Podcasts about agile organizations

BONUS: Unlocking High-Performance in Agile Organizations, with Rebecca Homkes In this BONUS episode, strategy expert Rebecca Homkes delves into the core themes of her book Survive Reset Thrive: Leading breakthrough growth strategy in volatile times. With a wealth of experience advising CEOs and serving as a Lecturer at London Business School, Rebecca shares practical advice on how leaders can navigate uncertainty, cultivate internal predictability, and create adaptive, high-performing teams. Whether you're in the software industry or any other fast-paced environment, this conversation offers invaluable insights into leading through change and driving sustainable growth. Reframing Our Response to Uncertainty for Agile Organizations “Uncertainty is the new certainty. Let's not make change bigger than it needs to be.” Rebecca opens with a key premise from her book: the need to reframe our natural response to uncertainty. She challenges the common association between uncertainty and negativity, urging leaders to embrace it as an opportunity for growth. She explains how software industry leaders can guide their teams to view change as a pathway to innovation, rather than a setback. Uncertainty, after all, is a constant, and thriving in volatile times requires a mindset shift towards flexibility and resilience. "Leaders should embrace uncertainty as an opportunity, not a setback. It's about changing the narrative and leading your team to thrive amidst change." Planning for the Future in Agile Contexts “Shift from planning to preparing. Build capabilities to seize opportunities as they emerge.” Rebecca advises against over-reliance on rigid strategic plans. Instead, she emphasizes the importance of building flexibility into long-term strategies—especially in fast-moving industries like software development. Leaders should focus on preparation, enabling their teams to adapt quickly to new opportunities as they arise. She highlights the value of testing beliefs, making small, incremental bets, and staying agile when strategic assumptions change. "Stop focusing on rigid plans. Build preparation into your strategy and be ready to capitalize on unexpected opportunities." Building Internal Predictability “Internal predictability enables teams to navigate chaos. Clarity in decision-making is key.” While adaptability is crucial, Rebecca highlights the importance of internal predictability to create a stable foundation for teams to thrive. This means establishing clear decision-making processes and aligning team goals, so that despite external chaos, there is an internal structure that teams can rely on. She underscores the need for "aligned speed"—the ability to make quick, effective decisions with clarity on who is responsible for each choice. "Adaptability doesn't mean chaos. Build internal predictability by codifying decision-making processes, enabling faster, clearer decisions." The 9 Power Moves in the Agile Framework "Surviving crises requires discipline in execution. The 9 Power Moves provide a playbook." Rebecca shares insights into her "9 Power Moves," a framework designed to help organizations navigate crises. She explains how these moves can be adapted by software companies facing market shifts or project setbacks. Each move offers a practical step leaders can implement to ensure their teams remain agile, focused, and ready to turn challenges into growth opportunities. "To thrive in a crisis, you need a disciplined approach. The 9 Power Moves give leaders a clear playbook for turning adversity into success." Celebrating Experimentation in the Software Industry “If you learn faster, you grow faster. Experimentation is about learning, not failure.” Rebecca emphasizes the importance of fostering a culture that celebrates experimentation, especially in industries like software where innovation drives success. Experimentation is not about failure but about quickly testing assumptions that could impact the company's success. She encourages leaders to create an environment where experimentation is seen as a discipline, supported by clear processes to test new ideas rapidly and cheaply. "Experimentation is about fast learning, not failure. Create a culture where testing assumptions is celebrated as a path to growth." Fostering Shared Context for Cohesive Agile Teams “Communication is not the same as understanding. Focus on simplicity and shared context.” One of the key insights Rebecca shares is the idea that more communication does not necessarily lead to better results. Instead, she stresses the need for shared context among team members. In agile environments, leaders should focus on simplicity, ensuring everyone understands what the organization is trying to achieve and how each person's work ties into that vision. This approach helps maintain alignment and efficiency, especially in cross-functional teams. "More communication doesn't equal better teamwork. Focus on building a shared context to ensure everyone is aligned on goals." Overcoming Leadership Obstacles in Agile Transformation “Take a pause and reassess your beliefs. Don't let past success create blind spots.” Rebecca identifies common leadership traps during Agile transformations, such as overconfidence in past successes. She advises leaders to regularly reassess their beliefs and strategies to avoid stagnation. She also stresses the importance of creating space for strategic conversations, so teams feel aligned and empowered to execute their work within the broader organizational goals. "Avoid leadership traps by regularly reassessing your beliefs. Don't let past success blind you to new realities." Learning from Real-Life Case Studies in Agile Environments “High-performing teams act on beliefs, not just facts. Track your beliefs to learn and adapt faster.” Drawing from real-life case studies from companies like Spotify and Dell, Rebecca shares key lessons for building high-performing teams. She emphasizes the importance of acting on well-tested beliefs and using these as the foundation for strategic decisions. To support this, she suggests using a "belief tracker" to monitor and adapt strategies based on real-time learning and experimentation. "Successful teams don't just rely on facts—they act on beliefs. Use belief trackers to stay agile and learn faster."     About Rebecca Homkes Rebecca Homkes is a strategy expert, advising CEOs and serving as a Lecturer at London Business School. With roles at Duke, BCG University, and as a London School of Economics fellow, she is also a keynote speaker and YPO Faculty Director. Leading fintech accelerators and serving on company boards, she holds a doctorate from LSE and resides in Miami, San Francisco, and London. Rebecca is the author of Survive Reset Thrive: Leading breakthrough growth strategy in volatile times. You can link with Rebecca Homkes on LinkedIn.

In the latest episode of the Org Design Podcast, hosts Tim Brewer and Amy Springer welcome Shubha Narayanan, a partner at OrgSmith, to discuss all things organization design and workforce transformation. Shubha shares her insights on the evolving role of org design, emphasizing the importance of solving problems through people and processes rather than mere structures. She delves into her journey from working at KPMG to leading OrgSmith, highlighting the importance of aligning organizational structures with business strategies. The conversation also touches on the impact of AI on org design, the need for horizontal organizations, and the crucial role of leaders in fostering collaboration and innovation. Shubha's UNSPEND model for org design is explained, providing listeners with a comprehensive approach to tackling organizational challenges. This episode is a must-listen for anyone interested in creating agile, efficient, and scalable organizations.Support the Show.

Milica Lubinic: Consent-based Decision-making for Agile Organizations Read the full Show Notes and search through the world's largest audio library on Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes. Milica shares insights from her experience in a company undergoing Agile transformation. She highlights the misalignment in decision-making processes and the need for consent-based decision-making. By facilitating retrospectives with leadership and creating guides for new decision-making approaches, she navigated through various challenges.    [IMAGE HERE] As Scrum Master we work with change continuously! Do you have your own change framework that provides the guidance, and queues you need when working with change? The Lean Change Management framework is a fully defined, lean-startup inspired change framework that can be used as the backbone of any change process! You can buy Lean Change Management the book at Amazon. Also available in French, Spanish, German and Portuguese.   About Milica Lubinic Milica is a Mom and Professional and Organizational Coach who is all about dealing with complexity, whether it's child development or organizational/team/individual transformation and growth. She found her true calling in the world of Agile, Cynefin, and Progressive organizational cultures. Creating safe spaces for innovation, nurturing trust, and sparking engagement is her true passion. You can link with Milica Lubinic on LinkedIn.

For this podcast discussion, Emily Lint and Kate Arms combined their two favorite loves: Psychology and Agile by discussing the Theory of Positive Disintegration and how it impacts the way we transform. Could hard transformations and struggles help us to actually grow better?    About the Featured Guest   Kate Arms is an Agile Coach once described as “our team's equivalent of Yoda.” She gave up programming as an act of teenage rebellion, but keeps coming back to tech, previously as a tech transactions lawyer. She holds a BA in Theatre and Biopsychology from Cornell University and a JD from Harvard Law School. She is an international coach federation PCC and an ICAgile Expert in Enterprise Coaching.   Follow Kate Arms on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/katearmscoach/)   References:   The Women in Agile community champions inclusion and diversity of thought, regardless of gender, and this podcast is a platform to share new voices and stories with the Agile community and the business world, because we believe that everyone is better off when more, diverse ideas are shared.   Podcast Library: www.womeninagile.org/podcast Women in Agile Org Website: www.womeninagile.org    Connect with us on social media! LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/womeninagile/ Instagram: www.instagram.com/womeninagile/ Twitter: www.twitter.com/womeninagileorg    Please take a moment to rate and review the Women in Agile podcast on your favorite podcasting platform. This is the best way to help us amplify the voices and wisdom of the talent women and allies in our community! Be sure to take a screenshot of your rating and review and post it on social media with the hashtag #womeninagile to help spread the word and continue to elevate Women in Agile.   About our Host   Emily Lint is a budding industry leader in the realm of business agility. Energetic and empathetic she leverages her knowledge of psychology, business, technology, and mindfulness to create a cocktail for success for her clients and peers. Her agile journey officially started in 2018 with a big move from Montana to New Mexico going from traditional ITSM and project management methodologies to becoming an agile to project management translator for a big government research laboratory. From then on she was hooked on this new way of working. The constant innovation, change, and retrospection cured her ever present craving to enable organizations to be better, do better, and provide an environment where her co-workers could thrive.    Since then she has started her own company and in partnership with ICON Agility Services serves, coaches, and trains clients of all industries in agile practices, methodologies, and most importantly, mindset. Please check out her website (www.lintagility.com) to learn more. You can also follow Emily on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/emilylint/).    About our Sponsor Scrum.org is the Home of Scrum, founded in 2009 by Scrum co-creator Ken Schwaber focused on helping people and teams solve complex problems by improving how they work through higher levels of professionalism. Scrum.org provides free online resources, consistent experiential live training, ongoing learning paths, and certification for people with all levels of Scrum knowledge. You can learn more about the organization by visiting www.scrum.org.  

