The day that Change became a new brand of shampoo

Please, let me first reassure you, I won’t try to convince you that change will make your hair brighter, cleaner, or fuller. What I want to propose is to stop thinking about Change like a weird beast that you must manage before it get out of control and go berserk on your business, putting half your staff in sick leave or in search for another job.

Let’s try to take a look at Change as if it would be a new product to put on the market. Suppose for a few minutes that you’re in the market to sell Change. As for everything in your life, you want this Change business to be a huge success. So, you want to sell a hell of a lot of it!  

Now, what do you do to make it a humongous success? What would you do to market it properly? You would promote it!

Coming from the marketing industry this always seemed obvious to me. See, I’ve spent a lot of time and energy contributing to the global over-consumption problem. In my younger years, I invested a lot of energy promoting stuff, mostly cosmetics.   

I remember spending a lot of billing time searching for ways to promote red lipstick as if it was the next best thing after the creation of the new … pink lipstick. From website to free sample distribution or loyalty programs, nothing would have stopped us from trying, and we had the mission to promote and sell. Of all those, shampoo was my favourite cosmetic product. Maybe because, as a guy, that was one product I could relate to. You see, like women, we, men, must wash our hair, but we are less prompt to using red or pink lipstick. Most of all, shampoos have awesome benefits; they’ll make your hair fuller and brighter, make the blondes blonder, the brunettes …“brunetter” and the redheads … just more flamboyant.

Well, anyway, suffice to say that between all these colours, we had a lot of fun and sold a lot of stuff.

Moving from marketing to IT…

So, a few years later, I’m working as a project manager for an insurance company. We’re integrating a portfolio of insurance products and IT solutions that the organization inherited from their last acquisition.

It was early spring, and we’re about ten sitting in a room to kick off a project. That’s the day I was introduced to my first change management specialist.

He introduced himself has a “Senior Change Management Specialist”, with two capital “S”.

• “No worries, he says, I got everything under control. My STRATEGY is to develop a STRATEGIC Communication Plan in order to STRATEGICALLY address the most important message that is needed to be STRATEGICALLY delivered to STRATEGICALLY targeted groups impacted by the acquisition.”

… I am livid.

Early in my career, I was introduced to the strategic aspect of things by an enlightening mentor, but that was a lot of repetitions of the word “STRATEGY” in a single sentence.

So, with courage, I ask a single question to “THE Specialist” with a grey moustache:

• “’Scuse me Sir, but what would be that message?”

• “I’m glad you’re asking, boy. We’ll tell them that this acquisition was necessary to the survival of the company. There will be some associate changes, but change is good. It will be a very positive message.” His reply is kind, as if he was talking to a little puppy.

That’s it, I’m terrorized!

• “But, Sir, how’s that going to convince the employees and middle managers that the change is a good thing for them? How is this mobilizing staff in any way? You’re sure this will help to ‘sell’ the change throughout the company.”
• “What are you talking about, son?”
• “What am I talking about? I’m talking about changing the technology of three call centres throughout the country, centralizing part of them in the East Montreal office, which will impact more than 600 individuals. Shall I remind you all, we’re talking about human beings here!”  
• “That I know, I’ve read the file! But where are you going with your ‘selling the change’ thing?!? It’s not like it’s a new brand of shampoo.”
• “Well, I’m mean, euh…” He cut me off guard here, “Wouldn’t it be a good thing to try to sell the idea that the change is good? I mean like if it was a product, so the staff would see there are some benefits for them.”
• “Ha ha ha, you’re funny, kid, like they have a say about it. The change is happening, whatever they want it or not…”
• “But, Sir…”
• “Okay, now that we all agree, can we move on?”

Good lord! I’m engaged in delivering a project with a gerontological lunatic moron.

Thus, right after that meeting, I grab my friend Phillip, program manager, for an urgent and “not-strategic-at-all” cup of coffee.

• “The guy is a nutcase,” I said to Phil.
• “He’s the CEO’s best friend,” he says without a smile.
• “So?” (meaning “I’m not kidding”)
• “So, are you planning on going to work somewhere else?” (still not smiling)
• “OK, so you’re proposing that we’re going to Nowhere Land with Mr. Strategic Moustache? When it fails, and it will, he’ll blame us for it!”
• “Sure he will, told you, CEO’s best friend.” (amused)
• “So, you want us to follow his lead? You must be kidding!”
• “Not exactly, but do you have anything to propose or you’re just mad at our parent’s generation?” (finally smiling)
• “Well, we could put together a promotional plan to inform… No, not inform, but literally SELL the acquisition and the change that will impact the staff; we’re going to sell them the idea! Like when I was in marketing, just like if it was THE new brand of shampoo!”
• “And can you ‘strategically’ adjust your promotional plan to the ‘Strategic plan’ of your dear friend?”
• “It will be the best idea he’ll ever have! Deal?”
• “Deal!”  

Therefore, I took upon myself to coach Mr. Moustache into “strategically” endorse a Change Promotion Plan that would crystallize his “very positive message” in ways he could not believe possible.

First, create the demand with teasing messages. The key is to build up the desire for something new to happen on a daily basis. Then, unveil the new product, not the change, but the extraordinary new company, and most of all the benefits there is to work for this so great company. Finally, highlight the most human values that come up with this renaissance. There, you’ve got yourself a nice little promotional plan.

And then, if you do well and you’re a bit lucky, things can go well.

Promoting change

From T-shirts to car stickers, we distributed so much free stuff to the employees that you could read on every corner of every office in the country “Coming soon… The Biggest insurance company in Canada”.

Mr. Strategic Moustache was so proud of himself! What a great idea he had to promote the change.

In the corridors, at the coffee machine, you could hear the employees discussing how proud they were to be part of “The Power to Insure Canada!”

The calling centres’ employees were eager to try the new technology, since we’ve been sending them teasers for weeks, explaining the benefits of the new terminals, the comfort of the new headphones. The new training was welcomed by most, and some employees even asked to be trained as trainers.

Then, I started to receive emails from employees proposing local and not-so-local initiatives to facilitate some part of the transition.  

For those who had to change offices, we formed a welcoming committee to support their integration. Someone even suggested a little brochure detailing the close neighborhood shops, restaurants, free parking spaces and bus schedules. The day they arrived, there was free lunch, cake … and a lot of smiles.

Of course, all the efforts deployed were not done just out of kindness, and I’m still not sure that the new headphones were so amazingly comfortable…

Conclusion

Yes, it was not all true; it was part marketing, part positive manipulation, part human kindness.

But one thing’s for sure, as long as we see change as a threat, it can surely become an ugly beast that will derail the organization. Mr. Moustache was partially right: change will always happen whether we want it or not. Still, it’s up to us to see and present it as something new that will better our lives.

Like this amazing new brand of shampoo that will make our hair brighter and bolder…!

The post A coach’s tale appeared first on Blogue Savoir Agile.

Today, I would like to tell you what facilitation means to me. It’s a concept that I really like because its main concern is foremost human beings in the workplace. I am a facilitator because I like to support people, help them consider other perspectives, and make them feel happy in their work. All of this, while pursuing the objectives of their teams or of the organization they are working for. That is, help with human and business growth!

That’s pretty interesting, but what does a facilitator do exactly? What would be the gains for your organization to have people with facilitation skills?

Let me tell you what my daily work consists in. First of all, my role as a facilitator is to support individuals and teams. I help them improve their communications and discussions, resulting in richer and more dynamic exchanges. How do I proceed? First, I must understand their intention well. In other words, their objective. If they don’t know what their intention is, I help them discover it. Once this foundation is well established, my mission is to assist them in fulfilling their intention.

To succeed, I do my best to encourage communication within the team. I highlight the team members’ common opinions and I also point out conflicts and differences of opinion. Why? Because there is great richness in divergence: instead of focusing on a single idea, the team can assess many and eventually find the best solution. By not wanting to upset anyone and agreeing right from the beginning, people can leave out innovative solutions that could only emerge when team members freely express their points of view, as different as they may be. Of course, it is not easy to disagree. And my role is to ensure the team is in a secure place where everyone can express themselves, even those for whom it is more difficult.

