Contact
\n

Solution<\/strong>: The first thing I did was to bring this awareness of Drama Triangle among all the participants. I showed them how each of them are playing their part in keeping the game alive without their awareness. Since they were all playing this at an unconscious level, it is very difficult to come out unless someone can bring that awareness. They had not seen this problem in the lens of a Drama Triangle at all. This helped them break the resistances on solving the problem and see how they themselves contributed to solving this problem. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The main issue was that the team members did not develop enough skills in their project. We found during the session that most of it could be addressed if the team was involved in the decision making, hold them accountable and if they can be helped in enhancing the skills. The team was given a lot more autonomy. They were involved in the planning meetings and their opinions and decisions were given more weightage. While a separate time was scoped out for KT, it was made sure that the team would start fronting all the work where as the team leads would play the supporting role. The team found the work lot more challenging, while the seniors played the role of mentors. As a result, the team started to learn not only the technical skills but also the Leadership skills to feel empowered. Gradually, there was a decrease in unplanned leaves as the team felt more empowered.<\/p>\n","post_title":"CHOW#287 - The Drama of \"Unplanned Leaves\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"chow287-the-drama-of-unplanned-leaves","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-23 08:29:34","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-23 08:29:34","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=19790","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":4},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

Page 4 of 12 1 … 3 4 5 … 12
\n

Here is how we solved the problem:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Solution<\/strong>: The first thing I did was to bring this awareness of Drama Triangle among all the participants. I showed them how each of them are playing their part in keeping the game alive without their awareness. Since they were all playing this at an unconscious level, it is very difficult to come out unless someone can bring that awareness. They had not seen this problem in the lens of a Drama Triangle at all. This helped them break the resistances on solving the problem and see how they themselves contributed to solving this problem. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The main issue was that the team members did not develop enough skills in their project. We found during the session that most of it could be addressed if the team was involved in the decision making, hold them accountable and if they can be helped in enhancing the skills. The team was given a lot more autonomy. They were involved in the planning meetings and their opinions and decisions were given more weightage. While a separate time was scoped out for KT, it was made sure that the team would start fronting all the work where as the team leads would play the supporting role. The team found the work lot more challenging, while the seniors played the role of mentors. As a result, the team started to learn not only the technical skills but also the Leadership skills to feel empowered. Gradually, there was a decrease in unplanned leaves as the team felt more empowered.<\/p>\n","post_title":"CHOW#287 - The Drama of \"Unplanned Leaves\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"chow287-the-drama-of-unplanned-leaves","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-23 08:29:34","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-23 08:29:34","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=19790","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":4},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

Page 4 of 12 1 … 3 4 5 … 12
\n

...............................................................................................................................<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here is how we solved the problem:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Solution<\/strong>: The first thing I did was to bring this awareness of Drama Triangle among all the participants. I showed them how each of them are playing their part in keeping the game alive without their awareness. Since they were all playing this at an unconscious level, it is very difficult to come out unless someone can bring that awareness. They had not seen this problem in the lens of a Drama Triangle at all. This helped them break the resistances on solving the problem and see how they themselves contributed to solving this problem. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The main issue was that the team members did not develop enough skills in their project. We found during the session that most of it could be addressed if the team was involved in the decision making, hold them accountable and if they can be helped in enhancing the skills. The team was given a lot more autonomy. They were involved in the planning meetings and their opinions and decisions were given more weightage. While a separate time was scoped out for KT, it was made sure that the team would start fronting all the work where as the team leads would play the supporting role. The team found the work lot more challenging, while the seniors played the role of mentors. As a result, the team started to learn not only the technical skills but also the Leadership skills to feel empowered. Gradually, there was a decrease in unplanned leaves as the team felt more empowered.<\/p>\n","post_title":"CHOW#287 - The Drama of \"Unplanned Leaves\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"chow287-the-drama-of-unplanned-leaves","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-23 08:29:34","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-23 08:29:34","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=19790","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":4},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

Page 4 of 12 1 … 3 4 5 … 12
\n

...............................................................................................................................<\/p>\n\n\n\n

...............................................................................................................................<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here is how we solved the problem:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Solution<\/strong>: The first thing I did was to bring this awareness of Drama Triangle among all the participants. I showed them how each of them are playing their part in keeping the game alive without their awareness. Since they were all playing this at an unconscious level, it is very difficult to come out unless someone can bring that awareness. They had not seen this problem in the lens of a Drama Triangle at all. This helped them break the resistances on solving the problem and see how they themselves contributed to solving this problem. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The main issue was that the team members did not develop enough skills in their project. We found during the session that most of it could be addressed if the team was involved in the decision making, hold them accountable and if they can be helped in enhancing the skills. The team was given a lot more autonomy. They were involved in the planning meetings and their opinions and decisions were given more weightage. While a separate time was scoped out for KT, it was made sure that the team would start fronting all the work where as the team leads would play the supporting role. The team found the work lot more challenging, while the seniors played the role of mentors. As a result, the team started to learn not only the technical skills but also the Leadership skills to feel empowered. Gradually, there was a decrease in unplanned leaves as the team felt more empowered.<\/p>\n","post_title":"CHOW#287 - The Drama of \"Unplanned Leaves\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"chow287-the-drama-of-unplanned-leaves","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-23 08:29:34","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-23 08:29:34","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=19790","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":4},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

Page 4 of 12 1 … 3 4 5 … 12
\n

...............................................................................................................................<\/p>\n\n\n\n

...............................................................................................................................<\/p>\n\n\n\n

...............................................................................................................................<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here is how we solved the problem:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Solution<\/strong>: The first thing I did was to bring this awareness of Drama Triangle among all the participants. I showed them how each of them are playing their part in keeping the game alive without their awareness. Since they were all playing this at an unconscious level, it is very difficult to come out unless someone can bring that awareness. They had not seen this problem in the lens of a Drama Triangle at all. This helped them break the resistances on solving the problem and see how they themselves contributed to solving this problem. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The main issue was that the team members did not develop enough skills in their project. We found during the session that most of it could be addressed if the team was involved in the decision making, hold them accountable and if they can be helped in enhancing the skills. The team was given a lot more autonomy. They were involved in the planning meetings and their opinions and decisions were given more weightage. While a separate time was scoped out for KT, it was made sure that the team would start fronting all the work where as the team leads would play the supporting role. The team found the work lot more challenging, while the seniors played the role of mentors. As a result, the team started to learn not only the technical skills but also the Leadership skills to feel empowered. Gradually, there was a decrease in unplanned leaves as the team felt more empowered.<\/p>\n","post_title":"CHOW#287 - The Drama of \"Unplanned Leaves\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"chow287-the-drama-of-unplanned-leaves","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-23 08:29:34","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-23 08:29:34","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=19790","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":4},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

Page 4 of 12 1 … 3 4 5 … 12
\n

In order to break this pattern, there should be an active involvement of all the participants to solve the root problem and address the same. How would you solve this problem?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

...............................................................................................................................<\/p>\n\n\n\n

...............................................................................................................................<\/p>\n\n\n\n

...............................................................................................................................<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here is how we solved the problem:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Solution<\/strong>: The first thing I did was to bring this awareness of Drama Triangle among all the participants. I showed them how each of them are playing their part in keeping the game alive without their awareness. Since they were all playing this at an unconscious level, it is very difficult to come out unless someone can bring that awareness. They had not seen this problem in the lens of a Drama Triangle at all. This helped them break the resistances on solving the problem and see how they themselves contributed to solving this problem. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The main issue was that the team members did not develop enough skills in their project. We found during the session that most of it could be addressed if the team was involved in the decision making, hold them accountable and if they can be helped in enhancing the skills. The team was given a lot more autonomy. They were involved in the planning meetings and their opinions and decisions were given more weightage. While a separate time was scoped out for KT, it was made sure that the team would start fronting all the work where as the team leads would play the supporting role. The team found the work lot more challenging, while the seniors played the role of mentors. As a result, the team started to learn not only the technical skills but also the Leadership skills to feel empowered. Gradually, there was a decrease in unplanned leaves as the team felt more empowered.<\/p>\n","post_title":"CHOW#287 - The Drama of \"Unplanned Leaves\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"chow287-the-drama-of-unplanned-leaves","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-23 08:29:34","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-23 08:29:34","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=19790","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":4},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

Page 4 of 12 1 … 3 4 5 … 12
\n

This is typically how the Drama Triangle works. And because the roles keep switching, it will keep the \"Game\" of the recurring problem alive. And all of this happens at an unconscious level. This also results in a negative feeling for everybody involved. Because, it happens at an unconscious level for all the players, they would also struggle to come out of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In order to break this pattern, there should be an active involvement of all the participants to solve the root problem and address the same. How would you solve this problem?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

...............................................................................................................................<\/p>\n\n\n\n

...............................................................................................................................<\/p>\n\n\n\n

...............................................................................................................................<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here is how we solved the problem:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Solution<\/strong>: The first thing I did was to bring this awareness of Drama Triangle among all the participants. I showed them how each of them are playing their part in keeping the game alive without their awareness. Since they were all playing this at an unconscious level, it is very difficult to come out unless someone can bring that awareness. They had not seen this problem in the lens of a Drama Triangle at all. This helped them break the resistances on solving the problem and see how they themselves contributed to solving this problem. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The main issue was that the team members did not develop enough skills in their project. We found during the session that most of it could be addressed if the team was involved in the decision making, hold them accountable and if they can be helped in enhancing the skills. The team was given a lot more autonomy. They were involved in the planning meetings and their opinions and decisions were given more weightage. While a separate time was scoped out for KT, it was made sure that the team would start fronting all the work where as the team leads would play the supporting role. The team found the work lot more challenging, while the seniors played the role of mentors. As a result, the team started to learn not only the technical skills but also the Leadership skills to feel empowered. Gradually, there was a decrease in unplanned leaves as the team felt more empowered.<\/p>\n","post_title":"CHOW#287 - The Drama of \"Unplanned Leaves\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"chow287-the-drama-of-unplanned-leaves","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-23 08:29:34","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-23 08:29:34","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=19790","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":4},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

Page 4 of 12 1 … 3 4 5 … 12
\n
\n Persecutor\n <\/td>\n Victim\n <\/td>\n Rescuer\n <\/td><\/tr>
\n Manager: There are too many unplanned Leaves\n <\/td> (Team: If we ask for a planned leave, we do not get it )<\/em><\/td> Leads\/Seniors: We will (cover for the team and )<\/em>ensure the release wouldn't suffer <\/td><\/tr>
(Team Leads: Let us also go on an unplanned leave. We are totally burned out. Why should only we suffer?)<\/em><\/td>Manager: Oh my god! how am I going to deliver this? Team, I need you to pull the weight this time.<\/td>Team: We will do our best (to get out of this situation. Provide some temporary fixes) <\/em><\/td><\/tr>
Team: We tried our best but we have never been given a proper KT. (I am rather happy that I do not have to take much pressure)<\/em><\/td> Team Leads: Despite all the efforts, we get to be blamed<\/td>Manager: Don't worry, I will make sure you get all the necessary rewards for the hard work (strike the deal with the team leads)<\/em><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This is typically how the Drama Triangle works. And because the roles keep switching, it will keep the \"Game\" of the recurring problem alive. And all of this happens at an unconscious level. This also results in a negative feeling for everybody involved. Because, it happens at an unconscious level for all the players, they would also struggle to come out of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In order to break this pattern, there should be an active involvement of all the participants to solve the root problem and address the same. How would you solve this problem?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

...............................................................................................................................<\/p>\n\n\n\n

...............................................................................................................................<\/p>\n\n\n\n

...............................................................................................................................<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here is how we solved the problem:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Solution<\/strong>: The first thing I did was to bring this awareness of Drama Triangle among all the participants. I showed them how each of them are playing their part in keeping the game alive without their awareness. Since they were all playing this at an unconscious level, it is very difficult to come out unless someone can bring that awareness. They had not seen this problem in the lens of a Drama Triangle at all. This helped them break the resistances on solving the problem and see how they themselves contributed to solving this problem. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The main issue was that the team members did not develop enough skills in their project. We found during the session that most of it could be addressed if the team was involved in the decision making, hold them accountable and if they can be helped in enhancing the skills. The team was given a lot more autonomy. They were involved in the planning meetings and their opinions and decisions were given more weightage. While a separate time was scoped out for KT, it was made sure that the team would start fronting all the work where as the team leads would play the supporting role. The team found the work lot more challenging, while the seniors played the role of mentors. As a result, the team started to learn not only the technical skills but also the Leadership skills to feel empowered. Gradually, there was a decrease in unplanned leaves as the team felt more empowered.<\/p>\n","post_title":"CHOW#287 - The Drama of \"Unplanned Leaves\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"chow287-the-drama-of-unplanned-leaves","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-23 08:29:34","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-23 08:29:34","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=19790","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":4},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

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\n

The problem is represented below in the table as a sequence of Drama Triangle roles. The subtext in parenthesis is ulterior and not expressed openly. Only when I dug deeper, I found it. (https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Karpman_drama_triangle)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n Persecutor\n <\/td>\n Victim\n <\/td>\n Rescuer\n <\/td><\/tr>
\n Manager: There are too many unplanned Leaves\n <\/td> (Team: If we ask for a planned leave, we do not get it )<\/em><\/td> Leads\/Seniors: We will (cover for the team and )<\/em>ensure the release wouldn't suffer <\/td><\/tr>
(Team Leads: Let us also go on an unplanned leave. We are totally burned out. Why should only we suffer?)<\/em><\/td>Manager: Oh my god! how am I going to deliver this? Team, I need you to pull the weight this time.<\/td>Team: We will do our best (to get out of this situation. Provide some temporary fixes) <\/em><\/td><\/tr>
Team: We tried our best but we have never been given a proper KT. (I am rather happy that I do not have to take much pressure)<\/em><\/td> Team Leads: Despite all the efforts, we get to be blamed<\/td>Manager: Don't worry, I will make sure you get all the necessary rewards for the hard work (strike the deal with the team leads)<\/em><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This is typically how the Drama Triangle works. And because the roles keep switching, it will keep the \"Game\" of the recurring problem alive. And all of this happens at an unconscious level. This also results in a negative feeling for everybody involved. Because, it happens at an unconscious level for all the players, they would also struggle to come out of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In order to break this pattern, there should be an active involvement of all the participants to solve the root problem and address the same. How would you solve this problem?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

...............................................................................................................................<\/p>\n\n\n\n

...............................................................................................................................<\/p>\n\n\n\n

...............................................................................................................................<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here is how we solved the problem:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Solution<\/strong>: The first thing I did was to bring this awareness of Drama Triangle among all the participants. I showed them how each of them are playing their part in keeping the game alive without their awareness. Since they were all playing this at an unconscious level, it is very difficult to come out unless someone can bring that awareness. They had not seen this problem in the lens of a Drama Triangle at all. This helped them break the resistances on solving the problem and see how they themselves contributed to solving this problem. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The main issue was that the team members did not develop enough skills in their project. We found during the session that most of it could be addressed if the team was involved in the decision making, hold them accountable and if they can be helped in enhancing the skills. The team was given a lot more autonomy. They were involved in the planning meetings and their opinions and decisions were given more weightage. While a separate time was scoped out for KT, it was made sure that the team would start fronting all the work where as the team leads would play the supporting role. The team found the work lot more challenging, while the seniors played the role of mentors. As a result, the team started to learn not only the technical skills but also the Leadership skills to feel empowered. Gradually, there was a decrease in unplanned leaves as the team felt more empowered.<\/p>\n","post_title":"CHOW#287 - The Drama of \"Unplanned Leaves\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"chow287-the-drama-of-unplanned-leaves","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-23 08:29:34","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-23 08:29:34","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=19790","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":4},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

Page 4 of 12 1 … 3 4 5 … 12
\n

When I tried to dig deeper, while Piyush complained about the symptom of \u201cUnplanned Leaves\u201d, the main response from the team was that they were not getting the leaves when they asked for the same citing the amount of work that was there. The team members hardly contributed. The Leads and seniors were doing most of the heavy lifting. Even though, they were burnt out because of work , they still were getting necessary incentives both in terms of having a superior knowledge on the application that they did not want to give up. Eventually, even the seniors and leads were taking unplanned leaves mainly because they were also burnt out and partly because they knew that Piyush always had a soft corner for them. When the process of retrospective was put in place, the team explicitly stated that they did not receive a proper KT. That is one of the objectives of Retrospectives where the team can express itself freely. When Piyush heard the same, his solutioning was to reward the team leads and bail them out of the release pains rather than solving the root problem. The team also did not press too much because they were internally happy of not feeling much pressure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The problem is represented below in the table as a sequence of Drama Triangle roles. The subtext in parenthesis is ulterior and not expressed openly. Only when I dug deeper, I found it. (https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Karpman_drama_triangle)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n Persecutor\n <\/td>\n Victim\n <\/td>\n Rescuer\n <\/td><\/tr>
\n Manager: There are too many unplanned Leaves\n <\/td> (Team: If we ask for a planned leave, we do not get it )<\/em><\/td> Leads\/Seniors: We will (cover for the team and )<\/em>ensure the release wouldn't suffer <\/td><\/tr>
(Team Leads: Let us also go on an unplanned leave. We are totally burned out. Why should only we suffer?)<\/em><\/td>Manager: Oh my god! how am I going to deliver this? Team, I need you to pull the weight this time.<\/td>Team: We will do our best (to get out of this situation. Provide some temporary fixes) <\/em><\/td><\/tr>
Team: We tried our best but we have never been given a proper KT. (I am rather happy that I do not have to take much pressure)<\/em><\/td> Team Leads: Despite all the efforts, we get to be blamed<\/td>Manager: Don't worry, I will make sure you get all the necessary rewards for the hard work (strike the deal with the team leads)<\/em><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This is typically how the Drama Triangle works. And because the roles keep switching, it will keep the \"Game\" of the recurring problem alive. And all of this happens at an unconscious level. This also results in a negative feeling for everybody involved. Because, it happens at an unconscious level for all the players, they would also struggle to come out of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In order to break this pattern, there should be an active involvement of all the participants to solve the root problem and address the same. How would you solve this problem?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

...............................................................................................................................<\/p>\n\n\n\n

...............................................................................................................................<\/p>\n\n\n\n

...............................................................................................................................<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here is how we solved the problem:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Solution<\/strong>: The first thing I did was to bring this awareness of Drama Triangle among all the participants. I showed them how each of them are playing their part in keeping the game alive without their awareness. Since they were all playing this at an unconscious level, it is very difficult to come out unless someone can bring that awareness. They had not seen this problem in the lens of a Drama Triangle at all. This helped them break the resistances on solving the problem and see how they themselves contributed to solving this problem. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The main issue was that the team members did not develop enough skills in their project. We found during the session that most of it could be addressed if the team was involved in the decision making, hold them accountable and if they can be helped in enhancing the skills. The team was given a lot more autonomy. They were involved in the planning meetings and their opinions and decisions were given more weightage. While a separate time was scoped out for KT, it was made sure that the team would start fronting all the work where as the team leads would play the supporting role. The team found the work lot more challenging, while the seniors played the role of mentors. As a result, the team started to learn not only the technical skills but also the Leadership skills to feel empowered. Gradually, there was a decrease in unplanned leaves as the team felt more empowered.<\/p>\n","post_title":"CHOW#287 - The Drama of \"Unplanned Leaves\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"chow287-the-drama-of-unplanned-leaves","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-23 08:29:34","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-23 08:29:34","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=19790","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":4},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

Page 4 of 12 1 … 3 4 5 … 12
\n

Piyush works as a Manager for a team of 20 people. He has been successfully running an IT team for the last 3 years. However, he has been constantly plagued by his people going on unplanned leaves. This has been happening for the last 8-9 months or so. It also came out in several retrospectives. However, there was no focused effort in solving the root problems. Whenever, there were unplanned leaves, the team leads would step up, they would spend night outs and would somehow make sure that the release would not get affected. And to encourage this trend, the Management would reward the Leads with \"Star of the Quarter\" or \"Team champion\" award, which would further encourage this trend. Unconsciously, the Manager was setting himself up for failure by encouraging this trend. When we dug the problem deeper, the following was what I observed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I tried to dig deeper, while Piyush complained about the symptom of \u201cUnplanned Leaves\u201d, the main response from the team was that they were not getting the leaves when they asked for the same citing the amount of work that was there. The team members hardly contributed. The Leads and seniors were doing most of the heavy lifting. Even though, they were burnt out because of work , they still were getting necessary incentives both in terms of having a superior knowledge on the application that they did not want to give up. Eventually, even the seniors and leads were taking unplanned leaves mainly because they were also burnt out and partly because they knew that Piyush always had a soft corner for them. When the process of retrospective was put in place, the team explicitly stated that they did not receive a proper KT. That is one of the objectives of Retrospectives where the team can express itself freely. When Piyush heard the same, his solutioning was to reward the team leads and bail them out of the release pains rather than solving the root problem. The team also did not press too much because they were internally happy of not feeling much pressure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The problem is represented below in the table as a sequence of Drama Triangle roles. The subtext in parenthesis is ulterior and not expressed openly. Only when I dug deeper, I found it. (https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Karpman_drama_triangle)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n Persecutor\n <\/td>\n Victim\n <\/td>\n Rescuer\n <\/td><\/tr>
\n Manager: There are too many unplanned Leaves\n <\/td> (Team: If we ask for a planned leave, we do not get it )<\/em><\/td> Leads\/Seniors: We will (cover for the team and )<\/em>ensure the release wouldn't suffer <\/td><\/tr>
(Team Leads: Let us also go on an unplanned leave. We are totally burned out. Why should only we suffer?)<\/em><\/td>Manager: Oh my god! how am I going to deliver this? Team, I need you to pull the weight this time.<\/td>Team: We will do our best (to get out of this situation. Provide some temporary fixes) <\/em><\/td><\/tr>
Team: We tried our best but we have never been given a proper KT. (I am rather happy that I do not have to take much pressure)<\/em><\/td> Team Leads: Despite all the efforts, we get to be blamed<\/td>Manager: Don't worry, I will make sure you get all the necessary rewards for the hard work (strike the deal with the team leads)<\/em><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This is typically how the Drama Triangle works. And because the roles keep switching, it will keep the \"Game\" of the recurring problem alive. And all of this happens at an unconscious level. This also results in a negative feeling for everybody involved. Because, it happens at an unconscious level for all the players, they would also struggle to come out of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In order to break this pattern, there should be an active involvement of all the participants to solve the root problem and address the same. How would you solve this problem?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

...............................................................................................................................<\/p>\n\n\n\n

...............................................................................................................................<\/p>\n\n\n\n

...............................................................................................................................<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here is how we solved the problem:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Solution<\/strong>: The first thing I did was to bring this awareness of Drama Triangle among all the participants. I showed them how each of them are playing their part in keeping the game alive without their awareness. Since they were all playing this at an unconscious level, it is very difficult to come out unless someone can bring that awareness. They had not seen this problem in the lens of a Drama Triangle at all. This helped them break the resistances on solving the problem and see how they themselves contributed to solving this problem. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The main issue was that the team members did not develop enough skills in their project. We found during the session that most of it could be addressed if the team was involved in the decision making, hold them accountable and if they can be helped in enhancing the skills. The team was given a lot more autonomy. They were involved in the planning meetings and their opinions and decisions were given more weightage. While a separate time was scoped out for KT, it was made sure that the team would start fronting all the work where as the team leads would play the supporting role. The team found the work lot more challenging, while the seniors played the role of mentors. As a result, the team started to learn not only the technical skills but also the Leadership skills to feel empowered. Gradually, there was a decrease in unplanned leaves as the team felt more empowered.<\/p>\n","post_title":"CHOW#287 - The Drama of \"Unplanned Leaves\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"chow287-the-drama-of-unplanned-leaves","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-23 08:29:34","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-23 08:29:34","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=19790","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":4},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

Page 4 of 12 1 … 3 4 5 … 12
\n

From a leadership perspective as well, leadership practices should be based on similar values and principles to what we have discussed for teams. Some of these principles may include those relating to delegation\/empowerment, workforce diversity, freedom for experimentation, support for collaborative communities, emotional well-being of employees and so on. For those keen on an organizational perspective of Agile, would like to refer you to PM Power\u2019s recently released book \u201cThe Five Tantras of Enterprise Agility<\/a>\u201d. Incidentally, the book devotes an entire section (Book 3 within the book) to Transformational Leadership needed to succeed with Agile. <\/p>\n","post_title":"Agile Culture and Mindset - re-visited","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"agile-culture-and-mindset-re-visited","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 12:26:29","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 12:26:29","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=19891","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":19790,"post_author":"13","post_date":"2022-03-28 11:03:24","post_date_gmt":"2022-03-28 05:33:24","post_content":"\n

Piyush works as a Manager for a team of 20 people. He has been successfully running an IT team for the last 3 years. However, he has been constantly plagued by his people going on unplanned leaves. This has been happening for the last 8-9 months or so. It also came out in several retrospectives. However, there was no focused effort in solving the root problems. Whenever, there were unplanned leaves, the team leads would step up, they would spend night outs and would somehow make sure that the release would not get affected. And to encourage this trend, the Management would reward the Leads with \"Star of the Quarter\" or \"Team champion\" award, which would further encourage this trend. Unconsciously, the Manager was setting himself up for failure by encouraging this trend. When we dug the problem deeper, the following was what I observed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I tried to dig deeper, while Piyush complained about the symptom of \u201cUnplanned Leaves\u201d, the main response from the team was that they were not getting the leaves when they asked for the same citing the amount of work that was there. The team members hardly contributed. The Leads and seniors were doing most of the heavy lifting. Even though, they were burnt out because of work , they still were getting necessary incentives both in terms of having a superior knowledge on the application that they did not want to give up. Eventually, even the seniors and leads were taking unplanned leaves mainly because they were also burnt out and partly because they knew that Piyush always had a soft corner for them. When the process of retrospective was put in place, the team explicitly stated that they did not receive a proper KT. That is one of the objectives of Retrospectives where the team can express itself freely. When Piyush heard the same, his solutioning was to reward the team leads and bail them out of the release pains rather than solving the root problem. The team also did not press too much because they were internally happy of not feeling much pressure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The problem is represented below in the table as a sequence of Drama Triangle roles. The subtext in parenthesis is ulterior and not expressed openly. Only when I dug deeper, I found it. (https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Karpman_drama_triangle)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n Persecutor\n <\/td>\n Victim\n <\/td>\n Rescuer\n <\/td><\/tr>
\n Manager: There are too many unplanned Leaves\n <\/td> (Team: If we ask for a planned leave, we do not get it )<\/em><\/td> Leads\/Seniors: We will (cover for the team and )<\/em>ensure the release wouldn't suffer <\/td><\/tr>
(Team Leads: Let us also go on an unplanned leave. We are totally burned out. Why should only we suffer?)<\/em><\/td>Manager: Oh my god! how am I going to deliver this? Team, I need you to pull the weight this time.<\/td>Team: We will do our best (to get out of this situation. Provide some temporary fixes) <\/em><\/td><\/tr>
Team: We tried our best but we have never been given a proper KT. (I am rather happy that I do not have to take much pressure)<\/em><\/td> Team Leads: Despite all the efforts, we get to be blamed<\/td>Manager: Don't worry, I will make sure you get all the necessary rewards for the hard work (strike the deal with the team leads)<\/em><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This is typically how the Drama Triangle works. And because the roles keep switching, it will keep the \"Game\" of the recurring problem alive. And all of this happens at an unconscious level. This also results in a negative feeling for everybody involved. Because, it happens at an unconscious level for all the players, they would also struggle to come out of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In order to break this pattern, there should be an active involvement of all the participants to solve the root problem and address the same. How would you solve this problem?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

...............................................................................................................................<\/p>\n\n\n\n

...............................................................................................................................<\/p>\n\n\n\n

...............................................................................................................................<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here is how we solved the problem:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Solution<\/strong>: The first thing I did was to bring this awareness of Drama Triangle among all the participants. I showed them how each of them are playing their part in keeping the game alive without their awareness. Since they were all playing this at an unconscious level, it is very difficult to come out unless someone can bring that awareness. They had not seen this problem in the lens of a Drama Triangle at all. This helped them break the resistances on solving the problem and see how they themselves contributed to solving this problem. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The main issue was that the team members did not develop enough skills in their project. We found during the session that most of it could be addressed if the team was involved in the decision making, hold them accountable and if they can be helped in enhancing the skills. The team was given a lot more autonomy. They were involved in the planning meetings and their opinions and decisions were given more weightage. While a separate time was scoped out for KT, it was made sure that the team would start fronting all the work where as the team leads would play the supporting role. The team found the work lot more challenging, while the seniors played the role of mentors. As a result, the team started to learn not only the technical skills but also the Leadership skills to feel empowered. Gradually, there was a decrease in unplanned leaves as the team felt more empowered.<\/p>\n","post_title":"CHOW#287 - The Drama of \"Unplanned Leaves\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"chow287-the-drama-of-unplanned-leaves","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-23 08:29:34","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-23 08:29:34","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=19790","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":4},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

Page 4 of 12 1 … 3 4 5 … 12
\n

In the early days of Agile implementation,\nit was viewed largely as a bottom-up initiative focusing on delivery teams. The\npervasive nature of Agile as a culture change across all the layers of the\norganization was lost on senior leadership. \nThis introduces many internal conflicts. For example, when SMs see their\nmanager(s) practicing a directive style with them, while expecting them to be\nfacilitative with their own teams, they see a clear conflict of culture. In my\nexperience as a coach, I have personally seen managers track their teams\u2019\nburn-downs - which is clearly a team\u2019s responsibility to track for needed\nactions - wanting to know why they were looking bad, during a sprint execution.\nThis clearly goes against Principle 5 of the manifesto that says \u201cBuild\nprojects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and support\nthey need and trust them to get the job done\u201d. In essence, the Manager\u2019s role\nis to provide facilitative support to teams after providing them the big\npicture \/ vision \/ direction. Teams decide on how they will execute, and will approach\nyou as managers, only for unresolved blockers, or when they need support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From a leadership perspective as well, leadership practices should be based on similar values and principles to what we have discussed for teams. Some of these principles may include those relating to delegation\/empowerment, workforce diversity, freedom for experimentation, support for collaborative communities, emotional well-being of employees and so on. For those keen on an organizational perspective of Agile, would like to refer you to PM Power\u2019s recently released book \u201cThe Five Tantras of Enterprise Agility<\/a>\u201d. Incidentally, the book devotes an entire section (Book 3 within the book) to Transformational Leadership needed to succeed with Agile. <\/p>\n","post_title":"Agile Culture and Mindset - re-visited","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"agile-culture-and-mindset-re-visited","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 12:26:29","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 12:26:29","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=19891","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":19790,"post_author":"13","post_date":"2022-03-28 11:03:24","post_date_gmt":"2022-03-28 05:33:24","post_content":"\n

Piyush works as a Manager for a team of 20 people. He has been successfully running an IT team for the last 3 years. However, he has been constantly plagued by his people going on unplanned leaves. This has been happening for the last 8-9 months or so. It also came out in several retrospectives. However, there was no focused effort in solving the root problems. Whenever, there were unplanned leaves, the team leads would step up, they would spend night outs and would somehow make sure that the release would not get affected. And to encourage this trend, the Management would reward the Leads with \"Star of the Quarter\" or \"Team champion\" award, which would further encourage this trend. Unconsciously, the Manager was setting himself up for failure by encouraging this trend. When we dug the problem deeper, the following was what I observed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I tried to dig deeper, while Piyush complained about the symptom of \u201cUnplanned Leaves\u201d, the main response from the team was that they were not getting the leaves when they asked for the same citing the amount of work that was there. The team members hardly contributed. The Leads and seniors were doing most of the heavy lifting. Even though, they were burnt out because of work , they still were getting necessary incentives both in terms of having a superior knowledge on the application that they did not want to give up. Eventually, even the seniors and leads were taking unplanned leaves mainly because they were also burnt out and partly because they knew that Piyush always had a soft corner for them. When the process of retrospective was put in place, the team explicitly stated that they did not receive a proper KT. That is one of the objectives of Retrospectives where the team can express itself freely. When Piyush heard the same, his solutioning was to reward the team leads and bail them out of the release pains rather than solving the root problem. The team also did not press too much because they were internally happy of not feeling much pressure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The problem is represented below in the table as a sequence of Drama Triangle roles. The subtext in parenthesis is ulterior and not expressed openly. Only when I dug deeper, I found it. (https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Karpman_drama_triangle)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n Persecutor\n <\/td>\n Victim\n <\/td>\n Rescuer\n <\/td><\/tr>
\n Manager: There are too many unplanned Leaves\n <\/td> (Team: If we ask for a planned leave, we do not get it )<\/em><\/td> Leads\/Seniors: We will (cover for the team and )<\/em>ensure the release wouldn't suffer <\/td><\/tr>
(Team Leads: Let us also go on an unplanned leave. We are totally burned out. Why should only we suffer?)<\/em><\/td>Manager: Oh my god! how am I going to deliver this? Team, I need you to pull the weight this time.<\/td>Team: We will do our best (to get out of this situation. Provide some temporary fixes) <\/em><\/td><\/tr>
Team: We tried our best but we have never been given a proper KT. (I am rather happy that I do not have to take much pressure)<\/em><\/td> Team Leads: Despite all the efforts, we get to be blamed<\/td>Manager: Don't worry, I will make sure you get all the necessary rewards for the hard work (strike the deal with the team leads)<\/em><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This is typically how the Drama Triangle works. And because the roles keep switching, it will keep the \"Game\" of the recurring problem alive. And all of this happens at an unconscious level. This also results in a negative feeling for everybody involved. Because, it happens at an unconscious level for all the players, they would also struggle to come out of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In order to break this pattern, there should be an active involvement of all the participants to solve the root problem and address the same. How would you solve this problem?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

...............................................................................................................................<\/p>\n\n\n\n

...............................................................................................................................<\/p>\n\n\n\n

...............................................................................................................................<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here is how we solved the problem:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Solution<\/strong>: The first thing I did was to bring this awareness of Drama Triangle among all the participants. I showed them how each of them are playing their part in keeping the game alive without their awareness. Since they were all playing this at an unconscious level, it is very difficult to come out unless someone can bring that awareness. They had not seen this problem in the lens of a Drama Triangle at all. This helped them break the resistances on solving the problem and see how they themselves contributed to solving this problem. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The main issue was that the team members did not develop enough skills in their project. We found during the session that most of it could be addressed if the team was involved in the decision making, hold them accountable and if they can be helped in enhancing the skills. The team was given a lot more autonomy. They were involved in the planning meetings and their opinions and decisions were given more weightage. While a separate time was scoped out for KT, it was made sure that the team would start fronting all the work where as the team leads would play the supporting role. The team found the work lot more challenging, while the seniors played the role of mentors. As a result, the team started to learn not only the technical skills but also the Leadership skills to feel empowered. Gradually, there was a decrease in unplanned leaves as the team felt more empowered.<\/p>\n","post_title":"CHOW#287 - The Drama of \"Unplanned Leaves\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"chow287-the-drama-of-unplanned-leaves","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-23 08:29:34","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-23 08:29:34","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=19790","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":4},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

Page 4 of 12 1 … 3 4 5 … 12
\n

Agile culture in leadership and\nmanagement<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the early days of Agile implementation,\nit was viewed largely as a bottom-up initiative focusing on delivery teams. The\npervasive nature of Agile as a culture change across all the layers of the\norganization was lost on senior leadership. \nThis introduces many internal conflicts. For example, when SMs see their\nmanager(s) practicing a directive style with them, while expecting them to be\nfacilitative with their own teams, they see a clear conflict of culture. In my\nexperience as a coach, I have personally seen managers track their teams\u2019\nburn-downs - which is clearly a team\u2019s responsibility to track for needed\nactions - wanting to know why they were looking bad, during a sprint execution.\nThis clearly goes against Principle 5 of the manifesto that says \u201cBuild\nprojects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and support\nthey need and trust them to get the job done\u201d. In essence, the Manager\u2019s role\nis to provide facilitative support to teams after providing them the big\npicture \/ vision \/ direction. Teams decide on how they will execute, and will approach\nyou as managers, only for unresolved blockers, or when they need support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From a leadership perspective as well, leadership practices should be based on similar values and principles to what we have discussed for teams. Some of these principles may include those relating to delegation\/empowerment, workforce diversity, freedom for experimentation, support for collaborative communities, emotional well-being of employees and so on. For those keen on an organizational perspective of Agile, would like to refer you to PM Power\u2019s recently released book \u201cThe Five Tantras of Enterprise Agility<\/a>\u201d. Incidentally, the book devotes an entire section (Book 3 within the book) to Transformational Leadership needed to succeed with Agile. <\/p>\n","post_title":"Agile Culture and Mindset - re-visited","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"agile-culture-and-mindset-re-visited","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 12:26:29","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 12:26:29","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=19891","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":19790,"post_author":"13","post_date":"2022-03-28 11:03:24","post_date_gmt":"2022-03-28 05:33:24","post_content":"\n

Piyush works as a Manager for a team of 20 people. He has been successfully running an IT team for the last 3 years. However, he has been constantly plagued by his people going on unplanned leaves. This has been happening for the last 8-9 months or so. It also came out in several retrospectives. However, there was no focused effort in solving the root problems. Whenever, there were unplanned leaves, the team leads would step up, they would spend night outs and would somehow make sure that the release would not get affected. And to encourage this trend, the Management would reward the Leads with \"Star of the Quarter\" or \"Team champion\" award, which would further encourage this trend. Unconsciously, the Manager was setting himself up for failure by encouraging this trend. When we dug the problem deeper, the following was what I observed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I tried to dig deeper, while Piyush complained about the symptom of \u201cUnplanned Leaves\u201d, the main response from the team was that they were not getting the leaves when they asked for the same citing the amount of work that was there. The team members hardly contributed. The Leads and seniors were doing most of the heavy lifting. Even though, they were burnt out because of work , they still were getting necessary incentives both in terms of having a superior knowledge on the application that they did not want to give up. Eventually, even the seniors and leads were taking unplanned leaves mainly because they were also burnt out and partly because they knew that Piyush always had a soft corner for them. When the process of retrospective was put in place, the team explicitly stated that they did not receive a proper KT. That is one of the objectives of Retrospectives where the team can express itself freely. When Piyush heard the same, his solutioning was to reward the team leads and bail them out of the release pains rather than solving the root problem. The team also did not press too much because they were internally happy of not feeling much pressure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The problem is represented below in the table as a sequence of Drama Triangle roles. The subtext in parenthesis is ulterior and not expressed openly. Only when I dug deeper, I found it. (https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Karpman_drama_triangle)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n Persecutor\n <\/td>\n Victim\n <\/td>\n Rescuer\n <\/td><\/tr>
\n Manager: There are too many unplanned Leaves\n <\/td> (Team: If we ask for a planned leave, we do not get it )<\/em><\/td> Leads\/Seniors: We will (cover for the team and )<\/em>ensure the release wouldn't suffer <\/td><\/tr>
(Team Leads: Let us also go on an unplanned leave. We are totally burned out. Why should only we suffer?)<\/em><\/td>Manager: Oh my god! how am I going to deliver this? Team, I need you to pull the weight this time.<\/td>Team: We will do our best (to get out of this situation. Provide some temporary fixes) <\/em><\/td><\/tr>
Team: We tried our best but we have never been given a proper KT. (I am rather happy that I do not have to take much pressure)<\/em><\/td> Team Leads: Despite all the efforts, we get to be blamed<\/td>Manager: Don't worry, I will make sure you get all the necessary rewards for the hard work (strike the deal with the team leads)<\/em><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This is typically how the Drama Triangle works. And because the roles keep switching, it will keep the \"Game\" of the recurring problem alive. And all of this happens at an unconscious level. This also results in a negative feeling for everybody involved. Because, it happens at an unconscious level for all the players, they would also struggle to come out of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In order to break this pattern, there should be an active involvement of all the participants to solve the root problem and address the same. How would you solve this problem?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

...............................................................................................................................<\/p>\n\n\n\n

...............................................................................................................................<\/p>\n\n\n\n

...............................................................................................................................<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here is how we solved the problem:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Solution<\/strong>: The first thing I did was to bring this awareness of Drama Triangle among all the participants. I showed them how each of them are playing their part in keeping the game alive without their awareness. Since they were all playing this at an unconscious level, it is very difficult to come out unless someone can bring that awareness. They had not seen this problem in the lens of a Drama Triangle at all. This helped them break the resistances on solving the problem and see how they themselves contributed to solving this problem. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The main issue was that the team members did not develop enough skills in their project. We found during the session that most of it could be addressed if the team was involved in the decision making, hold them accountable and if they can be helped in enhancing the skills. The team was given a lot more autonomy. They were involved in the planning meetings and their opinions and decisions were given more weightage. While a separate time was scoped out for KT, it was made sure that the team would start fronting all the work where as the team leads would play the supporting role. The team found the work lot more challenging, while the seniors played the role of mentors. As a result, the team started to learn not only the technical skills but also the Leadership skills to feel empowered. Gradually, there was a decrease in unplanned leaves as the team felt more empowered.<\/p>\n","post_title":"CHOW#287 - The Drama of \"Unplanned Leaves\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"chow287-the-drama-of-unplanned-leaves","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-23 08:29:34","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-23 08:29:34","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=19790","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":4},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

Page 4 of 12 1 … 3 4 5 … 12
\n

There is another factor to be considered \u2013\nAgile Manifesto and values and principles from other approaches are applicable\nto a software development context, which functions under a broad organizational\ncontext. The organization will have its own core values and philosophy stated from\na business perspective, and as a consequence, any Agile implementation has to\nbe aligned to and support this organizational context. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Agile culture in leadership and\nmanagement<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the early days of Agile implementation,\nit was viewed largely as a bottom-up initiative focusing on delivery teams. The\npervasive nature of Agile as a culture change across all the layers of the\norganization was lost on senior leadership. \nThis introduces many internal conflicts. For example, when SMs see their\nmanager(s) practicing a directive style with them, while expecting them to be\nfacilitative with their own teams, they see a clear conflict of culture. In my\nexperience as a coach, I have personally seen managers track their teams\u2019\nburn-downs - which is clearly a team\u2019s responsibility to track for needed\nactions - wanting to know why they were looking bad, during a sprint execution.\nThis clearly goes against Principle 5 of the manifesto that says \u201cBuild\nprojects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and support\nthey need and trust them to get the job done\u201d. In essence, the Manager\u2019s role\nis to provide facilitative support to teams after providing them the big\npicture \/ vision \/ direction. Teams decide on how they will execute, and will approach\nyou as managers, only for unresolved blockers, or when they need support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From a leadership perspective as well, leadership practices should be based on similar values and principles to what we have discussed for teams. Some of these principles may include those relating to delegation\/empowerment, workforce diversity, freedom for experimentation, support for collaborative communities, emotional well-being of employees and so on. For those keen on an organizational perspective of Agile, would like to refer you to PM Power\u2019s recently released book \u201cThe Five Tantras of Enterprise Agility<\/a>\u201d. Incidentally, the book devotes an entire section (Book 3 within the book) to Transformational Leadership needed to succeed with Agile. <\/p>\n","post_title":"Agile Culture and Mindset - re-visited","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"agile-culture-and-mindset-re-visited","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 12:26:29","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 12:26:29","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=19891","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":19790,"post_author":"13","post_date":"2022-03-28 11:03:24","post_date_gmt":"2022-03-28 05:33:24","post_content":"\n

Piyush works as a Manager for a team of 20 people. He has been successfully running an IT team for the last 3 years. However, he has been constantly plagued by his people going on unplanned leaves. This has been happening for the last 8-9 months or so. It also came out in several retrospectives. However, there was no focused effort in solving the root problems. Whenever, there were unplanned leaves, the team leads would step up, they would spend night outs and would somehow make sure that the release would not get affected. And to encourage this trend, the Management would reward the Leads with \"Star of the Quarter\" or \"Team champion\" award, which would further encourage this trend. Unconsciously, the Manager was setting himself up for failure by encouraging this trend. When we dug the problem deeper, the following was what I observed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I tried to dig deeper, while Piyush complained about the symptom of \u201cUnplanned Leaves\u201d, the main response from the team was that they were not getting the leaves when they asked for the same citing the amount of work that was there. The team members hardly contributed. The Leads and seniors were doing most of the heavy lifting. Even though, they were burnt out because of work , they still were getting necessary incentives both in terms of having a superior knowledge on the application that they did not want to give up. Eventually, even the seniors and leads were taking unplanned leaves mainly because they were also burnt out and partly because they knew that Piyush always had a soft corner for them. When the process of retrospective was put in place, the team explicitly stated that they did not receive a proper KT. That is one of the objectives of Retrospectives where the team can express itself freely. When Piyush heard the same, his solutioning was to reward the team leads and bail them out of the release pains rather than solving the root problem. The team also did not press too much because they were internally happy of not feeling much pressure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The problem is represented below in the table as a sequence of Drama Triangle roles. The subtext in parenthesis is ulterior and not expressed openly. Only when I dug deeper, I found it. (https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Karpman_drama_triangle)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n Persecutor\n <\/td>\n Victim\n <\/td>\n Rescuer\n <\/td><\/tr>
\n Manager: There are too many unplanned Leaves\n <\/td> (Team: If we ask for a planned leave, we do not get it )<\/em><\/td> Leads\/Seniors: We will (cover for the team and )<\/em>ensure the release wouldn't suffer <\/td><\/tr>
(Team Leads: Let us also go on an unplanned leave. We are totally burned out. Why should only we suffer?)<\/em><\/td>Manager: Oh my god! how am I going to deliver this? Team, I need you to pull the weight this time.<\/td>Team: We will do our best (to get out of this situation. Provide some temporary fixes) <\/em><\/td><\/tr>
Team: We tried our best but we have never been given a proper KT. (I am rather happy that I do not have to take much pressure)<\/em><\/td> Team Leads: Despite all the efforts, we get to be blamed<\/td>Manager: Don't worry, I will make sure you get all the necessary rewards for the hard work (strike the deal with the team leads)<\/em><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This is typically how the Drama Triangle works. And because the roles keep switching, it will keep the \"Game\" of the recurring problem alive. And all of this happens at an unconscious level. This also results in a negative feeling for everybody involved. Because, it happens at an unconscious level for all the players, they would also struggle to come out of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In order to break this pattern, there should be an active involvement of all the participants to solve the root problem and address the same. How would you solve this problem?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

...............................................................................................................................<\/p>\n\n\n\n

...............................................................................................................................<\/p>\n\n\n\n

...............................................................................................................................<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here is how we solved the problem:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Solution<\/strong>: The first thing I did was to bring this awareness of Drama Triangle among all the participants. I showed them how each of them are playing their part in keeping the game alive without their awareness. Since they were all playing this at an unconscious level, it is very difficult to come out unless someone can bring that awareness. They had not seen this problem in the lens of a Drama Triangle at all. This helped them break the resistances on solving the problem and see how they themselves contributed to solving this problem. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The main issue was that the team members did not develop enough skills in their project. We found during the session that most of it could be addressed if the team was involved in the decision making, hold them accountable and if they can be helped in enhancing the skills. The team was given a lot more autonomy. They were involved in the planning meetings and their opinions and decisions were given more weightage. While a separate time was scoped out for KT, it was made sure that the team would start fronting all the work where as the team leads would play the supporting role. The team found the work lot more challenging, while the seniors played the role of mentors. As a result, the team started to learn not only the technical skills but also the Leadership skills to feel empowered. Gradually, there was a decrease in unplanned leaves as the team felt more empowered.<\/p>\n","post_title":"CHOW#287 - The Drama of \"Unplanned Leaves\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"chow287-the-drama-of-unplanned-leaves","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-23 08:29:34","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-23 08:29:34","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=19790","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":4},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