So you want to lead your team toward innovation. Does that require that you know where you're going? Not according to Linda Hill.Hill is a professor of business administration at Harvard Business School whose research focuses on leadership and how organizations achieve innovation. When it comes to generating breakthrough ideas, Hill says it's less about a creative vision and more about stepping into the unknown. “Innovation [is] not about an individual coming up with a new idea,” she says. “Instead, innovation is the result of the collaboration of people with diverse expertise and diverse perspectives coming together, being able to collaborate, being able to experiment together and learn.”In this episode of Think Fast, Talk Smart, Hill and host Matt Abrahams discuss how leaders can foster cultures and environments where innovation thrives — where teams use communication and collaboration to “co-create the future.”Episode Reference Links:Harvard Business School Profile: Website Linda's books: Collective Genius: The Art and Practice of Leading Innovation Being the Boss, with a New Preface: The 3 Imperatives for Becoming a Great Leader Becoming a Manager: How New Managers Master the Challenges of Leadership Linda's article on the value of collaboration & conflict: Collective Genius Communicator Linda admires: Vineet Nayar + Employees First, Customers Second Connect:Email Questions & Feedback >>> thinkfast@stanford.eduEpisode Transcripts >>> Think Fast Talk Smart WebsiteNewsletter Signup + English Language Learning >>> FasterSmarter.ioThink Fast Talk Smart >>> LinkedIn Page, Instagram, YouTubeMatt Abrahams >>> LinkedInStanford GSB >>> LinkedIn & TwitterChapters:(00:00:00) IntroductionHost Matt Abrahams introduces guest Linda Hill, an expert in leadership development and innovation from Harvard Business School.(00:01:10) Leading for Innovation vs. Leading for ChangeFundamental differences between leading for innovation and for change, and the unique challenges required for innovation.(00:02:53) Creating a Culture of InnovationThe essential components of a culture that promotes innovation, with focus on communication and collaboration.(00:06:21) The Role of Shared Values and Purpose in InnovationShared values, and the distinction between vision and purpose within innovative organizations.(00:09:43) Communication's Impact on InnovationHow effective communication facilitates innovation, including strategies for engaging diverse teams and the significance of storytelling.(00:14:30) Conflict and Creativity in Collaborative EnvironmentsThe value of conflict in innovation, and how managing disagreements and diverse viewpoints can lead to more creative solutions.(00:16:06) The Final Three QuestionsLinda Hill shares practices to foster collaboration with others, a communicator she admires, and her ingredients for successful communication.(00:19:54) ConclusionSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week, Dan Neumann and Justin Thatil are joined by Mike Guiler to explore how organizations can better support their managers. In this episode, they discuss two adoption patterns, the grassroots and the top-down approach, and the distinction between being a Manager and a Leader.   Key Takeaways The grassroots adoption pattern and the top-down approach in an Agile Organization: Grassroots starts at a Team level. The top-down approach begins with the boss. If an Agile Team is self-managing: What does a Manager do? A Manager must decide whether he wants to be just a Manager or a Leader because these are different roles. Leaders set clear objectives; they are not so focused on the daily chores but on the higher business-valued conversations. A Leader cares about how to build the environment. A Manager needs to work his way to becoming a Leader and less about assigning tasks to Team members. A leader's work should come from a mentorship place, sharing his knowledge and experience for the Team to explore (instead of being told what to do). An Organization can support a Manager embracing Leadership and becoming a servant leader. A Leader evaluates options and consults them with the Team; a leader does not impose practices. Communication is more valuable than processes and tools. The organization must have a plan in mind but check first how the Team responds. A Leader's job is to establish the vision, shifting away from the “how.” While the Team is busy executing the hypothesis, the Leader is thinking about the next step. The Alignment of OKRs is vital for an Organization. Ensuring that OKRs match the plans for the product and what the business wants to achieve is fundamental for companies. This way, everyone knows what's most important. How role descriptions are set up (performance reviews, salary adjustments) can influence the leader's job.   Mentioned in this Episode: Who Moved My Cheese?, by Spencer Johnson What Got You Here Won't Get You There, by Marshall Goldsmith and Mark Reiter Team of Teams, by General Stanley McChrystal   Want to Learn More or Get in Touch? Visit the website and catch up with all the episodes on AgileThought.com! Email your thoughts or suggestions to Podcast@AgileThought.com or Tweet @AgileThought using #AgileThoughtPodcast!  

Kate and Ryan discuss questions you can ask prospective employers to see if they align with Agile, Scrum, and what you're looking for in a new role

Sofia Katsaouni: Collaborative Change, Lessons in OKR Adoption For Agile Organizations Read the full Show Notes and search through the world's largest audio library on Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes. In this episode, Sofia shares insights from her involvement in a change process at the C-level, implementing OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) within the product engineering organization. Collaborating with the CTO, they navigated challenges, emphasizing the importance of clear messaging, team training, and collaborative spaces for discussion. Sofia provides practical tips on introducing OKRs, creating facilitation guides, and stressing organizational alignment.   [IMAGE HERE] As Scrum Master we work with change continuously! Do you have your own change framework that provides the guidance, and queues you need when working with change? The Lean Change Management framework is a fully defined, lean-startup inspired change framework that can be used as the backbone of any change process! You can buy Lean Change Management the book at Amazon. Also available in French, Spanish, German and Portuguese.   About Sofia Katsaouni Sofia is a dedicated Agile and Organizational Coach who places people and their needs at the forefront. Transitioning from electrical engineering, she applies analytical skills to empower high-performing teams. With an emphasis on trust and psychological safety, Sofia enables startups and scale-ups to foster human-centric, performance-driven cultures. You can link with Sofia Katsaouni on LinkedIn.   

In this episode, Doug sits down with 5 guests at the Pittsburgh MiniCon convention put on by Franklin. The topic—change readiness. Every person and every organization is grappling with change readiness in some way.At the organizational level we discuss the importance of listening, bringing elements of nostalgia into new spaces, involving multiple generations in decision-making, and maintaining a flexible attitude.On a personal level we need to accept and learn from failure when trying new things, we need to value the blending of fresh perspectives with institutional wisdom, and realize that change often brings new relationships and opportunities.During this episode you'll hear from:Jane Hallinan from Perkins EastmanSanela Schnitgen from University of PittsburghBeverly Shelby from AE WorksPamela Austin from Burns Scalo Real EstateRalph Dallier from FranklinThis episode was inspired by an episode The Disrupted Workforce with Warren Berger.Learn more about Franklin's Pittsburgh MiniCon convention.Click here to get your copy of Doug's children's book—Design Your World.Follow Imagine a Place on LinkedIn.

Ana Cavagnoli is the founder of Ignite Business; she has over 20 years of experience working in large organizations leading change by inspiring and empowering people. Over her career, Ana has implemented strategies and process improvements with significant bottom-line results during her career. She is a transformational leader that knows how to drive performance by crafting and sharing a clear vision, defining measurements, and elevating collaboration throughout cross-functional teams locally and globally. During her career, Ana learned how to lead and work in male-dominant environments and how to be self-confident despite challenges. Her broad international experience allowed Ana to become an empathetic leader learning how to adapt her communication style to different audiences and cultures.   CAREER HIGHLIGHTS: - 20 + years of expertise in Customer Experience (CX), Process Improvement, Supply Chain Management (Logistics, Quality, Procurement), Project Management, Product Management, and Business Value Strategies. - She had several leadership positions in male-dominant organizations:  as Director of Quality, Sr Customer Experience Manager, and Logistic Manager. - Experience working with Agile Organizations implementing Business Strategy for diverse teams. - Wide range of international experience (10 different countries) allowed Ana to develop - Founder of Ignite Business, acting as a speaker, consultant, mentor, and training teams. Ana's LinkedIn Ana's Website Ana's Instagram

In this episode we dive into the world of smart contracts and their remarkable impact on organizational design. Our guest Justice Conder provides a thought-provoking introduction to what he calls the third law of nature of smart contracts. We explore the transformative journey from traditional corporations to the realm of Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs) keeping a non ideological mindset and examining the challenges of bridging the gap between the two paradigms. Justice Conder does DAO Ecosystem Development at Polygon Labs. Before this he was a full-stack developer and Agile practitioner for over ten years and entered the world of DAOs through BanklessDAO, where he contributed as a governance solution engineer. With Justice we explore the disconnect between DAOs and traditional organizations, investigating how smart contracts - as a conceptual evolution of DevOps - could play a pivotal role in driving organizational transformation. We also discuss how pioneering transformations such as the one with Haier's management model, Rendanheyi, has a symbiotic relationship with the on-chain revolution, offering insights into the future of organizational design and management. Get ready to be inspired by the immense potential of Web3 capabilities in product development, and discover how these capabilities can be harnessed to unleash innovation, foster user engagement, and shape the future of products and organizations. Key Highlights 

This week I am joined by Cesario Ramos to discuss his latest book "Creating Agile Organizations", what is a product, where do former product owners go and dealing with dependencies. On the agenda: Structure, incentives & processes What is a product Where do former product owners go? Mindset & hiring policies Dependencies between teams Coaching & leadership support Customer centric focus About Cesario Ramos: Cesario Ramos is a Agile Management consultant. He founded AgiliX, a network organisation that guides agile adoptions worldwide. Cesario is the author of the books: 'Creating Agile Organizations', ‘EMERGENT – Lean & Agile adoption for an innovative workplace' and 'A Scrum Book'. He is also a certified LeSS (Large Scale Scrum) trainer, Professional Scrum trainer from Scrum.org and Qualified Innovation Games® Instructor. He has an MSc in mathematics &computing science from the University of Eindhoven and started working with agile teams back in 2001. In the past he was an agile consultant at Xebia, CTO at codecentric NL, a product manager at Atos, a hard-core developer and the lead software architect at PANalytical. In his spare time he co-organises AgiliX Recap days, the international Large Scale Scrum conferences and is the initiator of the Agile-Lean Bathtub conferences. He is happy to be an active member of the ScrumPloP® community and is a frequent speaker at conferences around the world. Cesario strongly believes that fun at the workplace is essential for success. Connect with Cesario on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cesarioramos/ Enjoyed this episode? Let's connect: ⁠⁠⁠https://linktr.ee/johncolemanxagility ⁠⁠⁠- social and podcast links  ⁠⁠⁠https://linkpop.com/orderlydisruption⁠⁠⁠ - order training from right here If you are interested in helping your team or organization achieve greater agility and want to explore agile training options, visit our training page on ⁠⁠⁠https://x-agility.com/executive-agility-leadership-training/⁠⁠⁠. If you value coaching and would like to work with a deeply experienced agile and executive coaching specialist, visit our coaching page on ⁠⁠⁠https://x-agility.com/executive-agility-coaching/⁠⁠⁠ If you are looking for an agile consultant that can help your leadership team identify an appropriate roadmap to organizational agility and take the most effective course of action in your agile transformation, visit our consulting page on ⁠⁠⁠https://x-agility.com/executive-agility-consulting/⁠⁠ #scrum #agile #productowner #management --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/xagility/message

Process.  Practices.  Principles.  But what about org structure?  This week we sit down with Cesario Ramos, one of the authors behind Creating Agile Organizations: A Systemic Approach to discuss the importance of organizational design and how it directly impacts the odds of success when trying to perform any type of large-scale organizational change, especially an agile transformation.  Cheers! Creating Agile Organizations website If you enjoyed this episode, please give us a review, a rating, or leave comments on iTunes, Stitcher or your podcasting platform of choice. It really helps others find us.  Much thanks to the artist Krebs from Machine Man Records who provided us our outro music free-of-charge!  If you like what you heard, check out these links to find more music you might enjoy! If you'd like to join the discussion and share your stories,  please jump into the fray at our Discord Server! We at the Agile Uprising are committed to being totally free.  However, if you'd like to contribute and help us defray hosting and production costs we do have a Patreon.  Who knows, you might even get some surprises in the mail!  

