Tuesday, June 16, 2009
The Authistic Organization
Being an Agile coach in large organisations in this time of financial crisis I see the same symptoms in managers. As the stress of financial survival increases a common reaction is to increase control and increased control most of the time means that someone has to measure more stuff and create reports based on those metrics. And all this leads to is an authistic organisation with loss of decision power as the result. A typical symptom of this is that meetings doesn't end in time and no real decisions are made.
The only sensible solution to this would be to provide the organisation with clear goals and make sure that everyone knows whats at stake - their jobs - and trust people to do what's best in every given situation.
Friday, June 5, 2009
Stay focused!
As the estimated week came to an end they again experienced a loss of energy and motivation. We had a discussion about it. If the length of the iteration did not stop them from loosing focus at the end then what was?
If I look at a typical iteration it contains larger chunks of work at the beginning. Towards the end the chunks get smaller; defects, adjustments, updates to documents and models and new small chunks keep appearing as the team runs test sessions. The problem seems to be that the smaller the chunks of work becomes the more the team loses focus.
In this case we solved it by shortening the lenght between team synchronization, from once a day to twice a day and that seemed to solve the problem. A simple solution to a difficult problem...
Thursday, May 28, 2009
You get the organisation you deserve
When I talked about this during the last Scrum training I received a question from one of the managers: how do you prevent the teams from becoming lazy? That is, what if they don't do as much work as they could, if they have hours left and don't fill those hours with work.
How do you answer that? I answered it with a question: what does greed mean to you and how to you think greed affects productivity?
I think that it is a result of greed if you always feel that by getting what you want you always want more and greed leeds to a situation where the people giving you what you want feel (a)bused and it provides a perfect growing ground for distrust and manipulation. If you run your business by greed you will get greedy employees and greedy people tend to be manipulative. Every parent knows that kids don't do what you tell them, they do what you do. The same goes for an organisation and in an organisation it is the management that sets the agenda and the culture - you get the organisation you deserve!
My advice for managers with lazy workers would be to stop whining for just a while and look at themselves and figure out what they did to make people lazy and then adjust themsleves and see what happens to their lazy crew...
Monday, May 4, 2009
The ubiquitous lack of trust
Weeks turn into months turn into years of writing detailed process descriptions on how to deal with defects, when to abort sprints and who is responsible for what and drawing unintelligible process charts with two billion arrows, boxes and toll gates. All done with hope of getting it right the first time...
The lack of trust between management and developer seems to be as strong as ever and comments like "we need to make sure that they do things the right way" and "you know how developers are, if you dont pressure them nothing will get done" or "developers just want to work with cutting edge technology" seem to float around in every management meeting I participate in.
So, with this attitude the Agile transition is planned for a couple of years and no one bothers to build in continuous improvement and no one seems to get that the most important accelerator is the empowered and self organizing team - this is 2009 and we are closer to 1984 than ever!
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Teams, conflict and self awareness
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Slow motion and a soundtrack of my life
The Art of Listening
So what is the art of listening then?
- Just listen
- Do not give explanations (unless they are asked for)
- Do not interrupt
- Do not go into defensive mode
- Confirm what you've heard and...
- Ask what you can do (don't offer help unless it's asked for)
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Vital play
Monday, March 16, 2009
Keep you code nice and tidy
However, the moment the tests slow, the practices start to slip...
- Writing code and verifying it works by launching the app, then creating the tests
- Making the test pass before verifying it failed.
- Not running all the tests before check in.
- Not refactoring because it takes too long
- It stops you from working close to 5 because you don't want to wait for the build
- Not adding tests at all because you don't want to break the build and don't want to wait to find out
- It ruins all the fun.
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Creative doodles
Monday, March 9, 2009
Changes... to what, to whom?
Friday, March 6, 2009
Focus on the right stuff
Monday, March 2, 2009
Gathering Data
Instead of having a lot of people trying to defend themselves againt my conclusions I got a lot of thoughts and reasoning about what the data might mean and when I shared my conclusions I discovered that I didn't really have any but instead had a lot of theories about why the data might mean. All in all, it was a great experience for me in that it actually opened my eyes to the importance of actually observing and not jumoing to conclusions right away.
Personal Insight
This weekend he told me about his current project and how he managed it and he obviously felt proud about a lot of things and I listened to him and was kind of surprised to hear that we shared a lot of views on leadership. Suddenly he told me that most of his leadership style was inspired by me and my tips and tricks as well as some of the books I had recommended. He ended his heart felt feedback by saying something that really made me think, he said: you talk about things from your own perspective, there is always a personal experience connected to all the theories and models you share - that makes me listen carefully to what you say and it makes it easy to belive in what you say.
Of course it made me feel very good and I thought about his words all weekend and I realized that this is the way I learn about things... I find a problem in my own, personal or professional, life and apply the models or theories I read about to it. That makes it easier for me to understand it and it also makes it possible for me to decide if it is something worth keeping in my mind. It also gives me a vehicle to convey that model or theory to others, simply by walking through my own learning experience with them.