Another article on facilitation: read Dave‘s post entitled “Facilitating your organization”.

Easy to say, isn’t it? Don’t worry, I’ve got plenty of tools to do it. For example, I lead people to appreciate perspectives that are different from theirs. Generally speaking, people are able to take a step back when it is about themselves. However, when it comes to going to a different level, it’s more difficult. Understanding how the other person thinks can help resolve conflicts and ease tensions. Ultimately, people are more adaptable and more capable of facing uncertainty and complexity than we think. In today’s modern world, where things change quickly, it’s undoubtedly an asset! And, as a bonus, it often allows people to be happier at work, resulting in improved retention of top talents, greater commitment to the project or organization, and increased productivity. Thus, it’s beneficial to everyone!

For instance, when people succeed in taking into account the perspective of another team or top management, new opportunities arise! That is how I begin my work as a facilitator in order to mitigate, or even reverse, the effect of the much-touted organizational silos.

And what is great, is that these principles can be applied at a larger scale; that is, organizational facilitation. I can help teams improve their communications with one another. Then, instead of having two rival teams, each sticking to their own ideas, we find ourselves with two teams that are collaborating and helping with fulfilling the company’s intention, and even more. Think of those who are working at NASA and who are asserting that they are all serving one objective, which is bigger than themselves… You know the story of NASA’s janitor who was saying that his job was to help put a man on the moon. That is quite a perspective!

Don’t worry, my job is not only to make others work. I also have to constantly develop myself in order to remain effective. With a greater presence and a better understanding of myself, I can better support teams. Am I always entirely neutral? Who can pretend to be? However, I must be aware of my feelings in order to do a better job. I must be present, listening, and I must show compassion when a team member experiences a particular emotional turmoil. I must understand the different contexts in which the team can be. Beginning of a project, delivery date coming soon, other particular stress…

Facilitation is a job that I find extremely satisfying and rewarding. I am happy to help companies achieve their objectives, to help teams develop their skills in order to become more efficient, and to help people be happier at work.

What do you think? Does it challenge you? Do you feel like improving your communications at work? Feel free to contact us…

The post Being a facilitator… appeared first on Blogue Savoir Agile.

This article was initially published on Forbes.com.

Co-creative leadership

I talk and write a lot about co-creative leadership these days. When people ask me to name the key traits of a co-creative leader, I usually list the following five skills:

1. Being a voice among many in the conversation.
2. Unleashing the leaders around them.
3. Building capacity on their team.
4. Dancing with the system around them.
5. Encouraging learning by doing.

This article is the first in a series that will explore each of the key skills co-creative leaders need to know.

The first key skill we will explore together is how to be a voice among many in the conversation.

Notice your impact in conversations

What happens when you start talking in a meeting? Does the conversation end and people turn your way? Do you feel forced to speak last so that you feel everyone had their chance to say what they needed to say? Did you ever notice that when you do that, you are keeping the hammer of having the last word in a different way? Having the last word is one form of impact you can have.

For a couple of weeks, take the time to measure the impact of what you say in meetings. At least once a day, reflect on meetings you were a part of. Notice what you said and the impact you had when you said it. Was it the impact you wanted to have? What could you have done or said differently?

Begin by noticing your impact for a few weeks, don’t change anything right away. Hone into your true impact by validating what you are noticing by asking others. Start making changes only when you have a better understanding of your impact. Make small changes and, for each, measure what happens before making another change.

Change can start as easily as inviting the group you are with to challenge your ideas and not consider your input as a final decision. It can also happen by being more supportive of others’ ideas instead of bringing your own ideas to the table. The key is bringing more awareness to what you are doing.

Take responsibility for your contribution

Another form of self-awareness is noticing your contribution to conversations. In group meetings, when you say something, what happens? Does it help the conversation move forward? Does it grind the conversation to a halt? Does it cause distractions?

I often work with groups who include a lot of joking and sarcasm in their meetings. When I challenge them on it, they often tell me that I am being too stiff and lack a sense of humor. Here is the thing though: what is the impact of the sarcasm? Is it really a joke or is it a message to someone in the room? Is it helping the conversation move forward or is it causing the conversation to derail?

The invitation I make to teams is not to be stiff and humorless. I ask them to share responsibility for making the conversation useful and productive. I also ask them to raise the level of their discussion above jokes and sarcasm.

Remember, the level of discussion occurring is partly a reflection of you as a leader. Take the time to understand how you contribute to meetings. If you are among the disruptors, take a closer look at the reason why you are doing it. Is your personal discomfort with a situation causing you to act this way or say certain things?

As a leader, you should start taking responsibility for your contribution in meetings. This will set an example for others and will make it easier for you to hold other people accountable as well.

Value the contributions of others

Co-creative leaders also need to recognize the contributions of others in meetings. How are they supporting the conversation? How are they allowing others to contribute to the meeting? How well are they listening to others?

If you see behaviors that you appreciate, take the time to name them out loud. This provides real-life examples others can relate to. It also provides recognition and appreciation for people in your examples.

Valuing contribution is also paying close attention to what people are saying. When someone brings up an interesting idea, focus on how the group can build on it. Part of the challenge in meetings with many intelligent people is that many want their idea to win. So, instead of acknowledging an idea on the table, some people override it with their own idea.

When you see situations like this occur, help the group see this and focus on one idea at a time.

Accept the awkwardness

I realize what I am asking is both very easy to say and potentially hard to do in real life. You will find that it takes humility and courage to do some of these things.

You may not find it easy to have your ideas challenged. You may actually be reacting to these challenges right now, and that would be part of your impact. It might not be easy for you to invite your team to do this as well, as this would be showing vulnerability.

As a leader, improving your personal contribution can be uncomfortable. You will need some courage, vulnerability, and patience. Here is the biggest thing I want you to remember: you have a leadership role for a reason, be that your work experience, skills, or something else. Although servant leadership is about servicing others, you do not need to hold back all the time. It means you need to be able to be a voice among many in conversations, not the voice with the final say.

How much are you a voice among many in the conversations in your organization? What could be different if you could be a voice that enables co-creative leadership?

The post How to be a voice among many in a conversation appeared first on Blogue Savoir Agile.

My calendar just beeped. The meeting will begin in 10 minutes, and I can feel the stress increase inside of me. I know what the meeting is about and I only have one desire: find an excuse not to go. I wish there will be a miracle and that I’ll be notified at the last minute that the meeting has been cancelled. However, nothing happens. So, I walk towards the meeting room; this place that I perceive as a wrestling ring from which I don’t know how to get out!

Timeout! Does it seem familiar? Does it feel like déjà vu?

I believe that it is the case for many people, including myself. I sometimes feel as if I were going to jail, which is unpleasant, even harmful. Why is the feeling of vulnerability and powerlessness triggering protection reflexes? Why is it that I do not have the control over myself? I should be able to face this situation like a grown-up! In my opinion, we are not sufficiently trained and tooled—physically and mentally—to handle these situations. A difficult or stressful conversation can trigger the same feelings and emotions as a physical attack. Our limbic system cannot make a difference between the two. Therefore, a verbal attack can trigger our defence mechanisms.

Three types of defence mechanisms

Verbal attacks trigger the same reflexes as physical attacks. After being punched, I would tend to freeze, run away, or charge. If in a conversation, here is what could happen for each mechanism:

Freezing

Everything comes to a halt. I’m unable to speak or move. I hear what is going on around me, but it is as though my brain stopped working. No answers come to my mind. Finally, I’m subjected to the conversation, and my participation is minimal. At the end of the meeting, I need time to integrate what has happened. Afterwards, once the level of stress has gone down, I’m able to think. It is now that all the “I should have said…” come to my mind.

Running away

I’m simply not there. I do everything for the meeting to be postponed or I’m mentally absent. I escape from the discussion and I think about anything except what is currently going on. I feel that things are happening, but I remain absent; my level of participation is close to zero. Once the pressure has dropped, a few images come to my mind and, more importantly, I feel like it is going to happen again.

