The Agile Daily Standup - AgileDad

Feedback vs. Feedforward — Here’s Why I Don’t Like Either Word to Describe Radical Candor - Kim Scott There’s been a lot of chatter lately about feedback vs. feedforward. Words matter. I don’t love the word feedback, but because it’s commonly used to show people what to do more of and what to do less of, I use it often. Does “bad feedback” mean criticism, or does it mean criticism that is badly delivered? Does “good feedback” mean praise, or praise that is well delivered, or criticism that is well delivered? Who the hell knows??! Because it’s unknowable. Sloppy language. I like the term feedforward even less because it pretends that we don’t have to understand past mistakes in order to avoid them in the future. It pretends that we can avoid necessary but uncomfortable conversations. Feedback vs. feedforward — both of these words are well-intentioned euphemisms. That is my main problem with them — they tend toward either Ruinous Empathy or Manipulative Insincerity. https://kimmalonescott.medium.com/feedback-vs-feedforward-heres-why-i-don-t-like-either-word-to-describe-radical-candor-95fe1137baa8 How to connect with AgileDad: - [website] https://www.agiledad.com/ - [instagram] https://www.instagram.com/agile_coach/ - [facebook] https://www.facebook.com/RealAgileDad/ - [Linkedin] https://www.linkedin.com/in/leehenson/

Providing Constructive Criticism as an Introverted Team Leader In the dynamic landscape of team collaboration, constructive criticism stands as a cornerstone for personal and collective growth. As an introverted team leader, navigating the delicate balance between maintaining harmony and fostering improvement can be challenging.  So, how can you deliver constructive criticism effectively while drawing on the strengths inherent in introverted leadership styles? Introverted leaders often thrive in thoughtful reflection and one-on-one interactions. These qualities can be leveraged to create a unique approach to constructive criticism that emphasizes the individual's strengths within the team.  Introverts are keen observers, attuned to details that might be overlooked in more extroverted leadership styles. Recognizing and embracing these traits can set the stage for a positive and productive feedback process. Creating a Supportive Environment: Before delving into constructive criticism, it is crucial to establish an environment that encourages open communication.  Introverted leaders can utilize their listening skills to create a safe space for team members to express their thoughts and concerns. This establishes a foundation of trust, essential for the constructive feedback process. Choose the Right Time and Place: Introverts often find solace in quiet and controlled environments.  When delivering constructive criticism, choose an appropriate time and place where both you and the team member can engage in a focused and private conversation. This minimizes distractions and allows for a more meaningful exchange. Leveraging Written Communication: Introverts often excel in expressing themselves through the written word.  Consider providing written feedback in addition to verbal communication. This allows team members to digest information at their own pace and promotes a deeper understanding of the feedback provided. Emphasize Strengths: While addressing areas for improvement, introverted leaders can highlight the individual's strengths.  By framing criticism within the context of overall performance and accomplishments, team members are more likely to view it as an opportunity for growth rather than a personal attack. This positive reinforcement aligns with the introverted leader's natural inclination towards creating a supportive and nurturing work environment. Encourage Two-Way Communication: Introverted leaders may face challenges in initiating conversations, but they often excel in fostering meaningful dialogues.  Encourage team members to share their perspectives on the feedback received and engage in a two-way conversation. This not only promotes a sense of ownership and accountability but also allows introverted leaders to understand the individual's viewpoint better. Continuous Improvement: Constructive criticism is an ongoing process rather than a one-time event.  As an introverted leader, embrace the idea of continuous improvement and encourage team members to see feedback as a catalyst for personal and professional growth. Regular check-ins and follow-ups demonstrate commitment to the team's success and reinforce the importance of the feedback process. —- In the realm of team leadership, constructive criticism is an indispensable tool for fostering growth and development.  Introverted leaders bring a unique set of qualities to this process, including keen observation, thoughtful reflection, and an emphasis on creating a supportive environment.  By leveraging these strengths, introverted leaders can navigate the delicate balance of providing constructive criticism with tact, ultimately contributing to a more harmonious and productive team dynamic.How to connect with AgileDad: - [website] https://www.agiledad.com/ - [instagram] https://www.instagram.com/agile_coach/ - [facebook] https://www.facebook.com/RealAgileDad/ - [Linkedin] https://www.linkedin.com/in/leehenson/