Page 4 of 12 1 … 3 4 5 … 12
\n

In the above example, I have deliberately\nmixed values and principles from the Agile manifesto as well as specific Agile\napproaches such as Scrum \/ XP. From my own perspective, I have looked at the Agile\nManifesto as more of a position statement than a set of classical \u201cvalues\u201d -\nwhich is why approaches such as Scrum and XP expounded their own set of values.\nMost Agile approaches use the Agile manifesto as a broad guideline for their\nown specific recommendations and incorporate their own values and principles to\nsupport their practice recommendations (both management as well as technical\npractices). In my opinion, it is sensible to take such a hybrid approach to\nsupport your organization context. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is another factor to be considered \u2013\nAgile Manifesto and values and principles from other approaches are applicable\nto a software development context, which functions under a broad organizational\ncontext. The organization will have its own core values and philosophy stated from\na business perspective, and as a consequence, any Agile implementation has to\nbe aligned to and support this organizational context. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Agile culture in leadership and\nmanagement<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the early days of Agile implementation,\nit was viewed largely as a bottom-up initiative focusing on delivery teams. The\npervasive nature of Agile as a culture change across all the layers of the\norganization was lost on senior leadership. \nThis introduces many internal conflicts. For example, when SMs see their\nmanager(s) practicing a directive style with them, while expecting them to be\nfacilitative with their own teams, they see a clear conflict of culture. In my\nexperience as a coach, I have personally seen managers track their teams\u2019\nburn-downs - which is clearly a team\u2019s responsibility to track for needed\nactions - wanting to know why they were looking bad, during a sprint execution.\nThis clearly goes against Principle 5 of the manifesto that says \u201cBuild\nprojects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and support\nthey need and trust them to get the job done\u201d. In essence, the Manager\u2019s role\nis to provide facilitative support to teams after providing them the big\npicture \/ vision \/ direction. Teams decide on how they will execute, and will approach\nyou as managers, only for unresolved blockers, or when they need support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From a leadership perspective as well, leadership practices should be based on similar values and principles to what we have discussed for teams. Some of these principles may include those relating to delegation\/empowerment, workforce diversity, freedom for experimentation, support for collaborative communities, emotional well-being of employees and so on. For those keen on an organizational perspective of Agile, would like to refer you to PM Power\u2019s recently released book \u201cThe Five Tantras of Enterprise Agility<\/a>\u201d. Incidentally, the book devotes an entire section (Book 3 within the book) to Transformational Leadership needed to succeed with Agile. <\/p>\n","post_title":"Agile Culture and Mindset - re-visited","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"agile-culture-and-mindset-re-visited","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 12:26:29","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 12:26:29","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=19891","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":19790,"post_author":"13","post_date":"2022-03-28 11:03:24","post_date_gmt":"2022-03-28 05:33:24","post_content":"\n

Piyush works as a Manager for a team of 20 people. He has been successfully running an IT team for the last 3 years. However, he has been constantly plagued by his people going on unplanned leaves. This has been happening for the last 8-9 months or so. It also came out in several retrospectives. However, there was no focused effort in solving the root problems. Whenever, there were unplanned leaves, the team leads would step up, they would spend night outs and would somehow make sure that the release would not get affected. And to encourage this trend, the Management would reward the Leads with \"Star of the Quarter\" or \"Team champion\" award, which would further encourage this trend. Unconsciously, the Manager was setting himself up for failure by encouraging this trend. When we dug the problem deeper, the following was what I observed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I tried to dig deeper, while Piyush complained about the symptom of \u201cUnplanned Leaves\u201d, the main response from the team was that they were not getting the leaves when they asked for the same citing the amount of work that was there. The team members hardly contributed. The Leads and seniors were doing most of the heavy lifting. Even though, they were burnt out because of work , they still were getting necessary incentives both in terms of having a superior knowledge on the application that they did not want to give up. Eventually, even the seniors and leads were taking unplanned leaves mainly because they were also burnt out and partly because they knew that Piyush always had a soft corner for them. When the process of retrospective was put in place, the team explicitly stated that they did not receive a proper KT. That is one of the objectives of Retrospectives where the team can express itself freely. When Piyush heard the same, his solutioning was to reward the team leads and bail them out of the release pains rather than solving the root problem. The team also did not press too much because they were internally happy of not feeling much pressure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The problem is represented below in the table as a sequence of Drama Triangle roles. The subtext in parenthesis is ulterior and not expressed openly. Only when I dug deeper, I found it. (https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Karpman_drama_triangle)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n Persecutor\n <\/td>\n Victim\n <\/td>\n Rescuer\n <\/td><\/tr>
\n Manager: There are too many unplanned Leaves\n <\/td> (Team: If we ask for a planned leave, we do not get it )<\/em><\/td> Leads\/Seniors: We will (cover for the team and )<\/em>ensure the release wouldn't suffer <\/td><\/tr>
(Team Leads: Let us also go on an unplanned leave. We are totally burned out. Why should only we suffer?)<\/em><\/td>Manager: Oh my god! how am I going to deliver this? Team, I need you to pull the weight this time.<\/td>Team: We will do our best (to get out of this situation. Provide some temporary fixes) <\/em><\/td><\/tr>
Team: We tried our best but we have never been given a proper KT. (I am rather happy that I do not have to take much pressure)<\/em><\/td> Team Leads: Despite all the efforts, we get to be blamed<\/td>Manager: Don't worry, I will make sure you get all the necessary rewards for the hard work (strike the deal with the team leads)<\/em><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This is typically how the Drama Triangle works. And because the roles keep switching, it will keep the \"Game\" of the recurring problem alive. And all of this happens at an unconscious level. This also results in a negative feeling for everybody involved. Because, it happens at an unconscious level for all the players, they would also struggle to come out of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In order to break this pattern, there should be an active involvement of all the participants to solve the root problem and address the same. How would you solve this problem?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

...............................................................................................................................<\/p>\n\n\n\n

...............................................................................................................................<\/p>\n\n\n\n

...............................................................................................................................<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here is how we solved the problem:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Solution<\/strong>: The first thing I did was to bring this awareness of Drama Triangle among all the participants. I showed them how each of them are playing their part in keeping the game alive without their awareness. Since they were all playing this at an unconscious level, it is very difficult to come out unless someone can bring that awareness. They had not seen this problem in the lens of a Drama Triangle at all. This helped them break the resistances on solving the problem and see how they themselves contributed to solving this problem. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The main issue was that the team members did not develop enough skills in their project. We found during the session that most of it could be addressed if the team was involved in the decision making, hold them accountable and if they can be helped in enhancing the skills. The team was given a lot more autonomy. They were involved in the planning meetings and their opinions and decisions were given more weightage. While a separate time was scoped out for KT, it was made sure that the team would start fronting all the work where as the team leads would play the supporting role. The team found the work lot more challenging, while the seniors played the role of mentors. As a result, the team started to learn not only the technical skills but also the Leadership skills to feel empowered. Gradually, there was a decrease in unplanned leaves as the team felt more empowered.<\/p>\n","post_title":"CHOW#287 - The Drama of \"Unplanned Leaves\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"chow287-the-drama-of-unplanned-leaves","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-23 08:29:34","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-23 08:29:34","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=19790","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":4},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

Page 4 of 12 1 … 3 4 5 … 12
\n

From the above example, if you notice that\nthe practice of team members taking turns to provide updates (rather than each\none being prodded on by the SM) is an implementation of the principle of\naccepted responsibility (ownership). I am sure you can see a linkage of other\npractices to the values and principles that they align to. As mentioned before,\nyou can improvise on practices (such as, doing fun retrospectives, for example)\nwithout compromising on values and principles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the above example, I have deliberately\nmixed values and principles from the Agile manifesto as well as specific Agile\napproaches such as Scrum \/ XP. From my own perspective, I have looked at the Agile\nManifesto as more of a position statement than a set of classical \u201cvalues\u201d -\nwhich is why approaches such as Scrum and XP expounded their own set of values.\nMost Agile approaches use the Agile manifesto as a broad guideline for their\nown specific recommendations and incorporate their own values and principles to\nsupport their practice recommendations (both management as well as technical\npractices). In my opinion, it is sensible to take such a hybrid approach to\nsupport your organization context. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is another factor to be considered \u2013\nAgile Manifesto and values and principles from other approaches are applicable\nto a software development context, which functions under a broad organizational\ncontext. The organization will have its own core values and philosophy stated from\na business perspective, and as a consequence, any Agile implementation has to\nbe aligned to and support this organizational context. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Agile culture in leadership and\nmanagement<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the early days of Agile implementation,\nit was viewed largely as a bottom-up initiative focusing on delivery teams. The\npervasive nature of Agile as a culture change across all the layers of the\norganization was lost on senior leadership. \nThis introduces many internal conflicts. For example, when SMs see their\nmanager(s) practicing a directive style with them, while expecting them to be\nfacilitative with their own teams, they see a clear conflict of culture. In my\nexperience as a coach, I have personally seen managers track their teams\u2019\nburn-downs - which is clearly a team\u2019s responsibility to track for needed\nactions - wanting to know why they were looking bad, during a sprint execution.\nThis clearly goes against Principle 5 of the manifesto that says \u201cBuild\nprojects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and support\nthey need and trust them to get the job done\u201d. In essence, the Manager\u2019s role\nis to provide facilitative support to teams after providing them the big\npicture \/ vision \/ direction. Teams decide on how they will execute, and will approach\nyou as managers, only for unresolved blockers, or when they need support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From a leadership perspective as well, leadership practices should be based on similar values and principles to what we have discussed for teams. Some of these principles may include those relating to delegation\/empowerment, workforce diversity, freedom for experimentation, support for collaborative communities, emotional well-being of employees and so on. For those keen on an organizational perspective of Agile, would like to refer you to PM Power\u2019s recently released book \u201cThe Five Tantras of Enterprise Agility<\/a>\u201d. Incidentally, the book devotes an entire section (Book 3 within the book) to Transformational Leadership needed to succeed with Agile. <\/p>\n","post_title":"Agile Culture and Mindset - re-visited","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"agile-culture-and-mindset-re-visited","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 12:26:29","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 12:26:29","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=19891","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":19790,"post_author":"13","post_date":"2022-03-28 11:03:24","post_date_gmt":"2022-03-28 05:33:24","post_content":"\n

Piyush works as a Manager for a team of 20 people. He has been successfully running an IT team for the last 3 years. However, he has been constantly plagued by his people going on unplanned leaves. This has been happening for the last 8-9 months or so. It also came out in several retrospectives. However, there was no focused effort in solving the root problems. Whenever, there were unplanned leaves, the team leads would step up, they would spend night outs and would somehow make sure that the release would not get affected. And to encourage this trend, the Management would reward the Leads with \"Star of the Quarter\" or \"Team champion\" award, which would further encourage this trend. Unconsciously, the Manager was setting himself up for failure by encouraging this trend. When we dug the problem deeper, the following was what I observed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I tried to dig deeper, while Piyush complained about the symptom of \u201cUnplanned Leaves\u201d, the main response from the team was that they were not getting the leaves when they asked for the same citing the amount of work that was there. The team members hardly contributed. The Leads and seniors were doing most of the heavy lifting. Even though, they were burnt out because of work , they still were getting necessary incentives both in terms of having a superior knowledge on the application that they did not want to give up. Eventually, even the seniors and leads were taking unplanned leaves mainly because they were also burnt out and partly because they knew that Piyush always had a soft corner for them. When the process of retrospective was put in place, the team explicitly stated that they did not receive a proper KT. That is one of the objectives of Retrospectives where the team can express itself freely. When Piyush heard the same, his solutioning was to reward the team leads and bail them out of the release pains rather than solving the root problem. The team also did not press too much because they were internally happy of not feeling much pressure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The problem is represented below in the table as a sequence of Drama Triangle roles. The subtext in parenthesis is ulterior and not expressed openly. Only when I dug deeper, I found it. (https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Karpman_drama_triangle)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n Persecutor\n <\/td>\n Victim\n <\/td>\n Rescuer\n <\/td><\/tr>
\n Manager: There are too many unplanned Leaves\n <\/td> (Team: If we ask for a planned leave, we do not get it )<\/em><\/td> Leads\/Seniors: We will (cover for the team and )<\/em>ensure the release wouldn't suffer <\/td><\/tr>
(Team Leads: Let us also go on an unplanned leave. We are totally burned out. Why should only we suffer?)<\/em><\/td>Manager: Oh my god! how am I going to deliver this? Team, I need you to pull the weight this time.<\/td>Team: We will do our best (to get out of this situation. Provide some temporary fixes) <\/em><\/td><\/tr>
Team: We tried our best but we have never been given a proper KT. (I am rather happy that I do not have to take much pressure)<\/em><\/td> Team Leads: Despite all the efforts, we get to be blamed<\/td>Manager: Don't worry, I will make sure you get all the necessary rewards for the hard work (strike the deal with the team leads)<\/em><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This is typically how the Drama Triangle works. And because the roles keep switching, it will keep the \"Game\" of the recurring problem alive. And all of this happens at an unconscious level. This also results in a negative feeling for everybody involved. Because, it happens at an unconscious level for all the players, they would also struggle to come out of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In order to break this pattern, there should be an active involvement of all the participants to solve the root problem and address the same. How would you solve this problem?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

...............................................................................................................................<\/p>\n\n\n\n

...............................................................................................................................<\/p>\n\n\n\n

...............................................................................................................................<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here is how we solved the problem:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Solution<\/strong>: The first thing I did was to bring this awareness of Drama Triangle among all the participants. I showed them how each of them are playing their part in keeping the game alive without their awareness. Since they were all playing this at an unconscious level, it is very difficult to come out unless someone can bring that awareness. They had not seen this problem in the lens of a Drama Triangle at all. This helped them break the resistances on solving the problem and see how they themselves contributed to solving this problem. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The main issue was that the team members did not develop enough skills in their project. We found during the session that most of it could be addressed if the team was involved in the decision making, hold them accountable and if they can be helped in enhancing the skills. The team was given a lot more autonomy. They were involved in the planning meetings and their opinions and decisions were given more weightage. While a separate time was scoped out for KT, it was made sure that the team would start fronting all the work where as the team leads would play the supporting role. The team found the work lot more challenging, while the seniors played the role of mentors. As a result, the team started to learn not only the technical skills but also the Leadership skills to feel empowered. Gradually, there was a decrease in unplanned leaves as the team felt more empowered.<\/p>\n","post_title":"CHOW#287 - The Drama of \"Unplanned Leaves\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"chow287-the-drama-of-unplanned-leaves","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-23 08:29:34","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-23 08:29:34","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=19790","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":4},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

Page 4 of 12 1 … 3 4 5 … 12
\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

From the above example, if you notice that\nthe practice of team members taking turns to provide updates (rather than each\none being prodded on by the SM) is an implementation of the principle of\naccepted responsibility (ownership). I am sure you can see a linkage of other\npractices to the values and principles that they align to. As mentioned before,\nyou can improvise on practices (such as, doing fun retrospectives, for example)\nwithout compromising on values and principles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the above example, I have deliberately\nmixed values and principles from the Agile manifesto as well as specific Agile\napproaches such as Scrum \/ XP. From my own perspective, I have looked at the Agile\nManifesto as more of a position statement than a set of classical \u201cvalues\u201d -\nwhich is why approaches such as Scrum and XP expounded their own set of values.\nMost Agile approaches use the Agile manifesto as a broad guideline for their\nown specific recommendations and incorporate their own values and principles to\nsupport their practice recommendations (both management as well as technical\npractices). In my opinion, it is sensible to take such a hybrid approach to\nsupport your organization context. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is another factor to be considered \u2013\nAgile Manifesto and values and principles from other approaches are applicable\nto a software development context, which functions under a broad organizational\ncontext. The organization will have its own core values and philosophy stated from\na business perspective, and as a consequence, any Agile implementation has to\nbe aligned to and support this organizational context. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Agile culture in leadership and\nmanagement<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the early days of Agile implementation,\nit was viewed largely as a bottom-up initiative focusing on delivery teams. The\npervasive nature of Agile as a culture change across all the layers of the\norganization was lost on senior leadership. \nThis introduces many internal conflicts. For example, when SMs see their\nmanager(s) practicing a directive style with them, while expecting them to be\nfacilitative with their own teams, they see a clear conflict of culture. In my\nexperience as a coach, I have personally seen managers track their teams\u2019\nburn-downs - which is clearly a team\u2019s responsibility to track for needed\nactions - wanting to know why they were looking bad, during a sprint execution.\nThis clearly goes against Principle 5 of the manifesto that says \u201cBuild\nprojects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and support\nthey need and trust them to get the job done\u201d. In essence, the Manager\u2019s role\nis to provide facilitative support to teams after providing them the big\npicture \/ vision \/ direction. Teams decide on how they will execute, and will approach\nyou as managers, only for unresolved blockers, or when they need support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From a leadership perspective as well, leadership practices should be based on similar values and principles to what we have discussed for teams. Some of these principles may include those relating to delegation\/empowerment, workforce diversity, freedom for experimentation, support for collaborative communities, emotional well-being of employees and so on. For those keen on an organizational perspective of Agile, would like to refer you to PM Power\u2019s recently released book \u201cThe Five Tantras of Enterprise Agility<\/a>\u201d. Incidentally, the book devotes an entire section (Book 3 within the book) to Transformational Leadership needed to succeed with Agile. <\/p>\n","post_title":"Agile Culture and Mindset - re-visited","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"agile-culture-and-mindset-re-visited","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 12:26:29","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 12:26:29","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=19891","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":19790,"post_author":"13","post_date":"2022-03-28 11:03:24","post_date_gmt":"2022-03-28 05:33:24","post_content":"\n

Piyush works as a Manager for a team of 20 people. He has been successfully running an IT team for the last 3 years. However, he has been constantly plagued by his people going on unplanned leaves. This has been happening for the last 8-9 months or so. It also came out in several retrospectives. However, there was no focused effort in solving the root problems. Whenever, there were unplanned leaves, the team leads would step up, they would spend night outs and would somehow make sure that the release would not get affected. And to encourage this trend, the Management would reward the Leads with \"Star of the Quarter\" or \"Team champion\" award, which would further encourage this trend. Unconsciously, the Manager was setting himself up for failure by encouraging this trend. When we dug the problem deeper, the following was what I observed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I tried to dig deeper, while Piyush complained about the symptom of \u201cUnplanned Leaves\u201d, the main response from the team was that they were not getting the leaves when they asked for the same citing the amount of work that was there. The team members hardly contributed. The Leads and seniors were doing most of the heavy lifting. Even though, they were burnt out because of work , they still were getting necessary incentives both in terms of having a superior knowledge on the application that they did not want to give up. Eventually, even the seniors and leads were taking unplanned leaves mainly because they were also burnt out and partly because they knew that Piyush always had a soft corner for them. When the process of retrospective was put in place, the team explicitly stated that they did not receive a proper KT. That is one of the objectives of Retrospectives where the team can express itself freely. When Piyush heard the same, his solutioning was to reward the team leads and bail them out of the release pains rather than solving the root problem. The team also did not press too much because they were internally happy of not feeling much pressure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The problem is represented below in the table as a sequence of Drama Triangle roles. The subtext in parenthesis is ulterior and not expressed openly. Only when I dug deeper, I found it. (https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Karpman_drama_triangle)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n Persecutor\n <\/td>\n Victim\n <\/td>\n Rescuer\n <\/td><\/tr>
\n Manager: There are too many unplanned Leaves\n <\/td> (Team: If we ask for a planned leave, we do not get it )<\/em><\/td> Leads\/Seniors: We will (cover for the team and )<\/em>ensure the release wouldn't suffer <\/td><\/tr>
(Team Leads: Let us also go on an unplanned leave. We are totally burned out. Why should only we suffer?)<\/em><\/td>Manager: Oh my god! how am I going to deliver this? Team, I need you to pull the weight this time.<\/td>Team: We will do our best (to get out of this situation. Provide some temporary fixes) <\/em><\/td><\/tr>
Team: We tried our best but we have never been given a proper KT. (I am rather happy that I do not have to take much pressure)<\/em><\/td> Team Leads: Despite all the efforts, we get to be blamed<\/td>Manager: Don't worry, I will make sure you get all the necessary rewards for the hard work (strike the deal with the team leads)<\/em><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This is typically how the Drama Triangle works. And because the roles keep switching, it will keep the \"Game\" of the recurring problem alive. And all of this happens at an unconscious level. This also results in a negative feeling for everybody involved. Because, it happens at an unconscious level for all the players, they would also struggle to come out of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In order to break this pattern, there should be an active involvement of all the participants to solve the root problem and address the same. How would you solve this problem?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

...............................................................................................................................<\/p>\n\n\n\n

...............................................................................................................................<\/p>\n\n\n\n

...............................................................................................................................<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here is how we solved the problem:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Solution<\/strong>: The first thing I did was to bring this awareness of Drama Triangle among all the participants. I showed them how each of them are playing their part in keeping the game alive without their awareness. Since they were all playing this at an unconscious level, it is very difficult to come out unless someone can bring that awareness. They had not seen this problem in the lens of a Drama Triangle at all. This helped them break the resistances on solving the problem and see how they themselves contributed to solving this problem. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The main issue was that the team members did not develop enough skills in their project. We found during the session that most of it could be addressed if the team was involved in the decision making, hold them accountable and if they can be helped in enhancing the skills. The team was given a lot more autonomy. They were involved in the planning meetings and their opinions and decisions were given more weightage. While a separate time was scoped out for KT, it was made sure that the team would start fronting all the work where as the team leads would play the supporting role. The team found the work lot more challenging, while the seniors played the role of mentors. As a result, the team started to learn not only the technical skills but also the Leadership skills to feel empowered. Gradually, there was a decrease in unplanned leaves as the team felt more empowered.<\/p>\n","post_title":"CHOW#287 - The Drama of \"Unplanned Leaves\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"chow287-the-drama-of-unplanned-leaves","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-23 08:29:34","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-23 08:29:34","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=19790","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":4},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

Page 4 of 12 1 … 3 4 5 … 12
\n

Agile culture in teams - Values, Principles and Practices<\/strong> Implementing a proper Agile culture in teams requires a good understanding of Agile values and principles and an appreciation of how these are linked to practices (and to associated behaviours). While Agile values are universal, they are also often too abstract. On the other hand, practices are ways of solving common problems and dilemmas, that we encounter in software development. Given the large perceived gap between these two, we use Principles to bridge this gap and help understand practices better. Values and Principles together guide us in adaptation and improvisation of practices, as part of our efforts to improve continuously. Let me take a couple of examples to illustrate this using the Agile Manifesto<\/a>, Principles<\/a>, Scrum Values<\/a> and XP Values and Principles<\/a>: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

From the above example, if you notice that\nthe practice of team members taking turns to provide updates (rather than each\none being prodded on by the SM) is an implementation of the principle of\naccepted responsibility (ownership). I am sure you can see a linkage of other\npractices to the values and principles that they align to. As mentioned before,\nyou can improvise on practices (such as, doing fun retrospectives, for example)\nwithout compromising on values and principles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the above example, I have deliberately\nmixed values and principles from the Agile manifesto as well as specific Agile\napproaches such as Scrum \/ XP. From my own perspective, I have looked at the Agile\nManifesto as more of a position statement than a set of classical \u201cvalues\u201d -\nwhich is why approaches such as Scrum and XP expounded their own set of values.\nMost Agile approaches use the Agile manifesto as a broad guideline for their\nown specific recommendations and incorporate their own values and principles to\nsupport their practice recommendations (both management as well as technical\npractices). In my opinion, it is sensible to take such a hybrid approach to\nsupport your organization context. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is another factor to be considered \u2013\nAgile Manifesto and values and principles from other approaches are applicable\nto a software development context, which functions under a broad organizational\ncontext. The organization will have its own core values and philosophy stated from\na business perspective, and as a consequence, any Agile implementation has to\nbe aligned to and support this organizational context. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Agile culture in leadership and\nmanagement<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the early days of Agile implementation,\nit was viewed largely as a bottom-up initiative focusing on delivery teams. The\npervasive nature of Agile as a culture change across all the layers of the\norganization was lost on senior leadership. \nThis introduces many internal conflicts. For example, when SMs see their\nmanager(s) practicing a directive style with them, while expecting them to be\nfacilitative with their own teams, they see a clear conflict of culture. In my\nexperience as a coach, I have personally seen managers track their teams\u2019\nburn-downs - which is clearly a team\u2019s responsibility to track for needed\nactions - wanting to know why they were looking bad, during a sprint execution.\nThis clearly goes against Principle 5 of the manifesto that says \u201cBuild\nprojects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and support\nthey need and trust them to get the job done\u201d. In essence, the Manager\u2019s role\nis to provide facilitative support to teams after providing them the big\npicture \/ vision \/ direction. Teams decide on how they will execute, and will approach\nyou as managers, only for unresolved blockers, or when they need support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From a leadership perspective as well, leadership practices should be based on similar values and principles to what we have discussed for teams. Some of these principles may include those relating to delegation\/empowerment, workforce diversity, freedom for experimentation, support for collaborative communities, emotional well-being of employees and so on. For those keen on an organizational perspective of Agile, would like to refer you to PM Power\u2019s recently released book \u201cThe Five Tantras of Enterprise Agility<\/a>\u201d. Incidentally, the book devotes an entire section (Book 3 within the book) to Transformational Leadership needed to succeed with Agile. <\/p>\n","post_title":"Agile Culture and Mindset - re-visited","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"agile-culture-and-mindset-re-visited","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 12:26:29","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 12:26:29","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=19891","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":19790,"post_author":"13","post_date":"2022-03-28 11:03:24","post_date_gmt":"2022-03-28 05:33:24","post_content":"\n

Piyush works as a Manager for a team of 20 people. He has been successfully running an IT team for the last 3 years. However, he has been constantly plagued by his people going on unplanned leaves. This has been happening for the last 8-9 months or so. It also came out in several retrospectives. However, there was no focused effort in solving the root problems. Whenever, there were unplanned leaves, the team leads would step up, they would spend night outs and would somehow make sure that the release would not get affected. And to encourage this trend, the Management would reward the Leads with \"Star of the Quarter\" or \"Team champion\" award, which would further encourage this trend. Unconsciously, the Manager was setting himself up for failure by encouraging this trend. When we dug the problem deeper, the following was what I observed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I tried to dig deeper, while Piyush complained about the symptom of \u201cUnplanned Leaves\u201d, the main response from the team was that they were not getting the leaves when they asked for the same citing the amount of work that was there. The team members hardly contributed. The Leads and seniors were doing most of the heavy lifting. Even though, they were burnt out because of work , they still were getting necessary incentives both in terms of having a superior knowledge on the application that they did not want to give up. Eventually, even the seniors and leads were taking unplanned leaves mainly because they were also burnt out and partly because they knew that Piyush always had a soft corner for them. When the process of retrospective was put in place, the team explicitly stated that they did not receive a proper KT. That is one of the objectives of Retrospectives where the team can express itself freely. When Piyush heard the same, his solutioning was to reward the team leads and bail them out of the release pains rather than solving the root problem. The team also did not press too much because they were internally happy of not feeling much pressure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The problem is represented below in the table as a sequence of Drama Triangle roles. The subtext in parenthesis is ulterior and not expressed openly. Only when I dug deeper, I found it. (https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Karpman_drama_triangle)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n Persecutor\n <\/td>\n Victim\n <\/td>\n Rescuer\n <\/td><\/tr>
\n Manager: There are too many unplanned Leaves\n <\/td> (Team: If we ask for a planned leave, we do not get it )<\/em><\/td> Leads\/Seniors: We will (cover for the team and )<\/em>ensure the release wouldn't suffer <\/td><\/tr>
(Team Leads: Let us also go on an unplanned leave. We are totally burned out. Why should only we suffer?)<\/em><\/td>Manager: Oh my god! how am I going to deliver this? Team, I need you to pull the weight this time.<\/td>Team: We will do our best (to get out of this situation. Provide some temporary fixes) <\/em><\/td><\/tr>
Team: We tried our best but we have never been given a proper KT. (I am rather happy that I do not have to take much pressure)<\/em><\/td> Team Leads: Despite all the efforts, we get to be blamed<\/td>Manager: Don't worry, I will make sure you get all the necessary rewards for the hard work (strike the deal with the team leads)<\/em><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This is typically how the Drama Triangle works. And because the roles keep switching, it will keep the \"Game\" of the recurring problem alive. And all of this happens at an unconscious level. This also results in a negative feeling for everybody involved. Because, it happens at an unconscious level for all the players, they would also struggle to come out of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In order to break this pattern, there should be an active involvement of all the participants to solve the root problem and address the same. How would you solve this problem?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

...............................................................................................................................<\/p>\n\n\n\n

...............................................................................................................................<\/p>\n\n\n\n

...............................................................................................................................<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here is how we solved the problem:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Solution<\/strong>: The first thing I did was to bring this awareness of Drama Triangle among all the participants. I showed them how each of them are playing their part in keeping the game alive without their awareness. Since they were all playing this at an unconscious level, it is very difficult to come out unless someone can bring that awareness. They had not seen this problem in the lens of a Drama Triangle at all. This helped them break the resistances on solving the problem and see how they themselves contributed to solving this problem. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The main issue was that the team members did not develop enough skills in their project. We found during the session that most of it could be addressed if the team was involved in the decision making, hold them accountable and if they can be helped in enhancing the skills. The team was given a lot more autonomy. They were involved in the planning meetings and their opinions and decisions were given more weightage. While a separate time was scoped out for KT, it was made sure that the team would start fronting all the work where as the team leads would play the supporting role. The team found the work lot more challenging, while the seniors played the role of mentors. As a result, the team started to learn not only the technical skills but also the Leadership skills to feel empowered. Gradually, there was a decrease in unplanned leaves as the team felt more empowered.<\/p>\n","post_title":"CHOW#287 - The Drama of \"Unplanned Leaves\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"chow287-the-drama-of-unplanned-leaves","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-23 08:29:34","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-23 08:29:34","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=19790","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":4},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

Page 4 of 12 1 … 3 4 5 … 12
\n

Agile culture is an environment built\naround core values and principles with practices and behaviours aligned to\nthose values and principles. In today\u2019s business, this culture needs to address\nresponsiveness to customer and market needs in an extremely complex and\nuncertain environment. Essentially the organization\u2019s values and principles and\nthe related practices \/ behaviours should be reflective of this business\nneed.  For culture to be effective at the\nbusiness level, it needs to permeate through various organizational layers,\nstarting from the top. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Agile culture in teams - Values, Principles and Practices<\/strong> Implementing a proper Agile culture in teams requires a good understanding of Agile values and principles and an appreciation of how these are linked to practices (and to associated behaviours). While Agile values are universal, they are also often too abstract. On the other hand, practices are ways of solving common problems and dilemmas, that we encounter in software development. Given the large perceived gap between these two, we use Principles to bridge this gap and help understand practices better. Values and Principles together guide us in adaptation and improvisation of practices, as part of our efforts to improve continuously. Let me take a couple of examples to illustrate this using the Agile Manifesto<\/a>, Principles<\/a>, Scrum Values<\/a> and XP Values and Principles<\/a>: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

From the above example, if you notice that\nthe practice of team members taking turns to provide updates (rather than each\none being prodded on by the SM) is an implementation of the principle of\naccepted responsibility (ownership). I am sure you can see a linkage of other\npractices to the values and principles that they align to. As mentioned before,\nyou can improvise on practices (such as, doing fun retrospectives, for example)\nwithout compromising on values and principles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the above example, I have deliberately\nmixed values and principles from the Agile manifesto as well as specific Agile\napproaches such as Scrum \/ XP. From my own perspective, I have looked at the Agile\nManifesto as more of a position statement than a set of classical \u201cvalues\u201d -\nwhich is why approaches such as Scrum and XP expounded their own set of values.\nMost Agile approaches use the Agile manifesto as a broad guideline for their\nown specific recommendations and incorporate their own values and principles to\nsupport their practice recommendations (both management as well as technical\npractices). In my opinion, it is sensible to take such a hybrid approach to\nsupport your organization context. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is another factor to be considered \u2013\nAgile Manifesto and values and principles from other approaches are applicable\nto a software development context, which functions under a broad organizational\ncontext. The organization will have its own core values and philosophy stated from\na business perspective, and as a consequence, any Agile implementation has to\nbe aligned to and support this organizational context. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Agile culture in leadership and\nmanagement<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the early days of Agile implementation,\nit was viewed largely as a bottom-up initiative focusing on delivery teams. The\npervasive nature of Agile as a culture change across all the layers of the\norganization was lost on senior leadership. \nThis introduces many internal conflicts. For example, when SMs see their\nmanager(s) practicing a directive style with them, while expecting them to be\nfacilitative with their own teams, they see a clear conflict of culture. In my\nexperience as a coach, I have personally seen managers track their teams\u2019\nburn-downs - which is clearly a team\u2019s responsibility to track for needed\nactions - wanting to know why they were looking bad, during a sprint execution.\nThis clearly goes against Principle 5 of the manifesto that says \u201cBuild\nprojects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and support\nthey need and trust them to get the job done\u201d. In essence, the Manager\u2019s role\nis to provide facilitative support to teams after providing them the big\npicture \/ vision \/ direction. Teams decide on how they will execute, and will approach\nyou as managers, only for unresolved blockers, or when they need support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From a leadership perspective as well, leadership practices should be based on similar values and principles to what we have discussed for teams. Some of these principles may include those relating to delegation\/empowerment, workforce diversity, freedom for experimentation, support for collaborative communities, emotional well-being of employees and so on. For those keen on an organizational perspective of Agile, would like to refer you to PM Power\u2019s recently released book \u201cThe Five Tantras of Enterprise Agility<\/a>\u201d. Incidentally, the book devotes an entire section (Book 3 within the book) to Transformational Leadership needed to succeed with Agile. <\/p>\n","post_title":"Agile Culture and Mindset - re-visited","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"agile-culture-and-mindset-re-visited","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 12:26:29","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 12:26:29","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=19891","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":19790,"post_author":"13","post_date":"2022-03-28 11:03:24","post_date_gmt":"2022-03-28 05:33:24","post_content":"\n

Piyush works as a Manager for a team of 20 people. He has been successfully running an IT team for the last 3 years. However, he has been constantly plagued by his people going on unplanned leaves. This has been happening for the last 8-9 months or so. It also came out in several retrospectives. However, there was no focused effort in solving the root problems. Whenever, there were unplanned leaves, the team leads would step up, they would spend night outs and would somehow make sure that the release would not get affected. And to encourage this trend, the Management would reward the Leads with \"Star of the Quarter\" or \"Team champion\" award, which would further encourage this trend. Unconsciously, the Manager was setting himself up for failure by encouraging this trend. When we dug the problem deeper, the following was what I observed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I tried to dig deeper, while Piyush complained about the symptom of \u201cUnplanned Leaves\u201d, the main response from the team was that they were not getting the leaves when they asked for the same citing the amount of work that was there. The team members hardly contributed. The Leads and seniors were doing most of the heavy lifting. Even though, they were burnt out because of work , they still were getting necessary incentives both in terms of having a superior knowledge on the application that they did not want to give up. Eventually, even the seniors and leads were taking unplanned leaves mainly because they were also burnt out and partly because they knew that Piyush always had a soft corner for them. When the process of retrospective was put in place, the team explicitly stated that they did not receive a proper KT. That is one of the objectives of Retrospectives where the team can express itself freely. When Piyush heard the same, his solutioning was to reward the team leads and bail them out of the release pains rather than solving the root problem. The team also did not press too much because they were internally happy of not feeling much pressure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The problem is represented below in the table as a sequence of Drama Triangle roles. The subtext in parenthesis is ulterior and not expressed openly. Only when I dug deeper, I found it. (https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Karpman_drama_triangle)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n Persecutor\n <\/td>\n Victim\n <\/td>\n Rescuer\n <\/td><\/tr>
\n Manager: There are too many unplanned Leaves\n <\/td> (Team: If we ask for a planned leave, we do not get it )<\/em><\/td> Leads\/Seniors: We will (cover for the team and )<\/em>ensure the release wouldn't suffer <\/td><\/tr>
(Team Leads: Let us also go on an unplanned leave. We are totally burned out. Why should only we suffer?)<\/em><\/td>Manager: Oh my god! how am I going to deliver this? Team, I need you to pull the weight this time.<\/td>Team: We will do our best (to get out of this situation. Provide some temporary fixes) <\/em><\/td><\/tr>
Team: We tried our best but we have never been given a proper KT. (I am rather happy that I do not have to take much pressure)<\/em><\/td> Team Leads: Despite all the efforts, we get to be blamed<\/td>Manager: Don't worry, I will make sure you get all the necessary rewards for the hard work (strike the deal with the team leads)<\/em><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This is typically how the Drama Triangle works. And because the roles keep switching, it will keep the \"Game\" of the recurring problem alive. And all of this happens at an unconscious level. This also results in a negative feeling for everybody involved. Because, it happens at an unconscious level for all the players, they would also struggle to come out of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In order to break this pattern, there should be an active involvement of all the participants to solve the root problem and address the same. How would you solve this problem?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

...............................................................................................................................<\/p>\n\n\n\n

...............................................................................................................................<\/p>\n\n\n\n

...............................................................................................................................<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here is how we solved the problem:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Solution<\/strong>: The first thing I did was to bring this awareness of Drama Triangle among all the participants. I showed them how each of them are playing their part in keeping the game alive without their awareness. Since they were all playing this at an unconscious level, it is very difficult to come out unless someone can bring that awareness. They had not seen this problem in the lens of a Drama Triangle at all. This helped them break the resistances on solving the problem and see how they themselves contributed to solving this problem. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The main issue was that the team members did not develop enough skills in their project. We found during the session that most of it could be addressed if the team was involved in the decision making, hold them accountable and if they can be helped in enhancing the skills. The team was given a lot more autonomy. They were involved in the planning meetings and their opinions and decisions were given more weightage. While a separate time was scoped out for KT, it was made sure that the team would start fronting all the work where as the team leads would play the supporting role. The team found the work lot more challenging, while the seniors played the role of mentors. As a result, the team started to learn not only the technical skills but also the Leadership skills to feel empowered. Gradually, there was a decrease in unplanned leaves as the team felt more empowered.<\/p>\n","post_title":"CHOW#287 - The Drama of \"Unplanned Leaves\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"chow287-the-drama-of-unplanned-leaves","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-23 08:29:34","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-23 08:29:34","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=19790","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":4},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

Page 4 of 12 1 … 3 4 5 … 12
\n

What is Agile culture?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Agile culture is an environment built\naround core values and principles with practices and behaviours aligned to\nthose values and principles. In today\u2019s business, this culture needs to address\nresponsiveness to customer and market needs in an extremely complex and\nuncertain environment. Essentially the organization\u2019s values and principles and\nthe related practices \/ behaviours should be reflective of this business\nneed.  For culture to be effective at the\nbusiness level, it needs to permeate through various organizational layers,\nstarting from the top. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Agile culture in teams - Values, Principles and Practices<\/strong> Implementing a proper Agile culture in teams requires a good understanding of Agile values and principles and an appreciation of how these are linked to practices (and to associated behaviours). While Agile values are universal, they are also often too abstract. On the other hand, practices are ways of solving common problems and dilemmas, that we encounter in software development. Given the large perceived gap between these two, we use Principles to bridge this gap and help understand practices better. Values and Principles together guide us in adaptation and improvisation of practices, as part of our efforts to improve continuously. Let me take a couple of examples to illustrate this using the Agile Manifesto<\/a>, Principles<\/a>, Scrum Values<\/a> and XP Values and Principles<\/a>: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

From the above example, if you notice that\nthe practice of team members taking turns to provide updates (rather than each\none being prodded on by the SM) is an implementation of the principle of\naccepted responsibility (ownership). I am sure you can see a linkage of other\npractices to the values and principles that they align to. As mentioned before,\nyou can improvise on practices (such as, doing fun retrospectives, for example)\nwithout compromising on values and principles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the above example, I have deliberately\nmixed values and principles from the Agile manifesto as well as specific Agile\napproaches such as Scrum \/ XP. From my own perspective, I have looked at the Agile\nManifesto as more of a position statement than a set of classical \u201cvalues\u201d -\nwhich is why approaches such as Scrum and XP expounded their own set of values.\nMost Agile approaches use the Agile manifesto as a broad guideline for their\nown specific recommendations and incorporate their own values and principles to\nsupport their practice recommendations (both management as well as technical\npractices). In my opinion, it is sensible to take such a hybrid approach to\nsupport your organization context. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is another factor to be considered \u2013\nAgile Manifesto and values and principles from other approaches are applicable\nto a software development context, which functions under a broad organizational\ncontext. The organization will have its own core values and philosophy stated from\na business perspective, and as a consequence, any Agile implementation has to\nbe aligned to and support this organizational context. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Agile culture in leadership and\nmanagement<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the early days of Agile implementation,\nit was viewed largely as a bottom-up initiative focusing on delivery teams. The\npervasive nature of Agile as a culture change across all the layers of the\norganization was lost on senior leadership. \nThis introduces many internal conflicts. For example, when SMs see their\nmanager(s) practicing a directive style with them, while expecting them to be\nfacilitative with their own teams, they see a clear conflict of culture. In my\nexperience as a coach, I have personally seen managers track their teams\u2019\nburn-downs - which is clearly a team\u2019s responsibility to track for needed\nactions - wanting to know why they were looking bad, during a sprint execution.\nThis clearly goes against Principle 5 of the manifesto that says \u201cBuild\nprojects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and support\nthey need and trust them to get the job done\u201d. In essence, the Manager\u2019s role\nis to provide facilitative support to teams after providing them the big\npicture \/ vision \/ direction. Teams decide on how they will execute, and will approach\nyou as managers, only for unresolved blockers, or when they need support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From a leadership perspective as well, leadership practices should be based on similar values and principles to what we have discussed for teams. Some of these principles may include those relating to delegation\/empowerment, workforce diversity, freedom for experimentation, support for collaborative communities, emotional well-being of employees and so on. For those keen on an organizational perspective of Agile, would like to refer you to PM Power\u2019s recently released book \u201cThe Five Tantras of Enterprise Agility<\/a>\u201d. Incidentally, the book devotes an entire section (Book 3 within the book) to Transformational Leadership needed to succeed with Agile. <\/p>\n","post_title":"Agile Culture and Mindset - re-visited","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"agile-culture-and-mindset-re-visited","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 12:26:29","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 12:26:29","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=19891","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":19790,"post_author":"13","post_date":"2022-03-28 11:03:24","post_date_gmt":"2022-03-28 05:33:24","post_content":"\n

Piyush works as a Manager for a team of 20 people. He has been successfully running an IT team for the last 3 years. However, he has been constantly plagued by his people going on unplanned leaves. This has been happening for the last 8-9 months or so. It also came out in several retrospectives. However, there was no focused effort in solving the root problems. Whenever, there were unplanned leaves, the team leads would step up, they would spend night outs and would somehow make sure that the release would not get affected. And to encourage this trend, the Management would reward the Leads with \"Star of the Quarter\" or \"Team champion\" award, which would further encourage this trend. Unconsciously, the Manager was setting himself up for failure by encouraging this trend. When we dug the problem deeper, the following was what I observed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I tried to dig deeper, while Piyush complained about the symptom of \u201cUnplanned Leaves\u201d, the main response from the team was that they were not getting the leaves when they asked for the same citing the amount of work that was there. The team members hardly contributed. The Leads and seniors were doing most of the heavy lifting. Even though, they were burnt out because of work , they still were getting necessary incentives both in terms of having a superior knowledge on the application that they did not want to give up. Eventually, even the seniors and leads were taking unplanned leaves mainly because they were also burnt out and partly because they knew that Piyush always had a soft corner for them. When the process of retrospective was put in place, the team explicitly stated that they did not receive a proper KT. That is one of the objectives of Retrospectives where the team can express itself freely. When Piyush heard the same, his solutioning was to reward the team leads and bail them out of the release pains rather than solving the root problem. The team also did not press too much because they were internally happy of not feeling much pressure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The problem is represented below in the table as a sequence of Drama Triangle roles. The subtext in parenthesis is ulterior and not expressed openly. Only when I dug deeper, I found it. (https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Karpman_drama_triangle)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n Persecutor\n <\/td>\n Victim\n <\/td>\n Rescuer\n <\/td><\/tr>
\n Manager: There are too many unplanned Leaves\n <\/td> (Team: If we ask for a planned leave, we do not get it )<\/em><\/td> Leads\/Seniors: We will (cover for the team and )<\/em>ensure the release wouldn't suffer <\/td><\/tr>
(Team Leads: Let us also go on an unplanned leave. We are totally burned out. Why should only we suffer?)<\/em><\/td>Manager: Oh my god! how am I going to deliver this? Team, I need you to pull the weight this time.<\/td>Team: We will do our best (to get out of this situation. Provide some temporary fixes) <\/em><\/td><\/tr>
Team: We tried our best but we have never been given a proper KT. (I am rather happy that I do not have to take much pressure)<\/em><\/td> Team Leads: Despite all the efforts, we get to be blamed<\/td>Manager: Don't worry, I will make sure you get all the necessary rewards for the hard work (strike the deal with the team leads)<\/em><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This is typically how the Drama Triangle works. And because the roles keep switching, it will keep the \"Game\" of the recurring problem alive. And all of this happens at an unconscious level. This also results in a negative feeling for everybody involved. Because, it happens at an unconscious level for all the players, they would also struggle to come out of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In order to break this pattern, there should be an active involvement of all the participants to solve the root problem and address the same. How would you solve this problem?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

...............................................................................................................................<\/p>\n\n\n\n

...............................................................................................................................<\/p>\n\n\n\n

...............................................................................................................................<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here is how we solved the problem:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Solution<\/strong>: The first thing I did was to bring this awareness of Drama Triangle among all the participants. I showed them how each of them are playing their part in keeping the game alive without their awareness. Since they were all playing this at an unconscious level, it is very difficult to come out unless someone can bring that awareness. They had not seen this problem in the lens of a Drama Triangle at all. This helped them break the resistances on solving the problem and see how they themselves contributed to solving this problem. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The main issue was that the team members did not develop enough skills in their project. We found during the session that most of it could be addressed if the team was involved in the decision making, hold them accountable and if they can be helped in enhancing the skills. The team was given a lot more autonomy. They were involved in the planning meetings and their opinions and decisions were given more weightage. While a separate time was scoped out for KT, it was made sure that the team would start fronting all the work where as the team leads would play the supporting role. The team found the work lot more challenging, while the seniors played the role of mentors. As a result, the team started to learn not only the technical skills but also the Leadership skills to feel empowered. Gradually, there was a decrease in unplanned leaves as the team felt more empowered.<\/p>\n","post_title":"CHOW#287 - The Drama of \"Unplanned Leaves\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"chow287-the-drama-of-unplanned-leaves","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-23 08:29:34","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-23 08:29:34","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=19790","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":4},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

