Delivering Value is Complex

Working smart is essentially maximizing the amount of value and minimizing the effort. A simple idea, but complex in practice. There is no linear plan towards most value. Instead, proposes Agile, you create a reasonable plan and start as soon as possible. Spending a lot of time planning is wasteful when the plan is likely to change soon.

Agile suggests that the first step is a great learning moment. You either got lucky, and built something useful, or you learned a lot when reality hit you. The first step teaches how to work smarter, and what delivering value exactly means. Furthermore, you encounter new constraints and requirements. The sooner you discover these, the less time you waste on the wrong approach.

Agile is Continuously Steering Towards More Value

After each small step, you steer again. The more frequently you steer, the smaller the required adjustments and the faster you accelerate. If you can steer skillfully and frequently, you are agile. It’s like working on a car while it’s driving. You get the car to the track as soon as possible so you learn what to improve.

Agile is often confused with flexibility. This leads many people to think that it means you can’t make commitments and everything has to remain flexible. But the opposite is true. Flexibility is just a means to achieve your goals more effectively. Making commitments and maintaining a clear direction often help you achieve results faster. Steering less and more frequently, remember?

Agile is People Work!

Perhaps most importantly, in unpredictable environments, people are key. Agile recognizes that delivering value is people work. Diversity, different perspectives, and interaction play a crucial role in solving complex problems. Processes and tools are important to support this people work, but they should not become rigid frameworks.

A Plan as a Tool, Not a Control Mechanism

An example of support and rigidity is the plan. The plan is a tool to organize your work smartly. It is valuable if it helps with alignment and enables efficient and quick progress. But if the plan takes over and becomes a rigid framework, you lose sight of delivering value. This happens, for example, when someone uses the plan as a control mechanism.

The Agile Manifesto: The Essence of Agile

The principles of Agile work are captured in the Agile Manifesto. Although originally written by software developers, it is also relevant to a broader group of people. Below you will find a translation into English and a broader context beyond just software. The Agile Manifesto contains the following four statements:

• Processes and tools support individuals and their interactions, not the other way around.
• Knowledge and documentation are valuable, but they are secondary to delivering real value, such as working products or services.
• Clear agreements – contracts – are important, but they should not hinder collaboration with colleagues, suppliers, and customers.
• Working in a planned manner is efficient, as long as it doesn’t prevent you from responding to change.

The Fifth Cornerstone of Agile: Working with Facts

Unfortunately, an indispensable cornerstone of Agile has been overlooked in the Agile Manifesto: empiricism. Empiricism means basing knowledge and decisions on observable facts, not opinions or assumptions. Working with data and facts plays a crucial role in our successful approach. Therefore, you can make a fifth statement:

• Opinions and assumptions provide direction, but they should not blind you to observable facts.

Would you like to “Just Work Smarter”?

If you are eager to discover what Agile can mean for your team or organization, feel free to contact me. You can also read the book “Sturen op Resultaat” (Managing for Results), which provides practical guidance on implementing the above statements. It is a proven approach to creating significant value for your organization and its customers.

The post What is Agile Exactly? appeared first on Wendbaar Groeien.

Steering the Agile Submarine

Expressing Goals, Not Solutions in your backlog refinement process

Captain Marquet’s approach was groundbreaking. He refused to give orders and limited himself to expressing the end goal, refraining from dictating solutions. This shift empowered his crew, fostering a sense of ownership and responsibility. How does this apply to backlog refinement in Agile? Like a submarine captain, a Product Owner should articulate the ‘what’ and ‘why’ of backlog items, leaving the ‘how’ to the development team. This approach encourages a vibrant, solution-focused discussion among developers, unleashing their creativity and expertise.

“Don’t Brief, Certify” Technique

In “Turn the Ship Around,” Marquet introduces the “Don’t Brief, Certify” technique. Instead of giving detailed briefings, he certified the crew’s understanding and readiness. Applying this to Agile, during backlog refinement sessions, the Product Owner ensures that the team comprehensively understands each item. It’s not about instructing; it’s about confirming that the team is equipped with the knowledge to proceed.

The Power of Engaging Conversations during Backlog Refinement

Backlog refinement then becomes a platform for engaging conversations about solutions. The team collaboratively discusses and dissects each backlog item, offering diverse perspectives. This process not only ensures a deeper understanding but also enhances commitment to the solutions devised.

Maintaining Grip: Short Early Conversations

Captain Marquet’s technique of “short early conversations” right before execution is another gem. In Agile, this translates to the Product Owner having brief, focused discussions with the team just before they start working on backlog items. These conversations serve as a final check-in, ensuring alignment and clarity.

Curiosity instead of questioning

For Product Owners, it’s crucial to approach these conversations with curiosity, not interrogation. Asking open-ended questions and listening actively demonstrates trust in the team’s capabilities. It’s about seeking to understand, not to question their competence.

Conclusion: let the team figure it out

Implementing these techniques in backlog refinement can significantly enhance team dynamics and efficiency. By adopting a goal-focused approach, encouraging engaging solution discussions, and maintaining alignment through short, early conversations, Product Owners can lead their teams to greater depths of success.

Dive Deeper with Expert Guidance

If these strategies don’t resolve your backlog refinement challenges, the issue may lie deeper. Don’t navigate these waters alone. Contact Anton Vanhoucke, an expert in Agile and Scrum practices, to explore tailored solutions for your team’s unique needs. With Anton’s guidance, you can turn your Agile submarine into a powerhouse of productivity and innovation.

