Mental Model Dōjō | agile-od.com

Coach Takeshi’s coaching journal. Sharing the many mental models that I actually use for client sessions.

31 May 2020

Why learning from failure is so hard: Because we can’t stand looking stupid

by Coach Takeshi | posted in: Mental Model Dōjō |

There’s one HBR article that I share but never hear back about. It’s Chris Argyris’ “Teaching Smart People How to Learn” (https://hbr.org/1991/05/teaching-smart-people-how-to-learn). Maybe it’s the intimidating title that ticks off the interest to read. Or maybe because it’s a painful … Read More

27 May 2020

Go with the FLOW to capture your thoughts from Design Thinking customer interviews

by Takeshi Yoshida | posted in: Mental Model Dōjō |

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

5 Apr 2020

KISS – Keep It Stupid Simple

by Takeshi Yoshida | posted in: Mental Model Dōjō |

KISS, an acronym for “keep it simple, stupid” or “keep it stupid simple”, is a design principle noted by the U.S. Navy in 1960. The KISS principle states that most systems work best if they are kept simple rather than … Read More

11 Mar 2020

Mental Model Dōjō TV: Agile Success Stories – UOB Finlab Felix Tan

by Coach Takeshi | posted in: Mental Model Dōjō |

What makes UOB’s Finlab not just yet another bank accelerator unit, is its unique focus in helping SMEs with its SME accelerator program. I asked Felix Tan, MD of Finlab to share us the story behind the focus and their … Read More

8 Mar 2020

0% chance of failure nor success, if we don’t try

by Coach Takeshi | posted in: Mental Model Dōjō |

6 Mar 2020

Kill the Zombies in the Eisenhower Matrix

by Coach Takeshi | posted in: Mental Model Dōjō |

My executive coaching client was being completely overwhelmed. After a download of a long list of things on his plate, I asked him how he would like to do things differently. He continued to list more things he wanted to … Read More

3 Mar 2020

Disagreement vs Misalignment

by Coach Takeshi | posted in: Mental Model Dōjō |

“Shared understanding” is an everyday word in my team coaching. It’s so easy to get into positional talk and convincing mode, because when discussions heat up, it quickly becomes personal. Well, if it’s going to be personal, make it personal … Read More

13 Feb 2020

Mental Model Dōjō TV: Agile Success Stories – Solaria Labs, Liberty Mutual

by Coach Takeshi | posted in: Mental Model Dōjō |

Does Agile work? To answer that question, I am starting a new video series of curating Agile success stories. The first story I’d like to share is with Justin Yiu, from Liberty Mutual’s innovation arm Solaria Labs, and their innovative … Read More

13 Feb 2020

Mental Model Dōjō TV: Ambidextrous Organizations Explained

by Coach Takeshi | posted in: Mental Model Dōjō |

Link to case study video: https://youtu.be/EW_PX50NAps Transcript What is an ambidextrous organization? In a nutshell, an ambidextrous organization takes care of current core businesses with the right hand, while taking care of innovation with the left hand, as physically separate … Read More

5 Feb 2020

Stop #failureporn

by Coach Takeshi | posted in: Mental Model Dōjō |

There’s this thing called failure porn. As Agile professionals, as educators, as parents, we say it’s okay to fail. Go for it, try your best, and if you fail as a result, it’s okay, because we learn. Nothing wrong with … Read More

4 Feb 2020

Mental Model Dōjō TV: Knowing to Stop – a Confucius Teaching

by Coach Takeshi | posted in: Mental Model Dōjō |

We practice the art of stopping – meditation, mindfulness, reflection, introspection, zen. Confucius says to stop, we first need to know to stop. Let’s see what he means by that. This is the very first of my video series, and … Read More

25 Jan 2020

Innovator’s Dilemma and Organizational Ambidexterity

by Coach Takeshi | posted in: Mental Model Dōjō |

A tribute post to Professor Clayton Christensen, author of “The Innovator’s Dilemma” (1997), who passed away after a long illness. I am a big fan of Organizational Ambidexterity, made famous by Charles O’Reilly (Stanford) and Michael Tushman’s (Harvard) 2004 HBR … Read More

17 Jan 2020

Knowledge is for Consumption

by Coach Takeshi | posted in: Mental Model Dōjō |

Knowledge is for consumption. This is my street philosophy, but I really abide to this. I really, really like to practice what I learn. Practice – both in the application sense, and in the repeat exercise, trial and error sense. … Read More

14 Jan 2020

Premature Scaling is Startup Death

by Coach Takeshi | posted in: Mental Model Dōjō |

#1 Cause of Startup Death? Premature Scaling This is what INSEAD professor Nathan Furr said in a 2011 Forbes article. I can attest it still holds so true: premature scaling is startup death. Steve Blank says the same; in his … Read More

