Coach Dan's Blog

I hear those words a lot.  "Hi!  My name is ... I report to ..."  I may have missed the part of orientation that taught us that standard introduction.  It's what we say when we meet someone new, or start working with a new team. Sometimes to me it feels like a security blanket of sorts.  Or a justification as to why that person showed up to a certain meeting.  Regardless of why it happens, it happens.  A lot.  To me, that phrase has become a symbol of why we as a company, still have a way to go with our transformation. At the risk of repeating myself over and over... I'd like to refresh us all on the "why" of this transformation we are all working on. Our customers matter.  They count on us to help them achieve their financial goals.  Without them, and their continued use of our services, we wouldn't have a company (and consequently jobs, which means we would not be a part of so-and-so's organization!)  Our customers matter so much ...

 

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  The  first  shared agile principle is - “Our highest priority is to  satisfy the customer  through early and  continuous delivery of value.” - The Agile Manifesto When was the last time  your  team... talked about  your  customer?  Who is your customer?  Is  everyone  on your team working for the same customer? Is the work you're doing  today  creating value for your customer?  How do you know? How will the work you do today help to  satisfy  your customer? If your customer saw the top of your team's backlog,  would they agree  it's important and valuable? Is your team regularly engaging with the customer to inform the product direction? In the hustle and bustle of our day, it can be easy to lose sight of the "why we're doing this." Take some time this week, and invest in your team.  Talk about who your customer is and what problem you're solving for  them ...

In the last post, I  challenged you to start seeing  mistakes as opportunities  for your team to improve and grow.  This week our coaching challenge is designed to help your team improve its psychological safety by making it "ok" (or even  normal ) to share ideas or perspectives that may be counter to what the rest of the group is thinking.     The concept of "Black Hat Teams" is simple - it challenges teams to look at decisions and solutions from different perspectives.  It also helps to encourage team members to share ideas and perspectives that may be "counter" to a direction the team may organically be headed in.  The Black Hat Review activity can be incorporated into backlog refinement or roadmap development, and can go a long way to helping create an environment of  psychological safety  for your team.   IF you have any questions, or would like any support, don’t hesitate to reach out to a coach, scrum master, o...

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