The Toyota Kata, an effective template for Agile Retrospectives | Elly Griffith-Ward

Every week day, Certified Scrum Master, Agile Coach and business consultant Vasco Duarte interviews Scrum Masters and Agile Coaches from all over the world to get you actionable advice, new tips and tricks, improve your craft as a Scrum Master with daily doses of inspiring conversations with Scrum Masters from the all over the world. Stay tuned for BONUS episodes when we interview Agile gurus and other thought leaders in the business space to bring you the Agile Business perspective you need to succeed as a Scrum Master. 
Some of the topics we discuss include: Agile Business, Agile Strategy, Retrospectives, Team motivation, Sprint Planning, Daily Scrum, Sprint Review, Backlog Refinement, Scaling Scrum, Lean Startup, Test Driven Development (TDD), Behavior Driven Development (BDD), Paper Prototyping, QA in Scrum, the role of agile managers, servant leadership, agile coaching, and more!

Technology

Tech News

Podcasting

Gadgets

Software How-To

News

  Tom Baldwin: Agile Under Pressure, Strategies for Effective Organizational Change   Read the   full Show Notes  and search through the world’s largest audio library on Scrum directly on the   Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website:  http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes.   Tom shares a story about leading organizational change under a tight deadline, leveraging Agile principles to dismantle complexity and align teams with corporate goals. Through collaboration with an organizational design consultant, Tom emphasizes practical steps like optimizing team structures, engaging support functions, and applying throughput accounting to facilitate a transformation focused on simplicity, efficiency, and problem-solving, inspired by insights from  Taiichi Ohno on eliminating waste.     [IMAGE HERE]  As Scrum Master we work with change continuously! Do you have your own change framework that provides the guidance, and queues you need when working with change?  The Lean Change Management framework is a fully defined, lean-startup inspired change framework that can be used as the backbone of any change process!  You can buy Lean Change Management the book at Amazon. Also available in  French,  Spanish,  German  and  Portuguese.     About Tom Baldwin   Tom is a Lean-Agile Coach & Scrum Master, who is trying to solve the problem that it has been more than 20 years since the Agile Manifesto, but Business Agility is still not the norm. Tom is currently writing “Production line for the mind: The Practicing Principle”, with the idea of making agility simple to understand & to implement – and not just for software.   You can link with  Tom Baldwin on LinkedIn.

Agile Under Pressure, Strategies for Effective Organizational Change | Tom Baldwin

  Tom Baldwin: From Centralized to Collaborative, Cultivating Independent Agile Teams   Read the   full Show Notes  and search through the world’s largest audio library on Scrum directly on the   Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website:  http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes.   As Tom steps into a team entangled with centralized communication and decision-making issues, he shares his strategic approach to fostering team independence and effective communication, especially during a managerial hiatus. Key strategies include direct dialogue among team members, engaging leadership in problem-solving discussions, and advocating for managerial coaching, drawing upon a real-life transformation where team autonomy and progress shine despite initial resistance.   Featured Book of the Week: The Scrum Field Guide by Mitch Lacey   Tom sheds light on the pivotal role  The Scrum Field Guide  by Mitch Lacey  played in his Scrum Master journey, emphasizing its approachability and practical insights into role expectations, task decomposition, and work management. With anecdotes and tips like fitting work to time and embracing various work breakdown strategies. In this episode, we also refer  to the episode with Anton Skornikov on slicing User Stories.   [IMAGE HERE] Do you wish you had decades of experience? Learn from the Best Scrum Masters In The World, Today!   The Tips from the Trenches - Scrum Master edition audiobook  includes hours of audio interviews with SM’s that have decades of experience: from Mike Cohn to Linda Rising, Christopher Avery, and many more.  Super-experienced Scrum Masters share their hard-earned lessons with you. Learn those today, make your teams awesome!        About Tom Baldwin   Tom is a Lean-Agile Coach & Scrum Master, who is trying to solve the problem that it has been more than 20 years since the Agile Manifesto, but Business Agility is still not the norm. Tom is currently writing “Production line for the mind: The Practicing Principle”, with the idea of making agility simple to understand & to implement – and not just for software.   You can link with  Tom Baldwin on LinkedIn.

From Centralized to Collaborative, Cultivating Independent Agile Teams | Tom Baldwin

