team management Archives - Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast

BONUS: Captain David Marquet’s Guide to Becoming Your Own Best Coach

In this BONUS episode, we explore Captain David Marquet’s latest book “Distancing: How Great Leaders Reframe to Make Better Decisions.” Captain Marquet, renowned for transforming the USS Santa Fe from the worst-performing submarine to the best in the fleet, shares powerful insights on psychological distancing and how stepping outside ourselves can dramatically improve our decision-making abilities.

Make sure you also check the previous episode with Captain Marquet, where we discuss the key lessons from his book: Turn The Ship Around! A very often referred book on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast.

The Genesis of Distancing

“What I really needed was people to think, not just comply, not just do what they were told.”

Captain Marquet traces the origins of his distancing concept back to his submarine experience. After realizing that giving orders gave people “a pass on thinking,” he developed a system where crew members would say “I intend to…” instead of waiting for commands. However, he noticed that officers would sometimes make decisions that were good for their department but not optimal for the submarine as a whole. This led him to ask different questions – like having the engineer sit in the captain’s chair and think from that perspective. The breakthrough came when he started asking himself, “What would my six-month-from-now self want me to do today?”

The Three B’s of Better Decision Making

“The problem with your decision making isn’t gathering more market data. The problem is your internal, your egoic biases that just come from the fact that you view the decision from inside your own head.”

Marquet introduces the “3 B’s of better decision making”: Be someone else, be somewhere else, be sometime else. These psychological distancing techniques help overcome the limitations of our “immersed self” – the version of us trapped in immediate pressures, deadlines, and ego-driven concerns. When we distance ourselves temporally (thinking as our future self), socially (thinking as someone else), or spatially (imagining being somewhere else), we access what psychologists call our “distanced self,” which aligns more closely with our ideal self and core values.

The Jeff Bezos Example

“When I’m 80, when am I going to regret more? Am I going to regret trying this idea and failing or not trying the idea?” Continue reading BONUS: Captain David Marquet’s Guide to Becoming Your Own Best Coach

CTO Series: The Anti-Scaling Paradox: Why and When a CTO Should Refuse to Grow His Team with Markus Hjort

In this BONUS episode, we dive into a fascinating conversation with Markus Hjort, Co-founder and CTO of Bitmagic. With over 20 years of software development expertise, Markus shares invaluable insights on tech leadership, team scaling, and how AI is transforming the landscape of software development. From pivotal career moments to practical advice on aligning tech strategy with business objectives, this episode offers wisdom for technology leaders and developers alike.

Defining Moments in Tech Leadership

“As a leader, for me, it is important that we have a positive attitude.”

Markus reflects on two pivotal experiences that shaped his leadership philosophy. Early in his career, he received feedback about his positive approach to challenging tasks, which reinforced his belief in maintaining an optimistic outlook when facing difficulties. This approach has allowed him to inspire team members during tough situations. The second defining moment relates to estimation skills. After participating in a rescue mission for a delayed project, Markus learned the importance of making realistic ballpark estimates rather than succumbing to unrealistic deadlines. His initial two-year estimate for a project was met with resistance from a client who wanted it done in two months, but the project ultimately took four years to complete – twice his original estimate.

- Leads by example with a positive attitude toward challenges
- Values the skill of making quick but realistic ballpark estimates
- Recommends “Programming Pearls” for developers to improve estimation skills
- Emphasizes that product developers should create different options to reach goals

In this segment, Markus refers to the book Programming Pearls.

Aligning Tech Strategy with Business Objectives

“Nothing should come for me as a surprise.” Continue reading CTO Series: The Anti-Scaling Paradox: Why and When a CTO Should Refuse to Grow His Team with Markus Hjort

Substack Week: The Shared Ownership Challenge, Understanding Clear Accountability in Engineering Teams With Rafa Páez

Welcome to our Substack Week, where we interview thought leaders who publish newsletters on Substack to help you find inspiring voices that drive our community forward. In this episode, we explore the concept of shared ownership and its pitfalls with Rafa Páez, an experienced engineering leader with insights on creating clear accountability in teams.

The Pitfalls of Shared Ownership

In engineering teams, shared ownership often manifests as ambiguity in responsibility and accountability. Rafa shares a personal experience where assigning two engineers to lead an initiative resulted in nothing getting done, as each assumed the other would take action. This phenomenon highlights how shared ownership without clear accountability can lead to missed deadlines, poor quality deliverables, and team conflicts.

“It might not be my fault because I thought the other person was available, I thought the other person had more time to actually work on that initiative.”

Understanding the Bystander Effect

The bystander effect, a psychological phenomenon first identified by social psychologists, explains why people are less likely to take action when others are present. In a team setting, this manifests as members assuming someone else will take responsibility, leading to collective inaction. This effect can significantly impact team productivity and project outcomes.

“Because there are more people there, someone thinks that someone else will take care of that thing, whether it’s a project, initiative, or any other action.”

The DRI Framework: Creating Clear Ownership

Continue reading Substack Week: The Shared Ownership Challenge, Understanding Clear Accountability in Engineering Teams With Rafa Páez

Substack Week: Engineering Strategy, Bridging Technical Excellence with Business Success With Aleix Morgadas

In this Substack Week episode, we explore the critical intersection of engineering strategy and business success with Aleix Morgadas, an engineering strategy consultant focusing on sociotechnical aspects of high-stake business challenges. Aleix shares insights from his experience helping organizations align their technical capabilities with business objectives, while offering practical approaches to developing and implementing effective engineering strategies.

The Genesis of Engineering Strategy

Personal experience sparked Aleix’s journey into engineering strategy when he joined a large company and found himself grappling with strategic decision-making in engineering. He identified a crucial gap: while strategy was well-established in product and business domains, engineering organizations often lacked strategic frameworks for participating in key decisions. This realization led him to start writing about his struggles and insights, helping others navigate similar challenges through his newsletter.

“I found that engineering was missing a way to be part of the decision making process, and we needed to be clear on the problems and challenges that engineering organizations face.”

Breaking Down the Four-Step Process

Drawing inspiration from Richard Rumelt’s work on strategy, Aleix presents a comprehensive framework for developing engineering strategy. The process emphasizes the importance of understanding organizational context and identifying shared challenges before taking action.

“Solve the shared pains – that’s why we need to uncover those pains in the first place.”

Continue reading Substack Week: Engineering Strategy, Bridging Technical Excellence with Business Success With Aleix Morgadas

Mike Salogub: How to help a team go from waterfall to Scrum in 3 sprints, the challenges to expect

In this episode, Mike talks about his experience with change leadership when his team transitioned from waterfall to Agile. The transition happened overnight, and Mike had to learn a new role quickly. After attending Scrum workshops, the team began working on their first sprint, but developers were eager to work on future projects and underestimated the amount of work to be done in the current sprint. This led to a pile-up of work and failure to meet sprint goals in the second sprint.

However, by the third sprint, team members started to understand the benefits of Agile, and by the fifth sprint, they were delivering more than expected. Mike shared three tips for successful change leadership: involve the boss in meetings, regularly remind team members of the mission, and have a leader who is committed to making the project a success. In this case, Mike’s boss acted as a Release Train Engineer (RTE), helping to steer the team towards success.

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 Mike Salogub

Mike’s an accomplished, committed and creative Scrum Master with over 10+ years of expanding horizons in the healthcare technology industry. Focused on continuous improvement using data to inform business decisions, and driving innovation to meet the needs of patients.

You can link with Mike Salogub on LinkedIn and connect with Mike Salogub on Twitter.