Page 4 of 12 1 … 3 4 5 … 12
\n

Ever since Agile approaches became popular\nabout 15 to 20 years ago, Agile culture and mindset have been touted as the\nfoundation elements around which successful organizational transformation\nhappens. Peter Drucker\u2019s famous quote \u201cCulture eats strategy for breakfast\u201d points\nto the ineffectiveness of your strategy implementation if the company culture\ndoesn\u2019t support it. In the early years, not many organizations understood and\ninternalized the true Agile culture \/ philosophy, leading to many of them\nfailing in their Agile journey. This was helped in no small measure by the\nplethora of consultants, selling Agile as a methodology over philosophy. The\nfew successes that we had, though, led to the realization that \u201cbeing agile\u201d is\nsubstantially more important for succeeding with Agile than \u201cdoing agile\u201d. This\nessentially means implementing Agile in \u201cspirit\u201d and, we are seeing this trend\nwith many organizations today. The intent of this blog is to demystify a few\naspects relating to Agile mindset and culture, both from a team perspective, as\nwell as, from the perspective of leadership\/management.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is Agile culture?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Agile culture is an environment built\naround core values and principles with practices and behaviours aligned to\nthose values and principles. In today\u2019s business, this culture needs to address\nresponsiveness to customer and market needs in an extremely complex and\nuncertain environment. Essentially the organization\u2019s values and principles and\nthe related practices \/ behaviours should be reflective of this business\nneed.  For culture to be effective at the\nbusiness level, it needs to permeate through various organizational layers,\nstarting from the top. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Agile culture in teams - Values, Principles and Practices<\/strong> Implementing a proper Agile culture in teams requires a good understanding of Agile values and principles and an appreciation of how these are linked to practices (and to associated behaviours). While Agile values are universal, they are also often too abstract. On the other hand, practices are ways of solving common problems and dilemmas, that we encounter in software development. Given the large perceived gap between these two, we use Principles to bridge this gap and help understand practices better. Values and Principles together guide us in adaptation and improvisation of practices, as part of our efforts to improve continuously. Let me take a couple of examples to illustrate this using the Agile Manifesto<\/a>, Principles<\/a>, Scrum Values<\/a> and XP Values and Principles<\/a>: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

From the above example, if you notice that\nthe practice of team members taking turns to provide updates (rather than each\none being prodded on by the SM) is an implementation of the principle of\naccepted responsibility (ownership). I am sure you can see a linkage of other\npractices to the values and principles that they align to. As mentioned before,\nyou can improvise on practices (such as, doing fun retrospectives, for example)\nwithout compromising on values and principles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the above example, I have deliberately\nmixed values and principles from the Agile manifesto as well as specific Agile\napproaches such as Scrum \/ XP. From my own perspective, I have looked at the Agile\nManifesto as more of a position statement than a set of classical \u201cvalues\u201d -\nwhich is why approaches such as Scrum and XP expounded their own set of values.\nMost Agile approaches use the Agile manifesto as a broad guideline for their\nown specific recommendations and incorporate their own values and principles to\nsupport their practice recommendations (both management as well as technical\npractices). In my opinion, it is sensible to take such a hybrid approach to\nsupport your organization context. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is another factor to be considered \u2013\nAgile Manifesto and values and principles from other approaches are applicable\nto a software development context, which functions under a broad organizational\ncontext. The organization will have its own core values and philosophy stated from\na business perspective, and as a consequence, any Agile implementation has to\nbe aligned to and support this organizational context. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Agile culture in leadership and\nmanagement<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the early days of Agile implementation,\nit was viewed largely as a bottom-up initiative focusing on delivery teams. The\npervasive nature of Agile as a culture change across all the layers of the\norganization was lost on senior leadership. \nThis introduces many internal conflicts. For example, when SMs see their\nmanager(s) practicing a directive style with them, while expecting them to be\nfacilitative with their own teams, they see a clear conflict of culture. In my\nexperience as a coach, I have personally seen managers track their teams\u2019\nburn-downs - which is clearly a team\u2019s responsibility to track for needed\nactions - wanting to know why they were looking bad, during a sprint execution.\nThis clearly goes against Principle 5 of the manifesto that says \u201cBuild\nprojects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and support\nthey need and trust them to get the job done\u201d. In essence, the Manager\u2019s role\nis to provide facilitative support to teams after providing them the big\npicture \/ vision \/ direction. Teams decide on how they will execute, and will approach\nyou as managers, only for unresolved blockers, or when they need support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From a leadership perspective as well, leadership practices should be based on similar values and principles to what we have discussed for teams. Some of these principles may include those relating to delegation\/empowerment, workforce diversity, freedom for experimentation, support for collaborative communities, emotional well-being of employees and so on. For those keen on an organizational perspective of Agile, would like to refer you to PM Power\u2019s recently released book \u201cThe Five Tantras of Enterprise Agility<\/a>\u201d. Incidentally, the book devotes an entire section (Book 3 within the book) to Transformational Leadership needed to succeed with Agile. <\/p>\n","post_title":"Agile Culture and Mindset - re-visited","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"agile-culture-and-mindset-re-visited","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 12:26:29","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 12:26:29","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=19891","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":19790,"post_author":"13","post_date":"2022-03-28 11:03:24","post_date_gmt":"2022-03-28 05:33:24","post_content":"\n

Piyush works as a Manager for a team of 20 people. He has been successfully running an IT team for the last 3 years. However, he has been constantly plagued by his people going on unplanned leaves. This has been happening for the last 8-9 months or so. It also came out in several retrospectives. However, there was no focused effort in solving the root problems. Whenever, there were unplanned leaves, the team leads would step up, they would spend night outs and would somehow make sure that the release would not get affected. And to encourage this trend, the Management would reward the Leads with \"Star of the Quarter\" or \"Team champion\" award, which would further encourage this trend. Unconsciously, the Manager was setting himself up for failure by encouraging this trend. When we dug the problem deeper, the following was what I observed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I tried to dig deeper, while Piyush complained about the symptom of \u201cUnplanned Leaves\u201d, the main response from the team was that they were not getting the leaves when they asked for the same citing the amount of work that was there. The team members hardly contributed. The Leads and seniors were doing most of the heavy lifting. Even though, they were burnt out because of work , they still were getting necessary incentives both in terms of having a superior knowledge on the application that they did not want to give up. Eventually, even the seniors and leads were taking unplanned leaves mainly because they were also burnt out and partly because they knew that Piyush always had a soft corner for them. When the process of retrospective was put in place, the team explicitly stated that they did not receive a proper KT. That is one of the objectives of Retrospectives where the team can express itself freely. When Piyush heard the same, his solutioning was to reward the team leads and bail them out of the release pains rather than solving the root problem. The team also did not press too much because they were internally happy of not feeling much pressure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The problem is represented below in the table as a sequence of Drama Triangle roles. The subtext in parenthesis is ulterior and not expressed openly. Only when I dug deeper, I found it. (https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Karpman_drama_triangle)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n Persecutor\n <\/td>\n Victim\n <\/td>\n Rescuer\n <\/td><\/tr>
\n Manager: There are too many unplanned Leaves\n <\/td> (Team: If we ask for a planned leave, we do not get it )<\/em><\/td> Leads\/Seniors: We will (cover for the team and )<\/em>ensure the release wouldn't suffer <\/td><\/tr>
(Team Leads: Let us also go on an unplanned leave. We are totally burned out. Why should only we suffer?)<\/em><\/td>Manager: Oh my god! how am I going to deliver this? Team, I need you to pull the weight this time.<\/td>Team: We will do our best (to get out of this situation. Provide some temporary fixes) <\/em><\/td><\/tr>
Team: We tried our best but we have never been given a proper KT. (I am rather happy that I do not have to take much pressure)<\/em><\/td> Team Leads: Despite all the efforts, we get to be blamed<\/td>Manager: Don't worry, I will make sure you get all the necessary rewards for the hard work (strike the deal with the team leads)<\/em><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This is typically how the Drama Triangle works. And because the roles keep switching, it will keep the \"Game\" of the recurring problem alive. And all of this happens at an unconscious level. This also results in a negative feeling for everybody involved. Because, it happens at an unconscious level for all the players, they would also struggle to come out of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In order to break this pattern, there should be an active involvement of all the participants to solve the root problem and address the same. How would you solve this problem?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

...............................................................................................................................<\/p>\n\n\n\n

...............................................................................................................................<\/p>\n\n\n\n

...............................................................................................................................<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here is how we solved the problem:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Solution<\/strong>: The first thing I did was to bring this awareness of Drama Triangle among all the participants. I showed them how each of them are playing their part in keeping the game alive without their awareness. Since they were all playing this at an unconscious level, it is very difficult to come out unless someone can bring that awareness. They had not seen this problem in the lens of a Drama Triangle at all. This helped them break the resistances on solving the problem and see how they themselves contributed to solving this problem. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The main issue was that the team members did not develop enough skills in their project. We found during the session that most of it could be addressed if the team was involved in the decision making, hold them accountable and if they can be helped in enhancing the skills. The team was given a lot more autonomy. They were involved in the planning meetings and their opinions and decisions were given more weightage. While a separate time was scoped out for KT, it was made sure that the team would start fronting all the work where as the team leads would play the supporting role. The team found the work lot more challenging, while the seniors played the role of mentors. As a result, the team started to learn not only the technical skills but also the Leadership skills to feel empowered. Gradually, there was a decrease in unplanned leaves as the team felt more empowered.<\/p>\n","post_title":"CHOW#287 - The Drama of \"Unplanned Leaves\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"chow287-the-drama-of-unplanned-leaves","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-23 08:29:34","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-23 08:29:34","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=19790","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":4},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

Page 4 of 12 1 … 3 4 5 … 12
\n

The book has a lot more detailed examples including situations involving some of the high performers who were more self-centric and concerned with their own success and image, and how he was able to help them turn into more team players and mentors to other less experienced players.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Eleven Rings for a Scrum Master","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"eleven-rings-for-a-scrum-master","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 11:31:55","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 11:31:55","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=19967","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"2","filter":"raw"},{"ID":19891,"post_author":"15","post_date":"2022-04-17 19:37:10","post_date_gmt":"2022-04-17 14:07:10","post_content":"\n

Ever since Agile approaches became popular\nabout 15 to 20 years ago, Agile culture and mindset have been touted as the\nfoundation elements around which successful organizational transformation\nhappens. Peter Drucker\u2019s famous quote \u201cCulture eats strategy for breakfast\u201d points\nto the ineffectiveness of your strategy implementation if the company culture\ndoesn\u2019t support it. In the early years, not many organizations understood and\ninternalized the true Agile culture \/ philosophy, leading to many of them\nfailing in their Agile journey. This was helped in no small measure by the\nplethora of consultants, selling Agile as a methodology over philosophy. The\nfew successes that we had, though, led to the realization that \u201cbeing agile\u201d is\nsubstantially more important for succeeding with Agile than \u201cdoing agile\u201d. This\nessentially means implementing Agile in \u201cspirit\u201d and, we are seeing this trend\nwith many organizations today. The intent of this blog is to demystify a few\naspects relating to Agile mindset and culture, both from a team perspective, as\nwell as, from the perspective of leadership\/management.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is Agile culture?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Agile culture is an environment built\naround core values and principles with practices and behaviours aligned to\nthose values and principles. In today\u2019s business, this culture needs to address\nresponsiveness to customer and market needs in an extremely complex and\nuncertain environment. Essentially the organization\u2019s values and principles and\nthe related practices \/ behaviours should be reflective of this business\nneed.  For culture to be effective at the\nbusiness level, it needs to permeate through various organizational layers,\nstarting from the top. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Agile culture in teams - Values, Principles and Practices<\/strong> Implementing a proper Agile culture in teams requires a good understanding of Agile values and principles and an appreciation of how these are linked to practices (and to associated behaviours). While Agile values are universal, they are also often too abstract. On the other hand, practices are ways of solving common problems and dilemmas, that we encounter in software development. Given the large perceived gap between these two, we use Principles to bridge this gap and help understand practices better. Values and Principles together guide us in adaptation and improvisation of practices, as part of our efforts to improve continuously. Let me take a couple of examples to illustrate this using the Agile Manifesto<\/a>, Principles<\/a>, Scrum Values<\/a> and XP Values and Principles<\/a>: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

From the above example, if you notice that\nthe practice of team members taking turns to provide updates (rather than each\none being prodded on by the SM) is an implementation of the principle of\naccepted responsibility (ownership). I am sure you can see a linkage of other\npractices to the values and principles that they align to. As mentioned before,\nyou can improvise on practices (such as, doing fun retrospectives, for example)\nwithout compromising on values and principles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the above example, I have deliberately\nmixed values and principles from the Agile manifesto as well as specific Agile\napproaches such as Scrum \/ XP. From my own perspective, I have looked at the Agile\nManifesto as more of a position statement than a set of classical \u201cvalues\u201d -\nwhich is why approaches such as Scrum and XP expounded their own set of values.\nMost Agile approaches use the Agile manifesto as a broad guideline for their\nown specific recommendations and incorporate their own values and principles to\nsupport their practice recommendations (both management as well as technical\npractices). In my opinion, it is sensible to take such a hybrid approach to\nsupport your organization context. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is another factor to be considered \u2013\nAgile Manifesto and values and principles from other approaches are applicable\nto a software development context, which functions under a broad organizational\ncontext. The organization will have its own core values and philosophy stated from\na business perspective, and as a consequence, any Agile implementation has to\nbe aligned to and support this organizational context. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Agile culture in leadership and\nmanagement<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the early days of Agile implementation,\nit was viewed largely as a bottom-up initiative focusing on delivery teams. The\npervasive nature of Agile as a culture change across all the layers of the\norganization was lost on senior leadership. \nThis introduces many internal conflicts. For example, when SMs see their\nmanager(s) practicing a directive style with them, while expecting them to be\nfacilitative with their own teams, they see a clear conflict of culture. In my\nexperience as a coach, I have personally seen managers track their teams\u2019\nburn-downs - which is clearly a team\u2019s responsibility to track for needed\nactions - wanting to know why they were looking bad, during a sprint execution.\nThis clearly goes against Principle 5 of the manifesto that says \u201cBuild\nprojects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and support\nthey need and trust them to get the job done\u201d. In essence, the Manager\u2019s role\nis to provide facilitative support to teams after providing them the big\npicture \/ vision \/ direction. Teams decide on how they will execute, and will approach\nyou as managers, only for unresolved blockers, or when they need support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From a leadership perspective as well, leadership practices should be based on similar values and principles to what we have discussed for teams. Some of these principles may include those relating to delegation\/empowerment, workforce diversity, freedom for experimentation, support for collaborative communities, emotional well-being of employees and so on. For those keen on an organizational perspective of Agile, would like to refer you to PM Power\u2019s recently released book \u201cThe Five Tantras of Enterprise Agility<\/a>\u201d. Incidentally, the book devotes an entire section (Book 3 within the book) to Transformational Leadership needed to succeed with Agile. <\/p>\n","post_title":"Agile Culture and Mindset - re-visited","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"agile-culture-and-mindset-re-visited","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 12:26:29","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 12:26:29","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=19891","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":19790,"post_author":"13","post_date":"2022-03-28 11:03:24","post_date_gmt":"2022-03-28 05:33:24","post_content":"\n

Piyush works as a Manager for a team of 20 people. He has been successfully running an IT team for the last 3 years. However, he has been constantly plagued by his people going on unplanned leaves. This has been happening for the last 8-9 months or so. It also came out in several retrospectives. However, there was no focused effort in solving the root problems. Whenever, there were unplanned leaves, the team leads would step up, they would spend night outs and would somehow make sure that the release would not get affected. And to encourage this trend, the Management would reward the Leads with \"Star of the Quarter\" or \"Team champion\" award, which would further encourage this trend. Unconsciously, the Manager was setting himself up for failure by encouraging this trend. When we dug the problem deeper, the following was what I observed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I tried to dig deeper, while Piyush complained about the symptom of \u201cUnplanned Leaves\u201d, the main response from the team was that they were not getting the leaves when they asked for the same citing the amount of work that was there. The team members hardly contributed. The Leads and seniors were doing most of the heavy lifting. Even though, they were burnt out because of work , they still were getting necessary incentives both in terms of having a superior knowledge on the application that they did not want to give up. Eventually, even the seniors and leads were taking unplanned leaves mainly because they were also burnt out and partly because they knew that Piyush always had a soft corner for them. When the process of retrospective was put in place, the team explicitly stated that they did not receive a proper KT. That is one of the objectives of Retrospectives where the team can express itself freely. When Piyush heard the same, his solutioning was to reward the team leads and bail them out of the release pains rather than solving the root problem. The team also did not press too much because they were internally happy of not feeling much pressure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The problem is represented below in the table as a sequence of Drama Triangle roles. The subtext in parenthesis is ulterior and not expressed openly. Only when I dug deeper, I found it. (https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Karpman_drama_triangle)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n Persecutor\n <\/td>\n Victim\n <\/td>\n Rescuer\n <\/td><\/tr>
\n Manager: There are too many unplanned Leaves\n <\/td> (Team: If we ask for a planned leave, we do not get it )<\/em><\/td> Leads\/Seniors: We will (cover for the team and )<\/em>ensure the release wouldn't suffer <\/td><\/tr>
(Team Leads: Let us also go on an unplanned leave. We are totally burned out. Why should only we suffer?)<\/em><\/td>Manager: Oh my god! how am I going to deliver this? Team, I need you to pull the weight this time.<\/td>Team: We will do our best (to get out of this situation. Provide some temporary fixes) <\/em><\/td><\/tr>
Team: We tried our best but we have never been given a proper KT. (I am rather happy that I do not have to take much pressure)<\/em><\/td> Team Leads: Despite all the efforts, we get to be blamed<\/td>Manager: Don't worry, I will make sure you get all the necessary rewards for the hard work (strike the deal with the team leads)<\/em><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This is typically how the Drama Triangle works. And because the roles keep switching, it will keep the \"Game\" of the recurring problem alive. And all of this happens at an unconscious level. This also results in a negative feeling for everybody involved. Because, it happens at an unconscious level for all the players, they would also struggle to come out of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In order to break this pattern, there should be an active involvement of all the participants to solve the root problem and address the same. How would you solve this problem?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

...............................................................................................................................<\/p>\n\n\n\n

...............................................................................................................................<\/p>\n\n\n\n

...............................................................................................................................<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here is how we solved the problem:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Solution<\/strong>: The first thing I did was to bring this awareness of Drama Triangle among all the participants. I showed them how each of them are playing their part in keeping the game alive without their awareness. Since they were all playing this at an unconscious level, it is very difficult to come out unless someone can bring that awareness. They had not seen this problem in the lens of a Drama Triangle at all. This helped them break the resistances on solving the problem and see how they themselves contributed to solving this problem. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The main issue was that the team members did not develop enough skills in their project. We found during the session that most of it could be addressed if the team was involved in the decision making, hold them accountable and if they can be helped in enhancing the skills. The team was given a lot more autonomy. They were involved in the planning meetings and their opinions and decisions were given more weightage. While a separate time was scoped out for KT, it was made sure that the team would start fronting all the work where as the team leads would play the supporting role. The team found the work lot more challenging, while the seniors played the role of mentors. As a result, the team started to learn not only the technical skills but also the Leadership skills to feel empowered. Gradually, there was a decrease in unplanned leaves as the team felt more empowered.<\/p>\n","post_title":"CHOW#287 - The Drama of \"Unplanned Leaves\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"chow287-the-drama-of-unplanned-leaves","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-23 08:29:34","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-23 08:29:34","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=19790","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":4},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

Page 4 of 12 1 … 3 4 5 … 12
\n
  • Forget the Ring<\/strong>

    This is also a point that is easier said than done. When one is so involved in the action, it is not easy to ignore or forget the result and the urge to win. Phil Jackson says, 'obsessing about winning is a loser's game.' The main reason he says, is that such a focus would lead to one losing control of one's emotions. He says, 'The most we can hope for is to create the best possible conditions for success, then let go of the outcome.' <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    The book has a lot more detailed examples including situations involving some of the high performers who were more self-centric and concerned with their own success and image, and how he was able to help them turn into more team players and mentors to other less experienced players.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Eleven Rings for a Scrum Master","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"eleven-rings-for-a-scrum-master","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 11:31:55","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 11:31:55","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=19967","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"2","filter":"raw"},{"ID":19891,"post_author":"15","post_date":"2022-04-17 19:37:10","post_date_gmt":"2022-04-17 14:07:10","post_content":"\n

    Ever since Agile approaches became popular\nabout 15 to 20 years ago, Agile culture and mindset have been touted as the\nfoundation elements around which successful organizational transformation\nhappens. Peter Drucker\u2019s famous quote \u201cCulture eats strategy for breakfast\u201d points\nto the ineffectiveness of your strategy implementation if the company culture\ndoesn\u2019t support it. In the early years, not many organizations understood and\ninternalized the true Agile culture \/ philosophy, leading to many of them\nfailing in their Agile journey. This was helped in no small measure by the\nplethora of consultants, selling Agile as a methodology over philosophy. The\nfew successes that we had, though, led to the realization that \u201cbeing agile\u201d is\nsubstantially more important for succeeding with Agile than \u201cdoing agile\u201d. This\nessentially means implementing Agile in \u201cspirit\u201d and, we are seeing this trend\nwith many organizations today. The intent of this blog is to demystify a few\naspects relating to Agile mindset and culture, both from a team perspective, as\nwell as, from the perspective of leadership\/management.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    What is Agile culture?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Agile culture is an environment built\naround core values and principles with practices and behaviours aligned to\nthose values and principles. In today\u2019s business, this culture needs to address\nresponsiveness to customer and market needs in an extremely complex and\nuncertain environment. Essentially the organization\u2019s values and principles and\nthe related practices \/ behaviours should be reflective of this business\nneed.  For culture to be effective at the\nbusiness level, it needs to permeate through various organizational layers,\nstarting from the top. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Agile culture in teams - Values, Principles and Practices<\/strong> Implementing a proper Agile culture in teams requires a good understanding of Agile values and principles and an appreciation of how these are linked to practices (and to associated behaviours). While Agile values are universal, they are also often too abstract. On the other hand, practices are ways of solving common problems and dilemmas, that we encounter in software development. Given the large perceived gap between these two, we use Principles to bridge this gap and help understand practices better. Values and Principles together guide us in adaptation and improvisation of practices, as part of our efforts to improve continuously. Let me take a couple of examples to illustrate this using the Agile Manifesto<\/a>, Principles<\/a>, Scrum Values<\/a> and XP Values and Principles<\/a>: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    From the above example, if you notice that\nthe practice of team members taking turns to provide updates (rather than each\none being prodded on by the SM) is an implementation of the principle of\naccepted responsibility (ownership). I am sure you can see a linkage of other\npractices to the values and principles that they align to. As mentioned before,\nyou can improvise on practices (such as, doing fun retrospectives, for example)\nwithout compromising on values and principles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    In the above example, I have deliberately\nmixed values and principles from the Agile manifesto as well as specific Agile\napproaches such as Scrum \/ XP. From my own perspective, I have looked at the Agile\nManifesto as more of a position statement than a set of classical \u201cvalues\u201d -\nwhich is why approaches such as Scrum and XP expounded their own set of values.\nMost Agile approaches use the Agile manifesto as a broad guideline for their\nown specific recommendations and incorporate their own values and principles to\nsupport their practice recommendations (both management as well as technical\npractices). In my opinion, it is sensible to take such a hybrid approach to\nsupport your organization context. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    There is another factor to be considered \u2013\nAgile Manifesto and values and principles from other approaches are applicable\nto a software development context, which functions under a broad organizational\ncontext. The organization will have its own core values and philosophy stated from\na business perspective, and as a consequence, any Agile implementation has to\nbe aligned to and support this organizational context. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Agile culture in leadership and\nmanagement<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    In the early days of Agile implementation,\nit was viewed largely as a bottom-up initiative focusing on delivery teams. The\npervasive nature of Agile as a culture change across all the layers of the\norganization was lost on senior leadership. \nThis introduces many internal conflicts. For example, when SMs see their\nmanager(s) practicing a directive style with them, while expecting them to be\nfacilitative with their own teams, they see a clear conflict of culture. In my\nexperience as a coach, I have personally seen managers track their teams\u2019\nburn-downs - which is clearly a team\u2019s responsibility to track for needed\nactions - wanting to know why they were looking bad, during a sprint execution.\nThis clearly goes against Principle 5 of the manifesto that says \u201cBuild\nprojects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and support\nthey need and trust them to get the job done\u201d. In essence, the Manager\u2019s role\nis to provide facilitative support to teams after providing them the big\npicture \/ vision \/ direction. Teams decide on how they will execute, and will approach\nyou as managers, only for unresolved blockers, or when they need support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    From a leadership perspective as well, leadership practices should be based on similar values and principles to what we have discussed for teams. Some of these principles may include those relating to delegation\/empowerment, workforce diversity, freedom for experimentation, support for collaborative communities, emotional well-being of employees and so on. For those keen on an organizational perspective of Agile, would like to refer you to PM Power\u2019s recently released book \u201cThe Five Tantras of Enterprise Agility<\/a>\u201d. Incidentally, the book devotes an entire section (Book 3 within the book) to Transformational Leadership needed to succeed with Agile. <\/p>\n","post_title":"Agile Culture and Mindset - re-visited","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"agile-culture-and-mindset-re-visited","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 12:26:29","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 12:26:29","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=19891","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":19790,"post_author":"13","post_date":"2022-03-28 11:03:24","post_date_gmt":"2022-03-28 05:33:24","post_content":"\n

    Piyush works as a Manager for a team of 20 people. He has been successfully running an IT team for the last 3 years. However, he has been constantly plagued by his people going on unplanned leaves. This has been happening for the last 8-9 months or so. It also came out in several retrospectives. However, there was no focused effort in solving the root problems. Whenever, there were unplanned leaves, the team leads would step up, they would spend night outs and would somehow make sure that the release would not get affected. And to encourage this trend, the Management would reward the Leads with \"Star of the Quarter\" or \"Team champion\" award, which would further encourage this trend. Unconsciously, the Manager was setting himself up for failure by encouraging this trend. When we dug the problem deeper, the following was what I observed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    When I tried to dig deeper, while Piyush complained about the symptom of \u201cUnplanned Leaves\u201d, the main response from the team was that they were not getting the leaves when they asked for the same citing the amount of work that was there. The team members hardly contributed. The Leads and seniors were doing most of the heavy lifting. Even though, they were burnt out because of work , they still were getting necessary incentives both in terms of having a superior knowledge on the application that they did not want to give up. Eventually, even the seniors and leads were taking unplanned leaves mainly because they were also burnt out and partly because they knew that Piyush always had a soft corner for them. When the process of retrospective was put in place, the team explicitly stated that they did not receive a proper KT. That is one of the objectives of Retrospectives where the team can express itself freely. When Piyush heard the same, his solutioning was to reward the team leads and bail them out of the release pains rather than solving the root problem. The team also did not press too much because they were internally happy of not feeling much pressure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The problem is represented below in the table as a sequence of Drama Triangle roles. The subtext in parenthesis is ulterior and not expressed openly. Only when I dug deeper, I found it. (https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Karpman_drama_triangle)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n Persecutor\n <\/td>\n Victim\n <\/td>\n Rescuer\n <\/td><\/tr>
    \n Manager: There are too many unplanned Leaves\n <\/td> (Team: If we ask for a planned leave, we do not get it )<\/em><\/td> Leads\/Seniors: We will (cover for the team and )<\/em>ensure the release wouldn't suffer <\/td><\/tr>
    (Team Leads: Let us also go on an unplanned leave. We are totally burned out. Why should only we suffer?)<\/em><\/td>Manager: Oh my god! how am I going to deliver this? Team, I need you to pull the weight this time.<\/td>Team: We will do our best (to get out of this situation. Provide some temporary fixes) <\/em><\/td><\/tr>
    Team: We tried our best but we have never been given a proper KT. (I am rather happy that I do not have to take much pressure)<\/em><\/td> Team Leads: Despite all the efforts, we get to be blamed<\/td>Manager: Don't worry, I will make sure you get all the necessary rewards for the hard work (strike the deal with the team leads)<\/em><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    This is typically how the Drama Triangle works. And because the roles keep switching, it will keep the \"Game\" of the recurring problem alive. And all of this happens at an unconscious level. This also results in a negative feeling for everybody involved. Because, it happens at an unconscious level for all the players, they would also struggle to come out of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    In order to break this pattern, there should be an active involvement of all the participants to solve the root problem and address the same. How would you solve this problem?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    ...............................................................................................................................<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    ...............................................................................................................................<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    ...............................................................................................................................<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Here is how we solved the problem:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Solution<\/strong>: The first thing I did was to bring this awareness of Drama Triangle among all the participants. I showed them how each of them are playing their part in keeping the game alive without their awareness. Since they were all playing this at an unconscious level, it is very difficult to come out unless someone can bring that awareness. They had not seen this problem in the lens of a Drama Triangle at all. This helped them break the resistances on solving the problem and see how they themselves contributed to solving this problem. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The main issue was that the team members did not develop enough skills in their project. We found during the session that most of it could be addressed if the team was involved in the decision making, hold them accountable and if they can be helped in enhancing the skills. The team was given a lot more autonomy. They were involved in the planning meetings and their opinions and decisions were given more weightage. While a separate time was scoped out for KT, it was made sure that the team would start fronting all the work where as the team leads would play the supporting role. The team found the work lot more challenging, while the seniors played the role of mentors. As a result, the team started to learn not only the technical skills but also the Leadership skills to feel empowered. Gradually, there was a decrease in unplanned leaves as the team felt more empowered.<\/p>\n","post_title":"CHOW#287 - The Drama of \"Unplanned Leaves\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"chow287-the-drama-of-unplanned-leaves","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-23 08:29:34","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-23 08:29:34","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=19790","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":4},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

    Page 4 of 12 1 … 3 4 5 … 12
    \n
  • When in Doubt, Do Nothing<\/strong>

    One of the key responsibilities of a Scrum Master if to remove impediments. This may not be quite simple at times. For an action-oriented person, it may be difficult to not do anything and observe the situation resolve itself. But, sometimes, it is best to not do anything. The triaging technique used by many teams \u2013 including emergency medical response teams \u2013 also suggests that in some situations, it is best to not do anything. This will come with experience. <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

  • Forget the Ring<\/strong>

    This is also a point that is easier said than done. When one is so involved in the action, it is not easy to ignore or forget the result and the urge to win. Phil Jackson says, 'obsessing about winning is a loser's game.' The main reason he says, is that such a focus would lead to one losing control of one's emotions. He says, 'The most we can hope for is to create the best possible conditions for success, then let go of the outcome.' <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    The book has a lot more detailed examples including situations involving some of the high performers who were more self-centric and concerned with their own success and image, and how he was able to help them turn into more team players and mentors to other less experienced players.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Eleven Rings for a Scrum Master","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"eleven-rings-for-a-scrum-master","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 11:31:55","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 11:31:55","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=19967","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"2","filter":"raw"},{"ID":19891,"post_author":"15","post_date":"2022-04-17 19:37:10","post_date_gmt":"2022-04-17 14:07:10","post_content":"\n

    Ever since Agile approaches became popular\nabout 15 to 20 years ago, Agile culture and mindset have been touted as the\nfoundation elements around which successful organizational transformation\nhappens. Peter Drucker\u2019s famous quote \u201cCulture eats strategy for breakfast\u201d points\nto the ineffectiveness of your strategy implementation if the company culture\ndoesn\u2019t support it. In the early years, not many organizations understood and\ninternalized the true Agile culture \/ philosophy, leading to many of them\nfailing in their Agile journey. This was helped in no small measure by the\nplethora of consultants, selling Agile as a methodology over philosophy. The\nfew successes that we had, though, led to the realization that \u201cbeing agile\u201d is\nsubstantially more important for succeeding with Agile than \u201cdoing agile\u201d. This\nessentially means implementing Agile in \u201cspirit\u201d and, we are seeing this trend\nwith many organizations today. The intent of this blog is to demystify a few\naspects relating to Agile mindset and culture, both from a team perspective, as\nwell as, from the perspective of leadership\/management.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    What is Agile culture?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Agile culture is an environment built\naround core values and principles with practices and behaviours aligned to\nthose values and principles. In today\u2019s business, this culture needs to address\nresponsiveness to customer and market needs in an extremely complex and\nuncertain environment. Essentially the organization\u2019s values and principles and\nthe related practices \/ behaviours should be reflective of this business\nneed.  For culture to be effective at the\nbusiness level, it needs to permeate through various organizational layers,\nstarting from the top. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Agile culture in teams - Values, Principles and Practices<\/strong> Implementing a proper Agile culture in teams requires a good understanding of Agile values and principles and an appreciation of how these are linked to practices (and to associated behaviours). While Agile values are universal, they are also often too abstract. On the other hand, practices are ways of solving common problems and dilemmas, that we encounter in software development. Given the large perceived gap between these two, we use Principles to bridge this gap and help understand practices better. Values and Principles together guide us in adaptation and improvisation of practices, as part of our efforts to improve continuously. Let me take a couple of examples to illustrate this using the Agile Manifesto<\/a>, Principles<\/a>, Scrum Values<\/a> and XP Values and Principles<\/a>: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    From the above example, if you notice that\nthe practice of team members taking turns to provide updates (rather than each\none being prodded on by the SM) is an implementation of the principle of\naccepted responsibility (ownership). I am sure you can see a linkage of other\npractices to the values and principles that they align to. As mentioned before,\nyou can improvise on practices (such as, doing fun retrospectives, for example)\nwithout compromising on values and principles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    In the above example, I have deliberately\nmixed values and principles from the Agile manifesto as well as specific Agile\napproaches such as Scrum \/ XP. From my own perspective, I have looked at the Agile\nManifesto as more of a position statement than a set of classical \u201cvalues\u201d -\nwhich is why approaches such as Scrum and XP expounded their own set of values.\nMost Agile approaches use the Agile manifesto as a broad guideline for their\nown specific recommendations and incorporate their own values and principles to\nsupport their practice recommendations (both management as well as technical\npractices). In my opinion, it is sensible to take such a hybrid approach to\nsupport your organization context. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    There is another factor to be considered \u2013\nAgile Manifesto and values and principles from other approaches are applicable\nto a software development context, which functions under a broad organizational\ncontext. The organization will have its own core values and philosophy stated from\na business perspective, and as a consequence, any Agile implementation has to\nbe aligned to and support this organizational context. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Agile culture in leadership and\nmanagement<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    In the early days of Agile implementation,\nit was viewed largely as a bottom-up initiative focusing on delivery teams. The\npervasive nature of Agile as a culture change across all the layers of the\norganization was lost on senior leadership. \nThis introduces many internal conflicts. For example, when SMs see their\nmanager(s) practicing a directive style with them, while expecting them to be\nfacilitative with their own teams, they see a clear conflict of culture. In my\nexperience as a coach, I have personally seen managers track their teams\u2019\nburn-downs - which is clearly a team\u2019s responsibility to track for needed\nactions - wanting to know why they were looking bad, during a sprint execution.\nThis clearly goes against Principle 5 of the manifesto that says \u201cBuild\nprojects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and support\nthey need and trust them to get the job done\u201d. In essence, the Manager\u2019s role\nis to provide facilitative support to teams after providing them the big\npicture \/ vision \/ direction. Teams decide on how they will execute, and will approach\nyou as managers, only for unresolved blockers, or when they need support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    From a leadership perspective as well, leadership practices should be based on similar values and principles to what we have discussed for teams. Some of these principles may include those relating to delegation\/empowerment, workforce diversity, freedom for experimentation, support for collaborative communities, emotional well-being of employees and so on. For those keen on an organizational perspective of Agile, would like to refer you to PM Power\u2019s recently released book \u201cThe Five Tantras of Enterprise Agility<\/a>\u201d. Incidentally, the book devotes an entire section (Book 3 within the book) to Transformational Leadership needed to succeed with Agile. <\/p>\n","post_title":"Agile Culture and Mindset - re-visited","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"agile-culture-and-mindset-re-visited","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 12:26:29","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 12:26:29","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=19891","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":19790,"post_author":"13","post_date":"2022-03-28 11:03:24","post_date_gmt":"2022-03-28 05:33:24","post_content":"\n

    Piyush works as a Manager for a team of 20 people. He has been successfully running an IT team for the last 3 years. However, he has been constantly plagued by his people going on unplanned leaves. This has been happening for the last 8-9 months or so. It also came out in several retrospectives. However, there was no focused effort in solving the root problems. Whenever, there were unplanned leaves, the team leads would step up, they would spend night outs and would somehow make sure that the release would not get affected. And to encourage this trend, the Management would reward the Leads with \"Star of the Quarter\" or \"Team champion\" award, which would further encourage this trend. Unconsciously, the Manager was setting himself up for failure by encouraging this trend. When we dug the problem deeper, the following was what I observed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    When I tried to dig deeper, while Piyush complained about the symptom of \u201cUnplanned Leaves\u201d, the main response from the team was that they were not getting the leaves when they asked for the same citing the amount of work that was there. The team members hardly contributed. The Leads and seniors were doing most of the heavy lifting. Even though, they were burnt out because of work , they still were getting necessary incentives both in terms of having a superior knowledge on the application that they did not want to give up. Eventually, even the seniors and leads were taking unplanned leaves mainly because they were also burnt out and partly because they knew that Piyush always had a soft corner for them. When the process of retrospective was put in place, the team explicitly stated that they did not receive a proper KT. That is one of the objectives of Retrospectives where the team can express itself freely. When Piyush heard the same, his solutioning was to reward the team leads and bail them out of the release pains rather than solving the root problem. The team also did not press too much because they were internally happy of not feeling much pressure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The problem is represented below in the table as a sequence of Drama Triangle roles. The subtext in parenthesis is ulterior and not expressed openly. Only when I dug deeper, I found it. (https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Karpman_drama_triangle)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n Persecutor\n <\/td>\n Victim\n <\/td>\n Rescuer\n <\/td><\/tr>
    \n Manager: There are too many unplanned Leaves\n <\/td> (Team: If we ask for a planned leave, we do not get it )<\/em><\/td> Leads\/Seniors: We will (cover for the team and )<\/em>ensure the release wouldn't suffer <\/td><\/tr>
    (Team Leads: Let us also go on an unplanned leave. We are totally burned out. Why should only we suffer?)<\/em><\/td>Manager: Oh my god! how am I going to deliver this? Team, I need you to pull the weight this time.<\/td>Team: We will do our best (to get out of this situation. Provide some temporary fixes) <\/em><\/td><\/tr>
    Team: We tried our best but we have never been given a proper KT. (I am rather happy that I do not have to take much pressure)<\/em><\/td> Team Leads: Despite all the efforts, we get to be blamed<\/td>Manager: Don't worry, I will make sure you get all the necessary rewards for the hard work (strike the deal with the team leads)<\/em><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    This is typically how the Drama Triangle works. And because the roles keep switching, it will keep the \"Game\" of the recurring problem alive. And all of this happens at an unconscious level. This also results in a negative feeling for everybody involved. Because, it happens at an unconscious level for all the players, they would also struggle to come out of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    In order to break this pattern, there should be an active involvement of all the participants to solve the root problem and address the same. How would you solve this problem?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    ...............................................................................................................................<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    ...............................................................................................................................<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    ...............................................................................................................................<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Here is how we solved the problem:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Solution<\/strong>: The first thing I did was to bring this awareness of Drama Triangle among all the participants. I showed them how each of them are playing their part in keeping the game alive without their awareness. Since they were all playing this at an unconscious level, it is very difficult to come out unless someone can bring that awareness. They had not seen this problem in the lens of a Drama Triangle at all. This helped them break the resistances on solving the problem and see how they themselves contributed to solving this problem. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The main issue was that the team members did not develop enough skills in their project. We found during the session that most of it could be addressed if the team was involved in the decision making, hold them accountable and if they can be helped in enhancing the skills. The team was given a lot more autonomy. They were involved in the planning meetings and their opinions and decisions were given more weightage. While a separate time was scoped out for KT, it was made sure that the team would start fronting all the work where as the team leads would play the supporting role. The team found the work lot more challenging, while the seniors played the role of mentors. As a result, the team started to learn not only the technical skills but also the Leadership skills to feel empowered. Gradually, there was a decrease in unplanned leaves as the team felt more empowered.<\/p>\n","post_title":"CHOW#287 - The Drama of \"Unplanned Leaves\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"chow287-the-drama-of-unplanned-leaves","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-23 08:29:34","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-23 08:29:34","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=19790","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":4},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

    Page 4 of 12 1 … 3 4 5 … 12
    \n
  • Sometimes You Have to Pull Out the Big Stick<\/strong>

    This is tricky to directly interpret for a Scrum Master, as the emphasis is usually to be a 'servant leader' who gets results through influence. This is usually true in an ideal world. Sometimes, a Scrum Master needs to be creative to highlight some issues within the team or with specific individuals, so that they can realize the impact of their action or inaction. <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

  • When in Doubt, Do Nothing<\/strong>

    One of the key responsibilities of a Scrum Master if to remove impediments. This may not be quite simple at times. For an action-oriented person, it may be difficult to not do anything and observe the situation resolve itself. But, sometimes, it is best to not do anything. The triaging technique used by many teams \u2013 including emergency medical response teams \u2013 also suggests that in some situations, it is best to not do anything. This will come with experience. <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

  • Forget the Ring<\/strong>

    This is also a point that is easier said than done. When one is so involved in the action, it is not easy to ignore or forget the result and the urge to win. Phil Jackson says, 'obsessing about winning is a loser's game.' The main reason he says, is that such a focus would lead to one losing control of one's emotions. He says, 'The most we can hope for is to create the best possible conditions for success, then let go of the outcome.' <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    The book has a lot more detailed examples including situations involving some of the high performers who were more self-centric and concerned with their own success and image, and how he was able to help them turn into more team players and mentors to other less experienced players.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Eleven Rings for a Scrum Master","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"eleven-rings-for-a-scrum-master","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 11:31:55","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 11:31:55","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=19967","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"2","filter":"raw"},{"ID":19891,"post_author":"15","post_date":"2022-04-17 19:37:10","post_date_gmt":"2022-04-17 14:07:10","post_content":"\n

    Ever since Agile approaches became popular\nabout 15 to 20 years ago, Agile culture and mindset have been touted as the\nfoundation elements around which successful organizational transformation\nhappens. Peter Drucker\u2019s famous quote \u201cCulture eats strategy for breakfast\u201d points\nto the ineffectiveness of your strategy implementation if the company culture\ndoesn\u2019t support it. In the early years, not many organizations understood and\ninternalized the true Agile culture \/ philosophy, leading to many of them\nfailing in their Agile journey. This was helped in no small measure by the\nplethora of consultants, selling Agile as a methodology over philosophy. The\nfew successes that we had, though, led to the realization that \u201cbeing agile\u201d is\nsubstantially more important for succeeding with Agile than \u201cdoing agile\u201d. This\nessentially means implementing Agile in \u201cspirit\u201d and, we are seeing this trend\nwith many organizations today. The intent of this blog is to demystify a few\naspects relating to Agile mindset and culture, both from a team perspective, as\nwell as, from the perspective of leadership\/management.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    What is Agile culture?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Agile culture is an environment built\naround core values and principles with practices and behaviours aligned to\nthose values and principles. In today\u2019s business, this culture needs to address\nresponsiveness to customer and market needs in an extremely complex and\nuncertain environment. Essentially the organization\u2019s values and principles and\nthe related practices \/ behaviours should be reflective of this business\nneed.  For culture to be effective at the\nbusiness level, it needs to permeate through various organizational layers,\nstarting from the top. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Agile culture in teams - Values, Principles and Practices<\/strong> Implementing a proper Agile culture in teams requires a good understanding of Agile values and principles and an appreciation of how these are linked to practices (and to associated behaviours). While Agile values are universal, they are also often too abstract. On the other hand, practices are ways of solving common problems and dilemmas, that we encounter in software development. Given the large perceived gap between these two, we use Principles to bridge this gap and help understand practices better. Values and Principles together guide us in adaptation and improvisation of practices, as part of our efforts to improve continuously. Let me take a couple of examples to illustrate this using the Agile Manifesto<\/a>, Principles<\/a>, Scrum Values<\/a> and XP Values and Principles<\/a>: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    From the above example, if you notice that\nthe practice of team members taking turns to provide updates (rather than each\none being prodded on by the SM) is an implementation of the principle of\naccepted responsibility (ownership). I am sure you can see a linkage of other\npractices to the values and principles that they align to. As mentioned before,\nyou can improvise on practices (such as, doing fun retrospectives, for example)\nwithout compromising on values and principles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    In the above example, I have deliberately\nmixed values and principles from the Agile manifesto as well as specific Agile\napproaches such as Scrum \/ XP. From my own perspective, I have looked at the Agile\nManifesto as more of a position statement than a set of classical \u201cvalues\u201d -\nwhich is why approaches such as Scrum and XP expounded their own set of values.\nMost Agile approaches use the Agile manifesto as a broad guideline for their\nown specific recommendations and incorporate their own values and principles to\nsupport their practice recommendations (both management as well as technical\npractices). In my opinion, it is sensible to take such a hybrid approach to\nsupport your organization context. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    There is another factor to be considered \u2013\nAgile Manifesto and values and principles from other approaches are applicable\nto a software development context, which functions under a broad organizational\ncontext. The organization will have its own core values and philosophy stated from\na business perspective, and as a consequence, any Agile implementation has to\nbe aligned to and support this organizational context. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Agile culture in leadership and\nmanagement<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    In the early days of Agile implementation,\nit was viewed largely as a bottom-up initiative focusing on delivery teams. The\npervasive nature of Agile as a culture change across all the layers of the\norganization was lost on senior leadership. \nThis introduces many internal conflicts. For example, when SMs see their\nmanager(s) practicing a directive style with them, while expecting them to be\nfacilitative with their own teams, they see a clear conflict of culture. In my\nexperience as a coach, I have personally seen managers track their teams\u2019\nburn-downs - which is clearly a team\u2019s responsibility to track for needed\nactions - wanting to know why they were looking bad, during a sprint execution.\nThis clearly goes against Principle 5 of the manifesto that says \u201cBuild\nprojects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and support\nthey need and trust them to get the job done\u201d. In essence, the Manager\u2019s role\nis to provide facilitative support to teams after providing them the big\npicture \/ vision \/ direction. Teams decide on how they will execute, and will approach\nyou as managers, only for unresolved blockers, or when they need support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    From a leadership perspective as well, leadership practices should be based on similar values and principles to what we have discussed for teams. Some of these principles may include those relating to delegation\/empowerment, workforce diversity, freedom for experimentation, support for collaborative communities, emotional well-being of employees and so on. For those keen on an organizational perspective of Agile, would like to refer you to PM Power\u2019s recently released book \u201cThe Five Tantras of Enterprise Agility<\/a>\u201d. Incidentally, the book devotes an entire section (Book 3 within the book) to Transformational Leadership needed to succeed with Agile. <\/p>\n","post_title":"Agile Culture and Mindset - re-visited","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"agile-culture-and-mindset-re-visited","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 12:26:29","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 12:26:29","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=19891","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":19790,"post_author":"13","post_date":"2022-03-28 11:03:24","post_date_gmt":"2022-03-28 05:33:24","post_content":"\n

