Podcasts about Market Harborough

Human settlement in England

  • 37PODCASTS
  • 334EPISODES
  • 28mAVG DURATION
  • 1WEEKLY EPISODE
  • May 4, 2025LATEST
Market Harborough

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Best podcasts about Market Harborough

Latest podcast episodes about Market Harborough

Market Harborough Congregational Church's Podcast
Sermon and Communion 4th May 2025 Grace on the Beach

Market Harborough Congregational Church's Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later May 4, 2025 34:22


This is the recording from Market Harborough Congregational ChurchDate:  4th May 2025Leader: Rev Roo MacRaeTheme: The Resurrection People - Grace on the BeachBible Readings: Luke 22:54-62 John 21:1-19

Market Harborough Congregational Church's Podcast
Sermon 27th April 2025 Resurrection People Thomas

Market Harborough Congregational Church's Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 27, 2025 24:30


This is the sermon from Market Harborough Congregational Church on 27th April.If you are able to join us in person we meet at 10.30am on Sundays for about an hour, our church is at the top of the High Street in Market Harborough Leicestershire.Date:  27th April 2025Leader Rev Roo MacRaeTheme: The Resurrection People - ThomasBible Readings John 11:1-16, John 14:1-7, John 20:19-31

Market Harborough Congregational Church's Podcast
Sermon 20th April 2025 Resurrection Day

Market Harborough Congregational Church's Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 20, 2025 25:57


This is the sermon from Easter Day 2025 in Market Harborough Congregational Church, it begins with the Easter Creed written by Rev Andreas Wagner Date:  20th April 2025Leader: Rev Roo MacRaeTheme: Easter Day: The Lord is RisenBible Readings: John 20

Market Harborough Congregational Church's Podcast

This is the recording of the Palm Sunday service from Market Harborough Congregational Church.11th April 2025Leader: Rev Roo MacRaeTheme: Palm Sunday: Praise King Jesus?Bible Readings: Matthew 20:23- 21:11, Matthew 27:11-26Through the week we are meeting:Good Friday 18th April 11-1pm the town churches will be meeting on The Square for EASTER LIVE a mini festival with live music, stories, drama, Children's activities and food stalls.5pm Passover Meal in the Jubilee HallEaster Day 20th April9.30am Easter breakfast in the Jubilee Hall which will include communion after 10am.10.30 Praise for Easter Day, all are welcome as we celebrate our Risen Lord.

Market Harborough Congregational Church's Podcast
Sermon 4th April 2025 Redeeming Love 5

Market Harborough Congregational Church's Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 6, 2025 27:00


This is the recording from Market Harborough Congregational Church, the final sermon on the book of Ruth and communion.Date: 4th April 2025Leader: Rev Roo MacRaeTheme: Redeeming Love 5: Gutter to GloryBible Readings: Hebrews 2:5-18 and Ruth 4 (The Voice)  

Market Harborough Congregational Church's Podcast
Sermon 30thMarch 2025 Redeeming Love 4: The cost of Redemption

Market Harborough Congregational Church's Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 30, 2025 26:06


This is the recording from Market Harborough Congregational Church in Leicestershire UK.Leader: Rev Roo MacRaeDate: 30th March 2025Theme: Redeeming Love 4: The cost of redemptionBible Readings: 1 Peter 1:3-21 and Ruth 4 (The Voice) 

Market Harborough Congregational Church's Podcast
Sermon 23rd March 2025 Redeeming Love 3: Resting at the Redeemer's Feet

Market Harborough Congregational Church's Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 23, 2025 27:14


This is the sermon preached at Market Harborough Congregational Church in Leicestershire UK. If you can join us in person any week we would love to welcome you at 10.30am, or if you follow these podcasts they will appear in your feed most weeks.Date: 23rd March 2025Preacher: Rev Roo MacRaeTheme: Redeeming Love 3: Resting at the Redeemer's FeetBible readins: Leviticus 25: 8-13, 25-28, 47-55 NLT and Ruth 3 (The Voice) 

Market Harborough Congregational Church's Podcast
Sermon 9th March 2025 Famine to Fullness

Market Harborough Congregational Church's Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 9, 2025 19:23


This is the sermon from Market Harborough Congregational Church, our Minister Roo Macrae has begun a new series on the book of Ruth.Date: 9th March 2025Theme: From famine to fullness Bible readings: Psalm 146, Ruth 1

Market Harborough Congregational Church's Podcast
Sermon and Communion 1st March 2025

Market Harborough Congregational Church's Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 2, 2025 41:28


This is the recording from Market Harborough Congregational Church on 1st March led by our new minister.  The recording includes communion and Roo and Gwen being brought into church membership.Date 1st March 2025Led by Rev Roo MacRaeBible readings Isaiah 25:1-9 Matthew 21:1-14

Market Harborough Congregational Church's Podcast

This is the first service led by our new minister Rev Roo MacRae on Sunday morning, 23rd February at Market Harborough Congregational Church.Date: 23rd February 2025 Minister: Rev Roo MacRaeBible Readings Psalm 77 2 Timothy 1:1-14Theme: In the footsteps of giants.

Market Harborough Congregational Church's Podcast
Sermon 9th February Costly forgiveness.

Market Harborough Congregational Church's Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 9, 2025 21:17


This is the sermon from Market Harborough Congregational Church, if you are in South Leicestershire on a Sunday morning, we would love to welcome you to our church building on a Sunday morning.Date: 9th February 2025Leader:  Janet SmithTheme: Costly forgiveness Bible Reading: Matthew 18:21-35

Living Rock Podcast
The Holy Spirit wants to do something new in your life! (Stephen Russell)

Living Rock Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 6, 2025 31:29


Listen back to Stephen's message from Market Harborough on Sunday 2nd February. He speaks about the person of the Holy Spirit and how important it is to be baptised in the Holy Spirit. 

Market Harborough Congregational Church's Podcast

This is the recording of the service from Market Harborough Congregational Church which includes communion.Date: 2nd February 2025 Leader: Rev Jacquie GavinTheme: Nothing lost that can't be found Bible reading: Matthew 20:1-16

Market Harborough Congregational Church's Podcast
Sermon 26th January 2025 Treasure beyond price

Market Harborough Congregational Church's Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 26, 2025 13:35


This is the sermon from MH Congregational Church, you can listen to the full service on our website.Date: 26th January 2025Leader: Rev Dr Janet WoottonTheme:Treasure beyond priceBible readings: Matthew 13:45-53 Job 28

Market Harborough Congregational Church's Podcast
Sermon 12th January 2025 A new Kingdom

Market Harborough Congregational Church's Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 12, 2025 26:55


This is the recording of this morning's service at Market Harborough Congregational Church.Date: 12th January 2025 Leader: Georgina Licquorice TeeTheme: The New Kingdom Bible Readings: Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43Next week our service is a United Service for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity at the Methodist Church on Northampton Road.

Market Harborough Congregational Church's Podcast
5th January 2025 A different kind of soil

Market Harborough Congregational Church's Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 5, 2025 32:14


This is the sermon and communion from our morning service at Market Harborough.  We were a reduced congregation in the building because of the snow, but know that people will be joining us online.IT does include communion so you might want to make sure you have bread or a cracker and a drink ready.Date:  5th January 2025 Leader: Rev Barry OsborneCovenant Service Theme: A different kind of soil Bible Reading: Matthew 13:1-23

Market Harborough Congregational Church's Podcast
Sermon 8th December Advent 2 The Prophets.

