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

Humility

,

Becoming Less Humble

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Becoming Less Humble

True humility is not thinking less of yourself;

It is thinking of yourself less.

C.S. Lewis

My friend and colleague Joel Bancroft-Connors was the most recent person who gave me feedback that I might be too humble. I know, I know, but keep reading.

Joel was listening to one of my Meta-cast podcasts and he mentioned that I had a tendency to minimize or downplay or undercut my own skills and experience when sharing in a variety of forums. He’s listened to me in webinars, in live sessions, and in podcasts. And he said I often undermine my ideas, stories, and recommendations by being or seeming to be too humble in my interactions.

It’s certainly something I’ve heard before and that I’m aware of. But I have a challenge with my ego and not wanting to be braggadocios or full of myself. I believe the roots of it go back to my childhood and how I was raised. I also don’t like to think of myself as some sort of “agile expert”, even though I am. And I guess I’m not all that comfortable with the spotlight.