SPaMCAST 446 – Questions, Go-To People, Servant Leadership

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SPaMCAST 446 will feature our essay on questions.  Questions are a coach and facilitator’s secret power! But, with great power comes great responsibility.  

Our second column is from Gene Hughson.  Gene and I discussed his essay Go-to People Considered Harmful originally published on his blog Form Follows Function (www.genehughson.wordpress.com).  The concept may sound counterintuitive, but it is not.

The third column is from Kim Pries, the Software Sensei.  In this installment, Kim dives into the topic of servant leadership.

Re-Read Saturday News

 

SPaMCAST 437 Steven Adams, Five Dysfunctions of a Team

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The Software Process and Measurement Cast 437 features a discussion of our recent re-read of  The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni (Jossey-Bass, Copyright 2002, 33rd printing) with Steven Adams.  Steve has participated on nearly all of the re-reads, providing his unique wisdom.  It was a great talk that helped me understand why the book has (and continues to have) such a large impact on how I view Agile and software development. Steve also has some advice on how to get the most out of the re-read feature.

Steve lives in the San Francisco Bay Area (a.k.a, Silicon Valley) where he has a successful career in software development.  Steve has worked for Hewlett Packard, Access Systems Inc,, Trilliant Inc., and Sony Mobile Communications; plus has consulted at Cisco Systems.  Steve has a computer science degree from California State University at Chico, learned software project management at Hewlett-Packard and, in 2009, started his Agile journey with Sony Ericsson.  Steve enjoys listening to technical podcasts, and SPaMCAST was one of the first and is a favorite!  Steve is also an avid bicyclist (road) and is on track to log over 3,500 miles in 2016.

Blog: https://sadams510.wordpress.com/

Twitter: @stevena510

Re-Read Saturday News

This week we begin our read of Holacracy with a few logistics and a review of the introduction.  We have a short entry this week that will give you time to buy a copy today and read along!  If you have not listened to my interview with Jeff Dalton on Software Process and Measurement Cast 433, I would suggest a quick listen. Jeff has practical experience with using the concepts of holacracy in his company and as a tool in his consultancy.  

Holacracy: The New Management System for a Rapidly Changing World by Brian J. Robertson was published by Henry Holt and Company in 2015.  The book is comprised of a forward, 10 chapters in three parts, notes, acknowledgments, and an index.  My plan is to read and review one chapter per week.  We will move on to a new book in approximately 12 weeks.

Visit the Software Process and Measurement Cast blog to participate in this and previous re-reads.

 

SPaMCAST 432- Leadership Types, On-Boarding, Surprises in QA, Holy Trinity

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The Software Process and Measurement Cast 432 begins with an essay on the impact of leadership types on adopting and sustaining Agile.  Leadership style has a direct impact on an organization’s ability to adopt and sustain Agile.  Some leadership styles are more supportive, while others evoke more of a response that is epitomized by locking feral cats and dogs in a room (nobody wins).

Next up, Jeremy Berriault brings his QA Corner to the cast to discuss surprises in QA testing.  Visit Jeremy’s blog at https://jberria.wordpress.com/  Next we will have a column from The Software Sensei, Kim Pries.  Kim discusses the holy trinity of forethought, execution and follow through. Reach out to Kim on LinkedIn. Last, but not least, Jon M Quigley brings his column, the Alpha and Omega of Product Development, to the Cast. In this segment, Jon discusses on-boarding. On-boarding new people is critical even if the person is just joining from another team down the hall.  One of the places you can find Jon is at Value Transformation LLC.

Re-Read Saturday News

This week  we tackle Chapter 5 in Carol Dweck’s Mindset: The New Psychology of Success (buy your copy and read along).  In Chapter 5, Dweck uses examples from the business world to illustrate and elaborate on fixed and growth mindsets.

Every week we discuss a chapter then consider the implications of what we have “read” from the point of view of someone pursuing an organizational transformation and also how to use the material when coaching teams.  

 

SPaMCAST 431- Andrew Neitlich, Leadership is Core a Requirement

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The Software Process and Measurement Cast 431 features our interview with  Andrew Neitlich on leadership.  We discussed whether leadership can be learned and if tech leadership is different than other kinds of leadership.  Leadership is a core requirement for making all teams, Agile or not, effective!