    Piyush works as a Manager for a team of 20 people. He has been successfully running an IT team for the last 3 years. However, he has been constantly plagued by his people going on unplanned leaves. This has been happening for the last 8-9 months or so. It also came out in several retrospectives. However, there was no focused effort in solving the root problems. Whenever, there were unplanned leaves, the team leads would step up, they would spend night outs and would somehow make sure that the release would not get affected. And to encourage this trend, the Management would reward the Leads with \"Star of the Quarter\" or \"Team champion\" award, which would further encourage this trend. Unconsciously, the Manager was setting himself up for failure by encouraging this trend. When we dug the problem deeper, the following was what I observed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    When I tried to dig deeper, while Piyush complained about the symptom of \u201cUnplanned Leaves\u201d, the main response from the team was that they were not getting the leaves when they asked for the same citing the amount of work that was there. The team members hardly contributed. The Leads and seniors were doing most of the heavy lifting. Even though, they were burnt out because of work , they still were getting necessary incentives both in terms of having a superior knowledge on the application that they did not want to give up. Eventually, even the seniors and leads were taking unplanned leaves mainly because they were also burnt out and partly because they knew that Piyush always had a soft corner for them. When the process of retrospective was put in place, the team explicitly stated that they did not receive a proper KT. That is one of the objectives of Retrospectives where the team can express itself freely. When Piyush heard the same, his solutioning was to reward the team leads and bail them out of the release pains rather than solving the root problem. The team also did not press too much because they were internally happy of not feeling much pressure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The problem is represented below in the table as a sequence of Drama Triangle roles. The subtext in parenthesis is ulterior and not expressed openly. Only when I dug deeper, I found it. (https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Karpman_drama_triangle)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n Persecutor\n <\/td>\n Victim\n <\/td>\n Rescuer\n <\/td><\/tr>
    \n Manager: There are too many unplanned Leaves\n <\/td> (Team: If we ask for a planned leave, we do not get it )<\/em><\/td> Leads\/Seniors: We will (cover for the team and )<\/em>ensure the release wouldn't suffer <\/td><\/tr>
    (Team Leads: Let us also go on an unplanned leave. We are totally burned out. Why should only we suffer?)<\/em><\/td>Manager: Oh my god! how am I going to deliver this? Team, I need you to pull the weight this time.<\/td>Team: We will do our best (to get out of this situation. Provide some temporary fixes) <\/em><\/td><\/tr>
    Team: We tried our best but we have never been given a proper KT. (I am rather happy that I do not have to take much pressure)<\/em><\/td> Team Leads: Despite all the efforts, we get to be blamed<\/td>Manager: Don't worry, I will make sure you get all the necessary rewards for the hard work (strike the deal with the team leads)<\/em><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    This is typically how the Drama Triangle works. And because the roles keep switching, it will keep the \"Game\" of the recurring problem alive. And all of this happens at an unconscious level. This also results in a negative feeling for everybody involved. Because, it happens at an unconscious level for all the players, they would also struggle to come out of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    In order to break this pattern, there should be an active involvement of all the participants to solve the root problem and address the same. How would you solve this problem?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    ...............................................................................................................................<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    ...............................................................................................................................<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    ...............................................................................................................................<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Here is how we solved the problem:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Solution<\/strong>: The first thing I did was to bring this awareness of Drama Triangle among all the participants. I showed them how each of them are playing their part in keeping the game alive without their awareness. Since they were all playing this at an unconscious level, it is very difficult to come out unless someone can bring that awareness. They had not seen this problem in the lens of a Drama Triangle at all. This helped them break the resistances on solving the problem and see how they themselves contributed to solving this problem. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The main issue was that the team members did not develop enough skills in their project. We found during the session that most of it could be addressed if the team was involved in the decision making, hold them accountable and if they can be helped in enhancing the skills. The team was given a lot more autonomy. They were involved in the planning meetings and their opinions and decisions were given more weightage. While a separate time was scoped out for KT, it was made sure that the team would start fronting all the work where as the team leads would play the supporting role. The team found the work lot more challenging, while the seniors played the role of mentors. As a result, the team started to learn not only the technical skills but also the Leadership skills to feel empowered. Gradually, there was a decrease in unplanned leaves as the team felt more empowered.<\/p>\n","post_title":"CHOW#287 - The Drama of \"Unplanned Leaves\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"chow287-the-drama-of-unplanned-leaves","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-23 08:29:34","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-23 08:29:34","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=19790","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":4},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

    Page 4 of 12 1 … 3 4 5 … 12
    \n
  • Keep Your Eye on the Spirit, Not on the Scoreboard<\/strong>

    This is the essential difference between DOING Agile and BEING Agile. Or not being obsessed only with some vanity metrics. When the core principles and the team values are always at the back of every thought and action, a team can focus on internalizing the values and principles of Agility. When the emphasis is to do it by the book, one may tend to be more worried about checking the boxes and ignore the outputs and outcomes. <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

  • Sometimes You Have to Pull Out the Big Stick<\/strong>

    This is tricky to directly interpret for a Scrum Master, as the emphasis is usually to be a 'servant leader' who gets results through influence. This is usually true in an ideal world. Sometimes, a Scrum Master needs to be creative to highlight some issues within the team or with specific individuals, so that they can realize the impact of their action or inaction. <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

  • When in Doubt, Do Nothing<\/strong>

    One of the key responsibilities of a Scrum Master if to remove impediments. This may not be quite simple at times. For an action-oriented person, it may be difficult to not do anything and observe the situation resolve itself. But, sometimes, it is best to not do anything. The triaging technique used by many teams \u2013 including emergency medical response teams \u2013 also suggests that in some situations, it is best to not do anything. This will come with experience. <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

  • Forget the Ring<\/strong>

    This is also a point that is easier said than done. When one is so involved in the action, it is not easy to ignore or forget the result and the urge to win. Phil Jackson says, 'obsessing about winning is a loser's game.' The main reason he says, is that such a focus would lead to one losing control of one's emotions. He says, 'The most we can hope for is to create the best possible conditions for success, then let go of the outcome.' <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    The book has a lot more detailed examples including situations involving some of the high performers who were more self-centric and concerned with their own success and image, and how he was able to help them turn into more team players and mentors to other less experienced players.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Eleven Rings for a Scrum Master","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"eleven-rings-for-a-scrum-master","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 11:31:55","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 11:31:55","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=19967","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"2","filter":"raw"},{"ID":19891,"post_author":"15","post_date":"2022-04-17 19:37:10","post_date_gmt":"2022-04-17 14:07:10","post_content":"\n

    Ever since Agile approaches became popular\nabout 15 to 20 years ago, Agile culture and mindset have been touted as the\nfoundation elements around which successful organizational transformation\nhappens. Peter Drucker\u2019s famous quote \u201cCulture eats strategy for breakfast\u201d points\nto the ineffectiveness of your strategy implementation if the company culture\ndoesn\u2019t support it. In the early years, not many organizations understood and\ninternalized the true Agile culture \/ philosophy, leading to many of them\nfailing in their Agile journey. This was helped in no small measure by the\nplethora of consultants, selling Agile as a methodology over philosophy. The\nfew successes that we had, though, led to the realization that \u201cbeing agile\u201d is\nsubstantially more important for succeeding with Agile than \u201cdoing agile\u201d. This\nessentially means implementing Agile in \u201cspirit\u201d and, we are seeing this trend\nwith many organizations today. The intent of this blog is to demystify a few\naspects relating to Agile mindset and culture, both from a team perspective, as\nwell as, from the perspective of leadership\/management.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    What is Agile culture?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Agile culture is an environment built\naround core values and principles with practices and behaviours aligned to\nthose values and principles. In today\u2019s business, this culture needs to address\nresponsiveness to customer and market needs in an extremely complex and\nuncertain environment. Essentially the organization\u2019s values and principles and\nthe related practices \/ behaviours should be reflective of this business\nneed.  For culture to be effective at the\nbusiness level, it needs to permeate through various organizational layers,\nstarting from the top. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Agile culture in teams - Values, Principles and Practices<\/strong> Implementing a proper Agile culture in teams requires a good understanding of Agile values and principles and an appreciation of how these are linked to practices (and to associated behaviours). While Agile values are universal, they are also often too abstract. On the other hand, practices are ways of solving common problems and dilemmas, that we encounter in software development. Given the large perceived gap between these two, we use Principles to bridge this gap and help understand practices better. Values and Principles together guide us in adaptation and improvisation of practices, as part of our efforts to improve continuously. Let me take a couple of examples to illustrate this using the Agile Manifesto<\/a>, Principles<\/a>, Scrum Values<\/a> and XP Values and Principles<\/a>: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    From the above example, if you notice that\nthe practice of team members taking turns to provide updates (rather than each\none being prodded on by the SM) is an implementation of the principle of\naccepted responsibility (ownership). I am sure you can see a linkage of other\npractices to the values and principles that they align to. As mentioned before,\nyou can improvise on practices (such as, doing fun retrospectives, for example)\nwithout compromising on values and principles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    In the above example, I have deliberately\nmixed values and principles from the Agile manifesto as well as specific Agile\napproaches such as Scrum \/ XP. From my own perspective, I have looked at the Agile\nManifesto as more of a position statement than a set of classical \u201cvalues\u201d -\nwhich is why approaches such as Scrum and XP expounded their own set of values.\nMost Agile approaches use the Agile manifesto as a broad guideline for their\nown specific recommendations and incorporate their own values and principles to\nsupport their practice recommendations (both management as well as technical\npractices). In my opinion, it is sensible to take such a hybrid approach to\nsupport your organization context. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    There is another factor to be considered \u2013\nAgile Manifesto and values and principles from other approaches are applicable\nto a software development context, which functions under a broad organizational\ncontext. The organization will have its own core values and philosophy stated from\na business perspective, and as a consequence, any Agile implementation has to\nbe aligned to and support this organizational context. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Agile culture in leadership and\nmanagement<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    In the early days of Agile implementation,\nit was viewed largely as a bottom-up initiative focusing on delivery teams. The\npervasive nature of Agile as a culture change across all the layers of the\norganization was lost on senior leadership. \nThis introduces many internal conflicts. For example, when SMs see their\nmanager(s) practicing a directive style with them, while expecting them to be\nfacilitative with their own teams, they see a clear conflict of culture. In my\nexperience as a coach, I have personally seen managers track their teams\u2019\nburn-downs - which is clearly a team\u2019s responsibility to track for needed\nactions - wanting to know why they were looking bad, during a sprint execution.\nThis clearly goes against Principle 5 of the manifesto that says \u201cBuild\nprojects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and support\nthey need and trust them to get the job done\u201d. In essence, the Manager\u2019s role\nis to provide facilitative support to teams after providing them the big\npicture \/ vision \/ direction. Teams decide on how they will execute, and will approach\nyou as managers, only for unresolved blockers, or when they need support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    From a leadership perspective as well, leadership practices should be based on similar values and principles to what we have discussed for teams. Some of these principles may include those relating to delegation\/empowerment, workforce diversity, freedom for experimentation, support for collaborative communities, emotional well-being of employees and so on. For those keen on an organizational perspective of Agile, would like to refer you to PM Power\u2019s recently released book \u201cThe Five Tantras of Enterprise Agility<\/a>\u201d. Incidentally, the book devotes an entire section (Book 3 within the book) to Transformational Leadership needed to succeed with Agile. <\/p>\n","post_title":"Agile Culture and Mindset - re-visited","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"agile-culture-and-mindset-re-visited","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 12:26:29","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 12:26:29","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=19891","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":19790,"post_author":"13","post_date":"2022-03-28 11:03:24","post_date_gmt":"2022-03-28 05:33:24","post_content":"\n

    Piyush works as a Manager for a team of 20 people. He has been successfully running an IT team for the last 3 years. However, he has been constantly plagued by his people going on unplanned leaves. This has been happening for the last 8-9 months or so. It also came out in several retrospectives. However, there was no focused effort in solving the root problems. Whenever, there were unplanned leaves, the team leads would step up, they would spend night outs and would somehow make sure that the release would not get affected. And to encourage this trend, the Management would reward the Leads with \"Star of the Quarter\" or \"Team champion\" award, which would further encourage this trend. Unconsciously, the Manager was setting himself up for failure by encouraging this trend. When we dug the problem deeper, the following was what I observed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    When I tried to dig deeper, while Piyush complained about the symptom of \u201cUnplanned Leaves\u201d, the main response from the team was that they were not getting the leaves when they asked for the same citing the amount of work that was there. The team members hardly contributed. The Leads and seniors were doing most of the heavy lifting. Even though, they were burnt out because of work , they still were getting necessary incentives both in terms of having a superior knowledge on the application that they did not want to give up. Eventually, even the seniors and leads were taking unplanned leaves mainly because they were also burnt out and partly because they knew that Piyush always had a soft corner for them. When the process of retrospective was put in place, the team explicitly stated that they did not receive a proper KT. That is one of the objectives of Retrospectives where the team can express itself freely. When Piyush heard the same, his solutioning was to reward the team leads and bail them out of the release pains rather than solving the root problem. The team also did not press too much because they were internally happy of not feeling much pressure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The problem is represented below in the table as a sequence of Drama Triangle roles. The subtext in parenthesis is ulterior and not expressed openly. Only when I dug deeper, I found it. (https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Karpman_drama_triangle)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n Persecutor\n <\/td>\n Victim\n <\/td>\n Rescuer\n <\/td><\/tr>
    \n Manager: There are too many unplanned Leaves\n <\/td> (Team: If we ask for a planned leave, we do not get it )<\/em><\/td> Leads\/Seniors: We will (cover for the team and )<\/em>ensure the release wouldn't suffer <\/td><\/tr>
    (Team Leads: Let us also go on an unplanned leave. We are totally burned out. Why should only we suffer?)<\/em><\/td>Manager: Oh my god! how am I going to deliver this? Team, I need you to pull the weight this time.<\/td>Team: We will do our best (to get out of this situation. Provide some temporary fixes) <\/em><\/td><\/tr>
    Team: We tried our best but we have never been given a proper KT. (I am rather happy that I do not have to take much pressure)<\/em><\/td> Team Leads: Despite all the efforts, we get to be blamed<\/td>Manager: Don't worry, I will make sure you get all the necessary rewards for the hard work (strike the deal with the team leads)<\/em><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    This is typically how the Drama Triangle works. And because the roles keep switching, it will keep the \"Game\" of the recurring problem alive. And all of this happens at an unconscious level. This also results in a negative feeling for everybody involved. Because, it happens at an unconscious level for all the players, they would also struggle to come out of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    In order to break this pattern, there should be an active involvement of all the participants to solve the root problem and address the same. How would you solve this problem?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    ...............................................................................................................................<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    ...............................................................................................................................<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    ...............................................................................................................................<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Here is how we solved the problem:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Solution<\/strong>: The first thing I did was to bring this awareness of Drama Triangle among all the participants. I showed them how each of them are playing their part in keeping the game alive without their awareness. Since they were all playing this at an unconscious level, it is very difficult to come out unless someone can bring that awareness. They had not seen this problem in the lens of a Drama Triangle at all. This helped them break the resistances on solving the problem and see how they themselves contributed to solving this problem. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The main issue was that the team members did not develop enough skills in their project. We found during the session that most of it could be addressed if the team was involved in the decision making, hold them accountable and if they can be helped in enhancing the skills. The team was given a lot more autonomy. They were involved in the planning meetings and their opinions and decisions were given more weightage. While a separate time was scoped out for KT, it was made sure that the team would start fronting all the work where as the team leads would play the supporting role. The team found the work lot more challenging, while the seniors played the role of mentors. As a result, the team started to learn not only the technical skills but also the Leadership skills to feel empowered. Gradually, there was a decrease in unplanned leaves as the team felt more empowered.<\/p>\n","post_title":"CHOW#287 - The Drama of \"Unplanned Leaves\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"chow287-the-drama-of-unplanned-leaves","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-23 08:29:34","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-23 08:29:34","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=19790","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":4},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

    Page 4 of 12 1 … 3 4 5 … 12
    \n
  • The Key to Success is Compassion<\/strong>

    Helping the team understand and internalize the scrum value of respect for others, will lead to greater empathy for both the other team members as well as customers. That understanding will propel the team to go the extra mile when needed, to ensure that the promises to the users are always the highest priority. <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

  • Keep Your Eye on the Spirit, Not on the Scoreboard<\/strong>

    This is the essential difference between DOING Agile and BEING Agile. Or not being obsessed only with some vanity metrics. When the core principles and the team values are always at the back of every thought and action, a team can focus on internalizing the values and principles of Agility. When the emphasis is to do it by the book, one may tend to be more worried about checking the boxes and ignore the outputs and outcomes. <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

  • Sometimes You Have to Pull Out the Big Stick<\/strong>

    This is tricky to directly interpret for a Scrum Master, as the emphasis is usually to be a 'servant leader' who gets results through influence. This is usually true in an ideal world. Sometimes, a Scrum Master needs to be creative to highlight some issues within the team or with specific individuals, so that they can realize the impact of their action or inaction. <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

  • When in Doubt, Do Nothing<\/strong>

    One of the key responsibilities of a Scrum Master if to remove impediments. This may not be quite simple at times. For an action-oriented person, it may be difficult to not do anything and observe the situation resolve itself. But, sometimes, it is best to not do anything. The triaging technique used by many teams \u2013 including emergency medical response teams \u2013 also suggests that in some situations, it is best to not do anything. This will come with experience. <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

  • Forget the Ring<\/strong>

    This is also a point that is easier said than done. When one is so involved in the action, it is not easy to ignore or forget the result and the urge to win. Phil Jackson says, 'obsessing about winning is a loser's game.' The main reason he says, is that such a focus would lead to one losing control of one's emotions. He says, 'The most we can hope for is to create the best possible conditions for success, then let go of the outcome.' <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    The book has a lot more detailed examples including situations involving some of the high performers who were more self-centric and concerned with their own success and image, and how he was able to help them turn into more team players and mentors to other less experienced players.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Eleven Rings for a Scrum Master","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"eleven-rings-for-a-scrum-master","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 11:31:55","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 11:31:55","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=19967","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"2","filter":"raw"},{"ID":19891,"post_author":"15","post_date":"2022-04-17 19:37:10","post_date_gmt":"2022-04-17 14:07:10","post_content":"\n

    Ever since Agile approaches became popular\nabout 15 to 20 years ago, Agile culture and mindset have been touted as the\nfoundation elements around which successful organizational transformation\nhappens. Peter Drucker\u2019s famous quote \u201cCulture eats strategy for breakfast\u201d points\nto the ineffectiveness of your strategy implementation if the company culture\ndoesn\u2019t support it. In the early years, not many organizations understood and\ninternalized the true Agile culture \/ philosophy, leading to many of them\nfailing in their Agile journey. This was helped in no small measure by the\nplethora of consultants, selling Agile as a methodology over philosophy. The\nfew successes that we had, though, led to the realization that \u201cbeing agile\u201d is\nsubstantially more important for succeeding with Agile than \u201cdoing agile\u201d. This\nessentially means implementing Agile in \u201cspirit\u201d and, we are seeing this trend\nwith many organizations today. The intent of this blog is to demystify a few\naspects relating to Agile mindset and culture, both from a team perspective, as\nwell as, from the perspective of leadership\/management.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    What is Agile culture?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Agile culture is an environment built\naround core values and principles with practices and behaviours aligned to\nthose values and principles. In today\u2019s business, this culture needs to address\nresponsiveness to customer and market needs in an extremely complex and\nuncertain environment. Essentially the organization\u2019s values and principles and\nthe related practices \/ behaviours should be reflective of this business\nneed.  For culture to be effective at the\nbusiness level, it needs to permeate through various organizational layers,\nstarting from the top. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Agile culture in teams - Values, Principles and Practices<\/strong> Implementing a proper Agile culture in teams requires a good understanding of Agile values and principles and an appreciation of how these are linked to practices (and to associated behaviours). While Agile values are universal, they are also often too abstract. On the other hand, practices are ways of solving common problems and dilemmas, that we encounter in software development. Given the large perceived gap between these two, we use Principles to bridge this gap and help understand practices better. Values and Principles together guide us in adaptation and improvisation of practices, as part of our efforts to improve continuously. Let me take a couple of examples to illustrate this using the Agile Manifesto<\/a>, Principles<\/a>, Scrum Values<\/a> and XP Values and Principles<\/a>: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    From the above example, if you notice that\nthe practice of team members taking turns to provide updates (rather than each\none being prodded on by the SM) is an implementation of the principle of\naccepted responsibility (ownership). I am sure you can see a linkage of other\npractices to the values and principles that they align to. As mentioned before,\nyou can improvise on practices (such as, doing fun retrospectives, for example)\nwithout compromising on values and principles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    In the above example, I have deliberately\nmixed values and principles from the Agile manifesto as well as specific Agile\napproaches such as Scrum \/ XP. From my own perspective, I have looked at the Agile\nManifesto as more of a position statement than a set of classical \u201cvalues\u201d -\nwhich is why approaches such as Scrum and XP expounded their own set of values.\nMost Agile approaches use the Agile manifesto as a broad guideline for their\nown specific recommendations and incorporate their own values and principles to\nsupport their practice recommendations (both management as well as technical\npractices). In my opinion, it is sensible to take such a hybrid approach to\nsupport your organization context. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    There is another factor to be considered \u2013\nAgile Manifesto and values and principles from other approaches are applicable\nto a software development context, which functions under a broad organizational\ncontext. The organization will have its own core values and philosophy stated from\na business perspective, and as a consequence, any Agile implementation has to\nbe aligned to and support this organizational context. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Agile culture in leadership and\nmanagement<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    In the early days of Agile implementation,\nit was viewed largely as a bottom-up initiative focusing on delivery teams. The\npervasive nature of Agile as a culture change across all the layers of the\norganization was lost on senior leadership. \nThis introduces many internal conflicts. For example, when SMs see their\nmanager(s) practicing a directive style with them, while expecting them to be\nfacilitative with their own teams, they see a clear conflict of culture. In my\nexperience as a coach, I have personally seen managers track their teams\u2019\nburn-downs - which is clearly a team\u2019s responsibility to track for needed\nactions - wanting to know why they were looking bad, during a sprint execution.\nThis clearly goes against Principle 5 of the manifesto that says \u201cBuild\nprojects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and support\nthey need and trust them to get the job done\u201d. In essence, the Manager\u2019s role\nis to provide facilitative support to teams after providing them the big\npicture \/ vision \/ direction. Teams decide on how they will execute, and will approach\nyou as managers, only for unresolved blockers, or when they need support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    From a leadership perspective as well, leadership practices should be based on similar values and principles to what we have discussed for teams. Some of these principles may include those relating to delegation\/empowerment, workforce diversity, freedom for experimentation, support for collaborative communities, emotional well-being of employees and so on. For those keen on an organizational perspective of Agile, would like to refer you to PM Power\u2019s recently released book \u201cThe Five Tantras of Enterprise Agility<\/a>\u201d. Incidentally, the book devotes an entire section (Book 3 within the book) to Transformational Leadership needed to succeed with Agile. <\/p>\n","post_title":"Agile Culture and Mindset - re-visited","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"agile-culture-and-mindset-re-visited","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 12:26:29","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 12:26:29","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=19891","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":19790,"post_author":"13","post_date":"2022-03-28 11:03:24","post_date_gmt":"2022-03-28 05:33:24","post_content":"\n

    Piyush works as a Manager for a team of 20 people. He has been successfully running an IT team for the last 3 years. However, he has been constantly plagued by his people going on unplanned leaves. This has been happening for the last 8-9 months or so. It also came out in several retrospectives. However, there was no focused effort in solving the root problems. Whenever, there were unplanned leaves, the team leads would step up, they would spend night outs and would somehow make sure that the release would not get affected. And to encourage this trend, the Management would reward the Leads with \"Star of the Quarter\" or \"Team champion\" award, which would further encourage this trend. Unconsciously, the Manager was setting himself up for failure by encouraging this trend. When we dug the problem deeper, the following was what I observed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    When I tried to dig deeper, while Piyush complained about the symptom of \u201cUnplanned Leaves\u201d, the main response from the team was that they were not getting the leaves when they asked for the same citing the amount of work that was there. The team members hardly contributed. The Leads and seniors were doing most of the heavy lifting. Even though, they were burnt out because of work , they still were getting necessary incentives both in terms of having a superior knowledge on the application that they did not want to give up. Eventually, even the seniors and leads were taking unplanned leaves mainly because they were also burnt out and partly because they knew that Piyush always had a soft corner for them. When the process of retrospective was put in place, the team explicitly stated that they did not receive a proper KT. That is one of the objectives of Retrospectives where the team can express itself freely. When Piyush heard the same, his solutioning was to reward the team leads and bail them out of the release pains rather than solving the root problem. The team also did not press too much because they were internally happy of not feeling much pressure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The problem is represented below in the table as a sequence of Drama Triangle roles. The subtext in parenthesis is ulterior and not expressed openly. Only when I dug deeper, I found it. (https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Karpman_drama_triangle)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n Persecutor\n <\/td>\n Victim\n <\/td>\n Rescuer\n <\/td><\/tr>
    \n Manager: There are too many unplanned Leaves\n <\/td> (Team: If we ask for a planned leave, we do not get it )<\/em><\/td> Leads\/Seniors: We will (cover for the team and )<\/em>ensure the release wouldn't suffer <\/td><\/tr>
    (Team Leads: Let us also go on an unplanned leave. We are totally burned out. Why should only we suffer?)<\/em><\/td>Manager: Oh my god! how am I going to deliver this? Team, I need you to pull the weight this time.<\/td>Team: We will do our best (to get out of this situation. Provide some temporary fixes) <\/em><\/td><\/tr>
    Team: We tried our best but we have never been given a proper KT. (I am rather happy that I do not have to take much pressure)<\/em><\/td> Team Leads: Despite all the efforts, we get to be blamed<\/td>Manager: Don't worry, I will make sure you get all the necessary rewards for the hard work (strike the deal with the team leads)<\/em><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    This is typically how the Drama Triangle works. And because the roles keep switching, it will keep the \"Game\" of the recurring problem alive. And all of this happens at an unconscious level. This also results in a negative feeling for everybody involved. Because, it happens at an unconscious level for all the players, they would also struggle to come out of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    In order to break this pattern, there should be an active involvement of all the participants to solve the root problem and address the same. How would you solve this problem?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    ...............................................................................................................................<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    ...............................................................................................................................<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    ...............................................................................................................................<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Here is how we solved the problem:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Solution<\/strong>: The first thing I did was to bring this awareness of Drama Triangle among all the participants. I showed them how each of them are playing their part in keeping the game alive without their awareness. Since they were all playing this at an unconscious level, it is very difficult to come out unless someone can bring that awareness. They had not seen this problem in the lens of a Drama Triangle at all. This helped them break the resistances on solving the problem and see how they themselves contributed to solving this problem. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The main issue was that the team members did not develop enough skills in their project. We found during the session that most of it could be addressed if the team was involved in the decision making, hold them accountable and if they can be helped in enhancing the skills. The team was given a lot more autonomy. They were involved in the planning meetings and their opinions and decisions were given more weightage. While a separate time was scoped out for KT, it was made sure that the team would start fronting all the work where as the team leads would play the supporting role. The team found the work lot more challenging, while the seniors played the role of mentors. As a result, the team started to learn not only the technical skills but also the Leadership skills to feel empowered. Gradually, there was a decrease in unplanned leaves as the team felt more empowered.<\/p>\n","post_title":"CHOW#287 - The Drama of \"Unplanned Leaves\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"chow287-the-drama-of-unplanned-leaves","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-23 08:29:34","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-23 08:29:34","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=19790","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":4},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

    Page 4 of 12 1 … 3 4 5 … 12
    \n
  • One Breath = One Mind<\/strong>

    A simple technique to get everyone aligned and in sync just before any significant event. Whether it is a crucial meeting, where consensus needs to be reached in time or the start of a release cycle, helping everyone spend some silent, reflective time together helps align the breathing, which is particularly useful in playing tandem, or like trapeze artists, when there are hand-offs to be executed as the project progresses <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

  • The Key to Success is Compassion<\/strong>

    Helping the team understand and internalize the scrum value of respect for others, will lead to greater empathy for both the other team members as well as customers. That understanding will propel the team to go the extra mile when needed, to ensure that the promises to the users are always the highest priority. <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

  • Keep Your Eye on the Spirit, Not on the Scoreboard<\/strong>

    This is the essential difference between DOING Agile and BEING Agile. Or not being obsessed only with some vanity metrics. When the core principles and the team values are always at the back of every thought and action, a team can focus on internalizing the values and principles of Agility. When the emphasis is to do it by the book, one may tend to be more worried about checking the boxes and ignore the outputs and outcomes. <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

  • Sometimes You Have to Pull Out the Big Stick<\/strong>

    This is tricky to directly interpret for a Scrum Master, as the emphasis is usually to be a 'servant leader' who gets results through influence. This is usually true in an ideal world. Sometimes, a Scrum Master needs to be creative to highlight some issues within the team or with specific individuals, so that they can realize the impact of their action or inaction. <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

  • When in Doubt, Do Nothing<\/strong>

    One of the key responsibilities of a Scrum Master if to remove impediments. This may not be quite simple at times. For an action-oriented person, it may be difficult to not do anything and observe the situation resolve itself. But, sometimes, it is best to not do anything. The triaging technique used by many teams \u2013 including emergency medical response teams \u2013 also suggests that in some situations, it is best to not do anything. This will come with experience. <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

  • Forget the Ring<\/strong>

    This is also a point that is easier said than done. When one is so involved in the action, it is not easy to ignore or forget the result and the urge to win. Phil Jackson says, 'obsessing about winning is a loser's game.' The main reason he says, is that such a focus would lead to one losing control of one's emotions. He says, 'The most we can hope for is to create the best possible conditions for success, then let go of the outcome.' <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    The book has a lot more detailed examples including situations involving some of the high performers who were more self-centric and concerned with their own success and image, and how he was able to help them turn into more team players and mentors to other less experienced players.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Eleven Rings for a Scrum Master","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"eleven-rings-for-a-scrum-master","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 11:31:55","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 11:31:55","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=19967","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"2","filter":"raw"},{"ID":19891,"post_author":"15","post_date":"2022-04-17 19:37:10","post_date_gmt":"2022-04-17 14:07:10","post_content":"\n

    Ever since Agile approaches became popular\nabout 15 to 20 years ago, Agile culture and mindset have been touted as the\nfoundation elements around which successful organizational transformation\nhappens. Peter Drucker\u2019s famous quote \u201cCulture eats strategy for breakfast\u201d points\nto the ineffectiveness of your strategy implementation if the company culture\ndoesn\u2019t support it. In the early years, not many organizations understood and\ninternalized the true Agile culture \/ philosophy, leading to many of them\nfailing in their Agile journey. This was helped in no small measure by the\nplethora of consultants, selling Agile as a methodology over philosophy. The\nfew successes that we had, though, led to the realization that \u201cbeing agile\u201d is\nsubstantially more important for succeeding with Agile than \u201cdoing agile\u201d. This\nessentially means implementing Agile in \u201cspirit\u201d and, we are seeing this trend\nwith many organizations today. The intent of this blog is to demystify a few\naspects relating to Agile mindset and culture, both from a team perspective, as\nwell as, from the perspective of leadership\/management.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    What is Agile culture?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Agile culture is an environment built\naround core values and principles with practices and behaviours aligned to\nthose values and principles. In today\u2019s business, this culture needs to address\nresponsiveness to customer and market needs in an extremely complex and\nuncertain environment. Essentially the organization\u2019s values and principles and\nthe related practices \/ behaviours should be reflective of this business\nneed.  For culture to be effective at the\nbusiness level, it needs to permeate through various organizational layers,\nstarting from the top. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Agile culture in teams - Values, Principles and Practices<\/strong> Implementing a proper Agile culture in teams requires a good understanding of Agile values and principles and an appreciation of how these are linked to practices (and to associated behaviours). While Agile values are universal, they are also often too abstract. On the other hand, practices are ways of solving common problems and dilemmas, that we encounter in software development. Given the large perceived gap between these two, we use Principles to bridge this gap and help understand practices better. Values and Principles together guide us in adaptation and improvisation of practices, as part of our efforts to improve continuously. Let me take a couple of examples to illustrate this using the Agile Manifesto<\/a>, Principles<\/a>, Scrum Values<\/a> and XP Values and Principles<\/a>: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    From the above example, if you notice that\nthe practice of team members taking turns to provide updates (rather than each\none being prodded on by the SM) is an implementation of the principle of\naccepted responsibility (ownership). I am sure you can see a linkage of other\npractices to the values and principles that they align to. As mentioned before,\nyou can improvise on practices (such as, doing fun retrospectives, for example)\nwithout compromising on values and principles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    In the above example, I have deliberately\nmixed values and principles from the Agile manifesto as well as specific Agile\napproaches such as Scrum \/ XP. From my own perspective, I have looked at the Agile\nManifesto as more of a position statement than a set of classical \u201cvalues\u201d -\nwhich is why approaches such as Scrum and XP expounded their own set of values.\nMost Agile approaches use the Agile manifesto as a broad guideline for their\nown specific recommendations and incorporate their own values and principles to\nsupport their practice recommendations (both management as well as technical\npractices). In my opinion, it is sensible to take such a hybrid approach to\nsupport your organization context. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    There is another factor to be considered \u2013\nAgile Manifesto and values and principles from other approaches are applicable\nto a software development context, which functions under a broad organizational\ncontext. The organization will have its own core values and philosophy stated from\na business perspective, and as a consequence, any Agile implementation has to\nbe aligned to and support this organizational context. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Agile culture in leadership and\nmanagement<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    In the early days of Agile implementation,\nit was viewed largely as a bottom-up initiative focusing on delivery teams. The\npervasive nature of Agile as a culture change across all the layers of the\norganization was lost on senior leadership. \nThis introduces many internal conflicts. For example, when SMs see their\nmanager(s) practicing a directive style with them, while expecting them to be\nfacilitative with their own teams, they see a clear conflict of culture. In my\nexperience as a coach, I have personally seen managers track their teams\u2019\nburn-downs - which is clearly a team\u2019s responsibility to track for needed\nactions - wanting to know why they were looking bad, during a sprint execution.\nThis clearly goes against Principle 5 of the manifesto that says \u201cBuild\nprojects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and support\nthey need and trust them to get the job done\u201d. In essence, the Manager\u2019s role\nis to provide facilitative support to teams after providing them the big\npicture \/ vision \/ direction. Teams decide on how they will execute, and will approach\nyou as managers, only for unresolved blockers, or when they need support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    From a leadership perspective as well, leadership practices should be based on similar values and principles to what we have discussed for teams. Some of these principles may include those relating to delegation\/empowerment, workforce diversity, freedom for experimentation, support for collaborative communities, emotional well-being of employees and so on. For those keen on an organizational perspective of Agile, would like to refer you to PM Power\u2019s recently released book \u201cThe Five Tantras of Enterprise Agility<\/a>\u201d. Incidentally, the book devotes an entire section (Book 3 within the book) to Transformational Leadership needed to succeed with Agile. <\/p>\n","post_title":"Agile Culture and Mindset - re-visited","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"agile-culture-and-mindset-re-visited","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 12:26:29","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 12:26:29","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=19891","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":19790,"post_author":"13","post_date":"2022-03-28 11:03:24","post_date_gmt":"2022-03-28 05:33:24","post_content":"\n

    Piyush works as a Manager for a team of 20 people. He has been successfully running an IT team for the last 3 years. However, he has been constantly plagued by his people going on unplanned leaves. This has been happening for the last 8-9 months or so. It also came out in several retrospectives. However, there was no focused effort in solving the root problems. Whenever, there were unplanned leaves, the team leads would step up, they would spend night outs and would somehow make sure that the release would not get affected. And to encourage this trend, the Management would reward the Leads with \"Star of the Quarter\" or \"Team champion\" award, which would further encourage this trend. Unconsciously, the Manager was setting himself up for failure by encouraging this trend. When we dug the problem deeper, the following was what I observed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    When I tried to dig deeper, while Piyush complained about the symptom of \u201cUnplanned Leaves\u201d, the main response from the team was that they were not getting the leaves when they asked for the same citing the amount of work that was there. The team members hardly contributed. The Leads and seniors were doing most of the heavy lifting. Even though, they were burnt out because of work , they still were getting necessary incentives both in terms of having a superior knowledge on the application that they did not want to give up. Eventually, even the seniors and leads were taking unplanned leaves mainly because they were also burnt out and partly because they knew that Piyush always had a soft corner for them. When the process of retrospective was put in place, the team explicitly stated that they did not receive a proper KT. That is one of the objectives of Retrospectives where the team can express itself freely. When Piyush heard the same, his solutioning was to reward the team leads and bail them out of the release pains rather than solving the root problem. The team also did not press too much because they were internally happy of not feeling much pressure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The problem is represented below in the table as a sequence of Drama Triangle roles. The subtext in parenthesis is ulterior and not expressed openly. Only when I dug deeper, I found it. (https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Karpman_drama_triangle)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n Persecutor\n <\/td>\n Victim\n <\/td>\n Rescuer\n <\/td><\/tr>
    \n Manager: There are too many unplanned Leaves\n <\/td> (Team: If we ask for a planned leave, we do not get it )<\/em><\/td> Leads\/Seniors: We will (cover for the team and )<\/em>ensure the release wouldn't suffer <\/td><\/tr>
    (Team Leads: Let us also go on an unplanned leave. We are totally burned out. Why should only we suffer?)<\/em><\/td>Manager: Oh my god! how am I going to deliver this? Team, I need you to pull the weight this time.<\/td>Team: We will do our best (to get out of this situation. Provide some temporary fixes) <\/em><\/td><\/tr>
    Team: We tried our best but we have never been given a proper KT. (I am rather happy that I do not have to take much pressure)<\/em><\/td> Team Leads: Despite all the efforts, we get to be blamed<\/td>Manager: Don't worry, I will make sure you get all the necessary rewards for the hard work (strike the deal with the team leads)<\/em><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    This is typically how the Drama Triangle works. And because the roles keep switching, it will keep the \"Game\" of the recurring problem alive. And all of this happens at an unconscious level. This also results in a negative feeling for everybody involved. Because, it happens at an unconscious level for all the players, they would also struggle to come out of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    In order to break this pattern, there should be an active involvement of all the participants to solve the root problem and address the same. How would you solve this problem?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    ...............................................................................................................................<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    ...............................................................................................................................<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    ...............................................................................................................................<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Here is how we solved the problem:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Solution<\/strong>: The first thing I did was to bring this awareness of Drama Triangle among all the participants. I showed them how each of them are playing their part in keeping the game alive without their awareness. Since they were all playing this at an unconscious level, it is very difficult to come out unless someone can bring that awareness. They had not seen this problem in the lens of a Drama Triangle at all. This helped them break the resistances on solving the problem and see how they themselves contributed to solving this problem. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The main issue was that the team members did not develop enough skills in their project. We found during the session that most of it could be addressed if the team was involved in the decision making, hold them accountable and if they can be helped in enhancing the skills. The team was given a lot more autonomy. They were involved in the planning meetings and their opinions and decisions were given more weightage. While a separate time was scoped out for KT, it was made sure that the team would start fronting all the work where as the team leads would play the supporting role. The team found the work lot more challenging, while the seniors played the role of mentors. As a result, the team started to learn not only the technical skills but also the Leadership skills to feel empowered. Gradually, there was a decrease in unplanned leaves as the team felt more empowered.<\/p>\n","post_title":"CHOW#287 - The Drama of \"Unplanned Leaves\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"chow287-the-drama-of-unplanned-leaves","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-23 08:29:34","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-23 08:29:34","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=19790","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":4},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

    Page 4 of 12 1 … 3 4 5 … 12
    \n
  • Turn the Mundane into the Sacred<\/strong>

    Even for well knit teams, it is worthwhile to have some formality in terms of events [used to also be called ceremonies] that are also supported by team norms. <\/span><\/p>

    What might otherwise be considered as a routine \u2013 say the daily standup \u2013 could become important points of sync up when infused with some formalism. Phil Jackson also introduced meditation practices for the team to help the players focus, unwind, and stay energetic. <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

  • One Breath = One Mind<\/strong>

    A simple technique to get everyone aligned and in sync just before any significant event. Whether it is a crucial meeting, where consensus needs to be reached in time or the start of a release cycle, helping everyone spend some silent, reflective time together helps align the breathing, which is particularly useful in playing tandem, or like trapeze artists, when there are hand-offs to be executed as the project progresses <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

  • The Key to Success is Compassion<\/strong>

    Helping the team understand and internalize the scrum value of respect for others, will lead to greater empathy for both the other team members as well as customers. That understanding will propel the team to go the extra mile when needed, to ensure that the promises to the users are always the highest priority. <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

  • Keep Your Eye on the Spirit, Not on the Scoreboard<\/strong>

    This is the essential difference between DOING Agile and BEING Agile. Or not being obsessed only with some vanity metrics. When the core principles and the team values are always at the back of every thought and action, a team can focus on internalizing the values and principles of Agility. When the emphasis is to do it by the book, one may tend to be more worried about checking the boxes and ignore the outputs and outcomes. <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

  • Sometimes You Have to Pull Out the Big Stick<\/strong>

    This is tricky to directly interpret for a Scrum Master, as the emphasis is usually to be a 'servant leader' who gets results through influence. This is usually true in an ideal world. Sometimes, a Scrum Master needs to be creative to highlight some issues within the team or with specific individuals, so that they can realize the impact of their action or inaction. <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

  • When in Doubt, Do Nothing<\/strong>

    One of the key responsibilities of a Scrum Master if to remove impediments. This may not be quite simple at times. For an action-oriented person, it may be difficult to not do anything and observe the situation resolve itself. But, sometimes, it is best to not do anything. The triaging technique used by many teams \u2013 including emergency medical response teams \u2013 also suggests that in some situations, it is best to not do anything. This will come with experience. <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

  • Forget the Ring<\/strong>

    This is also a point that is easier said than done. When one is so involved in the action, it is not easy to ignore or forget the result and the urge to win. Phil Jackson says, 'obsessing about winning is a loser's game.' The main reason he says, is that such a focus would lead to one losing control of one's emotions. He says, 'The most we can hope for is to create the best possible conditions for success, then let go of the outcome.' <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    The book has a lot more detailed examples including situations involving some of the high performers who were more self-centric and concerned with their own success and image, and how he was able to help them turn into more team players and mentors to other less experienced players.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Eleven Rings for a Scrum Master","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"eleven-rings-for-a-scrum-master","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 11:31:55","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 11:31:55","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=19967","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"2","filter":"raw"},{"ID":19891,"post_author":"15","post_date":"2022-04-17 19:37:10","post_date_gmt":"2022-04-17 14:07:10","post_content":"\n

    Ever since Agile approaches became popular\nabout 15 to 20 years ago, Agile culture and mindset have been touted as the\nfoundation elements around which successful organizational transformation\nhappens. Peter Drucker\u2019s famous quote \u201cCulture eats strategy for breakfast\u201d points\nto the ineffectiveness of your strategy implementation if the company culture\ndoesn\u2019t support it. In the early years, not many organizations understood and\ninternalized the true Agile culture \/ philosophy, leading to many of them\nfailing in their Agile journey. This was helped in no small measure by the\nplethora of consultants, selling Agile as a methodology over philosophy. The\nfew successes that we had, though, led to the realization that \u201cbeing agile\u201d is\nsubstantially more important for succeeding with Agile than \u201cdoing agile\u201d. This\nessentially means implementing Agile in \u201cspirit\u201d and, we are seeing this trend\nwith many organizations today. The intent of this blog is to demystify a few\naspects relating to Agile mindset and culture, both from a team perspective, as\nwell as, from the perspective of leadership\/management.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    What is Agile culture?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Agile culture is an environment built\naround core values and principles with practices and behaviours aligned to\nthose values and principles. In today\u2019s business, this culture needs to address\nresponsiveness to customer and market needs in an extremely complex and\nuncertain environment. Essentially the organization\u2019s values and principles and\nthe related practices \/ behaviours should be reflective of this business\nneed.  For culture to be effective at the\nbusiness level, it needs to permeate through various organizational layers,\nstarting from the top. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Agile culture in teams - Values, Principles and Practices<\/strong> Implementing a proper Agile culture in teams requires a good understanding of Agile values and principles and an appreciation of how these are linked to practices (and to associated behaviours). While Agile values are universal, they are also often too abstract. On the other hand, practices are ways of solving common problems and dilemmas, that we encounter in software development. Given the large perceived gap between these two, we use Principles to bridge this gap and help understand practices better. Values and Principles together guide us in adaptation and improvisation of practices, as part of our efforts to improve continuously. Let me take a couple of examples to illustrate this using the Agile Manifesto<\/a>, Principles<\/a>, Scrum Values<\/a> and XP Values and Principles<\/a>: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    From the above example, if you notice that\nthe practice of team members taking turns to provide updates (rather than each\none being prodded on by the SM) is an implementation of the principle of\naccepted responsibility (ownership). I am sure you can see a linkage of other\npractices to the values and principles that they align to. As mentioned before,\nyou can improvise on practices (such as, doing fun retrospectives, for example)\nwithout compromising on values and principles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    In the above example, I have deliberately\nmixed values and principles from the Agile manifesto as well as specific Agile\napproaches such as Scrum \/ XP. From my own perspective, I have looked at the Agile\nManifesto as more of a position statement than a set of classical \u201cvalues\u201d -\nwhich is why approaches such as Scrum and XP expounded their own set of values.\nMost Agile approaches use the Agile manifesto as a broad guideline for their\nown specific recommendations and incorporate their own values and principles to\nsupport their practice recommendations (both management as well as technical\npractices). In my opinion, it is sensible to take such a hybrid approach to\nsupport your organization context. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    There is another factor to be considered \u2013\nAgile Manifesto and values and principles from other approaches are applicable\nto a software development context, which functions under a broad organizational\ncontext. The organization will have its own core values and philosophy stated from\na business perspective, and as a consequence, any Agile implementation has to\nbe aligned to and support this organizational context. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Agile culture in leadership and\nmanagement<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    In the early days of Agile implementation,\nit was viewed largely as a bottom-up initiative focusing on delivery teams. The\npervasive nature of Agile as a culture change across all the layers of the\norganization was lost on senior leadership. \nThis introduces many internal conflicts. For example, when SMs see their\nmanager(s) practicing a directive style with them, while expecting them to be\nfacilitative with their own teams, they see a clear conflict of culture. In my\nexperience as a coach, I have personally seen managers track their teams\u2019\nburn-downs - which is clearly a team\u2019s responsibility to track for needed\nactions - wanting to know why they were looking bad, during a sprint execution.\nThis clearly goes against Principle 5 of the manifesto that says \u201cBuild\nprojects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and support\nthey need and trust them to get the job done\u201d. In essence, the Manager\u2019s role\nis to provide facilitative support to teams after providing them the big\npicture \/ vision \/ direction. Teams decide on how they will execute, and will approach\nyou as managers, only for unresolved blockers, or when they need support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    From a leadership perspective as well, leadership practices should be based on similar values and principles to what we have discussed for teams. Some of these principles may include those relating to delegation\/empowerment, workforce diversity, freedom for experimentation, support for collaborative communities, emotional well-being of employees and so on. For those keen on an organizational perspective of Agile, would like to refer you to PM Power\u2019s recently released book \u201cThe Five Tantras of Enterprise Agility<\/a>\u201d. Incidentally, the book devotes an entire section (Book 3 within the book) to Transformational Leadership needed to succeed with Agile. <\/p>\n","post_title":"Agile Culture and Mindset - re-visited","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"agile-culture-and-mindset-re-visited","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 12:26:29","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 12:26:29","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=19891","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":19790,"post_author":"13","post_date":"2022-03-28 11:03:24","post_date_gmt":"2022-03-28 05:33:24","post_content":"\n

