I try to do what I can to keep up with the new agile books being released so that I can maintain the popular blog, The 5 Best Agile Books of 2021. All the recommended books on that list are books that I have read and most are books that I rely on, recommend, and gift all the time. Doing Agile Right was published in 2020 by three principals of the consulting firm Bain & Company. That put me off a little at first, thinking that it might just be a fancy sales brochure. Thankfully I found that there wasn’t a lot of self-promotion going on in the book. I actually found the book very helpful and ..read more

Agile ways have become mainstream for software and technology teams. What about those traditional teams and departments that aren’t building high-tech solutions? The ones that support customers, make the sales that keep the company afloat as well as everyone else who supports the business? Can those teams and departments use agile practices to boost their business agility? Absolutely! Over the last two years, we have worked with numerous teams that operate outside technology. These teams run the gamut from Sales, Finance, Customer Service, Marketing, Operations, and even Legal. Some are tempor ..read more

Teams come in many shapes, sizes, and configurations. One team feature that is a fixture in nearly every corporate and governmental environment is the team lead. The role doesn’t have a standard definition. Even though it is common, the role is rarely addressed in any agile framework. I have seen team leads play an important role in facilitating agile teams to deliver value. Sometimes the “important” role is not very positive. In practice, the team lead role is a combination of four common variants. The four variants are: 1. Manager. This version of the team lead role is responsible for the ex ..read more

I am always on the lookout for great books. Recently a fellow Agile Coach recommended General Stanley McChrystal’s Team of Teams book to me. Wow, I was really blown away by this book! I thought it was going to be all about the military but McChrystal has instead written a leadership book that describes how to create true agility even in a large organization. It is a great book with many lessons for Agile Leaders! In this article I have summarized seven key takeaways or lessons for Agile Leaders. I’ve written them in the form used for the Agile Values statements – one thing over another. As you ..read more

Lately I’ve being asked to teach more and more agile leader training classes. My focus for the training has not changed much since I first started teaching these courses – that is to help empower leaders to create an environment where people can do their best work. However, the content of my classes has changed. The thing is, I want to make an impact on the leaders attending these courses. I want the courses to be great, impactful and memorable. I want them to be the best possible agile leader training. With so many possible topics to discuss in such a class, which topics are going to be most ..read more

This may sound like an easy question, but what is Agile Leadership? I’ve written all about Agile Leaders for example in The Agile Leaders Role in Transformation and How Leaders Create Agility – 3 Key Steps. In fact, in 2020, this blog was named to the Hubspot top 20 Agile Leadership blogs. And I have led and participated in multiple training courses for agile leaders. In fact, I think I have the record for taking the Certified Agile Leadership (CAL) course from Scrum Alliance three times and the Professional Agile Leadership (PAL) Course from Scrum.org once. You’d think that I would have ..read more

Managers and leaders in organizations are often looking for ways to be more effective or to maximize the productivity of their team. Here is an anti-pattern that I have seen used – managers that treat the team as an extension of themselves. The manager just thinks while the team serves as the arms and legs of the manager. So all the parts of the team share one brain. The manager’s brain. What if Managers Drove Team Productivity? It may seem like an effective approach to team productivity. It reminds me of that weird gizmo from the movie Matrix Revolutions. That weird-looking device was called ..read more

I was pleasantly surprised to learn that Vitality Chicago had been named one of the top 20 Agile Leadership blogs of 2020 by Feedspot. Yes! Wait, what does that actually mean? With so many great blogs out there on a variety of topics, I could not help wondering who else was on the list, and what criteria was used to pick the blogs on the list. Who is on the List of Top 20 Agile Leadership Blogs? Drum roll please…and the winners are… Leading Answers ACEsense Center for Agile Leadership Agile Socks AgileSparks Agile For All Vitality Chicago Inc (this blog) SolutionsIQ agile42 Maurice Hagar Agil ..read more

Most organizations today are undergoing some sort of “transformation” and it is likely not their first. Whether it is an agile, digital, lean or financial transformation, organizations are trying to reinvent themselves to be nimbler, customer focused and ultimately more competitive. And while all organizations begin with the best intentions, the reality is that transformations are risky and they often fail outright or they fail to deliver their desired results. Many agile transformations are started and few are completed successfully. A recent McKinsey survey showed the disparity. Of 2,500 bus ..read more

I know, I am breaking my own “no negative vibes” rule with this post related to the pandemic. But I thought it would be interesting to talk about how various technology leaders are responding to the COVID19 impact including the shift to remote working, social distancing and other restrictions. Technology leaders today seem to be choosing one of 3 reactions to the COVID pandemic – Fight, Flight or Freeze. It is not surprising – these are the 3 hard-wired responses of the charged amygdala. I talked about the amygdala in my related post, Focus, How to Stay Productive in Uncertain Times. The amyg ..read more