Coach Dan's Blog

Hello agile teammates!  Can I get real with you for a minute?  I want to share something that really gets my dander up...  I don't know about you, but when I hear folks refer to our agile team events as "meetings" I get a special kind of cranky!  Let me explain...   As you all are very aware of by now, agile teams are built around a set of shared values and principles we call " the agile mindset ."  The first shared value of that mindset is: Individuals and interactions  over process and tools Now - tools and processes are valuable... they really help a team stay focused on their shared objectives (which of course is to deliver values for our customers while we achieve business outcomes!)  This may be an unpopular opinion, but I'll make the argument anyway - Agile team events are not a process, nor are they a step in a process.  They are not a box to be checked or a form to be stamped.  They are an  opportunity  for a cross-fun...

One of my favorite responsibilities is facilitating the Agile Leader Onboarding sessions.  In these events - I get to talk to managers and leaders about the agile values and principles, how agile frameworks add value, and about how managing and leading people is very different in an agile environment.  Inevitably we get into great conversations about what needs to be done differently, and what we can start doing now - today - to reinforce a shared agile mindset and help our transformation move forward.  Every session - we end it with a challenge for the participants - try one thing.  Try one different thing with your team members, your partners or peers to help reinforce an agile mindset. About two weeks later - we get the each group back together and ask them "Ok - what did you try?  What did you observe?  What did you learn?"  Then we sit quietly and wait for someone to speak up.  Without fail, I hear stories of managers and leaders who did do t...

 We've all heard that question (or some variant) in our head - often delivered in that ominous tone that our brain reserves for occasions when it truly wants to undercut our self-confidence - "OMG - what if I screw this up?"  "What if what I say falls flat?"  "What if this doesn't work?"  "What if I don't achieve my goal?"  Even the most confident of individuals can have those unsettling moments of fear when taking steps into an unknown situation.  It's completely natural of course - fear is a hard-wired mechanism that starts in the part of the brain called the amygdala which is designed to keep us alive (yes, I googled it.)   It also doesn't help that our work environment doesn't always look at failure as a benefit to the individual, team or organization as a whole. Wait - what?  Failure as a benefit?  Coach Dan has completely flipped his lid this time!  Maybe, but not because of this line of thinking.   Companies innovat...

  As I was doing some exploring this weekend, I came across a great article that resonated with me on so many levels.  I'm sharing an excerpt of the content here with you along with some thoughts to consider as you continue your agile journey!  The full article can be  found here  if you're interested.   Ownership? When the work is complex, when teams have to grow continuously, and when employees have to find creative solutions every day to really help customers, something special is needed to be successful. When every situation, challenge, and customer is too unique, people need to be empowered to think and decide for themselves. Ownership ensures that they think outside the box to come up with innovative solutions that really help customers. In case of unexpected problems, difficult challenges, or when things go wrong, ownership ensures that teams feel responsible to solve this. They don’t have to wait for others to come up with solutions. When they feel ...

In the spirit of growth and learning - I spend time every week exploring new ideas, reading and learning about agility and leadership.  I came across a report published by McKinsey and Company in October of 2018 entitled Leading agile transformation: The new capabilities leaders need to build 21st-century organizations .  It really resonated with me, so I'm shamelessly copying and pasting an excerpt to our blog.  If you want to read the full report, you can find it here - but I put the part that really stood out as relevant to me below.  It's absolutely worth a read, and perhaps some reflection time if you're serious about being an agile leader. Shifting from reactive to creative mind-sets Changing our mind-set—or adjusting it to the new context—is no easy task, but developing this “inner agility” is essential in releasing our potential to lead an agile transformation. It is clear from the work of Robert Kegan and many others that leaders of agile organizations must...

This agile coach was investing some time in himself this weekend and came across an article that warned of a topic he is aware of, and indeed himself has experienced- Zombie Agility!   Now I know what you're thinking - "He's really off into the deep end this time," but hear me out!  I can assure you, it's a real thing - you may have seen the symptoms of this horrible affliction before - Agile teams that are joyless and robotic - executing the events without really ever really connecting with the work (or talking about their customer) All of the boxes are checked and you're "doing" Agile - but not really seeing the business results Backlogs are still highly dependent on command and control approvals (you're still asking your Advisory Council for approval to move forward) Outside dependencies that cause constant reshuffling of team's priorities Teams are getting lackluster results and have disengaged people As Eric Cottrell  puts it -  Zombie ...