Summary

In this conversation, Dave Prior is joined by Jeff Leach and Sandra Cain to discuss the question of whether coaching has killed Agile. They explore the role of coaching in Agile transformations and the challenges that arise when underqualified coaches are thrust into coaching roles. They also discuss the difference between coaching and consulting, the importance of understanding one's place as a coach, and the need for range and adaptability in coaching approaches. The conversation highlights the need for a balanced approach that combines both coaching and consulting based on the specific needs of the organization and individuals involved. The conversation explores the importance of first and last impressions in building relationships and the role of emotions in our interactions. It delves into the distinction between coaching and consulting, emphasizing the need for coaches to be unbiased and focused on drawing out the best in others. The conversation also touches on the challenges of internal coaching and the importance of measuring the success of coaching engagements. It concludes with a discussion on the future of coaching and the need for a balance between task-oriented and relationship-oriented approaches.

Takeaways

• Coaching and consulting are both important in Agile transformations, but coaching should not be led with and should be used when appropriate.

• Underqualified coaches can hinder Agile transformations and fail to deliver the promised value.

• Coaches need to understand their place and have humility, as well as the ability to adapt their approach based on the needs of the organization and individuals.

• There is a need for range and adaptability in coaching approaches, as different situations may require different approaches.

• A balanced approach that combines coaching and consulting based on the specific needs of the organization and individuals is crucial for successful Agile transformations. First and last impressions are crucial in building relationships.

• Coaches should be unbiased and focused on drawing out the best in others.

• Internal coaching can be more complex and requires careful design around confidentiality and safety.

• Measuring the success of coaching engagements should focus on moving towards the desired culture and operational rhythm.

• The future of coaching requires a balance between task-oriented and relationship-oriented approaches.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction and Background

04:07 The Question: Did Coaching Kill Agile?

05:59 The Challenges of Underqualified Coaches

08:45 Defining Coaching and Consulting

15:32 The Importance of Range and Adaptability in Coaching

28:05 The Power of First and Last Impressions

31:48 The Challenges of Internal Coaching

37:44 Measuring the Success of Coaching Engagements

47:35 The Future of Coaching: Balancing Task and Relationship

Contacting Sandra

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sandracain/

Email: [email protected]

Contacting Jeff

Web: https://www.adaptivitygroup.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jefferyleach/

Email: [email protected]

Dave's Links From The Intro

Certified Scrum Product Owner July 1-2, 2024 (Use PRIOR50 to get $50 off the list price) https://tinyurl.com/2r8af3uk

Dave's upcoming classes: https://tinyurl.com/u2vh9zh8

The Art of War for Collaboration: https://modusinstitute.com/course/art-of-war-collaboration

Contacting Dave: https://linktr.ee/mrsungo

Summary

The conversation explores the concept of being a hero or a villain in a team and how awareness of one's role can lead to more intentional actions. The guests, Jesse and Carl, share their perspectives on this topic. Jesse discusses his experience running an agency and how he developed a marketing approach for supervillains. Carl talks about his role at the Bureau and the challenges of being a leader. They also discuss the importance of empathy and self-reflection in avoiding villainous behavior. The conversation highlights the need for leaders to be aware of their actions and the impact they have on others. They also explore the challenges of leadership and self-awareness, particularly in relation to the younger generation. It delves into the importance of difficult conversations, honest feedback, and effective reward systems. The fear and pressure of being in a position of power are discussed, along with the potential for toxic leadership. Strategies for improving self-awareness include having a coach, seeking unfiltered feedback, and using AI tools. The concept of decommoditization is introduced as a way to differentiate oneself in a competitive market. The conversation concludes with a discussion on the supportive and inspiring nature of the Bureau community.

Takeaways

• Being a hero or a villain is subjective and depends on the perspective of others.

• Leaders should be aware of their actions and the impact they have on their team.

• Empathy and self-reflection are important in avoiding villainous behavior.

• True communication and understanding can help build stronger relationships within a team. Difficult conversations and honest feedback are crucial for effective leadership.

• Fear and pressure can lead to toxic leadership, and it's important to find healthy ways to manage negative energy.

• Having a coach and seeking unfiltered feedback can help improve self-awareness.

• Decommoditization is a strategy to differentiate oneself in a competitive market.

• The Bureau community is a supportive and inspiring network for professionals.

