Career Kaizen #7 – The Five Scrum Values

August 16, 2014 By Scott Dunn

The Five Scrum Values

This week we’ll explore the Scrum values a bit.

Monday – Courage

agile, agile zen, Career Kaizen, change, commitment, focus, high capacity leaders, Openness, respect, values, Scrum values I share a story in my classes about courage. Some years ago, I and my family were visiting Yellowstone National Park. There are bears in Yellowstone, and when we first saw them, I was a bit nervous. I checked to make sure the car doors were securely locked and all windows were up. We were safe. But, just a few weeks later, an old couple came across a bear while on a hike in Yellowstone. It was a mother bear, and in between the couple and the bear was the cub. From 100 yards away, the bear charged. Now, some say that courage is the absence of fear, but I think you should be fearful of a charging bear. It’s the appropriate response. I heard another definition of courage from Erwin McManus that resonated much more deeply – “courage is the absence of self for the sake of others“. In that moment when the bear was charging, the man turned to his wife and said “Run!”, but he stayed put. The husband was killed by the bear, but the wife had enough time to hide behind a log and play dead. The bear still found her. Actually picked her up by her backpack, but then dropped her, and walked off. The husband, in my opinion, was the perfect example of courage – absence of self for the sake of others.

We face lots of challenges in the workplace. It often takes this kind of courage to do what’s best for the team. Instead of looking out for ourselves and our careers, the team members are looking for the type of individuals who are willing to deliver the hard messages, have the crucial conversations, with problem team members, expectant management, and demanding stakeholders.

Homework – Write down the top three items on your mind that make you feel scared, anxious, or give you pause. Why is that? For each of those, write down the worst thing that could happen.

Tuesday – Openness

Openness is core to the Scrum values. Pause and reflect on this fact – we actually stop work and take time to just think and talk as a team. Well, we can have a scheduled meeting that says were supposed to do that, but whether people are open and honest with each other is another thing. How can we help cultivate that ourselves?

One great piece of advice I received a long time ago is to tell people what we’re thinking. Sounds obvious, right? But I don’t mean “what we’re thinking” in the sense of giving a well thought out response. I mean literally what we are thinking. If you are talking with someone and they ask you something that sounds like a big commitment, you might pause and then say, “Well, I don’t have a solid response now. I’m just thinking out loud here, and I’m feeling like that’s big commitment for me because…” At times if there is expectation or time pressure, I might even only share my feelings and nothing else, but still trying to add to the conversation or the “pool of shared meaning” that everyone is around. For example, “I just feel a real hesitation about this, almost an anxiety or sense that ‘yes, but what if…'” I’m being open, even though I don’t have an actual response or statement on something.

Also, cultivate openness by affirming what others share, whether you agree or not. Joe says, “I think you’re idea is doomed to failure!” You reply, “Thank you for sharing. Can you tell me more about that?” In the end, we all benefit by being more open – getting more ideas, getting to the root cause of issues and problems, vetting options through everyone’s opinions, more buy-in from teams. My experience has been that most people don’t need to be right, they just need to be heard.

Homework: Take a look at this discussion of Active Listening.

Wednesday – Focus

Focus has a high place among the Scrum values . The framework gives us a structure that helps us to always know: what’s the most important thing for me to work on today, what’s the immediate goals of our team, how are we doing on those goals, how do we know if we’re done or not, is there anything getting in our way, what are the biggest issues and problems plaguing the team?

Great stuff. And we can apply a lot of this in our own lives as well. For you, what are your immediate goals (not specific to the team’s goals – just your own, or for your life)? How are you doing on these? Personally, I’ve had a lot of help moving the needle on these by using Scrum and kanban for my personal life.

Where do you keep your personal goals? I’ve used Agile Zen and KanbanFlow to list anything that I “should” do, including big goals and small tasks. I (try to) pull only one of these in to work at a time. Okay, Openness, I have 11 in progress right now! But I’m working at it.

I also use a pomodoro to do my work in time boxes, helping me stay focused.

Homework: If you don’t already have a place to keep your goals and priorities, check out kanban flow (or any number of the web and mobile apps out there).

Thursday – Respect

agile, agile zen, Career Kaizen, change, commitment, focus, high capacity leaders, Openness, respect, values, Scrum values

Respect is one of the Scrum values because we value all team members equally. I don’t value one person’s opinion more because they are more senior, have been there longer, have a certain title. This shows itself in some teams by only leads and seniors being invited to meetings to “save time.” While the numbers may show that we’re saving money by having 3 people in a meeting instead of 7, we miss out on insights and ideas from others, and these don’t depend on rank or position. Also, we sometimes inadvertently alienate others, so that even when we do invite them at other times, they don’t feel as important or cared about, and therefore don’t participate as much, if at all. It can become a downward spiral.

For me, respect is a way of looking for what someone does or is that is estimable. Even if they frustrate or irritate me in some way, many times there can be something that’s good about that very trait. For example, if someone is abrasive and brash, the great thing about this is that she will always tell you what she’s thinking (which is a welcome and refreshing change from the political phrasing and positioning that goes on in much of corporate America).

