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

Finding Allies

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Finding Allies & Building Alliances

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Finding Allies & Building Alliances

This is a wonderful professional experience share from Alenna Merihew that I have to share with a broader audience. She shared it in October 2023 on LinkedIn— 

Want to know who really holds the keys to your next promotion (after yourself)? Hint: Not your manager.

Assuming you have great performance reviews, the required capabilities, and your manager’s support, the biggest hurdle actually is a leader that sits one, two or even more levels above you.

I learned this the hard way when my first promotion was nixed by a senior partner in my office.

My mentor shared that in the annual performance review meeting the head of the office “James” (name changed) hadn’t supported me for the accelerated promotion.

I had met James only a handful of times during the year, primarily at team dinners. I was confused.

I naively asked, “What? Why? I’ve barely interacted with him. And there was other support from folks in the room, right?”

“Yes, but…” [pause] “…there wasn’t much we could do.”