The TRUTH Gap

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The TRUTH Gap

We were discussing the notion of having hard, dare I say it, crucial conversations the other day in our Moose Herd session. Conversations that are challenging. Conversations where you speak truth to power. Conversations that are risky and require courage and fortitude.

One of the things I brought up was the notion of preparing for one of these. And the idea of establishing your 100% truth prior to the meeting. Sitting down, putting everything aside, and establishing what would be the 100% discussion if you were talking to your best friend, close confidant, or trusted advisor? Without any filtering, obfuscation, or any risk of ramifications.

What would that conversation look like? That then becomes the baseline for your conversation. The preferred target if you will.

Now perhaps, you can’t have that level of clarity and honesty. So, start walking back from that baseline.

Establishing what you are comfortable saying. Considering things like—

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Agile One-on-Ones

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Agile One-on-Ones

For years I’ve been asking and coaching Scrum Masters to partner with the managers/leaders of their team members. To sit down with them periodically, weekly perhaps, and over coffee, to discuss their teams. For example—

  • Sharing stories of success for their reports

  • Sharing the challenges (delivery, mindset, performance, etc.)

  • Sharing the team’s vision, goals, impediments, etc.

  • Discussing alignment with organizational goals

  • Asking for help or looking for guidance

All with an eye towards giving each manager a window into the dynamics of the team and how their direct reports are “doing”.

But this isn’t a performance report or a status report. It’s a partnership, as the manager and Scrum Master are in a unique collaborative relationship to build the overall maturity and performance of the overall team AND each individual.

And the discussions should be focused on continuous improvement and actions the manager can take to coach each individual. Which is, in fact, their job.

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Cobbled Together Scrum Teams

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Cobbled Together Scrum Teams

I’ve seen cobbled together Scrum teams for years, but I realized just the other day that I’ve never written about them. So, now I will…

What are they?

They are an anti-pattern and are a team in-name-only. That is, there is no collaboration because everyone works on a unique product, application, service, or platform.

I often see this anti-pattern in Ops organizations where the coverall company is adopting Scrum. The leadership team feels compelled to form teams everywhere—out of individuals with very different skill-sets, roles, and application-level responsibilities.

For example, if it’s an IT administration and support group, probably every member of the group has 1-10 applications or platforms that they are individually supporting. With little to no overlap in skills or area ownership across team members.

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The Hammer and the Pickle

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The Hammer and the Pickle

I’m not sure everyone is aware of some of the greats who have come before us but there have been many in our software development space. One of them is Gerald Weinberg.

When I think of Jerry, I think of the phrase—standing on the shoulders of giants. His writing has had a profound impact on me and many others in our software and agile communities. If you haven’t heard of him, I’d encourage you to become more familiar with his timeless advice and wisdom. I believe I’ve heard him say he’d written ~100 books, so there’s a lot of wisdom available. Sadly, Jerry passed away in 2018.

https://geraldmweinberg.com/

https://www.infoq.com/news/2018/08/jerry-weinberg-passed-away/

A bit of Weinberg

I want to amplify two of Jerry’s Secrets of Consulting principles in this post:

First, there is—

The Law of the Hammer: “the child who receives a hammer for Christmas will discover that everything needs pounding.”

And second, there is—

Prescott’s Pickle Principle: “Cucumbers get more pickled than brine gets cucumbered.”

I want to bring both of these principles into the world of Agile Coaching. I know, I know what could hammers and pickles have to do with coaching? Well, let’s see…

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CAL class Focused on EXPERIENCE

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CAL class Focused on EXPERIENCE

I’ve been teaching a Scrum Alliance, Certified Agile Leadership (CAL-I) class since 2017. In that time, I’ve evolved quite a bit in my goals, intentions, and approaches within the class.

Initially, it was all in-person and largely a training event. Sure, I tried to share my experiences and the feedback was great. But I don’t believe folks left with much more than knowledge. And often I’m guessing, 6-months later, much of that knowledge had faded into the chaos of real-world agile execution.

Over time I’ve transitioned from wanting the class to be a learning event to more of a holistic experience. An immersed learning experience that I hoped would have—

  • More lasting impact on attendees;

  • Not easily be forgotten;

  • Causing ongoing reflection, experimentation, and discovery;

  • Improved ideas for new ways of leading.