Market Harborough Congregational Church's Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 8, 2024 37:20


This is the sermon from this morning's service at Market Harborough Congregational Church.Date:  8th December 2024 Leader: Rev Brian KennardTheme: Advent 2: The prophets Bible Readings: Luke 24:13-27 Isaiah 52:13-53:6If you are able to join us over the next couple of weeks, we would be pleased to see you,  our programme is:Sunday 15th December  3.00pm Carol ServiceSunday 22nd December 10.30-11.30 Family Service for Nativity Christmas Day 10am United Service at the Baptist Church Sunday 29th December from 10am Informal Café Church incl breakfast

PopMaster
No napping on the job..

PopMaster

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 2, 2024 14:05


Oliver in Market Harborough and Andy in Bradford give it their best shot on today's quiz.

Market Harborough Congregational Church's Podcast
Sermon 1st December 2024 The Church at Laodicea

Market Harborough Congregational Church's Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 1, 2024 39:43


This recording is from Market Harborough Congregational Church, the first Sunday in Advent and it also includes Communion.Date: 1st December 2024 Leader: Rev Jacquie GavinTheme: The church at Laodicea Bible Reading: Revelation 3:14-22

Market Harborough Congregational Church's Podcast
Sermon 24th November 2024 The Church at Philadelphia

Market Harborough Congregational Church's Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 24, 2024 34:59


This is the sermon from Market Harborough Congregational Church Leicestershire on Sunday 24th November 2024.If you are able to join us on Sunday mornings, we are at the top of the High Street and would love to welcome you to the service.Date:  24th November 2024 Leader: Rock SturtTheme: The church at Philadelphia Bible readings: Matthew 5:1-16 Revelation 3:7-13

Market Harborough Congregational Church's Podcast
Sermon 10/11/24 Thyatira including a time of Remembrance

Market Harborough Congregational Church's Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 10, 2024 17:24


This is the service for the second Sunday in November, a day when we remember the effects of War.Date: 10th November 2024  Leader:  Jenny YoungTheme: The church at Thyatira Bible readings: Luke 19:1-10, Revelation 2:18-29 

Market Harborough Congregational Church's Podcast
Sermon and communion 3rd November 2024

Market Harborough Congregational Church's Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 3, 2024 41:55


This is the recording of the sermon and communion service, it is longer than usual as I have included the introduction to the bible reading which sets the scene for the sermon.Date: 3rd November 2024Leader: Rev Barry OsborneTheme: Walking in Truth Bible Readings: Revelation 2:12-17, John 8:21-32

Market Harborough Congregational Church's Podcast
Sermon 27th October 2024 Suffering for Christ's sake

Market Harborough Congregational Church's Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 27, 2024 12:21


 This is the sermon preached at Market Harborough Congregational Church.Date: 27th October 2024 Leader: Geoff MilnesTheme: Suffering for Jesus sake Bibel Readings: Revelation 2:8-11 Philippians 1:20-30

Living Rock Podcast
Gather: A Brief Overview of 1 Corinthians (Stephen Russell)

Living Rock Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 14, 2024 24:26


Listen again to this message from Market Harborough as we start a new short series in 1 Corinthians focussing on how we gather.

Market Harborough Congregational Church's Podcast
Sermon and communion 13th October 2024

Market Harborough Congregational Church's Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 13, 2024 29:02


This is the recording of our morning service which includes Communion.If you can join us one Sunday in Market Harborough in Leicestershire, we would love to see you.We started a new series today looking at the Seven Churches mentioned in John's vision in Revelation. Date: 13th October 2024 Leader: David CoxheadTheme: A vision of Christ Bible readings Revelation 1:9-20 Luke 9:28-36

Market Harborough Congregational Church's Podcast
Sermon 29th September 2024 A stressfree life

Market Harborough Congregational Church's Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 29, 2024 48:36


This is the sermon preached at Market Harborough Cngregational church.  We would like to invite you to join us in the building on Sunday mornings if that is possible for you.  Next week is our Harvest Service and if you haven't been to church for a while why not try to come along,Date:29/09/24Leader: Georgina Licquorish-TeeTheme A stress free life Bible reading: Matthew 6:25-34

Market Harborough Congregational Church's Podcast
Sermon 8th September 2024 The God of All Comfort.

Market Harborough Congregational Church's Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 8, 2024 22:37


The recording of our morning worship at Market Harborough Congregational Church, this service follows the death of a young member of the church family.Date: 8th September 2024 Leader: Rev Dr Janet WoottonTheme: The God of All Comfort Bible readings: Isaiah 43:1-4a, Matthew 11:28-12:28

Market Harborough Congregational Church's Podcast
Sermon 25th August 2024 All are gifted

Market Harborough Congregational Church's Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 25, 2024 27:41


This is the recording from Market Harborough Congregational Church, if you are around South Leicestershire at 10.30am on Sunday morning, we would love to see you in our service, we are at the top of the High Street.Date: 25th August 2024 Leader: Rock SturtTheme: All are gifted Bible readings: Romans 12:1-11, Matthew 7:7-11

Market Harborough Congregational Church's Podcast
Sermon 11th August 2024 with servant hearts

Market Harborough Congregational Church's Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 11, 2024 19:32


Market Harborough Congregational Church recording on sermon at morning service.Date: 11th August 2024 Leader: Rev Barry OsborneBible reading:Matthew 20:20-28 Theme: With Servant Hearts 

Market Harborough Congregational Church's Podcast
Sermon 4th August 2024 A worshipping community

Market Harborough Congregational Church's Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 4, 2024 37:13


This is the sermon and communion from Market Harborough Congregational Church.If you are in the area on Sunday mornings we would love to welcome you in person.Date: 4th August 2024 Leader: Rev Roo MacRaeBible Reading: 1 Peter 1:13-2:10 Theme: A Worshipping Community 

Market Harborough Congregational Church's Podcast
Sermon 28th July 2024 The armour of God

Market Harborough Congregational Church's Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 28, 2024 21:12


This is the sermon preached at Market Harborough Congregational Church and is the last of our series on Ephesians.  Thanks to everyone who has accepted the challenge to preach our way through it.28th July 2024 Leader: Anita SturtBible Readings: Psalm 46 Ephesians 6:10-24 Theme: The armour of God. 

Profit Cash Growth
Four Signs of a Profitable Business Model

Profit Cash Growth

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 18, 2024 24:09 Transcription Available


This week, we kick things off with a nostalgic trip back to the 90s, discussing the recent comeback of pop group S Club 7 and their performance at Glastonbury. While opinions differ on their performance, we delve into a fascinating story about one of the band members, Lee, and how his wise investment in real estate during his pop career continues to pay dividends today. Shifting gears, we tackle a shocking news story about a 65-year-old business owner from Market Harborough who lost his entire pension to scammers. We detail how a self-invested pension scheme worth over a million pounds was intercepted and cashed out by fraudsters, highlighting the vulnerabilities and pitfalls of financial transactions via traditional methods like cheques. In our deep dive segment, Claire outlines four key indicators of a profitable business model, providing invaluable insights for both new business owners and those looking to scale: Ensuring you have enough profit to employ a manager or admin support for every four to five members of staff. Focusing on repeatability in your products or services to minimise risk and maximise efficiency. Covering your break-even point with recurring revenue or repeat customers to de-risk your business. Paying yourself a market rate salary plus shareholder dividends to ensure the sustainability and attractiveness of your business to potential buyers. We conclude this episode with our Profit Cash Growth Extra, emphasising the importance of leveraging website data and analytics tools. Claire and her co-host discuss how platforms like Twipler and Microsoft Clarity can provide insights into user behavior on your website, helping you optimize for higher conversion rates and better customer engagement. Tune in for a mix of nostalgia, crucial financial insights, and practical advice on building and maintaining a profitable business model. As always, don't forget to rate, review, and subscribe to the Profit Cash Growth Podcast to help others find this valuable resource. VALUABLE RESOURCES Website YouTube Facebook Instagram TickTok LinkedIn ABOUT THE HOST: Claire Hancott through Profit Cash Growth helps 6 & 7 figure business owners to increase their profit, improve their cashflow and grow their business using their numbers. As a finance director & chartered management accountant, Claire has nearly 20 years' experience in finance and running businesses of her own. This gives her a unique insight into the information and support business owners need to grow a financially successful business. Claire passionately believes that every business should be run by the numbers because the numbers in your business are telling you a story about what is and isn't working and where your opportunities lie. Claire's mission is to provide insightful management accounts, reports and advice to business owners and support them to make smarter decisions. 

