CoP and the LACE

SAFe LACE Alert

In my last post, I shared some ideas around the value of a Community of Practice and how to re-energize it if it’s lost a bit of momentum. Please read that one if you haven’t before reading on here.

Now I want to contrast things a bit between CoP’s and CoE’s. Specifically of the LACE kind… 

Contrasting between a CoP and a Center of Excellence?

There’s another notion you’ll often hear when discussing this area. It’s a Center of Excellence or CoE. My bias is going to shine through a bit here, but please bear with me.

A CoE is a more formal, top-down mechanism whose primary goal is the consistency of practice. That is, it’s focused on regulation and governance. Often metrics and agile performance metrics are tied to it as well. A good example of this idea is the Scaled Agile Framework’s – Lean-Agile Center of Excellence or LACE[1]. And you can also see the idea often marketed or aligned with the Agile PMO or PMI’s Disciplined Agile[2].

I’ve already alluded to the two problems I have with generic CoE’s. First is the prescriptive top-down nature—where the organization tries to mandate practices. I think that’s a non-starter in agile contexts and particularly not aligned with the agile mindset. So, implementing a CoE can actually do harm to your culture you’re trying to instill or support.

The second is that it disengages from the people doing the work. Which are the very people who are part of the “community” you’re trying to create. Typically, the teams and individuals only engage with the CoE because they’re told to. Not because they’re inspired to or are invited to participate.

In my opinion, you don’t create an agile culture by top-down mandate. It’s just doesn’t work. Instead, the organic nature of building a community of practitioners aligns so much better with our agile mindsets.

And the third challenge with creating a balanced and effective CoE relates to the agile maturity of the leadership team. If they’ve not evolved to an agile mindset, across leadership, then the CoE often becomes a mechanism for reinforcing controls and measurement.

All of these lead to problems if your goal is to truly develop and mature as an agile organization. So, approach LACE and all Centers of Excellence with caution and care.

 Stay agile my friends,

Bob.

[1] https://www.scaledagileframework.com/lace/

[2] https://www.pmi.org/disciplined-agile/people/centers-of-excellence

The Lost Art of Face-to-Face Communication

I was chatting with a friend the other day about his frustrations in having a solid conversation with one of his colleagues. 

It seemed he has very specific ideas around making a product decision. One that would disrupt the status quo a bit, but in his mind, was the absolute right decision. He had sent several emails to the decision-maker and they’d just kept putting them/him off.

I’d asked if he’d called them and he looked at me as if I was crazy. He was like…

• They don’t often answer their phone as they’re busy, so that doesn’t work;

• They don’t like to talk face-to-face and, frankly, neither do I;

• Why can’t they just make a decision in my favor and respond in email? Oh, and taking appropriate action?

We left it that he should call them or, better yet, Zoom them with both cameras on. I felt that he was missing an important aspect of human connection. In fact, he wasn’t “connecting”. He was lobbing ideas out into email without any emotional or physical connection.

I’d like to share a communication list with you. On the top, are more effective ways to communicate. And, as you go down the scale, your communication increasingly loses its effectiveness and connection—

PLUS - Rich Conversation / Connection

• Face-to-face, in-person (outside office)

• Face-to-face, in-person (in office)

• Face-to-face, virtually with both cameras ON

 NEUTRAL - Ok Conversation / Connection

• Virtually, cameras off

• Phone call

• Slack threads

• Email

MINUS - Terrible Conversation / Connection 

• Texts, other forms of chat

• Slack

• Legal correspondence

• Telegraph/Morse Code, Smoke signals, Pony express

Wrapping Up

I’d like to encourage all of us, particularly in these challenging Covid-19 times, to not lose the art of face-to-face communication. That is, talking to each other.

I mean…really talking!

Let the passion, body language, expressiveness, and emotion shine through. Ask questions in real-time. And actively listen to the other person. I mean…really, deeply listen!

See what happens. You might just regain the lost art of face-to-face communication that Dinosaurs like me have historically found to be quite valuable.

Now if I could just find a payphone…

Stay agile my friends,

Bob.

On Feedback

I came upon this short video by Erin Perry the other day that made me think a bit about how I’ve been giving feedback.  

To be honest, I think I have some more growing to do. She categorized feedback into two types—

How to do what you do better feedback

• Seeing you

• Seeing your energy

• Yes, and

• You’re not broken

• Empowering

• Inclusive

Versus…

That’s not how I would do it feedback

• Undermining their voice

• You are wrong

• You don’t belong

• Incites a defensive response

• Exclusive

• Disempowering

You might want to watch it and consider fine-tuning your own feedback giving habits.

Thank you, Erin!

Stay agile my friends,

Bob.

Another Perspective on the Agile Coaching Competency Framework

I’ve been noodling of late around the aspects of agile coaching and posting various views to effective models. 

A few years ago, I posted the following on the Agile Coaching Competency Framework. While I found great value and insight into the framework, I found some “gaps” either intentional or perceived that I wanted everyone to consider.

About a year ago, a young man named Jonathan Kessel-Fell sent me a note regarding some of his own thoughts around extending the framework.

In a word, I LOVE his expansion of Agile & Lean. I think he added some meaningful nuance to the model. I’m particularly enamored with the Mindset & Behaviors addition.

I encourage you to take a look and review all of my writings around coaching stances. I think you’ll find that, while I don’t believe there is a single source of truth, that they’re taking us in a valuable direction of more fully developing our agile coaching chops. 

Stay agile my friends,

Bob.

Focusing on Outcomes

Metrics, metrics, metrics seem to be all the rage nowadays in the agile community. Everyone seems to want to measure everything.

There are quadrant models, the single metric that matters approach, and spider charts virtually up the wazoo that help measure all aspects of an agile transformation.

Instead of my adding to the pile of advice, I thought I’d share some articles that focus on (what I believe) are the most important aspects to measure.

That is measuring (focusing on) Outcomes that have Impacts!

Outcome-focused articles

This is a shortlist of articles sharing thoughts on the value of being outcome-focused.

1. Great article on outcomes by Teresa Torres

   1. https://www.producttalk.org/2019/10/managing-outcomes/

2. And another by John Cutler

   1. https://amplitude.com/blog/why-outcomes-over-outputs

3. And another on Hacker Noon

   1. https://hackernoon.com/beyond-outcomes-over-outputs-6b2677044214

4. Something from CA Technologies (Rally) published via HBR

   1. https://hbr.org/sponsored/2018/06/the-key-to-agile-success-focus-on-outcomes-not-metrics

5. Josh Seiden does a nice job in this 18-minute podcast. He’s the author of Outcomes over Output.

   1. https://www.thisisproductmanagement.com/episodes/outcomes-over-output/

6. Jeff Gothelf shares ideas on how to measure the effectiveness of your Outcomes focus.

   1. https://jeffgothelf.com/blog/if-were-managing-to-outcomes-how-do-we-know-were-doing-a-good-job/

7. Finally, I’ve already done a SHORT article on outcomes here

   1. http://rgalen.com/agile-training-news/2018/2/12/done-outcomes

Wrapping Up

I think one of the key trends, and you see it emphasized in the CA article, is to not even bother with “metrics”. Instead, focus all of your (our) attention on outcomes.

They mention—

1. Are my customers happy?

2. Am I building the right thing?

3. Are my teams engaged, and do they understand our business?

As key outcomes to pay attention to. Simple, right?

Stay agile my friends,

Bob.