The post The Backlog Refinement process of a Submarine Captain appeared first on Wendbaar Groeien.

I’m sharing secrets that work, from my personal experience. Do you know what’s so special about these secrets? I can openly share them and still influence you! Hold my beer.

1. The Art of creating Engaging Openers

To hook your audience from the very beginning, start with an open-ended question that introduces your topic. Make a promise using a comparative adjective—easier, faster, better—setting expectations for what’s to come. Reinforce these points throughout your speech to maintain engagement, especially when transitioning between different themes or ideas. Do you want an example? Reread the title and the introduction to this blog. Then take a break and feel how the power of this format engages you. Then read on for the next secret.

2. The Power of ‘Who’ Questions

A special case of the opening question is the who question. Begin with a compelling ‘who’ question and raise your own hand while posing it. This simple gesture immediately establishes a connection and makes your audience feel involved. For example, “Who here has ever felt the excitement of impressing someone? (Raises hand) The feeling is awesome, isn’t it?”

3. Weaving Anecdotes into the Narrative

Anecdotes are a speaker’s secret weapon. Share stories with enthusiasm, authenticity, and humor, ensuring they resonate with your audience. These anecdotes create relatable touchpoints, forging a deeper connection between you and your listeners.

For instance, I’m passionate about leadership and autonomous teams. In an explorative workshop with a new client, I was invited to share some ideas for improving that client’s innovation process. Instead of sharing ideas, I told stories of other clients. I shared anecdotes of their initial question, how that question evolved, what interventions we organized, and what the value was. I was in the explorative workshop with a colleague, and on the way back he commented: “Wow they were really clinging to your lips!” His comment totally surprised me. I felt like the only thing I did was share some stories. But these stories turned out to be more powerful than I knew. I didn’t even use the second biggest engagement hack:

4. Catering to Diverse Speed Preferences

Audiences come with varying speed preferences. Some are introverted and prefer a slower pace, while others are extroverted and thrive on faster delivery. To keep everyone engaged, alternate your speaking pace. Moreover, tailor your language and support materials to cater to these preferences. Visual aids for fast-paced individuals, audio cues for the moderate-paced, and emotional appeals for those who prefer a slower pace.

5. Pace and Space: A Dynamic Duo:

Your presence encompasses more than just your voice. Combine pacing with spatial dynamics for an even more impactful delivery. Imagine how engaging it could be if you take more distance and tell a high-energy anecdote. Then you move closer to the audience, lower your voice, start speaking slowly for emphasis, and deliver the punchline. How powerful is that?

You can also you left and right movements. Position yourself at specific points to reinforce ideas, creating a mental map for your audience. Designate specific spots on the stage for each major point, returning to these spots to reinforce your ideas.

Want to know another underused mode of communication? Hand gestures! Try using consistent hand gestures for specific ideas. For instance, every time you mention the attention of the audience in your speech, you lean forward in a pensive motion, squinting your eyes and rubbing your chin.

6. Commanding Attention with Imperatives

Speaking is not only about sharing information and ideas. You can actually ask your audience to do things. And they’ll like it because your imperatives will activate them. Phrases like “Pay close attention,” “Take a deep breath,” or “Imagine this scenario” prompt engagement and maintain focus. Imagine how these directives could keep your audience actively participating in your next discourse. And now reread the previous sentence and appreciate the power of imperatives! Then read on, because the best is yet to come…

7. Pre-Pump to pique curiosity

The next hack is a double whammy. Wonder what it is? It is opening with statements like “The next hack I’m about to share is really special…”, “Honestly, have you ever wondered…”, “What amazed me is…”, or “Here’s something hardly anyone knows…” These introductions focus and refocus your audience’s attention and prepare them for upcoming insights. You create intrigue by using attention-grabbing openings. Why is that a double whammy? Because it also changes the pace. You can slow down a bit when pre-pumping and still keep everyone’s attention! Now that you have their attention, how can you imprint something in their memory? Read on!

8. Crafting Lasting Impressions

As you wrap up your speech, remember that people retain a single emotion and a single message. Decide in advance what emotion and message you want to leave your audience with. Conclude with an action-driven moment, giving a clear directive for what they should do, avoid, or remember. The directive should be empowering. This means it should give the audience ideas or tools to resolve problems they have. What a great gift to give! But wait… how do you know what problems are relevant to your audience? That brings us to the last point.

9. Listening: The Bedrock of Effective Speaking

Listening is the cornerstone of exceptional speaking. It’s not just about understanding your audience but demonstrating genuine interest. As the saying goes, “People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.” Discovering their passions and interests allows you to tailor your message for maximum impact.

Conclusion

In essence, the art of public speaking is a delicate dance between captivating your audience’s attention, maintaining engagement, and leaving a memorable imprint. By incorporating these techniques—crafting powerful openers, utilizing engaging questions, weaving relatable anecdotes, adapting to varied pace preferences, mastering movement, using imperatives, pre-pumping key points, creating lasting impressions, and genuinely connecting through listening—you can transform into a masterful speaker who effortlessly leaves a mark on every audience. Remember, the journey to becoming a remarkable speaker begins with a willingness to truly listen and connect.

