My coachees affectionately call it the avocado. I use this to describe the required boundary conditions and effective organizational support for developing high performing Scrum teams. > Responsible: Scrum Development Team > Accountable: Product Owner and Scrum Master — boundary … Read More
“I don’t delegate, I empower.” The mantra of the modern enabling manager. I don’t disagree. Though caveat emptor. The delegation, empowerment spectrum is intricate business. Feed a newbie sales person to a lion. They’re going to have their head chewed … Read More
Again, it’s all in the balance. If it’s just all vision and empowerment, the team won’t move. Even as an agile leader embracing servant leadership values, you still need to command and lead your tribe, and get your hands dirty … Read More
We use “logos” (rational) too much. It’s “pathos” (empathy), “ethos” (credibility, presence), and “kairos” (right time, right place), in balance. We love convincing and persuading. What’s wrong with being right, right? So, “logos” is our default communication style. Logic, reason, … Read More
What do you do? The dreaded elevator pitch question. I fumble on it every time. Some days I will say that I activate people. One conversation at a time, I activate leaders, teams, organizations. Other days I say I specialize … Read More
Social and digital is accelerating the service economy transformation in our world. In the service economy, the competitive advantage is knowledge (including skills and expertise) and connectivity (access to resources – technology is the enabler). At the individual worker level, … Read More
3 years ago today, French philosopher and psychoanalyst Anne Dufourmantelle, best known for her work on risk-taking (“In Praise of Risk”), drowned while saving two children off a beach in France. She died in circumstances true to her word: “When … Read More
Here are eight mind and heart hacks for immediate deployment in emotionally charged situations. I use Rhythm Section and Observe, Orient regularly. And more than once, Lean-in has saved me (us) from situations with dramatic effect. I don’t think there’s … Read More
What is agile? Why agile? How do we do agile? What’s the difference between Agile, Scrum, Lean, Design Thinking? Tell me about Scrum. Is agile a fad? What’s the difference between Agile and agility? All answered, in a 33 minute … Read More
So you had some great customer interviews as part of your Design Thinking exercise. You felt that you empathized well with the customers and generated awesome insight. Wonderful. Before your memory evaporates you’d want to write down your thoughts quickly … Read More