    Piyush works as a Manager for a team of 20 people. He has been successfully running an IT team for the last 3 years. However, he has been constantly plagued by his people going on unplanned leaves. This has been happening for the last 8-9 months or so. It also came out in several retrospectives. However, there was no focused effort in solving the root problems. Whenever, there were unplanned leaves, the team leads would step up, they would spend night outs and would somehow make sure that the release would not get affected. And to encourage this trend, the Management would reward the Leads with \"Star of the Quarter\" or \"Team champion\" award, which would further encourage this trend. Unconsciously, the Manager was setting himself up for failure by encouraging this trend. When we dug the problem deeper, the following was what I observed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    When I tried to dig deeper, while Piyush complained about the symptom of \u201cUnplanned Leaves\u201d, the main response from the team was that they were not getting the leaves when they asked for the same citing the amount of work that was there. The team members hardly contributed. The Leads and seniors were doing most of the heavy lifting. Even though, they were burnt out because of work , they still were getting necessary incentives both in terms of having a superior knowledge on the application that they did not want to give up. Eventually, even the seniors and leads were taking unplanned leaves mainly because they were also burnt out and partly because they knew that Piyush always had a soft corner for them. When the process of retrospective was put in place, the team explicitly stated that they did not receive a proper KT. That is one of the objectives of Retrospectives where the team can express itself freely. When Piyush heard the same, his solutioning was to reward the team leads and bail them out of the release pains rather than solving the root problem. The team also did not press too much because they were internally happy of not feeling much pressure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The problem is represented below in the table as a sequence of Drama Triangle roles. The subtext in parenthesis is ulterior and not expressed openly. Only when I dug deeper, I found it. (https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Karpman_drama_triangle)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n Persecutor\n <\/td>\n Victim\n <\/td>\n Rescuer\n <\/td><\/tr>
    \n Manager: There are too many unplanned Leaves\n <\/td> (Team: If we ask for a planned leave, we do not get it )<\/em><\/td> Leads\/Seniors: We will (cover for the team and )<\/em>ensure the release wouldn't suffer <\/td><\/tr>
    (Team Leads: Let us also go on an unplanned leave. We are totally burned out. Why should only we suffer?)<\/em><\/td>Manager: Oh my god! how am I going to deliver this? Team, I need you to pull the weight this time.<\/td>Team: We will do our best (to get out of this situation. Provide some temporary fixes) <\/em><\/td><\/tr>
    Team: We tried our best but we have never been given a proper KT. (I am rather happy that I do not have to take much pressure)<\/em><\/td> Team Leads: Despite all the efforts, we get to be blamed<\/td>Manager: Don't worry, I will make sure you get all the necessary rewards for the hard work (strike the deal with the team leads)<\/em><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    This is typically how the Drama Triangle works. And because the roles keep switching, it will keep the \"Game\" of the recurring problem alive. And all of this happens at an unconscious level. This also results in a negative feeling for everybody involved. Because, it happens at an unconscious level for all the players, they would also struggle to come out of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    In order to break this pattern, there should be an active involvement of all the participants to solve the root problem and address the same. How would you solve this problem?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    ...............................................................................................................................<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    ...............................................................................................................................<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    ...............................................................................................................................<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Here is how we solved the problem:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Solution<\/strong>: The first thing I did was to bring this awareness of Drama Triangle among all the participants. I showed them how each of them are playing their part in keeping the game alive without their awareness. Since they were all playing this at an unconscious level, it is very difficult to come out unless someone can bring that awareness. They had not seen this problem in the lens of a Drama Triangle at all. This helped them break the resistances on solving the problem and see how they themselves contributed to solving this problem. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The main issue was that the team members did not develop enough skills in their project. We found during the session that most of it could be addressed if the team was involved in the decision making, hold them accountable and if they can be helped in enhancing the skills. The team was given a lot more autonomy. They were involved in the planning meetings and their opinions and decisions were given more weightage. While a separate time was scoped out for KT, it was made sure that the team would start fronting all the work where as the team leads would play the supporting role. The team found the work lot more challenging, while the seniors played the role of mentors. As a result, the team started to learn not only the technical skills but also the Leadership skills to feel empowered. Gradually, there was a decrease in unplanned leaves as the team felt more empowered.<\/p>\n","post_title":"CHOW#287 - The Drama of \"Unplanned Leaves\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"chow287-the-drama-of-unplanned-leaves","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-23 08:29:34","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-23 08:29:34","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=19790","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":4},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

    Page 4 of 12 1 … 3 4 5 … 12
    \n
  • The Road to Freedom is a Beautiful System<\/strong>

    When each person in the team is actively aware of what the others are doing and where the team is moving, it enables smooth self-organization and collective ownership. The triangle system that is attributed to Phil Jackson, is a fitting example of having a common structure that is well understood, while providing a chance for creativity.<\/p> <\/li>\n\n\n\n

  • Turn the Mundane into the Sacred<\/strong>

    Even for well knit teams, it is worthwhile to have some formality in terms of events [used to also be called ceremonies] that are also supported by team norms. <\/span><\/p>

    What might otherwise be considered as a routine \u2013 say the daily standup \u2013 could become important points of sync up when infused with some formalism. Phil Jackson also introduced meditation practices for the team to help the players focus, unwind, and stay energetic. <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

  • One Breath = One Mind<\/strong>

    A simple technique to get everyone aligned and in sync just before any significant event. Whether it is a crucial meeting, where consensus needs to be reached in time or the start of a release cycle, helping everyone spend some silent, reflective time together helps align the breathing, which is particularly useful in playing tandem, or like trapeze artists, when there are hand-offs to be executed as the project progresses <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

  • The Key to Success is Compassion<\/strong>

    Helping the team understand and internalize the scrum value of respect for others, will lead to greater empathy for both the other team members as well as customers. That understanding will propel the team to go the extra mile when needed, to ensure that the promises to the users are always the highest priority. <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

  • Keep Your Eye on the Spirit, Not on the Scoreboard<\/strong>

    This is the essential difference between DOING Agile and BEING Agile. Or not being obsessed only with some vanity metrics. When the core principles and the team values are always at the back of every thought and action, a team can focus on internalizing the values and principles of Agility. When the emphasis is to do it by the book, one may tend to be more worried about checking the boxes and ignore the outputs and outcomes. <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

  • Sometimes You Have to Pull Out the Big Stick<\/strong>

    This is tricky to directly interpret for a Scrum Master, as the emphasis is usually to be a 'servant leader' who gets results through influence. This is usually true in an ideal world. Sometimes, a Scrum Master needs to be creative to highlight some issues within the team or with specific individuals, so that they can realize the impact of their action or inaction. <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

  • When in Doubt, Do Nothing<\/strong>

    One of the key responsibilities of a Scrum Master if to remove impediments. This may not be quite simple at times. For an action-oriented person, it may be difficult to not do anything and observe the situation resolve itself. But, sometimes, it is best to not do anything. The triaging technique used by many teams \u2013 including emergency medical response teams \u2013 also suggests that in some situations, it is best to not do anything. This will come with experience. <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

  • Forget the Ring<\/strong>

    This is also a point that is easier said than done. When one is so involved in the action, it is not easy to ignore or forget the result and the urge to win. Phil Jackson says, 'obsessing about winning is a loser's game.' The main reason he says, is that such a focus would lead to one losing control of one's emotions. He says, 'The most we can hope for is to create the best possible conditions for success, then let go of the outcome.' <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    The book has a lot more detailed examples including situations involving some of the high performers who were more self-centric and concerned with their own success and image, and how he was able to help them turn into more team players and mentors to other less experienced players.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Eleven Rings for a Scrum Master","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"eleven-rings-for-a-scrum-master","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 11:31:55","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 11:31:55","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=19967","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"2","filter":"raw"},{"ID":19891,"post_author":"15","post_date":"2022-04-17 19:37:10","post_date_gmt":"2022-04-17 14:07:10","post_content":"\n

    Ever since Agile approaches became popular\nabout 15 to 20 years ago, Agile culture and mindset have been touted as the\nfoundation elements around which successful organizational transformation\nhappens. Peter Drucker\u2019s famous quote \u201cCulture eats strategy for breakfast\u201d points\nto the ineffectiveness of your strategy implementation if the company culture\ndoesn\u2019t support it. In the early years, not many organizations understood and\ninternalized the true Agile culture \/ philosophy, leading to many of them\nfailing in their Agile journey. This was helped in no small measure by the\nplethora of consultants, selling Agile as a methodology over philosophy. The\nfew successes that we had, though, led to the realization that \u201cbeing agile\u201d is\nsubstantially more important for succeeding with Agile than \u201cdoing agile\u201d. This\nessentially means implementing Agile in \u201cspirit\u201d and, we are seeing this trend\nwith many organizations today. The intent of this blog is to demystify a few\naspects relating to Agile mindset and culture, both from a team perspective, as\nwell as, from the perspective of leadership\/management.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    What is Agile culture?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Agile culture is an environment built\naround core values and principles with practices and behaviours aligned to\nthose values and principles. In today\u2019s business, this culture needs to address\nresponsiveness to customer and market needs in an extremely complex and\nuncertain environment. Essentially the organization\u2019s values and principles and\nthe related practices \/ behaviours should be reflective of this business\nneed.  For culture to be effective at the\nbusiness level, it needs to permeate through various organizational layers,\nstarting from the top. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Agile culture in teams - Values, Principles and Practices<\/strong> Implementing a proper Agile culture in teams requires a good understanding of Agile values and principles and an appreciation of how these are linked to practices (and to associated behaviours). While Agile values are universal, they are also often too abstract. On the other hand, practices are ways of solving common problems and dilemmas, that we encounter in software development. Given the large perceived gap between these two, we use Principles to bridge this gap and help understand practices better. Values and Principles together guide us in adaptation and improvisation of practices, as part of our efforts to improve continuously. Let me take a couple of examples to illustrate this using the Agile Manifesto<\/a>, Principles<\/a>, Scrum Values<\/a> and XP Values and Principles<\/a>: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    From the above example, if you notice that\nthe practice of team members taking turns to provide updates (rather than each\none being prodded on by the SM) is an implementation of the principle of\naccepted responsibility (ownership). I am sure you can see a linkage of other\npractices to the values and principles that they align to. As mentioned before,\nyou can improvise on practices (such as, doing fun retrospectives, for example)\nwithout compromising on values and principles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    In the above example, I have deliberately\nmixed values and principles from the Agile manifesto as well as specific Agile\napproaches such as Scrum \/ XP. From my own perspective, I have looked at the Agile\nManifesto as more of a position statement than a set of classical \u201cvalues\u201d -\nwhich is why approaches such as Scrum and XP expounded their own set of values.\nMost Agile approaches use the Agile manifesto as a broad guideline for their\nown specific recommendations and incorporate their own values and principles to\nsupport their practice recommendations (both management as well as technical\npractices). In my opinion, it is sensible to take such a hybrid approach to\nsupport your organization context. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    There is another factor to be considered \u2013\nAgile Manifesto and values and principles from other approaches are applicable\nto a software development context, which functions under a broad organizational\ncontext. The organization will have its own core values and philosophy stated from\na business perspective, and as a consequence, any Agile implementation has to\nbe aligned to and support this organizational context. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Agile culture in leadership and\nmanagement<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    In the early days of Agile implementation,\nit was viewed largely as a bottom-up initiative focusing on delivery teams. The\npervasive nature of Agile as a culture change across all the layers of the\norganization was lost on senior leadership. \nThis introduces many internal conflicts. For example, when SMs see their\nmanager(s) practicing a directive style with them, while expecting them to be\nfacilitative with their own teams, they see a clear conflict of culture. In my\nexperience as a coach, I have personally seen managers track their teams\u2019\nburn-downs - which is clearly a team\u2019s responsibility to track for needed\nactions - wanting to know why they were looking bad, during a sprint execution.\nThis clearly goes against Principle 5 of the manifesto that says \u201cBuild\nprojects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and support\nthey need and trust them to get the job done\u201d. In essence, the Manager\u2019s role\nis to provide facilitative support to teams after providing them the big\npicture \/ vision \/ direction. Teams decide on how they will execute, and will approach\nyou as managers, only for unresolved blockers, or when they need support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    From a leadership perspective as well, leadership practices should be based on similar values and principles to what we have discussed for teams. Some of these principles may include those relating to delegation\/empowerment, workforce diversity, freedom for experimentation, support for collaborative communities, emotional well-being of employees and so on. For those keen on an organizational perspective of Agile, would like to refer you to PM Power\u2019s recently released book \u201cThe Five Tantras of Enterprise Agility<\/a>\u201d. Incidentally, the book devotes an entire section (Book 3 within the book) to Transformational Leadership needed to succeed with Agile. <\/p>\n","post_title":"Agile Culture and Mindset - re-visited","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"agile-culture-and-mindset-re-visited","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 12:26:29","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 12:26:29","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=19891","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":19790,"post_author":"13","post_date":"2022-03-28 11:03:24","post_date_gmt":"2022-03-28 05:33:24","post_content":"\n

    Piyush works as a Manager for a team of 20 people. He has been successfully running an IT team for the last 3 years. However, he has been constantly plagued by his people going on unplanned leaves. This has been happening for the last 8-9 months or so. It also came out in several retrospectives. However, there was no focused effort in solving the root problems. Whenever, there were unplanned leaves, the team leads would step up, they would spend night outs and would somehow make sure that the release would not get affected. And to encourage this trend, the Management would reward the Leads with \"Star of the Quarter\" or \"Team champion\" award, which would further encourage this trend. Unconsciously, the Manager was setting himself up for failure by encouraging this trend. When we dug the problem deeper, the following was what I observed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    When I tried to dig deeper, while Piyush complained about the symptom of \u201cUnplanned Leaves\u201d, the main response from the team was that they were not getting the leaves when they asked for the same citing the amount of work that was there. The team members hardly contributed. The Leads and seniors were doing most of the heavy lifting. Even though, they were burnt out because of work , they still were getting necessary incentives both in terms of having a superior knowledge on the application that they did not want to give up. Eventually, even the seniors and leads were taking unplanned leaves mainly because they were also burnt out and partly because they knew that Piyush always had a soft corner for them. When the process of retrospective was put in place, the team explicitly stated that they did not receive a proper KT. That is one of the objectives of Retrospectives where the team can express itself freely. When Piyush heard the same, his solutioning was to reward the team leads and bail them out of the release pains rather than solving the root problem. The team also did not press too much because they were internally happy of not feeling much pressure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The problem is represented below in the table as a sequence of Drama Triangle roles. The subtext in parenthesis is ulterior and not expressed openly. Only when I dug deeper, I found it. (https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Karpman_drama_triangle)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n Persecutor\n <\/td>\n Victim\n <\/td>\n Rescuer\n <\/td><\/tr>
    \n Manager: There are too many unplanned Leaves\n <\/td> (Team: If we ask for a planned leave, we do not get it )<\/em><\/td> Leads\/Seniors: We will (cover for the team and )<\/em>ensure the release wouldn't suffer <\/td><\/tr>
    (Team Leads: Let us also go on an unplanned leave. We are totally burned out. Why should only we suffer?)<\/em><\/td>Manager: Oh my god! how am I going to deliver this? Team, I need you to pull the weight this time.<\/td>Team: We will do our best (to get out of this situation. Provide some temporary fixes) <\/em><\/td><\/tr>
    Team: We tried our best but we have never been given a proper KT. (I am rather happy that I do not have to take much pressure)<\/em><\/td> Team Leads: Despite all the efforts, we get to be blamed<\/td>Manager: Don't worry, I will make sure you get all the necessary rewards for the hard work (strike the deal with the team leads)<\/em><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    This is typically how the Drama Triangle works. And because the roles keep switching, it will keep the \"Game\" of the recurring problem alive. And all of this happens at an unconscious level. This also results in a negative feeling for everybody involved. Because, it happens at an unconscious level for all the players, they would also struggle to come out of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    In order to break this pattern, there should be an active involvement of all the participants to solve the root problem and address the same. How would you solve this problem?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    ...............................................................................................................................<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    ...............................................................................................................................<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    ...............................................................................................................................<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Here is how we solved the problem:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Solution<\/strong>: The first thing I did was to bring this awareness of Drama Triangle among all the participants. I showed them how each of them are playing their part in keeping the game alive without their awareness. Since they were all playing this at an unconscious level, it is very difficult to come out unless someone can bring that awareness. They had not seen this problem in the lens of a Drama Triangle at all. This helped them break the resistances on solving the problem and see how they themselves contributed to solving this problem. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The main issue was that the team members did not develop enough skills in their project. We found during the session that most of it could be addressed if the team was involved in the decision making, hold them accountable and if they can be helped in enhancing the skills. The team was given a lot more autonomy. They were involved in the planning meetings and their opinions and decisions were given more weightage. While a separate time was scoped out for KT, it was made sure that the team would start fronting all the work where as the team leads would play the supporting role. The team found the work lot more challenging, while the seniors played the role of mentors. As a result, the team started to learn not only the technical skills but also the Leadership skills to feel empowered. Gradually, there was a decrease in unplanned leaves as the team felt more empowered.<\/p>\n","post_title":"CHOW#287 - The Drama of \"Unplanned Leaves\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"chow287-the-drama-of-unplanned-leaves","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-23 08:29:34","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-23 08:29:34","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=19790","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":4},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

    Page 4 of 12 1 … 3 4 5 … 12
    \n
  • Let Each Player Discover His Own Destiny<\/strong>

    Jackson says, \"I've always been interested in getting players to think for themselves so that they can make difficult decisions in the heat of battle.\" <\/span><\/p>

    This translates into enabling safe spaces where each person can exhibit and share their courage, mutual respect, and resilience. <\/span><\/p>

    This also encourages the team to go beyond narrowly defined set of duties and swarm as needed, to ensure team success.<\/p> <\/li>\n\n\n\n

  • The Road to Freedom is a Beautiful System<\/strong>

    When each person in the team is actively aware of what the others are doing and where the team is moving, it enables smooth self-organization and collective ownership. The triangle system that is attributed to Phil Jackson, is a fitting example of having a common structure that is well understood, while providing a chance for creativity.<\/p> <\/li>\n\n\n\n

  • Turn the Mundane into the Sacred<\/strong>

    Even for well knit teams, it is worthwhile to have some formality in terms of events [used to also be called ceremonies] that are also supported by team norms. <\/span><\/p>

    What might otherwise be considered as a routine \u2013 say the daily standup \u2013 could become important points of sync up when infused with some formalism. Phil Jackson also introduced meditation practices for the team to help the players focus, unwind, and stay energetic. <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

  • One Breath = One Mind<\/strong>

    A simple technique to get everyone aligned and in sync just before any significant event. Whether it is a crucial meeting, where consensus needs to be reached in time or the start of a release cycle, helping everyone spend some silent, reflective time together helps align the breathing, which is particularly useful in playing tandem, or like trapeze artists, when there are hand-offs to be executed as the project progresses <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

  • The Key to Success is Compassion<\/strong>

    Helping the team understand and internalize the scrum value of respect for others, will lead to greater empathy for both the other team members as well as customers. That understanding will propel the team to go the extra mile when needed, to ensure that the promises to the users are always the highest priority. <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

  • Keep Your Eye on the Spirit, Not on the Scoreboard<\/strong>

    This is the essential difference between DOING Agile and BEING Agile. Or not being obsessed only with some vanity metrics. When the core principles and the team values are always at the back of every thought and action, a team can focus on internalizing the values and principles of Agility. When the emphasis is to do it by the book, one may tend to be more worried about checking the boxes and ignore the outputs and outcomes. <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

  • Sometimes You Have to Pull Out the Big Stick<\/strong>

    This is tricky to directly interpret for a Scrum Master, as the emphasis is usually to be a 'servant leader' who gets results through influence. This is usually true in an ideal world. Sometimes, a Scrum Master needs to be creative to highlight some issues within the team or with specific individuals, so that they can realize the impact of their action or inaction. <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

  • When in Doubt, Do Nothing<\/strong>

    One of the key responsibilities of a Scrum Master if to remove impediments. This may not be quite simple at times. For an action-oriented person, it may be difficult to not do anything and observe the situation resolve itself. But, sometimes, it is best to not do anything. The triaging technique used by many teams \u2013 including emergency medical response teams \u2013 also suggests that in some situations, it is best to not do anything. This will come with experience. <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

  • Forget the Ring<\/strong>

    This is also a point that is easier said than done. When one is so involved in the action, it is not easy to ignore or forget the result and the urge to win. Phil Jackson says, 'obsessing about winning is a loser's game.' The main reason he says, is that such a focus would lead to one losing control of one's emotions. He says, 'The most we can hope for is to create the best possible conditions for success, then let go of the outcome.' <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    The book has a lot more detailed examples including situations involving some of the high performers who were more self-centric and concerned with their own success and image, and how he was able to help them turn into more team players and mentors to other less experienced players.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Eleven Rings for a Scrum Master","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"eleven-rings-for-a-scrum-master","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 11:31:55","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 11:31:55","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=19967","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"2","filter":"raw"},{"ID":19891,"post_author":"15","post_date":"2022-04-17 19:37:10","post_date_gmt":"2022-04-17 14:07:10","post_content":"\n

    Ever since Agile approaches became popular\nabout 15 to 20 years ago, Agile culture and mindset have been touted as the\nfoundation elements around which successful organizational transformation\nhappens. Peter Drucker\u2019s famous quote \u201cCulture eats strategy for breakfast\u201d points\nto the ineffectiveness of your strategy implementation if the company culture\ndoesn\u2019t support it. In the early years, not many organizations understood and\ninternalized the true Agile culture \/ philosophy, leading to many of them\nfailing in their Agile journey. This was helped in no small measure by the\nplethora of consultants, selling Agile as a methodology over philosophy. The\nfew successes that we had, though, led to the realization that \u201cbeing agile\u201d is\nsubstantially more important for succeeding with Agile than \u201cdoing agile\u201d. This\nessentially means implementing Agile in \u201cspirit\u201d and, we are seeing this trend\nwith many organizations today. The intent of this blog is to demystify a few\naspects relating to Agile mindset and culture, both from a team perspective, as\nwell as, from the perspective of leadership\/management.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    What is Agile culture?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Agile culture is an environment built\naround core values and principles with practices and behaviours aligned to\nthose values and principles. In today\u2019s business, this culture needs to address\nresponsiveness to customer and market needs in an extremely complex and\nuncertain environment. Essentially the organization\u2019s values and principles and\nthe related practices \/ behaviours should be reflective of this business\nneed.  For culture to be effective at the\nbusiness level, it needs to permeate through various organizational layers,\nstarting from the top. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Agile culture in teams - Values, Principles and Practices<\/strong> Implementing a proper Agile culture in teams requires a good understanding of Agile values and principles and an appreciation of how these are linked to practices (and to associated behaviours). While Agile values are universal, they are also often too abstract. On the other hand, practices are ways of solving common problems and dilemmas, that we encounter in software development. Given the large perceived gap between these two, we use Principles to bridge this gap and help understand practices better. Values and Principles together guide us in adaptation and improvisation of practices, as part of our efforts to improve continuously. Let me take a couple of examples to illustrate this using the Agile Manifesto<\/a>, Principles<\/a>, Scrum Values<\/a> and XP Values and Principles<\/a>: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    From the above example, if you notice that\nthe practice of team members taking turns to provide updates (rather than each\none being prodded on by the SM) is an implementation of the principle of\naccepted responsibility (ownership). I am sure you can see a linkage of other\npractices to the values and principles that they align to. As mentioned before,\nyou can improvise on practices (such as, doing fun retrospectives, for example)\nwithout compromising on values and principles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    In the above example, I have deliberately\nmixed values and principles from the Agile manifesto as well as specific Agile\napproaches such as Scrum \/ XP. From my own perspective, I have looked at the Agile\nManifesto as more of a position statement than a set of classical \u201cvalues\u201d -\nwhich is why approaches such as Scrum and XP expounded their own set of values.\nMost Agile approaches use the Agile manifesto as a broad guideline for their\nown specific recommendations and incorporate their own values and principles to\nsupport their practice recommendations (both management as well as technical\npractices). In my opinion, it is sensible to take such a hybrid approach to\nsupport your organization context. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    There is another factor to be considered \u2013\nAgile Manifesto and values and principles from other approaches are applicable\nto a software development context, which functions under a broad organizational\ncontext. The organization will have its own core values and philosophy stated from\na business perspective, and as a consequence, any Agile implementation has to\nbe aligned to and support this organizational context. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Agile culture in leadership and\nmanagement<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    In the early days of Agile implementation,\nit was viewed largely as a bottom-up initiative focusing on delivery teams. The\npervasive nature of Agile as a culture change across all the layers of the\norganization was lost on senior leadership. \nThis introduces many internal conflicts. For example, when SMs see their\nmanager(s) practicing a directive style with them, while expecting them to be\nfacilitative with their own teams, they see a clear conflict of culture. In my\nexperience as a coach, I have personally seen managers track their teams\u2019\nburn-downs - which is clearly a team\u2019s responsibility to track for needed\nactions - wanting to know why they were looking bad, during a sprint execution.\nThis clearly goes against Principle 5 of the manifesto that says \u201cBuild\nprojects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and support\nthey need and trust them to get the job done\u201d. In essence, the Manager\u2019s role\nis to provide facilitative support to teams after providing them the big\npicture \/ vision \/ direction. Teams decide on how they will execute, and will approach\nyou as managers, only for unresolved blockers, or when they need support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    From a leadership perspective as well, leadership practices should be based on similar values and principles to what we have discussed for teams. Some of these principles may include those relating to delegation\/empowerment, workforce diversity, freedom for experimentation, support for collaborative communities, emotional well-being of employees and so on. For those keen on an organizational perspective of Agile, would like to refer you to PM Power\u2019s recently released book \u201cThe Five Tantras of Enterprise Agility<\/a>\u201d. Incidentally, the book devotes an entire section (Book 3 within the book) to Transformational Leadership needed to succeed with Agile. <\/p>\n","post_title":"Agile Culture and Mindset - re-visited","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"agile-culture-and-mindset-re-visited","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 12:26:29","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 12:26:29","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=19891","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":19790,"post_author":"13","post_date":"2022-03-28 11:03:24","post_date_gmt":"2022-03-28 05:33:24","post_content":"\n

    Piyush works as a Manager for a team of 20 people. He has been successfully running an IT team for the last 3 years. However, he has been constantly plagued by his people going on unplanned leaves. This has been happening for the last 8-9 months or so. It also came out in several retrospectives. However, there was no focused effort in solving the root problems. Whenever, there were unplanned leaves, the team leads would step up, they would spend night outs and would somehow make sure that the release would not get affected. And to encourage this trend, the Management would reward the Leads with \"Star of the Quarter\" or \"Team champion\" award, which would further encourage this trend. Unconsciously, the Manager was setting himself up for failure by encouraging this trend. When we dug the problem deeper, the following was what I observed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    When I tried to dig deeper, while Piyush complained about the symptom of \u201cUnplanned Leaves\u201d, the main response from the team was that they were not getting the leaves when they asked for the same citing the amount of work that was there. The team members hardly contributed. The Leads and seniors were doing most of the heavy lifting. Even though, they were burnt out because of work , they still were getting necessary incentives both in terms of having a superior knowledge on the application that they did not want to give up. Eventually, even the seniors and leads were taking unplanned leaves mainly because they were also burnt out and partly because they knew that Piyush always had a soft corner for them. When the process of retrospective was put in place, the team explicitly stated that they did not receive a proper KT. That is one of the objectives of Retrospectives where the team can express itself freely. When Piyush heard the same, his solutioning was to reward the team leads and bail them out of the release pains rather than solving the root problem. The team also did not press too much because they were internally happy of not feeling much pressure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The problem is represented below in the table as a sequence of Drama Triangle roles. The subtext in parenthesis is ulterior and not expressed openly. Only when I dug deeper, I found it. (https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Karpman_drama_triangle)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n Persecutor\n <\/td>\n Victim\n <\/td>\n Rescuer\n <\/td><\/tr>
    \n Manager: There are too many unplanned Leaves\n <\/td> (Team: If we ask for a planned leave, we do not get it )<\/em><\/td> Leads\/Seniors: We will (cover for the team and )<\/em>ensure the release wouldn't suffer <\/td><\/tr>
    (Team Leads: Let us also go on an unplanned leave. We are totally burned out. Why should only we suffer?)<\/em><\/td>Manager: Oh my god! how am I going to deliver this? Team, I need you to pull the weight this time.<\/td>Team: We will do our best (to get out of this situation. Provide some temporary fixes) <\/em><\/td><\/tr>
    Team: We tried our best but we have never been given a proper KT. (I am rather happy that I do not have to take much pressure)<\/em><\/td> Team Leads: Despite all the efforts, we get to be blamed<\/td>Manager: Don't worry, I will make sure you get all the necessary rewards for the hard work (strike the deal with the team leads)<\/em><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    This is typically how the Drama Triangle works. And because the roles keep switching, it will keep the \"Game\" of the recurring problem alive. And all of this happens at an unconscious level. This also results in a negative feeling for everybody involved. Because, it happens at an unconscious level for all the players, they would also struggle to come out of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    In order to break this pattern, there should be an active involvement of all the participants to solve the root problem and address the same. How would you solve this problem?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    ...............................................................................................................................<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    ...............................................................................................................................<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    ...............................................................................................................................<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Here is how we solved the problem:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Solution<\/strong>: The first thing I did was to bring this awareness of Drama Triangle among all the participants. I showed them how each of them are playing their part in keeping the game alive without their awareness. Since they were all playing this at an unconscious level, it is very difficult to come out unless someone can bring that awareness. They had not seen this problem in the lens of a Drama Triangle at all. This helped them break the resistances on solving the problem and see how they themselves contributed to solving this problem. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The main issue was that the team members did not develop enough skills in their project. We found during the session that most of it could be addressed if the team was involved in the decision making, hold them accountable and if they can be helped in enhancing the skills. The team was given a lot more autonomy. They were involved in the planning meetings and their opinions and decisions were given more weightage. While a separate time was scoped out for KT, it was made sure that the team would start fronting all the work where as the team leads would play the supporting role. The team found the work lot more challenging, while the seniors played the role of mentors. As a result, the team started to learn not only the technical skills but also the Leadership skills to feel empowered. Gradually, there was a decrease in unplanned leaves as the team felt more empowered.<\/p>\n","post_title":"CHOW#287 - The Drama of \"Unplanned Leaves\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"chow287-the-drama-of-unplanned-leaves","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-23 08:29:34","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-23 08:29:34","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=19790","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":4},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

    Page 4 of 12 1 … 3 4 5 … 12
    \n
  • Bench the Ego<\/strong>

    Every action, it is said, has an equal and opposite reaction. <\/span><\/p>

    This is true for leaders too. When some decisions are forced on people, there is invariably a tendency to resist, particularly if it involves change. <\/span><\/p>

    As a Scrum Master, one needs to be able to quickly gain the consensus of the team. To do that the Scrum Master should also listen and create a safe environment for everyone to express themselves.<\/p> <\/li>\n\n\n\n

  • Let Each Player Discover His Own Destiny<\/strong>

    Jackson says, \"I've always been interested in getting players to think for themselves so that they can make difficult decisions in the heat of battle.\" <\/span><\/p>

    This translates into enabling safe spaces where each person can exhibit and share their courage, mutual respect, and resilience. <\/span><\/p>

    This also encourages the team to go beyond narrowly defined set of duties and swarm as needed, to ensure team success.<\/p> <\/li>\n\n\n\n

  • The Road to Freedom is a Beautiful System<\/strong>

    When each person in the team is actively aware of what the others are doing and where the team is moving, it enables smooth self-organization and collective ownership. The triangle system that is attributed to Phil Jackson, is a fitting example of having a common structure that is well understood, while providing a chance for creativity.<\/p> <\/li>\n\n\n\n

  • Turn the Mundane into the Sacred<\/strong>

    Even for well knit teams, it is worthwhile to have some formality in terms of events [used to also be called ceremonies] that are also supported by team norms. <\/span><\/p>

    What might otherwise be considered as a routine \u2013 say the daily standup \u2013 could become important points of sync up when infused with some formalism. Phil Jackson also introduced meditation practices for the team to help the players focus, unwind, and stay energetic. <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

  • One Breath = One Mind<\/strong>

    A simple technique to get everyone aligned and in sync just before any significant event. Whether it is a crucial meeting, where consensus needs to be reached in time or the start of a release cycle, helping everyone spend some silent, reflective time together helps align the breathing, which is particularly useful in playing tandem, or like trapeze artists, when there are hand-offs to be executed as the project progresses <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

  • The Key to Success is Compassion<\/strong>

    Helping the team understand and internalize the scrum value of respect for others, will lead to greater empathy for both the other team members as well as customers. That understanding will propel the team to go the extra mile when needed, to ensure that the promises to the users are always the highest priority. <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

  • Keep Your Eye on the Spirit, Not on the Scoreboard<\/strong>

    This is the essential difference between DOING Agile and BEING Agile. Or not being obsessed only with some vanity metrics. When the core principles and the team values are always at the back of every thought and action, a team can focus on internalizing the values and principles of Agility. When the emphasis is to do it by the book, one may tend to be more worried about checking the boxes and ignore the outputs and outcomes. <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

  • Sometimes You Have to Pull Out the Big Stick<\/strong>

    This is tricky to directly interpret for a Scrum Master, as the emphasis is usually to be a 'servant leader' who gets results through influence. This is usually true in an ideal world. Sometimes, a Scrum Master needs to be creative to highlight some issues within the team or with specific individuals, so that they can realize the impact of their action or inaction. <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

  • When in Doubt, Do Nothing<\/strong>

    One of the key responsibilities of a Scrum Master if to remove impediments. This may not be quite simple at times. For an action-oriented person, it may be difficult to not do anything and observe the situation resolve itself. But, sometimes, it is best to not do anything. The triaging technique used by many teams \u2013 including emergency medical response teams \u2013 also suggests that in some situations, it is best to not do anything. This will come with experience. <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

  • Forget the Ring<\/strong>

    This is also a point that is easier said than done. When one is so involved in the action, it is not easy to ignore or forget the result and the urge to win. Phil Jackson says, 'obsessing about winning is a loser's game.' The main reason he says, is that such a focus would lead to one losing control of one's emotions. He says, 'The most we can hope for is to create the best possible conditions for success, then let go of the outcome.' <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    The book has a lot more detailed examples including situations involving some of the high performers who were more self-centric and concerned with their own success and image, and how he was able to help them turn into more team players and mentors to other less experienced players.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Eleven Rings for a Scrum Master","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"eleven-rings-for-a-scrum-master","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 11:31:55","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 11:31:55","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=19967","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"2","filter":"raw"},{"ID":19891,"post_author":"15","post_date":"2022-04-17 19:37:10","post_date_gmt":"2022-04-17 14:07:10","post_content":"\n

    Ever since Agile approaches became popular\nabout 15 to 20 years ago, Agile culture and mindset have been touted as the\nfoundation elements around which successful organizational transformation\nhappens. Peter Drucker\u2019s famous quote \u201cCulture eats strategy for breakfast\u201d points\nto the ineffectiveness of your strategy implementation if the company culture\ndoesn\u2019t support it. In the early years, not many organizations understood and\ninternalized the true Agile culture \/ philosophy, leading to many of them\nfailing in their Agile journey. This was helped in no small measure by the\nplethora of consultants, selling Agile as a methodology over philosophy. The\nfew successes that we had, though, led to the realization that \u201cbeing agile\u201d is\nsubstantially more important for succeeding with Agile than \u201cdoing agile\u201d. This\nessentially means implementing Agile in \u201cspirit\u201d and, we are seeing this trend\nwith many organizations today. The intent of this blog is to demystify a few\naspects relating to Agile mindset and culture, both from a team perspective, as\nwell as, from the perspective of leadership\/management.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    What is Agile culture?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Agile culture is an environment built\naround core values and principles with practices and behaviours aligned to\nthose values and principles. In today\u2019s business, this culture needs to address\nresponsiveness to customer and market needs in an extremely complex and\nuncertain environment. Essentially the organization\u2019s values and principles and\nthe related practices \/ behaviours should be reflective of this business\nneed.  For culture to be effective at the\nbusiness level, it needs to permeate through various organizational layers,\nstarting from the top. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Agile culture in teams - Values, Principles and Practices<\/strong> Implementing a proper Agile culture in teams requires a good understanding of Agile values and principles and an appreciation of how these are linked to practices (and to associated behaviours). While Agile values are universal, they are also often too abstract. On the other hand, practices are ways of solving common problems and dilemmas, that we encounter in software development. Given the large perceived gap between these two, we use Principles to bridge this gap and help understand practices better. Values and Principles together guide us in adaptation and improvisation of practices, as part of our efforts to improve continuously. Let me take a couple of examples to illustrate this using the Agile Manifesto<\/a>, Principles<\/a>, Scrum Values<\/a> and XP Values and Principles<\/a>: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    From the above example, if you notice that\nthe practice of team members taking turns to provide updates (rather than each\none being prodded on by the SM) is an implementation of the principle of\naccepted responsibility (ownership). I am sure you can see a linkage of other\npractices to the values and principles that they align to. As mentioned before,\nyou can improvise on practices (such as, doing fun retrospectives, for example)\nwithout compromising on values and principles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    In the above example, I have deliberately\nmixed values and principles from the Agile manifesto as well as specific Agile\napproaches such as Scrum \/ XP. From my own perspective, I have looked at the Agile\nManifesto as more of a position statement than a set of classical \u201cvalues\u201d -\nwhich is why approaches such as Scrum and XP expounded their own set of values.\nMost Agile approaches use the Agile manifesto as a broad guideline for their\nown specific recommendations and incorporate their own values and principles to\nsupport their practice recommendations (both management as well as technical\npractices). In my opinion, it is sensible to take such a hybrid approach to\nsupport your organization context. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    There is another factor to be considered \u2013\nAgile Manifesto and values and principles from other approaches are applicable\nto a software development context, which functions under a broad organizational\ncontext. The organization will have its own core values and philosophy stated from\na business perspective, and as a consequence, any Agile implementation has to\nbe aligned to and support this organizational context. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Agile culture in leadership and\nmanagement<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    In the early days of Agile implementation,\nit was viewed largely as a bottom-up initiative focusing on delivery teams. The\npervasive nature of Agile as a culture change across all the layers of the\norganization was lost on senior leadership. \nThis introduces many internal conflicts. For example, when SMs see their\nmanager(s) practicing a directive style with them, while expecting them to be\nfacilitative with their own teams, they see a clear conflict of culture. In my\nexperience as a coach, I have personally seen managers track their teams\u2019\nburn-downs - which is clearly a team\u2019s responsibility to track for needed\nactions - wanting to know why they were looking bad, during a sprint execution.\nThis clearly goes against Principle 5 of the manifesto that says \u201cBuild\nprojects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and support\nthey need and trust them to get the job done\u201d. In essence, the Manager\u2019s role\nis to provide facilitative support to teams after providing them the big\npicture \/ vision \/ direction. Teams decide on how they will execute, and will approach\nyou as managers, only for unresolved blockers, or when they need support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    From a leadership perspective as well, leadership practices should be based on similar values and principles to what we have discussed for teams. Some of these principles may include those relating to delegation\/empowerment, workforce diversity, freedom for experimentation, support for collaborative communities, emotional well-being of employees and so on. For those keen on an organizational perspective of Agile, would like to refer you to PM Power\u2019s recently released book \u201cThe Five Tantras of Enterprise Agility<\/a>\u201d. Incidentally, the book devotes an entire section (Book 3 within the book) to Transformational Leadership needed to succeed with Agile. <\/p>\n","post_title":"Agile Culture and Mindset - re-visited","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"agile-culture-and-mindset-re-visited","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 12:26:29","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 12:26:29","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=19891","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":19790,"post_author":"13","post_date":"2022-03-28 11:03:24","post_date_gmt":"2022-03-28 05:33:24","post_content":"\n

    Piyush works as a Manager for a team of 20 people. He has been successfully running an IT team for the last 3 years. However, he has been constantly plagued by his people going on unplanned leaves. This has been happening for the last 8-9 months or so. It also came out in several retrospectives. However, there was no focused effort in solving the root problems. Whenever, there were unplanned leaves, the team leads would step up, they would spend night outs and would somehow make sure that the release would not get affected. And to encourage this trend, the Management would reward the Leads with \"Star of the Quarter\" or \"Team champion\" award, which would further encourage this trend. Unconsciously, the Manager was setting himself up for failure by encouraging this trend. When we dug the problem deeper, the following was what I observed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    When I tried to dig deeper, while Piyush complained about the symptom of \u201cUnplanned Leaves\u201d, the main response from the team was that they were not getting the leaves when they asked for the same citing the amount of work that was there. The team members hardly contributed. The Leads and seniors were doing most of the heavy lifting. Even though, they were burnt out because of work , they still were getting necessary incentives both in terms of having a superior knowledge on the application that they did not want to give up. Eventually, even the seniors and leads were taking unplanned leaves mainly because they were also burnt out and partly because they knew that Piyush always had a soft corner for them. When the process of retrospective was put in place, the team explicitly stated that they did not receive a proper KT. That is one of the objectives of Retrospectives where the team can express itself freely. When Piyush heard the same, his solutioning was to reward the team leads and bail them out of the release pains rather than solving the root problem. The team also did not press too much because they were internally happy of not feeling much pressure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The problem is represented below in the table as a sequence of Drama Triangle roles. The subtext in parenthesis is ulterior and not expressed openly. Only when I dug deeper, I found it. (https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Karpman_drama_triangle)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n Persecutor\n <\/td>\n Victim\n <\/td>\n Rescuer\n <\/td><\/tr>
    \n Manager: There are too many unplanned Leaves\n <\/td> (Team: If we ask for a planned leave, we do not get it )<\/em><\/td> Leads\/Seniors: We will (cover for the team and )<\/em>ensure the release wouldn't suffer <\/td><\/tr>
    (Team Leads: Let us also go on an unplanned leave. We are totally burned out. Why should only we suffer?)<\/em><\/td>Manager: Oh my god! how am I going to deliver this? Team, I need you to pull the weight this time.<\/td>Team: We will do our best (to get out of this situation. Provide some temporary fixes) <\/em><\/td><\/tr>
    Team: We tried our best but we have never been given a proper KT. (I am rather happy that I do not have to take much pressure)<\/em><\/td> Team Leads: Despite all the efforts, we get to be blamed<\/td>Manager: Don't worry, I will make sure you get all the necessary rewards for the hard work (strike the deal with the team leads)<\/em><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    This is typically how the Drama Triangle works. And because the roles keep switching, it will keep the \"Game\" of the recurring problem alive. And all of this happens at an unconscious level. This also results in a negative feeling for everybody involved. Because, it happens at an unconscious level for all the players, they would also struggle to come out of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    In order to break this pattern, there should be an active involvement of all the participants to solve the root problem and address the same. How would you solve this problem?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    ...............................................................................................................................<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    ...............................................................................................................................<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    ...............................................................................................................................<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Here is how we solved the problem:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Solution<\/strong>: The first thing I did was to bring this awareness of Drama Triangle among all the participants. I showed them how each of them are playing their part in keeping the game alive without their awareness. Since they were all playing this at an unconscious level, it is very difficult to come out unless someone can bring that awareness. They had not seen this problem in the lens of a Drama Triangle at all. This helped them break the resistances on solving the problem and see how they themselves contributed to solving this problem. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The main issue was that the team members did not develop enough skills in their project. We found during the session that most of it could be addressed if the team was involved in the decision making, hold them accountable and if they can be helped in enhancing the skills. The team was given a lot more autonomy. They were involved in the planning meetings and their opinions and decisions were given more weightage. While a separate time was scoped out for KT, it was made sure that the team would start fronting all the work where as the team leads would play the supporting role. The team found the work lot more challenging, while the seniors played the role of mentors. As a result, the team started to learn not only the technical skills but also the Leadership skills to feel empowered. Gradually, there was a decrease in unplanned leaves as the team felt more empowered.<\/p>\n","post_title":"CHOW#287 - The Drama of \"Unplanned Leaves\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"chow287-the-drama-of-unplanned-leaves","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-23 08:29:34","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-23 08:29:34","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=19790","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":4},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

    Page 4 of 12 1 … 3 4 5 … 12
    \n
  • Lead From the Inside Out<\/strong>

    In the PM Power approach to leadership development, we combine the hard aspects as well as the soft aspects. An effective leader is one who can manage outside, by mastering inside. <\/span><\/p>

    When one leads from inside out, the genuineness of conversations establishes true connections with people, and everyone starts to listen more to what you say. <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

  • Bench the Ego<\/strong>

    Every action, it is said, has an equal and opposite reaction. <\/span><\/p>

    This is true for leaders too. When some decisions are forced on people, there is invariably a tendency to resist, particularly if it involves change. <\/span><\/p>

    As a Scrum Master, one needs to be able to quickly gain the consensus of the team. To do that the Scrum Master should also listen and create a safe environment for everyone to express themselves.<\/p> <\/li>\n\n\n\n

  • Let Each Player Discover His Own Destiny<\/strong>

    Jackson says, \"I've always been interested in getting players to think for themselves so that they can make difficult decisions in the heat of battle.\" <\/span><\/p>

    This translates into enabling safe spaces where each person can exhibit and share their courage, mutual respect, and resilience. <\/span><\/p>

    This also encourages the team to go beyond narrowly defined set of duties and swarm as needed, to ensure team success.<\/p> <\/li>\n\n\n\n

  • The Road to Freedom is a Beautiful System<\/strong>

    When each person in the team is actively aware of what the others are doing and where the team is moving, it enables smooth self-organization and collective ownership. The triangle system that is attributed to Phil Jackson, is a fitting example of having a common structure that is well understood, while providing a chance for creativity.<\/p> <\/li>\n\n\n\n

  • Turn the Mundane into the Sacred<\/strong>

    Even for well knit teams, it is worthwhile to have some formality in terms of events [used to also be called ceremonies] that are also supported by team norms. <\/span><\/p>

    What might otherwise be considered as a routine \u2013 say the daily standup \u2013 could become important points of sync up when infused with some formalism. Phil Jackson also introduced meditation practices for the team to help the players focus, unwind, and stay energetic. <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

  • One Breath = One Mind<\/strong>

    A simple technique to get everyone aligned and in sync just before any significant event. Whether it is a crucial meeting, where consensus needs to be reached in time or the start of a release cycle, helping everyone spend some silent, reflective time together helps align the breathing, which is particularly useful in playing tandem, or like trapeze artists, when there are hand-offs to be executed as the project progresses <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