Charging

In this case, it’s just the opposite. I retort and stand up for myself. It’s my turn to attack. I justify myself, and I try to win the battle. Because I really feel like being in a fight. My reaction level is generally limited to my capacity to protect myself. After the meeting, I sometimes feel like I’ve done too much or misinterpreted what triggered my reaction.

How not to be a slave of our defence mechanisms?

Aikido is a Japanese martial art based on defence and dodging. The goal is not to resist attacks, but to welcome them in order to control and lead them through movements. It is an art comprising movement, calm, and self-control.

I’ve been practising Aikido for 17 years. When the punch is actually coming, I try not to fall into the trap of the three defence types. I rather try to welcome the attack and join the dance. It is exactly the same with verbal aikido. One must join the dance of conversation.

How is it going concretely?

Example: “Dave, the document you wrote is simply incomprehensible!”

I take a pause … both mentally and physically. The goal is not to succumb to the temptation, which, in this case, would be to justify my actions by retorting.

Verbal aikido encourages us to smile. Inside and out! This is the first stage. I do not want to fall into the trap of my reflexes. I want to act the same way as when a punch is coming my way and join the dance. In aikido, it’s dodging. I move slightly. I let the punch pass close by and then I enter the next stage, which is to unbalance my partner. Instead of replying to the hit with a hit, I consider the position of the attacker. I want to validate their point of view and, most importantly, bring the discussion to a level where we both participate in the conversation instead of enduring it. It could sound something like:

• “Hum! this document is probably not my best one,” I indicate.
• “Yes! that’s what I’m saying,” replies my interlocutor.

I unbalanced my interlocutor, and we are now talking about the same thing rather than debating our own point of view and arguing about who’s right. The unbalance comprises humility, which combines well with smiles and which fulfills the desire to restore harmony within the conversation. The goal of verbal aikido is not to corner and floor the opponent. It is to avoid the attack, to unbalance the negative burden that goes with it, and then to rebalance the conversation in order to be better aligned. This way, both parties feel worthy and respected. Therefore, when comes the time to apply a technique for ending what initially felt like a confrontation, here is what I’d say: “How can I improve my document?”

Working on one’s self-control

As for any form of art, verbal aikido requires practice. As for any beginner, it is important to take one step at a time, one conversation at a time. The simple act of practising the art of taking a micro-pause and of greeting the conversation with a smile is a great step to take, and to be successful one needs practice. The book on verbal aikido is a good starting point to understand its essence and to put it into practice. It is all in the intention of the moment. If your intention is to fully participate in conversations, they will no longer be difficult, they will only be what they are, i.e. conversations.

The post Verbal aikido serving difficult conversations appeared first on Blogue Savoir Agile.

The Agile Know-How team wishes you a happy New Year. It promises to be challenging for us and we look forward to tackling the new projects we have in store for you.

To kick off the New Year, we have collected our most popular blog posts from last year. Here are our top 5 Agile Know-How posts of 2017.

Self-Organization is not “Laissez-Faire”

The Agile Manifesto suggests that we value “individuals and interactions over processes and tools,” not replace with. Becoming Agile involves democratizing the organization so that teams previously managed and/or controlled by a manager will now become self-organizing. Louise Kold Taylor presents the challenges faced by teams during Agile transitions toward self-organization.

Discussion about acceptance criteria

Acceptance criteria are essential to Agile frameworks. They are at the center of any discussion about the work that needs to be done. However, as important as they are, little time is being dedicated to them in most Agile trainings. Luc St-Laurent tells us about acceptance criteria which are at the heart of the Product Owner’s life.

What is the purpose of Agile Certifications?

How many certifications do you have? How important are they? What are they for ? Pierre-Emmanuel Dautreppe from Pyxis Belgium tells us about his career and what certifications have brought him over the years.

Agile scaling

In recent years we have seen the appearance of new Agile scaling frameworks such as Large Scale Scrum (Craig Larman), Scaled Agile Framework (Dean Leffingwell), and Nexus (Ken Schwaeber). Pawel Mysliwiec proposes alternatives to scaling that are often ignored despite empirical evidence of their value.

Why a Scrum Master?

Our colleague Nedjma Saidani from Pyxis Switzerland answers the following questions:

• What is a Scrum Master?
• What are the qualities of a good Scrum Master?
• Why is the Scrum Master’s role essential?

Do not not miss out on our latest posts and all our news, subscribe to our newsletter.

The post The best of 2017 appeared first on Blogue Savoir Agile.

While I would love to take credit for this question, it actually came from a client. After attending our Agile for Operations course to learn more about Agile practice in a Lean Operations environment, this is exactly what this client asked. It was an especially pertinent question considering we had just spent two days exploring concepts of bringing value to customers on the operations side of the organization. Surely, the Product Owner whose defined role is to maximize value should be highly visible in any organization. 

But what did he mean?

We explored his question together. Why is it that everyone in the Agile world (which for many translates as the Scrum world) seem to be interested in Scrum Master Certification and very few by Product Owner’s? Indeed, I had already made the same observation in attendance levels at our certification courses for both roles. Professional Scrum Master generally has two to three times the participation levels of Professional Scrum Product Owner, even when the location and trainer were the same!

But how could teams ensure the value of their product without someone directly accountable for that function? The Scrum Master can ensure that every ceremony is completed to a point of mastery and that all the project’s artifacts are completed with skill and even genius. The HOW can be completed with perfection but who is controlling the WHAT is produced?

I decided to extend the conversation to some of my coaching clients. One jumped on my observations with his own experience. As part of his company’s Agile journey, he had worked with his Human Ressources department on creating standardized roles and responsibilities for Scrum Team Members. He reported that he had been successful in creating roles for all the development team members and for the Scrum Master, but when he had reached the Product Owner’s role, the HR department had refused to create a role with this title.

Related post : The Everyday Agilist ponders Agile Culture

But why? I wondered…

Is there something in the lexicography of the words Owner and Master? The thesaurus provides the following synonyms for Owner:

• Landlord
• Possessor
• Holder
• Titleholder

And for Master it provides:

• Chief
• Controller
• Teacher
• Expert

Perhaps there is some implication of hierarchy that would place the role of Product Owner at a higher pay grade or compensation level than an Expert or Chief?

I was most intrigued by the historical definition of Master as “a man who has people working for him, especially servants or slaves.” Perhaps this was first a deterrent to wanting to define the role within the organization. But then what happened?

So I referred back to my training in both these functions and considered the depth of the role we ask the Product Owner to play. While the Scrum Master’s role requires the artful interpretation of the Agile Manifesto, the values and principles are fairly straightforward and practice of the art can begin with a single team of 3 to 9 people.

The Product Owner’s role is so much more complex. One must understand the market, the product and the customer, both in a historical AND forward looking manner. He needs to be an entrepreneur at heart.

Maybe my own story could shed some light here. I am now one year into my journey as the entrepreneur at the helm of Pyxis Great Lakes. I can state unequivocally that nothing in my 29 year career with a large organization had required me to think entrepreneurially!

When we think of the great entrepreneurs of recent history, we think of startups such as Steve Jobs building Apple computers in his garage or Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg with his college roommate plugging away on their computers in their dorm at Harvard University. But what about large pre-existing groups like banks and telecommunications companies? Have they grown too large to sustain the entrepreneurial spirit required to need the Product Owner’s role?

I am sure that there are countless observations on the subject beyond my own which have barely touched the surface of my client’s question “What about the Product Owner?” So I open the discussion to you, my readers:

• How is the Product Owner’s role played or promoted in your organization?
• Do you share my observations?

I look forward to following this learning journey with you. After all, learning daily is a big part of what it means to be an “Everyday Agilist”…

The post The Everyday Agilist asks “What about the Product Owner?” appeared first on Blogue Savoir Agile.