Read the full Show Notes and search through the world's largest audio library on Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes. As Scrum Masters, we operate at different levels. From the individual, to the team, to the organizational level and others! That means, Scrum Masters must be able to switch between the different levels, and keep different goals and methods in mind. In this episode, we discuss how we can acknowledge, and prepare for the different demands put on us. We discuss coaching, non-directive coaching, journaling as a technique to sharpen our senses, and the need to have a sparring partner, or even a coach to help us be more aware and deliberate in our work.  Featured Retrospective Format for the Week: The 6 Thinking Hats retrospective The 6 thinking hats by De Bono, is a book that explains that we have different ways to look at work, and problems we face. The 6 thinking hats retrospective helps us take advantage of the different types of thinking that we have in the team, and focus the team on what they can influence, rather than trying to solve all kinds of problems, many of which are outside the influence of the team.  Retrospectives, planning sessions, vision workshops, we are continuously helping teams learn about how to collaborate in practice! In this Actionable Agile Tools book, Jeff Campbell shares some of the tools he's learned over a decade of coaching Agile Teams. The pragmatic coaching book you need, right now! Buy Actionable Agile Tools on Amazon, or directly from the author, and supercharge your facilitation toolbox!  About Omar Perez Omar is an Agile Coach from Barcelona who currently supports distributed teams that build data products to enable their company to be genuinely data-driven. He has had many previous lives as a design thinker, market analyst, communication consultant, project manager and startup founder. He aspires to become a “peopleware” expert.   You can link with Omar Perez on LinkedIn. 

Analysts should recognize, analyze, engage, and help manage new inbound work Analysts should ensure the solution as built aligns with business outcomes Analysts should oversee the design and build of non-technology components Analysts should work to help capture and transfer knowledge value The Analyst is the MOST critical piece for Agile Organizations to achieve Agile success Make Analysts part of your Agile transformation in 2023!

I spoke with Evan again at the Business Agility Conference 2022.  Evan is the founder of the Business Agility Institute, runs the Business Agility Conference.  We speak about the evolution of the conference into a hybrid event.  We also talk about the research that they have engaged in regarding the 86 behaviours of Agile organizations. I always love talking with Evan and this conversation was no different. Enjoy - Bob Payne

Scott Dunn joins Brian to talk about how Agile teams and organizations respond in difficult economic times. Overview Right now, the word recession is being bandied about, and big companies like Apple and Facebook are already beginning to scale back. But economic downturns can present opportunities for the right individuals. Scott Dunn is a Certified Enterprise Coach and Scrum Trainer with more than 20 years of experience. Today on the show, Scott joins Brian to discuss why now is the moment to hone in on your mission and determine your job market value and how Agile training can prepare you for any opportunity that comes your way. Listen now to discover: [01:52] - Brian shares how the word recession triggers companies to batten down the hatches. [03:19] - How leaning into Agile in an organization creates a natural operating cost reduction. [04:52] - Studies show organizations that invest during recessions are better positioned at the back end of it to, you know, accelerate like a rocket out of it. [06:55] - Scott explains how the Japanese concept of ‘danger opportunity’ offers teams a chance ‘to really do Agile’ and operate efficiently with less. [9:34] - How difficult times help companies prioritize and hone in on their mission and vision and stop trying to be everything to everybody. [12:57] - How organizations create unease and lack of employee trust. [14:46] - How Agile can help workplaces bring humanity back when responding to change. [16:18] -Scott shares a conversation with his daughter about voting with your feet and your values. [19:16] -Scott explains why companies need to invest in top talent to lower their technical debt. [20:17] - Why times like these require ruthlessness in proving out your theories. [22:10] - Scott shares why down economic times are opportunities in disguise for individuals to determine the types of environments they want to help flourish. [25:13] - Determining your job market value and the importance of looking at the total package of an opportunity. [28:30] -Is it really Agile, or is it Agile in name only? [31:33] - How taking classes at Mountain Goat can prepare you to bring your knowledge and skills to any opportunity. Listen next time when we'll be discussing… Scaling with Henrik Kniberg. References and resources mentioned in the show Mountain Goat Software Agile Mentors Community Scrum Alliance Jim Collins The Hedgehog Concept Want to get involved? This show is designed for you, and we'd love your input. Enjoyed what you heard today? Please leave a rating and a review. It really helps, and we read every single one. Got an agile subject you'd like us to discuss or a question that needs an answer? Please share your thoughts with us at podcast@mountaingoatsoftware.com 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. Scott Dunn is a Certified Enterprise Coach and Scrum Trainer with over 20 years of experience coaching and training companies like NASA, EMC/Dell Technologies, Yahoo!, Technicolor, and eBay to transition to an agile approach using Scrum.

Scott Dunn joins Brian to talk about how Agile teams and organizations respond in difficult economic times. Overview Right now, the word recession is being bandied about, and big companies like Apple and Facebook are already beginning to scale back. But economic downturns can present opportunities for the right individuals. Scott Dunn is a Certified Enterprise Coach and Scrum Trainer with more than 20 years of experience. Today on the show, Scott joins Brian to discuss why now is the moment to hone in on your mission and determine your job market value and how Agile training can prepare you for any opportunity that comes your way. Listen now to discover: [01:52] - Brian shares how the word recession triggers companies to batten down the hatches. [03:19] - How leaning into Agile in an organization creates a natural operating cost reduction. [04:52] - Studies show organizations that invest during recessions are better positioned at the back end of it to, you know, accelerate like a rocket out of it. [06:55] - Scott explains how the Japanese concept of ‘danger opportunity’ offers teams a chance ‘to really do Agile’ and operate efficiently with less. [9:34] - How difficult times help companies prioritize and hone in on their mission and vision and stop trying to be everything to everybody. [12:57] - How organizations create unease and lack of employee trust. [14:46] - How Agile can help workplaces bring humanity back when responding to change. [16:18] -Scott shares a conversation with his daughter about voting with your feet and your values. [19:16] -Scott explains why companies need to invest in top talent to lower their technical debt. [20:17] - Why times like these require ruthlessness in proving out your theories. [22:10] - Scott shares why down economic times are opportunities in disguise for individuals to determine the types of environments they want to help flourish. [25:13] - Determining your job market value and the importance of looking at the total package of an opportunity. [28:30] -Is it really Agile, or is it Agile in name only? [31:33] - How taking classes at Mountain Goat can prepare you to bring your knowledge and skills to any opportunity. Listen next time when we'll be discussing… Scaling with Henrik Kniberg. References and resources mentioned in the show Mountain Goat Software Agile Mentors Community Scrum Alliance Jim Collins The Hedgehog Concept Want to get involved? This show is designed for you, and we'd love your input. Enjoyed what you heard today? Please leave a rating and a review. It really helps, and we read every single one. Got an agile subject you'd like us to discuss or a question that needs an answer? Please share your thoughts with us at podcast@mountaingoatsoftware.com 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. Scott Dunn is a Certified Enterprise Coach and Scrum Trainer with over 20 years of experience coaching and training companies like NASA, EMC/Dell Technologies, Yahoo!, Technicolor, and eBay to transition to an agile approach using Scrum.

Identification and understanding of roles has long plagued many Agile Organizations. There seems to be a great deal of confusion about what a ScrumMaster really does and how it differs from what a coach does. I also have seen organizations severely minimize the ScrumMaster role and try to implement the single internal coach solution, both of which are VERY bad! In this episode we explore the differences and set the record straight.

David Dame is the Director of Accessibility at Microsoft, one of the largest tech companies in the world known primarily for its Windows operating system and its vast array of software and work tools. As Director, Dave works across all levels of the company's senior leadership team, ensuring their accessibility program outlines the optimal experience for people with disabilities across their various product ecosystems.Dave joins me to describe what AGILE is and how it positively impacts the customer experience. He shares his thoughts on the work culture and how leaders can build an efficient and harmonious working environment through AGILE. He discusses the hurdles that may prevent AGILE from reaching its full potential in an organization. He explains why the industry we see today will not resemble the one we'll see in the next few years. Dave also describes how leaders can connect with their employees at a human level."When you get AGILE out of the technology and into the business, you're really getting where it's more powerful." - Dave Dame This week on Insert:Human●      Why every company is in the service of humans●      What AGILE is and how organizations should approach it●      The resistance to AGILE and where it stems from●      Why it's better to make small decisions frequently than big decisions quarterly●      The difference between chasing money and chasing value●      Why change is getting more drastic as the years go by●      Addressing where the education system is failing through optimization●      The effects of adopting AGILE from technology to business decisions●      Change and what you can do to prepare for it●      Connecting with the humans working for your business Connect with Dave Dame:●      Microsoft●      Dave Dame on LinkedIn Insert:Human - For a Better Life & Better World Thanks for tuning into this week's episode of Insert:Human. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe to the show and leave a review wherever you get your podcasts. Apple Podcasts | TuneIn | GooglePlay | Stitcher | SpotifyBe sure to share your favorite episodes on social media to help me reach more seekers and problem-solvers, like you. Join me on Twitter, Instagram, and Linkedin. For more exclusive content and to claim your free copy of the first chapter of my upcoming book, Technology is Dead, visit my website.

Read the full Show Notes and search through the world's largest audio library on Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes. About Gerry Starsia Over two decades, Gerry has been on the faculty at the University of Virginia. He brings the perspectives of a former project manager, program manager, project executive, and business founder and CEO. That combination of real-world experience and doctoral-level research, brings an interconnection between the theory and practice; between what could be and what is. Gerry is the Author of Plan To Pivot: Agile Organizational Strategy in an Age of Complexity, and you can link up with Gerry Starsia on LinkedIn, on you can contact Gerry Starsia on his website.