  • The Key to Success is Compassion<\/strong>

    Helping the team understand and internalize the scrum value of respect for others, will lead to greater empathy for both the other team members as well as customers. That understanding will propel the team to go the extra mile when needed, to ensure that the promises to the users are always the highest priority. <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

  • Keep Your Eye on the Spirit, Not on the Scoreboard<\/strong>

    This is the essential difference between DOING Agile and BEING Agile. Or not being obsessed only with some vanity metrics. When the core principles and the team values are always at the back of every thought and action, a team can focus on internalizing the values and principles of Agility. When the emphasis is to do it by the book, one may tend to be more worried about checking the boxes and ignore the outputs and outcomes. <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

  • Sometimes You Have to Pull Out the Big Stick<\/strong>

    This is tricky to directly interpret for a Scrum Master, as the emphasis is usually to be a 'servant leader' who gets results through influence. This is usually true in an ideal world. Sometimes, a Scrum Master needs to be creative to highlight some issues within the team or with specific individuals, so that they can realize the impact of their action or inaction. <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

  • When in Doubt, Do Nothing<\/strong>

    One of the key responsibilities of a Scrum Master if to remove impediments. This may not be quite simple at times. For an action-oriented person, it may be difficult to not do anything and observe the situation resolve itself. But, sometimes, it is best to not do anything. The triaging technique used by many teams \u2013 including emergency medical response teams \u2013 also suggests that in some situations, it is best to not do anything. This will come with experience. <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

  • Forget the Ring<\/strong>

    This is also a point that is easier said than done. When one is so involved in the action, it is not easy to ignore or forget the result and the urge to win. Phil Jackson says, 'obsessing about winning is a loser's game.' The main reason he says, is that such a focus would lead to one losing control of one's emotions. He says, 'The most we can hope for is to create the best possible conditions for success, then let go of the outcome.' <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    The book has a lot more detailed examples including situations involving some of the high performers who were more self-centric and concerned with their own success and image, and how he was able to help them turn into more team players and mentors to other less experienced players.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Eleven Rings for a Scrum Master","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"eleven-rings-for-a-scrum-master","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 11:31:55","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 11:31:55","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=19967","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"2","filter":"raw"},{"ID":19891,"post_author":"15","post_date":"2022-04-17 19:37:10","post_date_gmt":"2022-04-17 14:07:10","post_content":"\n

    Ever since Agile approaches became popular\nabout 15 to 20 years ago, Agile culture and mindset have been touted as the\nfoundation elements around which successful organizational transformation\nhappens. Peter Drucker\u2019s famous quote \u201cCulture eats strategy for breakfast\u201d points\nto the ineffectiveness of your strategy implementation if the company culture\ndoesn\u2019t support it. In the early years, not many organizations understood and\ninternalized the true Agile culture \/ philosophy, leading to many of them\nfailing in their Agile journey. This was helped in no small measure by the\nplethora of consultants, selling Agile as a methodology over philosophy. The\nfew successes that we had, though, led to the realization that \u201cbeing agile\u201d is\nsubstantially more important for succeeding with Agile than \u201cdoing agile\u201d. This\nessentially means implementing Agile in \u201cspirit\u201d and, we are seeing this trend\nwith many organizations today. The intent of this blog is to demystify a few\naspects relating to Agile mindset and culture, both from a team perspective, as\nwell as, from the perspective of leadership\/management.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    What is Agile culture?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Agile culture is an environment built\naround core values and principles with practices and behaviours aligned to\nthose values and principles. In today\u2019s business, this culture needs to address\nresponsiveness to customer and market needs in an extremely complex and\nuncertain environment. Essentially the organization\u2019s values and principles and\nthe related practices \/ behaviours should be reflective of this business\nneed.  For culture to be effective at the\nbusiness level, it needs to permeate through various organizational layers,\nstarting from the top. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Agile culture in teams - Values, Principles and Practices<\/strong> Implementing a proper Agile culture in teams requires a good understanding of Agile values and principles and an appreciation of how these are linked to practices (and to associated behaviours). While Agile values are universal, they are also often too abstract. On the other hand, practices are ways of solving common problems and dilemmas, that we encounter in software development. Given the large perceived gap between these two, we use Principles to bridge this gap and help understand practices better. Values and Principles together guide us in adaptation and improvisation of practices, as part of our efforts to improve continuously. Let me take a couple of examples to illustrate this using the Agile Manifesto<\/a>, Principles<\/a>, Scrum Values<\/a> and XP Values and Principles<\/a>: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    From the above example, if you notice that\nthe practice of team members taking turns to provide updates (rather than each\none being prodded on by the SM) is an implementation of the principle of\naccepted responsibility (ownership). I am sure you can see a linkage of other\npractices to the values and principles that they align to. As mentioned before,\nyou can improvise on practices (such as, doing fun retrospectives, for example)\nwithout compromising on values and principles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    In the above example, I have deliberately\nmixed values and principles from the Agile manifesto as well as specific Agile\napproaches such as Scrum \/ XP. From my own perspective, I have looked at the Agile\nManifesto as more of a position statement than a set of classical \u201cvalues\u201d -\nwhich is why approaches such as Scrum and XP expounded their own set of values.\nMost Agile approaches use the Agile manifesto as a broad guideline for their\nown specific recommendations and incorporate their own values and principles to\nsupport their practice recommendations (both management as well as technical\npractices). In my opinion, it is sensible to take such a hybrid approach to\nsupport your organization context. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    There is another factor to be considered \u2013\nAgile Manifesto and values and principles from other approaches are applicable\nto a software development context, which functions under a broad organizational\ncontext. The organization will have its own core values and philosophy stated from\na business perspective, and as a consequence, any Agile implementation has to\nbe aligned to and support this organizational context. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Agile culture in leadership and\nmanagement<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    In the early days of Agile implementation,\nit was viewed largely as a bottom-up initiative focusing on delivery teams. The\npervasive nature of Agile as a culture change across all the layers of the\norganization was lost on senior leadership. \nThis introduces many internal conflicts. For example, when SMs see their\nmanager(s) practicing a directive style with them, while expecting them to be\nfacilitative with their own teams, they see a clear conflict of culture. In my\nexperience as a coach, I have personally seen managers track their teams\u2019\nburn-downs - which is clearly a team\u2019s responsibility to track for needed\nactions - wanting to know why they were looking bad, during a sprint execution.\nThis clearly goes against Principle 5 of the manifesto that says \u201cBuild\nprojects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and support\nthey need and trust them to get the job done\u201d. In essence, the Manager\u2019s role\nis to provide facilitative support to teams after providing them the big\npicture \/ vision \/ direction. Teams decide on how they will execute, and will approach\nyou as managers, only for unresolved blockers, or when they need support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    From a leadership perspective as well, leadership practices should be based on similar values and principles to what we have discussed for teams. Some of these principles may include those relating to delegation\/empowerment, workforce diversity, freedom for experimentation, support for collaborative communities, emotional well-being of employees and so on. For those keen on an organizational perspective of Agile, would like to refer you to PM Power\u2019s recently released book \u201cThe Five Tantras of Enterprise Agility<\/a>\u201d. Incidentally, the book devotes an entire section (Book 3 within the book) to Transformational Leadership needed to succeed with Agile. <\/p>\n","post_title":"Agile Culture and Mindset - re-visited","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"agile-culture-and-mindset-re-visited","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 12:26:29","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 12:26:29","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=19891","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":19790,"post_author":"13","post_date":"2022-03-28 11:03:24","post_date_gmt":"2022-03-28 05:33:24","post_content":"\n

    Piyush works as a Manager for a team of 20 people. He has been successfully running an IT team for the last 3 years. However, he has been constantly plagued by his people going on unplanned leaves. This has been happening for the last 8-9 months or so. It also came out in several retrospectives. However, there was no focused effort in solving the root problems. Whenever, there were unplanned leaves, the team leads would step up, they would spend night outs and would somehow make sure that the release would not get affected. And to encourage this trend, the Management would reward the Leads with \"Star of the Quarter\" or \"Team champion\" award, which would further encourage this trend. Unconsciously, the Manager was setting himself up for failure by encouraging this trend. When we dug the problem deeper, the following was what I observed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    When I tried to dig deeper, while Piyush complained about the symptom of \u201cUnplanned Leaves\u201d, the main response from the team was that they were not getting the leaves when they asked for the same citing the amount of work that was there. The team members hardly contributed. The Leads and seniors were doing most of the heavy lifting. Even though, they were burnt out because of work , they still were getting necessary incentives both in terms of having a superior knowledge on the application that they did not want to give up. Eventually, even the seniors and leads were taking unplanned leaves mainly because they were also burnt out and partly because they knew that Piyush always had a soft corner for them. When the process of retrospective was put in place, the team explicitly stated that they did not receive a proper KT. That is one of the objectives of Retrospectives where the team can express itself freely. When Piyush heard the same, his solutioning was to reward the team leads and bail them out of the release pains rather than solving the root problem. The team also did not press too much because they were internally happy of not feeling much pressure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The problem is represented below in the table as a sequence of Drama Triangle roles. The subtext in parenthesis is ulterior and not expressed openly. Only when I dug deeper, I found it. (https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Karpman_drama_triangle)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n Persecutor\n <\/td>\n Victim\n <\/td>\n Rescuer\n <\/td><\/tr>
    \n Manager: There are too many unplanned Leaves\n <\/td> (Team: If we ask for a planned leave, we do not get it )<\/em><\/td> Leads\/Seniors: We will (cover for the team and )<\/em>ensure the release wouldn't suffer <\/td><\/tr>
    (Team Leads: Let us also go on an unplanned leave. We are totally burned out. Why should only we suffer?)<\/em><\/td>Manager: Oh my god! how am I going to deliver this? Team, I need you to pull the weight this time.<\/td>Team: We will do our best (to get out of this situation. Provide some temporary fixes) <\/em><\/td><\/tr>
    Team: We tried our best but we have never been given a proper KT. (I am rather happy that I do not have to take much pressure)<\/em><\/td> Team Leads: Despite all the efforts, we get to be blamed<\/td>Manager: Don't worry, I will make sure you get all the necessary rewards for the hard work (strike the deal with the team leads)<\/em><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    This is typically how the Drama Triangle works. And because the roles keep switching, it will keep the \"Game\" of the recurring problem alive. And all of this happens at an unconscious level. This also results in a negative feeling for everybody involved. Because, it happens at an unconscious level for all the players, they would also struggle to come out of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    In order to break this pattern, there should be an active involvement of all the participants to solve the root problem and address the same. How would you solve this problem?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    ...............................................................................................................................<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    ...............................................................................................................................<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    ...............................................................................................................................<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Here is how we solved the problem:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Solution<\/strong>: The first thing I did was to bring this awareness of Drama Triangle among all the participants. I showed them how each of them are playing their part in keeping the game alive without their awareness. Since they were all playing this at an unconscious level, it is very difficult to come out unless someone can bring that awareness. They had not seen this problem in the lens of a Drama Triangle at all. This helped them break the resistances on solving the problem and see how they themselves contributed to solving this problem. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The main issue was that the team members did not develop enough skills in their project. We found during the session that most of it could be addressed if the team was involved in the decision making, hold them accountable and if they can be helped in enhancing the skills. The team was given a lot more autonomy. They were involved in the planning meetings and their opinions and decisions were given more weightage. While a separate time was scoped out for KT, it was made sure that the team would start fronting all the work where as the team leads would play the supporting role. The team found the work lot more challenging, while the seniors played the role of mentors. As a result, the team started to learn not only the technical skills but also the Leadership skills to feel empowered. Gradually, there was a decrease in unplanned leaves as the team felt more empowered.<\/p>\n","post_title":"CHOW#287 - The Drama of \"Unplanned Leaves\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"chow287-the-drama-of-unplanned-leaves","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-23 08:29:34","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-23 08:29:34","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=19790","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":4},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

    Page 4 of 12 1 … 3 4 5 … 12
    \n
      \n
    1. Lead From the Inside Out<\/strong>

      In the PM Power approach to leadership development, we combine the hard aspects as well as the soft aspects. An effective leader is one who can manage outside, by mastering inside. <\/span><\/p>

      When one leads from inside out, the genuineness of conversations establishes true connections with people, and everyone starts to listen more to what you say. <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

    2. Bench the Ego<\/strong>

      Every action, it is said, has an equal and opposite reaction. <\/span><\/p>

      This is true for leaders too. When some decisions are forced on people, there is invariably a tendency to resist, particularly if it involves change. <\/span><\/p>

      As a Scrum Master, one needs to be able to quickly gain the consensus of the team. To do that the Scrum Master should also listen and create a safe environment for everyone to express themselves.<\/p> <\/li>\n\n\n\n

    3. Let Each Player Discover His Own Destiny<\/strong>

      Jackson says, \"I've always been interested in getting players to think for themselves so that they can make difficult decisions in the heat of battle.\" <\/span><\/p>

      This translates into enabling safe spaces where each person can exhibit and share their courage, mutual respect, and resilience. <\/span><\/p>

      This also encourages the team to go beyond narrowly defined set of duties and swarm as needed, to ensure team success.<\/p> <\/li>\n\n\n\n

    4. The Road to Freedom is a Beautiful System<\/strong>

      When each person in the team is actively aware of what the others are doing and where the team is moving, it enables smooth self-organization and collective ownership. The triangle system that is attributed to Phil Jackson, is a fitting example of having a common structure that is well understood, while providing a chance for creativity.<\/p> <\/li>\n\n\n\n

    5. Turn the Mundane into the Sacred<\/strong>

      Even for well knit teams, it is worthwhile to have some formality in terms of events [used to also be called ceremonies] that are also supported by team norms. <\/span><\/p>

      What might otherwise be considered as a routine \u2013 say the daily standup \u2013 could become important points of sync up when infused with some formalism. Phil Jackson also introduced meditation practices for the team to help the players focus, unwind, and stay energetic. <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

    6. One Breath = One Mind<\/strong>

      A simple technique to get everyone aligned and in sync just before any significant event. Whether it is a crucial meeting, where consensus needs to be reached in time or the start of a release cycle, helping everyone spend some silent, reflective time together helps align the breathing, which is particularly useful in playing tandem, or like trapeze artists, when there are hand-offs to be executed as the project progresses <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

    7. The Key to Success is Compassion<\/strong>

      Helping the team understand and internalize the scrum value of respect for others, will lead to greater empathy for both the other team members as well as customers. That understanding will propel the team to go the extra mile when needed, to ensure that the promises to the users are always the highest priority. <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

    8. Keep Your Eye on the Spirit, Not on the Scoreboard<\/strong>

      This is the essential difference between DOING Agile and BEING Agile. Or not being obsessed only with some vanity metrics. When the core principles and the team values are always at the back of every thought and action, a team can focus on internalizing the values and principles of Agility. When the emphasis is to do it by the book, one may tend to be more worried about checking the boxes and ignore the outputs and outcomes. <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

    9. Sometimes You Have to Pull Out the Big Stick<\/strong>

      This is tricky to directly interpret for a Scrum Master, as the emphasis is usually to be a 'servant leader' who gets results through influence. This is usually true in an ideal world. Sometimes, a Scrum Master needs to be creative to highlight some issues within the team or with specific individuals, so that they can realize the impact of their action or inaction. <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

    10. When in Doubt, Do Nothing<\/strong>

      One of the key responsibilities of a Scrum Master if to remove impediments. This may not be quite simple at times. For an action-oriented person, it may be difficult to not do anything and observe the situation resolve itself. But, sometimes, it is best to not do anything. The triaging technique used by many teams \u2013 including emergency medical response teams \u2013 also suggests that in some situations, it is best to not do anything. This will come with experience. <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

    11. Forget the Ring<\/strong>

      This is also a point that is easier said than done. When one is so involved in the action, it is not easy to ignore or forget the result and the urge to win. Phil Jackson says, 'obsessing about winning is a loser's game.' The main reason he says, is that such a focus would lead to one losing control of one's emotions. He says, 'The most we can hope for is to create the best possible conditions for success, then let go of the outcome.' <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

      The book has a lot more detailed examples including situations involving some of the high performers who were more self-centric and concerned with their own success and image, and how he was able to help them turn into more team players and mentors to other less experienced players.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Eleven Rings for a Scrum Master","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"eleven-rings-for-a-scrum-master","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 11:31:55","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 11:31:55","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=19967","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"2","filter":"raw"},{"ID":19891,"post_author":"15","post_date":"2022-04-17 19:37:10","post_date_gmt":"2022-04-17 14:07:10","post_content":"\n

      Ever since Agile approaches became popular\nabout 15 to 20 years ago, Agile culture and mindset have been touted as the\nfoundation elements around which successful organizational transformation\nhappens. Peter Drucker\u2019s famous quote \u201cCulture eats strategy for breakfast\u201d points\nto the ineffectiveness of your strategy implementation if the company culture\ndoesn\u2019t support it. In the early years, not many organizations understood and\ninternalized the true Agile culture \/ philosophy, leading to many of them\nfailing in their Agile journey. This was helped in no small measure by the\nplethora of consultants, selling Agile as a methodology over philosophy. The\nfew successes that we had, though, led to the realization that \u201cbeing agile\u201d is\nsubstantially more important for succeeding with Agile than \u201cdoing agile\u201d. This\nessentially means implementing Agile in \u201cspirit\u201d and, we are seeing this trend\nwith many organizations today. The intent of this blog is to demystify a few\naspects relating to Agile mindset and culture, both from a team perspective, as\nwell as, from the perspective of leadership\/management.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      What is Agile culture?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Agile culture is an environment built\naround core values and principles with practices and behaviours aligned to\nthose values and principles. In today\u2019s business, this culture needs to address\nresponsiveness to customer and market needs in an extremely complex and\nuncertain environment. Essentially the organization\u2019s values and principles and\nthe related practices \/ behaviours should be reflective of this business\nneed.  For culture to be effective at the\nbusiness level, it needs to permeate through various organizational layers,\nstarting from the top. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Agile culture in teams - Values, Principles and Practices<\/strong> Implementing a proper Agile culture in teams requires a good understanding of Agile values and principles and an appreciation of how these are linked to practices (and to associated behaviours). While Agile values are universal, they are also often too abstract. On the other hand, practices are ways of solving common problems and dilemmas, that we encounter in software development. Given the large perceived gap between these two, we use Principles to bridge this gap and help understand practices better. Values and Principles together guide us in adaptation and improvisation of practices, as part of our efforts to improve continuously. Let me take a couple of examples to illustrate this using the Agile Manifesto<\/a>, Principles<\/a>, Scrum Values<\/a> and XP Values and Principles<\/a>: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

      \"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

      From the above example, if you notice that\nthe practice of team members taking turns to provide updates (rather than each\none being prodded on by the SM) is an implementation of the principle of\naccepted responsibility (ownership). I am sure you can see a linkage of other\npractices to the values and principles that they align to. As mentioned before,\nyou can improvise on practices (such as, doing fun retrospectives, for example)\nwithout compromising on values and principles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      In the above example, I have deliberately\nmixed values and principles from the Agile manifesto as well as specific Agile\napproaches such as Scrum \/ XP. From my own perspective, I have looked at the Agile\nManifesto as more of a position statement than a set of classical \u201cvalues\u201d -\nwhich is why approaches such as Scrum and XP expounded their own set of values.\nMost Agile approaches use the Agile manifesto as a broad guideline for their\nown specific recommendations and incorporate their own values and principles to\nsupport their practice recommendations (both management as well as technical\npractices). In my opinion, it is sensible to take such a hybrid approach to\nsupport your organization context. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

      There is another factor to be considered \u2013\nAgile Manifesto and values and principles from other approaches are applicable\nto a software development context, which functions under a broad organizational\ncontext. The organization will have its own core values and philosophy stated from\na business perspective, and as a consequence, any Agile implementation has to\nbe aligned to and support this organizational context. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Agile culture in leadership and\nmanagement<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

      In the early days of Agile implementation,\nit was viewed largely as a bottom-up initiative focusing on delivery teams. The\npervasive nature of Agile as a culture change across all the layers of the\norganization was lost on senior leadership. \nThis introduces many internal conflicts. For example, when SMs see their\nmanager(s) practicing a directive style with them, while expecting them to be\nfacilitative with their own teams, they see a clear conflict of culture. In my\nexperience as a coach, I have personally seen managers track their teams\u2019\nburn-downs - which is clearly a team\u2019s responsibility to track for needed\nactions - wanting to know why they were looking bad, during a sprint execution.\nThis clearly goes against Principle 5 of the manifesto that says \u201cBuild\nprojects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and support\nthey need and trust them to get the job done\u201d. In essence, the Manager\u2019s role\nis to provide facilitative support to teams after providing them the big\npicture \/ vision \/ direction. Teams decide on how they will execute, and will approach\nyou as managers, only for unresolved blockers, or when they need support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      From a leadership perspective as well, leadership practices should be based on similar values and principles to what we have discussed for teams. Some of these principles may include those relating to delegation\/empowerment, workforce diversity, freedom for experimentation, support for collaborative communities, emotional well-being of employees and so on. For those keen on an organizational perspective of Agile, would like to refer you to PM Power\u2019s recently released book \u201cThe Five Tantras of Enterprise Agility<\/a>\u201d. Incidentally, the book devotes an entire section (Book 3 within the book) to Transformational Leadership needed to succeed with Agile. <\/p>\n","post_title":"Agile Culture and Mindset - re-visited","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"agile-culture-and-mindset-re-visited","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 12:26:29","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 12:26:29","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=19891","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":19790,"post_author":"13","post_date":"2022-03-28 11:03:24","post_date_gmt":"2022-03-28 05:33:24","post_content":"\n

      Piyush works as a Manager for a team of 20 people. He has been successfully running an IT team for the last 3 years. However, he has been constantly plagued by his people going on unplanned leaves. This has been happening for the last 8-9 months or so. It also came out in several retrospectives. However, there was no focused effort in solving the root problems. Whenever, there were unplanned leaves, the team leads would step up, they would spend night outs and would somehow make sure that the release would not get affected. And to encourage this trend, the Management would reward the Leads with \"Star of the Quarter\" or \"Team champion\" award, which would further encourage this trend. Unconsciously, the Manager was setting himself up for failure by encouraging this trend. When we dug the problem deeper, the following was what I observed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      When I tried to dig deeper, while Piyush complained about the symptom of \u201cUnplanned Leaves\u201d, the main response from the team was that they were not getting the leaves when they asked for the same citing the amount of work that was there. The team members hardly contributed. The Leads and seniors were doing most of the heavy lifting. Even though, they were burnt out because of work , they still were getting necessary incentives both in terms of having a superior knowledge on the application that they did not want to give up. Eventually, even the seniors and leads were taking unplanned leaves mainly because they were also burnt out and partly because they knew that Piyush always had a soft corner for them. When the process of retrospective was put in place, the team explicitly stated that they did not receive a proper KT. That is one of the objectives of Retrospectives where the team can express itself freely. When Piyush heard the same, his solutioning was to reward the team leads and bail them out of the release pains rather than solving the root problem. The team also did not press too much because they were internally happy of not feeling much pressure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      The problem is represented below in the table as a sequence of Drama Triangle roles. The subtext in parenthesis is ulterior and not expressed openly. Only when I dug deeper, I found it. (https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Karpman_drama_triangle)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      \n Persecutor\n <\/td>\n Victim\n <\/td>\n Rescuer\n <\/td><\/tr>
      \n Manager: There are too many unplanned Leaves\n <\/td> (Team: If we ask for a planned leave, we do not get it )<\/em><\/td> Leads\/Seniors: We will (cover for the team and )<\/em>ensure the release wouldn't suffer <\/td><\/tr>
      (Team Leads: Let us also go on an unplanned leave. We are totally burned out. Why should only we suffer?)<\/em><\/td>Manager: Oh my god! how am I going to deliver this? Team, I need you to pull the weight this time.<\/td>Team: We will do our best (to get out of this situation. Provide some temporary fixes) <\/em><\/td><\/tr>
      Team: We tried our best but we have never been given a proper KT. (I am rather happy that I do not have to take much pressure)<\/em><\/td> Team Leads: Despite all the efforts, we get to be blamed<\/td>Manager: Don't worry, I will make sure you get all the necessary rewards for the hard work (strike the deal with the team leads)<\/em><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

      This is typically how the Drama Triangle works. And because the roles keep switching, it will keep the \"Game\" of the recurring problem alive. And all of this happens at an unconscious level. This also results in a negative feeling for everybody involved. Because, it happens at an unconscious level for all the players, they would also struggle to come out of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      In order to break this pattern, there should be an active involvement of all the participants to solve the root problem and address the same. How would you solve this problem?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      ...............................................................................................................................<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      ...............................................................................................................................<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      ...............................................................................................................................<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Here is how we solved the problem:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Solution<\/strong>: The first thing I did was to bring this awareness of Drama Triangle among all the participants. I showed them how each of them are playing their part in keeping the game alive without their awareness. Since they were all playing this at an unconscious level, it is very difficult to come out unless someone can bring that awareness. They had not seen this problem in the lens of a Drama Triangle at all. This helped them break the resistances on solving the problem and see how they themselves contributed to solving this problem. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

      The main issue was that the team members did not develop enough skills in their project. We found during the session that most of it could be addressed if the team was involved in the decision making, hold them accountable and if they can be helped in enhancing the skills. The team was given a lot more autonomy. They were involved in the planning meetings and their opinions and decisions were given more weightage. While a separate time was scoped out for KT, it was made sure that the team would start fronting all the work where as the team leads would play the supporting role. The team found the work lot more challenging, while the seniors played the role of mentors. As a result, the team started to learn not only the technical skills but also the Leadership skills to feel empowered. Gradually, there was a decrease in unplanned leaves as the team felt more empowered.<\/p>\n","post_title":"CHOW#287 - The Drama of \"Unplanned Leaves\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"chow287-the-drama-of-unplanned-leaves","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-23 08:29:34","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-23 08:29:34","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=19790","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":4},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

      Page 4 of 12 1 … 3 4 5 … 12
      \n

      We talk about a Scrum Masters role as a leadership role, something that can be successful by influence and not authority.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        \n
      1. Lead From the Inside Out<\/strong>

        In the PM Power approach to leadership development, we combine the hard aspects as well as the soft aspects. An effective leader is one who can manage outside, by mastering inside. <\/span><\/p>

        When one leads from inside out, the genuineness of conversations establishes true connections with people, and everyone starts to listen more to what you say. <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

      2. Bench the Ego<\/strong>

        Every action, it is said, has an equal and opposite reaction. <\/span><\/p>

        This is true for leaders too. When some decisions are forced on people, there is invariably a tendency to resist, particularly if it involves change. <\/span><\/p>

        As a Scrum Master, one needs to be able to quickly gain the consensus of the team. To do that the Scrum Master should also listen and create a safe environment for everyone to express themselves.<\/p> <\/li>\n\n\n\n

      3. Let Each Player Discover His Own Destiny<\/strong>

        Jackson says, \"I've always been interested in getting players to think for themselves so that they can make difficult decisions in the heat of battle.\" <\/span><\/p>

        This translates into enabling safe spaces where each person can exhibit and share their courage, mutual respect, and resilience. <\/span><\/p>

        This also encourages the team to go beyond narrowly defined set of duties and swarm as needed, to ensure team success.<\/p> <\/li>\n\n\n\n

      4. The Road to Freedom is a Beautiful System<\/strong>

        When each person in the team is actively aware of what the others are doing and where the team is moving, it enables smooth self-organization and collective ownership. The triangle system that is attributed to Phil Jackson, is a fitting example of having a common structure that is well understood, while providing a chance for creativity.<\/p> <\/li>\n\n\n\n

      5. Turn the Mundane into the Sacred<\/strong>

        Even for well knit teams, it is worthwhile to have some formality in terms of events [used to also be called ceremonies] that are also supported by team norms. <\/span><\/p>

        What might otherwise be considered as a routine \u2013 say the daily standup \u2013 could become important points of sync up when infused with some formalism. Phil Jackson also introduced meditation practices for the team to help the players focus, unwind, and stay energetic. <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

      6. One Breath = One Mind<\/strong>

        A simple technique to get everyone aligned and in sync just before any significant event. Whether it is a crucial meeting, where consensus needs to be reached in time or the start of a release cycle, helping everyone spend some silent, reflective time together helps align the breathing, which is particularly useful in playing tandem, or like trapeze artists, when there are hand-offs to be executed as the project progresses <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

      7. The Key to Success is Compassion<\/strong>

        Helping the team understand and internalize the scrum value of respect for others, will lead to greater empathy for both the other team members as well as customers. That understanding will propel the team to go the extra mile when needed, to ensure that the promises to the users are always the highest priority. <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

      8. Keep Your Eye on the Spirit, Not on the Scoreboard<\/strong>

        This is the essential difference between DOING Agile and BEING Agile. Or not being obsessed only with some vanity metrics. When the core principles and the team values are always at the back of every thought and action, a team can focus on internalizing the values and principles of Agility. When the emphasis is to do it by the book, one may tend to be more worried about checking the boxes and ignore the outputs and outcomes. <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

      9. Sometimes You Have to Pull Out the Big Stick<\/strong>

        This is tricky to directly interpret for a Scrum Master, as the emphasis is usually to be a 'servant leader' who gets results through influence. This is usually true in an ideal world. Sometimes, a Scrum Master needs to be creative to highlight some issues within the team or with specific individuals, so that they can realize the impact of their action or inaction. <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

      10. When in Doubt, Do Nothing<\/strong>

        One of the key responsibilities of a Scrum Master if to remove impediments. This may not be quite simple at times. For an action-oriented person, it may be difficult to not do anything and observe the situation resolve itself. But, sometimes, it is best to not do anything. The triaging technique used by many teams \u2013 including emergency medical response teams \u2013 also suggests that in some situations, it is best to not do anything. This will come with experience. <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

      11. Forget the Ring<\/strong>

        This is also a point that is easier said than done. When one is so involved in the action, it is not easy to ignore or forget the result and the urge to win. Phil Jackson says, 'obsessing about winning is a loser's game.' The main reason he says, is that such a focus would lead to one losing control of one's emotions. He says, 'The most we can hope for is to create the best possible conditions for success, then let go of the outcome.' <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

        The book has a lot more detailed examples including situations involving some of the high performers who were more self-centric and concerned with their own success and image, and how he was able to help them turn into more team players and mentors to other less experienced players.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Eleven Rings for a Scrum Master","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"eleven-rings-for-a-scrum-master","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 11:31:55","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 11:31:55","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=19967","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"2","filter":"raw"},{"ID":19891,"post_author":"15","post_date":"2022-04-17 19:37:10","post_date_gmt":"2022-04-17 14:07:10","post_content":"\n

        Ever since Agile approaches became popular\nabout 15 to 20 years ago, Agile culture and mindset have been touted as the\nfoundation elements around which successful organizational transformation\nhappens. Peter Drucker\u2019s famous quote \u201cCulture eats strategy for breakfast\u201d points\nto the ineffectiveness of your strategy implementation if the company culture\ndoesn\u2019t support it. In the early years, not many organizations understood and\ninternalized the true Agile culture \/ philosophy, leading to many of them\nfailing in their Agile journey. This was helped in no small measure by the\nplethora of consultants, selling Agile as a methodology over philosophy. The\nfew successes that we had, though, led to the realization that \u201cbeing agile\u201d is\nsubstantially more important for succeeding with Agile than \u201cdoing agile\u201d. This\nessentially means implementing Agile in \u201cspirit\u201d and, we are seeing this trend\nwith many organizations today. The intent of this blog is to demystify a few\naspects relating to Agile mindset and culture, both from a team perspective, as\nwell as, from the perspective of leadership\/management.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        What is Agile culture?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

        Agile culture is an environment built\naround core values and principles with practices and behaviours aligned to\nthose values and principles. In today\u2019s business, this culture needs to address\nresponsiveness to customer and market needs in an extremely complex and\nuncertain environment. Essentially the organization\u2019s values and principles and\nthe related practices \/ behaviours should be reflective of this business\nneed.  For culture to be effective at the\nbusiness level, it needs to permeate through various organizational layers,\nstarting from the top. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

        Agile culture in teams - Values, Principles and Practices<\/strong> Implementing a proper Agile culture in teams requires a good understanding of Agile values and principles and an appreciation of how these are linked to practices (and to associated behaviours). While Agile values are universal, they are also often too abstract. On the other hand, practices are ways of solving common problems and dilemmas, that we encounter in software development. Given the large perceived gap between these two, we use Principles to bridge this gap and help understand practices better. Values and Principles together guide us in adaptation and improvisation of practices, as part of our efforts to improve continuously. Let me take a couple of examples to illustrate this using the Agile Manifesto<\/a>, Principles<\/a>, Scrum Values<\/a> and XP Values and Principles<\/a>: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

        \"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

        From the above example, if you notice that\nthe practice of team members taking turns to provide updates (rather than each\none being prodded on by the SM) is an implementation of the principle of\naccepted responsibility (ownership). I am sure you can see a linkage of other\npractices to the values and principles that they align to. As mentioned before,\nyou can improvise on practices (such as, doing fun retrospectives, for example)\nwithout compromising on values and principles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        In the above example, I have deliberately\nmixed values and principles from the Agile manifesto as well as specific Agile\napproaches such as Scrum \/ XP. From my own perspective, I have looked at the Agile\nManifesto as more of a position statement than a set of classical \u201cvalues\u201d -\nwhich is why approaches such as Scrum and XP expounded their own set of values.\nMost Agile approaches use the Agile manifesto as a broad guideline for their\nown specific recommendations and incorporate their own values and principles to\nsupport their practice recommendations (both management as well as technical\npractices). In my opinion, it is sensible to take such a hybrid approach to\nsupport your organization context. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

        There is another factor to be considered \u2013\nAgile Manifesto and values and principles from other approaches are applicable\nto a software development context, which functions under a broad organizational\ncontext. The organization will have its own core values and philosophy stated from\na business perspective, and as a consequence, any Agile implementation has to\nbe aligned to and support this organizational context. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

        Agile culture in leadership and\nmanagement<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

        In the early days of Agile implementation,\nit was viewed largely as a bottom-up initiative focusing on delivery teams. The\npervasive nature of Agile as a culture change across all the layers of the\norganization was lost on senior leadership. \nThis introduces many internal conflicts. For example, when SMs see their\nmanager(s) practicing a directive style with them, while expecting them to be\nfacilitative with their own teams, they see a clear conflict of culture. In my\nexperience as a coach, I have personally seen managers track their teams\u2019\nburn-downs - which is clearly a team\u2019s responsibility to track for needed\nactions - wanting to know why they were looking bad, during a sprint execution.\nThis clearly goes against Principle 5 of the manifesto that says \u201cBuild\nprojects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and support\nthey need and trust them to get the job done\u201d. In essence, the Manager\u2019s role\nis to provide facilitative support to teams after providing them the big\npicture \/ vision \/ direction. Teams decide on how they will execute, and will approach\nyou as managers, only for unresolved blockers, or when they need support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        From a leadership perspective as well, leadership practices should be based on similar values and principles to what we have discussed for teams. Some of these principles may include those relating to delegation\/empowerment, workforce diversity, freedom for experimentation, support for collaborative communities, emotional well-being of employees and so on. For those keen on an organizational perspective of Agile, would like to refer you to PM Power\u2019s recently released book \u201cThe Five Tantras of Enterprise Agility<\/a>\u201d. Incidentally, the book devotes an entire section (Book 3 within the book) to Transformational Leadership needed to succeed with Agile. <\/p>\n","post_title":"Agile Culture and Mindset - re-visited","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"agile-culture-and-mindset-re-visited","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 12:26:29","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 12:26:29","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=19891","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":19790,"post_author":"13","post_date":"2022-03-28 11:03:24","post_date_gmt":"2022-03-28 05:33:24","post_content":"\n

        Piyush works as a Manager for a team of 20 people. He has been successfully running an IT team for the last 3 years. However, he has been constantly plagued by his people going on unplanned leaves. This has been happening for the last 8-9 months or so. It also came out in several retrospectives. However, there was no focused effort in solving the root problems. Whenever, there were unplanned leaves, the team leads would step up, they would spend night outs and would somehow make sure that the release would not get affected. And to encourage this trend, the Management would reward the Leads with \"Star of the Quarter\" or \"Team champion\" award, which would further encourage this trend. Unconsciously, the Manager was setting himself up for failure by encouraging this trend. When we dug the problem deeper, the following was what I observed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        When I tried to dig deeper, while Piyush complained about the symptom of \u201cUnplanned Leaves\u201d, the main response from the team was that they were not getting the leaves when they asked for the same citing the amount of work that was there. The team members hardly contributed. The Leads and seniors were doing most of the heavy lifting. Even though, they were burnt out because of work , they still were getting necessary incentives both in terms of having a superior knowledge on the application that they did not want to give up. Eventually, even the seniors and leads were taking unplanned leaves mainly because they were also burnt out and partly because they knew that Piyush always had a soft corner for them. When the process of retrospective was put in place, the team explicitly stated that they did not receive a proper KT. That is one of the objectives of Retrospectives where the team can express itself freely. When Piyush heard the same, his solutioning was to reward the team leads and bail them out of the release pains rather than solving the root problem. The team also did not press too much because they were internally happy of not feeling much pressure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        The problem is represented below in the table as a sequence of Drama Triangle roles. The subtext in parenthesis is ulterior and not expressed openly. Only when I dug deeper, I found it. (https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Karpman_drama_triangle)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        \n Persecutor\n <\/td>\n Victim\n <\/td>\n Rescuer\n <\/td><\/tr>
        \n Manager: There are too many unplanned Leaves\n <\/td> (Team: If we ask for a planned leave, we do not get it )<\/em><\/td> Leads\/Seniors: We will (cover for the team and )<\/em>ensure the release wouldn't suffer <\/td><\/tr>
        (Team Leads: Let us also go on an unplanned leave. We are totally burned out. Why should only we suffer?)<\/em><\/td>Manager: Oh my god! how am I going to deliver this? Team, I need you to pull the weight this time.<\/td>Team: We will do our best (to get out of this situation. Provide some temporary fixes) <\/em><\/td><\/tr>
        Team: We tried our best but we have never been given a proper KT. (I am rather happy that I do not have to take much pressure)<\/em><\/td> Team Leads: Despite all the efforts, we get to be blamed<\/td>Manager: Don't worry, I will make sure you get all the necessary rewards for the hard work (strike the deal with the team leads)<\/em><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

        This is typically how the Drama Triangle works. And because the roles keep switching, it will keep the \"Game\" of the recurring problem alive. And all of this happens at an unconscious level. This also results in a negative feeling for everybody involved. Because, it happens at an unconscious level for all the players, they would also struggle to come out of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        In order to break this pattern, there should be an active involvement of all the participants to solve the root problem and address the same. How would you solve this problem?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        ...............................................................................................................................<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        ...............................................................................................................................<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        ...............................................................................................................................<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        Here is how we solved the problem:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

        Solution<\/strong>: The first thing I did was to bring this awareness of Drama Triangle among all the participants. I showed them how each of them are playing their part in keeping the game alive without their awareness. Since they were all playing this at an unconscious level, it is very difficult to come out unless someone can bring that awareness. They had not seen this problem in the lens of a Drama Triangle at all. This helped them break the resistances on solving the problem and see how they themselves contributed to solving this problem. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

        The main issue was that the team members did not develop enough skills in their project. We found during the session that most of it could be addressed if the team was involved in the decision making, hold them accountable and if they can be helped in enhancing the skills. The team was given a lot more autonomy. They were involved in the planning meetings and their opinions and decisions were given more weightage. While a separate time was scoped out for KT, it was made sure that the team would start fronting all the work where as the team leads would play the supporting role. The team found the work lot more challenging, while the seniors played the role of mentors. As a result, the team started to learn not only the technical skills but also the Leadership skills to feel empowered. Gradually, there was a decrease in unplanned leaves as the team felt more empowered.<\/p>\n","post_title":"CHOW#287 - The Drama of \"Unplanned Leaves\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"chow287-the-drama-of-unplanned-leaves","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-23 08:29:34","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-23 08:29:34","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=19790","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":4},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

        Page 4 of 12 1 … 3 4 5 … 12
        \n

        In this book, he distils leadership styles and actions to eleven points.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        We talk about a Scrum Masters role as a leadership role, something that can be successful by influence and not authority.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

          \n
        1. Lead From the Inside Out<\/strong>

          In the PM Power approach to leadership development, we combine the hard aspects as well as the soft aspects. An effective leader is one who can manage outside, by mastering inside. <\/span><\/p>

          When one leads from inside out, the genuineness of conversations establishes true connections with people, and everyone starts to listen more to what you say. <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

        2. Bench the Ego<\/strong>

          Every action, it is said, has an equal and opposite reaction. <\/span><\/p>

          This is true for leaders too. When some decisions are forced on people, there is invariably a tendency to resist, particularly if it involves change. <\/span><\/p>

          As a Scrum Master, one needs to be able to quickly gain the consensus of the team. To do that the Scrum Master should also listen and create a safe environment for everyone to express themselves.<\/p> <\/li>\n\n\n\n

        3. Let Each Player Discover His Own Destiny<\/strong>

          Jackson says, \"I've always been interested in getting players to think for themselves so that they can make difficult decisions in the heat of battle.\" <\/span><\/p>

          This translates into enabling safe spaces where each person can exhibit and share their courage, mutual respect, and resilience. <\/span><\/p>

          This also encourages the team to go beyond narrowly defined set of duties and swarm as needed, to ensure team success.<\/p> <\/li>\n\n\n\n

        4. The Road to Freedom is a Beautiful System<\/strong>

          When each person in the team is actively aware of what the others are doing and where the team is moving, it enables smooth self-organization and collective ownership. The triangle system that is attributed to Phil Jackson, is a fitting example of having a common structure that is well understood, while providing a chance for creativity.<\/p> <\/li>\n\n\n\n

        5. Turn the Mundane into the Sacred<\/strong>

          Even for well knit teams, it is worthwhile to have some formality in terms of events [used to also be called ceremonies] that are also supported by team norms. <\/span><\/p>

          What might otherwise be considered as a routine \u2013 say the daily standup \u2013 could become important points of sync up when infused with some formalism. Phil Jackson also introduced meditation practices for the team to help the players focus, unwind, and stay energetic. <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

        6. One Breath = One Mind<\/strong>

          A simple technique to get everyone aligned and in sync just before any significant event. Whether it is a crucial meeting, where consensus needs to be reached in time or the start of a release cycle, helping everyone spend some silent, reflective time together helps align the breathing, which is particularly useful in playing tandem, or like trapeze artists, when there are hand-offs to be executed as the project progresses <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

        7. The Key to Success is Compassion<\/strong>

          Helping the team understand and internalize the scrum value of respect for others, will lead to greater empathy for both the other team members as well as customers. That understanding will propel the team to go the extra mile when needed, to ensure that the promises to the users are always the highest priority. <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

        8. Keep Your Eye on the Spirit, Not on the Scoreboard<\/strong>

          This is the essential difference between DOING Agile and BEING Agile. Or not being obsessed only with some vanity metrics. When the core principles and the team values are always at the back of every thought and action, a team can focus on internalizing the values and principles of Agility. When the emphasis is to do it by the book, one may tend to be more worried about checking the boxes and ignore the outputs and outcomes. <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

        9. Sometimes You Have to Pull Out the Big Stick<\/strong>

          This is tricky to directly interpret for a Scrum Master, as the emphasis is usually to be a 'servant leader' who gets results through influence. This is usually true in an ideal world. Sometimes, a Scrum Master needs to be creative to highlight some issues within the team or with specific individuals, so that they can realize the impact of their action or inaction. <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

        10. When in Doubt, Do Nothing<\/strong>

          One of the key responsibilities of a Scrum Master if to remove impediments. This may not be quite simple at times. For an action-oriented person, it may be difficult to not do anything and observe the situation resolve itself. But, sometimes, it is best to not do anything. The triaging technique used by many teams \u2013 including emergency medical response teams \u2013 also suggests that in some situations, it is best to not do anything. This will come with experience. <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

        11. Forget the Ring<\/strong>

          This is also a point that is easier said than done. When one is so involved in the action, it is not easy to ignore or forget the result and the urge to win. Phil Jackson says, 'obsessing about winning is a loser's game.' The main reason he says, is that such a focus would lead to one losing control of one's emotions. He says, 'The most we can hope for is to create the best possible conditions for success, then let go of the outcome.' <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

          The book has a lot more detailed examples including situations involving some of the high performers who were more self-centric and concerned with their own success and image, and how he was able to help them turn into more team players and mentors to other less experienced players.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Eleven Rings for a Scrum Master","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"eleven-rings-for-a-scrum-master","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 11:31:55","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 11:31:55","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=19967","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"2","filter":"raw"},{"ID":19891,"post_author":"15","post_date":"2022-04-17 19:37:10","post_date_gmt":"2022-04-17 14:07:10","post_content":"\n

          Ever since Agile approaches became popular\nabout 15 to 20 years ago, Agile culture and mindset have been touted as the\nfoundation elements around which successful organizational transformation\nhappens. Peter Drucker\u2019s famous quote \u201cCulture eats strategy for breakfast\u201d points\nto the ineffectiveness of your strategy implementation if the company culture\ndoesn\u2019t support it. In the early years, not many organizations understood and\ninternalized the true Agile culture \/ philosophy, leading to many of them\nfailing in their Agile journey. This was helped in no small measure by the\nplethora of consultants, selling Agile as a methodology over philosophy. The\nfew successes that we had, though, led to the realization that \u201cbeing agile\u201d is\nsubstantially more important for succeeding with Agile than \u201cdoing agile\u201d. This\nessentially means implementing Agile in \u201cspirit\u201d and, we are seeing this trend\nwith many organizations today. The intent of this blog is to demystify a few\naspects relating to Agile mindset and culture, both from a team perspective, as\nwell as, from the perspective of leadership\/management.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

          What is Agile culture?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

          Agile culture is an environment built\naround core values and principles with practices and behaviours aligned to\nthose values and principles. In today\u2019s business, this culture needs to address\nresponsiveness to customer and market needs in an extremely complex and\nuncertain environment. Essentially the organization\u2019s values and principles and\nthe related practices \/ behaviours should be reflective of this business\nneed.  For culture to be effective at the\nbusiness level, it needs to permeate through various organizational layers,\nstarting from the top. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

          Agile culture in teams - Values, Principles and Practices<\/strong> Implementing a proper Agile culture in teams requires a good understanding of Agile values and principles and an appreciation of how these are linked to practices (and to associated behaviours). While Agile values are universal, they are also often too abstract. On the other hand, practices are ways of solving common problems and dilemmas, that we encounter in software development. Given the large perceived gap between these two, we use Principles to bridge this gap and help understand practices better. Values and Principles together guide us in adaptation and improvisation of practices, as part of our efforts to improve continuously. Let me take a couple of examples to illustrate this using the Agile Manifesto<\/a>, Principles<\/a>, Scrum Values<\/a> and XP Values and Principles<\/a>: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

          \"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

          From the above example, if you notice that\nthe practice of team members taking turns to provide updates (rather than each\none being prodded on by the SM) is an implementation of the principle of\naccepted responsibility (ownership). I am sure you can see a linkage of other\npractices to the values and principles that they align to. As mentioned before,\nyou can improvise on practices (such as, doing fun retrospectives, for example)\nwithout compromising on values and principles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

