Coach Dan's Blog

The way an organization operates is a reflection on the beliefs and values of the leader. If you want to improve the way your organization creates value, start with taking a hard look at yourself. The best-laid change management plan will help you move boxes around your org chart, but making meaningful improvements within an organization first requires intentional mindset and behavior shifts across the leadership team. Where have you seen leaders change their mindset before an org change? What were the results?

“I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” -Maya Angelou What ONE THING will you do to make someone feel seen / heard / listened to / understood / valued / good today?

  For anyone who needs to hear it today - “To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.” ― Ralph Waldo Emerson Emerson is on to something. Is it possible to spend so much time trying to meet the expectations of others that you forget the value you bring as a unique human being? Are we so busy pleasing others, that we miss the chance to contribute our own uniqueness to a problem or an opportunity? How many incredible innovations have we missed out over time because of the phrase, "The boss wants it done this way...?" YOU are amazing. YOU are unique. YOU are valuable ideas and perspectives. BE who you are and give your best. That is the greatest accomplishment.

"The world as we have created it is a process of our thinking. It cannot be changed without changing our thinking." - Albert Einstein Leaders have worked hard to make their organization how it is today. It's a reflection of how they lead and what they believe. Is it any wonder that it's so hard for organizations to change? Changing an organization requires the leader to change how they lead.  Transformations fail because leaders fail to reimagine themselves. Do you want your organization to change? Start with yourself! 

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 Today is Tuesday, 2/22/22.  Can anyone think of a better day to carve out two minutes of your day, and say "Thank you" to a partner, peer, coworker or friend who went out of their way to help you? If you've been paying attention, you already know that showing gratitude at work can measurable improve a team’s performance.  Did you also know that "Overdoing Thank-Yous" is also shown to help improve a team's (and an organization's) psychological safety, which (wait for it) is necessary for a high performing culture? Daniel Coyle, in his book The Culture Code , states that one of the key components of the cultures of highly successful organizations is a sense of belonging.  Take a few minutes and think about a really great team you've been a part of. (It could be a work team, a sports team, a school project, a community/volunteer effort, it doesn't really matter what kind of team, just a great team.)  What were some of the things that made that team...

 

 I know it's an assumption, but I would still make a bet - everyone likes to receive gratitude for a job well done.  That moment of clarity where another person lets you know just how much you're appreciated.  It's a great feeling!  It can take a cruddy day and turn it around.  It can help a good day get to a great day.  It's really an easy thing to do... saying "thank you" to someone who did a great job, or helped you out, or challenged you to be better at what you do.   Showing genuine gratitude is a really simple but powerful tool that costs a team very little in energy or effort, but can pay off big-time in helping teams to achieve their goals. Consider research done at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania .  A research team randomly divided university fund-raisers into two groups. One group made phone calls to solicit alumni donations in the same way they always had. The second group — working different days than the first grou...

There's been something that's been on my mind lately, and I can't quite get my head wrapped around an answer. I figured at this point, instead of just puzzling over it - the best thing I can do is just ask y'all what you think. So here goes... What's stopping you? Seriously, what's stopping you? We've been working on this "agile thing" now for quite some time. People have been trained on the mindset. PowerPoint decks, and playbooks have been distributed. Workshops have been conducted. Scrum and Kanban has been installed. Teams have been formed and registered them in a database. Jira and confluence have been rolled out. Dashboards full of metrics have been published. That means we're agile, right? Maybe, I guess. But for those of you who have started your agile team journey together, let me ask you this... do you feel agile? Does it feel like you are closely connected to the customer and business problems that you're helping to so...

  Learn more about National Pickle Day

Empathy, I think, is one of those things that is easy to define and hard to employ.  You can pretty easily find a consensus  on what the word means - I'll even save you the trouble and Google it... It's the ability to make a connection to a feeling someone else is having about a situation, and being able to experience that same feeling yourself.  It's hearing about a sick child at home, and feeling a little worried, scared, and sad yourself.  It's hearing about a won lottery ticket, and feeling excitement yourself.  As with anything worth doing - it can be harder to do than it sounds.  It IS however, a critical skill to employ if you are truly interested in understanding what someone is trying to communicate to you. Forbes recently published a short article outlining some of the positive business outcomes when comparing companies whose employees reported that their leaders were empathetic vs those who didn't. Innovation . When people reported their leaders ...

  Learn more about National World Smile Day

  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 ...

Learn more about National Bomb Pop Day

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 deli...

 Learn more about National Do A Grouch A Favor Day

  Learn more about National Clean Off Your Desk Day

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...