Organizational Network Analysis (ONA) is a critically important tool for understanding how to use data for better workplace relationships, culture, and decisions. Michael Arena, VP of Talent and Development for Amazon Web Services turns data into a bridge for connecting humanity to better ways of working, deciding, and relating to one another. A keynote speaker at the Organizational Network Analysis Summit hosted by OrgMapper and the team led by Andras Viscek, Michael's passion for data and desire to make optimal decisions benefiting talent and connection stood out. Jump into the conversation where we look at the ways in which understanding networks help leaders move past snap judgments when the environment is complex, to arrive at a more enlightened view. Author of Adaptive Space and a big fan of ONA, Michael brings a passion and engineer's mind to understanding data and how it can connect people and their collective strength. Michael Arena is the vice president of talent and development at Amazon Web Services (AWS), where he is responsible for global talent practices, leadership development, learning, organizational effectiveness, new employee success strategies conducting organizational research to facilitate growth and innovation of AWS. Before that, he was chief talent officer for General Motors Corporation (GM) responsible for enterprise talent management, cultural transformation, leadership development, talent acquisition, and people analytics. His book Adaptive Space: How GM and Other Companies Are Positively Disrupting Themselves and Transforming into Agile Organizations, shares how employees can disrupt their workplaces to increase flexibility and adaptive capacity. The Sloan article Michael refers to in this interview is located here: https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/use-networks-to-drive-culture-change/The ONA Summit was put on by OrgMapper.com. OrgMapper.org is referenced in the podcast. Contact the OrgMapper folks at .com.Two other episodes to fill in more details are the ones with Maya Townsend and Andras Viscek. Maya's is EP77 and Andras's is EP38. Dawna Jones is found at:https://www.linkedin.com/in/dawnahjones/Twitter: EPDawna_JonesInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/insightful_dawna/Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/dawnajonesSupport the Podcast through Acast: https://supporter.acast.com/insight-to-action-inspirational-insights-podcastSupport this show http://supporter.acast.com/insight-to-action-inspirational-insights-podcast. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Welcome to Reimagining Company Culture, a series discussing emerging trends and priorities shaping the future of workplace culture and employee wellbeing. We highlight thought leaders who are constantly evolving their strategy and can provide insight to folks about how to address new business challenges.  AllVoices is on a mission to create safe, happy, and healthy workplaces for all, and we're excited to learn from experts who share our mission.In this episode of Reimagining Company Culture, we're chatting with Shari Chernack, VP, Head of People at Industrious. Shari has helped organizations and their leaders transform, drive change, build capabilities, prepare for the future of work, and create agile organizations with future-ready talent and strong, inclusive workplace cultures Tune in to learn Shari's thoughts on prioritizing elements of the onboarding process, building trust outside of an open-door policy, and breaking the bias.About AllVoicesIn today's workforce, people often don't feel empowered to speak up and voice their opinions about workplace issues, including harassment, bias, and other culture issues. This prevents company leadership from making necessary changes, and prevents people from feeling fulfilled, recognized, and included at work. At AllVoices, we want to change that by providing a completely safe, anonymous way for people to report issues directly to company leaders. This allows company leadership real transparency into what's happening in their companies—and the motivation to address issues quickly. Our goal is to help create safer, more inclusive companies.

Read the full Show Notes and search through the world's largest audio library on Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes. Often we refer to Change “management”, however, managing change in practice is very difficult. When we think of “change” as a normal path of evolution, however, things change. The metaphor helps us discover new approaches and possibilities. In this episode, we explore how thinking about change as an evolution changes the work we do as Scrum Masters and change agents.  In this segment we talk about the books Theory U by C. Otto Scharmer, Knowledge for Action by Argyris; and we refer to Systems Thinking and some of the thinkers that influenced the Agile movement: Ari-Pekka Skarp, Esko Kilpi, Ralph Stacey. About Nilesh Makan Nilesh is the founding Director at Padawan Consulting, where the vision is to build transformed businesses through transformed people. He works with companies in the arena of Digital Transformation, considering how to leverage people, process and technology to design and build innovative solutions. You can link with Nilesh Makan on LinkedIn and connect with Nilesh Makan on Twitter.

I know what you are thinking… How can there only be a single mistake? The truth is there really is primarily ONLY one mistake most companies make. Join V Lee Henson and learn why if you have a chance to shuffle the people or shuffle the work, why you should ALWAYS shuffle the work and create a scope of LIMITED WIP that the well formed teams can swarm to.

The popular conception of ants is that “anatomy is destiny”: an ant's body type determines its role in the colony, for once and ever. But this is not the case; rather than forming rigid castes, ants act like a distributed computer in which tasks are re-allocated as the situation changes. “Division of labor” implies a constant “assembly line” environment, not fluid adaptation to evolving conditions. But ants do not just “graduate” from one task to another as they age; they pivot to accept the work required by their colony in any given moment. In this “agile” and dynamic process, ants act more like verbs than nouns — light on specialization and identity, heavy on collaboration and responsiveness. What can we learn from ants about the strategies for thriving in times of uncertainty and turbulence?What are the algorithms that ants use to navigate environmental change, and how might they inform the ways that we design technologies? How might they teach us to invest more wisely, to explore more thoughtfully?Welcome to COMPLEXITY, the official podcast of the Santa Fe Institute. I'm your host, Michael Garfield, and every other week we'll bring you with us for far-ranging conversations with our worldwide network of rigorous researchers developing new frameworks to explain the deepest mysteries of the universe.In this episode we talk to SFI External Professor Deborah Gordon at Stanford University about the lessons we can learn from insect species whose individuals cannot be trained, but whose collective smarts have reshaped every continent. We muse on what the ants can teach us about a wide variety of real-world and philosophical concerns, including:  how our institutions age, how to fight cancer, how to build a more resilient Internet, and why the notion of the “individual” is overdue for renovation…If you value our research and communication efforts, please subscribe to Complexity Podcast wherever you prefer to listen, rate and review us at Apple Podcasts, and/or consider making a donation at santafe.edu/podcastgive. You can find numerous other ways to engage with us at santafe.edu/engage. Thank you for listening!Join our Facebook discussion group to meet like minds and talk about each episode.Podcast theme music by Mitch Mignano.Follow us on social media:Twitter • YouTube • Facebook • Instagram • LinkedInKey Links:Deborah Gordon at StanfordDeborah's TED Talk, "What Ants Can Teach Us About Brain Cancer and The Internet"Deborah's Google Scholar PageDeborah's book, Ants at Work: How an Insect Society is OrganizedFurther Exploration:Complexity 10 with Melanie Moses (ants, scaling, and computation)Complexity 29 with David Krakauer (catastrophe and investment strategy)Complexity 56 with J. Doyne Farmer (market ecology)Krakauer, et al., "The Information Theory of Individuality"W. Brian Arthur, "Economics in Nouns & Verbs"Michael Lachmann's research on Costly Signaling and Cancer 

Read the full Show Notes and search through the world's largest audio library on Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes. This company had been using Agile for a while, but now they wanted to introduce the concept of squads, chapters and guilds. This required that the teams be reorganized as this model requires teams to be cross-functional. Pascal helped the organization set up a “team market”. When Pascal started participating in this team market he started realizing that everyone had a different reaction to that event. In this episode, we talk about how change is really a personal process, and that we need to take into account individual experiences and expectations. We also refer to the self-selection workshop process.  About Pascal Clarkson Pascal has a bachelor degree in computer science. After years of working as a software engineer and having 8+ years of practical experience with the Scrum Framework, he has shifted his attention towards group facilitation. He uses Systemic Modelling and other methods to support groups in their discovery of how they can be the best version of themselves. You can link with Pascal Clarkson on LinkedIn and connect with Pascal Clarkson on Twitter.  You can also follow Pascal's writings on Artocraft.nl.

“You better be thinking towards the future, or you're going to get left behind.”  -Kathryne A. Newton, Ph.D How do you manage the generational divide within your company? Kathryne A. Newton, Ph.D., may not have all the answers, but she does possess more than enough intel to coax groups toward more productive communication. Whether those conversations happen face-to-face, through email, or via text is another matter.  Self-professed generation geek Jason invites Kathryne to bust the cohort myths that get in the way of innovation. She also shares insights from her career as associate dean of Purdue University’s Polytechnic Institute and her tenure with the University of Innovative Distribution. In case anyone assumed otherwise, Kathryne makes her cohort allegiance clear: “I am not a basher of Millennials or Gen Z or any of ‘em.” Instead, she champions creating environments where the differences build stronger teams rather than pitting one group against another.  With literally five generations currently working side by side, there’s a staggering wealth of expertise and innovation in the workforce right now - and an inevitable amount of friction. Helping management navigate  intergenerational conflicts is Kathryne’s specialty. She often finds that attachment to generational stereotypes (the cynical GenXer; the entitled Millennial) derail good intentions. Each group possesses unique talents, influence, and outlook; it’s incumbent upon management to recognize those differences and foster a company-wide appreciation for them.  Her top tip? Meet the individual cohorts where they are rather than expecting everyone to operate in the same style.  Kathryne’s time at Purdue has afforded her a unique vantage point to assess the mettle of distribution’s next leaders. She likes what she sees. She does wish that more institutions would follow Purdue’s lead and provide students with creative programs for financing graduate degrees. However, no matter where they’ve graduated from, wholesale distribution professionals can continue their education via The University of Innovative Distribution, one of Jason’s favorite events. Kathryne is the department chair and a faculty member of the concentrated CEU program.  Although a Boomer herself, Kathryne doesn’t sound eager to join the ranks of that generation’s retirees, at least not yet. She still enjoys transforming generational discord into workplace triumph.   MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE DT069: Steve Diest on career paths and recruitment strategies in wholesale distribution Generations At Work: Managing the Clash of Boomers, Gen Xers, and Gen Yers in the Workplace - by Claire Raines, Ron Zemke, Bob Filipczak Adaptive Spaces: How GM and Other Companies are Positively Disrupting Themselves and Transforming into Agile Organizations - by Michael J. Arena   CONNECT WITH KATHRYNE A. NEWTON, Ph.D. University Of Innovative Distribution Purdue University LinkedIn CONNECT WITH JASON BADER: LinkedIn *** Distribution Talk is produced by The Distribution Team, a consulting services firm dedicated to helping wholesale distribution clients remove barriers to profitability, generate wealth and achieve personal goals.    This episode was edited & mixed by The Creative Impostor Studios.  http://www.distributionteam.com Special thanks to our sponsor for this episode: INxSQL Distribution Software, integrated distribution ERP software designed for the wholesale and distribution industry.