Homework: Think of someone that you know whom you don’t respect, or perhaps like. Write down three positive qualities of that person. Extra credit: In regards to their bad qualities, in what ways do you do the same thing? 🙂

Video Friday – Commitment

Commitment is scary because we don’t know what’s going to happen in the future. Yet commitment is a powerful, and often required, part of achieving great things.

But if I’m going to invest my blood, sweat and tears in something with someone else, I want to know they’re all in. No matter what the circumstances, what comes up. It’s a bit like what they call a fair-weather friend or fan. Might as well make it explicit and say, “Well, if it doesn’t go perfectly, if anything new comes up at all, or changes, there’s a chance I’ll bail.”

Think of marriage – it’s a commitment. “For better or for worse,” not “let’s see how this goes.” The challenging times that working through tough circumstances to keep a commitment fuel our resolve to fix things – it changes us.

Homework: Take one of your goals and make it public. Tell a friend, tell the team. Post it on Facebook. Even better, make a progress bar and post that as well, and a print out on your cube wall.

Weekend Warrior
Decide which of the five Scrum values you want to extend in your life and do something practical to grow in that area this weekend. Keep it in front of you. Mark the month on your calendar, such as “Commitment August” or “Focus December.” Share this in your next retrospective.

Note: This article about Scrum values was originally posted on Agile Coach and Trainer Scott Dunn’s personal blog, “Software Development and Human Capital: Leadership, Agile and Strengths.”

Career Kaizen #2 – Your Story Matters – Storyline and Setting Goals

March 29, 2014 By Scott Dunn

Your Story Matters – Storyline

Monday – Where do You Want to Go?

Career Kaizen, Community, Donald Miller, Openness, storyline — Everyone is on a path. Paths take us somewhere. Is yours taking you somewhere that you want to go?

Some say that if you don’t know where you’re going, it doesn’t matter where you are. What are your goals? Where do you want to be, and what do you want to be doing in 6 months, a year, 5 years?

The Scrum Master role opens up many opportunities. I’ve seen people thrust in this leadership role suddenly realize that they have leadership in them. I’ve seen people fall in love with the coaching aspect, and others grab onto the educator and trainer pieces.

Homework: Ask three people if they have, or have had, any goals. What are or were they?

Tuesday – Your Strengths, Scrum Master Roles, and Goals

The Scrum Master job has many roles: Servant Leader, Impediment Remover, Coach, Educator, Organizational Change Agent, Evangelist, Chief Mechanic, Shepherd and Guardian of the Process, Facilitator.

Some of these might leap out at you, or perhaps are what you’re already doing and especially love.

Your strengths might shed some light on why that is. Perhaps you love coaching because you’re someone who loves building deep relationships or like watching and helping people develop and grow. Or perhaps you love the mechanic role or trying out some experiment and seeing what happens because you love making things great (just being average bugs you). Or you might love being the impediment remover because it’s always a clear checklist that means you’ve had a good day when all those things are checked-off.

When you combine the insights and fuel of your natural strengths and passions coupled with goals that move you forward and motivate you, you’ll have a powerful catalyst for change and growth. Not just for you, but a better you to serve and help the team.

Homework: On a sheet of paper, list your strengths in a column on the left, and on a column on the right, list at least five roles of the Scrum Master, preferably the ones that appeal to you. Draw a line from each of the strengths to a role to which it relates, is a part of, or might help. You might have a strength that relates to several roles, and a role that is related to more than one strength.
Pick one of these roles, or the Scrum Master job as a whole, and use it to help determine some goals. Extend one goal for 3 months, 6 months, 9 months and 18 months.

Wednesday – What’s Your Story?

We, as humans, are story-driven. We love movies because they tell stories of someone who wants something and overcomes some conflict to get it. We learn best as our brains web new information much stronger via stories. The Storyline process helps draw this out.

You already have part of your story – you want something. You have a goal. Now, the reality is that life can be difficult. What challenge, opposition, conflict can you anticipate that might get in the way of you achieving that goal? Is it finding the time? Getting the money? Getting approval from someone? Keep in mind that overcoming these challenges is part of what makes it all worthwhile – you come out better for it, and it makes it a better story to tell others (perhaps even inspiring). Sometimes it takes practicing on overcoming smaller challenges as part of smaller goals.

Leverage inciting incidents as a tool to move forward. These are decisions or actions that catapult you forward, partly because there’s no way back. It’s the signing up for the 5K race, the email to the boss asking for approval for training, submitting a proposal to speak at a conference, showing up at that local code camp or user group, emailing that famous expert to ask for advice. Not sure what happens next, but something will, and it will be different from all the nothing that happened the weeks and months before.

Homework: Create a Storyline account on mySubPlot.com and enter your goal and whatever other information you can. Take a look at some of the other goals in the community.