5 Jan 2020

Don’t Mix What I Want FROM You with What I Want FOR You

by Coach Takeshi | posted in: Mental Model Dōjō, Top |

Frustrations about others, are (not surprisingly) frequent topics of my coaching conversations. The clarifying question “So, what are you frustrated about him/her?” is often answered with a mix of (1) unmet needs and what I call (2) “righting.” It’s a … Read More

17 Dec 2019

Karpman’s Drama Triangle

by Coach Takeshi | posted in: Mental Model Dōjō, Top |

In coaching enabling conversation skills, I find Karpman’s Drama Triangle (1968) very useful. (1) Blaming, shaming and guilt tripping, (2) victim mentality and (3) “chief problem solving officer” are three recurring patterns of impediments to enabling conversations. The Drama Triangle … Read More

15 Dec 2019

Relentless Pursuit of Product Market Fit is Customer Obsession

by Coach Takeshi | posted in: Mental Model Dōjō |

Relentless pursuit of product market fit is customer obsession. Reality is, so many distractions in the office… It would be Nirvana for product developers and customer professionals if we can only think about the customer. Why do we have so … Read More

12 Dec 2019

Honest disagreement is often a good sign of progress

by Coach Takeshi | posted in: Mental Model Dōjō |

Honest disagreement is often a good sign of progress. – Mahatma Gandhi Nodding one’s head in agreement when reading an inspiring quote like this is one thing. Furthering the thought with questions, is another thing. For me, two questions come … Read More

5 Dec 2019

Deductive and Inductive Reasoning and the Divergent, Convergent Double Diamond in Design Thinking

by Coach Takeshi | posted in: Mental Model Dōjō, Top |

There’s science and philosophy behind Design Thinking’s divergent and convergent double diamond. It’s the logic of deductive and inductive reasoning. Also: “Experience by itself teaches nothing… Without theory, experience has no meaning. Without theory, one has no questions to ask. … Read More

4 Dec 2019

If you hear a voice within you say you cannot paint, then by all means paint and that voice will be silenced

by Coach Takeshi | posted in: Mental Model Dōjō |

“If you hear a voice within you say you cannot paint, then by all means paint and that voice will be silenced.” – Vincent van Gogh There’s neuroscientific truth in this. This is the same brain hacking we use in … Read More

3 Dec 2019

The Cadence of Scrum

by Coach Takeshi | posted in: Mental Model Dōjō |

I chose this equestrian quote because today I wanted to talk about the time-boxed nature of Scrum, also known as the cadence of Scrum. Sprints that are not consistent, i.e. stretches and shrinks, interrupts, happens just a few rounds and … Read More

We know the sound of two hands clapping. But what is the sound of one hand clapping?

28 Nov 2019

Zen koan: What is the sound of one hand clapping?

by Coach Takeshi | posted in: Mental Model Dōjō, Top |

We know the sound of two hands clapping. But what is the sound of one hand clapping? – Zen Master Hakuin Ekaku (1686-1769) A Zen Koan (riddle) made famous by appearing in J.D. Salinger’s Nine Stories. Enjoy thinking about it. … Read More

Shared Understanding | agile-od.com | Lifecycle

27 Nov 2019

The Map Is Not The Territory

by Coach Takeshi | posted in: Mental Model Dōjō, Top |

The map is not the territory. – Alfred Korzybski, 1931 Semantic scientist and philosopher Korzybski coined this term to distinguish our beliefs from reality. The concept is helpful in understanding how misunderstandings happen. > What we perceive as the territory, … Read More

26 Nov 2019

Design Instead of Planning

by Coach Takeshi | posted in: Mental Model Dōjō, Top |

I actually think planning and designing are pretty similar. It’s just that designing is much more colorful, multi-faceted, free form. Probably more fun too. Planning for your trip? How about, “designing your next trip”? Sounds more adventurous and intriguing, doesn’t … Read More

9 Nov 2019

The Two Cadence of User Feedback

by Coach Takeshi | posted in: Mental Model Dōjō |

This image is from Roland Smart’s “Agile Markerter” (https://amzn.to/2O7W2EA). It’s the cadence difference between feedabck (spot the typo? :-)) that come (1) directly from the consumer (Practitioner User Feedback) and (2) the people who manage the consumers of the product/service … Read More

7 Nov 2019

Robert Fritz’s Concept of Structural Tension

by Coach Takeshi | posted in: Mental Model Dōjō |

Sharing to fellow coaches this useful visual from Peter Senge’s Fifth Discipline book. Bringing awareness to limiting beliefs, while shifting the attention to action, is a recurring yet intricate theme in coaching. We have a tendency to dwell too long … Read More