Feel free to connect with me if you want to discuss more ideas about speaking. And maybe I can engage your audience around the topics of teamwork, leadership, objectives, and a happy workplace!

The post How anyone can be a Keynote Speaker: 9 quick hacks for more engagement. appeared first on Wendbaar Groeien.

Disclaimer

I’m not a fan of violence. Most military personnel will tell you that the best solutions to crises are the ones where no shots are fired. When violence happens, however, we can learn from it. I believe these extreme situations have lessons that also apply in daily life.

The 6-step process of military planning

The actual military planning process is unlike the movies. It’s much more inclusive and does not revolve around individual heroism. Instead of heroism, it’s about leadership on all levels. 

The military process has 6 phases: define the end state, situation analysis, develop the plan, execute, reprioritize, and evaluate. They loosely map on the Scrum events you know: product goal, sprint review, sprint planning, sprint, daily Scrum, and sprint retrospective.

STEP 1: Defining the End State

The first phase of military planning involves clearly defining the desired outcome or the “end state” of the mission. Similarly, in Scrum, it is essential to establish a shared understanding of the objectives. The military call this the “commander’s intent.” 

In Scrum, the end state is called the “Product Goal.” In practice, however, I see many Scrum teams skip this step. They collect a list of tasks from the organization and start executing them. We can learn from the military that a clear commander’s intent allows team members to make informed decisions and adapt their approach as needed. That’s more agile than just executing a bunch of tasks. And it’s more fun and creative too.

In larger military operations, the end state is cascading. It is broken up into a hierarchy of mission areas, and the detailed plans are relegated to the respective units.

STEP 2. Situation Analysis

In the military planning process, conducting a thorough situation analysis is vital. This involves gathering relevant facts and assumptions about the mission: resources, risks, and opportunities. 

The analysis should also establish the scope and boundaries of the project, ensuring that everyone is aligned and aware of their responsibilities and constraints.

Likewise, in Scrum, collecting and analyzing the necessary information to make informed decisions is crucial. By conducting more analysis, Scrum teams can gain valuable insights into the project’s context, identify potential challenges, and develop appropriate strategies. Analysis doesn’t necessarily take much time. It is often a matter of asking the right questions and inviting the perspectives of experts. 

Sadly, teams often avoid confronting questions or analyzing facts relevant to their mission. Frustrating misunderstandings with the leadership are the result. On the other hand, defining a clear end-state and cooperating on the analysis builds trust.

STEP 3. Develop a plan

Once the situation has been analyzed, the military planning process moves on to developing a plan. Scrum teams do this by creating a product backlog and sprint backlog that outlines the necessary tasks, deliverables, and intermediate goals. 

A great Scrum Master will guide the process by showing the team how to collect options, prioritize decisions, define actions, and commit to these actions. By making the plan goal-based, it is easily adaptable, and thus more agile.

STEP 4. Execute

Execution is where the military planning process transitions into action. Similarly, in Scrum, this phase corresponds to the work in the sprint. During the execution phase, the Scrum team focuses on reaching the sprint goal, fostering collaboration, and effectively utilizing available resources. Complexity, external chaos, and the ‘fog of war’ ensure things rarely go as planned. More work than you can possibly do clogs up your sprint. Should you freeze? Delay the planning? No! That brings us to step 5.

STEP 5. Re-prioritize Actions

Adapting and responding to changing circumstances is essential in the military planning process. Scrum teams can apply this principle by regularly reassessing their progress toward the sprint goal. The military call this: remember the end state.

With the end state in mind, in the chaos of the battlefield, there are many things you can do. But some actions contribute more to the end state than others. The military credo is: ‘Prioritize and execute.’

In business, we have the Daily Scrum to re-prioritize tasks and adjust the approach when necessary. Having Daily Scrums with the end state in mind allows Scrum teams to remain agile, responsive, and better equipped to deal with unforeseen challenges.

STEP 6. Evaluate

The final phase of the military planning process involves evaluating the mission’s outcomes and learning from the experience. The military cultivates a culture of openness, ownership, and growth. Don’t judge; just learn. To me, it sounds a lot like the Growth Mindset. 

In Scrum, evaluation is done in the Sprint Retrospective. That’s when the team reflects on their performance, identifies areas for improvement, and applies lessons learned to future iterations or projects. By fostering a culture of learning and ownership, Scrum teams can continuously refine their processes and enhance their overall performance.

Conclusion

The military planning process offers valuable insights and practices that Scrum teams can leverage to improve their planning, execution, and adaptability. Scrum teams can enhance their collaboration, decision-making, and project outcomes by adopting ideas from the military planning process: defining and remembering the end state, cascading goals, clear scope, mission boundaries, contributing actions, leadership, ownership, and re-prioritizing. Incorporating these elements will enable Scrum teams to thrive in dynamic project environments, delivering successful outcomes with greater efficiency and agility. 

Want more? I found the works of Stan McChrystal and Jocko Willink very inspiring. They contain great insights into leadership, communication, and organization. Many thanks to Rob IJsseldijk, for kindly explaining the process to me and making this article possible.

The post Learning from the Military Planning Process: What Agile Teams Can Adopt appeared first on Wendbaar Groeien.

Why transparency? And what is it really?