          In the above example, I have deliberately\nmixed values and principles from the Agile manifesto as well as specific Agile\napproaches such as Scrum \/ XP. From my own perspective, I have looked at the Agile\nManifesto as more of a position statement than a set of classical \u201cvalues\u201d -\nwhich is why approaches such as Scrum and XP expounded their own set of values.\nMost Agile approaches use the Agile manifesto as a broad guideline for their\nown specific recommendations and incorporate their own values and principles to\nsupport their practice recommendations (both management as well as technical\npractices). In my opinion, it is sensible to take such a hybrid approach to\nsupport your organization context. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

          There is another factor to be considered \u2013\nAgile Manifesto and values and principles from other approaches are applicable\nto a software development context, which functions under a broad organizational\ncontext. The organization will have its own core values and philosophy stated from\na business perspective, and as a consequence, any Agile implementation has to\nbe aligned to and support this organizational context. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

          Agile culture in leadership and\nmanagement<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

          In the early days of Agile implementation,\nit was viewed largely as a bottom-up initiative focusing on delivery teams. The\npervasive nature of Agile as a culture change across all the layers of the\norganization was lost on senior leadership. \nThis introduces many internal conflicts. For example, when SMs see their\nmanager(s) practicing a directive style with them, while expecting them to be\nfacilitative with their own teams, they see a clear conflict of culture. In my\nexperience as a coach, I have personally seen managers track their teams\u2019\nburn-downs - which is clearly a team\u2019s responsibility to track for needed\nactions - wanting to know why they were looking bad, during a sprint execution.\nThis clearly goes against Principle 5 of the manifesto that says \u201cBuild\nprojects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and support\nthey need and trust them to get the job done\u201d. In essence, the Manager\u2019s role\nis to provide facilitative support to teams after providing them the big\npicture \/ vision \/ direction. Teams decide on how they will execute, and will approach\nyou as managers, only for unresolved blockers, or when they need support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

          From a leadership perspective as well, leadership practices should be based on similar values and principles to what we have discussed for teams. Some of these principles may include those relating to delegation\/empowerment, workforce diversity, freedom for experimentation, support for collaborative communities, emotional well-being of employees and so on. For those keen on an organizational perspective of Agile, would like to refer you to PM Power\u2019s recently released book \u201cThe Five Tantras of Enterprise Agility<\/a>\u201d. Incidentally, the book devotes an entire section (Book 3 within the book) to Transformational Leadership needed to succeed with Agile. <\/p>\n","post_title":"Agile Culture and Mindset - re-visited","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"agile-culture-and-mindset-re-visited","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 12:26:29","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 12:26:29","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=19891","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":19790,"post_author":"13","post_date":"2022-03-28 11:03:24","post_date_gmt":"2022-03-28 05:33:24","post_content":"\n

          Piyush works as a Manager for a team of 20 people. He has been successfully running an IT team for the last 3 years. However, he has been constantly plagued by his people going on unplanned leaves. This has been happening for the last 8-9 months or so. It also came out in several retrospectives. However, there was no focused effort in solving the root problems. Whenever, there were unplanned leaves, the team leads would step up, they would spend night outs and would somehow make sure that the release would not get affected. And to encourage this trend, the Management would reward the Leads with \"Star of the Quarter\" or \"Team champion\" award, which would further encourage this trend. Unconsciously, the Manager was setting himself up for failure by encouraging this trend. When we dug the problem deeper, the following was what I observed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

          When I tried to dig deeper, while Piyush complained about the symptom of \u201cUnplanned Leaves\u201d, the main response from the team was that they were not getting the leaves when they asked for the same citing the amount of work that was there. The team members hardly contributed. The Leads and seniors were doing most of the heavy lifting. Even though, they were burnt out because of work , they still were getting necessary incentives both in terms of having a superior knowledge on the application that they did not want to give up. Eventually, even the seniors and leads were taking unplanned leaves mainly because they were also burnt out and partly because they knew that Piyush always had a soft corner for them. When the process of retrospective was put in place, the team explicitly stated that they did not receive a proper KT. That is one of the objectives of Retrospectives where the team can express itself freely. When Piyush heard the same, his solutioning was to reward the team leads and bail them out of the release pains rather than solving the root problem. The team also did not press too much because they were internally happy of not feeling much pressure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

          The problem is represented below in the table as a sequence of Drama Triangle roles. The subtext in parenthesis is ulterior and not expressed openly. Only when I dug deeper, I found it. (https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Karpman_drama_triangle)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

          \n Persecutor\n <\/td>\n Victim\n <\/td>\n Rescuer\n <\/td><\/tr>
          \n Manager: There are too many unplanned Leaves\n <\/td> (Team: If we ask for a planned leave, we do not get it )<\/em><\/td> Leads\/Seniors: We will (cover for the team and )<\/em>ensure the release wouldn't suffer <\/td><\/tr>
          (Team Leads: Let us also go on an unplanned leave. We are totally burned out. Why should only we suffer?)<\/em><\/td>Manager: Oh my god! how am I going to deliver this? Team, I need you to pull the weight this time.<\/td>Team: We will do our best (to get out of this situation. Provide some temporary fixes) <\/em><\/td><\/tr>
          Team: We tried our best but we have never been given a proper KT. (I am rather happy that I do not have to take much pressure)<\/em><\/td> Team Leads: Despite all the efforts, we get to be blamed<\/td>Manager: Don't worry, I will make sure you get all the necessary rewards for the hard work (strike the deal with the team leads)<\/em><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

          This is typically how the Drama Triangle works. And because the roles keep switching, it will keep the \"Game\" of the recurring problem alive. And all of this happens at an unconscious level. This also results in a negative feeling for everybody involved. Because, it happens at an unconscious level for all the players, they would also struggle to come out of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

          In order to break this pattern, there should be an active involvement of all the participants to solve the root problem and address the same. How would you solve this problem?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

          ...............................................................................................................................<\/p>\n\n\n\n

          ...............................................................................................................................<\/p>\n\n\n\n

          ...............................................................................................................................<\/p>\n\n\n\n

          Here is how we solved the problem:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

          Solution<\/strong>: The first thing I did was to bring this awareness of Drama Triangle among all the participants. I showed them how each of them are playing their part in keeping the game alive without their awareness. Since they were all playing this at an unconscious level, it is very difficult to come out unless someone can bring that awareness. They had not seen this problem in the lens of a Drama Triangle at all. This helped them break the resistances on solving the problem and see how they themselves contributed to solving this problem. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

          The main issue was that the team members did not develop enough skills in their project. We found during the session that most of it could be addressed if the team was involved in the decision making, hold them accountable and if they can be helped in enhancing the skills. The team was given a lot more autonomy. They were involved in the planning meetings and their opinions and decisions were given more weightage. While a separate time was scoped out for KT, it was made sure that the team would start fronting all the work where as the team leads would play the supporting role. The team found the work lot more challenging, while the seniors played the role of mentors. As a result, the team started to learn not only the technical skills but also the Leadership skills to feel empowered. Gradually, there was a decrease in unplanned leaves as the team felt more empowered.<\/p>\n","post_title":"CHOW#287 - The Drama of \"Unplanned Leaves\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"chow287-the-drama-of-unplanned-leaves","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-23 08:29:34","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-23 08:29:34","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=19790","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":4},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

          Page 4 of 12 1 … 3 4 5 … 12
          \n

          With eleven titles to his credit, helping the Chicago Bulls win six times and the LA Lakers win five times, Phil Jackson knows what it takes to build great teams and help them succeed \u2013 consistently!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

          In this book, he distils leadership styles and actions to eleven points.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

          We talk about a Scrum Masters role as a leadership role, something that can be successful by influence and not authority.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            \n
          1. Lead From the Inside Out<\/strong>

            In the PM Power approach to leadership development, we combine the hard aspects as well as the soft aspects. An effective leader is one who can manage outside, by mastering inside. <\/span><\/p>

            When one leads from inside out, the genuineness of conversations establishes true connections with people, and everyone starts to listen more to what you say. <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

          2. Bench the Ego<\/strong>

            Every action, it is said, has an equal and opposite reaction. <\/span><\/p>

            This is true for leaders too. When some decisions are forced on people, there is invariably a tendency to resist, particularly if it involves change. <\/span><\/p>

            As a Scrum Master, one needs to be able to quickly gain the consensus of the team. To do that the Scrum Master should also listen and create a safe environment for everyone to express themselves.<\/p> <\/li>\n\n\n\n

          3. Let Each Player Discover His Own Destiny<\/strong>

            Jackson says, \"I've always been interested in getting players to think for themselves so that they can make difficult decisions in the heat of battle.\" <\/span><\/p>

            This translates into enabling safe spaces where each person can exhibit and share their courage, mutual respect, and resilience. <\/span><\/p>

            This also encourages the team to go beyond narrowly defined set of duties and swarm as needed, to ensure team success.<\/p> <\/li>\n\n\n\n

          4. The Road to Freedom is a Beautiful System<\/strong>

            When each person in the team is actively aware of what the others are doing and where the team is moving, it enables smooth self-organization and collective ownership. The triangle system that is attributed to Phil Jackson, is a fitting example of having a common structure that is well understood, while providing a chance for creativity.<\/p> <\/li>\n\n\n\n

          5. Turn the Mundane into the Sacred<\/strong>

            Even for well knit teams, it is worthwhile to have some formality in terms of events [used to also be called ceremonies] that are also supported by team norms. <\/span><\/p>

            What might otherwise be considered as a routine \u2013 say the daily standup \u2013 could become important points of sync up when infused with some formalism. Phil Jackson also introduced meditation practices for the team to help the players focus, unwind, and stay energetic. <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

          6. One Breath = One Mind<\/strong>

            A simple technique to get everyone aligned and in sync just before any significant event. Whether it is a crucial meeting, where consensus needs to be reached in time or the start of a release cycle, helping everyone spend some silent, reflective time together helps align the breathing, which is particularly useful in playing tandem, or like trapeze artists, when there are hand-offs to be executed as the project progresses <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

          7. The Key to Success is Compassion<\/strong>

            Helping the team understand and internalize the scrum value of respect for others, will lead to greater empathy for both the other team members as well as customers. That understanding will propel the team to go the extra mile when needed, to ensure that the promises to the users are always the highest priority. <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

          8. Keep Your Eye on the Spirit, Not on the Scoreboard<\/strong>

            This is the essential difference between DOING Agile and BEING Agile. Or not being obsessed only with some vanity metrics. When the core principles and the team values are always at the back of every thought and action, a team can focus on internalizing the values and principles of Agility. When the emphasis is to do it by the book, one may tend to be more worried about checking the boxes and ignore the outputs and outcomes. <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

          9. Sometimes You Have to Pull Out the Big Stick<\/strong>

            This is tricky to directly interpret for a Scrum Master, as the emphasis is usually to be a 'servant leader' who gets results through influence. This is usually true in an ideal world. Sometimes, a Scrum Master needs to be creative to highlight some issues within the team or with specific individuals, so that they can realize the impact of their action or inaction. <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

          10. When in Doubt, Do Nothing<\/strong>

            One of the key responsibilities of a Scrum Master if to remove impediments. This may not be quite simple at times. For an action-oriented person, it may be difficult to not do anything and observe the situation resolve itself. But, sometimes, it is best to not do anything. The triaging technique used by many teams \u2013 including emergency medical response teams \u2013 also suggests that in some situations, it is best to not do anything. This will come with experience. <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

          11. Forget the Ring<\/strong>

            This is also a point that is easier said than done. When one is so involved in the action, it is not easy to ignore or forget the result and the urge to win. Phil Jackson says, 'obsessing about winning is a loser's game.' The main reason he says, is that such a focus would lead to one losing control of one's emotions. He says, 'The most we can hope for is to create the best possible conditions for success, then let go of the outcome.' <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

            The book has a lot more detailed examples including situations involving some of the high performers who were more self-centric and concerned with their own success and image, and how he was able to help them turn into more team players and mentors to other less experienced players.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Eleven Rings for a Scrum Master","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"eleven-rings-for-a-scrum-master","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 11:31:55","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 11:31:55","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=19967","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"2","filter":"raw"},{"ID":19891,"post_author":"15","post_date":"2022-04-17 19:37:10","post_date_gmt":"2022-04-17 14:07:10","post_content":"\n

            Ever since Agile approaches became popular\nabout 15 to 20 years ago, Agile culture and mindset have been touted as the\nfoundation elements around which successful organizational transformation\nhappens. Peter Drucker\u2019s famous quote \u201cCulture eats strategy for breakfast\u201d points\nto the ineffectiveness of your strategy implementation if the company culture\ndoesn\u2019t support it. In the early years, not many organizations understood and\ninternalized the true Agile culture \/ philosophy, leading to many of them\nfailing in their Agile journey. This was helped in no small measure by the\nplethora of consultants, selling Agile as a methodology over philosophy. The\nfew successes that we had, though, led to the realization that \u201cbeing agile\u201d is\nsubstantially more important for succeeding with Agile than \u201cdoing agile\u201d. This\nessentially means implementing Agile in \u201cspirit\u201d and, we are seeing this trend\nwith many organizations today. The intent of this blog is to demystify a few\naspects relating to Agile mindset and culture, both from a team perspective, as\nwell as, from the perspective of leadership\/management.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            What is Agile culture?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Agile culture is an environment built\naround core values and principles with practices and behaviours aligned to\nthose values and principles. In today\u2019s business, this culture needs to address\nresponsiveness to customer and market needs in an extremely complex and\nuncertain environment. Essentially the organization\u2019s values and principles and\nthe related practices \/ behaviours should be reflective of this business\nneed.  For culture to be effective at the\nbusiness level, it needs to permeate through various organizational layers,\nstarting from the top. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Agile culture in teams - Values, Principles and Practices<\/strong> Implementing a proper Agile culture in teams requires a good understanding of Agile values and principles and an appreciation of how these are linked to practices (and to associated behaviours). While Agile values are universal, they are also often too abstract. On the other hand, practices are ways of solving common problems and dilemmas, that we encounter in software development. Given the large perceived gap between these two, we use Principles to bridge this gap and help understand practices better. Values and Principles together guide us in adaptation and improvisation of practices, as part of our efforts to improve continuously. Let me take a couple of examples to illustrate this using the Agile Manifesto<\/a>, Principles<\/a>, Scrum Values<\/a> and XP Values and Principles<\/a>: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

            \"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

            From the above example, if you notice that\nthe practice of team members taking turns to provide updates (rather than each\none being prodded on by the SM) is an implementation of the principle of\naccepted responsibility (ownership). I am sure you can see a linkage of other\npractices to the values and principles that they align to. As mentioned before,\nyou can improvise on practices (such as, doing fun retrospectives, for example)\nwithout compromising on values and principles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            In the above example, I have deliberately\nmixed values and principles from the Agile manifesto as well as specific Agile\napproaches such as Scrum \/ XP. From my own perspective, I have looked at the Agile\nManifesto as more of a position statement than a set of classical \u201cvalues\u201d -\nwhich is why approaches such as Scrum and XP expounded their own set of values.\nMost Agile approaches use the Agile manifesto as a broad guideline for their\nown specific recommendations and incorporate their own values and principles to\nsupport their practice recommendations (both management as well as technical\npractices). In my opinion, it is sensible to take such a hybrid approach to\nsupport your organization context. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

            There is another factor to be considered \u2013\nAgile Manifesto and values and principles from other approaches are applicable\nto a software development context, which functions under a broad organizational\ncontext. The organization will have its own core values and philosophy stated from\na business perspective, and as a consequence, any Agile implementation has to\nbe aligned to and support this organizational context. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Agile culture in leadership and\nmanagement<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

            In the early days of Agile implementation,\nit was viewed largely as a bottom-up initiative focusing on delivery teams. The\npervasive nature of Agile as a culture change across all the layers of the\norganization was lost on senior leadership. \nThis introduces many internal conflicts. For example, when SMs see their\nmanager(s) practicing a directive style with them, while expecting them to be\nfacilitative with their own teams, they see a clear conflict of culture. In my\nexperience as a coach, I have personally seen managers track their teams\u2019\nburn-downs - which is clearly a team\u2019s responsibility to track for needed\nactions - wanting to know why they were looking bad, during a sprint execution.\nThis clearly goes against Principle 5 of the manifesto that says \u201cBuild\nprojects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and support\nthey need and trust them to get the job done\u201d. In essence, the Manager\u2019s role\nis to provide facilitative support to teams after providing them the big\npicture \/ vision \/ direction. Teams decide on how they will execute, and will approach\nyou as managers, only for unresolved blockers, or when they need support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            From a leadership perspective as well, leadership practices should be based on similar values and principles to what we have discussed for teams. Some of these principles may include those relating to delegation\/empowerment, workforce diversity, freedom for experimentation, support for collaborative communities, emotional well-being of employees and so on. For those keen on an organizational perspective of Agile, would like to refer you to PM Power\u2019s recently released book \u201cThe Five Tantras of Enterprise Agility<\/a>\u201d. Incidentally, the book devotes an entire section (Book 3 within the book) to Transformational Leadership needed to succeed with Agile. <\/p>\n","post_title":"Agile Culture and Mindset - re-visited","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"agile-culture-and-mindset-re-visited","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 12:26:29","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 12:26:29","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=19891","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":19790,"post_author":"13","post_date":"2022-03-28 11:03:24","post_date_gmt":"2022-03-28 05:33:24","post_content":"\n

            Piyush works as a Manager for a team of 20 people. He has been successfully running an IT team for the last 3 years. However, he has been constantly plagued by his people going on unplanned leaves. This has been happening for the last 8-9 months or so. It also came out in several retrospectives. However, there was no focused effort in solving the root problems. Whenever, there were unplanned leaves, the team leads would step up, they would spend night outs and would somehow make sure that the release would not get affected. And to encourage this trend, the Management would reward the Leads with \"Star of the Quarter\" or \"Team champion\" award, which would further encourage this trend. Unconsciously, the Manager was setting himself up for failure by encouraging this trend. When we dug the problem deeper, the following was what I observed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            When I tried to dig deeper, while Piyush complained about the symptom of \u201cUnplanned Leaves\u201d, the main response from the team was that they were not getting the leaves when they asked for the same citing the amount of work that was there. The team members hardly contributed. The Leads and seniors were doing most of the heavy lifting. Even though, they were burnt out because of work , they still were getting necessary incentives both in terms of having a superior knowledge on the application that they did not want to give up. Eventually, even the seniors and leads were taking unplanned leaves mainly because they were also burnt out and partly because they knew that Piyush always had a soft corner for them. When the process of retrospective was put in place, the team explicitly stated that they did not receive a proper KT. That is one of the objectives of Retrospectives where the team can express itself freely. When Piyush heard the same, his solutioning was to reward the team leads and bail them out of the release pains rather than solving the root problem. The team also did not press too much because they were internally happy of not feeling much pressure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            The problem is represented below in the table as a sequence of Drama Triangle roles. The subtext in parenthesis is ulterior and not expressed openly. Only when I dug deeper, I found it. (https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Karpman_drama_triangle)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            \n Persecutor\n <\/td>\n Victim\n <\/td>\n Rescuer\n <\/td><\/tr>
            \n Manager: There are too many unplanned Leaves\n <\/td> (Team: If we ask for a planned leave, we do not get it )<\/em><\/td> Leads\/Seniors: We will (cover for the team and )<\/em>ensure the release wouldn't suffer <\/td><\/tr>
            (Team Leads: Let us also go on an unplanned leave. We are totally burned out. Why should only we suffer?)<\/em><\/td>Manager: Oh my god! how am I going to deliver this? Team, I need you to pull the weight this time.<\/td>Team: We will do our best (to get out of this situation. Provide some temporary fixes) <\/em><\/td><\/tr>
            Team: We tried our best but we have never been given a proper KT. (I am rather happy that I do not have to take much pressure)<\/em><\/td> Team Leads: Despite all the efforts, we get to be blamed<\/td>Manager: Don't worry, I will make sure you get all the necessary rewards for the hard work (strike the deal with the team leads)<\/em><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

            This is typically how the Drama Triangle works. And because the roles keep switching, it will keep the \"Game\" of the recurring problem alive. And all of this happens at an unconscious level. This also results in a negative feeling for everybody involved. Because, it happens at an unconscious level for all the players, they would also struggle to come out of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            In order to break this pattern, there should be an active involvement of all the participants to solve the root problem and address the same. How would you solve this problem?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            ...............................................................................................................................<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            ...............................................................................................................................<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            ...............................................................................................................................<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Here is how we solved the problem:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Solution<\/strong>: The first thing I did was to bring this awareness of Drama Triangle among all the participants. I showed them how each of them are playing their part in keeping the game alive without their awareness. Since they were all playing this at an unconscious level, it is very difficult to come out unless someone can bring that awareness. They had not seen this problem in the lens of a Drama Triangle at all. This helped them break the resistances on solving the problem and see how they themselves contributed to solving this problem. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

            The main issue was that the team members did not develop enough skills in their project. We found during the session that most of it could be addressed if the team was involved in the decision making, hold them accountable and if they can be helped in enhancing the skills. The team was given a lot more autonomy. They were involved in the planning meetings and their opinions and decisions were given more weightage. While a separate time was scoped out for KT, it was made sure that the team would start fronting all the work where as the team leads would play the supporting role. The team found the work lot more challenging, while the seniors played the role of mentors. As a result, the team started to learn not only the technical skills but also the Leadership skills to feel empowered. Gradually, there was a decrease in unplanned leaves as the team felt more empowered.<\/p>\n","post_title":"CHOW#287 - The Drama of \"Unplanned Leaves\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"chow287-the-drama-of-unplanned-leaves","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-23 08:29:34","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-23 08:29:34","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=19790","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":4},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

            Page 4 of 12 1 … 3 4 5 … 12
            \n

            When I read the book 'Eleven Rings: The soul of success' by Phil Jackson and Hugh Delehanty<\/span><\/a> <\/span>, the legendary basketball coach, I could relate his 11 tips for leadership as good points for Scrum Masters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            With eleven titles to his credit, helping the Chicago Bulls win six times and the LA Lakers win five times, Phil Jackson knows what it takes to build great teams and help them succeed \u2013 consistently!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            In this book, he distils leadership styles and actions to eleven points.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            We talk about a Scrum Masters role as a leadership role, something that can be successful by influence and not authority.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

              \n
            1. Lead From the Inside Out<\/strong>

              In the PM Power approach to leadership development, we combine the hard aspects as well as the soft aspects. An effective leader is one who can manage outside, by mastering inside. <\/span><\/p>

              When one leads from inside out, the genuineness of conversations establishes true connections with people, and everyone starts to listen more to what you say. <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

            2. Bench the Ego<\/strong>

              Every action, it is said, has an equal and opposite reaction. <\/span><\/p>

              This is true for leaders too. When some decisions are forced on people, there is invariably a tendency to resist, particularly if it involves change. <\/span><\/p>

              As a Scrum Master, one needs to be able to quickly gain the consensus of the team. To do that the Scrum Master should also listen and create a safe environment for everyone to express themselves.<\/p> <\/li>\n\n\n\n

            3. Let Each Player Discover His Own Destiny<\/strong>

              Jackson says, \"I've always been interested in getting players to think for themselves so that they can make difficult decisions in the heat of battle.\" <\/span><\/p>

              This translates into enabling safe spaces where each person can exhibit and share their courage, mutual respect, and resilience. <\/span><\/p>

              This also encourages the team to go beyond narrowly defined set of duties and swarm as needed, to ensure team success.<\/p> <\/li>\n\n\n\n

            4. The Road to Freedom is a Beautiful System<\/strong>

              When each person in the team is actively aware of what the others are doing and where the team is moving, it enables smooth self-organization and collective ownership. The triangle system that is attributed to Phil Jackson, is a fitting example of having a common structure that is well understood, while providing a chance for creativity.<\/p> <\/li>\n\n\n\n

            5. Turn the Mundane into the Sacred<\/strong>

              Even for well knit teams, it is worthwhile to have some formality in terms of events [used to also be called ceremonies] that are also supported by team norms. <\/span><\/p>

              What might otherwise be considered as a routine \u2013 say the daily standup \u2013 could become important points of sync up when infused with some formalism. Phil Jackson also introduced meditation practices for the team to help the players focus, unwind, and stay energetic. <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

            6. One Breath = One Mind<\/strong>

              A simple technique to get everyone aligned and in sync just before any significant event. Whether it is a crucial meeting, where consensus needs to be reached in time or the start of a release cycle, helping everyone spend some silent, reflective time together helps align the breathing, which is particularly useful in playing tandem, or like trapeze artists, when there are hand-offs to be executed as the project progresses <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

            7. The Key to Success is Compassion<\/strong>

              Helping the team understand and internalize the scrum value of respect for others, will lead to greater empathy for both the other team members as well as customers. That understanding will propel the team to go the extra mile when needed, to ensure that the promises to the users are always the highest priority. <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

            8. Keep Your Eye on the Spirit, Not on the Scoreboard<\/strong>

              This is the essential difference between DOING Agile and BEING Agile. Or not being obsessed only with some vanity metrics. When the core principles and the team values are always at the back of every thought and action, a team can focus on internalizing the values and principles of Agility. When the emphasis is to do it by the book, one may tend to be more worried about checking the boxes and ignore the outputs and outcomes. <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

            9. Sometimes You Have to Pull Out the Big Stick<\/strong>

              This is tricky to directly interpret for a Scrum Master, as the emphasis is usually to be a 'servant leader' who gets results through influence. This is usually true in an ideal world. Sometimes, a Scrum Master needs to be creative to highlight some issues within the team or with specific individuals, so that they can realize the impact of their action or inaction. <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

            10. When in Doubt, Do Nothing<\/strong>

              One of the key responsibilities of a Scrum Master if to remove impediments. This may not be quite simple at times. For an action-oriented person, it may be difficult to not do anything and observe the situation resolve itself. But, sometimes, it is best to not do anything. The triaging technique used by many teams \u2013 including emergency medical response teams \u2013 also suggests that in some situations, it is best to not do anything. This will come with experience. <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

            11. Forget the Ring<\/strong>

              This is also a point that is easier said than done. When one is so involved in the action, it is not easy to ignore or forget the result and the urge to win. Phil Jackson says, 'obsessing about winning is a loser's game.' The main reason he says, is that such a focus would lead to one losing control of one's emotions. He says, 'The most we can hope for is to create the best possible conditions for success, then let go of the outcome.' <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

              The book has a lot more detailed examples including situations involving some of the high performers who were more self-centric and concerned with their own success and image, and how he was able to help them turn into more team players and mentors to other less experienced players.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Eleven Rings for a Scrum Master","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"eleven-rings-for-a-scrum-master","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 11:31:55","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 11:31:55","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=19967","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"2","filter":"raw"},{"ID":19891,"post_author":"15","post_date":"2022-04-17 19:37:10","post_date_gmt":"2022-04-17 14:07:10","post_content":"\n

              Ever since Agile approaches became popular\nabout 15 to 20 years ago, Agile culture and mindset have been touted as the\nfoundation elements around which successful organizational transformation\nhappens. Peter Drucker\u2019s famous quote \u201cCulture eats strategy for breakfast\u201d points\nto the ineffectiveness of your strategy implementation if the company culture\ndoesn\u2019t support it. In the early years, not many organizations understood and\ninternalized the true Agile culture \/ philosophy, leading to many of them\nfailing in their Agile journey. This was helped in no small measure by the\nplethora of consultants, selling Agile as a methodology over philosophy. The\nfew successes that we had, though, led to the realization that \u201cbeing agile\u201d is\nsubstantially more important for succeeding with Agile than \u201cdoing agile\u201d. This\nessentially means implementing Agile in \u201cspirit\u201d and, we are seeing this trend\nwith many organizations today. The intent of this blog is to demystify a few\naspects relating to Agile mindset and culture, both from a team perspective, as\nwell as, from the perspective of leadership\/management.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

              What is Agile culture?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

              Agile culture is an environment built\naround core values and principles with practices and behaviours aligned to\nthose values and principles. In today\u2019s business, this culture needs to address\nresponsiveness to customer and market needs in an extremely complex and\nuncertain environment. Essentially the organization\u2019s values and principles and\nthe related practices \/ behaviours should be reflective of this business\nneed.  For culture to be effective at the\nbusiness level, it needs to permeate through various organizational layers,\nstarting from the top. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

              Agile culture in teams - Values, Principles and Practices<\/strong> Implementing a proper Agile culture in teams requires a good understanding of Agile values and principles and an appreciation of how these are linked to practices (and to associated behaviours). While Agile values are universal, they are also often too abstract. On the other hand, practices are ways of solving common problems and dilemmas, that we encounter in software development. Given the large perceived gap between these two, we use Principles to bridge this gap and help understand practices better. Values and Principles together guide us in adaptation and improvisation of practices, as part of our efforts to improve continuously. Let me take a couple of examples to illustrate this using the Agile Manifesto<\/a>, Principles<\/a>, Scrum Values<\/a> and XP Values and Principles<\/a>: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

              \"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

              From the above example, if you notice that\nthe practice of team members taking turns to provide updates (rather than each\none being prodded on by the SM) is an implementation of the principle of\naccepted responsibility (ownership). I am sure you can see a linkage of other\npractices to the values and principles that they align to. As mentioned before,\nyou can improvise on practices (such as, doing fun retrospectives, for example)\nwithout compromising on values and principles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

              In the above example, I have deliberately\nmixed values and principles from the Agile manifesto as well as specific Agile\napproaches such as Scrum \/ XP. From my own perspective, I have looked at the Agile\nManifesto as more of a position statement than a set of classical \u201cvalues\u201d -\nwhich is why approaches such as Scrum and XP expounded their own set of values.\nMost Agile approaches use the Agile manifesto as a broad guideline for their\nown specific recommendations and incorporate their own values and principles to\nsupport their practice recommendations (both management as well as technical\npractices). In my opinion, it is sensible to take such a hybrid approach to\nsupport your organization context. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

              There is another factor to be considered \u2013\nAgile Manifesto and values and principles from other approaches are applicable\nto a software development context, which functions under a broad organizational\ncontext. The organization will have its own core values and philosophy stated from\na business perspective, and as a consequence, any Agile implementation has to\nbe aligned to and support this organizational context. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

              Agile culture in leadership and\nmanagement<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

              In the early days of Agile implementation,\nit was viewed largely as a bottom-up initiative focusing on delivery teams. The\npervasive nature of Agile as a culture change across all the layers of the\norganization was lost on senior leadership. \nThis introduces many internal conflicts. For example, when SMs see their\nmanager(s) practicing a directive style with them, while expecting them to be\nfacilitative with their own teams, they see a clear conflict of culture. In my\nexperience as a coach, I have personally seen managers track their teams\u2019\nburn-downs - which is clearly a team\u2019s responsibility to track for needed\nactions - wanting to know why they were looking bad, during a sprint execution.\nThis clearly goes against Principle 5 of the manifesto that says \u201cBuild\nprojects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and support\nthey need and trust them to get the job done\u201d. In essence, the Manager\u2019s role\nis to provide facilitative support to teams after providing them the big\npicture \/ vision \/ direction. Teams decide on how they will execute, and will approach\nyou as managers, only for unresolved blockers, or when they need support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

              From a leadership perspective as well, leadership practices should be based on similar values and principles to what we have discussed for teams. Some of these principles may include those relating to delegation\/empowerment, workforce diversity, freedom for experimentation, support for collaborative communities, emotional well-being of employees and so on. For those keen on an organizational perspective of Agile, would like to refer you to PM Power\u2019s recently released book \u201cThe Five Tantras of Enterprise Agility<\/a>\u201d. Incidentally, the book devotes an entire section (Book 3 within the book) to Transformational Leadership needed to succeed with Agile. <\/p>\n","post_title":"Agile Culture and Mindset - re-visited","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"agile-culture-and-mindset-re-visited","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 12:26:29","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 12:26:29","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=19891","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":19790,"post_author":"13","post_date":"2022-03-28 11:03:24","post_date_gmt":"2022-03-28 05:33:24","post_content":"\n

              Piyush works as a Manager for a team of 20 people. He has been successfully running an IT team for the last 3 years. However, he has been constantly plagued by his people going on unplanned leaves. This has been happening for the last 8-9 months or so. It also came out in several retrospectives. However, there was no focused effort in solving the root problems. Whenever, there were unplanned leaves, the team leads would step up, they would spend night outs and would somehow make sure that the release would not get affected. And to encourage this trend, the Management would reward the Leads with \"Star of the Quarter\" or \"Team champion\" award, which would further encourage this trend. Unconsciously, the Manager was setting himself up for failure by encouraging this trend. When we dug the problem deeper, the following was what I observed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

              When I tried to dig deeper, while Piyush complained about the symptom of \u201cUnplanned Leaves\u201d, the main response from the team was that they were not getting the leaves when they asked for the same citing the amount of work that was there. The team members hardly contributed. The Leads and seniors were doing most of the heavy lifting. Even though, they were burnt out because of work , they still were getting necessary incentives both in terms of having a superior knowledge on the application that they did not want to give up. Eventually, even the seniors and leads were taking unplanned leaves mainly because they were also burnt out and partly because they knew that Piyush always had a soft corner for them. When the process of retrospective was put in place, the team explicitly stated that they did not receive a proper KT. That is one of the objectives of Retrospectives where the team can express itself freely. When Piyush heard the same, his solutioning was to reward the team leads and bail them out of the release pains rather than solving the root problem. The team also did not press too much because they were internally happy of not feeling much pressure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

              The problem is represented below in the table as a sequence of Drama Triangle roles. The subtext in parenthesis is ulterior and not expressed openly. Only when I dug deeper, I found it. (https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Karpman_drama_triangle)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

              \n Persecutor\n <\/td>\n Victim\n <\/td>\n Rescuer\n <\/td><\/tr>
              \n Manager: There are too many unplanned Leaves\n <\/td> (Team: If we ask for a planned leave, we do not get it )<\/em><\/td> Leads\/Seniors: We will (cover for the team and )<\/em>ensure the release wouldn't suffer <\/td><\/tr>
              (Team Leads: Let us also go on an unplanned leave. We are totally burned out. Why should only we suffer?)<\/em><\/td>Manager: Oh my god! how am I going to deliver this? Team, I need you to pull the weight this time.<\/td>Team: We will do our best (to get out of this situation. Provide some temporary fixes) <\/em><\/td><\/tr>
              Team: We tried our best but we have never been given a proper KT. (I am rather happy that I do not have to take much pressure)<\/em><\/td> Team Leads: Despite all the efforts, we get to be blamed<\/td>Manager: Don't worry, I will make sure you get all the necessary rewards for the hard work (strike the deal with the team leads)<\/em><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

              This is typically how the Drama Triangle works. And because the roles keep switching, it will keep the \"Game\" of the recurring problem alive. And all of this happens at an unconscious level. This also results in a negative feeling for everybody involved. Because, it happens at an unconscious level for all the players, they would also struggle to come out of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

              In order to break this pattern, there should be an active involvement of all the participants to solve the root problem and address the same. How would you solve this problem?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

              ...............................................................................................................................<\/p>\n\n\n\n

              ...............................................................................................................................<\/p>\n\n\n\n

              ...............................................................................................................................<\/p>\n\n\n\n

              Here is how we solved the problem:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

              Solution<\/strong>: The first thing I did was to bring this awareness of Drama Triangle among all the participants. I showed them how each of them are playing their part in keeping the game alive without their awareness. Since they were all playing this at an unconscious level, it is very difficult to come out unless someone can bring that awareness. They had not seen this problem in the lens of a Drama Triangle at all. This helped them break the resistances on solving the problem and see how they themselves contributed to solving this problem. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

              The main issue was that the team members did not develop enough skills in their project. We found during the session that most of it could be addressed if the team was involved in the decision making, hold them accountable and if they can be helped in enhancing the skills. The team was given a lot more autonomy. They were involved in the planning meetings and their opinions and decisions were given more weightage. While a separate time was scoped out for KT, it was made sure that the team would start fronting all the work where as the team leads would play the supporting role. The team found the work lot more challenging, while the seniors played the role of mentors. As a result, the team started to learn not only the technical skills but also the Leadership skills to feel empowered. Gradually, there was a decrease in unplanned leaves as the team felt more empowered.<\/p>\n","post_title":"CHOW#287 - The Drama of \"Unplanned Leaves\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"chow287-the-drama-of-unplanned-leaves","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-23 08:29:34","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-23 08:29:34","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=19790","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":4},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

              Page 4 of 12 1 … 3 4 5 … 12
              \n

              Gopal<\/a><\/p>\n","post_title":"Pandemic Positives!","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"pandemic-positives","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-24 07:57:17","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-24 07:57:17","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=20165","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"2","filter":"raw"},{"ID":19967,"post_author":"30","post_date":"2022-05-08 15:37:11","post_date_gmt":"2022-05-08 10:07:11","post_content":"\n

              When I read the book 'Eleven Rings: The soul of success' by Phil Jackson and Hugh Delehanty<\/span><\/a> <\/span>, the legendary basketball coach, I could relate his 11 tips for leadership as good points for Scrum Masters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

              With eleven titles to his credit, helping the Chicago Bulls win six times and the LA Lakers win five times, Phil Jackson knows what it takes to build great teams and help them succeed \u2013 consistently!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

              In this book, he distils leadership styles and actions to eleven points.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

              We talk about a Scrum Masters role as a leadership role, something that can be successful by influence and not authority.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                \n
              1. Lead From the Inside Out<\/strong>

                In the PM Power approach to leadership development, we combine the hard aspects as well as the soft aspects. An effective leader is one who can manage outside, by mastering inside. <\/span><\/p>

                When one leads from inside out, the genuineness of conversations establishes true connections with people, and everyone starts to listen more to what you say. <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

              2. Bench the Ego<\/strong>

                Every action, it is said, has an equal and opposite reaction. <\/span><\/p>

                This is true for leaders too. When some decisions are forced on people, there is invariably a tendency to resist, particularly if it involves change. <\/span><\/p>

                As a Scrum Master, one needs to be able to quickly gain the consensus of the team. To do that the Scrum Master should also listen and create a safe environment for everyone to express themselves.<\/p> <\/li>\n\n\n\n

              3. Let Each Player Discover His Own Destiny<\/strong>

                Jackson says, \"I've always been interested in getting players to think for themselves so that they can make difficult decisions in the heat of battle.\" <\/span><\/p>

                This translates into enabling safe spaces where each person can exhibit and share their courage, mutual respect, and resilience. <\/span><\/p>

                This also encourages the team to go beyond narrowly defined set of duties and swarm as needed, to ensure team success.<\/p> <\/li>\n\n\n\n

              4. The Road to Freedom is a Beautiful System<\/strong>

                When each person in the team is actively aware of what the others are doing and where the team is moving, it enables smooth self-organization and collective ownership. The triangle system that is attributed to Phil Jackson, is a fitting example of having a common structure that is well understood, while providing a chance for creativity.<\/p> <\/li>\n\n\n\n

              5. Turn the Mundane into the Sacred<\/strong>

                Even for well knit teams, it is worthwhile to have some formality in terms of events [used to also be called ceremonies] that are also supported by team norms. <\/span><\/p>

                What might otherwise be considered as a routine \u2013 say the daily standup \u2013 could become important points of sync up when infused with some formalism. Phil Jackson also introduced meditation practices for the team to help the players focus, unwind, and stay energetic. <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

              6. One Breath = One Mind<\/strong>

                A simple technique to get everyone aligned and in sync just before any significant event. Whether it is a crucial meeting, where consensus needs to be reached in time or the start of a release cycle, helping everyone spend some silent, reflective time together helps align the breathing, which is particularly useful in playing tandem, or like trapeze artists, when there are hand-offs to be executed as the project progresses <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

              7. The Key to Success is Compassion<\/strong>

                Helping the team understand and internalize the scrum value of respect for others, will lead to greater empathy for both the other team members as well as customers. That understanding will propel the team to go the extra mile when needed, to ensure that the promises to the users are always the highest priority. <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

              8. Keep Your Eye on the Spirit, Not on the Scoreboard<\/strong>

                This is the essential difference between DOING Agile and BEING Agile. Or not being obsessed only with some vanity metrics. When the core principles and the team values are always at the back of every thought and action, a team can focus on internalizing the values and principles of Agility. When the emphasis is to do it by the book, one may tend to be more worried about checking the boxes and ignore the outputs and outcomes. <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

              9. Sometimes You Have to Pull Out the Big Stick<\/strong>

                This is tricky to directly interpret for a Scrum Master, as the emphasis is usually to be a 'servant leader' who gets results through influence. This is usually true in an ideal world. Sometimes, a Scrum Master needs to be creative to highlight some issues within the team or with specific individuals, so that they can realize the impact of their action or inaction. <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

              10. When in Doubt, Do Nothing<\/strong>

                One of the key responsibilities of a Scrum Master if to remove impediments. This may not be quite simple at times. For an action-oriented person, it may be difficult to not do anything and observe the situation resolve itself. But, sometimes, it is best to not do anything. The triaging technique used by many teams \u2013 including emergency medical response teams \u2013 also suggests that in some situations, it is best to not do anything. This will come with experience. <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

              11. Forget the Ring<\/strong>

                This is also a point that is easier said than done. When one is so involved in the action, it is not easy to ignore or forget the result and the urge to win. Phil Jackson says, 'obsessing about winning is a loser's game.' The main reason he says, is that such a focus would lead to one losing control of one's emotions. He says, 'The most we can hope for is to create the best possible conditions for success, then let go of the outcome.' <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

                The book has a lot more detailed examples including situations involving some of the high performers who were more self-centric and concerned with their own success and image, and how he was able to help them turn into more team players and mentors to other less experienced players.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Eleven Rings for a Scrum Master","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"eleven-rings-for-a-scrum-master","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 11:31:55","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 11:31:55","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=19967","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"2","filter":"raw"},{"ID":19891,"post_author":"15","post_date":"2022-04-17 19:37:10","post_date_gmt":"2022-04-17 14:07:10","post_content":"\n

                Ever since Agile approaches became popular\nabout 15 to 20 years ago, Agile culture and mindset have been touted as the\nfoundation elements around which successful organizational transformation\nhappens. Peter Drucker\u2019s famous quote \u201cCulture eats strategy for breakfast\u201d points\nto the ineffectiveness of your strategy implementation if the company culture\ndoesn\u2019t support it. In the early years, not many organizations understood and\ninternalized the true Agile culture \/ philosophy, leading to many of them\nfailing in their Agile journey. This was helped in no small measure by the\nplethora of consultants, selling Agile as a methodology over philosophy. The\nfew successes that we had, though, led to the realization that \u201cbeing agile\u201d is\nsubstantially more important for succeeding with Agile than \u201cdoing agile\u201d. This\nessentially means implementing Agile in \u201cspirit\u201d and, we are seeing this trend\nwith many organizations today. The intent of this blog is to demystify a few\naspects relating to Agile mindset and culture, both from a team perspective, as\nwell as, from the perspective of leadership\/management.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                What is Agile culture?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

                Agile culture is an environment built\naround core values and principles with practices and behaviours aligned to\nthose values and principles. In today\u2019s business, this culture needs to address\nresponsiveness to customer and market needs in an extremely complex and\nuncertain environment. Essentially the organization\u2019s values and principles and\nthe related practices \/ behaviours should be reflective of this business\nneed.  For culture to be effective at the\nbusiness level, it needs to permeate through various organizational layers,\nstarting from the top. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

                Agile culture in teams - Values, Principles and Practices<\/strong> Implementing a proper Agile culture in teams requires a good understanding of Agile values and principles and an appreciation of how these are linked to practices (and to associated behaviours). While Agile values are universal, they are also often too abstract. On the other hand, practices are ways of solving common problems and dilemmas, that we encounter in software development. Given the large perceived gap between these two, we use Principles to bridge this gap and help understand practices better. Values and Principles together guide us in adaptation and improvisation of practices, as part of our efforts to improve continuously. Let me take a couple of examples to illustrate this using the Agile Manifesto<\/a>, Principles<\/a>, Scrum Values<\/a> and XP Values and Principles<\/a>: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

                \"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

                From the above example, if you notice that\nthe practice of team members taking turns to provide updates (rather than each\none being prodded on by the SM) is an implementation of the principle of\naccepted responsibility (ownership). I am sure you can see a linkage of other\npractices to the values and principles that they align to. As mentioned before,\nyou can improvise on practices (such as, doing fun retrospectives, for example)\nwithout compromising on values and principles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                In the above example, I have deliberately\nmixed values and principles from the Agile manifesto as well as specific Agile\napproaches such as Scrum \/ XP. From my own perspective, I have looked at the Agile\nManifesto as more of a position statement than a set of classical \u201cvalues\u201d -\nwhich is why approaches such as Scrum and XP expounded their own set of values.\nMost Agile approaches use the Agile manifesto as a broad guideline for their\nown specific recommendations and incorporate their own values and principles to\nsupport their practice recommendations (both management as well as technical\npractices). In my opinion, it is sensible to take such a hybrid approach to\nsupport your organization context. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

                There is another factor to be considered \u2013\nAgile Manifesto and values and principles from other approaches are applicable\nto a software development context, which functions under a broad organizational\ncontext. The organization will have its own core values and philosophy stated from\na business perspective, and as a consequence, any Agile implementation has to\nbe aligned to and support this organizational context. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

                Agile culture in leadership and\nmanagement<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

                In the early days of Agile implementation,\nit was viewed largely as a bottom-up initiative focusing on delivery teams. The\npervasive nature of Agile as a culture change across all the layers of the\norganization was lost on senior leadership. \nThis introduces many internal conflicts. For example, when SMs see their\nmanager(s) practicing a directive style with them, while expecting them to be\nfacilitative with their own teams, they see a clear conflict of culture. In my\nexperience as a coach, I have personally seen managers track their teams\u2019\nburn-downs - which is clearly a team\u2019s responsibility to track for needed\nactions - wanting to know why they were looking bad, during a sprint execution.\nThis clearly goes against Principle 5 of the manifesto that says \u201cBuild\nprojects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and support\nthey need and trust them to get the job done\u201d. In essence, the Manager\u2019s role\nis to provide facilitative support to teams after providing them the big\npicture \/ vision \/ direction. Teams decide on how they will execute, and will approach\nyou as managers, only for unresolved blockers, or when they need support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                From a leadership perspective as well, leadership practices should be based on similar values and principles to what we have discussed for teams. Some of these principles may include those relating to delegation\/empowerment, workforce diversity, freedom for experimentation, support for collaborative communities, emotional well-being of employees and so on. For those keen on an organizational perspective of Agile, would like to refer you to PM Power\u2019s recently released book \u201cThe Five Tantras of Enterprise Agility<\/a>\u201d. Incidentally, the book devotes an entire section (Book 3 within the book) to Transformational Leadership needed to succeed with Agile. <\/p>\n","post_title":"Agile Culture and Mindset - re-visited","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"agile-culture-and-mindset-re-visited","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 12:26:29","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 12:26:29","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=19891","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":19790,"post_author":"13","post_date":"2022-03-28 11:03:24","post_date_gmt":"2022-03-28 05:33:24","post_content":"\n