Last week, Louise Kold-Taylor and Steffan Surdek were in our offices at Pyxis working on the new coaching course they are building together. I noticed how much fun they were having and decided it could be fun to go pick their brains a bit. I went to sit with them for a bit to talk about coaching and some of the key skills coaches need to develop.

I will present parts of their conversation in a short series of posts leading up to their free webinar on February 7th as well as their first delivery of the course in mid-March.

Gabriel: Thanks for agreeing to this guys! Really nice of you to take the time to talk like this! Let’s jump right into the interview. What do you feel is the top skill that coaches need to develop?

Steffan: Active listening!
Louise: Oh yes, definitely active listening!

Gabriel: What can you tell me about active listening? What is it?

Steffan: I believe that for coaches, active listening is being able to reflect back what people are telling you. It matters because people often do not quite realize what they’re saying.

Louise: I think that active listening also has a non-verbal listening component to it. You are telling me your story, and your body language and your emotions speak volumes too. I want to reflect back to you, this is what I’m hearing. As a coach, I need to let go of my hypothesis and not be attached to my interpretation. I am really just offering what I hear as a gift to you, and you can do what you want with it. It is not about me being right or wrong, that doesn’t matter. What’s important is if it is useful for you to hear.

Steffan: That’s interesting, because what you are bringing in now as part of active listening is the quality of presence. How much am I really listening to you? How much am I actually paying attention to what you are saying and what you are expressing? How closely am I paying attention? Am I present and avoiding the noise in my head as a coach? All this can interfere with what I am hearing. Sometimes, my preferences kick in and then I may start coaching myself and I am not coaching you anymore.

Louise: I think the biggest trap for a coach is all the layers of “What you are saying reminds me of my own story, or another story I heard from someone I coach;” how to actually let go of everything we know. I believe that’s the hardest part when you start coaching people, because everything people say reminds you of something. I have opinions, and expertise, and all the blah blah blah that I want to apply to be helpful.

Steffan: Sometimes when we lack presence, we do not even realize that we are bringing our own baggage inside the conversation. We can even miss that maybe what we are saying is not even resonating with the person that we are coaching. Then we are talking to ourselves, and the coachee wonders, “What just happened here?”

Louise: Yes, and then the people you are coaching have to start defending themselves: “That’s not what I said! That’s not what I meant! That’s not true in my situation.” Then they stop. Then they’re no longer listening to themselves through you. That’s what happens.

Steffan: Agreed!

Gabriel: Why is all this important though? Why is it important to be present as a coach?

Steffan: Being in service to the other person is the most important thing. You need to really, really, really be there for the person that you are coaching. It means that sometimes you need to be able to let go of what you are feeling so you can be there for the other person.

Gabriel: Does that mean that you disappear completely when you are coaching someone?

Louise: That is a question that a lot of people ask! I will tell you what, maybe we should talk about this more next time…
I hope you enjoyed eavesdropping on our little conversation! I invite you to join our free webinar on February 7, 2018! We will explore more of the topic of coaching in organizations in a live conversation between Louise and Steffan.

The post A conversation about active listening in coaching appeared first on Blogue Savoir Agile.

In Agile, we want to support adaptive, responsive, self-organizing, and evolutionary methods. We aim for open communication with transparency and involvement among all stakeholders; and we want our artifacts to reflect our values at all levels.

The benefits are often astounding and transformative. Yet we also know that the road is difficult and sometimes quite frustrating. There is inertia and resistance in existing systems; there is difficulty translating what we do to those who don’t easily ‘get it.’  Sometimes we try too hard, or get too attached, and our well intentioned efforts backfire or overshoot. We may experience that those we are working with, or we ourselves, become stymied by the paradoxes that arise: does leadership come from individuals or groups? Is it more important to yield in caring acceptance, or commit passionately to our personal truths? When is the time for reflection vs. action? Is evolution supported through flexibility and openness or clear rigorous generative structures?

Feeling into these paradoxes, we may have an intuition that something beyond Agile is needed to inform how Agile should find its proper home and be in service and right relation to stakeholders—that something beyond Agile could inform how Agile itself should evolve responsively to the needs of a changing world (an agile Agile).

“Participatory Agility” represents our initial inquiry into these questions, and we are here to invite you into the inquiry. There is much that we don’t know about this territory, that we hope to discover with your help, but we do believe that it involves an increased capacity to question, not just conventional preconceptions, but all preconceptions; to enter into a more vulnerable space of generative deep listening. It points to a place where mutual regard and trust of the deep self are solid enough to allow differences of ideas, needs, and agendas to co-exist in an organic scuffle.

We envision contexts where paradoxes and polarities are natural and welcomed tensions that flow within a larger field of coherence and optimism. We want to support teams into collective insights that surpass the assumptions brought into the room and transform practice through radical innovations or homeopathically subtle interventions.

We seek to create social technologies that embrace unknowing with a relational intimacy that is both personal and transpersonal. We believe in the cultivation of consciousness and presence, which we see as just as important, or more important, than the ideas, ideals, or history that we bring to the table. We think that it is possible, in our best moments, for the “ego” to be seen and allowed to step aside, without having to compromise the power and uniqueness of each individual.

We are envisioning and experimenting with forms of gathering, communication, decision making, and organizational structure within this vision. We have stories to share about meetings full to the brim with poignant silences, powerful insights, painful calamities, sudden healings, and hilarious outbursts of collective laughter. We want to know who is curious to join us in this experiment, and how you would shape the road we could build together for the future of the Agile community.

The post An Invitation into a generative inquiry about an agile, participatory “Agile” appeared first on Blogue Savoir Agile.

Next week, from December 2 to December 4, our colleague, Eric De Carufel, will be at DevTeach Vancouver with 3 conferences. He will be presenting his latest discoveries on Big Data, CQRS, and Event Sourcing.

On Monday afternoon, Eric will introduce the first step on Big Data with Map Reduce. In this session, participants will discover what Big Data is and why it is of any interest if we don’t actually have Big Data? This introduction will teach you how to use some of the tools of Big Data even if you don’t really have petabytes of data; very much like we use space technology today (solar energy, diapers, water purification…) without going into space.

On Tuesday morning, Eric will present CQRS and Event Sourcing. Participants will see how to move from traditional n-tier architecture to a distributable and scalable architecture. People who are tired to maintain a big relational database, who need to scale up their system, and who want to deliver features rapidly without any regression on their systems should attend.

Finally, on Wednesday afternoon, Eric will present 5 ways to improve your code.

Visit DevTeach’s website to learn more about these conferences. http://www.devteach.com/Index.aspx

If you are interested in learning more about Big Data, CQRS and Event Sourcing or Eric, do not hesitate to contact us. We will be pleased to give you more information.

The post Vancouver will discover CQRS, Event Sourcing, and Big Data appeared first on Blogue Savoir Agile.

This article was initially published on Forbes.com.

Co-creative leadership

In my last post, I introduced you to the five key skills of a co-creative leader. I also went into more detail around the skill of being a voice among many in the conversation. This article is the second in a series on co-creative leadership. In it, we will explore the next key skill, which is how co-creative leaders unleash the leaders around them.

Why we need to unleash leaders

In many organizations, hierarchy plays a big role in how people act and how much initiative they take. In these same places, many people confuse the notions of management and leadership. I often observe the belief that managers are leaders by default, but this is not always true.

Management is often a figure of authority. People are promoted to or hired as managers, and their teams have no choice in the matter. On the other hand, leadership is more akin to getting permission from people to lead them. Not all managers do what is necessary to earn this permission to lead from their teams.

Think back for a moment to your professional experiences and think of everyone you know with amazing leadership outside the office. Were these people allowed to be leaders inside the workplace too? Often, you may find the answer is: it depends on their title. When this is the case, the company is creating dormant leaders without even realizing it.

When people start working somewhere, they often have a sense of excitement. They are lit up and want to make a difference. What happens though is that companies push people to fit a certain mould. This can be a good thing, as you want your hire to fit in the company, but it can also snuff their drive as they learn to comply. This is why co-creative leaders need to unleash the leaders around them.