What is the relevance of agile marketing in the fast changing world ? What are the changes necessary while marketing in the 'new normal'? Malathi Srinivasan, Product Marketing Lead - Developer Marketing, IBM shares her insights about agile marketing and changes needed for marketing in a fast changing world. Malathi is an award-winning Marketing leader with 20 years' experience. She built India's most extensive skills ecosystem from scratch, as the leader of IBM's Project Praviin. Pl connect with her on Linkedin : https://www.linkedin.com/in/malathis/ Jagged with Jasravee is facilitated by Jasravee Kaur Chandra, Director- Brand Building, Research & Innovation at Master Sun, Consulting Brand of Adiva L Pvt. Ltd. Jasravee has over 20 years experience as a Strategic Brand Builder,Communications Leader and Entrepreneur. https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasravee/ Subscribe to Jagged with Jasravee on Youtube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUo6M-uODgb7gIEO014XIGg?sub_confirmation=1 Follow Jagged with Jasravee on Social Media Youtube Page : https://www.youtube.com/JaggedWithJasravee Facebook Page : https://www.facebook.com/jaggedwithjasravee Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/jagggedwithjasravee/ Podcast Page : https://anchor.fm/jagged-with-jasravee Jagged with Jasravee, is an initiative of Master Sun, the Consulting Brand of Adiva Lifestyle Pvt Ltd. Please visit our blog at www.mastersun.in #agilemarketing #agileorganizations #datadrivenmarketing

Read the full Show Notes and search through the world’s largest audio library on Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website.   About Jeff Campbell and Simone Sciarrati Simone Sciarrati is an Engineering Team Lead at Meltwater. He has worked with distributed systems from online gaming to data-intensive applications while participating in the many changes happening in our industry. At Meltwater he has been focusing on building a platform to make life easier for the development teams. You can link with Simone Sciarrati on LinkedIn and connect with Simone Sciarrati on Twitter.    Jeff Campbell is an Agile Coach who considers the discovery of Agile and Lean to be one of the most defining moments of his life and considers helping others to improve their working life not to simply be a job, but a social responsibility.  He is the author of actionable agile tools, which you can get on Amazon and directly from the author at bit.ly/aatbook As an Agile Coach, he has worked with driving Agile transformations in organizations both small and large. You can link with Jeff Campbell on LinkedIn and connect with Jeff Campbell on Twitter. You can also learn more about Jeff Campbell’s work at his company’s website.

For Christmas week 2020, we have a special treat for you. Yves Hanoulle and I interview great Agilists and Scrum Masters that you will probably not hear from in your local Agile conference.  These are people that are really pushing the state of the practice, and we want to bring their forward-looking, and hopeful ideas to you in our Christmas Special Week for 2020. One of the things that is clear from this interview is how the role of community is important in our journey as Scrum Masters and Agile Coaches. Ivana shares how she got started with Agile, and how the community helped her learn where to focus and improve her skills and knowledge.  Learning about our personal Prime Directive Ivana calls on us to reflect, and learn about what our personal Prime Directive is, and based on that develop our Agile practice. Ivana shares that her prime directive is about focusing on the “bigger picture” and the culture and leadership context she works within.  We also talk about what that “bigger picture” is like in practice. From understanding the type of business we are working in, to mapping out the relationships and influencers within the organization. Ivana always tries to create a mental map of what influences the people she works with in her context.  Continuous Improvement, the missing lesson in Agile  Ivana’s experience has helped her understand that many teams get focused on the “tool” or “process” of Agile, and forget that ultimately we are trying to build the habit of continuously getting better at what we do.  In this segment, we talk about the importance of double-loop learning for Agilists as well as Solution Focused Coaching. We also discuss the book Crucial Conversations, and some key lessons we can take from that approach. Learning about the big picture, a perspective to take on as an Agile Coach and Scrum Master Ivana’s focus on the “bigger picture” has also come thanks to the book Organizational Culture and Leadership by Edgar Schein. The book influenced Ivana’s perspective when working with organizations, and she still goes back to that book, and its particular way of defining and describing organizations. Finally, Ivana leaves us with the idea that we should be learning and sharing as a community. Just like she did in this incredibly insightful podcast episode!    About Ivana Gancheva Ivana is passionate about working with people not titles. She works with companies from various sectors to help improve their organisational culture and well-being by helping them become learning and growing organisations. She coaches and mentors decision makers, C-level corporate executives, leaders, product managers, who have the passion and the intent to disrupt the status quo, and enable genuine growth.  You can link with Ivana Gancheva on LinkedIn and connect with Ivana Gancheva on Twitter.

Read the full Show Notes and search through the world’s largest audio library on Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website. When mistakes happen, the natural tendency in many organizations is to find the ones “to blame”. However, that’s not how you create a high-performing culture. Understanding this, helps us work as Scrum Masters to direct people’s energy and attention to the next step: “how do we make sure similar problems don’t happen, what change do we need?” In this episode, Chris shares one story where an organization was able to go beyond the blame game and create a culture of achievement that helped everyone feel supported and accountable. Listen in to learn what tools helped create that culture.   About Chris Stone Chris is The Virtual Agile coach, a #PeopleFirst champion, and an Agile Evangelist / Agile Transformation Lead / Scrum Master possessing over 8 years of experience within the IT industry. You can link with Chris Stone on LinkedIn.

Read more > Listen to the podcast (duration: 38:24) > For many companies, COVID-19 has challenged their operating and business models. Agile organizations have proven to be more resilient than the average company, and are thus better suited to respond to economic shocks posed by the pandemic. In this episode, we explore how large companies adapted their operating models in the midst of the crisis, and what companies can do to get a head-start going into the next normal.See www.mckinsey.com/privacy-policy for privacy information

For many companies, COVID-19 has challenged their operating and business models. Agile organizations have proven to be more resilient than the average company, and are thus better suited to respond to economic shocks posed by the pandemic. In this episode, we explore how large companies adapted their operating models in the midst of the crisis, and what companies can do to get a head-start going into the next normal. Read more > Listen to the podcast (duration: 38:24) >

For many companies, COVID-19 has challenged their operating and business models. Agile organizations have proven to be more resilient than the average company, and are thus better suited to respond to economic shocks posed by the pandemic. In this episode, we explore how large companies adapted their operating models in the midst of the crisis, and what companies can do to get a head-start going into the next normal. Read more > Listen to the podcast (duration: 38:24) >

For many companies, COVID-19 has challenged their operating and business models. Agile organizations have proven to be more resilient than the average company, and are thus better suited to respond to economic shocks posed by the pandemic. In this episode, we explore how large companies adapted their operating models in the midst of the crisis, and what companies can do to get a head-start going into the next normal. Read more > Listen to the podcast (duration: 38:24) >

Read the full Show Notes and search through the world’s largest audio library on Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website. That there are projects where teams feel under pressure is no news. In fact, stress-related to pressure is a very common problem in software teams. However, sometimes the situation goes too far and turns into a toxic culture. In this episode, we explore what are the signs that the normal “pressure” teams feel is turning into a much more impactful and negative set of patterns. Featured Book of the Week: Co-Active Coaching by Henry Kimsey-House et al. As Rachel grew in the coaching role, she felt frustrated by the reactive mindset she saw in leadership. That led her to explore other approaches to help executives understand and benefit from Agile Values and principles. In Co-Active Coaching: Changing Business, Transforming Lives, Rachel found a good guide to help her focus her work on helping the individual team members and executives she worked with.    About Rachel Macasek Rachel is passionate about individual and team growth. She has fostered an environment of collaboration and continuous improvement in the manufacturing, biotech, and software industries. Currently, Rachel is focused on the power of an individual and recently acquired her Leadership and Performance Coaching certification. You can link with Rachel Macasek on LinkedIn and connect with Rachel Macasek on Twitter.

everis junto con el MIT Technology Review realizó la tercera edición del Estudio la Agilidad en Latinoamérica. Los principales hallazgos con: Waldemar Castanho, Moderador, Director del Centro de Excelencia Agile de everis Chile, Andrea Sánchez, Head of Agile Transformation BCP, Zulay Quiroz, Directora de Desarrollo de TI Telefónica, Marcelo Rivera, Gerente de Transformación Agile Entel, Arturo Robles, Head of the Agile Center of Expertise Citibanamex y Cristian Salatino, IT Apps Sr Director Tenaris.

Presentación del estudio Agilidad Latam, com Miguel Maldonado, Head of Agile Center of Excellence everis Perú y Victor León, Head of Agile everis Americas.

everis junto con el MIT Technology Review realizó la tercera edición del Estudio la Agilidad en Latinoamérica. Los principales hallazgos con: Waldemar Castanho, Moderador, Director del Centro de Excelencia Agile de everis Chile, Andrea Sánchez, Head of Agile Transformation BCP, Zulay Quiroz, Directora de Desarrollo de TI Telefónica, Marcelo Rivera, Gerente de Transformación Agile Entel, Arturo Robles, Head of the Agile Center of Expertise Citibanamex y Cristian Salatino, IT Apps Sr Director Tenaris.

everis junto con el MIT Technology Review realizó la tercera edición del Estudio la Agilidad en Latinoamérica. Los principales hallazgos con: Waldemar Castanho, Moderador, Director del Centro de Excelencia Agile de everis Chile, Andrea Sánchez, Head of Agile Transformation BCP, Zulay Quiroz, Directora de Desarrollo de TI Telefónica, Marcelo Rivera, Gerente de Transformación Agile Entel, Arturo Robles, Head of the Agile Center of Expertise Citibanamex y Cristian Salatino, IT Apps Sr Director Tenaris.

La agilidad acelera la adaptación de las organizaciones en este ambiente tan volátil. Ahora com Javier Hoyle, CEO everis Perú y Deema Dajani, Partner & Enterprise Advisor Scale Agile.

Read the full Show Notes and search through the world’s largest audio library on Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website. As Julio’s career evolved, he started facing a waterfall anti-pattern: the status chaser. Julio’s superiors expected him to be intimately familiar with all the details of what was happening with every team, and every tester in his team. This led to an important personal change for Julio, a change that every QA lead needs to go through when working with Scrum/Agile teams.    About Julio de Lima Julio is a Principal QA Engineer working for Capco that believes in the Culture of QA. He has been sharing professional insights and experiences on a daily basis and has more than 4500 students in his 4 online courses. In 2020, he was elected the Brazilian Testing reference practitioner.  You can link with Julio de Lima on LinkedIn and connect with Julio de Lima on Twitter.

Dennis Kight, tells us about his journey to coaching and discusses agile environments, and best practices to navigate through high stress, fast business environments.

