37. My Best Guest Ever, and She’s Not on Twitter
A very special guest introduces episode 37, and you can see her on video at Kickstarter. On this episode Vic is joined by Curtis Gilbert, Larry Lawhead (@LarryLawhead) & Brett Palmer (@brett_palmer) to discuss topics from volume II of the Agile Coffee Conversation Starters. We dove into: Personal Kanban in Daily Life Thomas Leonard’s The Nine Environments of You Trello (online kanban tool) Can PMs be Good SMs? How does Agile Change People? Liftoff by Diana Larsen and Ainsley Nies Power of the SM Our Professional Development books on audio / book summaries: Audible, Safari, Scribd, Blinkest What are these Agile Coffee decks? We’ve…
36. Lessons from 5Saturdays Students
On July 25th, another successful 5Saturdays program wrapped up at Estancia HS in Costa Mesa, CA, and twelve students shared their takeaways with me on the podcast. These high-school-aged participants talked about the lessons learned over their five weekend sessions, focusing on job readiness and effective communications. Topics discussed include: applications of creative thinking tools for critical thinking facets of agility using Scrum resume-building and interviewing skills One central theme that students spoke of was their interest in using personal kanban in their everyday lives, having recognized its ease and usefulness in planning. I was happy to have met and talked with these…
Inside Out and the Check In core protocol
I’m checking in, Inside Out style: a bit more detailed than a standard protocol check in, but shorter than the movie. I’m GLAD to use the Core Protocols – most particularly, the Check In . I’ve had the privilege to have met Jim McCarthy – what an amazing and passionate human being. I’m honored to belong to the Booted – an online community of about 400 caring individuals, organized by Michelle and Jim McCarthy. Jim and Michelle co-authored Software for your Head, the seminal publication investigating the dynamics of contemporary teams. It’s this book that first introduced the Core Protocols to a wide audience. Michelle and…
Kickstarter launched for Lean Coffee card decks
UPDATE: They’re done! More info here. – – – – I’ve been talking up my Lean Coffee Conversation Starters since the early part of this year, mostly in face-to-face discussions. The decks I have been envisioning would each contain the best and most popular topics from my over three years of hosting local meetups, as well as a number of sessions up and down the West coast and throughout the Midwest. Once summer hit, I poured much of my time into producing these decks: cultivating the right questions, getting the design and layout right, and running tests with printers and…
35. It’s a CROSSOVER! Agile Coffee for Humans
Victor is joined by Jon Jorgensen (@waterScrumBan) and Ryan Ripley (@RyanRipley) of the excellent Agile for Humans podcast for a double-sized, ultra packed episode of Agile Coffee for Humans. In this episode, our Agile heroes discuss: The HR Side of Agile – Performance Reviews, Raises, & Transparency The Business of Agile – How we justify the investment in agility Ken’s Complaint -Trademarking Scrum Group Crossing the line – push and pulling hair Organisational Psychotherapist, the new coach – a reflection on Bob Marshall’s Why Me? Agile Transformation – The REST of the story (like Paul Harvey) Agile games, simulations and learning activities…
34. Transparency as a Tool to Build Trust
Victor is joined by Dale Ellis (@theDigitalDale) and Larry Lawhead (@LarryLawhead) on a beautiful SoCal morning for Agile and Coffee. In this episode, our Agile heroes discuss: Limits to transperency Project reporting (is the Burndown enough?) Mandated documentation in Agile Project definition phase Getting teams to behave like teams Engaging the non-participative team member Reach out to Vic (@AgileCoffee) on Twitter and use the hashtag #tellAgileCoffee to interact with us on an upcoming episode.
33. Scrum Coaching Retreat Seattle
Lean Coffee recorded in Seattle, June 24, 2015 Vic (@AgileCoffee) attended the Scrum Alliance’s fourth Scrum Coaching Retreat in the USA. It was three days of examination of what it means to be a coach in a scrum environment and how we can improve our coaching methods worldwide. In the first two days, participants had the opportunity to pitch a project they wished to focus on. Everyone then joined a project team and organized using scrum processes and roles. We had three sprints (spanning the two days) in which to iterate and increment on a delivery of our final products.…
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.…