Agile and Project Management - DrunkenPM Radio

This podcast was originally recorded as a video interview. To view the video version, please go to: https://bit.ly/3a2FBIe This special video podcast features Jim Benson who is back to talk about the Five Lenses of Humane Management. When human beings work together they form a system. That system runs according to the culture created by the people who are gathering together and collaborating. That culture may be designed with intent or it may happen organically, it may support the people working together in the system or it may work against them and the system. The Five Lenses offer a way of examining the system and the culture it creates to understand the ways in which it is fostering an environment that allows the people in the system to rise up together and thrive in a collaborative way. They will also help you see when and how the opposite is happening. The Five Lenses of Humane Management are: 1. Communications 2. Relationships 3. Respect 4. Flow 5. Continuous Improvement I asked Jim to join me for this podcast because I’ve been studying the lenses and incorporating them into my work for about a year now. They have had a deep impact on me, the way I engage with teams, and the way I show up to collaborate with others. If you are interested in understanding how and why the groups you are working with are high-performing (or perhaps the opposite), you will find valuable insights in this interview. If you’d like to learn more about the Five Lenses of Humane Management or Lean-Agile Visual Management: https://www.modusinstitute.com/ And if you’d like to reach out to Jim Benson directly: LINKS FROM THE PODCAST: Personal Kanban: https://www.personalkanban.com/ Lean-Agile Visual Management on Modus Institute: https://www.modusinstitute.com/lavm Jim’s Books on Amazon: https://amzn.to/3JQEEyX CONTACTING JIM BENSON: Web: https://moduscooperandi.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jimbenson/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/ourfounder Email: jim@moduscooperandi.com

When people talk about Agile you’ll hear them talk about certain ideas, topics, or “laws” that are just mentioned as if they were universally known truths, almost like gravity. In “Agile Physics - the Math of Flow”, a new FREE course offered by Troy Magennis, you can start to learn the math behind some of these truths. The course focuses on a number of these ideas and breaks them down in a way that provides clarity on why they are considered to be true. What I found in going through the course was that even with subjects I felt deeply schooled in, the way Troy breaks things down helped me see some of the basic concepts that I had not totally grokked. In this interview, Troy joins me to explain why he developed the course, how it works, and the tools he provides to add clarity to the concepts. Later in the interview (21:30), we also discuss Monte Carlo Simulation. Until recently, my understanding of Monte Carlo Simulation was based on what I learned early in my PMP journey, and what I saw from vendors demo’ing their Monte Carlo tools in the early 2000s. My understanding of Monte Carlo is now very different. Troy was kind enough to walk me through how it actually works, the benefits it provides, and why what I originally learned about it is no longer a “thing”. Agile Physics - The Math of Flow - https://learn.focusedobjective.com/collections Contacting Troy Web: https://www.focusedobjective.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/troymagennis/ Email: troy.magennis@focusedobjective.com Twitter: https://twitter.com/t_magennis

This interview was originally recorded with video. If you'd like to check out that version you can find it here: https://bit.ly/3rtJEDd Jim Benson is finishing up work on a new book The Collaboration Equation and in this episode of the podcast, the creator of Personal Kanban joins me to talk all about why we often resist collaboration, and why it is a necessary element of everything each of us does. Working through a number of real-life examples we discuss some of the ingredients you need to design a system that supports its participants and fosters a culture of collaboration. This interview is going to challenge your understanding of collaboration, offer you a lens to see collaboration in a deeper, more lasting way, and offer you a sneak peek of what is coming up in Jim’s new book. Links from the Podcast: Personal Kanban: https://www.personalkanban.com/ Lean-Agile Visual Management on Modus Institute: https://www.modusinstitute.com/lavm Jim’s Books on Amazon: https://amzn.to/3JQEEyX Contacting Jim Benson: Web: https://moduscooperandi.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jimbenson/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/ourfounder Email: jim@moduscooperandi.com

