Agile Complexification Inverter

Have you had that conversation with the struggling team that wants to switch to Kanban?  They don't really know why - but they've heard that Kanban will be easier.  So why don't they switch processes? We are failing at Scrum, so let's switch to Kanban! Does that sentence make sense in your world?  I hear it quite a lot.  Well not stated that emphatically.  In fact, most teams don't know that they are failing at Scrum - but they are... it is such an easy process to follow - how could you fail? More Prescriptive -to- More Adaptive Cutting to the gist of the problem - a team that cannot complete stories in a sprint.... well they are failing.  You could ask why they cannot complete stories in the sprint.  There may be several legitimate reasons, typically it is an impediment beyond their control.  Something like getting "sign-off" from some stakeholders that the feature desired works as expected and doesn't break anything else.  When yo...

How would you know if your organizations values that you and other leaders have worked so hard to propagate have become weaponized exclusion and status quo control devices? Certainly values are only positive - affirmations of our best selves. Could our values work against us? Yes.  And you may know it only after it is too late... your culture will turn toxic.  The rising stars you spend energy to recruit will say a few months, maybe a year or two and leave (happy to get out).  Or you will force them out within months, because they are not a "good fit" to your culture. This failure to "fit" is a sure sign.  Can the executives read the sign, does you HR department work to protect the status quo?  Hiring decisions use the "good fit" measure and then a few months after they made the mistake of hiring the employee they reverse the decision and fire for "bad fit." As a " journeyman " agilist I've made conscious decision to go into...

I was working with a failing team some time ago.  I use "failing" to describe the outcome of the team - not the people on the team.  Are you OK with that description? An issue arrose in the stand up - a team member that was to verify the quality of a procedure did so and reported that there were a few records that didn't match expectation in the data set.  Upon inquire the number of records not matching was over 2000.  Most people acknowledged immediately the exaggeration - I could tell by the laughter.  After about 10 minutes of discussing the details of the problem - it appeared the team had a handle on the specific situation. I stopped the discussion and inquired if they could name the impediment.  One team member did a great job of describing the impediment as a _communication gap_ .  Wonderful - I could work with that - the problem had a name and it didn't include anyones Proper Name. "If the problem has a first name; we are going to hav...

Truth is a wonderful concept - but can we really know it? I'm very excited about the 2017 release of a Wonder Woman movie.  Can't wait - it looks great, I always love the first in a series.  I like the character development, the WHY of the foundational aspects of the character.  From the preview it looks like we will see  Princess Diana of Themyscira  grow up and the reasons she finds her self in America.  Fascinating... I learned a bit about the truth of the back story of the back story of ... well the history of the creator of the Wonder Woman myth in of all places... a training course on DiSC by Dr. Abelson .  [ Queue the spooky dream sequence music. ] The inventor of the Wonder Woman myth is William Moulton Marston . Wonder Woman made her debut in All Star Comics #8 (December 1941), scripted by Marston.  If you have one in the garage I'll buy it from you.  Apparently, Marston designed Wonder Woman as an allegory for the true lead...

Big Data for Little Problems -OR- What happens when the customer has better data about the service than the provider and has better networking, better press coverage, better clout, better market reach and reputations? (Feb 23) My good looking wife just spent 2 hours trying to straighten out Frontier's billing machine... it's not easy.  The amazing thing I observed for my recliner while sipping an adult beverage was her influencing techniques.  Now another amazingly disconsernation ( not a word ) is that Frontier has some awesome support people.  But oh-my-god do they have a tough job.  It's the system that has failed.  And they have to figure out how to make some legacy piece-of-crap work. But it's not going to lead to happy satisfied customers (testify). Her father, Jim, moved into the home with us in December, he loves Western movies, and is an encyclopedia of knowledge better than IMDB.  So we called up Frontier (our FiOS provider for 6 years) ...

I'm extremely concerned today for my country and this planet.  It appears that history is repeating.     January 27th -- International Holocaust Remembrance Day . President  Trump bars refugees and citizens of Muslim  nations entry into the U.S.A. The New York Times By Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-N0827-318 / CC-BY-SA 3.0, CC BY-SA 3.0 de Four score and four years ago a dictator brought forth on the European continent an evolving plan to rule the world and subjugate the masses. Now we are engaged in a great resistance , testing whether our nation, or any nations conceived from the learning of our mothers and fathers and so dedicated to liberty, can long endure.  We are met on a great social square of technologic creation .  We have come to dedicate a portion of our wealth, wisdom, and life to those in history that have offered their lives and wisdom so that we may learn and prosper.  It is altogether fitting and proper that we should ...

What does the value of Transparency really mean? Nextgov: How do you define transparency? Fung: My definition is quite a bit different from the conventional wisdom about transparency. A transparency system is designed to allow people to improve the quality of decisions they make in some way, shape or form, and it enables them to improve their decisions to reduce the risks they face or to protect their interests. Some of those decisions are about political accountability but some are in private life, like what food to buy or what doctor to go to. --  Archon Fung , professor at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government who studies government transparency. Does your company practice fair pay?  Here's what one worker brought to Google and made a difference in transparency at the search giant. Tell Your Co-Workers How Much You Make!     There's no law against it and it increases the chances you'll be paid fairly. Does the Agile Manifesto im...

Many coaches suggest that teamwork starts with trust.  Simon Sinek would have us believe that there is a perquisite for trust:  followers feel safe . That feeling of safety builds trust, and that trust sets the environment for teamwork. Do your team members feel safe?  If the project succeeds or fails do they still have a job on your team?  Answer no to that one simple question and you have your answer to why collaboration and teamwork is a challenge in your organization. Work toward changing that and you are demonstrating leadership. Did your software development organization follow the lead of many Agile companies and create a large open space floor plan with rows of cheep tables and expensive chairs?  Did this environment create the collaboration that it was intended to?  I've been in several companies recently that believe they have an Agile environment - this is far from the truth.  Let's look at what they really have and wha...

A technique for increasing performance by using a simple (perhaps magical) recipe when giving feedback. Read the study, understand the method of investigation; ask yourself if this is similar to your work environment - just enough such that the technique might be generalized across the two different situations. Breaking the Cycle of Mistrust: Wise Interventions to Provide Critical Feedback Across the Racial Divide  by David S. Yeager, et. al. If you just want to cheat, read the "cliff-notes" version (it's what I did) - but I promise myself to go back after writing this post and read the study. Try This One Phrase to Make Feedback 40% More Effective  by Jeff Haden - INC. Jeff is quoting   Daniel Coyle , author of  The Talent Code  which references the study.  Now I'm referring to Jeff -> Daniel -> Yeager et al.  And you are at the front of the line of referral - maybe you should jump the line - read the original work. But y...

Iran insists its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes.  I agree, every countries nuclear weapons are for peaceful purpose.  The Soviet Unions stock pile were to offset the US stock pile and look at the peace that has existed for 70 years.  The Iranian weapons may lead to the middle east version of detente - a peaceful purpose - through the capability of force, to offset the Israelis undeclared nuclear stock pile. The problem I have with this cognitive dissonance is that no one will speak of it.  The politicians will not look at the history and acknowledge the facts, nor the intent of policies, nor that actions that were taken by countries.  The press never questions the rhetoric "for peaceful purposes."   Take a look at the facts.  The US, the only nations to use nuclear weapons in war, used only 2 warheads in it's whole history for non-peaceful purposes.  And of its 7,700 warheads produced gives it a stunning batting average of 999...