I probably need to think a bit more about this and see if I can wrap this insight in some neat model for others to use, maybe there already is one out there?
Thursday, February 26, 2009
A Proposal Framework
- Why should you care: Briefly describe the problem and why the "as is" state needs to change.
- What you/we stand to gain: Briefly describe the "end state" you envision
- What I propose: Describe what you want to do, with special attention what's unique or different. You might need to explain how or why it is different than things that have been tried before.
- How it will work: Describe the resources you will need, and break down the entire plan into three easy-to-understand steps, complete with milestones and deadlines.
- Risk considerations: Take a balanced view and do your best to define the risks, relative to the rewards, of proceeeding
- Next steps: What specific action(s) fo you want from the person you're making the proposal to, right now?
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
If work was more like games and play
- When we play a game, we readily, without objection, accept the rules of the game. No matter how ludicrous they might we, we simply accept that if we want to participate in this game we must obey to some laws that someone set up. And no matter how we roll the dice or upgrade our level 56 Blood Orch Mage we still accept these constraints.
- On the other hand, when we used to play in the sandbox at kindergarten, we would dream up the most amazing stories of dragons, beasts, cars etc. And the possibilities where endless. If we wanted the car to fly it could, no questions asked.
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Waste of space! Or Why today’s electronic Scrum tools does not work!
Friday, February 6, 2009
Look on the bright side
So what I just realized is that if it is more efficient to give feedback about good stuff then bad stuff, maybe the same works for organisational problems? What if we, as consultants, tried to find the things that really work at our clients instead of focusing on what's really not working. If we could point out the good stuff and strengthen them instead of trying to get rid of the negative stuff I think we could generate a positive momentum and maybe even make change easier - now all I have to do is to figure out how to do just that.
Friday, January 30, 2009
Small changes with large impact
Showing Appreciation
During this week of intense training in Problem Solving Leadership we have had a lot of rounds of appreciations. An appreciation is a simple meaning along the lines of:
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Mobile blogging set up
Sunday, January 25, 2009
How you look at your world decides what your world looks like
This story is quite something, when I think about it and go through the narration I can feel a sort of shift in my mind. With just a tiny bit of information the situation changes drastically even though nothing has really changed, everything is still the same. The reality depends very much on the eyes that look upon it. This kind of shift can be achieved on purpose for yourself and yes it might be relieving to understand that the world is largely dependent on how you look at it and not only what actually is fact.
I'd like to recommend the book "Mind lines", by L. Michael Hall and Bobby G. Bodenhamer that thoroughly goes in to different ways to look at the present and change your own view of your reality. It's certainly powerful to be able to change your own reality, please try it out!
Friday, January 23, 2009
Reflection
I decided to do a quick retrospective and some problems came up from the group, one being that they had a fellow team member who wasn't attending their team meetings where they did their planning and some coding. When I asked them what they possibly could do about it their response was "nothing, we can't really force him to come here so there's really nothing we can do". I asked if they had talked to him about it and they hadn't, when I asked if a possible solution would be to have their team meetings at his place they responded that it felt unfair that they had to go all the way to his place when he was the problem and when I asked them if it was a problem that he wasn't present they responded that it was a major impediment to the progress of their project.
I left the students feeling glad that I normally deal with professionals that are trained in problem solving and want to improve - what a comfort junky I am! Thinking about it now, a couple of days later, I am annoyed with myself for moving back into my comfort zone and not challenging myself to get those damn students straightened out... I'll get back to my friend and coerce him into having me back and coach those students again! If not for something else, at least to get myself out of my comfort zone and into the real world, I might learn something about myself!
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Honest leadership start within
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
The more difficult the goal, the greater the achievement - goal-set motivation
First of all, let’s establish our goal. We want to get out more bang for the buck in our development process. Since we believe in an empowered, self organized team which takes responsibility for their actions and work we need method to promote this behaviour. It turns out that using goals to steer and focus is just that method!
In this post we will look at some of the more important aspects of goal-set motivation and why it should appeal to you as a leader.
1. The more difficult the goal, the greater the achievement
This means that situation that the team, or individual for that sake, is commited and posses the ability to achieve the goal, the performance of that team or individual will increase. If not, the performance will instead drop at high goal levels.
2. The more specific the goal, the more precisely performance in regulated
This might sound desirable at first but give it another go. In reality this means that if you focus too much on details you run a very high risk of dampen or kill creativity. This is one reason we preach the usage of negotiable user stories in Scrum instead of function based planning.
3. Goals that are both specific and difficult lead to the highest performance
People do not actually do their best when trying to do their best because, as a vague goal, it is compatible with many different outcomes, including those lower than one's best. Therefore, goals need to be both specific and difficult to maximize performance. All in accordance with statement one and two above.
4. Commitment to goals is most critical when goals are specific and difficult
Obvious perhaps but I’ll spell it out anyway. Easy and vague goals do not require much dedication and are therefore easy to commit to.
