Remember when you were a kid, and were in the middle of doing something you were excited about, and an adult came along to tell you what you should do next?
Remember how deflating and frustrating that felt?
Coaches, this is what happens to teams and people when you offer help they haven’t asked for: You are stealing from them. You are a thief-coach.
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My micro-blogging has gone from being in the back seat of priorities to being out past the trailer, riding on a skateboard hanging on to a rope tied to the axle. That being said, the topic of self-organization keeps launching itself onto my windshield like a southern cicada in August, so it’s time to take to ye old keyboard.
Let’s clear some of the proverbial air around self-organization by understanding the origin of the concept. It did not suddenly find itself inside of agile principle #11 one morning after a bender.
Improving Accountability and Predictability of Delivery in Agile Teams
In Henrik Kniberg’s Agile Product Owner in a Nutshell video, he draws the Venn diagram that illustrates what agile teams are challenged with every day: Building the right thing, building the thing right, and building it fast. Ideally we want to stay in the zen-like balance of having all three in equal parts. The trouble is, building software is a team sport and teams are made up of humans, not robots (no offense to robots). We have to focus on the people to understand the team and its performance if we want to stay within the nucleus of the agile Venn.
With that as our goal, let’s take our concept of building “the thing” and replaced it with “the team.” Read More »
My 12 year old son was helping me with dinner. I laid out the cutting board and two zucchini, and asked him to slice them up – something he had never been asked to do himself.
He started with the washing. Was there something to wash them with? No, I said, just wash them with water this time because we’re all out of veggie wash. He did.
Next was the knife selection. Was there a certain knife he should use? I replied simply that he should choose one of his own liking, any out of the knife block. After examining a few, he opted for a rather thin carving knife.Read More »
