Badass Agile

Please join me in welcoming the first official Badass Agile Chapter! Marianne and Laurens from the Netherlands will lead this community – stay tuned for details.  If you’re in the Netherlands, you’ll want to stay connected for events, discussions, and resources! A sincere thanks to you guys for helping grow the community, the philosophy, and the practice!  I’m so honoured to be working with you!

It’s easy to act with integrity when your environment doesn’t challenge your standards.   But how do you teach others to act with integrity when it matters? You must lead by example, and simply show integrity first.   Act like an owner, be transparent, ask for help, communicate, lean into the hard challenges, and be most accountable when the failure is most costly Create low stakes for others to replicate you behaviour – at least at first – this means lowering the cost of genuine, honest mistakes. Remember, it all begins with vision,   Know who you are and how you serve; and the hills you would die on….your standards.

Its all too common to have ‘agile’ teams that work on 5 or more projects at the same time. In theory, more is better; but spread too thin, a team loses immersion, continuity, and momentum. Know the upsides and downsides so that, if you can’t convince leadership to create committed, co-located teams, you can communicate the tradeoffs, and set expectations accordingly.

Why Is ‘Make Work Visible’ one of the three Scrum artifacts?  Why does it matter and how can you apply it to non-technical and non-scrum initiatives? Making Work Visible doesn’t seem like an artifact, but in fact is a way of thinking about delivery and status that eliminates the overhead of collecting and producing status reports The easiest way to make work visible is to publish done things, but there are many other practices that make true ’status’ more available and transparent These techniques also apply to non-technical product

“Looking on the bright side” may seem like an empty practice – putting a cheap paint job on a crappy situation – but actually, learning to see the wisdom and opportunity in challenges is a very powerful way to get unstuck when things are sticky.   In this episode, we’ll uncover a simple set of statements that can help you put the right spin on current events to make a very real difference in your performance.  And…this is a great one to teach your teams!

Projects and teams can involve frequent and sometimes painful change. How does a leader lead through change by example? Make sure you have been listening to my episodes on fundamentals and the ‘Badass Way’.   Learn the basics of Agile Leadership and practice, practice, practice. When dealing with change, especially traumatic change, you’re going to need to lean on lessons learned in studying the Badass Way: Remember your ‘why’ – vision and service will free you from outcome dependence (a particular role, job, project or result) Remember to embrace failure and find gratitude in things that don’t go the way you expected Use the retrospective to document what, specifically, you learned from the experience

This week, we explore two very different questions submitted from two different listeners: how do you measure and describe ‘capacity’ when you have teams working on non-technical (or just ‘other’) issues, and….who wrote your theme song, and where can I download it?

One common question I get is how to become more influential.   If you want your massage to have impact – to resonate and to stick – just follow the example of those who have gone successfully before you. Impactful people and messages anchor their messages to existing powerful emotional or cultural touchpoint, repeat and spread the message, and then amplify the resulting waves.

There are two sorts of people you meet in the halls of a large enterprise; those who want to learn specific job skills so they can meet their targets, impress their bosses and get a particular job done. And then there are those who want to learn the skills of change and influence. Or those who simply want to be a part of something much bigger. On the one hand, it’s easy to believe that there can’t be leaders without followers. That some people are destined to accept the leadership of others, and help achieve somebody else’s vision.But I believe that eventually, all people, or at least most of them, become visionary… Especially when they come face-to-face with their own limitlessness.