Thursday – Make Your Goal and Progress Big and Visible

Well, you now have a goal. Perhaps you’ve had some before, as well. Many people have. New Year’s Resolutions are very common. Approximately half of Americans make them. But less than 10% succeed. Why is that, and what can you do about that?

One of the best things that you can do to help yourself is to tell others about your goals, preferably people that you’re close to and care about their opinions. Next, just like agile, make these priorities and the progress towards them big, prominent, and visible.

Movement on some goals needs to become part of your daily routine, a habit, and therefore also have a low effort or barriers to see and update them. You might use post-its or index cards on a wall, a goal or habit tracker app on your phone or computer, scheduled reminders or appointments with yourself, or a chart that you print out and pin to the wall.

Homework: Choose at least one way that you add working on your goal as part of your daily or weekly routine. Choose a way to make the goal and progress big and visible. You could add yours as a comment on this post as one step.

Friday – You’re One of the Few…

Congratulations – you’re one of the few that has a goal that’s known by others, has clear next steps, and has built-in support via schedule and visibility.

This is very significant, not just for you and these goals, but in other ways, too. At the meta level, you’re dealing with how to change, how to improve, clarity on goals, the value of making progress. These all relate to your team and the business. And, in addition, as a servant leader, you’re being a model to others on how to improve, how to grow, dealing with challenges, ambiguity, inertia, and perhaps bad history.

Well done.

Video Fridays: Watch the Storyline video by Don Miller

Weekend Warrior: Take a look at some of the posts on the Storyline blog. If this has really resonated with you, take a look at the books and audiobooks on the topic, such as the Storyline, Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business , Principle of the Path: How to Get from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be, and The Dream Giver (a little corny, but simple and powerful metaphor), and grab one.

Career Kaizen #1 – Know Thy Strengths – Who are you and where can you add the most value?

March 22, 2014 By Scott Dunn

Know Thy Strengths

Monday – What should I do next?

strengths Career Kaizen, Community, Marcus Buckingham, Openness, strengths — The Scrum class was great! But what now?

Many of my students come out of the class excited, encouraged, inspired, and ready for action and to change the world. But besides the obvious basics of implementing Scrum, which we’ll get to, what else should you do?

Well, that depends on who you are, where you want to go, and your cultural context. So, let’s start with who you are. If you’re not already familiar with personality tests and have not taken one, here is some information on three popular ones, Myers Briggs, DISC, and StrengthsFinder.

Homework: Review the different types of tests.

Tuesday – What did you think of the tests?

More importantly, what you do think the results will show you? What are the most significant aspects of YOU?

But be warned – The vast majority of people who have taken these types of tests forget the results. They never do anything with them. It doesn’t change them or their work. But for every 10 of those, there’s a Li.

Li, a manager, had taken the test. She loved what it showed her and had her entire team take the test. When they all got together to look at the results, she told me that was the most that team had talked in four years.

Homework: Take one of the tests.

Wednesday – Who are you?

What thoughts or insights have you had about your own strengths? What do you love doing? Where will I see the best out of you? And where will I need to manage around or have team members cover you a bit?

Most of our feedback comes in the once a year performance review, and the majority of that is spent on our “areas of opportunity” to improve. But if that’s where we’re weakest, there’s perhaps not much that can be done to ever make that great. We get the most by leveraging where we seem to have endless interest and energy, and a history of performance and delivering results. It might be research and learning, or really getting to know people, rallying people, or fixing things.

You want to grow, get better, do your best? Than starting with leveraging specifically how you’re wired is precisely the best place.

“You will grow the most where you already know most.”

Homework: Post your results in the comments and look at some of the other comments, topics and conversations.

Thursday – How did it feel to be vulnerable?

What did you find interesting on the site? How did it feel to be open and share this personal aspect of yourself?

There is an aspect of leadership that is about vulnerability. Your people, your teams, can trust you and get behind you if they feel like they know you, that you’re human. It’s a little scary, I know, but you’re better afterwards.

To dispel, perhaps, some concerns, I don’t see that people are good or not good at certain roles because of their strengths. But I do see that people don’t look at their work through the lens of their strengths. Don’t feel like you should be pigeon-holed, labeled, or judged based on your strengths. There are no ‘bad’ or lesser strengths. People may still try, but this is often just a lack of understanding on their part (and if so, a great opportunity for you to educate them).

Homework: Post the results on your cube in the most (or at least a very) prominent place. Courage!

Friday – What are your strengths?

So, we’re wrapping up the week. Of all of your personality aspects or strengths, which one in particular stood out the most to you?

You’ve taken a step to know yourself, to share, and to be transparent with others. You’ve led. It’s good stuff that we’ll want to do with our team and others, but that will come later.

Video Fridays: For now, watch the video The Business Case for Strengths

Weekend Warrior: Take a look at the other posts that I’ve written under the Strengths tag. If this has really resonated with you, take a look at the books and audiobooks on the topic and grab one.

Note: This article was originally posted on Scott Dunn’s personal blog, “Software Development and Human Capital: Leadership, Agile and Strengths.”