Market Harborough Congregational Church's Podcast
Sermon 14th July Ephesians 4 17-32

Market Harborough Congregational Church's Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 14, 2024 16:48


This is the sermon from the family service at Market Harborough Congregational Church.Leader: Jenny YoungTheme: I am a new creation.Bible Reading: Ephesians 4:17-32

Market Harborough Congregational Church's Podcast
Sermon and communion 7th July 2024

Market Harborough Congregational Church's Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 7, 2024 24:56


The sermon preached at Market Harborough Congregational Church on 7th July 2024Leader Rev Barry OsborneBible Reading Ephesians 3:14-4:16

Living Rock Podcast
10 Big Things For The Next 10 Years (David Lyon)

Living Rock Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 24, 2024 40:40


Watch/listen again to this Sunday message from David Lyon in Market Harborough. You can find more messages and other videos at youtube.com/livingrockchurch. You can also follow our Sunday Messages podcast on your preferred podcast platform. For more information about Living Rock Church visit www.livingrock.church.

Market Harborough Congregational Church's Podcast
Sermon 9th June 2024 A Reconciled People

Market Harborough Congregational Church's Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 9, 2024 14:48


This is the recording of the morning service at Market harborough Congregational Church, the full service is available on our website9th June 2024Leader: David CoxheadTheme: A Reconciled PeopleBible readings: Jeremiah 31:31-34, Ephesians 2:11-22

Market Harborough Congregational Church's Podcast
Sermon and communion 2nd June 2024

Market Harborough Congregational Church's Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 2, 2024 24:44


This is the recording of the morning service at Market harborough Congregational Church, the full service is available on our website2nd June 2024 Leader: Rev Jacquie Gavin Theme: Made alive in Christ Bible readings: Psalm 103:1-5 Ephesians 2:1-10

Market Harborough Congregational Church's Podcast
Sermon 26th May 2024 Trinity Sunday

Market Harborough Congregational Church's Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later May 26, 2024 26:06


This is the sermon preached at Market Harborough Congregational Church on Sunday 26th May which is Trinity Sunday.The service was led by Rob Betts.Bible readings  John 14:15-27, Romans 8:12-17

Market Harborough Congregational Church's Podcast
Sermon 19th May 2024 Christian Aid Week

Market Harborough Congregational Church's Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later May 19, 2024 19:24


This is the service for Christian Aid wek.Date: 19th May 2024 Leaders: Sharron & Rob BrannenTheme: Christian Aid WeekBible Readings: Psalm 86.1-7, 1 Corinthians 13:1-13Aline's story

Market Harborough Congregational Church's Podcast
Sermon 5th May 2024 God's love

Market Harborough Congregational Church's Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later May 5, 2024 30:48


This is the sermon preached by Jan Hocking at Market Harborough Congregational Church.Bible Readings: John 3:16-21 and Psalm 139:1-14. 

Market Harborough Congregational Church's Podcast
Sermon 28th April 2024 You gotta have faith

Market Harborough Congregational Church's Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 28, 2024 18:51


 The sermon from Market Harborough Congregational Church.Date: 28th April 2024 Leader: Rev Dr Rob HunterTheme: You gotta have faith Bible readings: John 6:16-21, Matthew 14:22-33

PopMaster
Smash hit or big flop?

PopMaster

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 16, 2024 15:59


Singer Tara in Market Harborough and theatre fan Katie in Kent pit their wits in the quiz

Market Harborough Congregational Church's Podcast
Sermon 14th April Ephesians - an introduction

Market Harborough Congregational Church's Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 14, 2024 16:57


This is the sermon at the beginning of a new series on the letter to the Ephesians. 14th April 2024 Leader: Jenny YoungTheme: The letter to the people of Ephesus Bible reading: Ephesians 1:1-14 (The Message) 

Market Harborough Congregational Church's Podcast
7th April 2024 Sermon and Communion Risen and Alive

Market Harborough Congregational Church's Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 7, 2024 26:56


7th April 2024 Leader: Rev Jacquie GavinTheme: Risen and Alive Luke Bible reading Luke 24:13-49This is the last in our six month series entitled Jesus: Man and Mission.If you are in MH next week we are starting to work through the letter to the Ephesians.

Market Harborough Congregational Church's Podcast
31st March 2024 Witnesses to the Resurrection

Market Harborough Congregational Church's Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 31, 2024 40:36


On Easter Day we listened to the accounts of five people who witnessed the resurrection of Jesus.The full service is available on our website.

Market Harborough Congregational Church's Podcast
Sermon 24th March 2024 Palm Sunday

Market Harborough Congregational Church's Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 24, 2024 27:25


This is the sermon from MH Congregational Church. 24th March 2024 Leader: Janet SmithTheme: Palm SundayBible Reading: Luke 19:11-35If you are in the area we are meeting for Communion on the Steps 7pm Maundy ThursdayGood Friday event on the Square 10.30-12.30.Easter Day 10.30am in our building.

Mums With Hustle Podcast
MWH 425 : Recipe for Success – How She Turned Her Love for Homemade Curries into a Thriving Online Membership with Varsha Mistry

Mums With Hustle Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 17, 2024 44:35