Everyone loves retrospectives. This is where we get to improve. Everyone loves demos… Because this is where we get to show off our finished work to the customer in waiting. But nobody ever mentions backlog grooming as their favourite scrum ceremony. But I think it should be. Often done poorly, grooming is the refining work that allows a backlog to remain current, relevant…and agile Proper grooming can eliminate waste by keeping low priority items low Proper grooming allows us to maximize the time for development, testing and other meaningful work – rather than asking for clarifications mid-sprint, or building the wrong thing Most important, a good backlog grooming habit frees the team and PO to brainstorm and get the kitchen sink out there…knowing that the good ideas will stick and recur, and the bad ones will eventually fall off

There’s been a change in how people organize in enterprise. But with flat hierarchies, and self-organizing teams, has the concept of leader or even team captains become obsolete and forbidden? You know what we should teach more of? How to respond to mayhem – rapidly changing expectations in unstable conditions. What I’ve found – and what’s helpful to communicate to clients – is that the first 3 sprints (literally, the first 6-8 weeks) are mayhem. On a new scrum team, or in new business/technical landscapes, there will always be challenges with insufficient information, assumptions, inadequate tools, unclear expectations, unfamiliar teammates and accountabilities….with firm deliverable dates. Overwhelm is inevitable, and therefore wholly expected.

There’s been a change in how people organize in enterprise. But with flat hierarchies, and self-organizing teams, has the concept of leader or even team captains become obsolete and forbidden?Here are just 4 reasons why, despite the levelling of roles within teams, we still have – and need – captains and leaders…at least at times. Sometimes, people just need a little push Someone needs to hold themselves accountable to grow the team A leader first and foremost sets an example for others to follow People who are comfortable sharing wisdom must do so…for the benefit of the others in the team who are uncertain or inexperienced

Seeking perfection is a major source of wasted effort; particularly if you are seeking it BEFORE taking action. There’s no such thins as perfect output, only perfect effort. Perfection is sought literately over time.  Modern business requires that we move ideas from vision to backlog to executed Iteration One quickly.   In almost all cases, perfection is neither required nor desired out of the gate.  Holding back or being unwilling to try for fear of making mistakes is the only kind of true failure.   Remember this – there IS such a thing as starting a race so late that it is practically impossible to win.

Forget Sprints and Standups – Business agility is about travelling light so you can go faster.   One important way to do that is by taking small, frequent experimental risks, also known as placing small bets. Test with small investments – Rent or borrow equipment, Copy other success stories and replicate them in unrelated domains Get volunteers or part-timers to help.   Use gigsters Learning and research – Get aggregators or summaries Start with small commitments and experiments – lunch and learns versus coffees Slice your scope Work backwards from high-value outcomes

Do you take an existing team and ‘make’ them agile?  Or do you build teams of agile people – people who have, or are likely to have, the right mindsets and openness to new practices? Here is where the rubber hits the road when it comes to executive support;  do we do the easiest, most convenient thing, and expect them to squeeze the square peg of legacy mindsets, rigid thinking, and antiquated practice, and jam it into the round hole of agile beliefs and actions, or do we take the hit and scramble a team of cross-functional, experimental minds?

Hey friends, time for a bit of a wake up, a bit of inspiration, a bit of a refresh. It’s time to reclaim the Badass. Get clear on your vision.  If you haven’t created one for yourself, the time is now.  If you have, time to revisit it….does it need updates? Remember that service is a key component of a compelling vision A distinguishing quality of a leader is the courage to stick to your vision….no matter what opposition or resistance you may encounter Go execute.  Be focused, single-minded and relentless in the pursuit of your vision

Your unique value in this world is the unedited, uncensored, unfiltered you. Be exactly who you are, and don’t let anyone tell you it’s wrong, or not good enough. The thing that makes you unique is also what allows you to connect, resonate and influence others. Do whatever, and be whomever, you truly want. Being authentic is true freedom.

A career as a Scrum Master or Agile coach can be very rewarding, and an incredible opportunity… But many who are new to the field have difficulty getting experience when the job description requires….experience.  What are some things you can do to help ensure your successful job interview? Know your why Know your superpower Map your value to theirs Do the research – company and interviewer Think and act like someone who has an abundance of opportunities Mentally rehearse

Most people follow the herd, we are told what to buy, how to act, how to speak, how to think, and what to believe.  But either you belong to the herd, or you behave in like a hero. Let me explain the difference. People who follow the herd derive their value from staying safe and certain.  It’s difficult to add massive value, to bring your One Thing or to bring radical action to your life and business when you only stand for safety in numbers Heroes live according to their vision and service, take full accountability, honour their unique voice, invite failure and adversity, and take risks accordingly

One of the main causes of Agile failure is an organizations refusal to get behind (ie, to ‘value’) Agile values. When there is no living instance of these concepts in the organizations, they don’t get modelled, and subsequently don’t spread.  You also need to actively promote and reward right behaviours based on those values.

