Tag: leadership

Jason Little on helping teams work with outside stakeholders

“That’s not Agile!” is a common phrase we hear when a team does not want to compromise their view of agile in order to improve the collaboration with external stakeholders. Although that phrase may be true, we as Scrum Masters must look beyond the surface and understand how to help teams collaborate better with stakeholders.

About Jason Little

Jason Little helps organizations discover more effective practices for managing work and people. Sometimes that means plucking tools from the Agile world and sometimes that means using more traditional management practices, such as The Rockefeller Habits. Jason is passionate about the people side of change, and focus on bringing meaningful change into organizations that will improve the lives of people. Jason has recently released a new book called Lean Change Management: Innovative Practices for Managing Organizational Change.
You can connect with Jason Little on Twitter and link with Jason Little on Linkedin.
Jason Little is also a funder of Happy Melly.

Jason Little shares how hard it is to handle disruptive team members

It is hard enough to help a team that works OK, but handling teams with highly disruptive team members is extremely difficult. There are no formulas, but Jason shares with us some of the tools he used in a particular case where he had to help the team deal with a highly disruptive team member.

About Jason Little

Jason Little helps organizations discover more effective practices for managing work and people. Sometimes that means plucking tools from the Agile world and sometimes that means using more traditional management practices, such as The Rockefeller Habits. Jason is passionate about the people side of change, and focus on bringing meaningful change into organizations that will improve the lives of people. Jason has recently released a new book called Lean Change Management: Innovative Practices for Managing Organizational Change.
You can connect with Jason Little on Twitter and link with Jason Little on Linkedin.
Jason Little is also a funder of Happy Melly.

Woody Zuill discusses failed Agile adoptions

Agile is an approach to software development that asks us to look at the whole process differently. It asks us to consider different values, principles and perspectives that differ significantly from previous approaches. And it is because of that that it causes many to feel like their previous successes no longer matter. In such an environment it is very easy to feel rejected and that our experience does not count. This leads to problems in agile adoption. Woody talks about one such experience and what he learned from it.

About Woody Zuill

Woody Zuill, an independent Agile Consultant, Trainer, Coach, and Guide and has been programming computers for 30+ years. As a pioneer of the Mob Programming approach of teamwork for software development he has been sharing presentations and workshops on Mob Programming for conferences, user groups, and companies all over the world. He is considered one of the founders of the “#NoEstimates” discussion on Twitter.
You can connect with Woody Zuill on LinkedIn or contact Woody Zuill on Twitter.
If you are interested, check the MobProgramming conference.

Angel Diaz-Maroto: from programmer to leader and what he learned in the process

The journey we are in as Scrum Masters has many different forms. Angel tells us the story of his transition from Developer to Leader, and what were the critical lessons he learned in the process. We also mention a critical book for us in the software world: Lean Software Development by Mary and Tom Poppendieck.

About Angel Diaz-Maroto

Angel is a seasoned and very energetic Agile coach and a frequent speaker at international conferences and Agile events in Europe and America. He is Certified Scrum Coach. Currently he is member of Agilar, one of the leading Agile coaching firms in Europe and Latin-America.
He is now at Agilar, but before he was the leader at one of the biggest Agile transformations in europe, including business and IT at the Spanish branch of a multinational bank (ING). He lead the transformation from the trenches and starting from scratch. He as more than 15 years of experience in many different roles and is a professor at ESNE (University School of design, innovation & technology).
You can link up with Angel Diaz-Maroto on LinkedIn and connect with Angel Diaz-Maroto on Twitter.

Amitai Schlair on leading change as a scrum master

Today’s episode is the first where we tackle a new question: how to lead change in our role as a Scrum Master. Change management or change leadership is one of the core skills for us as Scrum Masters, and Amitai shares with us some of the tools he uses to help teams and organizations go through the change process. He also shares with us one approach he uses to develop trust between him and the teams he works with.
Today we play one more Agile in 3 Minutes episode that talks about what it means to be wrong and why that matters. Today’s Agile in 3 minutes episode is episode #5, titled “Wrong”.

About Amitai Schlair

Amitai is a Software development coach, and legacy code wrestler, non-award-winning musician, award-winning bad poet, and creator of Agile in 3 Minutes, which is a great podcast about what Agile really is about. A must listen for anyone interested in Agile Software Development.
You can link with Amitai Schlair on LinkedIn and connect with Amitai Schlair on Twitter.

Sean Dunn talks about the “structures that are in place”

Sean describes talks about models, structural and organizational models that help us understand the system that affects our organizations.
Sean talks about his own model:

  1. Transformational Leadership
  2. Lean Product Development
  3. Technical Excellence (PDF)

It is critical that we build a model that allows us to think about the whole organization. And use questions to investigate the system. As Sean put it “questions communicate value”.