MWH 425 : Recipe for Success - How She Turned Her Love for Homemade Curries into a Thriving Online Membership with Varsha Mistry In this week's episode, I am sitting down with Varsha Mistry and she's sharing with us how she turned her love for homemade curries into a thriving online membership! LISTEN NOW Varsha is one of the members of my Social Method Society and Instagram is a primary marketing platform for her. She's growing an incredible business which started as a fundraiser at her children's school and from that, her business was born. In this episode, Varsha walks us through the beautiful, authentic evolution of her business journey. From how she's using Instagram to grow and market her business online to how she ended up with an online membership, teaching people how to cook delicious curries, as well as continuing to make delicious curries for her customers. How She Turned Her Love for Homemade Curries into a Thriving Online Membership with Varsha Mistry You will also hear: The ripple effect of what being able to do video on Instagram has made possible for her business. How she is growing her email list on Instagram and eventually create an online membership. What has helped her shift mindset and become more visible on Instagram. How being a member of the Social Method Society and part of a community gives a sense of belongingness and makes her feel more connected. Varsha's story is a testament to the power of turning passion into profit, and building a business and life that aligns with your zone of genius. It's a reminder that each small step can pave the way for something extraordinary. Like the many women in our community, Varsha is creating a life by design, filled with freedom and purpose. Her journey shows that we all have the potential to create businesses that allow us to wake up with excitement and joy every day. Join us as in this episode that celebrates the beauty of starting small and dreaming big. Tune in for inspiration, practical tips, and a reminder that you have everything within you to create a life and business you love. Once you give this a listen, send me a DM on Instagram @mumswithhustle and let me know what you think! Until next week, stay happy in your hustle. ABOUT VARSHA I used to be a food technology teacher. The journey became interesting when Mistrykitchen began as a fundraiser for the Starlight Foundation. Imagine delicious homemade curries, made with love, that became really popular among parents at my children's school in Randwick, Sydney. From the fundraiser I sent out a weekly curry menu and made curries once a week while my kiddies were at school, at pick up time in the playground, parents collected their children and curries. At the same time I was also a casual at Sydney Girls High School. Now, living in the lovely town of Market Harborough, UK, the excitement for sharing yummy homemade curries continues at local farmers' markets. Last year I launched my online membership Spice Tin Recipe Club, I share 4 curated recipes each month. Bringing confidence is using spices in creating beautiful dishes to share. CONNECT WITH VARSHA Youtube: @varshasmistrykitchenInstagram: @varshas_mistrykitchen CONNECT WITH ME Web: www.tracyharris.coFacebook: @mumswithhustleInstagram: @mumswithhustleTwitter: @MumsWithHustleMums With Hustle® Podcast Community By Tracy Harris: @mumswithhustle LOVE THE MUMS WITH HUSTLE PODCAST? Okay, mama! I'm going to give it to you straight, 'cause you know that's what I'm about. Podcast reviews are super important to iTunes and the more reviews we receive the more likely iTunes will reward us with better reach. I want to reach more hustling mamas that can add extreme value to our kick-ass tribe. Help a sister, out? I already love you forever, but I'd be extremely grateful if you would review me on iTunes! If you've loved this podcast, never miss another one!

PopMaster
It's a First for Vernon!

PopMaster

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 7, 2023 18:56


Deborah from Market Harborough and Michael from Coventry head into battle!

UBC News World
Market Harborough Formal Menswear Store Offers Checked Three-Piece Suits

UBC News World

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 28, 2023 2:34


Searching for a dapper three-piece suit that will make you look like a million bucks? Scotney's of London Road has got you covered with its lineup of rental suits. Visit https://scotneysoflondonroad.com/ and let us help you take your style to the next level. Scotney's of London Road 130-132 London Road, Leicester, England LE2 1EB, United Kingdom Website https://scotneysoflondonroad.com/ Email prc.pressagency@gmail.com

Agile Innovation Leaders
(S3) E024 Dave West on Kindness and Addressing the "Water-Scrum-Fall" Problem

