vision in place, you will be expected to plan and build the teams and systems necessary to deliver on that vision. You are the conduit between vision and implementation…not an easy task! The challenge […]
In 2007, I had the opportunity to join a team of 12 to climb Aconcagua, a 23,000 foot mountain in the Andes of South America. While returning from setting up a high camp at 18,000 feet, our team encountered a bit of “turbulence.” A fast approaching storm hit the group and in an instant we […]
Have you ever been on a team when everything was “perfect” and conflict was avoided? Decisions were delayed and unique perspectives rarely brought forth. Perhaps you have been on a team with the other extreme – constant debates and collisions between team members were the norm. Conflict or disagreement within a team is inevitable but […]
Teams influence individual performance in many ways. In a previous post, we talked about the Köhler effect – the impact of having team members with lesser skills working with stronger teammates to improve performance. In this case, being a part of a team is providing a positive influence. Another potential dynamic may be affecting your team […]
A couple of summers ago, while training for some crazy adventure, I was running with a friend of mine who is considerably faster than me on a Saturday morning long training run. Throughout the course of the run we were chatting and moving along at a steady pace but during the last half I noticed […]
An important dynamic of becoming a fluid and well-functioning Scrum team is when team members are continuously pulling. As opposed to being pushed or waiting to be pushed, the team is in constant motion, pulling from a queue of features that should deliver value to customers. The product owner establishes the queue of features by […]