I promise you they work (Read twice to fully soak in the brilliance) 1. Rebrand all roles → with titles such as Scrum Lord [Everyone needs an agile title] - Chief of Chief of Chief Product Owner - Release Train Engineer Keep the same mindset + responsibilities though [because change is hard] The more medieval, obscure & important sounding, the better. Nobody can question you if they don't understand what you do! 2. Copy & paste → the latest fad framework Why innovate when you can replicate? It worked for them. it'll work for us too. Right? RIGHT?! Eh Spotify? 3. Be Agile → in name onl ..read more

My thought experiment The Agile Manifesto is two decades old now - Old enough to legally drink in the USA in fact! And while it's stood the test of time in many cases In others, it has been: - Left open to interpretation - Used dogmatically What would happen if we delved a bit deeper into the Agile Manifesto values and principles And applied the same template to each With an 'Over' qualifier? Scroll on to find out with part 1 "Our highest priority is to satisfy the customer through early and continuous delivery of valuable product" Yes - I changed 'software' to 'product' If you're looking for ..read more

It was the 44th day of the 2024 so I decided to write a 44-line Agile Masterclass Capturing some of my top learnings in my 12 year journey in the agile world Let's get started. 1. Leaders care more about outcomes → Not agile 2. Imperfect action > perfect inaction → Take action & learn from it 3. Frequent feedback loops = More chance of building the right thing 4. People don't like forced change → Co-create change instead 5. Learn fast resonates better than fail fast - Especially with leadership 6. Customers don't care how many story points you deliver 7. Agile won't solve all your probl ..read more

+ How to navigate them Every one of us is subject to cognitive biases They: - Shape how we perceive the world - How we respond to new information - How we make decisions as teams There are 100's of them out there The benefits of awareness about our biases ✔️ Improved decision making ✔️ Better collaboration ✔️ Greater inclusivity ✔️ More innovative thinking ,In this visual: 1. Anchoring Bias 2. Sunk Cost Fallacy 3. Groupthink 4. Ikea Effect 5. Curse of Knowledge 6. Survivorship Bias 7. Diffusion of Responsibility 8. Availability Heuristic 9. Zeigarnik Effect 10. Confirmation Bias If you're loo ..read more

Getting into Agile coaching can look glamorous from a distance "Powerful questions you say?" "Running workshops with sticky notes!" How difficult can that be? But your journey will resemble something like the below [Mine certainly looked similar] Agile coaching is as much a journey of self-discovery ↳ As one of helping people to continuously improve. The more I learn ↳ the more I discover how much I don't know. That I'm still a student. Because bringing about change involves people ↳ And people are amazingly complex creatures ,So: - Reading all the books - Taking all the courses - Listening t ..read more

Unfortunately most people don't know how.  Why is this a problem?  "The only constant in life is change" - Heraclitus  - Introducing new ways of working → That's change - New goals or Kpi's set? → Change is needed to achieve them - Tooling like JIRA or AzureDevops brought in → You guessed it, it's change Oh and another org restructure → Say it with me?  Change. And yet these changes are often inflicted - Frameworks enforced - Goals assigned  - Yet another tool introduced to learn One of the most powerful lessons I've learned in my 12 years in the agile domain Invite ch ..read more

So that you can boost your team's chances of success I've been involved in 100's of retrospectives over the years [And facilitated more than I can count] One of the biggest problems I see & and the most common question people ask me when I speak at conferences: "How can I improve the quality of retrospective actions?" When the actions capture aren't well defined, here's what happens: - The same actions come up →  Time after time - Wasteful practices → Amplifying existing problems - Reduced morale → And sometimes a loss of trust in the process entirely An easy fix? Make those acti ..read more

Looking to explore creative solutions to known problems? Why not give Reverse Brainstorming a try? Leverage a technique widely used in Design Thinking and product discovery. That works with our natural negativity bias, to begin with the problem first and then work backwards. To find opportunities for improvement. This cheat sheet will help you get started It includes: - Value - Learning - Morale - Teamwork - Quality - Innovation If you're looking for more tips, tricks, tools & templates that will save you time & energy then look at joining my members only community ..read more

Want to build new team habits? Or break bad ones Unsure where to start? Try this cheat sheet below "We don't rise to the level of our goals. We fall to the level of our systems" - James Clear It includes: - Making it obvious - Making it attractive - Making it easy - Making it satisfying Plus the inverse - Making it invisible - Making it unattractive - Making it difficult - Making it unsatisfying Across areas such as - Technology & Tooling - Routines - Training - Feedback - Goal setting - Reward & Recognition If you're looking for more tips, tricks, tools & templates that will save ..read more

Agile is action There are over 270 agile certifications out there, new ones are created every week, yet not one of them will make you agile. And I say that as a licensed trainer myself Agility isn't: Just words on a manifesto, a framework, a methodology or a mindset, either fixed or growth It isn't a shiny badge gained after a few days, or months of learning, or completing a tough exam Agility isn't the announcement that you're scaling, or are now rebranded "Business Agility", the hire of a an agile transformation lead or the setting up of an agile community of practice Agility definitely isn ..read more