Chapters

03:23 This dude is like Batman...I'm somebody's Joker

07:50 When you think you're a hero, but maybe you're a villain

10:40 The 3 brains in side every organization

11:05 Being conscious of an advanced perspective

13:53 Knowing when you've slipped into villain mode

20:36 Ways to increase your level of self-awareness

26:35 Decommoditization: Differentiating Yourself in a Competitive Market

31:24 The Supportive and Inspiring Nature of the Bureau Community

Jesse's book

Web: https://marketingforsupervillains.com

Amazon: Marketing for Supervillains https://tinyurl.com/59tkjs39

Contacting Jesse

Web: https://decommoditized.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jesse-wroblewski/

Contacting Carl

Web: https://bureauofdigital.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carl-w-smith/

Summary

In this conversation, Dave Prior interviews Chris Hadnagy and Dr. Abbie Maroño about social engineering and human hacking. They discuss the definition of social engineering and how it differs from human hacking. They emphasize the importance of intent in social engineering, with the goal being to influence someone's actions for their benefit rather than to cause harm. They also explore the concept of imposter syndrome and how it affects different generations and genders. The conversation concludes with a discussion on how self-awareness can be used to be a better servant leader and understand others. In this conversation, Dr. Abbie and Chris Hadnagy discuss the importance of understanding human behavior and communication in various contexts. They emphasize the need to look beneath the surface when someone behaves badly and to consider their underlying needs. They also discuss the importance of self-awareness and understanding one's own communication style. They highlight the value of seeking credible information and avoiding misinformation, especially in the field of psychology. They provide insights into their courses and books that can help individuals improve their communication skills and become more effective in their personal and professional lives.

This podcast was originally recorded in video format. You can find the video here: https://youtu.be/71cZz-ac-zc

Takeaways

Social engineering is the act of influencing someone to take an action that may or may not be in their best interest.

Intent plays a crucial role in determining whether social engineering is positive or negative.

Imposter syndrome is a universal human experience, but the way it is expressed can differ between generations and genders.

Self-awareness is key to understanding and managing imposter syndrome and can be used to be a better servant leader.

Understanding the emotions and motivations of others can help build empathy and improve relationships. Look beneath the surface when someone behaves badly and consider their underlying needs.

Understand your own communication style and be aware of how it may impact others.

Seek credible information and be cautious of misinformation, especially in the field of psychology.

Take courses and read books to improve your communication skills and personal development.

Chapters

00:18 Introduction and Background

10:26 Exploring Imposter Syndrome Across Generations

24:11 Understanding Others: Building Empathy

31:50 Seeking Credible Information

39:57 Challenging Simplistic Explanations

Links from the podcast:

Foundational Application of Social Engineering

https://www.social-engineer.com/product/foundational-application-of-social-engineering/

Chris’s books on Amazon

https://tinyurl.com/mrx6umcb

Dr. Abbie’s Book

Work in Progress: The Road to Empowerment, The Journey Through Shame

https://tinyurl.com/jzbsu2ev

Social-Engineer YouTube Channel

https://www.youtube.com/@Social-Engineer

Dr. Abbie’s TEDX Manchester talk

https://www.tedxmanchester.com/abbie-marono/

Contacting Chris Hadnagy

Web: https://www.social-engineer.org/

Blog: https://www.social-engineer.org/blog/

LinkedIn: http://linkedin.com/in/christopherhadnagy

Contacting Dr. Abbie Maroño

Web: https://www.abbiemarono.com

LinkedIn: http://linkedin.com/in/dr-abbie-maroño-phd-35ab2611a

I’m testing out the AI Generated Summary…

In this conversation, Dave Prior and Scott Sehlhorst discuss the importance of improving the product plan while executing it. They explore the common problem of companies jumping straight into execution without considering what they should build and why. Scott emphasizes the need to shift from a mindset of control to one of influence, where product managers focus on solving problems and creating value for customers and the business. They also discuss the concept of uncertainty and sensitivity and how to navigate it using impact mapping to identify needs and changes. In this conversation, Scott Sehlhorst discusses the importance of shifting into a business model and the need to create changes and hypotheses. He emphasizes the process of narrowing down the target population and quantifying the impact of changes. Scott also highlights the significance of determining sensitivity and making connections between cause and effect. He introduces the confidence rubric and explains how to prioritize experiments. The conversation concludes with the idea of constantly improving the plan and focusing on the next most important thing to learn.