Interactions with other people can be complex and challenging because people do things differently. Here’s a tool to add to your toolbox… When you want to simplify communications, create rails. Rails are all about providing lightweight structure – just enough to promote right action and effective communication Scrum is full of examples of simple rails – story formats (“as a _ I want to _ so I can _”), and stand-up 3-question protocol, for example The secret to good rails is that they do not inhibit free discussion, are minimally invasive, and lead people to providing the right information or taking right action in the shortest time possible They should also be simple, easy to remember and use Most important, you can’t have rails on everything. Experiment with creating and tweaking your own to suit your team and situation.

There are two things you always need to be doing consistently – getting coaching, and coaching others to make them better. It starts with surrounding yourself with people better than you. The people you spend the most time with have a profound impact on your life and success Minimize the time you spend around people who complain, blame, and quit Seek out mentors – you can look within the agile community for writers and other leaders you admire. If you don’t know any, create some community action in your nearest metro or town and find people whose experience you could learn from Don’t forget…you yourself will become a mentor as well. Plan to coach other coaches and practitioners as you grow and gain experience.

In this episode, I’ll ask you how you stretch….how do you get out of your comfort zone and do things that make you bigger and better?   Look for your weaknesses and uncomfortable moments, because the opportunity to grow and become more live within them.  Public speaking, networking, journalling, working out….what do you struggle with?  Don’t neglect the signs and signals in the form of little failures and peeves–they are gifts….if you choose to give them your focus.  Try it today–this could be an important lesson for your teammates and colleagues that you as a coach can keep in your toolkit.

100 Episodes in, I thought it was a good time to stop and express my gratitude and to reflect on what we’ve accomplished so far….and what I’ve learned.. Our growth and reach after 2 years has been truly staggering. THANK YOU ALL!!! I’m still very attached to my original vision of creating 1) A resource for fellow agilists and leaders on how to become more agile, not necessarily on how to do scrum and 2) Creating an elite tribe of leaders who understand how to be successful in the board room and in the team room and beyond. The #1 thing I learned….JUST GO. Consistency matters more than anything else in life. This applies not only to your agile practice, but to every area of endeavour. Consistency means showing up ever day, but also IMPROVING every day. Simplicity matters. To add massive value, you have to constantly improve and automate your processes. Here are some other things I learned about kicking ass in general: Never ever ask for permission. Be who you are. Your unique voice is your value Figure out your distinction – what do you do better than anyone else in the world. Your true fans will find you. You have to have the courage to be unswayed by someone else’s opinion. Your real currency in the agile world is not your ability to do ’the practices’ to perfection, but rather the unique values and voice you bring to the party. Never prioritize knowledge or perfection, and never hoard knowledge. Give your best stuff away for free. What creates true believers is the emotional connection you make with your tribe. Focus on the one thing you can do today that gets you closer to your achieving your goals and dreams. Keep it small, but do it every day. Don’t forget–stay humble!

In the second part of my interview with Artida Karaj, we get specific about the How of frameworkless transformation. She drops a ton of cool wisdom in this part, including: Start with leaders. Without C-Level buy-in, its just talk. Co-create goals – internal team members and leadership Create the environment for innovation by creating an outcome culture – the solution matters less than the results. Allow collaboration, decision making, trying and learning, people growth Allow that this will take time – years, not weeks or months – to mature and expand fully Create enablers – people who can spread the word Enforce ‘customer seat at the table’ – the customer is not a LOS, it is the actual customer. Technology is not a cost centre, it is a partner

This week, I meet with coach, colleague, and friend Ardita Karaj to discuss her take on large enterprise transformation. Ardita is very well known in the international Agile community. I’ve had the pleasure of working with her in the past and I admire her enthusiasm, intelligence and empathetic approach to Agile. She also has a no-nonsense approach to and instinct for business. My favourite quote from the day is “It used to be ‘the big eats the small’. Now, ‘the fast eats the slow’. This is a two-part interview; in the first part, we discuss Ardita’s background, letting teams and individuals have the freedom to choose their own approach and tools, and the foundations of frameworkless transformation. Enjoy, and stay tuned for Part II later this week!

