Personal Thoughts
Robert Galen
We've Moved
We've Moved
Walking Their Talk, Sustainability, Inspiration
Robert Galen
Sustainability

I saw this wonderfully courageous and informative post by Sabine Canditt the other day where she wrote about Sustainable Scrum. 

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/sustainable-scrum-responsible-choice-sabine-canditt-x0gef

After just completing a The Week program facilitated by the amazing Ann-Marie Kong, it touched my heart.

That said, I wanted to highlight one comment reaction/interaction between Sabine and Erich Bühler 

Erich said—

Thank you for bringing this approach into the world! Scrum does provide an iterative approach for teams to create value, but its scope is limited to the product level and struggles with dynamics across the whole organization for several reasons.
Without updating the underlying business and financial model at a strategic level, Scrum alone cannot transform organization-wide sustainability.

Sustainability
Short-takes, Inspiration
Robert Galen
Sandy’s Take
Sandy’s Take
Short-takes, Personal Thoughts
Robert Galen
The Human Aspects of Agile Coaching
The Human Aspects of Agile Coaching
Coaching, ACGW, Personal Thoughts
Robert Galen
Keys to Building your Coaching Relationships

I talk a lot about the first step in coaching any client (individual, system, team, etc.) is to build a relationship, gain empathy and understanding, and then gain an idea of where/how to help initially. So, do NOT start to coach until you’ve done some relationship-building. 

But what does a coaching relationship, or a professional relationship in general, look like? What are aspects of that? Here are a few things that come to my mind—

  • Making + taking the time.

  • Explaining what you do—what is Agile Coaching.

  • Building some empathy; walking in their shoes; understanding where they are coming from.

  • Meeting them where they are.

  • Listening; reflective listening; building metaphors together.

  • Connecting with their language, not yours.

Keys to Building your Coaching Relationships

Culture-Shaping

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Adding AI (Appreciative Inquiry) to your Agile Coaching Mindset

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Adding AI (Appreciative Inquiry) to your Agile Coaching Mindset

And, NO, not that AI. 

I became aware of Appreciative Inquiry perhaps two decades ago. I read a book on the subject and it literally changed the way I was leading folks in my organization. Influencing me to shift my leadership mindset and thinking from—

  • Deficit versus Asset thinking

  • Strengths versus Weakness thinking

  • Positive versus Negative thinking

  • Affirmative versus Denial thinking

  • Learning Organization versus Status Quo

It also inspired me to become more aware (and appreciative) of—

  • Becoming much more strengths-based in my self-awareness and leadership approaches.

  • Amplifying strengths when coaching individuals.

  • Using more appreciative and positive language when providing feedback.

  • Including the teams in co-creating and crafting a shared vision.

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The Lost Art of Asking for Help

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The Lost Art of Asking for Help

I was attending a webinar the other day. As the speaker shared their ideas though, my mind began to wander…

For some reason, I began to think about the overall reluctance of folks to ask for help. As I reflected on it across my 30+ years of experience, it’s something that I’ve continuously observed. It seemed like individuals, teams, leaders, agile coaches, and nearly everyone (me included) has an aversion to asking for help.

And while there are clearly reasons for not asking for it, I wondered about any positive outcomes of asking for help.

  • First, and importantly, it helps you.

  • It also humanizes you.

  • It allows others to, as they help you, to grow themselves.

  • It creates a culture where others can ask for help based on your example.

  • It can increase psychological safety.

  • It avoids us pretending that we know everything or doing things we aren’t skilled to be doing.

  • It’s simply a more honest and open way to operate.

As I began to think about it more deeply, I came to the conclusion that the simple act of—

Saying—I don’t know.

Asking—Can you help me or I need your help.

It can change the entire cultural landscape of your team or organization. I think it’s that BIG of an idea.

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My Journey into Change Artistry

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My Journey into Change Artistry

I came upon this LinkedIn post by Angela Belle Agresto— 

One of the biggest potential pitfalls to implementing successful Agile methodology? Resistance to change.

This can stem from various factors, including fear of the unknown, lack of understanding of Agile methodologies, or attachment to traditional ways of working.

Resistance to change can slow down the transformation process and hinder the adoption of Agile principles across the organization.

Want to overcome this obstacle?
💼 Involve all stakeholders from the beginning;
💬 Communicate the benefits of Agile methodologies; and 
🙌 Provide adequate training and support to help employees adapt to a new way of working.

For more like this, be sure and check out the latest from the blog: Agile Transformation Best Practices – Expert Tips for a Successful Implementation

I used to view the world of change much as Angela does. That is, I need to go through a “process” with you to change you from point A to point B in your operational thinking and ways of working.

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An Agile Seat at the Table

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An Agile Seat at the Table

There are two aspects I’m noodling on in this article—

  1. Having a Seat at the Table, versus…

  2. Having a real Seat at the Table.

Then,

  1. Being empowered and supported to effect change, versus…

  2. Having real empowerment and support to effect change.

In an agile transformation to an agile mindset and agile ways of working. You might be asking—what’s the difference? Well, I’ll share some stories to explain, but before that, I should explain the role context here? Who am I referring to? Well, it could be anyone tasked with guiding an organizational agile transformation. For example:

  • An Agile change agent;

  • A Director of Agile Transformation;

  • An Enterprise-level Agile Coach;

  • An Agile PMO Director or Leader;

  • Or the Agile Steering Group.