What Inspires You? Today, we embark on a heartening journey exploring inspiration—the lifeblood of our creativity and motivation. Have you ever paused to marvel at the early morning sun casting golden hues or the heartfelt laughter of a child? While we often search for inspiration in grand moments, it's life's quiet whispers that truly touch our souls. Like Jane, a writer who, amidst a creative block, found her muse in a delicate flower blooming amidst the concrete. That tiny, resilient flower led her to pen a best-selling novel. Our daily lives brim with such unsung heroes and moments, from the elderly neighbor with an ever-present smile to the determined ant climbing your window pane. Inspiration matters; it fuels our passion, pushing us to think outside the box and remain resilient. How can we better sense this everyday inspiration? By being present. Observing our surroundings, engaging in conversations, and embracing challenges. Every individual carries a treasure trove of stories and perspectives. Even in adversity, there's inspiration to be found—after all, stars can't shine without darkness. So, as we wrap up, take a moment to look around. Find joy in the mundane, see the extraordinary in the ordinary, and let the world inspire you How to connect with AgileDad: - [website] https://www.agiledad.com/ - [instagram] https://www.instagram.com/agile_coach/ - [facebook] https://www.facebook.com/RealAgileDad/ - [Linkedin] https://www.linkedin.com/in/leehenson/

Daily Scrums: Synchronization Meetings, Not Status Meetings The daily scrum: It's not a status meeting, it's a synchronization meeting. The term status meeting conjures images of sitting around a table with each person giving an update to a project manager while everyone else feigns interest (In reality, they're either mentally preparing for their own upcoming update or wondering how much longer the meeting will last.) In contrast, the daily scrum meeting is designed for team members to synchronize their effort. You don't want two designers working on the same screen without each knowing about it. Similarly, someone better be working on a critical task if the sprint ends tomorrow. Done well a daily scrum meeting is energizing. People leave the meeting enthused about the progress they're making as a team, or inspired to work together to move something to done. This won't happen every day for every team member, of course, but if team members dread going to the daily scrum, that is usually a sign of trouble. So if the meeting is for the team members to synchronize their work with one another, what does the Scrum Master do? How to connect with AgileDad: - [website] https://www.agiledad.com/ - [instagram] https://www.instagram.com/agile_coach/ - [facebook] https://www.facebook.com/RealAgileDad/ - [Linkedin] https://www.linkedin.com/in/leehenson/

Which Agile Certification Is Right For Me? How do you know which Agile Certification is right for you? Join V. Lee Henson as we discuss all of the different certs without bias and discuss which ay be best for you. How to connect with AgileDad: - [website] https://www.agiledad.com/ - [instagram] https://www.instagram.com/agile_coach/ - [facebook] https://www.facebook.com/RealAgileDad/ - [Linkedin] https://www.linkedin.com/in/leehenson/

Agile Trick or Treat - 5 ScArY Things About Agile Change Overload: Agile represents a fundamental shift from traditional project management methods. The constant emphasis on flexibility, adaptation, and change can be overwhelming for teams and organizations used to static processes. Perceived Loss of Control: Traditional management often involves detailed upfront planning and strict adherence to a roadmap. In contrast, Agile's iterative approach, with its emphasis on regular feedback and adaptability, can make managers and stakeholders feel like they're losing control over the project's direction. Fear of Transparency: Agile practices like daily stand-ups and sprint reviews promote openness about progress, roadblocks, and failures. This level of transparency can be daunting for individuals or teams who fear being perceived as underperforming or making mistakes. Commitment Pressure: Agile methodologies, especially Scrum, require teams to commit to specific deliverables in short time frames. The pressure to meet these commitments in every sprint can be intense, especially if the team is still learning the Agile ropes. Cultural Shift: Implementing Agile is not just about changing processes but also about fostering a new organizational culture of collaboration, continuous learning, and customer-centricity. Changing an established organizational culture can be challenging and can meet with resistance. Understanding these concerns can be the first step in addressing and overcoming them, ensuring a smoother Agile transformation. How to connect with AgileDad: - [website] https://www.agiledad.com/ - [instagram] https://www.instagram.com/agile_coach/ - [facebook] https://www.facebook.com/RealAgileDad/ - [Linkedin] https://www.linkedin.com/in/leehenson/

