Coach Dan's Blog

  tldr;  The  "agile mindset"  means treating suboptimal results, negative feedback, and missed goals not as failures, but as  invaluable data points and opportunities for improvement. Key takeaway:  Leaders must foster a culture o f Psychological Safety  where teams are encouraged, not punished, to be transparent about disappointing results. Actionable steps:  Use "bad news" to get curious, hypothesize, adjust strategy (pivot), and measure outcomes (results) over just outputs (activity). The goal:  Create an environment where there is "no bad news, just news that can help us get better at achieving our goals." Things to try:   Specific action steps a leader can try to improve the team’s Psychological Safety can be found at the end of the article.     I’v e said it before, and I’ll say it again - I am blessed to work with some of the best, most talented people I’ve ever met. I was participating in a Crew meeting this week where...

I was having a random conversation with another coach last week, and we had a bit of a shared 'ah ha' moment. We, as champions of agility, say the word "agile" (as though it were a destination, or a goal,) way more than we should. Perhaps WE, as coaches, scrum masters, and champions, need to challenge our own use of the language a bit. Instead of saying... 🚫 We're changing to be (or heaven forbid, do) agile. maybe we should be saying... ✅ We want to respond to change WITH agility. ✅ We want to solve problems WITH agility. ✅ We want to achieve outcomes WITH agility. ✅ We aim to work WITH agility. Isn't our goal really to respond to change, solve problems and achieve outcomes? And isn't it all the better to do those things with agility? When we challenge ourselves to use our words differently, we can shift the focus away from frameworks and mindsets... and toward APPLYING those frameworks and mindsets toward ACHIEVING something. What words do you use ...

We throw the word “agile” around a lot.  I thought it might be a good idea to get back to the basics, so we can move forward with a shared understanding on it really means. Let’s start with the word agile.   (Can we all agree that dictonary.com is a good source of pure definition?   Good!) agile [ aj-uhl, -ahyl ] adjective ·    Quick and well-coordinated in movement ·    Active; lively ·    Marked by an ability to think quickly, mentally acute or aware ·    Noting or relating to a philosophy of product development and production intended to create and distribute batches of working products in a short period of time with subsequent batches planned in a cyclical schedule of improvement, production, and distribution noun ·    Sometimes Agile - an iterative and collaborative philosophy of rapid product development and production Ok.   That’s a great place to start because it reinforces something reall...

There's been something that's been on my mind lately, and I can't quite get my head wrapped around an answer. I figured at this point, instead of just puzzling over it - the best thing I can do is just ask y'all what you think. So here goes... What's stopping you? Seriously, what's stopping you? We've been working on this "agile thing" now for quite some time. People have been trained on the mindset. PowerPoint decks, and playbooks have been distributed. Workshops have been conducted. Scrum and Kanban has been installed. Teams have been formed and registered them in a database. Jira and confluence have been rolled out. Dashboards full of metrics have been published. That means we're agile, right? Maybe, I guess. But for those of you who have started your agile team journey together, let me ask you this... do you feel agile? Does it feel like you are closely connected to the customer and business problems that you're helping to so...

Learn more about National Punctuation Day  

  The  first  shared agile principle is - “Our highest priority is to  satisfy the customer  through early and  continuous delivery of value.” - The Agile Manifesto When was the last time  your  team... talked about  your  customer?  Who is your customer?  Is  everyone  on your team working for the same customer? Is the work you're doing  today  creating value for your customer?  How do you know? How will the work you do today help to  satisfy  your customer? If your customer saw the top of your team's backlog,  would they agree  it's important and valuable? Is your team regularly engaging with the customer to inform the product direction? In the hustle and bustle of our day, it can be easy to lose sight of the "why we're doing this." Take some time this week, and invest in your team.  Talk about who your customer is and what problem you're solving for  them ...

 Learn more about National Tap Dance Day .

 Learn more about National Beverage Day

Embracing an agile culture and mindset mean that every day, every  sprint, every iteration we have another opportunity to honor commitments . Commitment to delivering value to our shared customer. Commitment  to our sprint (or iteration) goals. Commitment to our teammates.  Commitment to ourselves! Agility also means allowing the opportunity for things to change. We are  ok with ambiguity, because we know that we will test and learn together.   We know that with every new data point and new understanding we  reassess; take what we can learn and incorporate that into what we do  next. We know that everything we do together is in service of our  customer and when their priorities change, we pivot to meet their  needs. We know with clear outcomes and objectives, and a solid  understanding of who our customer is, our team can chart a path  forward together. Every day is an opportunity Each day is an opportunity to re-commit to deli...

Learn more about  National Chili day

 Learn more about National Do A Grouch A Favor Day

  Learn more about National Clean Off Your Desk Day

In the last post, I  challenged you to start seeing  mistakes as opportunities  for your team to improve and grow.  This week our coaching challenge is designed to help your team improve its psychological safety by making it "ok" (or even  normal ) to share ideas or perspectives that may be counter to what the rest of the group is thinking.     The concept of "Black Hat Teams" is simple - it challenges teams to look at decisions and solutions from different perspectives.  It also helps to encourage team members to share ideas and perspectives that may be "counter" to a direction the team may organically be headed in.  The Black Hat Review activity can be incorporated into backlog refinement or roadmap development, and can go a long way to helping create an environment of  psychological safety  for your team.   IF you have any questions, or would like any support, don’t hesitate to reach out to a coach, scrum master, o...

  Fair  warning - Coach Dan is feisty today! Wherever I get in front of a group of people who are newer to the concept of agile and agility, I like to ask them what they think agile is all about.  The responses I get are pretty predictable... "Agile is about going faster."   "Agile makes teams more efficient."   "Agile is about speed."   Agile is about sprints."  "Agile is about being flexible."  "Agile is about Metrics." I very rarely, if ever hear someone suggest,  "agile is a way of reorganizing our teams around delivering customer value, rather than around artificial organizational boundaries."   I hardly ever hear someone say,  "Agile means empowering teams to self-organize around the work that they are doing to drive value, rather than organizing around job title."   And I never hear people say, "Agile means teams can decide to improve the way they work together, becoming more  effective, eff...