Unleash leaders by encouraging initiative

Take a look at your own team for a moment. Does it feel like people need to ask you for permission before doing anything? Do you ever have people ask you something and you find yourself thinking: “Why are they asking me this? They don’t need my permission to do this.” Hierarchy and a prevalent culture of command and control create this behaviour. In some cultures, people do not want blame, so they ask permission for everything instead.

Let me guess—you may be thinking right now: “What if I know something as a manager they do not? I would rather they come speak to me first.” This is true and it is a subtle form of control, as well. What is the worst that could happen in the majority of cases?

I am not suggesting that you let people do anything and everything. That is the other end of the spectrum. The invitation here is to empower your team on the small things first—those things I mentioned earlier that have you wondering why they are asking you in the first place.

Here is a story that may help you. A few years ago, in a yearly review meeting, my boss at the time gave me an interesting piece of feedback. I was new in my role, negotiating contracts with clients, so I would often go talk to him about it before I made a decision. He asked me why I was pulling him into these discussions. Was it for permission or to bounce ideas off him? He told me he felt I was making the right decisions, so I did not need permission. He also said he was always ready for me to bounce ideas off of him, but I needed to make the right request from him.

Unleash leaders by seeing leadership potential

Take a good look at everyone in your team or organization. What do you see? Make a list of the people that have the most leadership qualities or potential. For each of them, reflect on what you are currently doing to allow them to make the most of their leadership. If your answer is “nothing” or “not much,” why is that?

Start thinking about how you can help each of these people be the leaders you see they can be. You can start to do this by having regular conversations with them. Let them know what you see in them and create opportunities for them to build confidence.

Unleash leaders by empowering people

Many of us can confuse the notion of empowering people with giving them a title. This leads right back to the hierarchy notion we spoke about earlier.

Empowering people means identifying what is holding them back, and removing these obstacles. It means helping them see a larger sandbox in which they can play. It also means giving them the courage to step into their leadership. For some, this can take time, while for others, it will be a quick and easy process. Give your team members the time and space they need to learn and grow into their leadership.

Unleash leaders by sharing the leadership space

The biggest challenge is accepting that there can be many leaders on a team and not competing for that role. Leadership is something you can share or even pass around to others. Good leaders know when to lead and they also know when and how to follow.

Think about those meetings in your workplace where many strong personalities clash together. Often, what is happening in the group dynamics is that people are not giving permission to others to lead. In cases like this, try giving someone permission to lead out loud and see the difference it makes.

The point is that leaders are not afraid to create leaders around them. This is what this skill is all about: seeing the people that feel shackled and helping them break loose.

Now, tell me, how do you unleash the leaders around you?

The post How to unleash the leaders around you appeared first on Blogue Savoir Agile.

Employers in Ontario spent much of 2017 watching and waiting to see what would happen with proposed legislated increases to the minimum wage. The question is no longer if the rate will rise from its current rate of $11.40 to $15.00 per hour. That decision having been made, the appropriate question now is: when exactly?

Well, the New Year has begun and with it came the much heralded increase to the provincial minimum wage. I am sure this new reality has come with more of a whimper than a bang since the last several months of 2017 did have some casualties. Indeed, my own husband first had his benefits package reduced in the late summer and several weeks later, he had his entire job reduced from the corporate books as he was laid off.

Although no explanation was given for the reduction in benefits, in his termination discussion, Bill 148 (the bill changing the minimum wage) was quoted as a factor. His performance evaluations had been nothing but stellar and his attendance record impeccable. Having been hired corporately and deployed locally, he was considered to be overpaid.

Given that his employer had a plethora of employees working at or near minimum wage and whose cost of employment would increase without any change to productivity or job performance, it was actually a brilliant move in terms of “cost-side” economics.

The company had reduced costs by removing a single employee to cover the cost of increasing the wages of the many. Mr. Spock would be profoundly impressed! After all, it was him who noted in The Wrath of Khan (1982): “Logic clearly dictates that the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.”

But is it really the most logical approach to the issue? When I first learned of Bill 148, I began asking: “How will your company cope with Bill 148?” in somewhat of a straw poll manner, and I have for the most part consistently received the following answers:

• We hope the introduction is delayed.
• We will fight the proposed legislation (although the time for input before final reading has passed).
• We will stop hiring to backfill.
• We will reduce the number of full-time staff.
• We will reduce hours for all staff.
• We will reduce benefits.
• We will raise prices (one lady predicted an $8 loaf of plain bread in the near future).

Most, of these answers are rooted in cost-side economics… and ironically, these are the same options that faced inflationary post-war Japan. So maybe there is a learning for us in the way Toyota handled a similar scenario. Rather than trying to merely find cost reductions, they chose to focus on driving efficiencies; eliminating waste; focusing on customer needs and increasing engagement among employees.

Fifteen years ago, I began my journey in the world of Continuous Improvement and, as those of you who read my blog posts will know, values are core to my methodology. I particular value the health and happiness of the teams I work with. I am certain these values also drive the people who are facing the layoff of staff that they work with day in and day out. And no matter if you run manufacturing plants, retail outlets, service industries or restaurants, cutting staff and benefits is heart wrenching.

But the good news is that Lean and Agile methodologies help us by providing a solution to layoffs and cost cutting measures! What if we could find extra revenue by focusing on our value proposition and eliminating waste? The good news is we can!

Pyxis has recently developed a training to do just that. The Agile for Operations course will provide a firm foundation in the principles that made Toyota a world leader in efficiency and employee value.

You would like to learn more? Consult the following link:

http://pyxis-tech.com/en/agile-training/agile-for-operations/

The post The Everyday Agilist asks “Can Agile help us cope with increases to the minimum wage?” appeared first on Blogue Savoir Agile.

Recently, I was involved in a very exciting new project you might have heard about. I’m sure you will be interested… It all started when I was asked to manage the development of a new set of soft and hardware that was expected to be a useful complement to our current package.

This request was followed by a very funny brainstorming session about our company’s IT solutions, between me and my boss. Huh sorry, my partner (ok, do not tell her but she’s both.) Of course she’s the one who was destined to become the Product Owner of this wonderful adventure.

Anyways, I was asked to manage this wonderful adventure we tenderly named our “Baby 2.0” (yes, yes, I know it’s cute.) So I was the Project Manager and as such, I received strict instructions from my wonderful boss. That was some common constraints I remember as something like this: “Blah, blah, blah… Fixed date and fixed price development… Blah, blah, blah… Everything must be ready in about 40 weeks… Blah, blah, blah… The solution must fit our line of products, you must follow our graphical charter!”, etc.

Everything seemed to be known and controlled before we started any action. It was like the functional analysis was already produced, checked, validated and available for the development phase. But I am Scrum oriented you know (with several certifications, I cannot hide my interest for it) and it’s quite difficult to know the best way to do things and throw it in the garbage when the context is not ”open minded.”

So I told my boss that we couldn’t know everything in advance and that the work would emerge throughout the development because it was almost impossible to know everything about the solution we needed as our business was evolving every day. So I gave her some basics of Scrum and I was happy to convince her to adopt this wonderful framework to manage all the processes we needed. She was not aware of Agility or Scrum before that, but the methodology seemed to be as funny as the brainstorming was (I think it was, maybe I should ask her…)

So we decided to ”Scrum” this project! What a great idea, isn’t it ? But before thinking about applying Scrum to the development of our solution, we had to think more about the project itself, because our ideas were a bit blurry and all aspects were to be taken into account.

All we knew at this time was what we needed and when… So we defined some basic backlog items as the first big features of the solution and we talked about other aspects like usefulness, legal aspects, etc. After that, we were able to plan the complete first (and last) release. We were sure about the solution to implement, we had a time limitation and we knew exactly what we had to do. We finally had nine months to complete the project, so we planned a nine months release with nine sprints of one calendar month.

With these bases, we had a better idea of the adventure and could finally think about the Scrum Team (I must admit that in fact the team was ”built” a long time before the brainstorming and this project was just a great reason for me to apply Scrum outside an IT project.)