I value transparency in my energy supplier. Is their pricing fair? Do they really only buy clean energy? I also value transparency in my colleagues. Do they run into issues? Can I help them? Do we understand each other? So transparency is simply the amount to which people and organizations open up. It’s how safe they feel to share facts. These psychological safety tips will help others open up.

5 practical ideas to increase psychological safety and transparency

Progress with results is a practical book, and I share five practical suggestions to improve psychological safety. When you put them into practice, carefully monitor how people respond. You should see them relax and contribute more.

Tip 1: Show involvement

Be present and focus on conversations in your team. Show that you’re listening. Close your laptop, put your phone away and take your time. Trying to multitask in a conversation hurts psychological safety. The quality of the conversation will suffer. 

Presence and focus do not mean you let others ramble on. Instead, you refocus the conversation when necessary. Honesty and clarity are better than secretly multitasking during boring conversations.

In a larger group, it is more challenging to show genuine involvement with everyone. So, for touchy subjects, reduce the group size.

Tip 2: Show understanding

Most people act with positive intentions. Remember the last time you tried to do good, but you caused a problem instead? You probably felt ashamed, stressed, frustrated, or regretful. And you didn’t need someone to point out your mistake. What you needed was understanding. 

That goes for almost everyone. So if someone makes a mistake, you don’t ask: “Why did you do this?” Asking “why” comes across as accusing, and the answer is seldomly honest.

So what’s the alternative? Focus on understanding and solutions. It’s more psychologically safe to say something like: “You look unhappy. How can we make sure this goes better next time?”

You can show understanding by acknowledging the unpleasant feeling. For example, “Am I right that you’re frustrated with how that turned out?” You can show more understanding by praising the effort. “I’m glad you worked hard trying to fix it.”

Tip 3: Be inclusive

Appreciate people that are different. Do not just tolerate the differences, but value the differences: that’s inclusivity. More diversity in your team will improve your decision-making. The more perspectives you have before making a choice, the better that choice will be. 

Appreciating differences is tricky, however. It can take quite some mental energy to work with the idiosyncracies of others. Before you know it, you will exhibit disapproving body language. Or worse: you share your discomfort by making a ‘joke’ about their behavior. Jokes like that quickly turn into sarcastic, stereotyping remarks. A half-joke like “I should have expected that from a woman” can be very painful.

Inclusivity means no sarcasm, no sneering, or personal attacks. And above all: don’t gossip, no matter how tempting. If you are critical of someone, without that person being present, it creates an unsafe environment for everyone. People who hear this will expect to be secretly criticized too. So they will pretend to be better than they are, and that reduces transparency.

Do not only avoid gossip yourself but also avert it around you. If you hear team members gossiping about another team member, speak up. Point out to them that they wouldn’t like it if people talked behind their backs.  

Tip 4: Make everyone co-owner of decisions

When you make a decision, ask for input, opinions, and feedback from everyone affected. The choice won’t always be unanimous. If a minority disagrees, ask: “What do you need to go with this decision?”

With their answer, you can tweak the implementation of the decision. Usually, some contingency measures or safeguards will get people on board. Including the minority in the decision does not only increase support but also creates better implementations.

Tip 5: Show trust and dedication

Who is the first person you should convince of the objectives of your team and your organization? It’s yourself! When you don’t feel committed, it’s tough to get others on board.

You can build personal commitment by talking to your superiors until you feel convinced of the objectives. Unless you do, people won’t believe they can rely on you for worthwhile goals.

When you onboard others, discussing an expiry date on the objectives is good practice. New facts and insights might emerge. Having objectives with an expiry date – say in three months – helps you remain agile. Furthermore, it shows that you are open to new perspectives. 

Actively increase transparency with these psychological safety tips

Transparency is a verb. When people lie or twist facts, it’s rarely because they are evil, pathetic liars. Most people have the best intentions but don’t feel safe sharing the truth about themselves. So when you want to hear the truth, judging people or criticizing them rarely helps. It’s much more effective to build their self-confidence in a safe relationship.

If you’re working with a team, you may like the Scrum Academy psychological safety survey. It’s a tool you can use to measure psychological safety in the team anonymously. The results will kickstart the conversation in the team.

Did you like this blog? Connect with me on LinkedIn. I’d love to hear about your successes in this area.

The post Psychological Safety tips: 5 ideas to help people open up appeared first on Wendbaar Groeien.

Take, for instance, the hamburger method for giving feedback. This method is one of the most cringeworthy. Sadly it’s one of the most popular ways too. The idea behind the hamburger method is to sugarcoat criticism with two bits of praise. Use it frequently, and people will start getting their shields up at the first hint of praise. They know that some dirt is coming. And when people’s guards are up, they don’t take any feedback seriously.

The hamburger method is also much too verbose to be efficient. Imagine an action-adventure movie with a top crew in a tight situation. The hero team using the hamburger method would be plain hilarious!

Raw, honest feedback is the way

A top crew needs something better than a hamburger method. They need raw and honest feedback. It’s fast, concise, and gets the team out of a tight spot. The problem is that this doesn’t work in the average workplace: nobody is serving you the raw and honest facts. And you’re not returning the favor. What is happening? There is a lack of safety and a lack of self-confidence. The politics and uncertainty of professional life seldom encourage honest feedback. But there’s hope: you can build robust platforms for feedback. Let’s investigate how.

