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

Speaking

,

Moose on the Loose in 2023

,

It can be said that this Moose has ups and downs between getting out of the forest and meeting other Mooses (and other forest denizens) and staying at home in my Moose Den.

If you want to meet me virtually or in person, this is my 2023 journey map.

As my speaking calendar emerges, I’ll keep it updated throughout 2023, so check back often…

Early 2023 Meetup Presentations

Emerging 2023 Conference Plans

Out and About

And, if you ever are in my hometown area of Raleigh / Durham, North Carolina (Cary specifically), then I’d love to meet with you for coffee.

Two of my favorite haunts are—

  • Esteamed - a wonderful coffee shop in downtown Cary with a beautiful purpose.

  • Crema - a relaxed coffee vibe right around the corner from my home.

And no fru-fru coffee for this Moose. Just dark roasted, hot, and black.

, ,

My Public Speaking Pivot…Next up?

, ,
My Public Speaking Pivot…Next up?

I just realized the other day that I’ve made a public speaking pivot without really explaining it clearly nor exploring the why behind it. So, here it is.

Background

I’ve been presenting around software development, quality, agile, and leadership topics for over 20-years. Across a wide variety of formats including panel discussions, talks, workshops, and keynotes.

I’ve had the chance to share in Asia, North America, South America, Europe, and Africa.

In the early days, I submitted to the Call for Papers/Submissions and waited patiently to hear feedback. But over time and with experience, I more often was invited to share.

All of these speaking opportunities were in-person. And then, Covid-19 emerged and things have changed. As have I over time.

, ,

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

, ,
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.

Conference Submissions: Lessons I’ve learned the hard way…

Conference Submissions: Lessons I’ve learned the hard way…

Lately, I’ve been asked by quite a few people to help them craft a proposal or abstract submission for an agile conference.

I’m lucky in that I’ve been doing this for a while, probably twenty or more years. So, I have a fair amount of experience and success. I’ve also been a program chair in local and national conferences, so I understand what folks are generally looking for in the submission process.

Given that I’ve been repeating myself a lot, I’ve decided to share some lessons in this post so that I can simply reference it when asked. I’m not sharing all of my secrets, but enough to get you going in the right direction.

Kudos to Lee Copeland

But first, I want to say thank you to Lee Copeland. Lee was the program chair for the SQE / TechWell series of conferences (StarEast & West; Better Software, AgileDev, and others) that have been running since the 1990s.

Early on, I was a fledgling speaker and Lee took the time to help me craft my submissions, talks, and speaking abilities. More than that, he showed me patience and had confidence in me. For that, I will be forever grateful and I’m hopeful that he is proud of my journey.

Don’t go out without an Umbrella!

Don’t go out without an Umbrella!

I recently (January 2019) saw a tweet by someone who speaks regularly in the software / agile testing community. It was short and direct. But it had a broader impact on me beyond the words. Here’s the tweet:  

I’m a practitioner. Most of my days I’m not traveling/speaking but delivering software to partners and users and making that a better experience for us all. You don’t have to do what I do. You don’t have to tell me you disagree. Some use too much effort to correct my reality.

That complained about folks trying to correct “their reality” that they present publicly.

And I’d agree with them if they were a 100% practitioner working on private projects in private companies. That is, not in the public forum.

However, they clearly have chosen to “go public” with their ideas. In recent years, they have become an accomplished public speaker, idea presenter, and role model for many, many testers. And not solely limited to testers, but beyond to software development teams.

And with this sort of role, comes great responsibility…or at least I think it does.