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I've been reading some blogs, and seeing some presentations lately where some agile practitioners who have historically had some very strong opinions are flip-flopping on their stance, and consider it part of their "evolving."  The hyperbole with which they state their point of view, and then nonchalantly reverse it reminds me of a scene from Peter Pan where he says, "Tinkerbell, I hereby banish you forever." Then Wendy says, "Please, not forever." And Peter relents, "Well, for a week then. C'mon Wendy, I'll show you the island." Everyone is entitled to their opinion and their right to change their opinion, however, I have to really ask myself how carefully some people walk through their own logic, and how much they acknowledge that we all have bias.  Introspection and carefully weighing the pros…

Here is a short list of what managers can be/do in an agile organization: 1. Storytelling to harness the intrinsic drive of the people who do the work 2. Master the science of work systems 3. a change advocate (aka. cannery in the coal mine) 4. a life-long learner/teacher and village idiot who speaks truth to power 5. an experiment design facilitator 6. an Intrapreneur - Shark Pitcher 7. a Product/Project Exterminator 8. Growth hacker Data Analyst 9. Recruiter - Hiring - Onboarding Buddy - Mentor 10. Restorative Justice of the Peace 11. Improv Coach, Life Coach, Executive Coach, Business Coach 12. Match Maker - Gemba Walker

The hottest topic in agile transformation right now seems to be, "What about the managers?" In his book entitled, "Large-Scale Scrum: More with Less" Craig Larman is very plain about his views on this topic. "In LeSS, Managers are optional.  Organizations that have managers don't have to get rid of them -they can perform a useful role - but you don't have to add managers for your LeSS adoption." It seems to me that there is a choice for both the organization and for the people who have been career managers to make a choice about what to do to address problems that arise in the everyday operations of the enterprise.  This is the place where the rubber hits the road in terms of how we think about things: rational…

I completed another engagement with a client 3 days ago confirming what Daniel Mezick, Author of Open Space Agility Handbook and The Culture Game has said about inviting the people who do the work into an Agile Transformation. Inspired by Participatory company forerunners, Semco and Morning Star, my client eliminated all titles (Manager, Director, Team Lead, etc.), performance reviews*, etc. Then said to his entire workforce, "There are no rules. Govern yourselves. Don't focus on Utilization rates. I emancipate you."  At least, that's the way the message landed with the knowledge workers.   Everyone freaked out. Even the Agilists in the company were stunned and despondent, because you cannot mandate freedom any more than you can abandon people to the Tyranny of Structurelessness.   Result: Workers complained. Some resigned. Profitability…

As I have begun building a coaching alliance with the CEO and executive team of my clients in the past, I have found a very broad disparity of awareness, maturity of practice and level of depth in coaching needs.  So, I’d like to share some questions that I may begin conversations with, whoever may be engaging my services.  This kind of Fierce Leadership conversation (please see the book by the same title) is most useful when it is completed earlier than later in a business transformation consulting engagement. 1. Does the Enterprise Agile Coach’s activities include executive coaching? 2. Who does coach the executives? 3. How do the executives shift their mindset to become agile? 4. In what way do the executives go first in agile, to serve their constituents?…

If you’re reading this on my blog, then it’s safe to say I didn’t spam you.  Let’s face the facts: we live in an age where impersonations of the President of the United States start with pursed lips, hands apart mouthing “YUGE” [all caps added] with a silent ‘h’ thank you. McDonalds sells the Giga Big Mac with 4 all beef patties, and Costco shoppers nation-wide give a whole new meaning to the Conehead phrase, “let us now consume mass quantities.”  AT&T and even kids know bigger is better. So what’s up with Big Visible Charts buried deep beneath small screens, in small cubes, in small distributed offices, in small teams?  Now is no time to be small, in any way, shape or form. Go big, or go home…as they say.…

When you’re blessed with a good client who made their career by building great teams, you’ll immediately find that they are easier to work with, for an external agile coach.  They just “get it.”  -No coaxing or convincing is required…even if they don’t know any more about agile than “I’m pretty sure it’s a four letter word!”  (Yeah, he really said it straight up like that.) When setting the Metrics and Milestones for the agile Transformation engagement, the good client is not preoccupied with hitting some arbitrary sprint velocity number across their organization.  Rather, they want their team members to individually and collectively focus on Value. Why? Because it creates profit.  If reliably delivering value to customers isn’t generating profits for them, then there are deeper issues to fix, which…

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[:en] A year or so ago I had a very heated discussion about what are the defining characteristics of Open Space Technology and how to leverage it for Agile Transformation in product development teams, technology, or the enterprise in general.  Much to my chagrin I found that the harder I looked for explicit rules, practices and procedures, the more elusive it became to grok it.  I was prone to overlook opportunities to leverage the greater Laws of Open Space and miss out on its contributions toward feeding the human Spirit; the fuel which burns most brightly comes from Communitas. My attempts to codify what constitutes Open Space gave false rigidity to what I understood to be necessary conditions that give rise to its effects, and my colleague grew more and more…

I had a conversation with a group of managers and executives who had formed a committee to research and identify the organizational structure that would accommodate the continued adoption of “Agile | Scrum.” Resisting the temptation to launch into a conversation about what flavors of Scrum would not be agile, I asked them what their current situation was, and what their intention is. They explained that they had 1 team that had been doing Scrum for a couple of years, and was decent at doing it, but they wanted to gradually launch an additional 1 or 2 Scrum teams, before the end of the year, but they did not have any new Product Owner or Scrum Master to belong to these new teams, and they were hesitant to have Managers…