Honest feedback can be hard to digest

The raw feedback can be hard to swallow: it might hurt your self-image. Imagine you are fulfilling the ‘Product Owner’ role. Now someone bluntly points out that your Product Backlog wasn’t all that valuable. It stings and you launch into a heated discussion about the correct way to provide feedback. Furthermore, to avoid a hurt ego you never discuss your backlog with that person anymore.

This way of handling feedback will make it very hard for you to grow in your role. You will start to avoid the best feedback. Also, people providing you feedback stop being candid because of your anger and pain.

Build a solid foundation

What you need is a robust foundation. By a foundation, I mean an acknowledged base level of performance from which you can derive enough self-confidence to handle feedback. It is an anchor for your self-esteem and personality. Let’s get back to the Product Owner example above. When you feel pain and despair bubbling up, the better course of action is to ask for the things you did well. The answers to that question will rebuild your platform. After you’ve counted the small successes, you have a platform to investigate the rest of the feedback without hard feelings. 

If you keep a diary – a common practice for successful people – you can use it to build your foundation too. It’s a perfect way to remember your successes. Count your blessings in your diary, and your platform will become more robust every day.

Practice giving direct and honest feedback

Next to building your own platform, you can build that of other too! You can help your team develop their own foundation. This will help them handle honest feedback and make them excel. 

The method is simple: just make it a habit of giving praise where praise is due. Acknowledge good work and valuable behavior. Be honest from the start, but begin practicing with the positive feedback. Make sure to point out the specific action and the effect you appreciated. Avoid making it personal, even the things you value. Don’t say: “You are the best,” but say: “You really made that meeting succeed by finishing on time after having clarified the next steps.” 

No one has full control of results, because unexpected things happen. But we do have a high degree of control over our behavior.

When you get the knack of it, you will have achieved two things: a habit of giving concise feedback and a crew with a platform for stomaching negative feedback. 

Conclusion: now is the time to start building foundations

Forget the hamburger method, the three-step method, the ladder method, and any others you might have learned. There is no quick fix for feedback. It takes conscious effort to build platforms: yours and that of others. It also takes skill to bring the message clearly and to the point. The art of giving praise is surprisingly hard to master. But start practicing today and reap fantastic growth for you and your team! 

If you want help implementing an excellent feedback culture for your team or organization, consider hiring me as a coach. You can also take the full course in Agile Coaching. Maybe check the other teamwork tips on my blog too.

The post Teamwork tip 4: Build a robust foundation to handle raw and honest feedback appeared first on Wendbaar Groeien.

To give you a sense of how Scrum works, I will first introduce the cast and their Scrum roles. After the roles, we’ll look at the recurring Scrum events. Finally, we’ll discuss how they organize their work with User Stories and Epics.

The cast and their Scrum roles

Maximizing the value out of the small rebel team

We’ll start this Scrum Guide with Leia. Princess Leia sees the bigger picture. She has a keen sense of what is right and what is wrong. She knows what is valuable to living beings across the galaxy. That’s why the rebels value her leadership. Her political savviness was of key importance for uniting all rebel factions. In Scrum, Leia is our (Chief) Product Owner. 

It’s her responsibility to make the most of the few resources the rebels have. This involves a lot of talking, stakeholder management, and decision-making. When necessary, Leia fires her blaster, but she’s by no means a soldier.

Representing the larger organization and their concerns

Next, we have the leaders of all rebel factions. They have a huge stake in the rebellion: their peoples depend on it. The rebel leaders are Stakeholders because they are only involved, not committed to the action. So they support the effort, but they don’t fly X-wings or swing lightsabers.

Delivering a great outcome

Contrary to the rebel leaders, Luke is committed. He’s in the middle of it. He gets things done. He’s a good shot and an expert at lightsabers. Han, Chewie, the X-Wing pilots, and the droids are committed too. Together they are a multidisciplinary team: the Development Team. They are self-organizing too. Han, for instance, performs best when you convince him of the value of the mission. He does not respond well to direct orders. Just let Han figure out the details with Chewie and the droids.

Continuous improvement

Finally, there’s Obi-Wan and Yoda. They are the mentors, the masters. They don’t swing their lightsaber often. Their mission is to teach, mentor and coach the team into performing the best they can. They know they’re not going to be around at all times. That’s why they aim to make themselves redundant from the start. In Scrum, we’d call Yoda and Obi-Wan Scrum Masters. Even when the Scrum Masters are gone, their wisdom (and ghosts) continue to guide the team.

Neither Yoda nor Obi-Wan ever update the Burn Down chart.

Pushing sticky notes around Scrum Boards is something the Development Team does. That team is self-organizing, so it’s up to them to track their progress.

The Evil Empire

The Evil Empire tries to be Agile too. They make some big mistakes, though: in Star Wars, the emperor is both the Chief Product Owner and Scrum Master. Combining both roles in one person hampers Agility. The combined role reduces the effectiveness with which the Empire can inspect and adapt. If they’d adapt, they wouldn’t keep building Death Stars. Surely, each Death Star is better and larger. But the empire never seems to learn that pooling all your resources into one superweapon is risky.

The recurring Scrum events, according to the Star Wars Scrum Guide

Sprint planning

Star Wars, A New Hope kicks off with Leia in a tight spot. Darth Vader is boarding her ship and she has to figure out what to do. She does a quick Scrum Sprint Planning. It’s a timeboxed event – Darth Vader is coming! – where she gets together with her team and makes an action plan. They decide the most valuable thing they can do is warn Obi-Wan Kenobi. They quickly discuss the overall objectives and the steps required and get to work.