Jessica Katz is an Agile Coach and Trainer who is on a mission to help the community of Agile Coaches "...empower ourselves with better rates and more appropriate rates." When she became a freelance Agile Coach Jessica became aware of how difficult it was to understand how much an Agile Coach could expect to make as a full-time employee, how much they could charge as freelance, and how much those freelance coaches were paying themselves for the work they do. The first edition of The Agile Coaching Report came out last year and she recently finished collecting data for the second version. Since then she's been hard at work sorting through the details she has collected. During the interview, she shares some of the key learnings she has had in working with the data. This includes things like which segments of the coaching demographic get paid more, how do race and gender impact your pay, who is better at negotiating salary, and factors that can influence the amount you can earn as a coach. She also shares stories about how individuals have been able to use this data to successfully negotiate being paid at a rate equal to their peers within the organization. The audience for the report is anyone working in a coaching capacity within Agile Teams, on an Agile Transformation or Change Management project and it includes a variety of related information like how much people are getting paid for public speaking, as well as common attributes of those paid the most. If you are trying to figure out whether the amount you are earning is in step with the rest of the coaching field, if you need help figuring out how to negotiate for a higher rate of pay, or if you want to know if you are paying your coaches enough, this interview with Jessica Katz on her Agile Coaching Income Report has the details you are looking for. THE AGILE COACHING INCOME REPORT You can download a copy of the 2021 Agile Coaching Income Report here: https://bit.ly/3M6yE71 Keep an eye out for the 2022 Agile Coaching Income Report on Jessica's website https://liberatedelephant.com LADIES GET PAID During the interview Jessica mentions Ladies Get Paid (https://ladiesgetpaid.com), which can be a very valuable resource for anyone (not just women) who needs to get better at negotiating salary. CONTACTING JESSICA if you'd like to reach out to Jessica directly Web: https://liberatedelephant.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeskatz Twitter: https://twitter.com/ElephantTaming

Dan Eberle is the Agile Coach at the New York Times. He’s been a guest on this podcast in the past to talk about coaching stances and what to do when your team members are working on more than one team. This week our focus is on an Agile Certification program Dan has been developing at the New York Times. While obtaining professional credential certification (like CSM or CSPO) is a great investment to make in the people who work in your organization, those certs may not be right for everyone AND your organization may have developed its own approach to Agile by implementing practices from a number of different frameworks/methodologies. If that is the case, an internal training or certification program centered around your specific approach or one that is intended to offer participants enough learning to make intentional informed choices about what practices to adopt may be an ideal way to go. During the interview, Dan explains why he developed the program, the different areas it focuses on, and how employees of the New York Times will evolve through the different levels of certification. Contacting Dan LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/3wGScbC Twitter: https://bit.ly/3F6dkec To sign up for Dave's in-person CSM/CSPO classes in Atlanta: CSM (April 5-6, 2022) https://bit.ly/APR5CSMATL CSPO (April 7-8, 2022) https://bit.ly/APR7CSPOATL * Use the discount code DPM10 to get a 10% discount off the list price

Career Refactoring - Find the Gig that Sparks Joy w/ Luis Garcia The pandemic has been tough on everyone. Some have obviously felt the impact deeper than others. But there have also been positive things that came about as a result of the change Covid has brought to our lives. For some, it provided an opportunity to step back and reassess their goals, how they were spending their days and the way they wanted to live and work. For many, this has meant leaving their jobs entirely. For others, like Luis Garcia, it’s meant taking stock, realizing what work sparks joy in your life, and Kondo-ing the rest of that noise right out of your system. This podcast features an interview with a colleague of mine who started out as a project manager and spent years working his way up the ladder only to find it give way when he got laid off early in the pandemic. Rather than rush right back to work, Luis took advantage of the break, spent more time with his family, and reevaluated his career. He’d been successful at working his way up the food chain but realized that at some point, he’d left behind the parts of the job he enjoyed the most. Luis joins me in this episode to talk about that journey and how he’s made a deliberate choice to go back to being a Scrum Master so that he can spend his time doing what brings him joy - working with teams to build products that impact the lives of others. Contacting Luis Twitter: https://twitter.com/luisgarcia LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/luisgarcia/

In the book The Journey to Enterprise Agility - Systems Thinking and Organizational Legacy, Daryl Kulak and Hong Li focus on the disconnection that often occurs between various parts of the enterprise and how that creates challenges during Agile adoption. Taking a systems thinking approach, Kulak and Li make the case for re-orienting the enterprise in a way that is better suited to an agile way of working. A big part of this is taking a more human-centric view and valuing the contribution individuals bring to this difficult journey. In this interview, the two authors share stories about their experiences working with organizations that are on the journey towards agility and explain how this shift in approach works, why so many organizations fail at adopting agile, and how the changes they recommend impacts the way we think and work with people at all levels of the enterprise. If you’d like to check out the book: The Journey to Enterprise Agility - Systems Thinking and Organizational Legacy https://amzn.to/3po4PGS Contacting Daryl Kulak LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/darylkulak/ Email: daryl.kulak@protonmail.com Twitter: https://twitter.com/darylkulak Contacting Hong Li LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/honghli/ Email: hli66.2011@gmail.com

