Coach Dan's Blog

Oh what a loaded question, right?  So much going on in the last month or so.  So many ways to answer that question! We can think of a leader’s time and energy being split into 4 quadrants:  While leaders have to spend time and energy in all four of these quadrants, “agile leaders” (leaders who truly embrace our shared agile values and principles, and challenge their teams to be Effective, Efficient and Engaged) spend the bulk of their time in “People Developer” and “Process Improver.” Where do you spend your time? So my question to you Managers and Leaders...  where have YOU been spending most of your time lately?   What part of the quadrant have YOU been spending the most of your time over the last few weeks?  Even with all of the craziness, challenges and uncertainty of the last month – are you actively looking to grow your team?  One way to reflect is to ask the following questions to yourself... Did I create an environment where my team member...

I'm not going to lie - I woke up this morning feeling a little depressed and worn thin.  North Carolina is on day 23 of our "Stay at Home" order - with other places being "cooped up" even longer.   While like everyone, my family has been making the best out of the situation.  Unlike untold other people, we've been blessed to be healthy, safe and relatively comfortable.  Others have it much worse than my family and friends.  All that said, I'll be honest... my nerves are wearing a bit thin.  Being used to doing things one way, and then suddenly being forced (or at the very least - strongly encouraged) to do things differently - well we're getting through it, but it's not without road bumps along the way.  The girls have adjusted to online schooling (although not without drama.)  We've adjusted to putting in a grocery order 5 days in advance rather than just running out and grabbing what we want on a whim.  We've all gotten really good at ...

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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...