Daily Scrum

The droids are self-organizing: once they are off in their escape pod, it’s up to them to figure out how to best achieve the mission goals. They self-organize with frequent funny exchanges in which they make day short-term plans. In Scrum, we’d call that Daily Scrums.
As they are captured by Jawas, their original plan derails completely. It’s a good thing, however, that the droids are Agile: they aren’t programmed with strict tasks. They have a good sense of their mission. And despite being captured and sold, they manage to get help from Luke and Obi-Wan.

The team grows with more expertise. This allows them to deal with the stormtroopers at Mos Eisley spaceport and escape Tatooine. Obin-Wan – the newfound Scrum Master – gets to work in the Millennium Falcon and starts teaching the team about the force and the Empire. The team’s performance rapidly improves. Who would have thought they could free Leia and get the Death Star plans to Yavin IV?

At this point, our Rebel Scrum Development Organisation has grown to multiple teams. They are Scaling Scrum. Leia is the Chief Product Owner, and she ensures team alignment by discussing the mission with the team leader and some representatives. Han leads the smugglers; Gold Leader leads the X-Wing squadron.  

Sprint Review

At Yavin IV, we meet our heroes in a war room, overseeing some holograms with stars, ships, and planets. The heroes are looking at their progress – found the Death Star schematics! – and figuring out what to do next. In Scrum, we call this the Sprint Review. There’s usually a rich assembly of representatives from different rebel factions. For these stakeholders, it’s important to ensure the overall plan – the Product Backlog – works for them and their people. Leia keeps them focused on the bigger picture. What are the broad steps toward a peaceful and inclusive galaxy? They conclude that destroying the Death Star is the obvious first step. The stakeholders agree on the resources and the risks. Now the teams are ready to do their detailed planning. 

Sprint Retrospective in Star Wars Scrum

Finally, before the next sprint, there’s some quiet time for introspection and retrospection. In Scrum, we call this the Sprint Retrospective. The teams review their capabilities and what they have learned. They align on goals and values. They reinforce their bonds and evaluate their commitment. In Star Wars — like in many movies — this is an emotional moment, the silence before the storm.

At this point in the movie, the retrospective focuses on Han’s lack of commitment. Will he come around? Will he really join the team as a full member? The end of the first Sprint Retrospective, it’s also the end of the first Sprint.

Backlog refinement

Alas for the rebels, after Episode IV, the Empire strikes back. They will have to adapt their plans for an inclusive Galaxy as they go. In Scrum, this is Backlog Refinement. They cannot foresee that the Jedi will return in episode VI. This means they have to continuously update their plan with what they know. They only need a plan that is good enough to make the next step.

Themes, Epics, Users Stories, and Tasks in Star Wars Scrum

Many real-world Scrum Teams organize their plan – their Product Backlog – in Themes, Epics, Users Stories, and Tasks. This organizational style is a way to bundle portions of the work in different sizes to keep the oversight.

In Star Wars, the cast didn’t do that explicitly. The writers of the movies did, however. The theme of the Star Wars movies is ‘Space opera.’ It consists of several epics: escape with the Death Star plans, the attack on the first Death Star, Luke’s Jedi training, and the battle of Hoth,…

The epics consist of several (user) stories. Take the epic ‘attack of the first Death Star’: It has the following stories: divert Death Star defenses, destroy gun turrets, and trench run.

The ‘trench run’ story can again be split into several actions: enter the trench, cover Luke, shoot Darth Vader, lock on the target with the Force, and fire a photon torpedo. This vocabulary helps teams connect their smallest actions to the overall mission. 

Conclusion: Scrum focuses teams for great impact

The ideas behind scrum are nothing new: they have been around since a long time ago in galaxies far, far away. What’s new about Scrum is that it formalizes many smart ways to organize effective teams. Star Wars is an epic telling of how small and focused teams can have a huge impact against all odds.

Much like the Evil Empire, some organizations force development teams to do ever more mindless work in ever less time. These organizations combine the Scrum Master and Product Owner roles in one person. Because of that, their stormtroopers will burn out eventually.

I would advise you to follow this Star Wars Scrum Guide and do it right. You can also hire a coach or participate in training. The focused and self-propelled team always wins!

The post What if Star Wars Rebels were organized with Scrum? – a Rebel Scrum Guide appeared first on Wendbaar Groeien.

Holacracy means that the whole of the team is in charge, not just the manager. In essence, Holacracy is a process of organizing self-direction and self-organization in teams. Self-organizing knowledge workers are proven time and again to be more productive than managed ones. I researched Holocracy to discover new insights for building self-organizing teams.

Getting Teams Done, a Holacry guide

I based my research mostly on ‘Getting Teams Done,’ a practical guide for implementing Holacracy. Getting Teams Done is written in the style of ‘The Goal’ and ‘The Phoenix Project.’ There’s a fictional story of a team that transitions from a hierarchical way of working to a Holacracy. This makes the book easy to read and digest. Apart from the book, I did some interviews, read a couple of experiences with Holacracy, and consulted the official Holacracy website.

