Agile Coaches’ Articles and Blogs

WHY TEAMS DON’T CHANGE

Change is a process of transformation. Like a worm turning into a butterfly, it takes a painful process of disintegration while safely tucked away in a cocoon before the beautiful butterfly finally emerges.  Using this metaphor of transformation, many organizations want to be the butterfly, yet few are willing to go through the disintegration process in the cocoon.   A lot of money is spent on certifications, consultants and coaches in an attempt to show the world evidence of being the proverbial butterfly, while neglecting or ignoring the worm inside, hoping they will disappear in time.  But they don’t.  Not without undergoing the transformation.  And that’s exactly the same reasons why teams don’t change.

What Is Value Stream Management? A Primer For Enterprise Leadership

Business stakes are sky high, and executive leadership is looking to software to ensure value is delivered, as well as derived from the development process. They need efficient and reliable ways to do this because software is constantly changing and the process to adopt new IT strategies across the enterprise requires more time and focus. Executives need to champion practices that align development and IT so that innovative ideas can be executed smoothly through software while delivering value. To keep up with software-driven innovation you need fresh approaches to keep teams focused on what delivers or creates the most value. That’s why organizations have worked to optimize software development and IT transformations with practices like agile and DevOps. These new, more iterative approaches have paved the way for greater collaboration and visibility among software teams, and have opened the door for automation, efficiency and more responsiveness to customer needs and business objectives. This is where value stream management (VSM) comes in.

Value Stream Management: Why it Matters for Enterprise IT Now

Value stream management is a systematic approach to measuring and improving flow from idea to outcome, and it’s gaining traction among organizations seeking to secure their ability to sustain market leadership.

Thoughts of the Day for Agile community

Thoughts of the Day for agile community directly from Agile Coaches’  and experts.

There Are Only Perspectives, No Truth.

And Five Different Perspectives That Will Make You Better In Every Conversation Once we realise that our apparent “truth” is only a perspective, it allows us to view the same situation differently to help us make better decisions.

The Essence of Empiricism - that there exists no

The very essence of Empiricism – that there exists no “correct” way of working on a complex situation. No matter how expert we are, no matter how much logic we apply, everything will be just a prediction of how it will all work out. But we can never be certain that everything will actually work out as planned. There is simply no way to pre-determine the relationship between the cause and effect, when there are so many variables are involved. So, instead of basing decisions on predictions and faulty assumptions, we should undertake an experimentational approach, and repeat the cycle.

The dual Operating system for achieving business agility

We all know that we need business agility to thrive in this current state of business and digital age. Business agility is the ability to change and accelerate in this digital age. The dual operating system is one of the key concepts shared by John P. Kotter in his book ‘XLR8’, for the success of achieving business agility.

The Age of Software Needs Value Stream Architects

As companies strive to compete with disruptors such as Amazon, a question that needs to be addressed is who will own and architect the software value streams which accelerate the flow of business value to customers? Tech giants such as Microsoft and Amazon have a clear answer to this question – does your company? While much emphasis has traditionally been applied to the enterprise architecture of systems being designed for business use, the integrated architecture of systems used by IT for software delivery has largely been ignored. This is despite the fact that these IT systems are crucial to how a company delivers value to market through software. As such, outside of tech giants and startups, many organizations do not have a consistent or integrated delivery pipeline which is treated as a true product that can deliver tangible business outcomes.

Team coaching: How to optimise your teams for the new world of work

Team coaching is steadily becoming an established discipline and offers a proven process to improve performance, deliver stronger business outcomes and create the right conditions for leadership teams to release their own and the organisation’s full potential. However, the use of team coaching is still in its infancy when compared to one-to-one executive coaching or other team development options such as team building and away-days.

Scrum bad smells

There are a number of “bad smells” that you might encounter while doing Scrum. These are generally signs that might seem innocent, but suggest something is badly wrong. You need to watch out for these signs.

SAFe’s NPS ® Score as a Scaling Framework Is -56 According to 505 Survey Participants

SAFe ®’s NPS ® Score as a Scaling Framework Is -56 According to 505 Survey Participants SAFe®’s NPS® score based on the 2022 sample equals -56. This is not an academic study that claims to be representative. It was a quick poll to understand how people feel about SAFe® and provide them with a platform to voice their opinion. (Obviously, if you read the comments, this meant venting steam to some participants, which is okay.) So, please don’t misinterpret the findings.

