Badass Agile

There’s so much focus on frameworks and subtlety of practice Frameworks - definitions of roles, processes, interactions, flows, inputs and outputs Subtleties - prescriptive techniques and tools Frameworks Don’t fix Fear.  They attempt to compensate for it, and fail Frameworks are expensive.   So are elite teams.  We shouldn’t try to build them across an entire enterprise and Subtlety and Complexit...

Magic matters.  I was having a conversation today and I realized some of the most impactful things that I do with my team have nothing to do with coaching Agile.  It’s not teaching them Scrum techniques, which they could easily learn on their own.  Of course this is an important part of what I do, but none of that stuff builds better teams.  At all. There are parts of my job that come down to vood...

Failure is initially perceived as a bad word - especially for new agile teams, and especially in ‘vintage’ cultures.  Fear of failure is well over half of the cause of the Resistance.  Avoiding failure will cost your teams and business - because you will spend all of your precious time and money planning for perfection to avoid it.  The secret is to flip your thinking on failure immediately, and t...

In environments where we can’t control how the team is composed, how can we control the team’s attitude, commitment and performance?   The culture you create has a lot to do with it. We think incorrectly about teams.  The way the team functions is perhaps more important than any other component of agile.  If the team is not bonded, aligned and committed, they’re not going to accept agile principle...

A high-performing team doesn’t just evolve naturally.  What are some of the things you can do that will help kick-start team synergy, trust, and communication, even on day 1? There’s a hack I use that is a hybrid of techniques for building trust, likability, understanding and acceptance Take them to a bar Ask 2 simple questions: Why do you get up every morning and come to do this job? What is some...

What could I do to set me apart from every other Scrum Master, Coach, or Leader? It’s fine to rest on the shoulders of giants and imitate their mindsets and habits, but you can’t imitate their innovations.  You have to make your own Our practice only advances when new thoughts and voices come to the fore. Don’t waste a moment of your practical field experience - turn these into opinions which you...

Of all the Agile Keys we’ve discussed - ‘Team’ is the most mysterious, and yet the most powerful.  How do you build great teams, and what qualities does a great team have? Done right, a team is not a collection of people stuffed together by competency or role...A great team is a tribe. Done right, a team is a force multiplier that is highly efficient and competitive. Tribes have very strong trust,...

In product delivery, there are so many variables and so much unpredictability.  What’s the best way to manage all the unknowns? “There’s an app for that”.   Begin with a standard role definition and simple agreement about how we manage scope.  Use the car-owner mechanic or home-owner/contractor analogy to drive the point home The technique is based around ‘communicate, estimate, agree, execute” to...

How the heck did I go from World of Warcraft to Technology Director, or Agile Coach?  How can someone like me lead? You already have everything you need.  The archetypal leader is not what we aspire to.   We now value people who are pushing the edge of innovation, and that means a lot of scientific, technical people are making their way into leadership. The world needs more people of vision and pa...

Why is there a dividing line between the Product Owner Role, and the Rest of the Solution Team?  How do we run our interactions to honour that? The division is meant to enforce the freedom of teams to solve problems the best way they collectively know how This doesn’t mean the owner can’t have input, but the best way to communicate those inputs is as needs - requirements, stories, Definitions of D...

A badass doesn’t respect positional authority.  How do you pull that off? True authority is earned, and is service-based.  A positional leader is one who has the title, but neither leads nor serves Disrespecting authority is not ‘the way’ - rather, do not blindly follow those with a title Beware the motives of those who crave power for its own sake Instead, lead respectfully from where you are.  L...

Do You Ever get knocked down?  What do you do when you feel like you’re not winning?  When you want to quit? Success Is Not The Absence of Failure The Goal is not to avoid getting hit…the goal is to avoid getting hit twice the same way Sometimes the failure feels devastating.  Like you’re losing ground.  You needed this setback to show you where the gaps are…so you can handle your business. Change...

What is the most ominous, highest priority barrier to Agile adoption that we should prepare for? The Resistance.  From Teams and From Management To Overcome the Resistance, you have to activate your service-based mindset, your vision…get your head right first, and then start changing minds by showing them.  Remember, if you build a spectacular fire, people looking to get warm will come to it.

How Long Before Agile Starts Paying Dividends? Agile is about change.  Mindsets take time to change, and right action takes time to become habit Like anything else in Agile, work with the highest-priority fundamentals first, then continue to perfect and expand with time Like anything else in Agile, demo (show), and measure.

What makes a remarkable leader? A common person with uncommon resolve and steadiness when the safety and certainty everyone depends on suddenly changes The secret to this skill is the reprioritization habit - focusing on responding to change rather than bemoaning or resisting it.

What mindset/habit pair moves you toward goals the fastest? The ability to be an adaptive planner begins with sharp focus on the things that matter most What you value determines your priorities, and figuring out the biggest, closest things that get you closer to your goals is the calling card of visionary teams and leaders

Why is failure such a dirty word?  What effect does this have on teams, and how can you change it? Fear of Failure is the antithesis to experimentation and innovation It is impossible to learn and grow without failure.  Big Failure.  Early and often. Fear of failure is cultural, and change starts at the leadership level. Reason and logic can’t change a culture of fear.  You’re going to have to sho...

How do great leaders inspire others to work WITH them - how do they change minds and build support?  How do truly powerful people seem to get whatever they want in life? The first principle is that your reasons have to be right.   You can’t want influence so you can have power or sway over people.  Your ‘argument’ - the thing you are trying to convince people of, whether its selling Agile to a mon...

What’s the best way to plan projects to ensure success? You don’t really ‘plan for success’ at all, in the sense that you don’t plan for certainty or safety. As an Agile Leader, Adaptive Planning is your greatest asset.  Minimize planning so that you can start, and adjust your plan as the environment changes.

What is the easiest way to make Continuous Improvement work for me? Ask yourself and your team one simple question - what can I cut? The biggest mindset shift we have to make is that of letting go of the old way.  Constantly seek things we can discard that are weighing us down

We have started our Agile Journey, but I don’t see much improvement.  How do we get better faster? Mastery is lifelong.  And the first few steps are usually the most painful.  Remind teams and stakeholders alike that the first few sprints are mayhem.  This is true of individual development as well.  The initial stages are tumultuous, frustrating, as if they were designed to shake off those who are...

What Is the ‘Secret Sauce’ of Every High Performing Team? They create a culture of extraordinary - uncommon people who are unusually committed to uncommon results Build a team that others envy

I can see the imbalance and injustice everywhere. What is the badass meant to do about it? * As a leader with a clear service-oriented vision, only you can decide what causes you serve * But once you've decided, you need to act with courage if you expect to build and maintain trust, and truly lead.

What is the single biggest change you can make today to shift your clunky, bureaucratic teams into high gear? * Stop Planning for Perfection * Focus on Go

What do legendary leaders have that the rest of us don’t? * Superhuman Accountability - the refusal to blame others, but rather the acceptance that all of our outcomes are within our ability to change * This is what allows people to achieve the impossible….they own their outcomes and know the only thing that influences their destiny is THEM