Coach Dan's Blog

Before I say anything else - I sincerely hope that all of you, your families and friends are all healthy and safe.  I know that this is a trying time for folks for a lot of different reasons, and I'm going to repeat one of my most overused phrases - we all win together.  That means we can rely on each other to share the load, to work through the unexpected, and to help each other out in any way that we can.  Never forget that before anything else, we are teammates, and that means we take care of each other the best that we can.  Please be sure to monitor the  CDC Coronavirus page for updates and resources. All of the health and wellness related stress aside - what a better time to be agile?  It's like our shared values and principle s were custom designed for times just like this... "But Coach Dan!  Whatever do you mean?"  Well, I'm glad you asked! Individuals and interactions over processes and tools.  I can't think of a more important time...

I'm not going to lie - I'm super proud of (and very fond of) our agile marketers.  To a person these are some of the most customer focused, creative, passionate people I've ever had the pleasure of working with.  Every day I get a little smarter (not hard considering where I'm starting from) by observing and listening to them as they continually take steps forward as agile individuals and teams.   I recently asked a few of our agile marketers, managers and leaders - "what do you wish your manager / leader knew about agile (mindset OR framework) before started to work on (or with) an agile team?"  I got back so many amazing and powerful responses - I decided to summarize them and send them out to everyone!  So without further preamble or ado -  Agile is (and isn't)... Agile is a methodology as well as a mindset, the mindset to work in the environment is very important. Agile is about the team, where members need to be willing to learn and take on new re...

If you've been coached by me or any of the marketing coaches, you've no doubt heard us talk about the concept of the 3 Es - and why they create the feeling of speed.  The  3 Es  articulate a balance between execution, continuous improvement, and valuing individual interactions and individuals.  It can be easy for newer teams to over-index by focusing more on one particular “E” at the expense of the other two.  Healthy, growing and maturing agile teams  balance  all three of those Es every day, and while the Scrum Master is an important part of facilitating that balance - it's everyone's responsibility to ensure that all three are cared for!  Consider this... When talking about agile teams to “outsiders” (people outside of our core team) it’s easy to put an emphasis on  E ngagement , because, quite frankly, it really is an energizer!  But think about this, “Our highest priority is  to satisfy the customer .”  Sound familia...

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 ...