Agile Coaches' Corner

This week, Agile Santa (Dan Neumann) is the host of the Christmas Special Episode and he is accompanied by a special Elf (Misi Eyetsemitan) and by a fun group of Agile colleagues: Andrea Floyd, Kristan Chavious, Phillip Lisenba, Justin Thatil, Giovani Botarelli, and Olu Soyele.

In this episode, they are making profound Agile wishes for us all.

Key Takeaways

● Misi wishes organizations to find that the answers they are seeking have always been within them.

● Andrea wishes for curiosity for everyone on her Team, a curious perspective promotes learning and growth.

● Olu appreciates the blessings of this year; he shares his gratitude and he wishes his Team to keep on with their continuous learning and expand even more their Agile mindset.

● Kris hopes for everyone to have the courage to be more transparent about what they think without fearing the repercussions that might follow.

○ Experimentation is a better way to encourage people to innovate instead of telling them to do something different.

○ To be innovative you have to be courageous.

○ Innovation grows in a safe environment.

● Philip is thankful for his family and their health, for his work at Agile Thought, and for the opportunities to continuously improve.

○ Philip wishes for more people to adopt Agile Methodologies across the board, not just in their work but also in their personal lives.

● Giovani asks Agile Santa to replace the command and control mindset with a more Agile mindset.

○ Effective communication is the way to spread the Agile way.

● Justin has two wishes, one is for Agilists to be the source of change and growth and for everyone to keep gratitude always in mind.

○ Gratitude changes attitude.

○ As global citizens, we need to be conscious and aware of the impact that social media has on our society and how our view of reality is being altered by it.

Mentioned in this Episode:

How to Stand Up to a Dictator: The Fight for Our Future, Maria Ressa | CEO of Rappler

The age of surveillance capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power: Barack Obama’s Books of 2019, by Shoshana Zuboff | American author, Harvard professor

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This week, Dan Neumann is joined by Diana Larsen, who has made amazing contributions to the Agile community. She is also the author of Agile Retrospectives: How to Make Good Teams Great and recently published a book called Lead Without Blame: Building Resilient Learning Teams.

In this episode, Diana is talking about leadership, not only in the Agile community but also in the general community. Diana talks about how leaders come in different shapes and sizes and how they can avoid blame and shame in the workplace to reach better efficiency.

Key Takeaways

● Diana talks about Lead Without Blame: Building Resilient Learning Teams.

○ This book is directed not only at the Agile community but at the general public.

○ The mission of this book is to think about how we can improve our systems rather than pointing fingers at Teams or Leaders.

○ This book is meant to be useful (not theoretical) and to help anyone in their day-to-day struggles.

● Leaders come in many shapes.

○ Whatever kind of leadership role someone is filling, there are certain things that need to be understood in order to avoid blame and judgment and ultimately to aim for everybody to be more effective.

● Shame and blame in the workplace:

○ If people see blame happening anywhere, they will spend time trying to prevent being the one that takes the blame, deflecting that energy somewhere else.

○ If people internalize the blame in the workplace then shame follows.

○ We tend to look for people making mistakes instead of trying to find where they are doing well.

● What are some alternatives to the blaming and shaming approach? Purpose, autonomy, and co-intelligence.

○ Leaders can help people learn and develop better skills in blocking blame.

○ Diana talks about the difference in motivation between Teams and individuals

○ Understand why we are doing what we are doing. Does everybody understand the same purpose?

○ Preserve Team autonomy.

○ Co-intelligence: Together as a Team, collectively, we have the skillsets that the Team needs. Lots of leadership and tactical skills are needed in a Team in order for it to be successful.

● How do Retrospectives help to build resiliency in a Team?

○ There are many ways for supporting retrospectives; Diana describes some of them.

Mentioned in this Episode:

Agile Retrospectives: Making Good Teams Great, by Diana Larsen and Esther Derby

Lead Without Blame: Building Resilient Learning Teams, by Diana Larsen and Tricia Broderick

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This week, Dan Neumann is delighted to be joined by a new guest, James Shore, the author of The Art of Agile Development and co-creator of the Agile Fluency Project with Diana Larsen. His contribution is invaluable to the Agile field.