In this episode of the Decoding Excellence Show, we're returning to our Monday Minute and Vehicle Version (explains the audio difference) and are discussing some of the strategies behind agile startups, tools we utilize to enhance our departmental communication, and what we need to do as an industry to be prepare for the next pandemic. As a reminder, our Monday Minutes shows are a quick 10-15 minute episode where I discuss current industry trends, research reads, current events, and occasionally offer my insights into the training process that we're undertaking each week. I believe with conviction, you'll take away something interesting from this show and I hope it delivers you a little bit of value in your day. As always, thank you for supporting The Decoding Excellence Show! In addition to those social mediums, you can head over to AdamRingler.com/Newsletter and sign-up for my weekly newsletter. This is a newsletter for the curious. It's chalked full of interesting articles I've read through the week, things I'm exploring and finding fascinating through my week, and a collections of thought experiences and resources I've cultivated. It's essentially a Birchbox for performance-related articles and musings. If you are looking to help grow and support the Decoding Excellence show, navigate over to Buy Me a Coffee. Buy Me A Coffee is a an easy & fun way to support the show. For the price of a Grande Latte ☕ you can support the show and help us maintain the quality of the content. One hundred percent of the contributions go directly to supporting the hosting fees associated with operating this podcast. If any of the material resonates with you, I'd love for you engage with me at @AdamRingler Thanks again for listening to the Decoding Excellence Show! I appreciate all the support growing this Sport Science, Strength & Conditioning, and High-Performance Coaching resource. If you have taken anything away from the show, please login to iTunes and navigate to Decoding Excellence page and leave us a review. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/decoding-excellence/support

With all the craziness going on in the world today, the question has to be asked:  How do QA leaders navigate the current landscape? There are a lot of uncertainties in the world, and even without that uncertainty, we live in a business market that never stops changing.  So how do we navigate those shifts?  The key, according to Dr. David A. Bishop, is three-fold:  Agility, flexibility, & leanness Dr. Bishop was a guest on the QA Talks podcast recently and shared all about:  What makes an Agile leader The key test metrics to focus on in an Agile environment today The cultural shift in Agile development This post is based on a QA Talks podcast with Dr. David A Bishop of Agile Worx. To hear this episode, and many more like it, you can subscribe here. If you don’t use Apple Podcasts, you can find all our episodes here.

In the age of the current uncertainty, many companies are wishing they'd shifted to being more agile "yesterday", said Diana Russo thought-leader in Agile HR and creator of The 12 ingredients of Agile Organizations. In this special episode Diana explains what it takes right now to stay connected and motivated at work, even if we're working from home. Find out why the most important thing is to start with a daily check in. For more, visit www.management30.com.  

https://www.linkedin.com/in/clebercunha/ Sobre Large experience in Lean Operations, Agile Organizations, Change Management and Digital Transformation Strategies. I had a strong knowledge of Enterprise Innovation Life-cycle and Enterprise Digital Collaboration. Experience with the following Methods, Practices, and Techniques: For Strategy: Design Thinking, Industry, and Market Analysis to spot trends and opportunities, Scenarios Generation and Transformation Roadmap using Sequential Backcasting, Impact Mapping, Strategic Planning using Streams and OKR, Business Model and Value Proposition Canvas. Lean-Agile Transformations: Scrum, SAFe, Lean Kanban, Portfolio Management, Standard Work, Voice of Customer, Leadership Engagement, Organizational Meetings Framework, Value Stream Mapping, Pain Points and Root Cause Analysis (5W), Capacity Management, Risk Management, Skills Management, Enterprise Innovation, Budget, KPI’s and Metrics, Knowledge Management, Continuous improvement with Kaizen and A3 thinking. Key Achievements: Helped BBVA Client Solutions area Ideate, develop and implement their own Agile Organization Framework. Implemented and sustained a successful Agile Tribe Structure at a Large Bank in Perú for a CRM Initiative. Collaborated in building a Corporate Knowledge Management Process at Capgemini Brasil, including developing one Knowledge Base and a Digital Collaborative Space on SharepointParticipate in Change Management Initiative for a large IT Transformation program of a Large Bank in Brazil, with an emphasis in Communication and Training Plan; Unit Product Owner of the e-collaborative (a PPM-ALM and Solution for Capgemini group), deployed in Brazil, conducting the data migration, deployment and lead the backlog grooming sessions with the development and product team. Deployed and Supported User adoption of Lean Transformation Tools --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/pipocaagil/message

Otras charlas de la CAS 2019 también en podcast: https://lk.autentia.com/CAS19-Podcast ------------- Roles and careers are very important themes for all organizations that want to be more adaptive and responsive. The traditional idea of career (planned, with a clear ladder, promised, hoped) is often accompanied by a sense of disorientation and fear by many people. A big sense of uncertainty is a common feeling mostly because of a lack of alternatives. How will we be able to support people, and consequently the organizations themselves, if one of the main elements (the vision of the role, the career upwards and the people ""below"") through which they felt motivated should be questioned? The talk aims to provide a different idea by following different points of view: the organizational one (which alternatives we can consider) and the personal one (the options we have ).

On today’s podcast, Dan Neumann is joined once again by Christy Erbeck! Christy is a principal transformation consultant at AgileThought and a Certified Dare to Lead™ Facilitator. She has over 25 years of experience in domestic and international consulting, training and coaching, and working in both software development and non-product-focused environments, including manufacturing (discrete and process), distribution, and sales and marketing.   On top of all of Christy’s licenses and titles, she is also a Certified SAFe® Program Consultant — which is also the topic of today’s show! There are a lot of horror stories around SAFe implementations because, in many cases, the original intent has been corrupted. So in this episode, Christy is breaking the SAFe framework down for listeners. She’s busting the myths that have given SAFe a bad rap and then providing her tips for a successful and effective implementation of SAFe!   Key Takeaways What is SAFe? SAFe is a framework for predictability at scale Empowers complex organizations to achieve the benefits of Lean-Agile software and systems development at scale Christy busts some myths regarding the SAFe: “Waterfall disguised as Agility” — not true; it is a framework with elasticity in how it can be implemented “It’s very prescriptive” — though there is an overarching framework and path that is laid out, the fundamental mindset underneath it is Agility “SAFe stops at training the leaders about velocity” — untrue! Just train the leaders and just get started “You can just put aside vulnerability” — you cannot, so instead get in front of it and break down the walls by discussing the discomfort and change that comes with implementation “SAFe always goes wrong and completely goes against an Agile mindset” — SAFe as a framework does not do this; it’s perpetrated by the consultants and the organizations that don’t fully commit to implementing it How to ensure your SAFe implementation is effective and successful: Start small and ‘nail it before you scale it’ Start with training your leaders and give them a compelling ‘why’ Create a Lean-Agile center of excellence where you can bring everyone together to help identify the system-level items and issues that are going to need to be addressed as you all move through the implementation roadmap As a manager, reject bad plans (this is very beneficial towards getting more predictable deliveries) Implement the events within SAFe well (and safely) so that your organization can be set up for success Understand Lean thinking Establish safety within the team and the organization to build trust Stay nimble Listen to what the client needs, not what you think they need   Mentioned in this Episode: Christy Erbeck’s LinkedIn Scaled Agile Framework Certified SAFe® Program Consultant Agile Coaches’ Corner Ep. 1: “Do Scrum Well Before Scaling!” Agile Coaches’ Corner Ep. 22: “The Role of Managers in Agile Organizations with Esther Derby” Brené Brown Brené Brown — Dare to Lead Start With Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action, by Simon Sinek Relentless Forward Progress: A Guide to Running Ultramarathons, by Bryon Powell How to Measure Anything: Finding the Value of Intangibles in Business, by Douglas W. Hubbard   Christy Erbeck’s Book Pick: Master of One: Find and Focus on the Work You Were Created to Do, by Jordan Raynor   Want to Learn More or Get in Touch? Visit the website and catch up with all the episodes on AgileThought.com! Email your thoughts or suggestions to Podcast@AgileThought.com or Tweet @AgileThought using #AgileThoughtPodcast!

Lee Wiesehuegel is a Managing Consultant at LeadingAgile where he helps organizations incorporate an Agile approach by transforming how they work. One of Lee’s primary areas of focus is working with leaders to help them understand how critical their support is at the team level. In this episode of SoundNotes, Lee and Dave discuss some of the things that leadership can do to enable Coaches and ScrumMasters to create and sustain high performing, learning teams that can consistently deliver value. At the start of the interview, Lee also shares his advice for those who are interested in transitioning to a coaching role and some of the key things he looks for when he interviews potential coaches. Links Mentioned In the Podcast Coaching Agile Teams: A Companion for ScrumMasters, Agile Coaches, and Project Managers in Transition by Lyssa Adkins Contacting Lee Wiesehuegel Web: https://www.leadingagile.com/guides/lee-wiesehuegel/ Email: Lee.Wiesehuegel@leadingagile.com Contacting Dave Prior If you’d like to contact Dave you can reach him at: LeadingAgile: https://www.leadingagile.com/guides/dave-prior/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mrsungo Twitter: https://twitter.com/mrsungo Email: dave.prior@leadingagile.com If you have a question you’d like to submit for an upcoming podcast, please send them to dave.prior@leadingagile.com And if you're interested in taking one of our upcoming Certified ScrumMaster or Certified Scrum Product Owner classes, you can find all the details at https://www.leadingagile.com/our-gear/training/

Episode #167 I'm joined by my special guest Gidion Peters, Agile HR Speaker, Coach, Author and Organizational Futurist at Organize Agile.Visit: www.hrdleaders.com/podcast to access the video recording and resources mentioned.Subscribe to our newsletter for the latest content on the future of HR: www.hrdleaders.com/subscribe

