In last week’s post, I shared the first of 10 recommendations on how to become a great Product Owner. In this post, I complete the list by sharing my top 5 recommendations.  5.) Share your Product Roadmap – Having a Product Roadmap allows a great Product Owner to communicate the next steps that he or she sees in achieving the Product Vision. In having a Roadmap, a Product Owner is quick to remind the stakeholders that he or she represents that this Roadmap is an idea of how the Vision may be achieved over time and that it is not a contract. It can and will change.   4.) Provide ..read more

One of the most common questions that we get when teaching people about Scrum involves the Scrum Master.  Specifically, does a Scrum Master need to be “technical”? In order to answer this question, we first need to explore what it means to be “technical”.  Defining this word isn’t as easy as it seems.  First, everyone who is a knowledge worker in the 21st Century is “technical” to a certain extent.  Most of us have smartphones and are, at least, minimally competent in using and maintaining these phones.  For example, even my parents, who are in the mid-to-late 70s, un ..read more

In Leo Tolstoy’s book, Anna Karenina, he offers this famous quote: “All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” This quote has been applied to many contexts from the obvious familial setting to larger organizations of various shapes, sizes and forms. It’s true that each of these organizations is unhappy in its own way, but there are a set of commonalities that I’ve observed across the organizations that we serve. While each organization has a unique perspective or “accent”, the issues remain fairly similar across organizations of various industries and sizes ..read more

Based on over 4-decades of observational research, I can confidently assert that intellectual laziness is an all-too-common leadership fail. It is a myth that managers manage by the numbers.  So many leaders that I’ve observed in action simply were not skilled thinkers, having little understanding of data, statistical methods, empirical analysis, and probabilistic decision-making.  In fact, I think that much of the explanation for organizations that are performing poorly can be found in the sloppy mental habits at every level. This, I believe, is only a reflection of the larger cultu ..read more

I’m writing this in May 2021.  It varies, but the global COVID-19 pandemic caused much of the world to push pause on “normal” life and go into and stay in emergency mode since March 2020, or earlier.  Thankfully, amazingly safe and effective vaccines now allow us to realistically envision a return to “normal.”  That said, I’m telling you, “Don’t do it.”  Yes, absolutely, do get vaccinated. But, no, do not go back to “normal.” My decades long career has been one of leading organizational change, which is to say cultural change.  I have done this at a number of different ..read more

There are a number of great anecdotes and quotes associated with American Football.  From Vince Lombardi, “What the hell is going on out there?” to Dick Butkus, “I only cheat in league games,” to Randy Moss’ “Straight cash, homie!” the characters of the game have provided us with a number of memorable one-liners and stories. Recently, I found myself thinking about one of these famous scenes.  Jim Mora was the coach of the Indianapolis Colts.  In 2001, he went on an epic rant regarding his team’s performance in a 49-21 loss to the San Francisco 49ers. He was asked by an unassumi ..read more

Do you think it is possible for an organization to be Agile if its leader is not Agile? This question is a little deeper than you might think. Do you think it is possible for someone to be a leader of an Agile organization if they are not personally Agile in the leadership of their own life? I know of no empirical studies of this question, but based on my own decades of observational research, the answer to both questions is “No.” As someone who’s been at this a little longer than most, I will tell you that Agile leadership is principle-centered leadership. It is principle-centered leadership ..read more

Part 7—Interdependence & Series Wrap-Up In Part 1 of this 7-part series of posts we looked at VUCA, where the term originated, what it means, and how it relates to Agile leadership.  The speed and interdependence of events in today’s world will ultimately overwhelm the time-honored processes and culture we’ve so far built.  Once comforting constants are transforming into variables that defy predictability and challenge traditional models of leadership and management. In this final installment we study three levels of maturity, interdependence being the highest, on four dimensions ..read more

Part 6—Price Factor Equalization In Part 1 of this 7-part series of posts we looked at VUCA, where the term originated, what it means, and how it relates to Agile leadership.  The speed and interdependence of events in today’s world will ultimately overwhelm the time-honored processes and culture we’ve so far built.  Once comforting constants are transforming into variables that defy predictability and challenge traditional models of leadership and management. In this part of the series we’ll look at what economists call “Price Factor Equalization. An economic construct, Price Factor ..read more

Part 5—The Butterfly Effect In Part 1 of this 7-part series of posts we looked at VUCA, where the term originated, what it means, and how it relates to Agile leadership.  The speed and interdependence of events in today’s world will ultimately overwhelm the time-honored processes and culture we’ve so far built.  Once comforting constants are transforming into variables that defy predictability and challenge traditional models of leadership and management. This part studies what has come to be called, “The Butterfly Effect.”  In a linear, Newtonian, clockwork system, an error in ..read more