In this episode, James talks about the second edition of The Art of Agile Development, which was published in 2021. This edition is a fully rewritten version that shows the influence of the Agile Fluency Model, including the different zones Agile Teams can occupy, such as Focusing, Delivering, Optimizing, and Strengthening, and practices for Teams to become fluent in each area.

Key Takeaways

● James rewrote The Art of Agile Development for its second edition.

○ He rewrote the book around the ideas of the Agile Fluency Model.

○ It includes updated practices.

○ In the book, you can find out how to influence people to make a change, to try Agile ideas, and even advice when you are in a situation where you are not very Agile.

● What is the Agile Fluency Model?

○ There are four different zones that teams or organizations can occupy: Focusing, Delivering, Optimizing, and Strengthening. A Team can exhibit fluency in any of these zones.

○ A behavior is fluent when you can perform it unconsciously, naturally, as a default behavior.

○ A Team can demonstrate fluency but only the Organization can make it possible.

○ It is not a maturity model, you can be fluent in one of the zones and not the others.

● The Agile Goal:

○ For many organizations, it may be Focusing plus Delivering together.

● James talks about the structure of the book.

○ The first part of the book is about how to introduce Agile ideas.

○ Most of the book is about the practices for the Focus and the Delivery zone.

○ Alternatives and experiences can be found at the end of every practice.

● Learn the rules, break the rules, and then, ignore the rules.

○ After learning the rules you have to experiment because every Agile Team goes through a unique situation and process.

● How long does it take to achieve a level of fluency?

○ It takes time to become fluent.

○ In general, it takes two to six months to reach Focusing fluency. Have under consideration that there is a one-to-four-month period of decrease in performance while people learn.

○ During two to six months, performance will be affected while trying to reach fluency in Delivering in an expected period from three to 20 months.

○ When Optimizing fluency it takes one to two months of performance affectedness and three to nine months for reaching fluency in this area.

○ It takes one or two years to deliver reliably.

○ All these time frames overlap.

Mentioned in this Episode:

Follow James Shore.

Check the second edition of The Art of Agile Development.

Agile Fluency Project

FAST Agile

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This week, Dan Neumann is joined by two of his colleagues, Mike Guiler and Eric Landes, 

In this episode, they are answering a listener’s question: Senior Leaders want to measure how Agile they are, which will allow them to demonstrate if they are becoming more Agile. These Leaders are looking for metrics they can use that can show release frequency, show how responsive they are, and allow them to show or measure if what they are releasing is valuable to the customers. They would love to have numbers that they can update at the end of every month if possible. To summarize, this listener wants to know how leaders can explore their agility and see how it changes every month; listen to this episode and find out what Dan, Mike, and Eric have to say.

Key Takeaways

• Metrics and statistics could be made the same.
• • Let’s not try to measure Agile.
  • An Agile transformation is hard work, are you achieving your goals? Measuring things appropriately can be challenging.
  • If the organization identifies a target but there is a lack of safety, those metrics can become manipulated and consequently unreliable.
• Let Teams come up with the right metrics for them.
• How can metrics be useful?
• • A Team wants to move at the speed of its customers, so why not get feedback from customers to know how the Team is doing?
  • Does the Agile transformation have the customer and his needs as a priority? The Team should seek transformation because they want to make the customer’s life better.
• Deployment frequency metrics are necessary.
• DevOps research and assessment metrics:
• • Deployment Frequency: How often an organization successfully releases to production.
  • Lead Time for Changes: The amount of time it takes a commitment to get into production.
  • Change Failure Rate: The percentage of deployments causing a failure in production.
  • Time to Restore Service: How long it takes an organization to recover from a failure in production.
  • Reliability.
• A committed vs an inspirational OKR
• • OKR is a popular management strategy, it defines objectives and tracks results while assisting to create alignment and engagement around measurable goals.
  • For the organization at the Team level, it is important to have OKRs that communicate what we are looking for at a higher level.
• Once a Team starts measuring a thing, do they continue measuring it forever?
• • Is it useful? If it is not, there is no reason for continuing to measure.

Mentioned in this Episode:

Industrial DevOps

Consulting to Team-Based Organizations: An Organizational Design and Learning Approach, by Kay F. Quam

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This week, Dan Neumann is joined by Adam Ulery, Eric Landes, Andrea Floyd, Erica Menendez, and Kris Chavious. In this episode, they are celebrating Thanksgiving by sharing what they are thankful for from an Agile Perspective.