Today’s guest is Scott Riley, a colleague of Dan Neumann’s and a Delivery Leader at AgileThought. As a Delivery Lead, Scott wears multiple hats and is responsible for the successful delivery or implementation of projects. If anything goes wrong during a project, it is Scott’s job to be able to identify what that issue is and remedy it.   In this episode, Dan and Scott are discussing the challenges of bringing agile into a non-agile environment. They talk about the challenges they generally see in work environments transitioned to agile, misconceptions they often hear around agility, the concerns and struggles they often see as organizations are in their agile journey, how to overcome these challenges,  what makes for a successful agile organization, and how AgileThought works with organizations that are getting started on their agile journey.   Key Takeaways Misconceptions Scott often hears around agility: That being creative, quick, or clever is all it takes to be agile If there are no rules in place that means you’re being agile That agile should be implemented because ‘it’s just the new way of doing things’ rather than to solve a problem the organization is facing Challenges Scott sees in organizations that are in a place of pre-agile adoption: That there’s no foresight into scalability They’re not paying attention to how they can sustain things, longterm Challenges of bringing agile into a non-agile environment: Fear of change from the organization That they only bring in aspects of the framework without implementing it fully That the organization is confused about what is agility from having multiple consultants from different organizations How to overcome these challenges: Help the organization and its members to become extremely familiar with the principles of agile Make sure it’s the path this organization actually wants to go down, by asking the important questions (such as, “Why agile?” and “What problem are we addressing?”) Do the coordination but not to the detriment of people’s sanity Concerns and struggles Scott often sees as organizations are in their agile journey: Struggles with cross-team communication that turns into a game of telephone Building something with an assumption rather than the true knowledge of what it should be The uncertainty of self-organizing teams For a successful agile organization: It’s important to have a true understanding of the Agile Manifesto and all of its principles You need open channels of communications between business people and developers who work together daily Make sure that conversations don’t lead to misdirection Teach members how to collaborate and bring every decision into a team process How AgileThought works with organizations that approach them to have a conversation about their agile journey or to improve their agility: We help by facilitating conversations We determine where their baseline is and where they want to go We provide an assessment and then move forward with that   Mentioned in this Episode: Scott Riley (LinkedIn) The Agile Manifesto Eric Landes (LinkedIn) Agile Coaches’ Corner Ep. 19: “Eric Landes on Kanban Metrics in the Scrum Framework” Agile Coaches’ Corner Ep. 22: “The Role of Managers in Agile Organizations with Esther Derby” Agile + DevOps East (in Orlando, FL)   Scott Riley’s Book Pick: Best. State. Ever.: A Florida Man Defends His Homeland, by Dave Barry   Want to Learn More or Get in Touch? Visit the website and catch up with all the episodes on AgileThought.com! Email your thoughts or suggestions to Podcast@AgileThought.com or Tweet @AgileThought using #AgileThoughtPodcast!

  Product Owners often get focused on what or how we are doing things for our applications and teams, and not how often. When you take a look at when your product and information cycles happen you start to observe some real opportunities. In this episode, we dig in a bit deeper on those loops that PO's have and what's important about each. Finding and talking about ways to shorten the loop is the goal so that our learning can increase, our processes change, and we can adapt to our customers.           Feedback: twitter - @deliveritcast email - deliveritcast@gmail.com   Links: PO Coaching and Consulting - seek taiju Black Diamond - Competitive Advantage: the OODA Loop in Agile Organizations   Mind Tools - The Build-Measure-Learn Feedback Loop Bob Galen -  4 Quadrants + 1 Jeff Gothelf - Lean, Agile, & Design Thinking  

Melissa Boggs (@HmngbirdAgility) joined Ryan Ripley (@ryanripley) to discuss her new role as co-CEO at Scrum Alliance, the power of cross-functional teams, and how to use HR practices in an agile world. Melissa Boggs – Chief Scrum Master at Scrum Alliance In this episode you’ll discover: What’s happening over at Scrum AllianceHow to make transformations to agile organizations more likely to succeedWhen agile values can help influence hiring decisions Links from the show: Scrum Alliance – https://www.scrumalliance.org/ Melissa Boggs – https://www.linkedin.com/in/melissa-boggs/Joy Inc. by Richard Sheridan – https://amzn.to/30AOcrQScrum Alliance Unscripted – https://www.scrumalliance.org/unscripted Take a Scrum.org Class with PST Ryan Ripley – https://www.scrum.org/ryan-ripleyRead Ryan’s New Book now in BETA – https://pragprog.com/book/rrscrum/fixing-your-scrum How to Support the Show: Thank you for your support. Here are some of the ways to contribute that were discussed during this episode: Share the show with friends, family, colleagues, and co-workers. Sharing helps get the word out about Agile for HumansRate us on iTunes and leave an honest reviewJoin the mailing list – Check out the form on the right side of the pageTake the survey – totally anonymous and helps us get a better idea of who is listening and what they are interested inLeadership Gift ProgramMake a donation via Patreon Buy Ryan’s New Book: Broken Scrum practices limit your organization’s ability to take full advantage of the agility Scrum should bring: The development team isn’t cross-functional or self-organizing, the product owner doesn’t get value for their investment, and stakeholders and customers are left wondering when something—anything—will get delivered. Learn how experienced Scrum masters balance the demands of these three levels of servant leadership, while removing organizational impediments and helping Scrum teams deliver real-world value. Discover how to visualize your work, resolve impediments, and empower your teams to self-organize and deliver using advanced coaching and facilitation techniques that honor and support the Scrum values and agile principles. Click here to purchase on The Pragmatic Bookshelf. Want to hear another podcast about the life of an agile coach? — Listen to my conversation with Zach Bonaker, Diane Zajac-Woodie, and Amitai Schlair on episode 39. We discuss growing an agile practice and how coaches help create the environments where agile ideas can flourish. The post AFH 109: Agile Organizations with Melissa Boggs appeared first on Ryan Ripley.

In this episode, your host, Dan Neumann, is joined by a colleague at AgileThought, Christy Erbeck! Christy is a Principal Transformation Consultant at AgileThought with over 25 years of experience in domestic and international consulting, training, and coaching, working in both software development and non-product-focused environments, including manufacturing (discrete and process), distribution, and sales and marketing.   Today, they’re going to be talking about the topic of feedback. They discuss the importance of giving and receiving feedback, feedback fallacies, how to practice giving better feedback, how people respond to both poorly-constructed and well-constructed feedback, and how to give great feedback through the SBI model. Feedback is a big part of what Agile coaches are asked to do. Giving and receiving feedback is critically important and takes a tremendous amount of insight and awareness to both give and receive feedback in a positive way. Tune in to hear all of Christy Erbeck’s key takeaways on the topic of feedback!   Key Takeaways What are some feedback fallacies and challenges to giving and receiving feedback? The three fallacies from “The Feedback Fallacy” article are: the source of truth, how we learn, and excellence The idiosyncratic rater effect Humans are unreliable raters of other humans — we don’t have the capacity to do it well and our egos get in the way Confirmation bias and recall bias can come in to play Thinking you know better than the person you’re giving feedback to (which is not the objective truth) When someone perceives feedback as critical (especially from those who are not qualified in the specific area) they go into fight or flight When stakes are high or a conversation is emotionally-charged, people often unconsciously tell themselves a story that feeds their immediate (often negative) reaction to hearing feedback How to give and receive great feedback (and why): Use the SBI Model  (1. Situation, 2. Behavior, 3. Impact) Through the SBI model, it becomes easier to frame the feedback in a way that is safe to deliver and receive Using an SBI model can create psychological safety and gives feedback in a way that minimizes the potential that someone may have a flight or fight reaction to it Don’t refer to yourself as the expert when giving feedback; instead, focus on the impact it had on you Instead of looking at outputs look at outcomes Provide high-priority interrupt feedback (which is critical to reinforcing a positive response) Direct feedback is good, but don’t be tactless (be honest in an empathic way) Get feedback on your feedback   Mentioned in this Episode: Christy Erbeck Agile 2018 Conference in San Diego Radical Candor, by Kim Scott SBI Model Harvard Business Review Magazine “The Feedback Fallacy,” by Marcus Buckingham and Ashley Goodall Crucial Conversations Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High, by Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, Ron McMillan, and Al Switzler Dare to Lead: Brave Work. Tough Conversations. Whole Hearts., by Brené Brown Brené Brown: The Call to Courage (Film, 2019) Agile Coaches’ Corner Ep. 22: “The Role of Managers in Agile Organizations with Esther Derby” Joe Carella from Eckerd College 360 Degree Feedback   Christy Erbeck’s Book Pick: Dare to Lead: Brave Work. Tough Conversations. Whole Hearts., by Brené Brown   Want to Learn More or Get in Touch? Visit the website and catch up with all the episodes on AgileThought.com! Email your thoughts or suggestions to Podcast@AgileThought.com or Tweet @AgileThought using #AgileThoughtPodcast!

In today’s episode, Dan Neumann is joined by Sam Falco once again! Sam is Dan’s colleague at AgileThought and is an Agile Coach and Certified Scrum Professional with an extensive background leading Agile development teams.   In a previous episode, Sam and Dan discussed games and why Scrum works for people from a gaming-standpoint and helps drive engagement. In this episode, they’re discussing empirical process control and how it makes Scrum work from a getting-things-done standpoint!   Sam shares some of the lessons he has learned as a Scrum master (both early and later in his career) and gives examples from his work. He also explains the benefits of empirical process control; how transparency is built; how Scrum events support transparency, inspection, and adaptation; and how to inspect and adapt in meaningful, healthy ways.   Key Takeaways What is empirical process control? A principle that emphasizes the core philosophy of Scrum based on the three main ideas of transparency, inspection, and adaptation The benefits of empirical process control: Provides thorough data to help make good decisions Without it, you’re relying on assumptions Gives you the ability to inspect each increment of the product every sprint and adapt the product backlog based on the feedback It builds trust between the Scrum team and stakeholders Gives transparency in the process Creates a feedback loop How transparency is built: Hold sprint review meetings and daily Scrum meetings Disclose defects of the state of the product so you can make good decisions about releasing it (or not releasing it) Create transparency around the technical debt Be honest about the issues around the product and around the work in the sprint Where one team has a dependency on another do more effective planning, scaling, and collaboration Minimize team dependencies when possible (by inspecting, adapting, and understanding/adjusting where the work is flowing) Clear communication during sprints and be transparent even with “bad news” and issues   Mentioned in this Episode: Sam Falco (LinkedIn) Empirical Process Control Agile Coaches’ Corner Ep. 21: “Why Are Games Important to Agile? With Sam Falco” Agile Coaches’ Corner Ep. 22: “The Role of Managers in Agile Organizations with Esther Derby” The Mythical Man-Month: Essays on Software Engineering, by Frederick P. Brooks Jr. Lead True: Live Your Values, Build Your People, Inspire Your Community, by Jeff Thompson Agile Coaches’ Corner Ep. 20: “Dr. Jeff Thompson on Values-Based Leadership” Gundersen Health System   Sam Falco’s Book Pick: User Story Mapping: Discover the Whole Story, Build the Right Product, by Jeff Patton   Want to Learn More or Get in Touch? Visit the website and catch up with all the episodes on AgileThought.com! Email your thoughts or suggestions to Podcast@AgileThought.com or Tweet @AgileThought using #AgileThoughtPodcast!