SAFe, get real with Scrum or get out!

SAFe Scrum = Strawman Scrum

What SAFe is doing remarkably well is installing ‘strawman’ versions of Scrum (and XP, and Lean UX, or some wicked hybrid version of the three). SAFe argues it ‘streamlines’ Scrum, but we get a watered-down, disempowered, valueless version of it. Doing so, SAFe now makes room for all the organizational toxicity to be attributable to ‘Scrum’. Alas, we end up with an army of disillusioned Scrum practitioners.

Real-life Agile Stories from the Trenches

Let’s drench ourselves in real-life agile stories !!

This Real-life Agile Stories from the Trenches blog post contains collection of inspiring stories which agile coaches use during their coaching sessions.

Online Coaching Is So Hot It’s Now Disrupting Leadership Development

Online coaching has become a white-hot market and it’s totally disrupting leadership development. Vendors like BetterUp, Torch, CoachHub, Bravely, SoundingBoard, Pluma (owned by Skillsoft), and Ezra have now become some of the fastest-growing vendors in the training (and HR Tech) market. For HR and leadership teams, online coaching is a proven and high-value investment. Bravely wants every employee in the company to have a coach. Torch and SoundingBoard integrate coaching into the company’s leadership development programs. BetterUp offers a personality model as well as coaches dedicated to sales leadership, general management, and wellbeing. And most of the vendors offer assessments, 360s, and other feedback systems.

Objective and Key Results (OKRs) are networks, not hierarchies

Objective and Key Results (OKRs) are networks, not hierarchies – They don’t cascade, they integrate

If you use objective and key results (OKRs) as part of your practice you have probably struggled to make them fit together across the organization. Many groups use a simple hierarchy of OKRs so that they flow down, up, and meet in the middle to match the way that their organizations are set up.

Both our clients and our own teams use OKRs to build a better connection between the strategy of the organization and the work that individuals do in their teams.

Not Excited to Be at Work? Check Your Values.

Procrastination is a form of inner mood repair. If you’re unhappy about your job, one response is to procrastinate. But that makes most of us feel worse in the long run. Fortunately, procrastination isn’t the only solution to mood repair on the job. This exercise uses data to get to the real truth of who you are, and decide what to do about it at your job.

Motivational Debt - it will Fix itself, Right?

What drives you to achieve? Money? Promotion? Skill mastery? Whatever it is that motivates you, that’s okay – be thankful that you are motivated to move forwards. Without motivation in any form, you can personally and professionally stagnate to a point where you become a detractor in a team environment. This blog will explore how to avoid falling into that trap and some of the common dysfunctions it causes.

Liquid Delivery

The term “Liquid“ represent the continuous flow of something. In the context of application delivery it is called “Liquid Delivery“. “Liquid“ is more than just a new approach to application development. It’s the foundation upon which you can build your business for future growth and competitive advantage. In the new order, the ability to roll out business capabilities continuously will be the difference between companies that can evolve and ones that stagnate.

Introduction to Appreciative Inquiry (AI)

“At its heart, AI is about the search for the best in people, their organizations, and the strengths-filled, opportunity-rich world around them. AI is not so much a shift in the methods and models of organizational change, but AI is a fundamental shift in the overall perspective taken throughout the entire change process to ‘see’ the wholeness of the human system and to “inquire” into that system’s strengths, possibilities, and successes. ” – Excerpt from: Stavros, Jacqueline, Godwin, Lindsey, & Cooperrider, David. (2015). Appreciative Inquiry: Organization Development and the Strengths Revolution. In Practicing Organization Development: A guide to leading change and transformation (4th Edition), William Rothwell, Roland Sullivan, and Jacqueline Stavros (Eds). Wiley

How Does Coaching Actually Help Leaders?

Coaching with leaders and within organizations is often cited as a highly valuable tool for developing people and businesses. The Institute of Coaching cites that over 70% of individuals who receive coaching benefited from improved work performance, relationships and more effective communication skills. They also reported that a huge 86% of companies feel that they recouped the investment they made into coaching plus more on top. Studies show that coaching is effective at reducing procrastination and facilitating goal attainment and there is a growing body of empirical research that supports the findings that business coaching really does facilitate goal achievement. In an interesting new case study published in the International Journal of Evidence Based Coaching and Mentoring researcher Sally Bonneywell explores precisely how coaching supports the development of female leaders in particular, within a global organization.

