We've Moved

I’ve decided to consolidate my blogs on Substack, specifically Moose Droppings and RGalen Consulting.

The historical posts will remain here, but all new posts will be on Substack here - https://bobgalen.substack.com/

I encourage you to join me there…

Thanks for the memories!

Bob.

I was wrong

As I reflect on my 40+ career, with over half of it in leadership roles, I think about things that I did that made me different and potentially more effective than most leaders. 

One thing that stood out is related to my reflective nature.

If you’ve ever worked with or for me, you’ll know that it’s quite common for me to have a strong initial reaction or opinion to something. Imagine that.

Then, upon ongoing reflection…

I’ll come in the next day and say—

You know, I thought about your idea more

And you know what, I was wrong. I want to support your approach (idea, strategy).

The notion that I’m not stuck on my ideas I think opens up the creative process for folks. It creates safety and the knowledge that (over time) I can be open-minded 😉

I experienced that this level of vulnerability, my willingness to admit I was wrong, opened up my culture.

The key message here is for leaders. When was the last time you said to your teams, your peers, your boss, or yourself—

I was wrong, you have my full support, let’s do it your way?

Stay agile, my friends,

Bob.

BTW: It’s not always easy to say it, so I need to practice in the mirror each morning.

Disagree and Commit

There is something to be said about the notion of Disagreeing and then Committing that resonates with me as a valid approach for today’s organizational cultures making decisions. I’ve heard the expression for many years, so I became curious about its origins and did a little research that I’d like to share with you.

Here’s a wonderful video by Meirav Owen to start things off –

https://ecorner.stanford.edu/clips/learning-to-disagree-and-commit/

I believe Andy Grove was the first to reference it in his role at Intel –

https://hackernoon.com/disagree-and-commit-the-importance-of-disagreement-in-decision-making-b31d1b5f1bdc

Jeff Bezos famously leveraged the idea at Amazon –

https://www.inc.com/jeff-haden/jeff-bezos-uses-disagree-commit-rule-to-overcome-an-uncomfortable-truth-about-teamwork.html

SuperPower of the Disagree & Commit Culture –

https://medium.com/blablacar/the-superpower-of-the-disagree-and-commit-culture-c7085956bde0

Another take by Aaron Lynn –

https://aaronlynn.com/business/people-teams/disagree-and-commit/

Gustavo Razzetti helps deepen D&C by creating a 5-step playbook of sorts –

https://gustavorazzetti.substack.com/p/disagree-and-commit-a-5-step-playbook

Kim Scott and the Get Sh*t Done Wheel seem to be a similar approach –

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-use-get-sht-done-wheel-reinforce-collaborative-respectful-scott/

Wrapping Up

I hope you found the articles around Disagree & Commit to be a useful exploration. I also hope it heightens your cultural decision-making evolution.

I often refer to decisions as having a “stickiness” factor, and D&C helps focus on increasing their stickiness.

One final reference is to the Core Protocols, which Jim and Michele McCarthy introduced in their book Software for Your Head and Richard Kasperowski in his work at https://thecoreprotocols.org/

The McCarthy’s work doesn’t receive nearly the attention it deserves. I recommend you take a deeper dive into the Core Protocols – https://mccarthyshow.com/the-core-html-version/

Whether you agree or disagree with me, I hope you can commit to weaving this model into your decision-making culture.

Stay agile my friends,

Bob.

Leadership’s 4% Blind Spot

I saw post on LinkedIn from Corporate Rebels that highlighted the information gap between top executives and frontline employees.  

I’ve heard this many times before. However, it resonated strongly with me this time, and I wanted to share it more broadly.

The big message here is that senior leaders, leaders, and managers often think they understand the situation (problems, challenges, situational awareness, etc.) but don’t. The higher you go in the organization chart, the less you truly understand.

The big problem, though, is that they think they understand. I.e., there is a self-awareness gap, which creates a huge blind spot.

How do we begin to mitigate this gap? I’d suggest more leaders—

• Develop and activate their humility,

• Sharpen their questioning & listening skills,

• Trust what their teams say, ask for help, and take action based on team feedback.

And did I mention staying humble?

This is one blind spot that can be easily reduced…

Stay agile my friends,

Bob.

Are you playing Football by the Rules?

I have to admit that I’m quite the American Football fan. Growing up in Pennsylvania, my team was the Philadelphia Eagles. If you know anything about them, you know that they have a relatively “vigorous and unrelentingly positive” fanbase. 

https://www.facebook.com/UKGridiron/videos/snowballing-santa_15-december/743806219452545/

But then years ago, I moved to the New York tri-state area and became a fan of the NY Giants. I root for those two teams during the season unless they’re playing each other, then I root for the Eagles.

But let’s move it along a bit…

Are you playing Football?

While there is heated play on the football field, I don’t see a whole lot of debate whether one team is playing football or not. The rules are fairly clear and the teams are expected to adhere to them.

For example, 4 – 15-minute quarters, or no tackling with the crown of your helmet, or touchdowns are worth 7 points and occur when you cross the goal line.

The rules are intended to frame the game so that everyone is playing within a rudimentary and relatively simple set of constraints.

What’s truly important?

What’s truly important seems to be—winning the game. And, from a coaching perspective, that involves the following:

• Finding good people with the appropriate skill levels

• Forming an identity, establishing an offensive and defensive strategy (identity)

• Giving them the opportunity to form and operate as a team

• Practice, practice, practice; learning from the videos and continuous improvement

• Get out of the team’s way and let them play the game…

• Rinse & repeat.