Key Takeaways

• Adam is thankful for the great people he met in the Agile Community and for Dan for making this podcast!
• Andrea is reflecting on the previous year and shows her appreciation for those who show up with curiosity.
• Eric is thankful for being able to coach with two special colleagues.
• Kris stops to appreciate his Agile colleagues, their unique perspectives, and how they teach each other while respecting each other’s opinions.
• Erica is thankful for the Scrum Values, to have them, and to be able to use them in everyday life.

Mentioned in this Episode:

No: The Only Negotiating System You Need for Work and Home, by Jim Camp

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This week, Dan Neumann is joined by his co-worker Ola Tunde. In this episode, Dan and Tunde are addressing a most important topic, which is the matter of learning to ask and identify powerful questions. Knowing how to frame a question correctly can lead to better outcomes; a leader needs to know how to make inspirational questions that will encourage paradigm shifts.

Key Takeaways

• Framing a question correctly can deliver an outcome in three stages: curiosity, discovery, and introspection.
• How can you tell apart a regular and a powerful question?
• • The right question will promote a paradigm shift.
  • Lead by asking inspirational questions to help you reach your goal.
  • Move away from tactical questions and ask inspirational ones, a leader inspires the workers.
  • A powerful question can be the seed to help a worker grow, or reach a discovery from a place of curiosity and knowledge.
• How is a powerful question constructed?
• • Intent, outcome, and empathy should be involved in the act of asking a powerful question.
• Be aware of assumptions that can sneak into the questions that are being asked.
• Remember to test your question first.
• • How would you feel if you were asked the same question?
  • Why are you asking the question? A powerful question is constructed from the heart; ask it because you really care.

Mentioned in this Episode:

Lead Without Blame: Building Resilient Learning Teams, by Diana Larsen and Tricia Broderick

Tunde’s PDF with examples of powerful questions

The Art of Agile Development second edition, by James Shore

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This week, Dan Neumann is joined by Sam Falco to celebrate four years of podcasts. In this episode, Sam, who was a co-founder of the Agile Coach’s Corner Podcast, is talking about some of his experiences throughout his professional journey; he dives deep into various lessons learned and the challenges overcame.

Key Takeaways

• Sam shares the ups and downs in his professional journey:
• • Sam learned not to interfere, but instead to listen and observe.
  • Keeping a curious perspective is always positive.
  • Learn how Teams operate; please avoid jumping in and telling them what “needs to be done.”
  • Learn, as a Scrum Master, how you can affect your Team.
• In a “remote” world, we miss running into somebody.
• • “Can I reach out to you again?” is a good way of staying in touch with people and following up on various topics.
• Some programs are teaching Scrum in a bad way.
• • Scrum Masters should watch and learn from Teams, it takes a lot to be able to be silent.
  • Access your ignorance, you don’t know what the Team has been going through.

Mentioned in this Episode:

Lakota America: A New History of Indigenous Power (The Lamar Series in Western History), Pekka Hamalainen

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This week, Dan Neumann is joined by Eric Landes, Andrea Floyd, Alba Uribe, Erica Menendez, and Justin Thatil. In today’s episode, they are celebrating Halloween by talking about some scary good Agile Stories, unlike previous Halloween episodes where the lessons learned after challenges and difficulties were addressed, this time, you will hear about crazy great Agile experiences that are worth sharing.

Key Takeaways

• Do you want to hear something scary? Doing Agile without digital tools!

  • Feel the transformation.

  • Don’t forget what Agile looks like from the interpersonal relationship aspect.

  • Focus on the toolset that you have and your perspective will get wider.

  • Sometimes taking a small step into something that you are uncomfortable with is the beginning of growth.

• The failing product story:

  • Justin tells the story when after a long time working trying to get a product right and being at the point of almost reaching the so-wanted outcome, the executive Team decides to cancel the project.

• A Scrum-But Situation:

  • The state of the Team was the scariest at the beginning, there were problems releasing, and they were not finishing on time. This Team was doing Scrum, but poorly. Eric and Dan were part of the engagement part of this Team, they talked with the client, and the outcome was good. The client went beyond what was suggested and better Scrum was starting to happen.