Then, when Covid-19 hit and I pivoted the class to virtual delivery, I was even more intent on creating an experience for attendees. As much to retain their level of engagement as for the learning and retention.

So, what have I learned or focused on?

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GCF – Pick Two?

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GCF – Pick Two?

I’d like to disagree with this premise. That is—picking two characteristics of a service and then compromising on the third. I think you have to lead with something and not two-things.

For my coaching practice, I always try to lead with GOOD. That implies I lead with—

  • Experience

  • Skills

  • Principles

  • Ethics

  • Client-centered…

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I'm back...

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I'm back...

In 2016 I joined Zenergy Technologies as their Director, Agile Practices. I worked with a wonderful group of colleagues while there and served a variety of fantastic clients. In 2019 I decided to join my friend and colleague, Mary Thorn, at Vaco Agile to see what we could do there in building out an agile practice. I was torn about leaving Zenergy, but I felt a pull to do something new with Mary.

Long story short, I had about an 18-month run at Vaco and have some wonderful experiences. But then Covid-19 happened. And I’ve decided to…

Come BACK

and rejoin my friends and colleagues at Zenergy Technologies to again pursue the dream of creating the best, most kick-ass agile practice on the planet. Yes, I said it and I mean it.

Our Team & Capabilities

One of the cool things about Zenergy is the depth and breadth of our team—

  • Shaun Bradshaw - is the VP of Agile and Testing Practices with ~20 years of experience.

  • David Dang - is the VP of DevOps & Test Automation with ~20 years of experience

  • Bryson Osborne - has DevOps completely covered with ~8 years of experience

  • John Cavalieri - Agile coach and Scrum Master extraordinaire with ~8 years of experience

  • And me - I’m covering the deep & broad agile space for the practice with ~25 years of experience.

Between us, we literally have ~80 years of experience in software development, testing, automation, DevOps, and incredible Agile chops. And when you’re trying to transform the way your business does business—experience counts!

It’s one of the reasons I’m rejoining the team. First, to be part of such a strongly skilled and experienced team of coaches and consultants. But secondly, to bring this expertise to my RGCG clients in my own engagements. What a win-win!

Wrapping Up

I can’t tell you how excited I am to be back.

And in the interim, Zenergy has broadened its expertise and service offerings to be able to serve our clients across the entire spectrum of Business Agility and Agile Transformation. Literally, there is nothing we can’t help you with on your journey to improved results.

Stay agile my friends,

Bob.

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A Coaching Alignment Story

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A Coaching Alignment Story

I’ve known Mary Thorn for around 10-years. We’ve grown up together coaching and teaching agile to a wide variety of organizations and teams. Mary calls me her mentor, so I guess I am. But I’ve probably learned more from Mary than she’s ever learned from me.

We’re friends, colleagues, and incredibly like-minded when it comes to agile strategies, tactics, tools, and techniques. So, on the surface, you would think we’d be in permanent, lock-step alignment.

Sure, we have our disagreements. For example, one of the big ones relates to SAFe—

  • I’m a recovering SPC and Mary is a hardened SPC.

  • She loves the framework and I tolerate it.

  • She leverages it in her coaching and company contexts, and I normally don’t.

  • In a word, Mary is SAFe, and I’m not that SAFe.

But they are quite few and far between. And, we often have a bit of fun with our differences. So, we’re aligned, right? Well, we are and we’re aren’t.

Let me share a quick story…

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Motivating Agile Teams

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Motivating Agile Teams

Someone approached me the other day for some coaching advice. It seems that they’re in a Coach / Scrum Master role and have a team that, well, isn’t doing very well.

They’re pushing back on the use of agile approaches—seeming to be going through the motions of Scrum. They’re not delivering much in the way of value. And, to use his words, they’re simply not motivated. Which was his question—

How do I motivate this team?

Certainly, this isn’t the first time I’ve heard this question and it certainly won’t be the last. My first thought though was—you don’t motivate a team; they have to motivate themselves. But, as I answered the question, I thought of the following as a Motivation Continuum for today’s teams—

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The Lost Art of Face-to-Face Communication

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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.

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