When you’re slumping, your normal routines and methods don’t work (hence the slump). Try this the next time you’re struggling to get your energy, enthusiasm or creativity going: Surround yourself with inspiration Break your routine to get some flow going – knock something off your list, even if you break the rule of ‘highest value targets first’ Lean on your network – talk to people who inspire and support you, and let them know you’re slumping

“How can a financial institution bring regulators along the Agile journey, to help them realize that Agile actually reduces risk?” – Julio Sanchez Tough one. No quick fix. Finserv doesn’t like to shake up longstanding regulations and traditions. It’s a highly regulated industry. The problem is that you have no levers to influence regulators. They don’t have to change, at least not just because you want them to Influence will happen slowly and over time, but a lot of people read that to give themselves permission not to try. You have to make moves now or you will be behind the curve when it’s really important to make change. Here’s what you can do: Build relationships – create meetup groups, create conversations, add people to LinkedIn Making things – successes, innovations, high-performing teams, products, competitive differentiations – that draw attention to your cause. Nothing attracts attention like success. As you evolve, your success will demand changes to regulation, and that success is a form of leverage Note that your successes and the increased visibility that comes with it will showcase the change that needs to happen, especially if you had to work around legislation and bend rules to get there. “What’s the best way to transition into Scrum Master with a new CSM?” – Jon Wiggins This is one of the things coaches are for Let them do the job based on what they’ve learned Get them to use Agile principles to self-inspect and adapt, to create and groom backlogs of improvements and to execute on experiments Your job should be to teach them how to apply Scrum – which is never boilerplate – it is adaptive, and to show them those things that they cannot see (external feedback) Hopefully the certification has given them training wheels and knowledge to apply. There are a great many things they can’t learn in those two days, and if they don’t already have them, you have to help them get them – like interpersonal skills, influence, grit, problem solving, logic, etc.

An easy way to accelerate learning and development – not to mention your effectiveness as a leader – is to do more scary things. If you don’t flex the muscle of acting the face of fear, you’ll never get better at being courageous, and you’ll never be able to lead others – especially if you’re asking others to take risks and let go of certainty and safety. Choose something you fear this week and take deliberate action!

What helps Agile scale and spread even more than practice excellence? How you evangelize. It’s not enough to to be Agile amid your teams – a transformation demands ongoing and deepening conversation at every level, in every area. Have your elevator speed ready, and start meeting people Create situations that increase contact with the people in every corner of the org – lunch and learns, events, Q/A, attendance at town halls and other corporate events, and through digital means

Question 1 – When coaching teams when should you have one on ones with the individuals and when could having one on ones impact self organizing teams and creating silos? Team coaching is about coaching performance in the room: How they interact, operate, flow. Can you make that flow more efficient? Individual coaching – Should always do it for executives and individual agile leaders because: Some conversations might need to be private Great coaching sometimes brushes up against the root of interpersonal or performance issues, fears, etc Coaching sessions should be brief and based on individual coaching plans or outcomes. Coaching everyone all at once will disable that. Whether you do individual coaching for team members is up to you. I stick to business and agile leaders (anyone who can help an individual initiative or Agile spread in general) and to anyone else who requests it. Some individuals just don’t want coaching and some won’t do the homework necessary to benefit from the recommendations and improve Question 2 – Why can’t I use a Gantt chart to track the many dependencies in hardware design, prototype development? You can do whatever you want Gantt charts are great for plotting sequences and dependent chains You DON’T want to use a Gantt chart to plot things that change very frequently because it is nearly impossible to plan chaos and its a lot of work to replan it when it changes the argument then is whether or not the things you’re describing are chaotic. The rule is if you have a mostly dependable, repeatable process, informed by years of refinement and experience, you have a mature process and it can be mapped out easily There’s a reason why Gantt’s are so popular – for the early stages of industry, especially manufacturing, repeatable processes needed to be documented well so they could be trained and repeated (the earliest form of automation) However, now, where creativity and autonomy are part of the process, things become unpredictable, for which Gantt charges are not as effective