Takeaways

Companies often jump straight into execution without considering what they should build and why.

Product managers should shift from a mindset of control to one of influence, focusing on solving problems and creating value for customers and the business.

Uncertainty and sensitivity are inherent in product development, and it is impossible to know everything before building a product.

Using impact mapping can help identify needs and changes, allowing for experimentation and learning in an uncertain environment. Shifting into a business model involves creating changes and hypotheses.

Narrowing down the target population is crucial for effective experimentation.

Quantifying the impact of changes helps determine the potential outcomes.

Using a confidence rubric can aid in decision-making and prioritization.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction and Background

03:00 The Fear of Being Late vs. the Fear of Being Wrong

05:58 Backlog Rationalization Workshop

10:00 Moving from Control to Influence

13:07 Building the Right Things

20:00 Navigating Uncertainty and Sensitivity

29:11 Using Impact Mapping to Identify Needs and Changes

31:56 Shifting into Business Model

33:05 Creating Changes and Hypotheses

34:32 Narrowing Down the Target Population

35:15 Quantifying the Impact

36:34 Determining Sensitivity

38:21 Making Connections and Causal Relationships

39:36 Confidence and Uncertainty

43:00 The Confidence Rubric

44:23 Prioritizing Experiments

49:29 What's the Next Most Important Thing to Learn

53:28 Improving the Plan

Links from the Podcast

The Empathy Map Podcast where Scott and I discuss Impact Mapping

https://on.soundcloud.com/szLXeqe5Q6t2Tf9b8

Scott’s blog post about using a Confidence Rubric

https://uxpressia.com/blog/make-decisions-about-business-experiments

Contacting Scott:

Scott’s Blog at Tyner Blain: tynerblain.com/blog/

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/sehlhorst/

Twitter: twitter.com/sehlhorst

Email: [email protected]

Alan Dayley is back to help me continue the quest of figuring out why so many companies are struggling with PI Planning or quarterly planning. During the interview, we discuss some of the reasons organizations struggle with this type of planning. We address the topic from the perspective of senior leadership, why they want it, how they often approach it, and the challenges that creates. We also explore the way the request is often interpreted by the Development Teams, how they often respond, and how critical it is that they have the time needed to understand the request and the freedom to respond in a way that is responsible to the organization.

Alan is a SAFe Program Consultant, so during the conversation he also explains how PI planning is supposed to work if you are truly following SAFe.

… and, Developers are not batteries

Contacting Alan

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alandd/

Email: [email protected]

You’ve decided to take a Scrum certification class. Now the question is, which one? If you are looking for something like Certified Scrum Master or Certified Scrum Product Owner, there are so many options to choose from that it can be overwhelming. All of them should result in certification and price is certainly a concern. But there are a number of other factors to consider when trying to find the Scrum training that is right for you.

When you take a certification class, whether its focus is on Scrum, Lean, Kanban, Project Management, whatever… you are investing in yourself and your future. In this podcast, Vic Bonacci and I talk through some of the key things you should consider when selecting a certification course. You are spending your time and money to obtain knowledge and validation (through certification) that you have a certain degree of expertise. Choose wisely… it’s your future.

Contacting Vic

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vbonacci/

AgileCoffee Podcast: https://agilecoffee.com

Online Scrum Class: https://onlinescrumclass.com

Contacting Dave

Linktree: https://linktr.ee/mrsungo

Dave’s Classes listed on Scrum Alliance site: https://tinyurl.com/35pzsk5j

Keeping up with what is happening in AI is no small task. You probably know some folks who spend a lot of free time learning how to bend (insert AI flavor of the week) to their will, there are folks who are preaching to anyone who will listen about all the amazing things that are right around the corner, and then there are the folks who just periodically peek over their shoulder and say “Yeah, um… let me know when you’ve got this bit actually working.”

And then there are people like Snehal Talati. I met Snehal last year at the Scrum Gathering and we did a podcast about http://aiagile.org, the community he started to bring Agilists together to ensure that the intersection between the Agile space and AI happens in an intentional and thoughtful way.

It’s been 8 months since that podcast was posted and that’s like 20 years in the AI space. So Snehal is back to share what’s been happening in AI and Agile. and to talk about the free course he built for the Scrum Alliance to help folks get started. During our conversation, Snehal gives an update on some of the newer changes and challenges in AI and he also offers real-life examples of how AI is becoming a powerful part of his personal productivity.