How Holacracy works, compared to Agile

In Holacracy, a team is called a circle. The Holacracy process has two mandatory meetings for every circle: the governance meeting and the tactical meeting. These meetings are supposed to happen biweekly and alternately. The difference with Scrum is that the meetings have a very strict process. In Scrum, you’re free to optimize the process, and only the input (what to inspect) and the output (what to adapt) of the meetings are defined. This gives Scrum much more room for continuous improvement.

Holacracy roles

In Holacracy, a role is defined as a set of mandates and responsibilities. They have the power and the responsibility to get things done. It’s much like a function description except that it’s not everything a person does in her position: it’s just one of her roles. Unlike a function, it also explicitly evolves. So as a person, you might have multiple roles. Or you might share a role with other people. The role definition is short and clear to everyone involved.

Note that the role describes work that never finishes. It contains verbs that are infinitives. I think this role definition lacks empiricism. It would be better if there were a measure of success. How do you know if you’re doing your work well? What are the ambitious goals you could achieve within your role that would really impress the rest of the team?

Holacracy has 4 predefined roles:

1. Lead link: Defines priorities & strategies. Assigns roles.
2. Representative link: Represents team in a super circle to resolve tensions that originate from there
3. Secretary: Recordkeeping, mainly concerning roles
4. Facilitator: Leads the two Holacracy meetings and makes sure the rules are enacted

‘Tensions’ and the Governance Meeting

Governance in Holacracy is based on an interesting concept: the distinction between roles and people. This is also a basic concept in deep democracy. The nice thing about separating roles from people is that you can discuss the performance of a role without becoming personal and emotional.

When the roles in a circle don’t fit the work or the circle members, they feel tension. Sensing and discussing tensions is very important in Holacracy. Tensions make up most of the agenda of the governance meeting. The goal of that meeting is to resolve those tensions by tweaking the roles or policies for the circle. The process is based on consent: the circle is not looking for perfection. It’s looking for a good-enough solution that doesn’t raise any valid concerns.

‘Obstacles’ and the Tactical Meeting

The tactical meeting is much like a Kanban daily standup: it’s about the work to be done. This meeting misses many of the powerful aspects of Scrum and Kanban, however. There is no motivation to focus and reduce work in progress. Neither is there a drive to finish work so new work can be started. It’s just a weekly discussion of any obstacles that might have come up. In my experience, waiting for a week to discuss obstacles with the team is way too slow.

In Holacracy, the individual roles are supposed to track “projects”. “Projects” are defined as having specific outcomes that require multiple sequential actions to achieve and that would be useful to work towards, at least in the absence of competing priorities. They are written with a past participle. E.g., “Analytics system implemented”

I think the downside of this is that projects tend to become individual people’s responsibilities. This hampers flow and team commitment.

Full Holacracy ruleset

I won’t go into every detail here. If you want to see all the rules, there is a constitution that defines all the rules of Holacracy. Team managers are even required to sign it and literally “cede their authority into the constitution’s processes and endow the due results therefrom with the weight and authority otherwise carried by the ratifier(s), as further detailed in section 5.1 thereof.“

Interesting Holacracy elements to make teams more Agile

I’m not tempted to try and implement Holacracy as a whole. The process is just too restrictive. I’m much more at ease with a framework approach like Scrum. Yet there are some elements that I will adopt.

1. People are not their role. They fulfill their roles.

I will make a point of separating roles from people in my Scrum coaching practice. This will make switching roles easier. It will also improve the quality of the retrospectives.

2. Roles should be continuously clarified and evolved.

I will add a retrospective technique to my collection where we pay special attention to roles. Dependability is an important factor in team performance. Clear roles will improve team dependability a lot. I will develop a retrospective technique where every role is a ‘bucket,’ and the whole team can reflect on them. In a typical web team, this could be a Scrum Master, Product Owner, Front end developer, Tester, or UX designer,… In my experience, the responsibilities of each role always depend on the skills of every team member and the challenge at hand. Clarifying and evolving them is bound to increase commitment and productivity. Maybe the roles can even have some wall space in the Scrum room.

3. Tensions fuel continuous improvement

Tensions are usually regarded as a bad thing. While Scrum celebrates diversity and makes a point of involving experts from multiple disciplines in work, it does not explicitly say a difference of opinion is a good thing. I’ve seen teams devolve into single-minded steam engines. That hampers agility because more eyes see more risks and opportunities.

By celebrating tensions and crediting them for the continuous improvement they fuel, conflict becomes less of an emotional thing. Where people work together, there will always be conflict and tension. The trick is to harness it for productivity.

Conclusion: Holacracy vs. Scrum

Holacrcy is more related to Sociocracy than to Agile and Scrum. However, as the method is positioned as “a concrete framework for encoding autonomy, agility, and purpose-alignment into your organization’s DNA,” I will compare it to Scrum and Kanban.

If your team is moving fast, changing fast, and innovating fast, Holacracy might not be the right choice for you. Its improvement cycle is too slow. The focus on tension at the individual level is no guarantee to produce visionary organizational value. Kanban brings more focus with a simpler method at the expense of defining clear roles.

I wouldn’t call Holacracy agile because it’s not empirical like Kanban and Scrum. There is little motivation to move the needle at a time. It seems that Holacracy is more like a gearbox and optimizes every individual gear to mesh well with the others. Scrum and Kanban work more like a snowball. They gain momentum all the time yet remain open enough to change course when needed.

