Joelle Tegwen: How to Break Through the 'Not My Problem' Mentality
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As a consultant often entering teams when problems already exist, Joelle encountered a team that took months to get anything into production. While some IT leaders and QA folks didn't see this as problematic, Joelle discovered the QA team was actually struggling with constant retesting due to work coming back repeatedly. She helped the team articulate the value of needed changes and discovered they didn't know how to split stories effectively. By focusing on what they could do rather than what they couldn't, and implementing test automation to enable smaller stories, the team began making meaningful progress toward more sustainable delivery practices.
Featured Book of the Week: How Minds Change by David McRaney
David McRaney, who runs the podcast “You Are Not Smart” about cognitive biases, presents a powerful insight in “How Minds Change”: we don't actually change other people's minds through arguments or facts. Instead, we need to create space for others to reflect and change their own minds. Joelle recommends this book because it fundamentally shifted her approach to working with teams. The book introduces techniques like Deep Canvassing, which focuses on asking people to tell their story and share what's happening to them, rather than trying to convince them with logic alone. This approach aligns perfectly with Joelle's belief in allowing space for people to reflect while trusting that they have good answers within themselves.
Self-reflection Question: How might your current approach to influencing change shift if you focused more on creating space for reflection rather than presenting arguments and facts?
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About Joelle Tegwen
Joelle helps teams build products that customers love in a sustainable way and with high-quality. She creates environments that foster high performing teams improving their interactions. Her background in science and passion for cognitive science complement her work. Joelle's non-linear, 15-year career in software development has provided her with diverse perspectives.
You can link with Joelle Tegwen on LinkedIn.
Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast: Agile storytelling from the trenches 