When Mike McCalla, President, and Founder of Lean Agile Intelligence was looking for feedback on some ideas he had around enterprise agile transformation, he posted his thoughts on LinkedIn and asked if he was oversimplifying what he had started referring to as Object-Oriented Data-Driven Change. One great thing about agile folks who spend time on the interweb, if you ask them for feedback, they are more than happy to provide… often more than you want, and often about things you weren’t asking for feedback on, but, they do respond. Mike’s post kicked off a very spirited conversation. In this episode of the podcast, he joins me to share his thoughts on why taking a data-driven approach to introducing sticky change in the enterprise is an important part of delivering on the promise of change in large organizations. You can find Mike’s original LinkedIn post here: https://bit.ly/3GzuamW If you are interested in learning more about Lean Agile Intelligence and how it can help you and your organization continually assess how you are progressing in your transformation journey and what next steps are likely to help the most. https://leanagileintelligence.com Contacting Mike LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelsmccalla/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/MSMcCalla_1

This interview was originally recorded in video. You can find the video here: https://youtu.be/FGCiOhXYqwM In April 2014, Derek Huether started leading a monthly Lean Coffee meeting for Agile Baltimore. Early in 2022, the group will hold its 100th Lean Coffee! In celebration of that, Derek joined me for an interview all about Lean Coffee - what is it, how does it work, how to get set up to run one, and what are the benefits of leading a Lean Coffee. If you aren’t familiar with Lean Coffee it is an agenda-less meeting format developed by Jim Benson and Jeremy Lightsmith that relies on the people who show up to collaborate on the agenda and then cover them together. Even if you are a seasoned Lean Coffee veteran you will probably find valuable ideas here. Both Derek and I came away from this conversation with new things to try out. Also, at the end of the podcast, there is an additional brief conversation about Jira. Derek works for Atlassian and he shares a number of resources that you and your team can use to get answers to all your Jira questions. 1:00 Who is Derek Huether 2:10 What is a Lean Coffee 10:00 What do YOU get out of running a Lean Coffee 13:00 How does a Lean Coffee work 27:45 Using it to run meetings 35:15 How to Contact Derek 35:45 How to get Jira help Links from the podcast Agile Baltimore http://www.agilebaltimore.org Lean Coffee Website https://leancoffee.org Metrics Cookbook by Derek Huether https://amzn.to/3F3ragX How to Have Great Meetings: A Lean Coffee Book by Adam Yuret https://amzn.to/33glCme Lean Coffee Table (App to run Lean Coffee Meetings) https://www.leancoffeetable.com Jira videos on YouTube: https://bit.ly/JiraVideos Atlassian Community Site: https://community.atlassian.com Atlassian University: https://www.atlassian.com/university Contacting Derek Web: https://www.derekhuether.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/derekhuether/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/derekhuether Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/derekhuether/

Change is difficult. Figuring out what to change is often the hardest part. Whether you are looking for different outcomes within your organization, or you are simply trying to create a change in how you live your life, one of the first steps you need to take is to determine what it is you actually need to change to see different results. Braden Cundiff has developed a method to FLIP old behaviors and create new ones. The FLIP approach is defined in Braden’s book Flip: Projects to Products: A problem playbook (https://t.co/aQl3a5FY1z). This is the second in a series of podcasts where we are breaking down the steps in Braden’s approach and exploring how to make it work for you on a personal and organizational level. In this interview, we explore how to find the problem, why you need to name that problem and create a definition around the scope of it, and then how to assess whether or not it is a problem you can, and should take on. If you’d like to learn more about FLIP you can check out Braden’s book, Flip: Projects to Products: A problem playbook (https://t.co/aQl3a5FY1z), or you can check out the first podcast in this series, which gives an overview of the FLIP model for creating change, why it works, how it works, what the model is based on, and how you can get started using it, you can find that here: https://bit.ly/3IJpqMT Contacting Braden LinkedIn: bit.ly/3ck7t93