6 Nov 2019

What you tell a person is less important than what you enable the person to tell you.

by Takeshi Yoshida | posted in: Mental Model Dōjō, Top |

19 Oct 2019

Kaizen (改善) and Kaku-shin (革新)

by Takeshi Yoshida | posted in: Mental Model Dōjō, Top |

My stance is that, change and transformation is a result. We don’t change for the sake of changing. Rather, I place importance in improvement. So, with me, you’ll be seeing frequent reference to Kaizen (改善), which is continuous improvement. See, … Read More

16 Oct 2019

The many flavors of Experimental and Iterative approaches

by Takeshi Yoshida | posted in: Mental Model Dōjō, Top |

The importance is to experiment and iterate. What approach you take is of secondary importance. Chose whatever approach that best fits the situation, and eventually you’ll get there. Time after time, trial and error has been proven most effective.

16 Oct 2019

From Know-Do to Know-[Stop/Think/Design]-Do

by Takeshi Yoshida | posted in: Mental Model Dōjō, Top |

We are highly functioning professionals. When we see a pattern, we know what to do. So, Know-Do. The challenge of Know-Do, is predictable results. What if we want out-of-the-norm break-throughs? So, Stop. Think. Design. Sharing my favorite visual from the … Read More

16 Oct 2019

The non-linear, non-sequential nature of Design Thinking

by Takeshi Yoshida | posted in: Mental Model Dōjō, Top |

Design Thinking is process driven. It is a process to help us activate our creativity. Meanwhile, our brains don’t necessarily work in linear fashion, particularly when we’re being creative. So, by nature, Design Thinking can be non-linear, and non-sequential. Go … Read More

3 Oct 2019

Prototyping a Walking Skeleton

by Takeshi Yoshida | posted in: Mental Model Dōjō, Top |

Either it’s the artist in us or the perfectionist taking control, but many of us have a tendency to start creating quality body parts ahead of putting together a skeleton. Remember, it would be a tragedy if we spend an … Read More

10 Jun 2019

The Art of Kanban + User Story Mapping

by Takeshi Yoshida | posted in: Mental Model Dōjō |

Kanban is deep… Combine that with Jeff Patton’s User Story Mapping (USM), it becomes a powerful visualization tool in Scrum.

10 Jun 2019

Liberating Structures

by Takeshi Yoshida | posted in: Mental Model Dōjō, Top |

Liberating Structures is a collection of powerful team exercises curated by Henri Lipmanowicz and Keith McCandless (www.liberatingstructures.com). The following slides are abbreviated instructions and some modified contents to their original work. For original instructions, please visit their website. Here’s the … Read More

Design Thinking POV Templates | agile-od.com | Lifecycle

14 Mar 2019

Two Templates for Design Thinking POV (Point of View) Statements

by Takeshi Yoshida | posted in: Mental Model Dōjō |

Two versions of Design Thinking POV (Point of View) Statement templates. Download PDF version with editable text boxes here: DT POV Templates

6 Nov 2018

Systems Thinking

by Takeshi Yoshida | posted in: Mental Model Dōjō |

We tend to confront complex, dynamic realities with a language designed for simple, static problems: normal verbal language extracts simple, linear cause-effort chains. And because we see the world in simple obvious terms, we come to also believe in simple, … Read More

Concept of Affordance | Design Thinking | agile-od.com | Lifecycle

19 Oct 2018

The Concept of Affordance | Design Thinking

by Takeshi Yoshida | posted in: Mental Model Dōjō |

Outcome vs Output, agile-od.com, Lifecycle

18 Aug 2018

Go for Outcome, Less Output

by Takeshi Yoshida | posted in: Mental Model Dōjō |

27 Jul 2018

Shared Understanding

by Takeshi Yoshida | posted in: Mental Model Dōjō |

I’m glad we all agree. (Really?)

Dialogue vs Directional Talk Tell Sell Yell | agile-od.com | Lifecycle

23 Jun 2018

Dialogue vs Directional Talk and the Tell Sell Yell Escalation

by Takeshi Yoshida | posted in: Mental Model Dōjō, Top |

Our need to be right is pervasive. Suspend your assumptions, create a conversational space and have a dialogue, less a directional talk.

6 May 2018

Spirit of Agile

by Takeshi Yoshida | posted in: Mental Model Dōjō, Top |

4 May 2018

Lattice Work of Mental Models

by Takeshi Yoshida | posted in: Mental Model Dōjō, Top |

Charlie Munger, Warren Buffet’s 95 years old “right hand man,” on “lattice work of mental models”: “You’ve got to have models in your head. And you’ve got to array your experience ‑ both vicarious and direct ‑ on this latticework … Read More

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