Making One’s Self Redundant “The goal of a Scrum Master is to make themselves redundant” So I preached this mantra, and always managed to get a good deal of nods by those around me. Then came along one day when I was made redundant. Literally. I was hit by a wave of lay offs, and this made me reflect thoroughly on what I had been preaching for so long. In the time I was given to work in that organization, did I succeed in making myself redundant, or did I push myself to the fringes, making myself irrelevant? In the latest version of the Scrum Guide, the authors changed the term “roles” to “accountabilities”. It is because a role has to be filled, an accountability needs to be carried. Often we see organizations looking to “fill in the role” of Scrum Master in order to fix a bureaucratic void, a bucket of disparate and non-value adding tasks that someone needs to carry out but none of the existing personnel are actually willing to. Tasks like “running daily standups” and “updating the team board” top the list. In these situations, organizations are looking to create roles to give such tasks a home, and they call these roles Scrum Masters or Agile Coaches, or any other related fancy name. Accountability demands more than executing such tasks. I link accountability to the impact on outcome. I think Scrum Masters are accountable to keep mastery of Scrum alive among the team members. By this I mean the mastery of thinking about the client, the potentially shippable increments, the prevention of waste generation, the championing of courage, focus, respect, commitment and openness. They do so by coaching, teaching, facilitating and mentoring, and they develop other team and organization members into Scrum Masters. They succeed when most or some of it is done by someone else in the team and not just them. Their own redundancy, in that sense, is part of the accountability Scrum Masters need to carry. I have done my share of slipping into irrelevance myself. Here are some of the ways this irrelevance can manifest itself, and some questions to help mitigate it: When we allow ourselves to calcify in our stances, turning ourselves into uninspired masters of ceremonies. What was the initial objective of this meeting? Is it still relevant to the team’s or organization’s current situation? If so, in what ways can I help the group remain true and connected to this objective? If not, how can I bring this to the group’s eyes in a way that invites them to play a more central part of the meeting’s running? When we hold a sentence or phrase from the Scrum Guide above the team’s will to experiment and adapt. If we look at the Scrum Guide in its full context, how does the team’s idea break any of the values or principles? How can we use the team’s enthusiasm and initiative to turn this situation into a learning opportunity, conserving their appetite for experimentation? When we position our opinions and knowledge on Agile above everyone else’s, overriding the voice of the team and of the organization. In what ways can we give more space to the team’s voice to emerge? What pearls of wisdom can we take away from the team’s voice so our teaching stances are more aligned to the their mindset, challenges and innate ideas? When we resist to embrace new ideas, new technologies, like ChatGPT, and remain orthodox in our craft of promoting the habit of learning through experimentation. What is the real challenge behind the method of learning? Why does new technology seem to be a threat? How can we embrace technology to reinforce our teaching message, even if this means dealing with our inner uncertainties and possible failure? https://medium.com/serious-scrum/redundant-but-not-irrelevant-the-mission-of-a-scrum-master-e39ac26d528a How to connect with AgileDad: - [website] https://www.agiledad.com/ - [instagram] https://www.instagram.com/agile_coach/ - [facebook] https://www.facebook.com/RealAgileDad/ - [Linkedin] https://www.linkedin.com/in/leehenson/