Agile Innovation Leaders

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 26, 2023 47:52


Bio Dave West is the Product Owner and CEO at Scrum.org. In this capacity, he engages with partners, and the community to drive Scrum.org's strategy and the overall market position of Scrum. Prior to joining Ken Schwaber and the team at Scrum.org he was Chief Product Officer at Tasktop where he was responsible for product management, engineering and architecture. As a member of the company's executive management team was also instrumental in growing Tasktop from a services business into a VC backed product business with a team of almost 100. As one of the foremost industry experts on software development and deployment, West has helped advance many modern software development processes, including the Unified process and Agile methods. He is a frequent keynote at major industry conferences and is a widely published author of articles and research reports. He also is the co-author of two books, The Nexus Framework For Scaling Scrum and Head First Object-Oriented Analysis and Design. He led the development of the Rational Unified Process (RUP) for IBM/Rational. After IBM/Rational, West returned to consulting and managed Ivar Jacobson Consulting for North America. Then he served as vice president, research director at Forrester Research, where he worked with leading IT organisations and solutions providers to define, drive and advance Agile-based methodology and tool breakthroughs in the enterprise. Email –  Dave.west@scrum.org Twitter - @davidjwest LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidjustinwest   Interview Highlights Growing up with dyslexia 03:10 & 10:20 Water-Scrum-Fall 07:40 Psychological safety 15:40 Lilian the rockstar - 'who have you helped today?' 18:55 Is 'project' a taboo word? 21:53 'Humble and Kind' - not just for country music 44:30 Books ·         Head First Object-Oriented Analysis and Design by Dave West, Brett McLaughlin and Gary Pollice https://www.amazon.co.uk/Head-First-Object-Oriented-Analysis-Design/dp/0596008678/ ·         The Nexus Framework for Scaling Scrum by Dave West, Kurt Bittner and Patricia Kong https://www.amazon.co.uk/Nexus-Framework-Scaling-Scrum-Continuously/dp/0134682661 ·         ARTICLE: Why Kindness Matters by Dave West https://www.scrum.org/resources/blog/why-kindness-matters ·         Thank You for Being Late by Thomas L Friedman https://www.amazon.co.uk/Thank-You-Being-Late-Accelerations/dp/0141985755 ·         Scrum: A Pocket Guide by Gunther Verheyen https://www.amazon.co.uk/Scrum-Pocket-Companion-Practice-Publishing/dp/9087537204 ·         The Professional Scrum Series by various authors https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=the+professional+scrum+series&crid=1WVNY1VHR0QAQ&sprefix=professional+scrum+series ·         Zombie Scrum by Christiaan Verijs, Johannes Schartau and Barry Overeem https://www.amazon.co.uk/Zombie-Scrum-Survival-Guide-Professional/dp/0136523269 ·         The Professional Agile Leader: The Leader's Journey Toward Growing Mature Agile Teams and Organizations (The Professional Scrum Series) by Ron Eringa, Kurt Bittner, Laurens Bonnema, foreword by Dave West https://www.amazon.com/Professional-Agile-Leader-Growing-Organizations-dp-0137591519/dp/0137591519/ Episode Transcript Ula Ojiaku (Guest Intro): Hello and welcome to the Agile Innovation Leaders podcast. I'm Ula Ojiaku. On this podcast I speak with world-class leaders and doers about themselves and a variety of topics spanning Agile, Lean Innovation, Business, Leadership and much more – with actionable takeaways for you the listener. It's my honour to introduce my guest for this episode. He is Dave West. Dave is the CEO of Scrum.org and prior to joining Scrum.org as CEO, he led the development of the Rational Unified Process, also known as RUP with IBM. He was also Chief Product Officer for Tasktop Technologies and Managing Director of the Americas at Ivar Jacobson Consulting. He is a widely published author of several articles and research reports, as well as the books The Nexus Framework for Scaling Scrum and Head First Object-Oriented Analysis and Design. In this conversation, Dave talked about growing up in the council estates, being raised by his grandparents who were of great positive influence in his life, especially his grandmother. He also talked about navigating the challenges of being dyslexic, especially as a student in secondary school with the silver lining being that he got introduced to computers. Dave also gave his perspective on one of the ongoing “agile wars” quote unquote, on the concept of projects and whether they still have a place in agile or not. Without further ado ladies and gentlemen, my conversation with Dave, I am sure you would find it very, very interesting, relevant and insightful. Thanks again for listening. Ula Ojiaku So we have on this episode of the Agile Innovation Leaders podcast, Dave West, who is the CEO of Scrum.org. Dave, it's a pleasure to have you on this show, thank you for making the time. Dave West Oh, well, thank you for inviting me. I'm glad we've finally managed to make the time to do this. It's great to talk to you. Ula Ojiaku Yes, well, the honour is mine. Let's start by talking about, you know, getting to know about the man, Dave. Can you, you know, tell us a bit about that? Dave West Yeah, I'll try not to bore your audience. So I was brought up on a council estate in a little town called Market Harborough, just outside Leicester. I lived with my grandparents, and which has definitely, my grandmother's definitely shaped who I am, I think, which is fantastic. So I got into computers, sort of a little bit by accident. I'm dyslexic and I found school, particularly secondary school, very challenging. I don't know if any of your audiences had a similar experience, but, you know, I went from a very protected environment and secondary school is a, oh my gosh, it's like an experience that could scare any human being. And so my dyslexia really was a challenge there and there was a teacher at secondary school called Phil Smith. He drove a sports car, he was sort of like that young, you know those teachers that you remember from school that are the good looking young ones. And he ran a computer lab and it had, you know, RS236, it had these really old computers, well, now we would look at them, they were brand new at the time, computers and some BBC model As and some other things. And I helped him and he gave me a lot of time in the lab and it was my sort of like escape. So I got very into computing and helped him and helped other teachers who were rubbish, I'm not going to lie, with computing. So that allowed me then, you know, I went through, managed to survive school, went to a further education college called Charles Keene where I studied, well I did a computing course, so not traditional A'levels and all of that. And then got into Huddersfield that was a poly at the time, became a University whilst I was there. And I think that that gave me a great opportunity, it was a fantastic university, it was a very practical course. My dyslexia became less of an issue because of, you know, word processing and I'd be honest and, you know, the ability for it to read back, even though it was an awful read back, it was like listening to say, you know, to like an old fashioned Stephen Hawking, you know, sort of, and then got me a job at Commercial Union, which then led to me doing a Masters, which then led me to move to London, all this sort of stuff. The adventure was great. The thing about, I guess, my journey is that it, I was driven at a certain point, I became very driven by the need to improve the way in which we delivered software development at that time, and that led me through my Masters and, you know, Object-Oriented and then to a company called Rational Software where I became the Product Manager for RUP, the Rational Unified Process. Now for the agilists listening, they're probably like, oh, boo hiss, and that's totally legit. It was in fact, that's when I first met Ken Schwaber and he told me I was an idiot, which turns out he was right. Ken Schwaber the creator (of Scrum), who I work for now. Anyways. Ula Ojiaku I mean, who wouldn't know Ken Schwaber if you're a self-respecting agilist.  Sorry, go on please. Dave West Yeah, he's an interesting character for sure. Anyway, so I was the RUP Product Manager and I realised I went to this large insurance company in the Midwest and it's a huge organisation and I met this lady and she said, I'm a use case. I said, what do you do? She said, I'm a use case specifier, and meet my friend, she's a use case realiser and I'm like, oh, no, that's not the intent. And so I realised that there was this process that I loved, and I still definitely love elements of it, but was fundamentally flawed in terms of helping actually people to work together to work on complex problems and solve them. So that, you know, and I'd written a book and I'd done some other things on the way to this point, but this point really did make me realise that I was going wrong, which was a little scary because RUP was incredibly popular at that time, and so then that led me to work with Ivar Jacobson, tried to bring in Scrum to the unified process, spent more time with Ken Schwaber who'd finally realised I may still be an idiot, but I was an idiot that was willing to listen to him. Then I ended up at Forrester Research, running the application development practice, I became a research director there, which was super interesting, because I spent a lot of time looking at organisations, and I realised a really fundamental problem that I think probably will resonate with many that are listening to this podcast, that people were doing Scrum yeah, Scrum was incredibly popular and people were doing Scrum, but they were doing it in an industrial context. It was more like Water-Scrum-Fall. And I coined that term in a research document, which got picked up by the, InfoQ and all these magazines, it became this sort of ‘thing' – Water-Scrum-Fall. You know, they were doing Scrum, but they only liked to plan once a year, and there's a huge planning sort of routine that they did. They were doing Scrum, but they rarely released because the customers really don't want it - it's incredibly hard and dangerous and things can go horribly wrong. And so they were doing Scrum, but they weren't really doing Scrum, you know. And so that was super interesting. And I got an opportunity to do a number of workshops and presentations on the, sort of like the solution to this Water-Scrum-Fall problem with Ken, I invited him and we did this very entertaining roadshow, which I'm surprised we weren't arrested during it, but we were, it was a really interesting experience. I then decided like any good practitioner, I had to do a Startup. So I went to Tasktop working with Mik Kersten and the gang at Tasktop, and the great thing about Tasktop was it was a massive fire hose of doing Scrum, trying to make payroll, learning about everything around delivering a product in a market that wasn't really there and that we had to build. And it was just fantastic working with a lot of OEMs, a lot of partners and looking at, and then we