Thus, we needed a Product Owner, a Dev Team and finally, a Scrum Master. The Product Owner’s role had already been appointed to my partner as she knew all we had to know about the solution and her ideas were very clear about what she wanted to see in it (and you know, she is the leader, so…)

As the Product Owner knew a lot about the solution to be built, the best thing to do was to let her drive the boat (this is the PO’s role: driving the boat and giving the team the best opportunities to deliver high value increments.) So I let her drive the boat. After all, this adventure was a reality because of her. She had to find great developers, aware of the technologies we had to use and of the project’s subject. I just had to accompany her to make the best choices. Quite Interesting: she already had an amazing team (that she called “Her Crew”), ready to take the project in hand. We just had to find a Scrum Master.

The Scrum Master’s role was now to be given and a lot of things were on my side. First I was the Project Manager. Be careful, lots of people misunderstand the Scrum Master’s role and mistake it for a Project Manager’s role. Sometimes they do this also with the PO’s role. It’s totally wrong, but you can encounter that situation so often that you could think it’s right. Second, I was present at the brainstorming (in fact some kind of a kickoff party). Third, I also have several Scrum certifications! Damn, I deserve this Scrum Master position, don’t you think ? Well, that is what I thought but, you know, sometimes things do no go as you would like. I really thought I was destined to be the Scrum Master and I chose to embrace this role but then, I met the obstetrician!

Yes, may be it was not yet completely clear for you but our goal was to build a real Baby 2.0, an addition to our hard and software package Family, designed to be upgraded more than once. And the customer was eager to get a new update, and sometimes, even when you have a great company with great employees, sometimes you have to turn to experts and hire consultants. It’s what we did… (also because in that case, it is mandatory to take one on, unless you are an obstetrician yourself).

She was great! She ensured that the Daily Meetings were held. Each month, she was there to assist us with the Sprint review (you know, this event where you can see the progress and the work carried out), holding our hands while the team was presenting the solution with the last increment, helping us in facitilating the event (in our case, the echography revealed the increments and the state of the whole project. That’s pretty cool, you can see almost everything.)

She helped us with the Sprint Retrospective and she was there to help the Product Owner and the Dev Team to walk through impediments (”Dear expectant mother, you took too much weight this month, let’s try some of these ideas to prevent this problem from happening again”), helping us understand the processes running through the complete release.

I was just left aside with only one thing to do: wait for the last delivery (because each sprint was quite good in quality and we never added back any item to the backlog.) As you can see, my role in the project was extremely important! I thought I was there to give all my knowledge about processes, project management and of course, Scrum, but actually, I was just… a stakeholder!

Despite that, it was a great project, a great adventure with great moments, lived with a lot of pleasure and fun and… truly exceptional. We even completed the project in advance!!! Can you say the same with your waterfall projects?

The most important thing to remember in this story is that while one feels that one possesses all the knowledge required, it is important to know what place one should occupy. You can naturally use your knowledge and share it with those who want it, but everything has its place and it is extremely important to let the teams work to get the best of themselves.

The post How I ”Scrumed” Her Pregnancy appeared first on Blogue Savoir Agile.

You are about to read my first post about the second workbook of the “Agile Teams from Forming to Perfoming” series titled “Storming Agile Teams“.

How did we get here?

In the Final Thoughts section of my first worbook “Forming Agile Teams“, I have invited the reader to continue iterating through the Forming stage of the team’s development process until some of the following signs arise in the team:

Are these enough to say that a team has entered the Storming phase?

Well, it actually requires more than just that. Here is a extended list of the main signs that may help you identify when a team has entered the storming phase of its development journey:

• Low level of trust.
• Low level of collaboration between team members.
• Low level of transparency and visibility about the tasks’ progress.
• Collaboration agreements are unclear or undefined.
• Respect between members is doubtful.
• Undefined goals, or if defined, they are misinterpreted or understood according to each team member’s perspective.
• Poorly defined tasks.
• Roles and responsibilities are in the process of being defined/clarified.
• Results are highly impacted depending on conflict intensity.
• If defined, the team’s vision is unclear on people’s minds.
• Tone of voice and communication tend to be violent.
• The Blaming game seems to be common practice when issues arise.
• Use of irony and sarcasm is highly present when communicating.
• Individuals’ interests come before team’s interests.
• Individual point of view prevails over collective purpose.
• You can smell fear and people try to avoid fighting it.
• Personal and task destructive conflicts arise between team members during team ceremonies.
• Team members are unaware of the team entering/navigating though the conflict zone.

Storming Agile Teams Challenges

As you might have noticed above, there are many subjects that would require your attention if you want to be able to help your teams navigate through the storm. Let’s mention some of them just to give you an idea of how much work we might need to do ourselves to ensure that our teams would get the best out of us:

• Active listening (Intermediate level)
• Being able to explore and observe (Intermediate level)
• Facilitation skills (Intermediate level facilitator based on Ingrid Bens’s book “Advanced Facilitation Strategies: Tools and techniques to master difficult situations” assessment)
• For Emotional Intelligence I would say, you might need to learn more about:
  • Self-Awareness
    • Emotional awareness
  • Self-Management
    • Emotional balance
    • Positive outlook
    • Adaptability
    • Achievement Orientation
  • Social Awareness
    • Organizational awareness
    • Empathy
  • Relationship Management
    • Influence
    • Conflict Management
    • Coach & Mentor
    • Inspirational leadership
    • Team work
  • And many more but I think that we can stop here for now…

Does that mean I’ll be writting a book about all the subjects that I’ve mentioned above?

Well, not exactly. My intention is to provide you with a workbook that will offer you the techniques that I’ve used with my teams to help them navigate through the Storming phase of their journey, but also I will do my best to point out the areas that you might need to work on to learn to bring your A game when helping your teams to move forward.

Why is it so important to help a team with moving quickly out of this stage ?

In his book “Overcoming The Five DYSFUNCTIONS of a TEAM”, Patrick Lencioni has said this about “Fearing Conflicts”:

“If team members are never pushing one another outside of their emotional comfort zones during discussions, then it is extremely likely that there are not making the best decisions for the organization.”

How could this workbook help you with?

The Storming Agile Teams workbook content will be divided in four main sections:

1. Identifying ideal organizational conditions to be able to navigate through the Storming phase.
2. Identifying where your teams are in the Conflict Continuum.
3. Techniques to help you and your teams navigate through the Storming phase:
   1. I will use the Storming Agile Teams Flow to visually guide us through it.
   2. I will provide you with techniques, tools, tips and tricks to help you help your teams when:
      1. Working together during:
         1. Planning
         2. Doing
         3. Verifying
         4. Controlling team’s work
      2. Creating safe environments to enable constructive conflicts.
   3. Storming Stories
      1. A section dedicated to stories gathered from people like you, who are willing to share their views with me and my readers.
   4. Templates, tools and exercises like retrospectives, to enrich your Agile Practitioner toolbox and help you raise your game.

What I don’t write about in the workbook?

I promise you that I will keep my writting style and do my best to keep the content as practical as possible, which means that I won’t be rewritting what others have done 100 times better than I would have.

This is it?

This is far from being the end of the workbook’s intro. So please don’t stop here and tell me:

• What else do you think should be added to the workbook to make it a great one?
• Do you have an experience to share that you want me to mention as part of the “Storming Stories”?
• If that is the case, please let me know by emailing me at jmendez@pyxis-tech.com and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can.

Thank you for being there to encourage me, for supporting me in many ways, and for making me a better human being.

All the best wishes,

Jesus

References

Forming Agile Teams, Jesus Mendez, http://www.jesusmendez.ca/books/forming_agile_teams

Emotional Intelligence, Daniel Goleman, http://www.danielgoleman.info/ei-assessments/

Overcoming The Five DYSFUNCTIONS of a TEAM, Patrick Lencioni, https://www.amazon.ca/Overcoming-Five-Dysfunctions-Team-Facilitators/dp/0787976377/ref=sr_1_2/134-0932242-2809847?ie=UTF8&qid=1497925051&sr=8-2&keywords=the+5+disfunctions+of+a+team

Advanced Facilitation Strategies, Ingrid Bens, https://www.amazon.com/Advanced-Facilitation-Strategies-Techniques-Situations/dp/0787977306

The post Storming Agile Teams : Introduction appeared first on Blogue Savoir Agile.

