Keeping busy between jobs
Being out of work is a blessing and a curse. On one hand, having long stretches of time to focus thoughts and efforts on pet projects and learning is amazing. With clear vision and consistent effort, one can make tremendous progress in achieving high-value goals. On the other hand, you’re still out of a job. The search could surely be going better – summer vacations really slow down the hiring process – but it’s at least moving, giving me hope that I’ll land in a great spot. And on the plus side, I’d already planned to have some time off…
Agile games, simulations and learning activities
A colleague approached me recently with a request. He was about to meet with a new division of his company and lead transformation activities at the team level, so he wanted advice on the best agile games to include. As usual, I turned my advice into a blog post so that (hopefully) others can benefit from my experiences. We all know that games are fun and that humans are hard-wired to play. Like most coaches, I use games, simulations and other learning activities fairly liberally in my engagements, but I want to be clear: I never play games just to…
32. Scrum Day San Diego 2015
Victor (@AgileCoffee) participated in Scrum Day San Diego and interviewed a number of participants, including the winners of the Agile San Diego usergroup’s annual Agile Awards. Congratulations to Joe Dailey (winner of the Agilist of the Year, 2014) and to ID Analytics (recipient of the 2014 Agile San Diego Team Excellence Award). Also Dr. Dave Cornelius (@DrCorneliusInfo) and his son, Dave, accepted a gift on behalf of the 5Saturdays initiative which introduces Scrum to high school students. Over 100 Scrum enthusiasts gathered on June 12th, 2015 in San Diego County to advance their understanding on how to launch Agile projects successfully.…
31. Lean Coffee at the 5Saturdays
Lean Coffee at the 5Saturdays Vic (@AgileCoffee) stops by Dr. Dave’s (@DrCorneliusInfo) 5Saturdays event to introduce lean coffee to a large group of facilitators-in-training. Guests include: Evelyn Crofts, Keith Montgomery, Curtis Gilbert, Seth Silvernail, Jon Jorgensen, Angela Rong Sun, Robbie Smith, Purnima Vaidyanathan, Valarmathy Rangasamy and Joe Dailey. Topics: Planning & executing tasks in the household Velocity-based vs. Capacity-based planning Agile sneak attacks in waterfall environments Showstoppers identified in daily scrum Reflection on day #2 of 5Saturdays’ Train the Facilitator – – – – Coming up in episode 32 – interviews from the 2nd annual Scrum Day San Diego. Further…
What is a ScrumMaster?
In addition to our regular podcasts, I host a couple lean coffee meetups every month where we get people dropping in who are less experienced yet very curious about Agile methodologies and lean principles. One common theme at these in-person sessions centers around the role of a ScrumMaster, and it’s a topic that engages us old-timers just as much. Many of us have been serving as ScrumMaster of our teams, but the job description changes for every workplace and every team. For this reason, I trust the responses from my peers; still, we’re often left with more questions than “correct” answers.…
The Pair-Coaching Domino Game
Back in March I led a pair coaching workshop at Scrum Day Orange County 2015. My goal with the session was to examine a few pair-coaching roles, share a list of competency areas for Scrum Masters, and use dominoes to demonstrate viable situations where pairing will help the coach, her team, or the larger organization. (You may remember that I enjoy exploring this topic, and that I wrote about it earlier in the year. It seems that I’ll be talking about more this summer at the Scrum Alliance Coaching Retreat, possibly at the Agile Open SoCal and certainly at Agile SoCal in…
30. Agile Community Events on the Beach
Theme: Agile Community Events Dr. Dave (@DrCorneliusInfo) joins Vic (@AgileCoffee) for a beautiful morning on Huntington Beach discussing all manner of Agile community events: Agile Opens (and other open space uses), coaching retreats and camps, lean coffees, hackathons. Dave talks about the 5Saturdays model, and we tell how to find, get involved and host these activities. This is one of my favorite episodes. In addition to the excellent scenery and the superb company, I very much enjoy talking about community events. Not only do I believe that community is important and fulfilling, but I have a penchant for organizing these…
Encouraging a Bring Your SELF to Work Day with your teams
Most of us work in teams. We go to work and see the same folks each and every day. We check in when we fill our coffee mugs, and we offer a “see ya tomorrow” when we leave. In between, we work with them – either as a group, in pairs or quasi-independently with occasional interactions. We might spend more waking hours with these people then we do with our family and non-workplace friends. But how well do we know them? If you’re working with or on a team, you have a vested interest in getting to know each other. Doing…
29. Frederic Laloux and Dr. Clare Graves Walk into a Bar
Announcing the brand new Podcast Topic Index. Search and sort to find any topic discussed on our podcasts. Victor is once again joined by Dale Ellis (@theDigitalDale), Jason Kerney (@JasonKerney), Zach Bonaker (@ZachBonaker) and Garrett Borunda (LinkedIn) at the Cape Rey in Carlsbad for a lively morning of Agile and Coffee. In this episode, our Agile heroes discuss: Dale reports on the 2015 Scrum Gathering in Phoenix #SGPHX Is PO the only Agile product mgr model? With whom do Agile principles take root? Frederic Laloux’s Reinventing Organizations and Dr. Clare Graves’ Colour System Intentional practice (at Hunter Industries) kanban, personal kanban, Trello active listening Uncle Bob…
28. “Agile” Under the Microscope
Victor is joined by Dale Ellis (@theDigitalDale), Jason Kerney (@JasonKerney), Zach Bonaker (@ZachBonaker) and Garrett Borunda (LinkedIn) at the Cape Rey in Carlsbad for a lively morning of Agile and Coffee. In this episode, our Agile heroes discuss: Agile tools to give Voice to a Teams “Agile is a cancer” Erik Meijer’s presentation The Hacker Way – a Rational Alternative for Agile (explicit content) in which he claims that “Agile is a cancer that we have to eliminate from the industry” Agile Is Dead (Long Live Agility) by Dave Thomas (manifesto signatory) The Failure of Agile by Andy Hunt (manifesto signatory) Shu Ha Ri by Alistair…