Perhaps a little time is spent on the rules, but the critical thing is finding and developing a shared vision and focusing on the goal—winning games.

Not answering the question—are you doing & playing football or not?

The point?

There seems to be an ongoing debate in the agile community around Scrum. That is, are you doing Scrum or not?

As an example, I saw this post from Martin Hinshelwood on LinkedIn where he makes the definitive point—

The minimum bar

for Scrum is a

working usable

increment every

iteration

including the first.

And Martin should know since he’s been a PST (trainer) with Scrum.org for the past 12+ years.

But it made me think…

Is the point of agile, business agility, agile mindsets, the agile manifesto, principles, delivering customer value, lean thinking…

• Doing Scrum?

• Delivering a working, usable increment every iteration?

• Explicitly following the rules as dictated by “experts”?

Or is it something else entirely?

And should influencers, experts, and pundits like Martin be focusing on the rules…or something else?

Wrapping Up

Just to be clear, I’m not arguing with Martin. He’s certainly more experienced in “Scrum” than I am.

And I “get” his point about delivering “working software”. Heck, it’s principle #3 in the Agile Manifesto, so essential and relevant. But they didn’t say every iteration in the Manifesto. Instead, they said frequently.

But should THAT be the focus? Following the rules? Doing Scrum?

I think not. As in football, I believe it’s about setting the table to—Win the Game!

And that isn’t necessarily about Scrum or certification letters or continuously advocating to do Scrum by the book. We must leave these endless debates and positional statements behind us and focus on the game and the results.

Stay agile my friends,

Bob.

BTW: I do apologize for the “football” metaphor. I realize it isn’t very clear globally, but perhaps useful as well…

And I thought I’d share some additional examples of rules over the primary goal.

• https://collaborativeleadershipteam.com/blog/is-definition-of-ready-part-of-scrum

• https://www.linkedin.com/posts/angelajohnsonscrumtrainer_is-definition-of-ready-part-of-scrum-activity-7008915195414667264-Ypgp

Agile Coaching CoP Partnership Program

AGILE COACHING COMMUNITY OF PRACTICE OR CENTERS OF EXCELLENCE

PARTNERSHIP PROGRAM

Agile Coaching in the world of Business Agility can be a uniquely challenging space. One of those challenge areas is with your Agile Coaching Communities of Practice. A group encompassing your Agile Coach and Scrum Master teams that encourages their ongoing collaboration, learning, and growth. It can be a centerpiece of your overall impact and value proposition or another boring group meeting.

Bob Galen is the author of Extraordinarily Badass Agile Coaching. He’s an accomplished coach with a long history of coaching from the team to the boardroom. His personal goal is to disrupt, challenge, and raise the professionalism and craft of Agile Coaching everywhere. And there is no better place to do it than within your Communities of Practice!

Bob can help with—

• Setting up and kicking off your CoP.

• Re-energizing your CoP or CoE (LACE) by bringing fresh ideas in.

• Group and 1:1 mentoring, modeling, and coaching.

• Providing masterclass-level training for your CoP team members.

• Visiting periodically to keep the momentum going.

• Assisting you in leveraging the Comparative Agility, Agile Coaching PI in your learning journeys.

• Speaking at and participating in company-wide events.

If you need help with your Agile Coaching group practices, contact Bob to explore how he can help you and your coaches become more Badass in delivering real Value.

How We Built a Global Bad-Ass Coaching Community

My colleague and friend Julee Everett is an incredible agile leader and coach. I met her quite a few years ago, and we’ve continued to stay in touch, influencing one another.

Recently, she wrote an article entitled— How We Built a Global Bad-Ass Coaching Community: 5 C’s to Drive Powerful Coaching Outcomes and Scale a Coach Community on Medium.

I just read it, and I think it’s a great case study into some of the critical steps in setting up an Agile Coaching Community of Practice, not in a theoretical or academic sense, but in a real-world sense.

You’ll notice that Julee references my Extraordinarily Badass Agile Coaching book and related work when you read it. While I appreciate the references, that’s not why I’m bringing it to your attention.

It’s because CoP’s are essential to bringing effective agile coaching in organizational contexts. The coaches are often loosely organized with little to no collaboration or support. Not only does that isolate the coaches, but it decreases their overall effectiveness as a team.

Julee’s hard-earned wisdom and advice show you how powerful a Community of Practice can truly be. And to entice you to read it, here are the 5 C’s—

1. Clarity

2. Cohesiveness

3. Competencies

4. Community

5. Consistency

Wrapping Up

One of the things I’ve been focusing on in my coaching practice is a new service offering in 2024 dedicated to helping organizational Agile Coaching Communities of Practice become more energized, effective, and impactful.

If you’re looking for a CoP organizational impact jolt, consider reaching out to explore what might be possible…

Stay agile, my friends,

Bob.

Three related posts –

• https://rgalen.com/agile-training-news/2021/5/3/community-of-practice

• https://www.agile-moose.com/blog/2021/10/9/community-of-purpose

• https://rgalen.com/agile-training-news/2020/8/18/agile-leadership-community-of-practice-cop

And a reference to our CoP coaching service offering –

https://rgalen.com/agile-training-news/2024/1/18/agile-coaching-cop-partnership-program