Our conversations are sometimes bland and conflict does not happen where it should, if at all. It is important for people and organizations to develop their ability to truly understand the essence of their conflicts before they explode and demand drastic intervention. Conflicts exist between people and between different divisions of your company.

During the Agile Tour Québec in November 2017, our colleagues Dave Jacques and Gilles Duchesne were presenting the workshop “Conflicts at the service of your success.”

They showed to participants how facilitation offers the opportunity to navigate conflict to understand the underlying reasons and leave with creative solutions without unnecessarily seeking to defend a position. For them, facilitation allows us to welcome, understand and use our differences to unlock people’s full potential.

See how this workshop went: (in French)

Become facilitator

Dave and Gilles offer a new course Introduction to facilitation. They invite you to become leaders who influence the quality of groups, teams and organizations by creating conditions for richer and more satisfying and efficient collaboration and engagement.

Facilitation fascinates you? Here is what Dave and Gilles have to say about it:

Being a facilitator

Facilitating your organization

The post Conflicts serving your success appeared first on Blogue Savoir Agile.

Our colleagues Louise Kold-Taylor and Steffan Surdek seek to create a space and an atmosphere where important conversations can occur and where all voices can be heard to inspire and engage people to work more collaboratively towards achieving common and emerging goals.

They support managers, Scrum Masters and team leaders who wish to act as coaches to the people around them. They have prepared a downloadable One Pager in which you will discover four helping stances and four elements of coaching.

The post One Pager on coaching skills appeared first on Blogue Savoir Agile.

A few weeks ago, Louise Kold-Taylor and Steffan Surdek were in our offices at Pyxis working on the new coaching course they are building together. I noticed how much fun they were having and I decided it could be fun to go pick their brains a bit. I sat with them to talk about coaching and some of the key skills coaches need to develop.

I have already presented one part of the conversation and this is the second excerpt (together with their free webinar on February 7th) leading up to their first delivery of the course in mid-March.
In our previous conversation, we talked about the importance of active listening in coaching and how we must be present, let go of our own inner dialogue and reactions so we can be there for the other person when we coach. I asked Louise and Steffan if this means that you completely disappear when you are coaching someone. Here is where their conversation went next…

Steffan: It doesn’t mean that you disappear, you are still there. I think it’s about finding a balance because there is a place where our life experience as people can be useful to the person that we are coaching.

Louise: I usually think that it’s OK as long as I make it clear that here is where Louise the person, not just Louise the listener, has something to offer. “Steffan, I would like to offer my perspective on what you said. You don’t have to agree, but would you like to hear it?”

Steffan: To add to what you are saying, there is also the notion of asking for permission before offering something to be considered by the person you are coaching. What is important as well is not to fall into the trap of having the conversations that YOU want to have rather than the one that will be helpful for the person you are coaching.
Louise: Yes, and you know how a powerful question can be a way to get a coachee out of his thinking pattern and reflect on his story? The same can happen if you invite the coachee to listen to you because now he has to get out of his own navel and listen to your story.

Gabriel: It sounds to me that there is more to coaching than simply following a method. It also sounds like being coached by Steffan will be a different experience than being coached by Louise. What would you say is the main benefit of coaching from the perspective of the person being coached?

Louise: I think anyone who has tried to be listened to at the level of coaching will agree that it feels really nice. It really feels like you are being heard and respected and that you are worthy of attention.

Steffan: I believe that deep, active listening is one of the greatest gifts that we can give to the people we are coaching. In the society we live in and the places that we work at, everything is fast, fast, fast. We barely take time to listen to the people that are closest to us. When almost a perfect stranger is willing to give us his undivided attention, it can a bit jarring, but once you experience that deep listening, it is also a gift.

Louise: I agree. I think the gift here is to listen for what is behind the words, what the coachee is really trying to achieve. Maybe it is about living certain values or ethical standards like : “I don’t want to do it because I don’t want to be that kind of person. This is who I am, and this is what I want to do, and this is right for me.”

Steffan: I try to listen to people’s personal beliefs around how they see and connect to the world; to how they interact with people around them, to what soothes them and excites them. There is an entire system here.

Louise: Sometimes, we get caught up in all these things that are important to us, where our values and aspirations can end up causing trouble for us because we can become rigid around them. How can you help a coachee see and honour that? Maybe you recognize some rigidity, but the underlying aspirational value is beautiful. It should be honoured and it is important, but maybe there is something about the implementation. Especially if the coachee is using words like “should” or “must not.”

Steffan: Here is where you can help a coachee listen to what is really important to him/her because sometimes he/she may not even know. When you start listening for the tone of voice, look at what the body is doing, and try to listen for the underlying motivations, the hopes and the fears, I think that is where we start to see the whole person. When we see the whole person, we may be able to see alignment and misalignment and perhaps what the real struggle is.

Louise: Yes, coaching can help people make sense of themselves, not just their rational self, but their whole person. We sometimes forget that we are more than just brains at work. Not all decisions are rational and there are so many issues we cannot solve with logic alone. We have to get our ears dirty and listen to what makes us human.

Steffan: I agree. Being listened to at that level gives a real sense of worthiness. I even believe that being able to listen at that level is a skill that transcends coaching.

I hope you enjoyed eavesdropping on our little conversation! I invite you to join us on our new coaching course on March 15, 16 and 29! Louise and Steffan will explore further how coaching fits into the landscape of today’s organizations and you will begin practising essential coaching skills.

The post More than just brains at work: A conversation about active listening in coaching (part 2). appeared first on Blogue Savoir Agile.

Product Owner is a role prescribed by the Scrum framework. It is called “Product” Owner because in a Scrum context, we usually manage a product that is generally a standalone software. The Product Owner’s responsibilities are to maintain a Product Backlog, to keep a channel of communication with the Stakeholders and to answer the team’s questions. His main goal is to maximize the value delivered by the team through the prioritization of the backlog.

The first principle of the Kanban method is to start with what you do now. Therefore, if you are new to Kanban, there is no need to introduce a new role called “Product Owner”. Moreover, the Kanban method is usually adopted in the context of delivering services. It is hard for a single person to maintain and prioritize a backlog when the people doing the work are bombarded by requests from many other groups inside or outside the organization.

Everyone wants what they asked for NOW! So how do you keep everyone happy? Instead of spending a lot of time and energy on prioritization, Kanban offers a simple alternative: Classes of service. Classes of service are used to classify specific types of requests into levels of urgency.

Classes of Service

The Kanban method proposes four archetypes of classes: Standard, Fixed Date, Intangible and Expedite. Every time you receive a new request, it should be classified into one of these classes of service. For each of these categories, the delay required to deliver the request will be different.

Most of your requests should be treated using the Standard class. Fixed Date requests have a specific delivery date and should be treated with greater urgency than standard items in order to respect the deadline. Intangible items are the lowest priority. Intangibles are usually pieces of work that do not affect the client directly, such as a software upgrade, or doing a manual backup. Expedite requests should be occasional only and they have precedence on all other classes of service.

But how do you prioritize multiple items from the same class of service? You don’t! You simply threat them first in, first out. It often takes more time to decide in which order to do the work than to just do it!

Service Levels

Keep in mind that you are not limited to these four classes of service, it is up to you to determine if they are right for you. You can define your own classes of service. Remember that each class will have its own level of urgency and the delay to deliver items will be different. This information will help you define the SLE (Service Level Expectation) for each class of service, from which you can then negotiate the SLA (Service Level Agreement) with your clients.

But what if we really need to prioritize items from the same class of service? Whose responsibility is it to do that? It really depends on your context. If you feel you still need to prioritize your work, someone could wear the hat of Service Request Manager.