• When Agility sneaks up on you!

  • Andrea was working with a client, and there was a pause when she stepped away for the client to continue the journey alone, but then she was invited back. When she resumed work with the client she found that a reset had happened; she was asked very basic questions and even doubted if it was Agile that they were really doing. Andrea decided to stay curious and realized the Team was doing great things respecting the principles and practices of Agile, which are very foundational. They were, in fact, mastering Agile!

  • The Team start to self-identify Agile improvements by looking for the what and the why behind what they were doing and the outcomes.

• Enabling communication and transparency can create a scary amazing effect on a Team.

  • There was an organization that went 100% into Agile, it covered the organization, the Team, and also the physical location. Everything the Team needed was in place, they even have an additional TV to track progress on releases. They worked on the proof of concepts.

• Scary good collaboration!

  • No one is taking the lead and everyone knows what they need to do. The lead is there to answer questions, it is so scary good when the leader does not know what to do because everyone is doing so great!

Mentioned in this Episode:

Lead without Blame: Building Resilient Learning Teams, Diane Larsen and Tricia Broderick

Agile Retrospectives: Making Good Teams Great, Diane Larsen

The Art of Agile Development, James Shore and Shane Warden

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This week, Dan Neumann is joined by his colleagues Mike Guiler and Justin Thatil to talk about the dopamine and satisfaction that follow after accomplishing a goal; reaching a purpose is very satisfying and can be conquered in and out of the work environment.

In this episode, Dan, Mike, and Justin explore the process of identifying the goal that you want to achieve from a behavioral and an outcome perspective, followed by working towards the objective, to finally arriving at the conquering of the goal and experiencing that rush of excitement we all enjoy so much.

Key Takeaways

• Reaching a goal is a dopamine booster.
• • Firstly, the goal needs to be identified. What are you trying to achieve?
  • Secondly, chose the priorities: what has the most value?
  • Thirdly, you can start working towards achieving that goal. Seeking the next win can be addictive.
• It is important to take a moment to celebrate your victories (even the small wins)!
• • Try to avoid falling into the habit of always looking at what comes next.
  • Reaching a business outcome is a result of the internal satisfaction of a Team that was working towards that goal.
• Seek the satisfaction of the Team; happier people do better work, are more productive, and stick with the organization longer.
• • Happier Team members make customers happier, it just becomes a self-fulfilling loop.
  • If a Team is overworking it will eventually start working less effectively.
• Measure your achievements.
• • Did your plan turn out as expected? Measure that process so you can reproduce that expected outcome.

Mentioned in this Episode:

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle: Complete Works

The Spirit of Kaizen: Creating Lasting Excellence One Small Step at a Time, by Robert Maurer

Agile + DevOps East Conference, November 6-11, 2022. It’s OK to be UnSAFe – Scale Without Using Someone Else’s Framework. Dan Neumann, AgileThought

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This week, Dan Neumann is talking about the frequent topic that when addressing Agile and Waterfall sometimes seems that it is used as a weapon to keep people away, and to advocate for the usage of one way (Agile or Waterfall) against the other.

In this episode, Dan will explore how to begin a constructive conversation regarding moving forward using Agile or Waterfall when facing a challenge that needs to be overcome.

Key Takeaways

• Agile vs Waterfall
• • When deciding which approach to use, think about what the goals are, and then decide what tactics you will apply.
  • In a complex domain, where is a lot of uncertainty, and collaboration and exploration are needed, Agile will be the most suitable approach.
  • If you need to repeatedly deliver a consistent product, Waterfall is the most efficient approach.
• What is the distinction between project management through an Agile and a Waterfall perspective?
• • Project management has a place in Agile delivery even though in the Scrum framework there is no room for a project manager.
  • Companies have budgets and need the ability to forecast; they need to be able to adjust as learning happens, so thinking about how a project gets managed in an Agile ROAM is relevant. Don’t fall into thinking that project management is only a Waterfall approach.
• Situations where coaches and Scrum Masters enter into an organization.
• • Check where people are before trying to “fix them.”
  • Try to understand what is happening in the environment first.
  • Be curious about the structure and how effective it is.

Mentioned in this Episode:

Release Train Engineer

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