About About Sean Dunn

Sean is an Enterprise Agile Coach with IHS Global. He has been involved with agile development for 8 years as a developer, product owner, and agile coach. Prior to his exposure to agile development Sean spent 13 years in the Canadian Army. In fact, Sean is known to point out that the Army is far more agile than most people think.
That background in the Canadian Army influenced his view of Leadership and the role of Leadership in creating and developing great teams.
You can connect with Sean Dunn on LinkedIn, check out Sean Dunn on the Scrum Alliance or email him at sean.dunn@ihs.com.
Check out Sean Dunn’s blog on leadership.

Sean Dunn shares 3 anti-patterns of dysfunctional teams

There are many reasons why teams fail. Sean shares with us 3 anti-patterns he has seen that indicate the team is on a downward spiral. The anti-patterns are:

  1. Lack of accountability (as a team)
  2. No shared objectives, everyone has a different agenda
  3. Individual’s names are the primary “reference” to ownership instead of the team itself.

For more information on these and other anti-patterns here are some books to help you:

About About Sean Dunn

Sean is an Enterprise Agile Coach with IHS Global. He has been involved with agile development for 8 years as a developer, product owner, and agile coach. Prior to his exposure to agile development Sean spent 13 years in the Canadian Army. In fact, Sean is known to point out that the Army is far more agile than most people think.
That background in the Canadian Army influenced his view of Leadership and the role of Leadership in creating and developing great teams.
You can connect with Sean Dunn on LinkedIn, check out Sean Dunn on the Scrum Alliance or email him at sean.dunn@ihs.com.
Check out Sean Dunn’s blog on leadership.

BONUS EPISODE: Critical lessons on Leadership with Sean Dunn

In this Episode we explore Leadership, what it means, and why it is such an important discipline for Scrum Masters.
Sean is an officer in the Canadian army reserves, turned Agile Coach. He shares with us what he learned about leading teams in his military career. How those lessons apply to knowledge work, and how to develop our Leadership skills.
In the armed forces, we look at leaders as someone who will be with us in harms way. To be able to function effectively as teams, leaders need to learn to work with teams in a manner that builds trust and empathy. Scrum Masters can learn a lot from how that is achieved in high-pressure situations.
The book mentioned on the topic of Trust: The 5 Dysfunctions of a team by Lencioni, includes many examples and practices on how we can help build trust within our teams. We also refer to Turn the Ship Around by Marquette, a book dedicated to explore the topic of leadership filled with lessons for Scrum Masters.
We also discuss what it means to be a successful leader, and review some of the Agile Manifesto principles that bear directly on leadership, and the practice of that discipline.

We are temporary stewards of our profession
Sean helps us to challenge our personal visions of leadership, what it means for our profession, and how it should influence our actions. “What type of organization do you want to build?”, Sean asks.
To help us develop our own understanding and vision of leadership Sean recommends 3 books:

About Sean Dunn

Sean is an Enterprise Agile Coach with IHS Global. He has been involved with agile development for 8 years as a developer, product owner, and agile coach. Prior to his exposure to agile development Sean spent 13 years in the Canadian Army. In fact, Sean is known to point out that the Army is far more agile than most people think.
That background in the Canadian Army influenced his view of Leadership and the role of Leadership in creating and developing great teams.
You can connect with Sean Dunn on LinkedIn, check out Sean Dunn on the Scrum Alliance or email him at sean.dunn@ihs.com.

Natalie Warnert explains why Scrum Masters must have partners in the organization

When we start working in a new organization we must face a new environment, new people, and must therefore start building our support network. Natalie suggests you seek out a partner in the new organization that can support your work. We also discuss why the role of leadership is so critical for the success of the team.

About Natalie Warnert

As a developer turned Agile coach, Natalie Warnert understands and embraces what it takes to build great products. Natalie focuses teams on embracing Agile values to build the right product and build the product right. Natalie is currently coaching the Cart/Checkout teams for Best Buy Dotcom and recently earned her Master of Arts degree in Organizational Leadership and Strategic Management.
You can link with Natalie Warnert on LinkedIn, connect with Natalie Warnert on Twitter, read her blog at nataliewarnert.com, and visit her project page Women in Agile.

Anton Zotin on why it is critical to understand everyone has their own journey to Agile

As Scrum Masters we are often very passionate about what is the “right way”, we see a lot of problems immediately, and we know how to fix them. Anton shares the story of such a moment in his career and how he started to accept that “everyone has their own journey”. His recipe is:

  1. Gradually lead the time in the right direction. Don’t try to change everything at the same time.
  2. Whatever you think is going wrong, reflect that back to the team and help them find their own solution. Be an Agile Mirror!

In this Episode we mention 2 important books:
The Human Side of the Enterprise by McGregor, the classic that introduced the Theory X and Theory Y model, which we discuss in this episode.
Turn the Ship Around by Marquee, a book on leadership that presents a model that is very useful for Scrum Masters.

About Anton Zotin

Anton is an Agile guy born in cold Siberia but with hot and passionate heart. He has worked in all sorts of companies and environments, and has been an agile fan since 2004. Nowadays works and lives in Berlin. And he deeply believes in people.
You can connect with Anton Zotin on LinkedIn, or find Anton Zotin on twitter. You can also ask him questions over email.