This week, Esther Derby joins the podcast! Esther is an Agile expert and the President of Esther Derby Associates, Inc.   Esther started her professional career as a programmer. She realized fairly early that work environments had a huge impact on whether or not someone could be successful. And that even though she was a coder, her real work was in changing the way people worked and supporting them through that process.   In 1997, she founded Esther Derby Associates, Inc. and has spent the last twenty-five years helping companies design their environment, culture, and human dynamics for optimum success. She helps teams and management understand what’s working and where there are contradictions that sap productivity and stifle innovation, as well as how best to maximize a team’s capacity for achievement.   In this week’s episode, Esther and Dan are discussing managers, teams, and Agile environments. They explore the manager’s side in the Agile, why having a manager is key within an Agile work environment, and what the manager’s role should be.   Key Takeaways Why having a manager is key within an Agile work environment: If you do not have one, improvement tends to get focused only on the team level and not the overall system Teams function best within a high degree of bounded autonomy What the manager’s role is: The manager’s role is one of looking at the environment and trying to continuously improve it “It’s not the manager’s job to get people to work hard; it’s to make it possible for people to work.” The manager’s job is to enable the team to work, and then, to enhance their work environment To make sure teams have enough contextual knowledge so they can make decent decisions on the front line of the organization It’s important for the team to: Bring systemic issues to the manager Distinguish which decisions they can make without consulting the manager, which decisions they should make with a manager, and which decisions are entirely up to the manager It is important for the manager to: Pay attention to the system Notice problems across the organization Be supportive Have conversations with the team on a periodic basis Build in learning time and a learning budget so the team feels that learning is a part of their job, not in their free time Challenges Esther has seen with managers within an organization: Not all managers get along and it may take an effort to get them to all collaborate When a business gets to a certain size, it becomes difficult to communicate across all the managers of different teams   Mentioned in this Episode: Esther Derby (LinkedIn) Esther Derby Associates, Inc. Agile Retrospectives: Making Good Teams Great, by Esther Derby and Diana Larsen Agile Manifesto Bounded Autonomy Tim Lister Tom DeMarco 7 Rules for Positive, Productive Change: Micro Shifts, Macro Results, by Esther Derby   Want to Learn More or Get in Touch? Visit the website and catch up with all the episodes on AgileThought.com! Email your thoughts or suggestions to Podcast@AgileThought.com or Tweet @AgileThought using #AgileThoughtPodcast!

To LEAD an agile company, you certainly need the right mindsets, skills, tools, processes AND managers who are aligned with business goals and create a culture of engagement.

What's Up 2019? Glad to be BACK!

Can public schools become more adaptive, dynamic, and people-centered organizations? Is it possible to implement change in way that both empowers teachers and improves student outcomes? Sarah Beck, an award-winning school-based leader and former teacher, draws on the skills she learned as a business consultant to help promote school improvement and increase employee engagement in one of Virginia's largest and most diverse middle schools.

Lack of Agility is the kiss of death. It is no secret that large, mature organizations can struggle to innovate. But Michael Arena, Chief Talent Officer at General Motors, argues that even the most bureaucratic organizations can make innovation and adaptability a part of their DNA. Listen to this episode of the Talent Angle to learn how to create an Adaptive Space, where you can enable novel and creative ideas to flow freely into and throughout your company. Discover the role you play in your own network and where you can interact most effectively by taking the following 20-minute network assessment or by visiting https://www.adaptivespace.net/assessment To learn more about how you can foster connections among people, ideas, information, and resources check out Michael’s new book, Adaptive Space: How GM and Other Companies are Positively Disrupting Themselves and Transforming into Agile Organizations.

To create a culture of innovation inside a large organization, leaders need to help their organizations become bimodal, says Michael Arena, chief talent officer at General Motors and author of Adaptive Space: How GM and other Companies are Disrupting Themselves and Transforming into Agile Organizations. In this episode, Arena and Stanford Professor Bob Sutton talk about ways large organizations can retain the benefits of size while also making room for internal disruption. It all comes down to attracting energizers and challengers-- the networked employees who motivate others to adopt new practices and the deviants who care enough about your mission to shake things up.

Michael Arena, PhD is the Chief Talent Officer at General Motors. He is responsible for enterprise talent management, strategic workforce analytics, talent acquisition, executive development and global learning. GM employs 200,000 people across the globe. Major markets include North America, China and South America.   Prior to joining GM, Dr. Arena served as Senior Vice President of Leadership Development for Bank of America's Global Consumer and Small Business Banking group and spent two years as a visiting scientist within the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab, where he studied the intersection of human behavior, innovation and social connectivity. He is also currently a Lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania.  He is the author of a new book coming out in June, 2018 called Adaptive Space: How GM and other Companies are Disrupting Themselves and Transforming into Agile Organizations. One area that General Motors has looked at is Social Network Analysis, also called ONA – Organizational Network Analysis. This is what you see in your social network – it is a map or grid. Every person is a statistic. Are they someone who is a central connector? Or are they a broker who bridges two groups to drive them. So, GM might start with a survey that asks people about who they interact with each day. Through those surveys they map the connections together. Then they leverage that information and tap it into it. One example of this is when GM looked at team results. In one area they found that the cohesion scores of a team were correlated to their response rates to requests -the higher the cohesion, the quicker the response rates.  Teams that were spread out had lower response rates and lower quality responses. With that in mind, they relocated people so they were ‘looking at each other’, then created ‘huddles’ – where people could share regularly. It improved productivity by 25% in some cases. There are multiple areas that are being looked at in GM. One initiative that General Motors is currently focused on is called GM 2020 – it is a bottom up emergent movement. The focus is on how they can reinvent the ‘future of work’ – today. What are some of the key imperatives needed to make it happen? They look specifically at four areas: Talent gap Connected Simplicity Sustainability and Purpose Innovation They also have conducted two day ‘blitzes’ called Co-Labs where  particular challenges are worked on – focusing on leadership and innovation. At the end of the session the groups make a pitch. They have found that this is a good way to develop – engage people in real life business challenges.   What You Will Learn In This Episode: What does a Chief Talent Officer do How GM is looking to be a disrupter in the future Why an intentional workspace is critical The culture of GM The role of a ‘futurist’ at GM What GM is doing on the People Analytics front

Ever had that sinking feeling that you’re efficiently working on something that doesn’t matter. Or maybe you’ve noticed that five other coworkers are working on the same thing that you are. If so, you may be living in the nightmare that is a rigid organization structure. It’s time to get agile!

The Software Process and Measurement Cast features my interview with Jeff Dalton.  Jeff returns to the Software Process and Measurement Cast to discuss the 12 attributes of successful Agile organizations. Jeff talks about the relatively small set of attributes that successful Agile organizations possess and exhibit. These attributes don’t occur by accident, but rather are a reflection of hard work and consistency of purpose.  We can all reflect and adopt these attributes in our pursuit of success. Jeff shows us how! Jeff’s Bio: Jeff Dalton is President of Broadsword, a Certified Lead Appraiser, CMMI Instructor, ScrumMaster and author of “agileCMMI,” Broadsword’s leading methodology for incremental and iterative process improvement, as well as many published articles and ebooks on performance innovation. Jeff has been selected Keynote Speaker at numerous conferences including the International Conference on CMMI in Lima, Peru, the PMI Great Lakes 2013 Symposium, the 2014 QUEST Conference and Expo, the CMMI SEPG Conference 2014, the CMMI Global Congress 2015, the PM Symposium Indianapolis 2015 and the PM Symposium Chicago 2015.  He has appeared multiple times at Agile Development West, Better Software, Agile Processes and Tools, AgileDC, and at Software Process Improvement Network (SPIN) and Agile Leadership Network (ALN) meetups throughout North America. Jeff served as the Chairman of the Partner Advisory Board at the Software Engineering Institute (SEI) and CMMI Institute from 2011-2014 during their transition period.  He has been president of Great Lakes Software Process Improvement Network, and is a recipient of the prestigious Software Engineering Institute’s SEI Member Award for Outstanding Representative for his work uniting the Agile and CMMI communities through his popular blog “Ask the CMMI Appraiser.” He holds degrees in Music and Computer Science and builds experimental airplanes in his spare time.  Jeff can be reached at appraiser@broadswordsolutions.com. Contact Data: Email: appraiser@broadswordsolutions.com. Twitter: @CMMIAppraiser Blog: http://askthecmmiappraiser.blogspot.com/ Web: http://www.broadswordsolutions.com/ also see: www.cmmi-tv.com Previous Appearances on the podcast: SPaMCAST 296 – Jeff Dalton, CMMI, Agile, Resiliency SPaMCAST 176 - Jeff Dalton, CMMI, Scrum and Agile Call to Action! Review the SPaMCAST on iTunes, Stitcher or your favorite podcatcher/player and then share the review! Help your friends find the Software Process and Measurement Cast. After all, friends help friends find great podcasts! Re-Read Saturday News Remember that the Re-Read Saturday of The Mythical Man-Month returns this week when we tackle the essay titled “The Other Face” Check out the new installment at Software Process and Measurement Blog.   Upcoming Events Agile Development Conference East November 8-13, 2015 Orlando, Florida http://adceast.techwell.com/ I will be speaking on November 12th on the topic of Agile Risk. Let me know if you are going and we will have a SPaMCAST Meetup. Next SPaMCAST The next Software Process and Measurement Cast returns to the topic of Agile Project Charters, tackling the concepts needed to scale a charter to an Agile project or program. When Agile projects scale up to handle larger efforts additional steps are often required. Additional steps can lead to bloat if you do not take care. We will also have a new installment of Jeremy Berriault’s QA Corner! We discussed the definition of test cases and why they are so important to delivering quality code! Shameless Ad for my book! Mastering Software Project Management: Best Practices, Tools and Techniques co-authored by Murali Chematuri and myself and published by J. Ross Publishing. We have received unsolicited reviews like the following: “This book will prove that software projects should not be a tedious process for you or your team.” Support SPaMCAST by buying the book here. Available in English and Chinese.  

In this episode I speak with Dave Sharrock, of Agile 42, about scaling Agile ogs.   Please excuse the hacked up sound quality.  I didn't realize it while Dave and I were speaking, but I entered into this discussion with preconceived ideas of what scaling Agile orgs meant, and it was well reflected in my part of the discussion.  At times I derailed the conversation, and at others, I slowed Dave down from getting his point across.  I believe I've been able to edit the audio back into a semblance of coherent conversation, almost simply by editing out some large portions of me talking. So, please enjoy Dr. Dave Sharrock speaking about scaling Agile organizations.  It's not necessarily all about making your Agile footprint bigger, ideally it's about making it better (and then bigger later).

Recruiting hiring and retaining talent for companies that use the “Agile” methodology for project and product management requires a different approach than what is used at the traditional command and control organization. Ryn The Guardian Melberg describes this in detail on her weekly podcast.

Jade Meskill: Hello, welcome to the “Agile Weekly Podcast”. I'm Jade Meskill.