Coach's Challenge - Today is another opportunity!

Embracing an agile culture and mindset mean that every day, every sprint, every iteration we have another opportunity to honor commitments. Commitment to delivering value to our shared customer. Commitment to our sprint (or iteration) goals. Commitment to our teammates. Commitment to ourselves!

Agility also means allowing the opportunity for things to change. We are ok with ambiguity, because we know that we will test and learn together.  We know that with every new data point and new understanding we reassess; take what we can learn and incorporate that into what we do next. We know that everything we do together is in service of our customer and when their priorities change, we pivot to meet their needs. We know with clear outcomes and objectives, and a solid understanding of who our customer is, our team can chart a path forward together.

Every day is an opportunity

Each day is an opportunity to re-commit to delivering value for our customer. Every team event gives us a chance to ensure that we're holding ourselves and each other accountable to delivering value together. Every interaction is an opportunity to help create something valuable and important for the customers who count on us to help them achieve their goals. 

The best Agile teams use the team events to keep focused on the priorities, to learn, to think outside the box. Being agile means we focus on our shared priorities as a team, and we do everything that we can to ensure that we not only meet our commitments, but that we (the team and everyone on it) get better, faster and smarter over time. This happens because we clear out the extra 'noise', while growing our team performance.

Today is another opportunity to re-commit to achieving our team's goals, to think outside of the box, to help the whole team keep moving forward. It's a new chance to reaffirm that without the skills, talent and knowledge that we all bring to the table, we won't be able to achieve the mission of every agile team - and that is to deliver value. Show up with the mindset, lean into the frameworks and you quickly realize that even the largest of impediments can be overcome so we can deliver that customer value!

With all of the change going on around us, it's nice to know that there are people you can count on who share the same values. Who have the same objectives. Who rely on you to help us all deliver what our customer needs.

So take the opportunity today...

• Reaffirm your team, program and portfolio's objectives. Are you all focused on delivering the same outcome? Are you all driving toward the same thing?

• Review and re-align your team agreement. Are you all on the same page? Are we committed to not just getting the job done, but getting the job done together?

• Realign around your team's customer. Do you all (everyone who contributes to what you're building) have the same customer in mind?

• Reconfirm your shared priorities. Are you all (again, everyone who contributes to what you're building) working off of the same set of priorities?

• Re-commit to being agile. No one ever said that being agile is always easy! Take a moment and reflect on what being agile means to you. Have a conversation with your team about how you can help your team be more effective, efficient and engaged as you deliver value for your customer.

Don't let today's opportunity pass you by! Invest a few minutes and have that conversation with your team. Commit to being agile today!

We all win together.