#28: The Most Valuable Books for Leadership, Learning, and Sharing with Julie Chickering

Julie Chickering sits down with Brian to share the best gift books for the Scrum masters in your life.

Overview

We all have those books on our bookshelves that we’ve had for years and still refer back to time and time again, or that new title that we’ve just read that blows our mind with the way it makes a new concept more relatable.

Julie Chickering is a Certified Scrum Trainer (CST), PMI Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP), and a traditional Project Management Professional (PMP).

Today on the show, Julie joins Brian to discuss the most valuable books they’ve read, the lessons they’ve learned from them, and the best ones for giving to the Scrum Master in your life this holiday season.

Listen now to discover:

[01:06] - Today, Brian and Julie Chickering will be sharing the most valuable books we’ve read.
[02:10] - Julie shares how a book called Two Beats Ahead is helping her learn to let go of her creations.
[04:00] - Julie shares an interesting story of how Beyoncé invited musicians in for collaboration and how that opened her mind to learning from her community.
[05:07] - Brian shares why Agile Retrospectives: Making Good Teams Great by Esther Derby and Diana Larson is his #1 book recommendation for Scrum Masters.
[06:29] - Julie shares why she’s also a fan of Agile Retrospectives: Making Good Teams Great for the mix-and-mash recipe for creating menu selections.
[08:06] - Julie shares why The Culture Code: The Secrets of Highly Successful Groups insight into the three main things that make high-performing teams high-performing is her favorite book to give to the leaders on her list.
[10:36] - Brian shares the three things from Daniel Pink’s Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us that align with Scrum.
[12:34] - Julie shares how she learned to flip the script, start with the hard topics in a conversation, and finish with the positive from Daniel Pink, as included in his book, When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing.
[15:53] - Brian shares why Dan Pink’s books are most enjoyable via audio.
[16:15] - Julie shares how a podcast interview with author Scott Sonenshein led her to his book called Stretch: Unlock the Power of Less -and Achieve More Than You Ever Imagined, which helps teams unlock their potential to achieve more.
[17:11] - Brian shares Frédéric Laloux's concept of the different colors of organizations as laid out in his book called Reinventing Organizations: A Guide to Creating Organizations Inspired by the Next Stage of Human Consciousness and how we can better enable change in organizations.
[18:57] - Julie shares a book she recommends in Scrum Master class that’s great for sports fans called The Captain Class by Sam Walker, which walks the reader through what makes great sports teams great.
[22:15] - Brian shares why sports analogies are great for teaching Scrum.
[23:28] - Julie shares how even the Rolling Stones delve deep into figuring out how to improve.
[24:30] - Why retrospectives are a great tool for improving the outcome of any mission.
[28:25] - Brian shares why we still need to adjust to the current climate, even when the goal remains the same.
[30:11] - Brian shares books by recent guests on the show, including Lead Without Blame: Building Resilient Learning Teams by Tricia Broderick, Strategise by Roman Pichler and Coaching Agile Teams: A Companion for Scrum Masters, Agile Coaches, and Project Managers in Transition (Addison-Wesley Signature Series (Cohn)) by Lyssa Adkins.

Listen in next time when Scott Dunn will be on the show.

References and resources mentioned in the show

Two Beats Ahead by Panos A. Panay and R. Michael Hendrix
Agile Retrospectives: Making Good Teams Great by Esther Derby, Diana Larsen
The Culture Code: The Secrets of Highly Successful Groups by Daniel Coyle
DRIVE by Daniel Pink | Animated Core Message
Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us by Daniel Pink
When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing by Daniel Pink
The Power of Regret: How Looking Backward Moves Us Forward by Daniel Pink
Stretch: Unlock the Power of Less -and Achieve More Than You Ever Imagined by Scott Sonenshein
Reinventing Organizations: A Guide to Creating Organizations Inspired by the Next Stage of Human Consciousness by Frédéric Laloux
The Captain Class by Sam Walker
Lead Without Blame: Building Resilient Learning Teams by Tricia Broderick
Strategise by Roman Pichler
Coaching Agile Teams: A Companion for Scrum Masters, Agile Coaches, and Project Managers in Transition (Addison-Wesley Signature Series (Cohn)) by Lyssa, Adkins
Mountain Goat Software
Agile Mentors Community
Scrum Alliance
Subscribe to the Agile Mentors Podcast on Apple Podcasts

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This episode's presenters are:

Brian Milner is SVP of coaching and training at Mountain Goat Software. He's passionate about making a difference in people's day-to-day work, influenced by his own experience of transitioning to Scrum and seeing improvements in work/life balance, honesty, respect, and the quality of work.

Julie Chickering is the brains and brawn behind JC Agile Consulting, believes that Lean and Agile practices are packed with potential — to enable positive culture change, business agility, and breakthrough results. Julie is a past president and board member of the Agile Project Management Network (APLN), a Certified Scrum Trainer (CST), PMI Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP), as well as a traditional Project Management Professional (PMP).