  Tom Baldwin: When the Stand-Up Turns Into Chaos, Conflict, Care, and Change for Agile Teams   Read the   full Show Notes  and search through the world’s largest audio library on Scrum directly on the   Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website:  http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes.   In a gripping episode with Tom, we talk about the chaos of a stand-up gone wrong, spotlighting how personal tensions can reflect deeper process issues. Tom recounts a fiery disagreement between developers, stemming from a pressured environment, and how it led to a transformative shift in team dynamics and location. We talk about how Scrum Masters can navigate through conflicts, focusing on psychological insights and team unity. Key takeaways include the importance of 1-on-1 chats, understanding triggers, and collective decision-making, all while referencing seminal works like  Deming's 14 principles for management  and  Lencioni’s "The Five Dysfunctions of a Team."     [IMAGE HERE]  Recovering from failure, or difficult moments is a critical skill for Scrum Masters. Not only because of us, but also because the teams, and stakeholders we work with will also face these moments! We need inspiring stories to help them, and ourselves! The Bungsu Story, is an inspiring story by Marcus Hammarberg which shows how a Coach can help organizations recover even from the most disastrous situations! Learn how Marcus helped The Bungsu, a hospital in Indonesia, recover from near-bankruptcy, twice! Using Lean and Agile methods to rebuild an organization and a team! An inspiring story you need to know about!  Buy the book on Amazon: The Bungsu Story - How Lean and Kanban Saved a Small Hospital in Indonesia. Twice. and Can Help You Reshape Work in Your Company.     About Tom Baldwin   Tom is a Lean-Agile Coach & Scrum Master, who is trying to solve the problem that it has been more than 20 years since the Agile Manifesto, but Business Agility is still not the norm. Tom is currently writing “Production line for the mind: The Practicing Principle”, with the idea of making agility simple to understand & to implement – and not just for software.   You can link with  Tom Baldwin on LinkedIn.

When the Stand-Up Turns Into Chaos, Conflict, Care, and Change for Agile Teams | Tom Baldwin

  Jörn Hendrik Ast: Leading with Heart, Empathy and Vision for Product Owners   Read the   full Show Notes  and search through the world’s largest audio library on Scrum directly on the   Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website:  http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes.   The Great Product Owner: Leading with Heart, Empathy and Vision for PO’s   In this segment, we explore the story of a Product Owner who exemplifies leadership, empathy, and the ability to inspire and unite a team. This episode showcases the qualities that make a Product Owner truly exceptional, from active listening and feedback to fostering a culture of openness and adaptability. It’s a narrative that illuminates the path to greatness in product ownership, setting a standard for others to follow.   The Bad Product Owner: The Facade of Busyness, And How it Burns Out Agile Teams   In this segment, Jörn shares the saga of a Product Owner whose quest for significance led to turmoil and team burnout. He tells the story of misplaced priorities and the destructive path of a PO favouring appearing busy over being effective. It's a cautionary tale that probes into the anti-patterns plaguing product ownership and the strategies to recover from, or avoid those anti-patterns in our teams.   [IMAGE HERE] Are you having trouble helping the team work well with their Product Owner?  We’ve put together a course to help you work on the collaboration team-product owner. You can find it at  bit.ly/coachyourpo.  18 modules, 8+ hours of modules with tools and techniques that you can use to help teams and PO’s collaborate.     About Jörn Hendrik Ask   Jörn Hendrik Ast, founded of New Work Heroes in 2018. He is an entrepreneur, podcaster, and author dedicated to innovating work through team collaboration, leadership, and personal development. He is coaching teams, producing podcast episodes, and continues to create impactful learning formats and books.   You can link with  Jörn Hendrik Ask on LinkedIn  and connect with  Jörn Hendrik Ask on Threads.

Leading with Heart, Empathy and Vision for Product Owners | Jörn Hendrik Ask

  Jörn Hendrik Ast: Self-Sustaining Agile Teams, The Art of Letting Go For Scrum Masters   Read the   full Show Notes  and search through the world’s largest audio library on Scrum directly on the   Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website:  http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes.   Jörn Hendrik defines success for Scrum Masters as reaching a point where the team can self-sustain, appreciating the Scrum Master's guidance but also be ready to venture forward independently. This episode explores the dynamics of trust, autonomy, and the subtle art of knowing when to step back. How does one cultivate a team's capability to navigate challenges without constant oversight?   Featured Retrospective Format for the Week: Keep/Drop/Try, and Creating Space For Conversation to Flourish   Discover the power of the Keep/Drop/Try retrospective with Jörn. He shares how we can use that format to create a space where emotions and conversations can flourish, fostering trust within teams. Learn how focusing on individual, team, and organizational layers can unearth emotions and enhance psychological safety. It’s a guide to nurturing openness and trust, essential for any team aiming to thrive in today’s corporate landscape.   [IMAGE HERE]  Retrospectives, planning sessions, vision workshops, we are continuously helping teams learn about how to collaborate in practice! In this Actionable Agile Tools book, Jeff Campbell shares some of the tools he’s learned over a decade of coaching Agile Teams. The pragmatic coaching book you need, right now! Buy  Actionable Agile Tools on Amazon, or  directly from the author, and  supercharge your facilitation toolbox!      About Jörn Hendrik Ask   Jörn Hendrik Ast, founded of New Work Heroes in 2018. He is an entrepreneur, podcaster, and author dedicated to innovating work through team collaboration, leadership, and personal development. He is coaching teams, producing podcast episodes, and continues to create impactful learning formats and books.   You can link with  Jörn Hendrik Ask on LinkedIn  and connect with  Jörn Hendrik Ask on Threads.

The Toyota Kata, an effective template for Agile Retrospectives | Elly Griffith-Ward

Download our free app to listen on your phone