Andrew’s bio:

Andrew Neitlich is the founder and director of the Center for Executive Coaching (http://centerforexecutivecoaching.com), a leader in training and certifying executive and leadership coaches. He also leads his own executive coaching practice, with an emphasis on working technical leaders that sometimes get frustrated with engaging their teams and having more impact when they communicate. Andrew is the author of Coach!, Elegant Leadership, and Guerrilla Marketing for a Bulletproof Career. He received his MBA from Harvard Business School, and lives in Sarasota, Florida.

Re-Read Saturday News

This week we tackle Chapter 4 in Carol Dweck’s Mindset: The New Psychology of Success (buy your copy and read along).  In Chapter 4, Dweck hits a home run by reflecting on how mindsets translate into action in the sports arena (thus the sports allusions).  Sports stories are one the most used metaphors in a business environment.  I bet that you can’t you to go to two meetings in any corporate environment without hearing a project likened to the exploits of sports teams or athletes. This an easy metaphor theme because most everyone has been exposed to some form of sports or at least a story about sports before they take a job. In Chapter 4, Dr. Dweck, scores (I can’t help myself) by using the exploits of athletes and sports teams to further illustrate the differences and impact mindsets deliver.

Every week we discuss a chapter then consider the implications of what we have “read” from the point of view of someone pursuing an organizational transformation and also how to use the material when coaching teams.  

Remember to buy a copy of Carol Dweck’s Mindset and read along!

Visit the Software Process and Measurement Cast blog to participate in this and previous re-reads.

 

Mindset: The New Psychology of Success: Re-Read Week 4, Chapter 4 – Sports: The Mindset of a Champion

Today we rush into Chapter 4 in Carol Dweck’s Mindset: The New Psychology of Success (buy your copy and read along).  In Chapter 4, Dweck hits a home run by reflecting on how mindsets translate into action in the sports arena (thus the sports allusions).  Sports stories are one the most used metaphors in a business environment.  I bet that you can’t you to go to two meetings in any corporate environment without hearing a project likened to the exploits of sports teams or athletes. This an easy metaphor theme because most everyone has been exposed to some form of sports or at least a story about sports before they take a job. In Chapter 4, Dr. Dweck, scores (I can’t help myself) by using the exploits of athletes and sports teams to further illustrate the differences and impact mindsets deliver.

 

The 8 Leading Attributes of Trust, Leadership’s Most Important Tool

Leaders require trust between them and those they lead to be effective. Trust is not a simple attribute like hair color.  Trust is a synthesis of several attributes. None of the attributes that impact trust are fixed at birth. As humans, we learn the attributes that generate trust based on the environments we are exposed to and hone them based on effort and importance we place on these characteristics. The 8 most important characteristics that shape trust in software development and Agile environments are:

 

SPaMCAST 430 – Project Owner, The Complicated Role, The Thinker, Constraints

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The Software Process and Measurement Cast 430  features an essay on product owners.  The product owner role is nuanced, always complicated and sometimes hard.  The essay will help you sort things out.  

Steve Tendon brings another chapter in his Tame The Flow: Hyper-Productive Knowledge-Work Performance, The TameFlow Approach and Its Application to Scrum and Kanban, published by J Ross (buy a copy here) to the cast.  In this installment we talk about Chapter 15, Understanding the Impact of a Constraint.  In our discussion Steve schooled me a bit on constraints.

Gene Hughson brings his  Form Follows Function Blog (the same Gene, that Ryan Ripley called out on last week’s cast) to the cast this week to discuss the third in his series on leadership.  This week we discussed the antipattern Gene calls The Thinker.  Might sound good, but it isn’t.

Have you checked out Agile for Humans? If not please do.  If you are an Agile for Humans listener visiting the Software Process and Measurement Cast for the first time, WELCOME. I hope you subscribe and make us part of your weekly ritual.

Re-Read Saturday News

This week  we tackle Chapter 3 in Carol Dweck’s Mindset: The New Psychology of Success (buy your copy and read along). In Chapter 3 Dweck provides a deep dive into how mindsets affect learning and teaching.  The impact of mindsets on how we learn or how we teach is useful knowledge for anyone involved in coaching or transformation.

Every week we discuss a chapter then consider the implications of what we have “read” from the point of view of someone pursuing an organizational transformation and also how to use the material when coaching teams.  

Remember to buy a copy of Carol Dweck’s Mindset and read along!

Visit the Software Process and Measurement Cast blog to participate in this and previous re-reads.

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