Share this article about Holacracy and Agile to help other people!

If this article is useful, remember to share it with others who might benefit. You can point them to my Facebook page about teamwork. You can also point them to LinkedIn. 

The post Holacracy vs. Agile appeared first on Wendbaar Groeien.

I love LEGO, I love building great teams so I thought: why don’t I build the greatest First Lego League team I’ve ever built? Through my practice I’ve become convinced that atmosphere in a team is the greatest driver of performance, joy and success. I view the atmosphere as sculpture. It’s a rough block when you start out with a new team. It could have some nice edges. But overall it needs careful shaping. The first step with a new team is getting to know each other. With the method I describe here you can easily break the ice and lay a foundation for a safe atmosphere.

Safety is the foundation for great creativity.

How to get to know each other with The Teammate Quiz

Insights after the Teammate Quiz with FLL kids

I found that the kids were more willing to cooperate in sub-teams because they would discover new shared interests. They were eager to build LEGO with newfound ‘friends’.

Secondly, I found it hard to steer the conversation away from computer games. I like to avoid discussing computer games because they bring a competitive mindset, induce bragging and lead to shallow conversations. I would be interested in how other people deal with this.

Lastly I found that kids needed way more tips to keep the conversation going than adults. They seem to be naturally more interested in themselves than in others.

Share to help other people!

If this article was useful, remember to share it with other people who might benefit. You can point them to my facebook page about teamwork. You can also point them to LinkedIn. If you’re interested in LEGO MINDSTORMS specific information I have a separate website called Anton’s Mindstorms.

The post What I learned by coaching FLL kids part 1: how to build a fresh team in 6 steps appeared first on Wendbaar Groeien.

Long-term and short-term team performance

There are a lot of things in life that I’d love to do, but don’t. Some examples: just staying in bed when I have to work, eating that whole bag of crisps, binge-watching a Netflix series, just staring out of the window,… These are short-term urges and they will get me in trouble in the long run.

These urges come from the proverbial belly. The belly points us in the direction of our needs. Luckily there’s also a proverbial head to keep the belly in check. The head steers us towards the shoulds.

In every team, people have stuff they should do for the team and the stuff they just need to do from time to time. It’s a fact of life. But how can you balance the two while keeping productivity up?

The rebelling belly

When you’re born, you’re all belly. As you grow up you gradually learn social behavior. You get better at planning and long-term goals. Your head kicks into action.

The belly does not go away, however — and that’s a good thing. The belly stays to remind the head of your bodily needs. It even keeps tabs and can intervene at inconvenient times if you ignore it for too long. The belly rebels against overexertion.

Why is all belly and head stuff so important for teamwork? In the teams I coach, people are using their heads most of the time. They are expected to! This means they tend to ignore their proverbial belly.

Ignoring the belly is a dangerous thing because having too many unmet needs can make people cranky, stressed, or depressed. None of that is good for teamwork. Conclusion? We humans need to balance the head and the belly.

The art of balancing head and belly

“Balance? That’s boring,” you might say: “In our team, it’s rock and roll! Stretching limits!” I have discovered however, that balance can be very dynamic and slippery. Take any YouTube video of an extreme sports athlete: their art is extreme dynamic balance!

So, for teamwork work/life balance means:

• Creating some room for needs between all of the shoulds.
• Get off your butt and start doing something when you’re ready.
• Make time to unwind when you feel pressured.
• Getting some proper alone time when you’ve been talking a lot.

Where’s the threshold? It depends. I try to be mindful of my focus: when my productivity drops I take a break. It’s not hard to notice a productivity drop, but it’s hard to act on it. At first, this felt counterintuitive. I used to think that the best remedy for lowered productivity was just working harder or drinking more coffee. Taking a break, however, rests the mind. The rest usually brings insight into why the productivity dropped in the first place.

Meditate for 15 minutes per day. If you don’t have 15 minutes, meditate for an hour.

Zen saying

Taking true breaks

There are fake breaks and true breaks. A fake break is just doing something else with your proverbial head: checking your email, checking social media or playing a computer game. This kind of activity doesn’t give the mind any break.

A true break is just doing nothing with the head. Activities that work well for me are:

• Talking a walk
• Chatting over a cup of coffee
• Going to the toilet without a smartphone
• Peeling an orange
• Mindfully drinking coffee or tea

I try to avoid mindlessly drinking coffee at my desk. I try to make coffee into a true break. Coffee can be something social or something mindful.

Conclusion: maximize teamwork by balancing work-life

Productivity and rest, the individual and the team, the needs, and the shoulds: they are all deeply intertwined and need to be balanced continuously.

Does this mean that the team should work less? Should you set your ambitions lower? Not at all! You need to work better. Working your butt off is important to achieve great goals. However, you can only really work your butt off if you carefully tune the balance between belly and head.

About this series of articles

This article is part of a series of articles about teamwork. Together they form a summary of the book summary of ‘Effect’. It’s a book full of from a team of ice skating champions. In the previous article, I wrote about how the things you do are often contrary to the effect you desire.

My next article in this series will be about investigating the intent behind other people’s actions and how that helps to create better teams! Are their bellies or heads speaking? Subscribe here and don’t miss the next piece.

The post balance needs and shoulds appeared first on Wendbaar Groeien.