Developments in My Agile World

It's the end of another work week, and while the weather has been grim and blustery for days, things are very shiny indeed in my life right now -- two developments in particular.

First, I'm going to be doing content management and editing for the Women in Agile organization. I'm extremely excited about this. I have long been hoping to find a venue where I can put my writing experience to work in support of the agile community, so this looks perfect. I've started reaching out to people who might be willing to add some content to the site while I think about what I might contribute myself -- tons of fun!

I've also started taking a coaching class with the inimitable Damon Poole. It's a significant investment of time and money, but I'm trying to move in the direction of what causes me genuine excitement, and this is it. I took a short class with Damon prior to this and have encountered him at various Agile New England events, and I can recommend his training without hesitation. He's funny and supportive, and watching him demonstrate coaching techniques is a treat.

It's funny to have so many new endeavors moving forward during October, not the time of year one associates with beginnings, but I'll certainly take it.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Handling Meetings with Remote Attendees

This is the third session in my brown bag series. It's not an "agile" topic really, but it was one of the things people requested a session on.  I hoped that people would bring their questions and be willing to discuss them. There were four topics proposed, and some conversation although it was mostly people in the room. Here is the outline:  Day before, set up a Trello board as an option for people to raise topics and added a link to the invitation. Recruited a co-pilot who would watch the WebEx chat and bring up anything that came in through that.  Five minutes before the session, dial in to WebEx, start camera, ensure that screen sharing is set up and the projector is working.  Noon - official start time. 
Read more

Agile Transitions as Self-Sustaining Reaction

Weird confession time? I used to be a little dubious about the long-term role of coaches and even of Scrum Masters or equivalent in an Agile organization. Once you’ve taught people the rules, what else is there to do? People are smart, and Agile methods as a rule aren’t complicated. I wondered—how could it possibly take more than a year or so to get this thing going? Then I spent several years observing an Agile transition from its initial push phase through to a kind of equilibrium, and I have gained a different understanding of the roles and the process in such a transition. I’m going to call these roles Primary Agile, because their work centers on fostering agility— and nothing else . Agile transitions can be thought of as something like a chemical reaction. The system starts in one state, and by adding some ingredients and – most importantly – energy, the system changes into a different state. For most organizations, that end state is going to be very different from whe
Read more

Shu Ha Ri Skeptic

Last year it seemed like I couldn't turn around without hearing someone talking about shu ha ri and its applicability to Scrum (it was usually Scrum, probably because other Agile techniques are less ceremonial). There's a good summary here . Although I don't practice martial arts, I do meditate and practice yoga, which I feel gives me a way toward understanding how the idea is supposed to work. When you first start practicing, after all, it takes all of your attention just to get into the poses or to glimpse a moment of still attentiveness. Why you're supposed to do a specific pose or follow a particular sequence won't fit in there until you've been doing it for a while, until the physical part has become automatic. That said, something about that metaphorical connection, about the idea of "just do the Scrum ceremonies as prescribed, and why will come later" didn't sit well with me. After a fair amount of rumination I've finally identified wh
Read more