10 Bridges... In the journey we call life, each of us will have bridges to cross. Each brdge will lend to our growth experience, and opportunity. Join V. Lee Henson as we discuss what to do when you discover a bridge and the tools you need to cross them. How to connect with AgileDad: - [website] https://www.agiledad.com/ - [instagram] https://www.instagram.com/agile_coach/ - [facebook] https://www.facebook.com/RealAgileDad/ - [Linkedin] https://www.linkedin.com/in/leehenson/

What Tools Should We Use To Improve Our Meetings? I think it takes a team several steps to adapt to a new methodology and mindset. First, the team struggled to understand and apply the simplest events from the Scrum framework. Sometimes we had to repeat the reason for a single event over and over again. Why we are sitting together now and what is the goal of the event? In addition, the team struggled to understand the empirical approach and empirical problem-solving strategy. As time went on, they understood more and more how empirical approaches can help us develop our product better and faster. The three Phases a Team goes through But first, let’s go back to the phases we’ve gone through as a team, which I’ve already seen some teams go through. I always observe that teams go through different phases on their journey to apply the Scrum Framework. 1st Phase Status — The team is new to agile methodologies and empirical thinking. They have no experience with Scrum and have not yet internalized the agile mindset.Focus — The team learns the why and looks for appropriate formats and methods to pick up. It experiments with different formats. 2nd Phase Status — The team has understood the why but has not yet internalized agile values and the agile mindset. It tries to find a way to apply what it has learned well and efficiently. The focus is on living agile concepts, agile values, and organizing events. E.g. How do we want to do planning? Focus — internalize the agile values, and apply the agile approach. Adjusting the how, how do we make plannings better, how do we make retrospectives better, how do we make reviews better. 3rd Phase Status - Identifying constraints and adapting habits. Challenging the limiting structures in the organization. Adapting the methods to their advantages. Together we find new ways to live agile values even better and to proceed empirical. Focus — remembering the why, why do we do Scrum, agile development, empirical approach? Reflecting on the why and the what. Finding your way in line with the framework and agile principles. Challenging the rest of the organization, solving systemic impediments. First-grade impediments: — Own improvements: Understand the Why and apply concepts “correctly”. Application of methods according to literature and textbook.Second-grade impediments: — Structural improvement: Simple small adaptation of structures to own needs and beliefs.Third-grade impediment: — Systemic improvements: Adaptation of systems or system parts and organizational structures to align with higher principles and mindset and to become more efficient and effective on a general level. How to connect with AgileDad: - [website] https://www.agiledad.com/ - [instagram] https://www.instagram.com/agile_coach/ - [facebook] https://www.facebook.com/RealAgileDad/ - [Linkedin] https://www.linkedin.com/in/leehenson/

Should We Nuke The Backlog? Maybe... “My boss won’t stand for me deleting the backlog” I empathise. I know it happens. At the same time I wonder: does your boss really care? — I’m sure some of them do, I see many Product Owners who are really “Backlog administrators.” Their boss is certainly leaning over their shoulder checking on what being done. If this is your case then your boss is the real Product Owner, sorry to say this but you are really a goffer. Start to have a conversation about goals bigger than backlog items. Build a routine, a super cycle, around your sprints with the boss and team to discuss bigger goals. Then, during the cycle drive with the goals. If there is a suitable backlog items that contributes towards the goal(s) then do it. If not, write it out and do it immediately. Either way, whether you are doing this to work around a boss or as a mechanism to tradition to a backlog-less world the same idea applies: create a super cycle, set goals every 10 weeks (approximately) and then drive through the goals rather than the backlog. Drive with the goals and put the backlog in the back seat, it is secondary. The aim is to avoid nuking the backlog by letting it fade into irrelevance. How to connect with AgileDad: - [website] https://www.agiledad.com/ - [instagram] https://www.instagram.com/agile_coach/ - [facebook] https://www.facebook.com/RealAgileDad/ - [Linkedin] https://www.linkedin.com/in/leehenson/