Should be considering the following recommendations.

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Coaching the Brine

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Coaching the Brine

In Prescott’s Pickle Principle, Gerald Weinberg shares the metaphor of cucumbers (people) and the impact that brine (company cultures, systems) can have on them (pickling). The notion is that if you are a change agent you need to be aware of the fact that you (the person, the cucumber) may be pickled by the brine (the culture) before you can effect change on the culture. That you can become “part of the problem”, if you will.

And there’s a bit of subtlety to it in that many of us are unaware (lack the self-awareness) that we’ve been pickled.

I was reminded of the principle just the other day when I read this LinkedIn post by Magnus Hedemark.

Lately, I’ve been thinking of a corollary to the principle.

Sure, as an agile coach, particularly an embedded or internal coach, I can easily become pickled. But what if I actively coach the brine instead of the cucumbers? What if I intentionally spend the majority of my time at the brine level?

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An Oasis in the Wilderness - Gustavo Razzetti

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An Oasis in the Wilderness - Gustavo Razzetti

There are only a handful of folks in the agile community that I regularly listen to. If I see something, an article, post, or video from them, I immediately take note and read it. Nine times out of ten, it’s something that motivates, teaches, and inspires me to become better. A sampling of those people that come to mind include:

Lyssa Adkins, John Cutler, Judy Rees, Dan Mezick, Roman Pichler, Dave Snowden, Linda Rising, Jurgen Appello, Joshua Kerievsky, and Mike Burrows.

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Agile Coaching Theatre

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Agile Coaching Theatre

In this article, Tanya Snook talks about the notion of UX Theatre. Essentially, if I read it right, this is when an organization is going through the motions of UX research, study, analysis, etc. but with no real goal to change.

Here’s a quote from the article as several snippets—

There is a strange phenomenon in the world of user experience design.

It happens when designers are asked to pretend to do the work of design and aren’t actually permitted to do the work of design. It happens when we are asked to conduct research that never gets used. When we deliver findings that get shelved because they don’t align with executive or shareholder expectations. When we’re asked to facilitate workshops in which staff pretend to be users because it’s cheaper and faster than doing research with actual users. Or when we only get to review the design when the product is about to hit the street, and it’s much too late for any actual design improvements.

This frustrating reality is an open secret within the user experience industry and one we have long accepted as a normal consequence of working in a field that balances creativity and research.

We call this UX Theatre.

…

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Storytelling lessons I've learned on my journey...

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Storytelling lessons I've learned on my journey...

I’m of the mind that Storytelling is THE communication imperative for today’s most effective leaders. But the question is always—

  • What does Storytelling “look like?”

  • How do I start the Storytelling path?

  • And, how do I become a great Storyteller?

And, while I don’t profess to be a “professional” Storyteller, I have become a solid Storyteller over the years, so this article is intended to share some of my learnings.

Storytelling Considerations

Stories are found, not made

You have to first become an active observer of your surroundings. You have to pay attention and, dare I say it, write things down. This is why I’m such an avid proponent of journaling. And by journaling, I mean old-fashioned paper and pen journaling. Jerry Weinberg wrote a book called Weinberg on Writing, where he shared his fieldstones technique for gathering story nuggets (fieldstones) that you later piece together into effective stories. The wonderful thing about this idea is you can “reuse” your stones.

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A Leader's Guide to Culture-Shaping: Showing Up

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A Leader's Guide to Culture-Shaping: Showing Up

I was teaching a CAL class last week in Nashville. During the class, I was sharing how important it is for leaders to “bring it” to work each and every day. I was referring to things like:

  • Attitude

  • Energy

  • Passion

  • Focus

  • and Engagement

Someone challenged me about the notion. They said that they weren’t always upbeat every day. And that sometimes they simply had a bad day.

They also said that their personality wasn’t upbeat naturally, so it was hard for them to be a Happy Harry or a Positive Polly all of the time. I explained that I wasn’t referring to anything as extreme as that. But I did think that people were paying attention (close attention) to their leaders, their behaviors, and their attitudes.

That not “bringing it” for too many days in a row was the sign of a problem of some sort…

But it’s not just about energy and attitude. As I think about it, there are really six areas I want to explore where Culture-Shaping focused leaders make a difference in the culture by how they are Showing Up each and every day.

That’s where we’re going next.

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A Leader's Guide to Culture-Shaping: Minding the Gap

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A Leader's Guide to Culture-Shaping: Minding the Gap

I really like the work Frederic Laloux has contributed around organizational cultures. It provides a series of phases (colors) that reflect the cultural evolutionary paths of corporations (organizations).

Unfortunately, there are a couple of negative things that have evolved around it.

One is the relentless pursuit of “Teal” as a goal in the agile transformation community. I liken it to the enthusiasm around DevOps, Spotify, or SAFe in the pursuit of silver bullet solutions or bandwagons.

Another is the realization that Teal isn’t really a good goal, not is it that well-understood or well-references of a model. As alluded to in this article by Corporate-Rebels.

But the reason I wanted to explore it now is to illustrate a cultural phenomenon I’ve often seen in agile transformational contexts. And the Laloux model works nicely as a communications mechanism to explain cultural divisions, which is where we’re going next.

Minding the Gap

One of the things that I think is most useful about the model is how it can represent various stages in an organization. Let me share a story to make that point.