If you’d like to check out the Scrum Alliance’s AI course, that is here:

• AI & Agility: A Comprehensive Introduction: https://resources.scrumalliance.org/Course/ai-agility-comprehensive-introduction

AI Links to get you started:

• AI Agile: https://www.aiagile.org/

• Agile GPT: https://www.agilegpt.com/

• ChatGPT: https://openai.com/blog/chatgpt

CONTACTING SNEHAL

• Web: https://www.boostaro.com

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/snehal-talati-124a38b6/

If you are on one of those teams that has made a habit of dragging unfinished work from one Sprint to the next... YOU NEED TO STOP!

 

When you get to the end of a Sprint and have work that isn't done, you can't show it to the stakeholders in the Sprint Review. If you don't show it to Stakeholders in the Sprint Review, you can't get feedback. And if you can't get feedback, you can't inspect and adapt, and you negate the entire point of working in a Sprint.

This podcast offers five things that you and your team can do

right now to stop carrying over unfinished work and start enabling Scrum to provide you with the results you and your organization were hoping for when you headed down the path to agility.

This podcast was originally recorded in video. You can find that version here: https://youtu.be/df8Ig_KYPUg

If you liked this podcast, please click subscribe and let me

know so I keep adding more.

If you are interested in attending one of my upcoming CSM or

CSPO classes, just follow this link: https://tinyurl.com/yc5k84z5

And if you'd like to contact me, you can find all my links

right here: https://linktr.ee/mrsungo

At the Modus Institute, Jim Benson and Mark Kilby have created a new offering called Successful Distributed Teams. This new course focuses on how to build strong remote teams, how to create a humane, healthy balance of productivity and accountability, and what tools you can use to make it all work. In this interview, Jim and Mark join me to discuss what happened when they combined the many years of experience they each have in shaping remote teams that work. We cover how the idea of remote work has changed over the past few years, what makes it so challenging, and things you can start doing to foster a thriving collaborative remote team. 

This podcast was originally recorded in video. You can find that version here: https://youtu.be/TnFzQr80tBg

To learn more about Successful Distributed Teams

https://modusinstitute.com/course/successful-remote-work-teams

To check out Mark Kilby and Johanna Rothman’s book From Chaos to Successful Distributed Agile Teams

https://tinyurl.com/5fbnynxe

Contacting Jim

Web: https://modusinstitute.com

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/jimbenson

Email: [email protected]

Contacting Mark

Web: MarkKilby.com

Mastodon: https://hachyderm.io/@mkilby

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mkilby/

Email: [email protected]

A few weeks ago I interviewed Gil Broza about his new book, “Deliver Better Results: How to Unlock Your Organization's Potential". The book was designed to quickly provide actionable practices that organizations can utilize to improve their value delivery system. It focuses on understanding the fitness for purpose of your system of delivery, and how to employ his ten strategies to improve your level of maturity. During my prep for the interview and during our conversation, there was one thing that was stuck in my head. None of this works without trust. How can a traditional, potentially toxic organization pivot into an approach that is mostly dependent on a certain level of trust?

So, during our first interview, I asked Gil if he’d be open to a second conversation where we focus on the question “How do you build trust in an organizational system that does not have it? Gil was kind enough to agree and that is where this podcast began.

If you’d like to check out our initial conversation you can find it here: https://on.soundcloud.com/Ed2C4

Deliver Better Results: How to Unlock Your Organization's Potential


You can purchase the book here: http://DeliverBetterResultsBook.com

Gil has made the first chapter of the book available for download. It provides an executive-level summary of the 10 strategies and how they work as well as an assessment that readers can complete to determine the maturity level of their organization and select strategies to help them improve. You can download it for free here: http://HeardOnPodcast.DeliverBetterResultsBook.com

Contacting Gil


* Work: http://3pvantage.com/


* LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/gilbroza/

Dave's Upcoming Classes


In the introduction to the podcast I mentioned a few of my upcoming classes:

* A-CSPO February 29-March 1 http://tinyurl.com/bde5acnv

* CSM Atlanta - March 4-5 - http://tinyurl.com/yhwzr3bs


* CSPO Atlanta - March 6-7 - http://tinyurl.com/24be92zy


And you can find links to all of my upcoming classes here: http://tinyurl.com/4wbkkhra