How Coaching Can Transform the Leader-Team Relationship

When coached, leaders are also much more confident in their leadership style. They are conscious of how they lead and what kind of examples they set for their team. They are clearer about their top priorities and are less likely to procrastinate. They learn to assign responsibility to others with clear expectations, and they are quick to own their mistakes, learn from them and apply that learning in the future.

Failureship deliver things instead of value

The failureship deliver things rather than value. The successful delivery of things is normally under the control of the failureship, whereas successful delivery of value is often outside of their control.

Epistles of Agile

Apistles of Agile is a blog post for members of Agile community and knowledge seekers to learn from the view of agile experts, and know about their recommendations and teachings.

Cargo Cult Agile

You sometimes hear about “Cargo Cult Agile”, and you might be wondering what that means. It’s a cute term with an interesting and funny history. But the thing itself is not funny at all. This article will explain what it is, where it comes from, and what to do about it.

Ask These 5 Questions to Decide Your Next Career Move by Rebecca Zucker

How can you ensure that you achieve your definition of career success? The author offers five questions to ask yourself: 1) How fulfilled am I? 2) How am I learning and growing? 3) Am I headed in the right direction? 4) What seeds do I need to plant now? 5) What relationships do I need to build? Stepping back and asking yourself these questions will help you be more intentional in managing your career and will inform your planning and actions for the year ahead.

Appreciative Inquiry

Appreciative Inquiry

Here are five resources and articles that I’ve learned from and found useful recently:

1. Jackie Stavros and Cheri Torres interviewed about their excellent book ‘Conversations Worth Having’ and how to overcome polarisation
2. A guide to crafting appreciative questions
3. And another guide to crafting appreciative questions by Bliss Browne (Word document download)
4. Appreciatively Inquiring in Early Care and Education by Ellen M. Drolette
5. A doctoral thesis by Robert Brooks about using Appreciative Inquiry to improve teacher stress in a secondary school

Agile Commitment - Scrum: pig-chicken-part-2

Commitment in Agile

Agile Commitment - Scrum: pig-chicken-part-1

Commitment in Agile

A Powerful 15-Minute Coaching Session

As a coach, I always fretted about 15-minute laser coaching sessions. Of late, when I am in the zone, I have facilitated powerful 15-minute coaching conversations using some Solution Focused coaching techniques. Here is how one of those coaching sessions went.

4 Ways to Build a Coaching Culture Inside Organizations

A coaching culture improves your organization’s ability to set goals and achieve satisfying results by aiding employees in finding and capitalizing on their natural skills through peer and leadership mentoring… 

4 reasons why every agile coach should have a mentor

Here are four reasons you won’t be able to fulfil as per your potential as an agile coach without a mentor: 1. You won’t see your blind spots 2. You will think you’re more competent than you really are 3. The risk of career limiting mistakes goes up exponentially 4. You won’t be provided opportunities that would otherwise be unavailable

13 Creative Ways To Retain Ambitious Employees When Promotions Are Scarce

Most hardworking professionals strive to be promoted; unfortunately, promotions are not always available. It’s an uncomfortable position for a manager to be in when one of their best employees wants to advance in their career and there’s no desirable lateral or more senior position open at the moment for them to move into. Faced with such issues, many managers have had to figure out ways to retain a valued employee before they look elsewhere for career advancement. Below, 13 members of Forbes Coaches Council discuss some creative ways to offer other types of growth and development opportunities that can keep eager employees happy while they wait for a better role to open up. 1. Create A Made-To-Measure Promotion 2. Listen To How They Want To Be Recognized 3. Assign Work That Utilizes Their Top Strengths 4. Explore More Challenging Tasks For Them 5. Emphatically Appreciate The Value They Bring 6. Recognize Their Value And Learn Their Motivators 7. Be Compassionate And Understanding 8. Engage In Transparent, Creative Conversation 9. Have Them Work With A Mentor 10. Encourage Them To Double Down Where They Are