I ran a retrospective lately, to look at when something went wrong, rather than just looking at a sprint and asking what was good or bad. In doing so, I went though how something had failed, but I realised that I was drilling into what had happened, not what could have happened. This is OK,… Continue reading Failure modes revisited
Category: Observations
Time, energy or focus?
I was thinking about time management and I realised I was just sitting there, letting my mind wander. Is that good time management? When people talk about time management I often assume they mean "planning how to allocate our time." I think that is valuable, because I have often found myself the victim of my… Continue reading Time, energy or focus?
Decisions in the distance
In the movies, when the hero is often on a long quest. At the beginning they are uncertain and even uninterested, but at the end of the quest, they are motivated, focused and charging forward. The hero struggles and then finds their purpose, realising through their struggles that they now know what is important and… Continue reading Decisions in the distance
Reading You’re not listening
I am reading the book "You're Not Listening," by Kate Murphy. Start with curiousity Early in the book the author mentions that most books on listening are written by coaches, consultants and people talking about listening more effectively to achieve a goal. Those books teach, according to Murphy, techniques that help us to listen. However… Continue reading Reading You’re not listening
Should we do a PIR?
One thing that defines good agile teams is the habit of "learning from feedback." This idea is not something agile teams invented though, even if it is core to being agile. I imagine that cavemen gave each other feedback on their hunting and gathering techniques and continually improved, as measured by not being hungry and… Continue reading Should we do a PIR?
Another new year comes along
I ended last year with a road trip to Melbourne, which is the city I was born in. My wife, daughter and I have a fantastic time, partly because we caught up with family, partly because we took the time to enjoy things together and also partly because of the simple fact that we were… Continue reading Another new year comes along
That’s a wrap
After a long article last week, I thought I would finish the year with a short one. I began the year with a goal to "publish a blog article every two weeks" but I modified it slightly to include "not go two weeks without an update" which meant that I could not publish one article… Continue reading That’s a wrap
My agile coaching mindset is unstable and evolving
In my last article, I compared agile coaches to the catering corps in the army, saying that we support the troops rather than leading them or engaging in heroics. Cooking and cleaning for the heroes sounds like like a humble, servant leader thing to do. But does that metaphor really drum up an image of… Continue reading My agile coaching mindset is unstable and evolving
Agile coaches – special forces or catering corps?
I was talking to someone recently about becoming an agile coach. I am an agile coach so I told them that coaching is a cool thing to do and agile is a cool thing to be involved in. Annoyingly though, they are already agile and their team is already working well as a unit. They… Continue reading Agile coaches – special forces or catering corps?
Goal trees and goal wording
I set different goals, sometimes as small as a todo list item, such as "reschedule meeting" and sometimes as large as "Expand human settlement to at least 3 new star systems". Some goals are tracked diligently, while other are simply ticked off a list when they are achieved. Some are incredibly short term (do before… Continue reading Goal trees and goal wording
James King 