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...