5. (This one is important) High commitment to goals is attained when:
a) the team is convinced that the goal is important
b) the team is convincend that the goal is attainable
6. Participation by subordinates yields higher commitment
For example, participation from the team leads to higher commitment. But the goals might not be set as high as of they where set by their superiors.
7. In general goals stimulate planning and leads to higher quality
Therefore we should strive for using goals in planning and in measurements. And goal setting is in fact most effective when there is feedback showing progress in relation to the goal. The goals help to orient us and affect performance by affecting the direction of action, the effort exerted and the persistence over time.
8. When people strive for goals on complex tasks they are least effective in discovering suitable strategies if:
a) they have no prior domain knowledge or no relevant training (obvious right?)
b) there is high pressure to perform well (a team where failure is not allowed)
c) there is high time pressure to perform well immediately (an already late project)
Here, feedback is very effective in motivating higher performance. But remember, feedback alone is just information. You must relate it to the goals.
9. Finally, high goals might actually lead to less performance satisfaction than easy goals
This has to do with the fact that goals server as standards of self-satisfaction and harder goals demands higher accomplishment in order to attain self-satisfaction than easy goals.
So why should you this leadership technique of self-set goals? Well, because:
• It can help you to provide and communicate an inspiring vision
• Let you act as a role model when aiming for a more self organizing organization
• You can expect outstanding performance if you make it work
• It promotes those who embrace the vision and dismiss those who reject it
• It is a very efficient way of delegating responsibility and ownership
• You express genuine confidence in your employees and peers
• You can actually ask for commitment in public and who knows, you might finally get it as well!
Monday, January 19, 2009
Holy Grail of Measurement
One measurement to rule them all, one measurement to find them, one measurement to bring them all and in the darkness bind them.
[...] these behaviors are never produced by measurement. They are performance capabilities that emerge as people feel connected to their work and to each other. They are capacities that emerge as colleagues develop a shared sense of what they hope to create together, and as they operate in an environment where everyone feels welcome to contribute to that shared hope. Each of these qualities and behaviors-commitment, focus, teamwork, learning, quality--is a choice that people make. Depending on how connected they feel to the organization or team, they choose to pay attention, to take responsibility, to innovate, to learn and share their learnings. People can't be punished or paid into these behaviors. Either they are contributed or withheld by individuals as they choose whether and how they will work with us.
But measurement is critical. It can provide something that is essential to sustenance and growth: feedback.
Sunday, January 18, 2009
Definitions or the ability to move in the same direction
Many a times I've been involved in discussions about teams, about how they ought to be organized, should there be a team leader that gives assignments to the team members or should the team members them self assign tasks. Where the team should sit, together or spread out, in small separate offices or close together in a landscape?
A minor investigation of the word Team makes a major difference to these questions. If the definition is simply a group of people making similar kinds of work or work related to the same product there is no reason to organize so the team members sits in the same spot and who should do what is often obvious. A team leader that assigns tasks and coordinates the work might be a proper way to master such a team.
If what you want is rather a group of people working together to reach a common goal the answers to the questions above would probably be quite different. It would probably be appropriate to let the team sit together and decide who should do what together.
Simply put you need to get each other's definitions clear before its time to argue about what is the right way or the wrong way to go!
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
The Power of Music
I have tried different kind of music in different kinds of situations and it is amazing to see how the pace and mood of the music affects the discussions and moods of people.
Try this when doing a brain storming session or team excercise the next time and see what happens. Then try this and see if something changes.
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
My problem! Or yours?
I recently read a summary written by Don Gray at the Amplifying Your Effectiveness Conference about creating better problem definitions. He lists a few good principles which have helped me at work:
- The Pause principle: pause before you try to solve it. Critical when strong emotions are involved, especially when they belong to you!
- The Pay Attention principle: Intake, Meaning, Significance and Response. Meaning what I hear, what I think you say, how it affects me and my reaction or response to it all. If any of these four parts of the process goes wrong, the whole conversation gets distorted. Pause before going into response mode remember ;)
- The Partnership principle: find a solution that your client feels connected with. If you don't, your client will move on and the problem will be yours alone. You are there to help your client solve his/her problem.
- The passion principle: Don't care too much, at least not more than your client does. If he/she is not passionate about solving the problem they really don't have a problem in the first place.
- The person principle: who is this a problem for? Find that person and tailor the solution for them! At Don writes: "you aren't only dealing with the people themselves and the problem itself, but also gow these people feel about the problem, about each other, about you and about the attributes of whatever solution you come up with. And that is your problem".
Monday, January 12, 2009
Creative Measurement
Friday, January 9, 2009
Team Building Games
Leadership defined
When I read 'Becoming a Technical Leader' by Gerald M. Weinberg I found a definition that fits perfectly in with my own views and thoughts on what kind of leader I want to become:
"Leadership is the process of creating an environment in which people become empowered"