This week, let’s remember one of our most important fundamentals….the ability to leap. It’s a skill we don’t teach in school – to be ready when you’re not ready, to forget all of your doubts and fears and just GO. It’s a habit, in the sense that the more we do it, the easier it becomes, so what can you do to leap this week? What have you been avoiding?

Collecting our lessons learned and sharing them with others is a tribal behaviour that predates formal education. Let’s talk about how to apply this in our team practices In experimental cultures, you are always accumulating learning. Long before the internet and even formal education, we had a tradition of sharing that wisdom among the tribe – at work, we have largely lost that tradition Learning eventually leads to wisdom; knowledge that guides action We should always collect, refine, and share our learning Document your learning often – you can do this in Retrospectives or Reflections Store, categorize and groom it often Shared documentation system Use tags or other metadata Make it searchable and easy to access Review it, memorize the stories around it, and share it often

Notice, Do Differently, Reflect Drown the Fear and Reduce the Fear Reducing means rehearsing, exposing, inoculating Part of exposing and rehearsing is about skill building You must also rehearse the skill of being courageous – knowing when you have to leap and LEAPING.

People love to complain and blame. Learn to see from the other’s perspective. We are all doing the best we can. Leaders do not gossip. Realize that as a leader others follow your example, so it is important for you to go first. Be the exemplar of refusing to gossip, to hate, to blame. Be elegant and powerful.

So what did we learn from the practical yet unofficial use of Agile at the small business level? To disrupt like a startup, you have to act like one. Focus on value, plan and invest lean for effective, rapid cycles The minute you execute you should be adjusting Make commitments and investments (including decisions) at the last possible moment You literally have to break the cycle of traditional planning and analysis You can now bring these techniques to different parts of a large scale business, but only if they’re willing to act like a startup in order to get the benefits By the way, if you have non-business friends who are yearning to start a business, teach them agile fundamentals – so much wisdom is locked up in the simple concepts that can help them place small bets, get started with almost nothing, and evolve as they grow. This could prevent an otherwise brilliant idea from being snuffed out at the idea phase by new entrepreneurs who are too overwhelmed to execute.

The cinematic antihero is in possession of mythical, almost unattainable qualities that make them larger than life. But…if you look more closely, there are a few lessons to be learned from our big-screen idols – what to believe, how to carry yourself, and how to act in the face of opposition.

There’s such a thing as too much. At this point, there’s only so much discussing and explaining around Agility that i can handle, after which point, I’m kind of over it. Now, I feel the need to take the conversation someplace else. But where?• Like Driving a car, i don’t need to focus on fine motor skills anymore. It’s time to use my skill to go new places• The space is crowded with too much education• Being nice is nice, but its time to zoom in on how elite teams behave