The Service Request Manager

A Service Request Manager is responsible for understanding the clients’ needs and the expectations. Unlike a Product Owner in a Scrum team, it doesn’t have to be a formal role. It could simply be the most experienced person in the group or it could be held on a rotation basis. With the help of the group, the Service Request Manager will order work items from the backlog and facilitate selecting what comes next.

And what if my team is transforming the way we work from Scrum to Kanban? Should we abandon the role of Product Owner? Of course not! Keep your Product Owner if you are used to it. Remember the first principle of Kanban: start with what you do now. That means you do not have to introduce new roles, but also that you do not have to get rid of existing ones! And if you are in a context where you manage a product, maybe you need that Product Owner to maintain the communication channel open with the stakeholders.

So, do you need a Product Owner if you use the Kanban method? You do not have to introduce this role if you are not using it already. Besides, it is possible that the need of a Service Request Manager will emerge by itself overtime. But if you already have a Product Owner in the group, you can keep that role if it makes sense in your context, and it is also possible that it will disappear by itself over time.

If you want to learn more about the Kanban Method, Pyxis offers Kanban coaching as well as three certification courses from the Lean Kanban University: Team Kanban Practitioner (TKP), Kanban System Design (KMP I) and Kanban Management Professional (KMP II).

The post Do we need a Product Owner with Kanban? appeared first on Blogue Savoir Agile.

This article was initialy published on jesusmendez.ca

2017 has been a year fully dedicated to working with teams within IT operations departments. Nothing new to me, considering that my first steps as an IT professional were with an Application Support Group at cantv.net’s Network Operation Centre (NOC) in Caracas, Venezuela.

Back in the days, between 2001 and 2004, I was part of a dedicated co-located team developing applications to help network specialists provide support and keep Cantv’s customer network running 24/7.

We were responsible for doing everything regarding the apps that supported the NOC’s operations from end to end (from customers need to support once in production) and when a bug arose, we were there to deal with it and get it fixed.

How do we avoid context switching?

At the time, Network Specialists were the ones dealing directly with customers, systems and network-related issues. Support application specialists were in charge of analyzing and developing applications to keep the NOC’s support systems evolving.

Prioritization criteria

Within the Operations Team, they dealt with context switching by prioritizing alerts and incidents depending on their impact the whole network, the type of customer account (VIP or not), the complexity of solving the issue, and SLA’s and OLA’s.

How did we maintain communication and collaboration between both groups?

We were physically really close, so it was easy to get the Network Specialists’ feedback quite soon during the development process. They acted as the support application’s main stakeholders. So we kept feedback flowing both ways as much as possible to reduce issues once in production.

Were we using Agile methods and practices?

Roles and responsibilities

The Support Applications team had someone (the team coordinator) gathering project needs and we (the developers) were responsible for getting them clarified and implemented with the highest quality possible.

The Network Specialists team had a team coordinator (Service Owner) responsible for keeping NOC’s services running, doing his best for guaranteeing Service Level Agreements and Operational Level Agreements signed with internal and external customers.

Engineering practices

We used pair programming, code reviews and gang reviews to demonstrate new features to our customers (Network Specialists).

Testing

We tested increments using different environments (development and production) that were updated manually. Network Specialists were part of smoke testing sessions and releasing new features to production.

Backlog

We did not have a common backlog for the whole team, each developer kept his own and shared it with his customers and his team coordinator. Both team coordinators, the Support Applications and the Network Specialists teams got together often to validate improvements and share needs and potential problems to be solved.

Iterations

We did not timebox iterations, but we negotiated work in progress to balance our limited capacity. The Network Specialists team met regularly to share insights about incidents, bugs and troubleshooting in progress.

Conclusion

So I think we were using Agile practices our way to keep customers delighted and our services under agreed levels and to collaborate to do greater and better things.

This is the end of my first Agile in IT Operations story, so thank you for reading it. In my next post, I will share another story about Agile in Operations in an IT Infrastructure provider context. And please, do not stop here and keep sharing stories. What is your Agile in IT operations story?

Discover our Agile for Operations training course designed to provide relief to these struggling operations teams.

The post Agility in IT Operations Stories: Network Operation Centre appeared first on Blogue Savoir Agile.

In my first two articles of this series, I introduced you to the five skills of a co-creative leader. I also explained how to be a voice among many in the conversation and how to unleash the leaders around you.

This article will explain the next key skill, which is how to build on your team’s capacity.

Let’s talk about capacity

Think back for a moment to the last time you started a training program at the gym or even at home. How did it feel when there was too much weight on the machine? How much did you struggle to do the exercise?

Now think back to a few weeks later after going to the gym lifting the same amount of weight. How did it feel at that point? Did you struggle as much or did regular exercise and repetition help make it easier? How does returning to this same weight a few months later feel?

Building capacity on your team is pretty much the same thing. There are things people on your team are currently good at doing and others that they struggle with. The more you allow them to learn and practise something new, the more they build capacity doing it.

Build capacity on purpose

Many times, I see leaders working with their teams and taking centre stage in discussions. How often do you do this with your team? Why do you do it?

I often hear that leaders are doing this to help their teams move faster. They tell me that if they don’t do it, the discussion will spin around in circles. Can you see the real problem here? The team is not building capacity to have useful conversations.

Building capacity takes time to do. It can also be challenging because it can show you your own limits. For example, if you struggle being a voice among many in a conversation, how can you teach this to others?

To build capacity on your team, you first need to see and accept what it can and cannot do. You need to choose that in some situations, you will allow things to take more time to allow people to learn.

Make your intention clear

When you are trying to build capacity, you may find it useful to make this explicit with the team. Make a clear statement that this is a learning experiment to practise doing something and it may be ugly.

For example, imagine you are trying to teach your team to do a brainstorming session together. Tell them upfront that you are trying something different and explain what will be different. Invite them to take part with an open mind, and make some time at the end to discuss how things went.

Another way to do this is to speak with some team members beforehand to get their support. You may want to do this to feel less lonely. The idea is to build capacity so you don’t set traps for people by being unclear on your expectations.

Structure can help create focus

Let’s go back to our workout example for a moment. When working out, there is a routine you are trying to put in place. You can build capacity in a similar way at the start. When the team faces a new type of problem, guide them around how they want to solve it.

For example, when I run a problem resolution session with teams, I like to use this basic structure:

• What problem are we trying to solve?
• What are the facts and impacts of this problem?
• What are the potential solutions?
• Based on all the above, how do we want to address the problem?

By framing the discussion in this structure, it helps the team learn to work together. They know a bit more about what to expect from one another and what will happen next. The idea is to provide them with a container to have their discussion and let them fill in the content.

The more they use the structure, the better they get at doing it and the more problems they can solve together. The idea here is for your team to develop new habits together.

Practice building capacity on yourself

The best advice that I can offer you around building capacity is to practise on yourself. Did you learn a new tool in a training course? Really practice using this tool on yourself. What did you find easy using the tool? What did you find more difficult? What adjustments do you need to make to be able to use it effectively?

By practising on yourself, you will be better able to help others around you use the same tool. I can hear you saying, “But using this tool will take time!” Yes, and your team will have the same excuse at one point for you. So what will you tell them? What benefit do you see in using it?

When you practise on yourself first, you are also setting an example for your team. If they see you practise and value building capacity, how could it impact them?

As a leader, your role is to help your team grow and learn new things. You may forget to do this when you get caught up in your usual day-to-day routine, but you still need to do it. This is in the nature of co-creative leaders because it helps unleash the people around them.

How much do you focus on building capacity for yourself and the people around you? What are some of the areas that you need to help your team build capacity on? What are some of your favourite ways to build capacity?

The post How To Build Your Team’s Capacity appeared first on Blogue Savoir Agile.

A tool for the well-being and performance of Agile teams

This presentation will introduce you to the management of polarities, how to identify them and also to see how they are powerful tools for individual and collective performance.

By interactively experimenting with some of the polarities that often arise in Agile teams, participants will realize how polarity management can untie situations and release important energies leading to greater well-being and performance.

Only in French

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