At a recent Agile coach retreat, thanks to Mike Kaufman, I was introduced to ORSC or Organization and Relationship Systems Coaching. A model for coaching people, teams or organizations. Unlike one-on-one coaching, ORSC shifts the focus from an individual to the relationship systems that individual is part of. One of the concepts we learned was “The Third Entity”. […]
Change is hard enough without fear in the air. What do we fear? What fuels fear? How will we know when fear has been driven out of the system? [...]
In this day and age of questionable employee engagement, can there be such a thing as "too much engagement”? Are employees and staff suffering from engagement fatigue? Or is it akin to communications where you could never over-communicate?
When I discovered Agile ways of working and its related growth mindset, I started to see parallels between the martial arts and the Agile mindset. I knew Agile and especially Scrum and Kanban were heavily based on the Japanese Lean Thinking that evolved from the Toyota Production System (TPS). My martial arts background and specifically Karate elevated my understanding to the next level.
As more and more technology teams experience benefits with Agile ways of working, the Agile community and the organizations they serve are looking for the next frontier. Some have branded this as "Business Agility". Others have coined it the "Agile Enterprise". This is reminiscent of the leap from Lean Manufacturing to the "Lean Enterprise" in the 1990’s. A leap that’s still in mid-air with mixed results almost 30 years later.
I’m tired of the F word. I’m tired of hearing about how to spot Agile transformation failures and sad sacks. The problem is there is no avoiding the F word or the J curve, and you may not want to in the long run. The doom and gloom surrounding failed Agile transformations is depressing. Why so glum, chum?
Hiring is the single most important thing you can do. Hiring is the key to awesome outcomes. Hire the best to be the best. Google, Spotify, Netflix, Valve and Zappos all subscribe to these mantras. For these companies, it’s clear they place a huge emphasis on vetting every single person who comes in the door and it doesn’t stop once they get in. A-list companies have no problem attracting A-team candidates even if they’re looking for CEO potential in every hire. What about everyone else?
