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

Art of Invitation

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Stop Training “Agile”

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Stop Training “Agile”

and by “Agile” I mean (Scrum, Kanban, SAFe, etc.)

This post was inspired by another from Al Shalloway that I recently came across. In that article, I read the following—

First, should any certified Scrum trainer train a team in Scrum when they've been told by management to do Scrum? Technically, it's not Scrum since the team is being told what to do - violating Scrum's suggestion that teams should self-manage.

And it struck me how powerful the point was. Particularly since I believe the majority of agile classes, independent of the focus or certification source, are prescribed for the learners. They’re being told to attend, coerced, or forced to attend as part of some overall agile initiative.

This is a tactical focus and a huge mistake. You can’t become agile or get to an agile mindset by sitting through a class…any class! It just doesn’t work that way.

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Lost Art of INVITING Speakers

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You’ve all seen them. A conference puts out a generic Call for Speakers or Call for Papers with a link to a website. Then perhaps sends a few email reminders and posts about the upcoming deadline. The expectation is that everyone—

  • Is aware of the website;

  • Has a clear idea to share;

  • ·Understands how to write a clear and compelling submission;

  • Has the incentive, courage, and time to do it;

  • And has the patience to wait for (most of the time) a polite decline letter that provides no

Then the deadline expires, the database is analyzed, and a program emerges.  

But often these same conference committees complain about the lack of diversity in their speakers. Or complain about the “same old voices” submitting. Or just complain.

Another Time

I remember a time, in 2010, when John Fodeh was the program chair of the EuroSTAR Conference. That year it was being held in Copenhagen, Denmark. If you’re not aware of it, EuroSTAR is a software testing centric conference. At the time, I was lightly aware of it, but I would not have thought of submitting a talk.

John reached out and invited me to do a keynote. Something that I had not done before. And he invited me to deliver a few half-day workshops as well.

He connected to me via my Software Endgames book that I’d published in 2004. While I was speaking at testing conferences, it was a “stretch” for John to reach out to me. One that surprised, frightened, and delighted me, all at the same time.

At the time, I’m not sure I appreciated the effort he put forth to reach out to me and work with me on crafting my talks at the conference. He helped me refine my topics, themes, and ideas. And he boosted my confidence along the way. In a way, he was a shepherd for me. Gently guiding me into his vision for the overall conference themes. And he was very generous with his time.

Back to the Future

I believe today’s conference organizers need to look back as a way of moving forward and perhaps follow John’s example.

The traditional Call for Submissions is not inclusive enough. It doesn’t invest sufficient effort in thinking broadly about possible invitations. It doesn’t invite new voices nor reach out to new communities. And it certainly does not mentor or shepherd them forward.

I know, I know, but it’s EASY. It would be so hard to personalize the craft of pulling a program together by actually mining for new voices and stretching out to be more inclusive.

But you know what. That’s too bad. If we want more—

  • Diversity

  • Inclusion

  • New voices

  • Novel ideas

  • Fresh approaches

  • Interesting takes

  • Contrarian points of view

  • Creative formats

  • did I say Diversity?

Then passive solicitation of presentations for your program isn’t good enough. It’s too impersonal. And, quite frankly, it’s a lazy approach.

Conference organizers around the world I have a call to action for you.

If you want more ideas, more vibrancy, more inclusion, more energy, and more excitement, then reach out and do more invitation…and more shepherding.

I think you’ll be amazed at what emerges.

And, John, thank you for extending my invitation. I’m not sure I ever truly thanked you for your incredibly generous offer and your gift of time.

Stay agile my friends,

Bob.