This is a long one, so make sure you’re on Wifi! Had a great time at Agile and Beyond this year, and as I was chilling with the speakers Thursday afternoon, we decided to record some cool conversations and thoughts from my colleagues. A real privilege to get some rapid insights from this crew. Here Are the Interview Notes in order of appearance: Nayan Hajratwala, Agile And Beyond Co-organizer and Speaker Coordinatorhttp://www.agileandbeyond.com/2019/ Holly Bielawa – How To Hire An Agile CoachTwitter @agilegrowthLinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/hollybielawa/ Philippa Bagley – Project Management For CreativesLinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/philippa-hbs/Facebook Page – https://www.facebook.com/Philippa.HBS/ Michael Nir – Persuading the Bear: Learn how to Build Engaged Communities through Horizontal InfluencingWebsite – http://michaelnir.com/Twitter – @michaelnirhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelnir/ Daniel Davis – Code is Easy. Humans are hard, Your Tech Career Is Wacked & Why That’s OKemail – [email protected] – @daniel_davisLinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/davisdaniel/ Colleen Esposito – Does Agile change your process – or your perspective? – Beyond Prioritization: How to Make an Impact for your CustomersTwitter – @TheColleenELInkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/colleen-esposito-5a06252/ Shahin Sheidaei, Eglys Vera – The Golden Hammer of Transformation: Culture!ShahinBlog – http://blog.sheidaei.com/Twitter – @sheidaeiLinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/sheidaei/ EglysLinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/eglys-vera-a6988b/ David Harris – Extreme Programming Practices at ScaleGitHub – https://github.com/thedavidharrisLInkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidharris16/ Mark Shead – Go With The Flow – An exercise in optimizing the delivery of value, Shifting Left With Extreme Programming – Developing Quality EarlyYoutube – www.youtube.com/marksheadLinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/markshead/ Arati Joshi – Introvert’s journey to AgilityTwitter – @aratisterLinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/arati-joshi-12382618/ George Dinwiddie – Advanced BDD for the Whole Team — Distillation of Essential ExamplesOut Beyond Estimates and No EstimatesTwitter – @gdinwiddieWebsite – www.idiacomputing.comBlog – http://blog.gdinwiddie.com/ Matt Heusser – Lean Coffeewebsite – www.xndev.comBooks on Leanpub – https://leanpub.com/u/mheusserTwitter – @mheusser Justin Beall – Closing the Remote Engineer GapTwitter – @dev3l_   Tom Bellinson – What is a Blameless Culture and Why Would I Want One: A Case Study

You bring too many people to low value meetings You don’t push decisions and accountability down, so ‘decision makers’ are in high demand and block teams – they can’t get where they need to be fast enough to enable a willing group, if there is such a thing You don’t celebrate, reward and otherwise encourage willing people As a result, things sit around, largely undone, with really great intentions and a satisfying status of ‘working on it’

If you expect Agile, and your message, to spread, you need to be very good at setting targets and crushing them. You can’t do that using traditional big-business time management. You’ll need to:– Decline meetings or limit them to 30 minutes OR LESS unless its team time – group work, facilitation– Block time IN YOUR CALENDAR to do your most important work – uninterrupted. No exceptions– Get Good at Saying NO

Recently, I sat down with Carl Oxham, Tax Partner with PwC Canada about the topic he is most passionate about – emotional intelligence and it’s growing importance in leadership.  In this discussion, we get specific about why EI is becoming a hotter topic, how to get good at it, and why it matters for Agile.  Carl is an engaging, knowledgeable and gifted speaker – this was a fun conversation for me, and I hope you enjoy it!

“What else might work?” is to customer delight what “Yes, and…” is to improv.  Great solutions are the result of breaking rules; forays into unknown, even forbidden territory.  This flies in the face of compliance with established conventions and designs.  Finding or making new ways is neither cost nor risk-free, but if you want the payoffs of Agile thinking and doing, you must accept these commitments.

In this conversation, Matt Comand of Consistent Elite Performance joins me in my home studio to talk about something that they don’t teach you in scrum master school….how to build elite, high, performing teams.  Matt is a performance coach in the sports and business domain, as well as a post-secondary instructor, and brings incredible insight and skill into building trust, training versus planning, and the mental aspects of team performance.

In much the same way that technical evolution makes old tools and techniques unnecessary and extinct, it is time for us as leaders to shift fire away from the mechanics of agility to the logistics of applying and spreading agile properly – not just in the IT realm, but to all of business, work and life.  Agile is no longer new and fresh; it is a tool in the toolbox, and everyone should know and understand the basic ideas and practices; freeing us up to advance the craft and apply it to new and exciting problems.