Agile Team Start-up: one of the first agile adoption activities

August 30, 2009

The session I offered on Agile Team Start-up at Agile 2009 went over so well that people stayed after the session to learn one more start-up technique.  That’s dedication!
In the session, we explored activities that help an agile coach start-up a new team (or kick-start an existing team) through three broad areas:

Learning about the process(es) [...]

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Powerful Questions and Powerful Requests

August 30, 2009

Tobias Mayer and I gave a session at Agile 2009 in the last time slot of the last day entitled Human-Centric Coaching.  It had been a long, exciting, skills-filled, exhausting conference.  We noticed that people were walking around either filled up or fed up.  Overloaded.  So, we slowed it down. We gave the session a [...]

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Agile 2009 is coming

August 21, 2009

My second spin at the Agile 20xx conferences comes up next week and boy, am I excited to be there.  Last year I was a newbie in the community.  Just meeting people, matching names to some of the Agile “rockstar” faces, soaking up much of what everyone said and, in general, loving that the Agile [...]

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What is agile coaching?

July 28, 2009

Coaching is an artful conversation in which the coach helps the coachee see new perspectives and possibilities so they can take the next step in their personal and professional growth.  In the context of agile teams, coaching takes on the dual flavor of coaching and mentoring.  Yes, you are coaching to help someone reach for [...]

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How will we ever address all those big impediments?

June 30, 2009

It doesn’t take long to see that the biggest blockers for agile teams have nothing to do with the team.  They have everything to do with the surrounding organization.  Things like the company’s rules, processes, procedures (aka red tape and bureaucratic run arounds).  These are exactly the things that companies say they want agile teams [...]

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Stay connected to what you care about

April 29, 2009

Let’s say that an important retrospective is happening tomorrow, one that could change the team in big ways. You have prepared well. You are ready. Now all you have to do is wait for the morning to come. You could lay awake all night thinking of the many things they might say and what you [...]

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This is not like That

March 24, 2009

I am a guest blogger at the shake-it-up blog by Tobias Mayer called Agile Thinking.  In the blog post, I muse on the desire to map Agile to something, anything, one finds already camped out in their comfort zone.  Check out the post called This is not like That.

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Is your team a dinghy or an oceanliner?

March 3, 2009

Humor me.  Try this.  Find a private place – a small conference room will do nicely.   Stand in the center of the room and imagine that you are a boat in the middle of the ocean.   The BIG ocean.   First imagine that you are a dinghy.  You know, one of those small life raft type [...]

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Using the Values Tree to Guide Teams Toward High Performance

January 29, 2009

Metaphor is a powerful thing.
“I’m the glue that holds this family together.”
“I’m the pebble in your shoe, reminding you to tread lightly.”
“I am a thousand candles lighting the way.”
“I am a bird soaring above it all.”
Coaches have known this for a long time.  In fact, using metaphor is a skill taught in professional coaching courses, [...]

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Giving gracious space

December 28, 2008

I have just received another holiday gift.  It’s one of those that you give to yourself by giving to others.  No, it’s not volunteering in a soup kitchen or making costumes for the school play.  It’s something so quiet as to be imperceptible unless you are paying very close attention.  It’s the gift of giving [...]

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