got funding. We grew to five teams. I was running product and engineering. And Ken was continually talking to me through this time, and mentoring me, coaching me, but I realised he was also interviewing me. So he then said to me, one day, Dave, I don't want to be the CEO of Scrum.org anymore. I'd like you to be, when can you start? Ken doesn't take no for an answer, and I think that's part of the success of Scrum. I think that his persistence, his tenacity, his, you know, sort of energy around this, was the reason why Scrum, part of the reason him and Jeff, you know, had different skills, but definitely both had that in common, was successful. So I then came and joined about seven years ago Scrum.org, to run Scrum.org and it's an amazing organisation Ula Ojiaku And if I may just go back a bit to what you said about your time in secondary school, you said you were dyslexic and apart from the fact that you discovered computers, you had a horrible experience. What made it horrible for you? Dave West I think it was, you know, there's no support network, there's nobody checking in on you, particularly at secondary school. At primary school, you have a teacher that you're in the same room, you've sort of got that, you're with the same kids, but you go, you know, you, you go from one lesson to another lesson, to another lesson and if you're a little bit, well for me, you know, reading and writing was incredibly difficult. I could read and write at that point. I was about nine and a half, 10 when I finally broke through, thanks to an amazing teacher that worked with my primary school. And, but I was way, way behind. I was slower. I, you know, and teachers didn't really, it was almost as though, and I'm sure education's very different now, and both my children are dyslexic and they go to a special school that's designed around this, so I know that it's different for them, but the teaching was very much delivery without inspection and adaption of the outcome, you know, just to make it a bit agile for a second. So you go through all this stuff and I wasn't able to write all the stuff down fast enough. I certainly wasn't able to process it, so because of that, it was pretty awful. I always felt that I was stupid, I was, you know, and obviously I relied on humour and I was a big lad, so I didn't have any bullying issues, but it was very, very challenging. And I found that I could be good at something with computers. And I sort of got it, I understood how to write, you know, BASIC very quickly and maybe even a little Assembly. I knew how to configure machines, it just seemed natural, it certainly helped my confidence, which, you know, maybe I'm a little too confident now, but definitely had an impact on my future life. Ula Ojiaku That's awesome, and I'm sure there are people who would be encouraged by what you've just said, so I wanted to begin there. Thanks for sharing. Now, what about, what do you do when you're not working? Dave West What do I do when I'm not working? Well, I'm a, that's a hard question. Gosh. So I have a nine year old and a six year old, and two boys, so, you know, sometimes I'm refereeing wrestling matches, you know, I'm definitely dealing with having children, I was late to life having children. I'm 52 and I have a nine year old and a six year old. I thought that, you know, a single lifestyle, a bachelor lifestyle in Boston and, you know, loving my work, writing books, you know, doing this traveling the world was going to be survive, and then I met the most amazing girl and, who persuaded me that I needed to have children, and I thought, well, I really like you, so I'd better. And it's been an incredible adventure with these children. They've taught me so much, the most important thing I think they've taught me is patience. And it's making me a better human being, and many of those traits, just to bring it back to Agile for a second, are things that we need to build better into the way that we turn up at work because you know, the project, I think it was called Aristotle, the Google big project where they looked at the successful teams, they found a number of traits, but one of those traits that was so important was psychological safety, right? And that requires you to attend every interaction with a mindfulness, not of doing things that you want to do to yourself, which is that sort of golden rule, but that platinum rule, do unto others as they want be done unto. And, and I think that is so, so important and crucial, and it's something that I aspire to, I don't always succeed every day as a human being, you know, whether it's at the checkout at the supermarket or whether it's waiting in line, particularly at the moment in an airport, and it's just, you know, something that I think in an agile team is so important because that safety is so, so required to create that environment where transparency happens, to create that environment where you can have those honest conversations about what's happening next, or what's happened previously where you're running those retrospectives, where you're trying to really plan when there is not enough knowledge to plan. You know, those sort of things require that kind of environment to be successful. So, you know, though, yes, I spend my life either working or really spending it with my children at the moment because of the age they're at, I think it's helping me, the time I'm spending with my children is helping me be a better human being and be a better Agilist.  Ula Ojiaku There's something you said, you know, about psychological safety and being kind, it just reminded me that, you know, of that, the need for also to be respectful of people, because when you are kind and you're showing people respect, they would, that brings down the barriers and makes them, you know, more inclined to be open and to participate. What do you think about that? Would you say there's a link between respect and kindness, I know we're being philosophical right now… Dave West Well actually, yes, but no, it's incredibly practical as well. I think that kindness, so I've written quite a lot about kindness, because it's a trait that we, as a community, our professional Scrum trainer community, manifests and lives. It's something that we actually interview for when you join our community, and the reason why we do that, isn't because we're a bunch of hippies that just like kumbaya, want everybody to hold hands and be nice to each other, I mean, that would be great as well and who doesn't like a good rendition of kumbaya, it's a great song, but it's because we believe that kindness, ultimately, is beneficial to both parties, particularly the person that's being kind, because it creates, not only does it create levels of karma, but it creates that transparency, it creates that opportunity to learn that you may not get, if you go in in a very confrontational way and people don't intentionally be confrontational, but it's so easy for it to happen. You know, it's so easy for you to question, because, you know, somebody says something you're like, well, I don't agree with that, and that instantly creates an environment or a connection that is, you know, confrontational, you're in this position, it spirals, blah, blah, blah. So, but you can, instead of saying, I don't agree with that say, hey, well, that's interesting, let me have a look into that, and you're inquisitive. And if you try to approach everything with that sort of like kindness model, and I don't mean always being nice. Nice is different to kind, nice is like faking, I think, sometimes, you know, it's funny, you don't have to be kind to be nice, but you have to be nice to be kind if you understand what I mean. So you can fake niceness, niceness is part of being kind. So, you know, if you approach it in the right way, where you care about people and you care about what they're bringing to the table and you care about the environment that they're in, whether it's just simple things like checking in more frequently, you know, whether it's actually making time in this very scheduled life that we live now with zoom call after zoom call, to check in with the team, or the person that you're talking to, to see how are they turning up today? How has their day been? And I think that's, you know, super, super important. The other important element of kindness that comes out is this helping others element, you know, my gran, God rest her soul, Lilian, she was a rockstar on so many levels. And she used to say to me, when I came home from school, particularly from elementary school or primary school, I think we call it in England, right? She'd say things like, not what have you done today, I mean, sometimes she said that, but she'd say, who have you helped? Who have you helped? I'd be like uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, and she said it enough that I realised it's important, you know, it's important that you spend time with others, help them in their tasks, you know, because I think you can learn so much and build those relationships, build that safety that is so, so important to really develop. We work in complex environments, right, that's the whole point of agility. Complex environments require people to collaborate, they require people to look at things in different ways. They really benefit from diversity, diversity of mind, diversity of experience, diversity of skill. And you bring that together, but you can only bring all these different parts together when you have an environment that allows for it, and traditional project management techniques, fabulous as they were for building bridges and tunnels and everything like that, didn't allow that, they don't encourage that. They encourage people to be focused, to be efficient, to be managing to that model. And I think we have to step away from that and work in a slightly different way where kindness, psychological safety, trust, respect, use the word respect. And I think it's, you know, obviously it's a Scrum value, but it's crucial to effectively allowing independent people with diverse perspectives to work together in an effective way. And to be honest society doesn't have enough of that in general. I think we've definitely moved away from respect and trust. We don't trust in our governments, we don't trust in our institutions, we don't trust in our fellow human beings and we've become very much focused on ourselves and our individual needs. And the reality is there's no such thing as a self-made person, you're only there because of the success of previous generations. As you drive to work on a car, on a road that has been built by others, that's been funded by others, you know, so this idea that you are in it alone, you know, is completely wrong, and I think sometimes we bring that to the work and it creates an environment that is not as successful. Ula Ojiaku True, true. No, thanks for that, Dave. I completely agree. Now there are people back to this project program that feel like, you know, the word project in agile is a taboo, almost a swear word. What's your perspective on this? Dave West I don't think it's a swear word, I don't think it's taboo. I think, you know, Mik's book is a fabulous book and he's a fabulous person, but he was using it to emphasise the fact that, you know, that we have become too focused on this, you know, investment paradigm, this organisation paradigm, this structural paradigm of the project and that, ultimately, the idea of a product, this idea of a cohesive set of capabilities that's packaged in some way that has a clear boundary, that has a clear set of customers, that has some clear value, is a much better way of aligning your people and your investments. And so he was emphasising that, and obviously he emphasised the idea of value streams being the mechanism that we deliver value in this construct to these people in this packaging of products, and it's a great book and I recommend everybody should read it. Ula Ojiaku I have mine here. Dave West No, that's good. Yeah. I was fortunate enough to be involved in the development of the book a little, working with Mik, providing a lot of feedback and I think it's a great book. However, the idea of a project doesn't go away and all of that work that we did, that organisations that I respect deeply like the PMI and, you know, that even, dare I say, things like Prince2, all of that work, isn't wrong. It's just, we need to look at it from a different lens. The idea that complex work is there changes certain things, the fact that requirements and understandings and appreciation of what we're doing emerges over time, that is just a truth, and that was true of projects as well. We just need to build in the mechanisms to be better able to deal with that. The fact that we would invest hundreds, if not thousands of hours planning things that ultimately fell apart when some underlying assumption changed and then we'd create a change order to deal with the chaos that that created need to be, we need to step away from those ideas. Do we still have projects? I think yes, sometimes you will have something that has a, you know, put a man on, or hopefully it's not a man, hopefully it's a woman, but a woman on Mars. I don't trust men on, I think it'd be much more successful if it was a woman, but, anyway, or person. Men get old, they don't grow up, right? Isn't that the saying, but anyway, so putting that person on Mars is a project, right? It has a definitive, you know, plan, it has an end goal that's very clearly underside. It's very likely that we're going to build a series of products to support that, you know, there is, I don't think we need to get tied up so much on the words, project and product. However, we really need to step back a little bit and look at, okay, you know, like treating people as resources, breaking up teams and reforming teams continuously, treating people as fungible or whatever that is, they're just unrealistic. It's not nothing to do with project or product, they're just silly, you just can't deal with this. The fact that teams take time to form, you know, the fact that, you know, the most successful agile teams I've ever seen are teams that have a clear line of sight to the customer, clear understanding of what they're trying to do for that customer, have guardrails, have an enabling management structure that provides support to deliver that value to that customer. As long as you think about those things and you don't get so tied up with the dance or the routine of project management that you forget that, then I'm not concerned. You know, there's this big thing about, oh, should project managers be Scrum masters? I don't know, it depends on the project manager. Sometimes project managers make very good product owners because they take real clear ownership of the outcomes and the value that's trying to be delivered. Sometimes, you know, they make great Scrum masters because they care very much about the flow of work, the team dynamics, the service to the organisation, the service to the business, and they want to act in that way. And sometimes you just want to get stuff done and work in a team, as a developer on that increment. You know, I don't know, you know, people are like, oh, because, and I think this is the fundamental problem, and you've got me onto my soapbox here and I apologise, but the thing that I see over and over again is the use of agile in an industrial, mass production oil and mass production way of thinking about the world. So what they do is that it isn't agile or project management that's at fault. It's the paradigm that's driving the use of agile or the use of project management. You can do agile in a very waterfall way, don't get me wrong or a very industrial way, I almost don't want to use the word waterfall, but this idea of, you know, maximizing efficiency. I mean, gosh, the word velocity has been as synonymous of agile forever when ultimately it's got nothing to do with agility, you know, it's a useful mechanism for a team to help them run a retrospective sometimes. But it isn't a mechanism that you use to plan, you know, the capacity of your organisation and all this sort of idea,  what they're trying to do always is use an industrial, you know, sort of mindset in an agile context, in a context that doesn't support an industrial mindset or a traditional mindset. And that drives me mad because I see agility being used to deliver work rather than value, I see agility basically being missed, sort of like, almost jimmied in with a crowbar into these massive projects and programs where you've got fixed scope, fixed budgets at the start. They don't actually know what they're trying to achieve, but you've got all these contracts in place that describe all this stuff, very detailed up front. And then they say, we're going to use agile to do it, and you're like, okay, what are we, you know, what happens if the first sprint uncovers the fact that the product goal was fundamentally flawed? Oh well, we can't change that because the contract says, well, hang on a minute, what are we in this business for? Are we actually trying to deliver value to customers and help them solve a particular problem to deliver? Or are we trying to do something else? And they're like, no, we're trying to deliver on the contract. Oh, but isn't the contract a mechanism that describes that? Maybe, but that's not why we're here. And that's when it starts getting, going wrong, I think,  that industrial mindset that I just want, tell me what to do, give me a job, let me sit down, just give me that change order and I will start work. It's just wrong. And for certain types of project, and certain types of product and certain types of problem, you know, it probably works really well if we're building the 17th bridge or we're, you know, doing those sort of things. But the reality is in the digital age, that most knowledge workers, who are the people that really benefit from agile the most, that aren't working in that way, they're working with very changeable environments, very changeable customer understanding very, you know, it's a little bit more complex. Ula Ojiaku True, true. And what you're saying reminds me of my conversation with Dave Snowden, he's known for his work on complexity theory, Cynefin, and if it's in a complex adaptive environment, you know, you need to be agile, but if it's a complicated problem or a simple problem, so complicated is really about, you know, breaking it down into a series of simple problems but it's still sequential and predictable, you could use, you know, the traditional waterfall method, because nothing is going to change, it's really putting all those pieces together to get to a known end state, and so I am of the same mindset as you, in terms of it's all about the context and understanding what exactly are you trying to achieve, what's of value to the customer and how much of it do we know and how much learning do we have to do as we get there. Dave West Exactly. I'm obviously not anywhere near as smart as somebody like a Dave Snowden who just, I think he has forgotten more things than I've ever understood, but yeah, I mean he's an amazing thought leader in this space, but the challenge and he talks a little bit about this sometimes, or I think he does, is that we don't always know what's complicated or complex or the amount of unknown. And this is, you know, this is the classic sort of entrepreneur. Entrepreneurs aren't necessarily working in complexity, they're working in unknown. But the nature of complex unknown is really tricky because you may discover that something that you thought was known is not known, and then you then have to change how you approach it. So the reason in Scrum, what we do is we deliver frequently and that, ultimately, and we deliver the most valuable things or the things that will give us the most value, thus that uncovers those misunderstandings early in the process. Ula Ojiaku Yeah, completely true. And just to build on what you said in terms of understanding or realising that your product goal was wrong, you're working on the wrong thing. Sometimes you might have to also kind of say goodbye to the project or pull the plug. It depends. Dave West Yeah. And that's incredibly hard, sorry, just to lean into that. It's very hard because you've got people that are there and you've invested time, you know, there's the sort of classic fallacy of sunk costs, all that stuff, but the reality is it's not a fallacy of psychological sort of like sunk energy. You've invested all this time and money and effort and motion to get where you're at and then you're realising it's wrong. It's incredibly hard to step away from that. And so what you do, and you see this with startups all the time is, you know, you pivot, you pivot, you pivot, you pivot, you pivot, but you don't really pivot, what you're doing actually is trying to find a way to get all that investment that you've spent to be useful to deliver some value, you know, and whether it's repackaging or whatever, so that you can say, oh, that's okay when actually, and you can spend as much time doing that as you did the original thing, and now you are even worse, in a worse situation and it's hard. Ula Ojiaku Yes. Completely agree. So there's something you said about, you know, you gave an example of people doing, if I will use your term, Water-Scrum-Fall, in their delivery. And sometimes, you know, they go into detailed requirements, you know, specification, and this is, and they write an iron-clad contract that would, you know, kind of specify all these requirements have to be met, and whilst from the delivery perspective, in terms of the teams who actually do the work, it's they are, they get it, they want to be agile, but it's always these constraints. And whenever we, as an agile coach, you know, you go into the root of the matter. It's the typical root causes of why there is this inflexibility it's either, you know, the leadership and/or, you know, the business or their clients not wanting, you know, having that traditional expectations, any advice on how to effectively deal with this sort of blocker? Dave West I think it's very difficult, particularly when it's like outsourced or you've got, you know, that sort of it's contract-based as opposed to internal in terms of commitments. So it's not budgeted it's actually contracted. And when, when that happens it's very difficult, because you know, you've got the deal because you know how to do stuff and you've done it before, and you've got all that experience with the customer of course, so it's well, because you've done it before and you've invested all this experience, you must tell us exactly what it is that we are going to do. And the reality is the customer themselves doesn't know what they want, really. And until you actually get into the process, it's very difficult. I think one of the big things that's going to happen over the next few years, and we're starting to see some of this with things like Beyond Budgeting, the new procurement contract models that the US is, is perpetuating with 18F and the work of the central government. It would sort of stop during the previous administration, but it's now back, you know, how do you do agile contract management, what does it mean? Speaking from personal use, you know, of external companies to do work for Scrum.org, we pay for sprints. We define a clear product goal that we evaluate continuously, that's measurable. We, you know, we have a product owner from Scrum.org embedded in the Scrum team, even if the Scrum team or in the Scrum team, so of course, if the product owner, they are part of the Scrum team, but even if the Scrum team is predominantly a third party. So we do things like that to, and because you can't just fund one sprint at a time. It's very, you know, these people have got to pay mortgages and you know, they've got payroll to hit, so you have to negotiate a number of sprints that you would do it that allows them the flexibility to manage those constraints whilst being realistic, that at the end of a sprint review, you may discover so much stuff, or even during a sprint, that questions everything, and requires a fundamentally, you know, shifting of the backlog, maybe a change to the backlog, assuming that the objective and the product goal is still valid. You know, so putting those things in place, having those honest conversations and partnership conversations with the client is crucial. And the, you know, service companies that serve Scrum.org are a little bit luckier because we actually come at that from a, we know that we don't know what we want, whereas most clients, it's a lot harder to get them to say that. We know what we'd like to achieve, so the other thing that's important and I think that OKRs are maybe part of this, we have a thing called EBM, Evidence Based Management, which is a sort of like an agile version of OKRs. The OKRs and if defining the outcomes that you're trying to achieve and how you're going to measure them up front, validating them continuously, because it's possible you're wrong, but it's a much less of a scary prospect than not describing anything at all, or just having some very highfaluting goal. So getting very clear and precise in what you're trying to achieve and actually investing the time up front to work out what that means, and getting everybody on the same page around that can really help solve those problems long term, because you build to that, and that ultimately becomes the true north that everybody's working to. So when you have those moments of oh, that's not what we thought then, you know, that's okay, because you are validating against at least something, you have some level of structure in all of this. Ula Ojiaku So let's get to some other questions. What books have you, you know, read that you would say have kind of impacted the way your outlook on, or view on the subject of agile agility or anything else, what would you recommend to the audience? Dave West So the books that really changed my life around thinking about this in a different way, there was a few. The one that actually has nothing to do with agile that made me step back from the way I was looking at the world was Thank You for Being Late by Thomas Friedman. That book really sort of like reinforced the fact that the world is incredibly complex and is, you know, he's famous for The World is Flat, you know, the sort of like global supply chain thing, which we are all very aware of and it's fundamentally having a huge impact now on prices and inflation and the like because of, you know, it's been such a mess over the last two and a half years. So that changed my outlook with respect to the world that I'm living in, which I thought was quite interesting. In terms of straight agility, you know, I'll be honest, there's Scrum – A Pocket Guide that taught me professional Scrum, that's Gunther Verheyen's book that I'd never really thought about Scrum in that way. And then I have to plug the series, The Professional Scrum Series from Addison, well, it's Pearson now, sorry. There are some great books in there, Zombie Scrum is absolutely fabulous. And actually, coming out on the 17th of June is a new book about leadership, The Professional Agile Leader: The Leader's Journey Toward Growing Mature Agile Teams and Organizations. I just read that, so I did not remember it, but it's by three people I adore, Ron Eringa, Kurt Bittner and Laurens Bonnema. They're awesome, you know, had lots of leadership positions, written a great book. I wrote an inspired forward just in case anybody's checking that, you know, that confidence thing certainly came back after middle school, right. But that's a really interesting book that talks about the issue that you highlighted earlier, that leadership needs, we've spent a lot, we've spent 25 years teaching Scrum to teams. We need to spend the next, probably 60 years, teaching Scrum to leaders and trying to help, and it's not just Scrum, it's agile, hence the reason why this isn't just about Scrum, you know, whether it's Kanban, whether it's Flow, whether it's Spotify Model, whether it's whatever, but the essence of that, you know, empiricism, self-management, you know, the continuous improvement, the importance of discipline, the importance of being customer centric, the value of outcomes and measures against outcomes, the value of community and support networks, you know, all of this stuff is crucial and we need to start putting that thing, you know, whether it's business agility, whether you call it business agility, you know, all organisations, I think the pandemic proved this, need to be more agile in responding to their market, to their customers, to their employers and to the society that they contribute to. We get that. Leadership needs to change, and that's not a, you're wrong and awful, now sort of old leadership bad. No, it's just the reality is the world has changed and the more mindful leaders step back and say, oh, what do I have to do differently? Now, my entire team is remote, my, you know, my work is hard to plan, the fact that we, you know, our funding cycles have changed, our investment models have changed, you know, stepping back a little bit. So this professional, agile leader book I do recommend. Obviously I had the benefit of reading it before it became a book and it's very, very good and fun to read. Ula Ojiaku Awesome, we will put the list of books and links to them in the show notes, so thank you for that. Now, is there anything you'd like to ask you know, of the audience? Dave West Oh gosh, I don't know. I mean, my only sort of like, if it's sort of closing, if we've unfortunately come to the end of our time together and I, you know, I did waffle on, so I apologise for using far too much of it. But I guess the question I, and we talked a little bit about this, but you know, this sort of, there is a propensity in our industry, like every industry, and every moment, and every movement to become very inward looking, to become very like my way is better than every other way, you know. And obviously I'm very into Scrum and I apologise, I accept that I am. But I'm not arrogant enough to believe that it is the only way of solving complex problems. I'm also not arrogant to believe that it is sufficient. You know, I love the work of the Lean UX, Agile UX, we loved it so much we worked with Jeff and Josh to build a class together. I love the work of Daniel Vacanti and in professional Kanban and the Kanban community in general, I love, you know, I love the work of the professional coaching organisations and what they're really doing to help me be a better human being dare I say. You know, the point is, as you sit at this moment in time, you as an agile practitioner, have the opportunity to draw on many different disciplines and many different experts to really help to create that environment. That can allow agility to thrive and value to be delivered. And I think the only thing that's getting in the way of you doing that, or the only thing that was getting in the way of me doing that, and it still does sometimes is uberous arrogance and just a lack of, I don't know, not willing, not being willing to step out of my comfort zone and accept that my predefined ideas and my experience, my diversity that I bring isn't necessarily always right and to be more humble and to be more kind. I know it's a country song, you know, humble and kind, right, which I'm, you know, obviously I live in America, so I have to like country music, it's mandatory, but if you can be a little bit kinder and to do what my gran asks, right? Not what did you do today, but who did you help? What did you learn? How are you going to be better tomorrow? If we can do all of those things, then not only are our projects and teams and products better, but our lives better, and maybe society could be a little bit better. Ula Ojiaku Those are great words, Dave, thank you so much for those. One last thing, are you on social media? How can people get in touch with you? Dave West Well you could always dave.west@scrum.org if you want to ping me on this thing called email. If you are under 30, it's this thing that old people like, it's called email. If you're younger and cooler, I do not have a TikTok account, I don't totally know what it is. My son says we need it. I'm not a totally sure that we do, but it's not about clocks as well, who knew that, what was all that about? Ula Ojiaku Well, just like Apple isn't the fruit… Dave West Isn't about fruit, how annoying is that as well? Anyway, and so many misconceptions in the world, right. Anyway, but, and M&Ms aren't Smarties, I know I get it. But anyway, sorry, David J. West is my Twitter handle, you know, but, you know, whatever, LinkedIn, you can always find me on LinkedIn, just do Dave West Scrum.org and you will find me on LinkedIn. Love connecting, love talking about this stuff, maybe a little too much. You know another saying that my gran used to say, “you've got two ears and one mouth, shame you never used it like that, David”. I was like, yes, gran, I know, yeah. She also didn't by the way, just for the record anyway. Ula Ojiaku Oh gosh, your grandma Lilian sounds like she was one awesome woman. Dave West Rockstar, rockstar. Ula Ojiaku Well, thank you so much, Dave. It's been a pleasure and I thoroughly enjoyed having this conversation with you, actually more learning from you and I hope sometime you'll be back again for another conversation. Dave West I would love that. Thank you for your audience. Thank you for taking the time today. I appreciate it. Let's stay in touch and I hope that we'll see maybe in person again soon. Ula Ojiaku Yeah, that will be wonderful.