                Piyush works as a Manager for a team of 20 people. He has been successfully running an IT team for the last 3 years. However, he has been constantly plagued by his people going on unplanned leaves. This has been happening for the last 8-9 months or so. It also came out in several retrospectives. However, there was no focused effort in solving the root problems. Whenever, there were unplanned leaves, the team leads would step up, they would spend night outs and would somehow make sure that the release would not get affected. And to encourage this trend, the Management would reward the Leads with \"Star of the Quarter\" or \"Team champion\" award, which would further encourage this trend. Unconsciously, the Manager was setting himself up for failure by encouraging this trend. When we dug the problem deeper, the following was what I observed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                When I tried to dig deeper, while Piyush complained about the symptom of \u201cUnplanned Leaves\u201d, the main response from the team was that they were not getting the leaves when they asked for the same citing the amount of work that was there. The team members hardly contributed. The Leads and seniors were doing most of the heavy lifting. Even though, they were burnt out because of work , they still were getting necessary incentives both in terms of having a superior knowledge on the application that they did not want to give up. Eventually, even the seniors and leads were taking unplanned leaves mainly because they were also burnt out and partly because they knew that Piyush always had a soft corner for them. When the process of retrospective was put in place, the team explicitly stated that they did not receive a proper KT. That is one of the objectives of Retrospectives where the team can express itself freely. When Piyush heard the same, his solutioning was to reward the team leads and bail them out of the release pains rather than solving the root problem. The team also did not press too much because they were internally happy of not feeling much pressure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                The problem is represented below in the table as a sequence of Drama Triangle roles. The subtext in parenthesis is ulterior and not expressed openly. Only when I dug deeper, I found it. (https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Karpman_drama_triangle)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                \n Persecutor\n <\/td>\n Victim\n <\/td>\n Rescuer\n <\/td><\/tr>
                \n Manager: There are too many unplanned Leaves\n <\/td> (Team: If we ask for a planned leave, we do not get it )<\/em><\/td> Leads\/Seniors: We will (cover for the team and )<\/em>ensure the release wouldn't suffer <\/td><\/tr>
                (Team Leads: Let us also go on an unplanned leave. We are totally burned out. Why should only we suffer?)<\/em><\/td>Manager: Oh my god! how am I going to deliver this? Team, I need you to pull the weight this time.<\/td>Team: We will do our best (to get out of this situation. Provide some temporary fixes) <\/em><\/td><\/tr>
                Team: We tried our best but we have never been given a proper KT. (I am rather happy that I do not have to take much pressure)<\/em><\/td> Team Leads: Despite all the efforts, we get to be blamed<\/td>Manager: Don't worry, I will make sure you get all the necessary rewards for the hard work (strike the deal with the team leads)<\/em><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

                This is typically how the Drama Triangle works. And because the roles keep switching, it will keep the \"Game\" of the recurring problem alive. And all of this happens at an unconscious level. This also results in a negative feeling for everybody involved. Because, it happens at an unconscious level for all the players, they would also struggle to come out of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                In order to break this pattern, there should be an active involvement of all the participants to solve the root problem and address the same. How would you solve this problem?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                ...............................................................................................................................<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                ...............................................................................................................................<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                ...............................................................................................................................<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                Here is how we solved the problem:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

                Solution<\/strong>: The first thing I did was to bring this awareness of Drama Triangle among all the participants. I showed them how each of them are playing their part in keeping the game alive without their awareness. Since they were all playing this at an unconscious level, it is very difficult to come out unless someone can bring that awareness. They had not seen this problem in the lens of a Drama Triangle at all. This helped them break the resistances on solving the problem and see how they themselves contributed to solving this problem. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

                The main issue was that the team members did not develop enough skills in their project. We found during the session that most of it could be addressed if the team was involved in the decision making, hold them accountable and if they can be helped in enhancing the skills. The team was given a lot more autonomy. They were involved in the planning meetings and their opinions and decisions were given more weightage. While a separate time was scoped out for KT, it was made sure that the team would start fronting all the work where as the team leads would play the supporting role. The team found the work lot more challenging, while the seniors played the role of mentors. As a result, the team started to learn not only the technical skills but also the Leadership skills to feel empowered. Gradually, there was a decrease in unplanned leaves as the team felt more empowered.<\/p>\n","post_title":"CHOW#287 - The Drama of \"Unplanned Leaves\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"chow287-the-drama-of-unplanned-leaves","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-23 08:29:34","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-23 08:29:34","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=19790","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":4},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

                Page 4 of 12 1 … 3 4 5 … 12
                \n

                Covid has provided the fillip that the industry needed towards this move.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                Gopal<\/a><\/p>\n","post_title":"Pandemic Positives!","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"pandemic-positives","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-24 07:57:17","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-24 07:57:17","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=20165","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"2","filter":"raw"},{"ID":19967,"post_author":"30","post_date":"2022-05-08 15:37:11","post_date_gmt":"2022-05-08 10:07:11","post_content":"\n

                When I read the book 'Eleven Rings: The soul of success' by Phil Jackson and Hugh Delehanty<\/span><\/a> <\/span>, the legendary basketball coach, I could relate his 11 tips for leadership as good points for Scrum Masters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                With eleven titles to his credit, helping the Chicago Bulls win six times and the LA Lakers win five times, Phil Jackson knows what it takes to build great teams and help them succeed \u2013 consistently!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                In this book, he distils leadership styles and actions to eleven points.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                We talk about a Scrum Masters role as a leadership role, something that can be successful by influence and not authority.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                  \n
                1. Lead From the Inside Out<\/strong>

                  In the PM Power approach to leadership development, we combine the hard aspects as well as the soft aspects. An effective leader is one who can manage outside, by mastering inside. <\/span><\/p>

                  When one leads from inside out, the genuineness of conversations establishes true connections with people, and everyone starts to listen more to what you say. <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

                2. Bench the Ego<\/strong>

                  Every action, it is said, has an equal and opposite reaction. <\/span><\/p>

                  This is true for leaders too. When some decisions are forced on people, there is invariably a tendency to resist, particularly if it involves change. <\/span><\/p>

                  As a Scrum Master, one needs to be able to quickly gain the consensus of the team. To do that the Scrum Master should also listen and create a safe environment for everyone to express themselves.<\/p> <\/li>\n\n\n\n

                3. Let Each Player Discover His Own Destiny<\/strong>

                  Jackson says, \"I've always been interested in getting players to think for themselves so that they can make difficult decisions in the heat of battle.\" <\/span><\/p>

                  This translates into enabling safe spaces where each person can exhibit and share their courage, mutual respect, and resilience. <\/span><\/p>

                  This also encourages the team to go beyond narrowly defined set of duties and swarm as needed, to ensure team success.<\/p> <\/li>\n\n\n\n

                4. The Road to Freedom is a Beautiful System<\/strong>

                  When each person in the team is actively aware of what the others are doing and where the team is moving, it enables smooth self-organization and collective ownership. The triangle system that is attributed to Phil Jackson, is a fitting example of having a common structure that is well understood, while providing a chance for creativity.<\/p> <\/li>\n\n\n\n

                5. Turn the Mundane into the Sacred<\/strong>

                  Even for well knit teams, it is worthwhile to have some formality in terms of events [used to also be called ceremonies] that are also supported by team norms. <\/span><\/p>

                  What might otherwise be considered as a routine \u2013 say the daily standup \u2013 could become important points of sync up when infused with some formalism. Phil Jackson also introduced meditation practices for the team to help the players focus, unwind, and stay energetic. <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

                6. One Breath = One Mind<\/strong>

                  A simple technique to get everyone aligned and in sync just before any significant event. Whether it is a crucial meeting, where consensus needs to be reached in time or the start of a release cycle, helping everyone spend some silent, reflective time together helps align the breathing, which is particularly useful in playing tandem, or like trapeze artists, when there are hand-offs to be executed as the project progresses <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

                7. The Key to Success is Compassion<\/strong>

                  Helping the team understand and internalize the scrum value of respect for others, will lead to greater empathy for both the other team members as well as customers. That understanding will propel the team to go the extra mile when needed, to ensure that the promises to the users are always the highest priority. <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

                8. Keep Your Eye on the Spirit, Not on the Scoreboard<\/strong>

                  This is the essential difference between DOING Agile and BEING Agile. Or not being obsessed only with some vanity metrics. When the core principles and the team values are always at the back of every thought and action, a team can focus on internalizing the values and principles of Agility. When the emphasis is to do it by the book, one may tend to be more worried about checking the boxes and ignore the outputs and outcomes. <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

                9. Sometimes You Have to Pull Out the Big Stick<\/strong>

                  This is tricky to directly interpret for a Scrum Master, as the emphasis is usually to be a 'servant leader' who gets results through influence. This is usually true in an ideal world. Sometimes, a Scrum Master needs to be creative to highlight some issues within the team or with specific individuals, so that they can realize the impact of their action or inaction. <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

                10. When in Doubt, Do Nothing<\/strong>

                  One of the key responsibilities of a Scrum Master if to remove impediments. This may not be quite simple at times. For an action-oriented person, it may be difficult to not do anything and observe the situation resolve itself. But, sometimes, it is best to not do anything. The triaging technique used by many teams \u2013 including emergency medical response teams \u2013 also suggests that in some situations, it is best to not do anything. This will come with experience. <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

                11. Forget the Ring<\/strong>

                  This is also a point that is easier said than done. When one is so involved in the action, it is not easy to ignore or forget the result and the urge to win. Phil Jackson says, 'obsessing about winning is a loser's game.' The main reason he says, is that such a focus would lead to one losing control of one's emotions. He says, 'The most we can hope for is to create the best possible conditions for success, then let go of the outcome.' <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

                  The book has a lot more detailed examples including situations involving some of the high performers who were more self-centric and concerned with their own success and image, and how he was able to help them turn into more team players and mentors to other less experienced players.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Eleven Rings for a Scrum Master","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"eleven-rings-for-a-scrum-master","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 11:31:55","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 11:31:55","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=19967","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"2","filter":"raw"},{"ID":19891,"post_author":"15","post_date":"2022-04-17 19:37:10","post_date_gmt":"2022-04-17 14:07:10","post_content":"\n

                  Ever since Agile approaches became popular\nabout 15 to 20 years ago, Agile culture and mindset have been touted as the\nfoundation elements around which successful organizational transformation\nhappens. Peter Drucker\u2019s famous quote \u201cCulture eats strategy for breakfast\u201d points\nto the ineffectiveness of your strategy implementation if the company culture\ndoesn\u2019t support it. In the early years, not many organizations understood and\ninternalized the true Agile culture \/ philosophy, leading to many of them\nfailing in their Agile journey. This was helped in no small measure by the\nplethora of consultants, selling Agile as a methodology over philosophy. The\nfew successes that we had, though, led to the realization that \u201cbeing agile\u201d is\nsubstantially more important for succeeding with Agile than \u201cdoing agile\u201d. This\nessentially means implementing Agile in \u201cspirit\u201d and, we are seeing this trend\nwith many organizations today. The intent of this blog is to demystify a few\naspects relating to Agile mindset and culture, both from a team perspective, as\nwell as, from the perspective of leadership\/management.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                  What is Agile culture?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

                  Agile culture is an environment built\naround core values and principles with practices and behaviours aligned to\nthose values and principles. In today\u2019s business, this culture needs to address\nresponsiveness to customer and market needs in an extremely complex and\nuncertain environment. Essentially the organization\u2019s values and principles and\nthe related practices \/ behaviours should be reflective of this business\nneed.  For culture to be effective at the\nbusiness level, it needs to permeate through various organizational layers,\nstarting from the top. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

                  Agile culture in teams - Values, Principles and Practices<\/strong> Implementing a proper Agile culture in teams requires a good understanding of Agile values and principles and an appreciation of how these are linked to practices (and to associated behaviours). While Agile values are universal, they are also often too abstract. On the other hand, practices are ways of solving common problems and dilemmas, that we encounter in software development. Given the large perceived gap between these two, we use Principles to bridge this gap and help understand practices better. Values and Principles together guide us in adaptation and improvisation of practices, as part of our efforts to improve continuously. Let me take a couple of examples to illustrate this using the Agile Manifesto<\/a>, Principles<\/a>, Scrum Values<\/a> and XP Values and Principles<\/a>: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

                  \"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

                  From the above example, if you notice that\nthe practice of team members taking turns to provide updates (rather than each\none being prodded on by the SM) is an implementation of the principle of\naccepted responsibility (ownership). I am sure you can see a linkage of other\npractices to the values and principles that they align to. As mentioned before,\nyou can improvise on practices (such as, doing fun retrospectives, for example)\nwithout compromising on values and principles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                  In the above example, I have deliberately\nmixed values and principles from the Agile manifesto as well as specific Agile\napproaches such as Scrum \/ XP. From my own perspective, I have looked at the Agile\nManifesto as more of a position statement than a set of classical \u201cvalues\u201d -\nwhich is why approaches such as Scrum and XP expounded their own set of values.\nMost Agile approaches use the Agile manifesto as a broad guideline for their\nown specific recommendations and incorporate their own values and principles to\nsupport their practice recommendations (both management as well as technical\npractices). In my opinion, it is sensible to take such a hybrid approach to\nsupport your organization context. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

                  There is another factor to be considered \u2013\nAgile Manifesto and values and principles from other approaches are applicable\nto a software development context, which functions under a broad organizational\ncontext. The organization will have its own core values and philosophy stated from\na business perspective, and as a consequence, any Agile implementation has to\nbe aligned to and support this organizational context. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

                  Agile culture in leadership and\nmanagement<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

                  In the early days of Agile implementation,\nit was viewed largely as a bottom-up initiative focusing on delivery teams. The\npervasive nature of Agile as a culture change across all the layers of the\norganization was lost on senior leadership. \nThis introduces many internal conflicts. For example, when SMs see their\nmanager(s) practicing a directive style with them, while expecting them to be\nfacilitative with their own teams, they see a clear conflict of culture. In my\nexperience as a coach, I have personally seen managers track their teams\u2019\nburn-downs - which is clearly a team\u2019s responsibility to track for needed\nactions - wanting to know why they were looking bad, during a sprint execution.\nThis clearly goes against Principle 5 of the manifesto that says \u201cBuild\nprojects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and support\nthey need and trust them to get the job done\u201d. In essence, the Manager\u2019s role\nis to provide facilitative support to teams after providing them the big\npicture \/ vision \/ direction. Teams decide on how they will execute, and will approach\nyou as managers, only for unresolved blockers, or when they need support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                  From a leadership perspective as well, leadership practices should be based on similar values and principles to what we have discussed for teams. Some of these principles may include those relating to delegation\/empowerment, workforce diversity, freedom for experimentation, support for collaborative communities, emotional well-being of employees and so on. For those keen on an organizational perspective of Agile, would like to refer you to PM Power\u2019s recently released book \u201cThe Five Tantras of Enterprise Agility<\/a>\u201d. Incidentally, the book devotes an entire section (Book 3 within the book) to Transformational Leadership needed to succeed with Agile. <\/p>\n","post_title":"Agile Culture and Mindset - re-visited","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"agile-culture-and-mindset-re-visited","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 12:26:29","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 12:26:29","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=19891","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":19790,"post_author":"13","post_date":"2022-03-28 11:03:24","post_date_gmt":"2022-03-28 05:33:24","post_content":"\n

                  Piyush works as a Manager for a team of 20 people. He has been successfully running an IT team for the last 3 years. However, he has been constantly plagued by his people going on unplanned leaves. This has been happening for the last 8-9 months or so. It also came out in several retrospectives. However, there was no focused effort in solving the root problems. Whenever, there were unplanned leaves, the team leads would step up, they would spend night outs and would somehow make sure that the release would not get affected. And to encourage this trend, the Management would reward the Leads with \"Star of the Quarter\" or \"Team champion\" award, which would further encourage this trend. Unconsciously, the Manager was setting himself up for failure by encouraging this trend. When we dug the problem deeper, the following was what I observed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                  When I tried to dig deeper, while Piyush complained about the symptom of \u201cUnplanned Leaves\u201d, the main response from the team was that they were not getting the leaves when they asked for the same citing the amount of work that was there. The team members hardly contributed. The Leads and seniors were doing most of the heavy lifting. Even though, they were burnt out because of work , they still were getting necessary incentives both in terms of having a superior knowledge on the application that they did not want to give up. Eventually, even the seniors and leads were taking unplanned leaves mainly because they were also burnt out and partly because they knew that Piyush always had a soft corner for them. When the process of retrospective was put in place, the team explicitly stated that they did not receive a proper KT. That is one of the objectives of Retrospectives where the team can express itself freely. When Piyush heard the same, his solutioning was to reward the team leads and bail them out of the release pains rather than solving the root problem. The team also did not press too much because they were internally happy of not feeling much pressure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                  The problem is represented below in the table as a sequence of Drama Triangle roles. The subtext in parenthesis is ulterior and not expressed openly. Only when I dug deeper, I found it. (https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Karpman_drama_triangle)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                  \n Persecutor\n <\/td>\n Victim\n <\/td>\n Rescuer\n <\/td><\/tr>
                  \n Manager: There are too many unplanned Leaves\n <\/td> (Team: If we ask for a planned leave, we do not get it )<\/em><\/td> Leads\/Seniors: We will (cover for the team and )<\/em>ensure the release wouldn't suffer <\/td><\/tr>
                  (Team Leads: Let us also go on an unplanned leave. We are totally burned out. Why should only we suffer?)<\/em><\/td>Manager: Oh my god! how am I going to deliver this? Team, I need you to pull the weight this time.<\/td>Team: We will do our best (to get out of this situation. Provide some temporary fixes) <\/em><\/td><\/tr>
                  Team: We tried our best but we have never been given a proper KT. (I am rather happy that I do not have to take much pressure)<\/em><\/td> Team Leads: Despite all the efforts, we get to be blamed<\/td>Manager: Don't worry, I will make sure you get all the necessary rewards for the hard work (strike the deal with the team leads)<\/em><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

                  This is typically how the Drama Triangle works. And because the roles keep switching, it will keep the \"Game\" of the recurring problem alive. And all of this happens at an unconscious level. This also results in a negative feeling for everybody involved. Because, it happens at an unconscious level for all the players, they would also struggle to come out of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                  In order to break this pattern, there should be an active involvement of all the participants to solve the root problem and address the same. How would you solve this problem?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                  ...............................................................................................................................<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                  ...............................................................................................................................<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                  ...............................................................................................................................<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                  Here is how we solved the problem:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

                  Solution<\/strong>: The first thing I did was to bring this awareness of Drama Triangle among all the participants. I showed them how each of them are playing their part in keeping the game alive without their awareness. Since they were all playing this at an unconscious level, it is very difficult to come out unless someone can bring that awareness. They had not seen this problem in the lens of a Drama Triangle at all. This helped them break the resistances on solving the problem and see how they themselves contributed to solving this problem. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

                  The main issue was that the team members did not develop enough skills in their project. We found during the session that most of it could be addressed if the team was involved in the decision making, hold them accountable and if they can be helped in enhancing the skills. The team was given a lot more autonomy. They were involved in the planning meetings and their opinions and decisions were given more weightage. While a separate time was scoped out for KT, it was made sure that the team would start fronting all the work where as the team leads would play the supporting role. The team found the work lot more challenging, while the seniors played the role of mentors. As a result, the team started to learn not only the technical skills but also the Leadership skills to feel empowered. Gradually, there was a decrease in unplanned leaves as the team felt more empowered.<\/p>\n","post_title":"CHOW#287 - The Drama of \"Unplanned Leaves\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"chow287-the-drama-of-unplanned-leaves","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-23 08:29:34","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-23 08:29:34","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=19790","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":4},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

                  Page 4 of 12 1 … 3 4 5 … 12
                  \n

                  With more and more automation and mechanization in manufacturing and agricultural sectors, human resource deployment will be more and more in the knowledge industry. And knowledge industry is going to leverage human resources, wherever they are available.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                  Covid has provided the fillip that the industry needed towards this move.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                  Gopal<\/a><\/p>\n","post_title":"Pandemic Positives!","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"pandemic-positives","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-24 07:57:17","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-24 07:57:17","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=20165","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"2","filter":"raw"},{"ID":19967,"post_author":"30","post_date":"2022-05-08 15:37:11","post_date_gmt":"2022-05-08 10:07:11","post_content":"\n

                  When I read the book 'Eleven Rings: The soul of success' by Phil Jackson and Hugh Delehanty<\/span><\/a> <\/span>, the legendary basketball coach, I could relate his 11 tips for leadership as good points for Scrum Masters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                  With eleven titles to his credit, helping the Chicago Bulls win six times and the LA Lakers win five times, Phil Jackson knows what it takes to build great teams and help them succeed \u2013 consistently!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                  In this book, he distils leadership styles and actions to eleven points.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                  We talk about a Scrum Masters role as a leadership role, something that can be successful by influence and not authority.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                    \n
                  1. Lead From the Inside Out<\/strong>

                    In the PM Power approach to leadership development, we combine the hard aspects as well as the soft aspects. An effective leader is one who can manage outside, by mastering inside. <\/span><\/p>

                    When one leads from inside out, the genuineness of conversations establishes true connections with people, and everyone starts to listen more to what you say. <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

                  2. Bench the Ego<\/strong>

                    Every action, it is said, has an equal and opposite reaction. <\/span><\/p>

                    This is true for leaders too. When some decisions are forced on people, there is invariably a tendency to resist, particularly if it involves change. <\/span><\/p>

                    As a Scrum Master, one needs to be able to quickly gain the consensus of the team. To do that the Scrum Master should also listen and create a safe environment for everyone to express themselves.<\/p> <\/li>\n\n\n\n

                  3. Let Each Player Discover His Own Destiny<\/strong>

                    Jackson says, \"I've always been interested in getting players to think for themselves so that they can make difficult decisions in the heat of battle.\" <\/span><\/p>

                    This translates into enabling safe spaces where each person can exhibit and share their courage, mutual respect, and resilience. <\/span><\/p>

                    This also encourages the team to go beyond narrowly defined set of duties and swarm as needed, to ensure team success.<\/p> <\/li>\n\n\n\n

                  4. The Road to Freedom is a Beautiful System<\/strong>

                    When each person in the team is actively aware of what the others are doing and where the team is moving, it enables smooth self-organization and collective ownership. The triangle system that is attributed to Phil Jackson, is a fitting example of having a common structure that is well understood, while providing a chance for creativity.<\/p> <\/li>\n\n\n\n

                  5. Turn the Mundane into the Sacred<\/strong>

                    Even for well knit teams, it is worthwhile to have some formality in terms of events [used to also be called ceremonies] that are also supported by team norms. <\/span><\/p>

                    What might otherwise be considered as a routine \u2013 say the daily standup \u2013 could become important points of sync up when infused with some formalism. Phil Jackson also introduced meditation practices for the team to help the players focus, unwind, and stay energetic. <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

                  6. One Breath = One Mind<\/strong>

                    A simple technique to get everyone aligned and in sync just before any significant event. Whether it is a crucial meeting, where consensus needs to be reached in time or the start of a release cycle, helping everyone spend some silent, reflective time together helps align the breathing, which is particularly useful in playing tandem, or like trapeze artists, when there are hand-offs to be executed as the project progresses <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

                  7. The Key to Success is Compassion<\/strong>

                    Helping the team understand and internalize the scrum value of respect for others, will lead to greater empathy for both the other team members as well as customers. That understanding will propel the team to go the extra mile when needed, to ensure that the promises to the users are always the highest priority. <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

                  8. Keep Your Eye on the Spirit, Not on the Scoreboard<\/strong>

                    This is the essential difference between DOING Agile and BEING Agile. Or not being obsessed only with some vanity metrics. When the core principles and the team values are always at the back of every thought and action, a team can focus on internalizing the values and principles of Agility. When the emphasis is to do it by the book, one may tend to be more worried about checking the boxes and ignore the outputs and outcomes. <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

                  9. Sometimes You Have to Pull Out the Big Stick<\/strong>

                    This is tricky to directly interpret for a Scrum Master, as the emphasis is usually to be a 'servant leader' who gets results through influence. This is usually true in an ideal world. Sometimes, a Scrum Master needs to be creative to highlight some issues within the team or with specific individuals, so that they can realize the impact of their action or inaction. <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

                  10. When in Doubt, Do Nothing<\/strong>

                    One of the key responsibilities of a Scrum Master if to remove impediments. This may not be quite simple at times. For an action-oriented person, it may be difficult to not do anything and observe the situation resolve itself. But, sometimes, it is best to not do anything. The triaging technique used by many teams \u2013 including emergency medical response teams \u2013 also suggests that in some situations, it is best to not do anything. This will come with experience. <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

                  11. Forget the Ring<\/strong>

                    This is also a point that is easier said than done. When one is so involved in the action, it is not easy to ignore or forget the result and the urge to win. Phil Jackson says, 'obsessing about winning is a loser's game.' The main reason he says, is that such a focus would lead to one losing control of one's emotions. He says, 'The most we can hope for is to create the best possible conditions for success, then let go of the outcome.' <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

                    The book has a lot more detailed examples including situations involving some of the high performers who were more self-centric and concerned with their own success and image, and how he was able to help them turn into more team players and mentors to other less experienced players.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Eleven Rings for a Scrum Master","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"eleven-rings-for-a-scrum-master","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 11:31:55","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 11:31:55","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=19967","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"2","filter":"raw"},{"ID":19891,"post_author":"15","post_date":"2022-04-17 19:37:10","post_date_gmt":"2022-04-17 14:07:10","post_content":"\n

                    Ever since Agile approaches became popular\nabout 15 to 20 years ago, Agile culture and mindset have been touted as the\nfoundation elements around which successful organizational transformation\nhappens. Peter Drucker\u2019s famous quote \u201cCulture eats strategy for breakfast\u201d points\nto the ineffectiveness of your strategy implementation if the company culture\ndoesn\u2019t support it. In the early years, not many organizations understood and\ninternalized the true Agile culture \/ philosophy, leading to many of them\nfailing in their Agile journey. This was helped in no small measure by the\nplethora of consultants, selling Agile as a methodology over philosophy. The\nfew successes that we had, though, led to the realization that \u201cbeing agile\u201d is\nsubstantially more important for succeeding with Agile than \u201cdoing agile\u201d. This\nessentially means implementing Agile in \u201cspirit\u201d and, we are seeing this trend\nwith many organizations today. The intent of this blog is to demystify a few\naspects relating to Agile mindset and culture, both from a team perspective, as\nwell as, from the perspective of leadership\/management.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                    What is Agile culture?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

                    Agile culture is an environment built\naround core values and principles with practices and behaviours aligned to\nthose values and principles. In today\u2019s business, this culture needs to address\nresponsiveness to customer and market needs in an extremely complex and\nuncertain environment. Essentially the organization\u2019s values and principles and\nthe related practices \/ behaviours should be reflective of this business\nneed.  For culture to be effective at the\nbusiness level, it needs to permeate through various organizational layers,\nstarting from the top. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

                    Agile culture in teams - Values, Principles and Practices<\/strong> Implementing a proper Agile culture in teams requires a good understanding of Agile values and principles and an appreciation of how these are linked to practices (and to associated behaviours). While Agile values are universal, they are also often too abstract. On the other hand, practices are ways of solving common problems and dilemmas, that we encounter in software development. Given the large perceived gap between these two, we use Principles to bridge this gap and help understand practices better. Values and Principles together guide us in adaptation and improvisation of practices, as part of our efforts to improve continuously. Let me take a couple of examples to illustrate this using the Agile Manifesto<\/a>, Principles<\/a>, Scrum Values<\/a> and XP Values and Principles<\/a>: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

                    \"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

                    From the above example, if you notice that\nthe practice of team members taking turns to provide updates (rather than each\none being prodded on by the SM) is an implementation of the principle of\naccepted responsibility (ownership). I am sure you can see a linkage of other\npractices to the values and principles that they align to. As mentioned before,\nyou can improvise on practices (such as, doing fun retrospectives, for example)\nwithout compromising on values and principles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                    In the above example, I have deliberately\nmixed values and principles from the Agile manifesto as well as specific Agile\napproaches such as Scrum \/ XP. From my own perspective, I have looked at the Agile\nManifesto as more of a position statement than a set of classical \u201cvalues\u201d -\nwhich is why approaches such as Scrum and XP expounded their own set of values.\nMost Agile approaches use the Agile manifesto as a broad guideline for their\nown specific recommendations and incorporate their own values and principles to\nsupport their practice recommendations (both management as well as technical\npractices). In my opinion, it is sensible to take such a hybrid approach to\nsupport your organization context. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

                    There is another factor to be considered \u2013\nAgile Manifesto and values and principles from other approaches are applicable\nto a software development context, which functions under a broad organizational\ncontext. The organization will have its own core values and philosophy stated from\na business perspective, and as a consequence, any Agile implementation has to\nbe aligned to and support this organizational context. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

                    Agile culture in leadership and\nmanagement<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

                    In the early days of Agile implementation,\nit was viewed largely as a bottom-up initiative focusing on delivery teams. The\npervasive nature of Agile as a culture change across all the layers of the\norganization was lost on senior leadership. \nThis introduces many internal conflicts. For example, when SMs see their\nmanager(s) practicing a directive style with them, while expecting them to be\nfacilitative with their own teams, they see a clear conflict of culture. In my\nexperience as a coach, I have personally seen managers track their teams\u2019\nburn-downs - which is clearly a team\u2019s responsibility to track for needed\nactions - wanting to know why they were looking bad, during a sprint execution.\nThis clearly goes against Principle 5 of the manifesto that says \u201cBuild\nprojects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and support\nthey need and trust them to get the job done\u201d. In essence, the Manager\u2019s role\nis to provide facilitative support to teams after providing them the big\npicture \/ vision \/ direction. Teams decide on how they will execute, and will approach\nyou as managers, only for unresolved blockers, or when they need support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                    From a leadership perspective as well, leadership practices should be based on similar values and principles to what we have discussed for teams. Some of these principles may include those relating to delegation\/empowerment, workforce diversity, freedom for experimentation, support for collaborative communities, emotional well-being of employees and so on. For those keen on an organizational perspective of Agile, would like to refer you to PM Power\u2019s recently released book \u201cThe Five Tantras of Enterprise Agility<\/a>\u201d. Incidentally, the book devotes an entire section (Book 3 within the book) to Transformational Leadership needed to succeed with Agile. <\/p>\n","post_title":"Agile Culture and Mindset - re-visited","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"agile-culture-and-mindset-re-visited","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 12:26:29","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 12:26:29","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=19891","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":19790,"post_author":"13","post_date":"2022-03-28 11:03:24","post_date_gmt":"2022-03-28 05:33:24","post_content":"\n

                    Piyush works as a Manager for a team of 20 people. He has been successfully running an IT team for the last 3 years. However, he has been constantly plagued by his people going on unplanned leaves. This has been happening for the last 8-9 months or so. It also came out in several retrospectives. However, there was no focused effort in solving the root problems. Whenever, there were unplanned leaves, the team leads would step up, they would spend night outs and would somehow make sure that the release would not get affected. And to encourage this trend, the Management would reward the Leads with \"Star of the Quarter\" or \"Team champion\" award, which would further encourage this trend. Unconsciously, the Manager was setting himself up for failure by encouraging this trend. When we dug the problem deeper, the following was what I observed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                    When I tried to dig deeper, while Piyush complained about the symptom of \u201cUnplanned Leaves\u201d, the main response from the team was that they were not getting the leaves when they asked for the same citing the amount of work that was there. The team members hardly contributed. The Leads and seniors were doing most of the heavy lifting. Even though, they were burnt out because of work , they still were getting necessary incentives both in terms of having a superior knowledge on the application that they did not want to give up. Eventually, even the seniors and leads were taking unplanned leaves mainly because they were also burnt out and partly because they knew that Piyush always had a soft corner for them. When the process of retrospective was put in place, the team explicitly stated that they did not receive a proper KT. That is one of the objectives of Retrospectives where the team can express itself freely. When Piyush heard the same, his solutioning was to reward the team leads and bail them out of the release pains rather than solving the root problem. The team also did not press too much because they were internally happy of not feeling much pressure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                    The problem is represented below in the table as a sequence of Drama Triangle roles. The subtext in parenthesis is ulterior and not expressed openly. Only when I dug deeper, I found it. (https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Karpman_drama_triangle)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                    \n Persecutor\n <\/td>\n Victim\n <\/td>\n Rescuer\n <\/td><\/tr>
                    \n Manager: There are too many unplanned Leaves\n <\/td> (Team: If we ask for a planned leave, we do not get it )<\/em><\/td> Leads\/Seniors: We will (cover for the team and )<\/em>ensure the release wouldn't suffer <\/td><\/tr>
                    (Team Leads: Let us also go on an unplanned leave. We are totally burned out. Why should only we suffer?)<\/em><\/td>Manager: Oh my god! how am I going to deliver this? Team, I need you to pull the weight this time.<\/td>Team: We will do our best (to get out of this situation. Provide some temporary fixes) <\/em><\/td><\/tr>
                    Team: We tried our best but we have never been given a proper KT. (I am rather happy that I do not have to take much pressure)<\/em><\/td> Team Leads: Despite all the efforts, we get to be blamed<\/td>Manager: Don't worry, I will make sure you get all the necessary rewards for the hard work (strike the deal with the team leads)<\/em><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

                    This is typically how the Drama Triangle works. And because the roles keep switching, it will keep the \"Game\" of the recurring problem alive. And all of this happens at an unconscious level. This also results in a negative feeling for everybody involved. Because, it happens at an unconscious level for all the players, they would also struggle to come out of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                    In order to break this pattern, there should be an active involvement of all the participants to solve the root problem and address the same. How would you solve this problem?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                    ...............................................................................................................................<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                    ...............................................................................................................................<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                    ...............................................................................................................................<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                    Here is how we solved the problem:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

                    Solution<\/strong>: The first thing I did was to bring this awareness of Drama Triangle among all the participants. I showed them how each of them are playing their part in keeping the game alive without their awareness. Since they were all playing this at an unconscious level, it is very difficult to come out unless someone can bring that awareness. They had not seen this problem in the lens of a Drama Triangle at all. This helped them break the resistances on solving the problem and see how they themselves contributed to solving this problem. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

                    The main issue was that the team members did not develop enough skills in their project. We found during the session that most of it could be addressed if the team was involved in the decision making, hold them accountable and if they can be helped in enhancing the skills. The team was given a lot more autonomy. They were involved in the planning meetings and their opinions and decisions were given more weightage. While a separate time was scoped out for KT, it was made sure that the team would start fronting all the work where as the team leads would play the supporting role. The team found the work lot more challenging, while the seniors played the role of mentors. As a result, the team started to learn not only the technical skills but also the Leadership skills to feel empowered. Gradually, there was a decrease in unplanned leaves as the team felt more empowered.<\/p>\n","post_title":"CHOW#287 - The Drama of \"Unplanned Leaves\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"chow287-the-drama-of-unplanned-leaves","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-23 08:29:34","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-23 08:29:34","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=19790","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":4},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

                    Page 4 of 12 1 … 3 4 5 … 12
                    \n

                    If the newer technologies eliminate the inefficiencies of remote collaboration, may be we have a win win situation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                    With more and more automation and mechanization in manufacturing and agricultural sectors, human resource deployment will be more and more in the knowledge industry. And knowledge industry is going to leverage human resources, wherever they are available.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                    Covid has provided the fillip that the industry needed towards this move.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                    Gopal<\/a><\/p>\n","post_title":"Pandemic Positives!","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"pandemic-positives","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-24 07:57:17","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-24 07:57:17","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=20165","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"2","filter":"raw"},{"ID":19967,"post_author":"30","post_date":"2022-05-08 15:37:11","post_date_gmt":"2022-05-08 10:07:11","post_content":"\n

                    When I read the book 'Eleven Rings: The soul of success' by Phil Jackson and Hugh Delehanty<\/span><\/a> <\/span>, the legendary basketball coach, I could relate his 11 tips for leadership as good points for Scrum Masters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                    With eleven titles to his credit, helping the Chicago Bulls win six times and the LA Lakers win five times, Phil Jackson knows what it takes to build great teams and help them succeed \u2013 consistently!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                    In this book, he distils leadership styles and actions to eleven points.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                    We talk about a Scrum Masters role as a leadership role, something that can be successful by influence and not authority.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                      \n
                    1. Lead From the Inside Out<\/strong>

                      In the PM Power approach to leadership development, we combine the hard aspects as well as the soft aspects. An effective leader is one who can manage outside, by mastering inside. <\/span><\/p>

                      When one leads from inside out, the genuineness of conversations establishes true connections with people, and everyone starts to listen more to what you say. <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

                    2. Bench the Ego<\/strong>

                      Every action, it is said, has an equal and opposite reaction. <\/span><\/p>

                      This is true for leaders too. When some decisions are forced on people, there is invariably a tendency to resist, particularly if it involves change. <\/span><\/p>

                      As a Scrum Master, one needs to be able to quickly gain the consensus of the team. To do that the Scrum Master should also listen and create a safe environment for everyone to express themselves.<\/p> <\/li>\n\n\n\n

                    3. Let Each Player Discover His Own Destiny<\/strong>

                      Jackson says, \"I've always been interested in getting players to think for themselves so that they can make difficult decisions in the heat of battle.\" <\/span><\/p>

                      This translates into enabling safe spaces where each person can exhibit and share their courage, mutual respect, and resilience. <\/span><\/p>

                      This also encourages the team to go beyond narrowly defined set of duties and swarm as needed, to ensure team success.<\/p> <\/li>\n\n\n\n

                    4. The Road to Freedom is a Beautiful System<\/strong>

                      When each person in the team is actively aware of what the others are doing and where the team is moving, it enables smooth self-organization and collective ownership. The triangle system that is attributed to Phil Jackson, is a fitting example of having a common structure that is well understood, while providing a chance for creativity.<\/p> <\/li>\n\n\n\n

                    5. Turn the Mundane into the Sacred<\/strong>

                      Even for well knit teams, it is worthwhile to have some formality in terms of events [used to also be called ceremonies] that are also supported by team norms. <\/span><\/p>

                      What might otherwise be considered as a routine \u2013 say the daily standup \u2013 could become important points of sync up when infused with some formalism. Phil Jackson also introduced meditation practices for the team to help the players focus, unwind, and stay energetic. <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

                    6. One Breath = One Mind<\/strong>

                      A simple technique to get everyone aligned and in sync just before any significant event. Whether it is a crucial meeting, where consensus needs to be reached in time or the start of a release cycle, helping everyone spend some silent, reflective time together helps align the breathing, which is particularly useful in playing tandem, or like trapeze artists, when there are hand-offs to be executed as the project progresses <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

                    7. The Key to Success is Compassion<\/strong>

                      Helping the team understand and internalize the scrum value of respect for others, will lead to greater empathy for both the other team members as well as customers. That understanding will propel the team to go the extra mile when needed, to ensure that the promises to the users are always the highest priority. <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

                    8. Keep Your Eye on the Spirit, Not on the Scoreboard<\/strong>

                      This is the essential difference between DOING Agile and BEING Agile. Or not being obsessed only with some vanity metrics. When the core principles and the team values are always at the back of every thought and action, a team can focus on internalizing the values and principles of Agility. When the emphasis is to do it by the book, one may tend to be more worried about checking the boxes and ignore the outputs and outcomes. <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

                    9. Sometimes You Have to Pull Out the Big Stick<\/strong>

                      This is tricky to directly interpret for a Scrum Master, as the emphasis is usually to be a 'servant leader' who gets results through influence. This is usually true in an ideal world. Sometimes, a Scrum Master needs to be creative to highlight some issues within the team or with specific individuals, so that they can realize the impact of their action or inaction. <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

                    10. When in Doubt, Do Nothing<\/strong>

                      One of the key responsibilities of a Scrum Master if to remove impediments. This may not be quite simple at times. For an action-oriented person, it may be difficult to not do anything and observe the situation resolve itself. But, sometimes, it is best to not do anything. The triaging technique used by many teams \u2013 including emergency medical response teams \u2013 also suggests that in some situations, it is best to not do anything. This will come with experience. <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

                    11. Forget the Ring<\/strong>

                      This is also a point that is easier said than done. When one is so involved in the action, it is not easy to ignore or forget the result and the urge to win. Phil Jackson says, 'obsessing about winning is a loser's game.' The main reason he says, is that such a focus would lead to one losing control of one's emotions. He says, 'The most we can hope for is to create the best possible conditions for success, then let go of the outcome.' <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

                      The book has a lot more detailed examples including situations involving some of the high performers who were more self-centric and concerned with their own success and image, and how he was able to help them turn into more team players and mentors to other less experienced players.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Eleven Rings for a Scrum Master","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"eleven-rings-for-a-scrum-master","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 11:31:55","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 11:31:55","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=19967","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"2","filter":"raw"},{"ID":19891,"post_author":"15","post_date":"2022-04-17 19:37:10","post_date_gmt":"2022-04-17 14:07:10","post_content":"\n

                      Ever since Agile approaches became popular\nabout 15 to 20 years ago, Agile culture and mindset have been touted as the\nfoundation elements around which successful organizational transformation\nhappens. Peter Drucker\u2019s famous quote \u201cCulture eats strategy for breakfast\u201d points\nto the ineffectiveness of your strategy implementation if the company culture\ndoesn\u2019t support it. In the early years, not many organizations understood and\ninternalized the true Agile culture \/ philosophy, leading to many of them\nfailing in their Agile journey. This was helped in no small measure by the\nplethora of consultants, selling Agile as a methodology over philosophy. The\nfew successes that we had, though, led to the realization that \u201cbeing agile\u201d is\nsubstantially more important for succeeding with Agile than \u201cdoing agile\u201d. This\nessentially means implementing Agile in \u201cspirit\u201d and, we are seeing this trend\nwith many organizations today. The intent of this blog is to demystify a few\naspects relating to Agile mindset and culture, both from a team perspective, as\nwell as, from the perspective of leadership\/management.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                      What is Agile culture?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

                      Agile culture is an environment built\naround core values and principles with practices and behaviours aligned to\nthose values and principles. In today\u2019s business, this culture needs to address\nresponsiveness to customer and market needs in an extremely complex and\nuncertain environment. Essentially the organization\u2019s values and principles and\nthe related practices \/ behaviours should be reflective of this business\nneed.  For culture to be effective at the\nbusiness level, it needs to permeate through various organizational layers,\nstarting from the top. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

                      Agile culture in teams - Values, Principles and Practices<\/strong> Implementing a proper Agile culture in teams requires a good understanding of Agile values and principles and an appreciation of how these are linked to practices (and to associated behaviours). While Agile values are universal, they are also often too abstract. On the other hand, practices are ways of solving common problems and dilemmas, that we encounter in software development. Given the large perceived gap between these two, we use Principles to bridge this gap and help understand practices better. Values and Principles together guide us in adaptation and improvisation of practices, as part of our efforts to improve continuously. Let me take a couple of examples to illustrate this using the Agile Manifesto<\/a>, Principles<\/a>, Scrum Values<\/a> and XP Values and Principles<\/a>: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

                      \"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

                      From the above example, if you notice that\nthe practice of team members taking turns to provide updates (rather than each\none being prodded on by the SM) is an implementation of the principle of\naccepted responsibility (ownership). I am sure you can see a linkage of other\npractices to the values and principles that they align to. As mentioned before,\nyou can improvise on practices (such as, doing fun retrospectives, for example)\nwithout compromising on values and principles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                      In the above example, I have deliberately\nmixed values and principles from the Agile manifesto as well as specific Agile\napproaches such as Scrum \/ XP. From my own perspective, I have looked at the Agile\nManifesto as more of a position statement than a set of classical \u201cvalues\u201d -\nwhich is why approaches such as Scrum and XP expounded their own set of values.\nMost Agile approaches use the Agile manifesto as a broad guideline for their\nown specific recommendations and incorporate their own values and principles to\nsupport their practice recommendations (both management as well as technical\npractices). In my opinion, it is sensible to take such a hybrid approach to\nsupport your organization context. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

                      There is another factor to be considered \u2013\nAgile Manifesto and values and principles from other approaches are applicable\nto a software development context, which functions under a broad organizational\ncontext. The organization will have its own core values and philosophy stated from\na business perspective, and as a consequence, any Agile implementation has to\nbe aligned to and support this organizational context. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

                      Agile culture in leadership and\nmanagement<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

                      In the early days of Agile implementation,\nit was viewed largely as a bottom-up initiative focusing on delivery teams. The\npervasive nature of Agile as a culture change across all the layers of the\norganization was lost on senior leadership. \nThis introduces many internal conflicts. For example, when SMs see their\nmanager(s) practicing a directive style with them, while expecting them to be\nfacilitative with their own teams, they see a clear conflict of culture. In my\nexperience as a coach, I have personally seen managers track their teams\u2019\nburn-downs - which is clearly a team\u2019s responsibility to track for needed\nactions - wanting to know why they were looking bad, during a sprint execution.\nThis clearly goes against Principle 5 of the manifesto that says \u201cBuild\nprojects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and support\nthey need and trust them to get the job done\u201d. In essence, the Manager\u2019s role\nis to provide facilitative support to teams after providing them the big\npicture \/ vision \/ direction. Teams decide on how they will execute, and will approach\nyou as managers, only for unresolved blockers, or when they need support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                      From a leadership perspective as well, leadership practices should be based on similar values and principles to what we have discussed for teams. Some of these principles may include those relating to delegation\/empowerment, workforce diversity, freedom for experimentation, support for collaborative communities, emotional well-being of employees and so on. For those keen on an organizational perspective of Agile, would like to refer you to PM Power\u2019s recently released book \u201cThe Five Tantras of Enterprise Agility<\/a>\u201d. Incidentally, the book devotes an entire section (Book 3 within the book) to Transformational Leadership needed to succeed with Agile. <\/p>\n","post_title":"Agile Culture and Mindset - re-visited","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"agile-culture-and-mindset-re-visited","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 12:26:29","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 12:26:29","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=19891","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":19790,"post_author":"13","post_date":"2022-03-28 11:03:24","post_date_gmt":"2022-03-28 05:33:24","post_content":"\n

                      Piyush works as a Manager for a team of 20 people. He has been successfully running an IT team for the last 3 years. However, he has been constantly plagued by his people going on unplanned leaves. This has been happening for the last 8-9 months or so. It also came out in several retrospectives. However, there was no focused effort in solving the root problems. Whenever, there were unplanned leaves, the team leads would step up, they would spend night outs and would somehow make sure that the release would not get affected. And to encourage this trend, the Management would reward the Leads with \"Star of the Quarter\" or \"Team champion\" award, which would further encourage this trend. Unconsciously, the Manager was setting himself up for failure by encouraging this trend. When we dug the problem deeper, the following was what I observed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                      When I tried to dig deeper, while Piyush complained about the symptom of \u201cUnplanned Leaves\u201d, the main response from the team was that they were not getting the leaves when they asked for the same citing the amount of work that was there. The team members hardly contributed. The Leads and seniors were doing most of the heavy lifting. Even though, they were burnt out because of work , they still were getting necessary incentives both in terms of having a superior knowledge on the application that they did not want to give up. Eventually, even the seniors and leads were taking unplanned leaves mainly because they were also burnt out and partly because they knew that Piyush always had a soft corner for them. When the process of retrospective was put in place, the team explicitly stated that they did not receive a proper KT. That is one of the objectives of Retrospectives where the team can express itself freely. When Piyush heard the same, his solutioning was to reward the team leads and bail them out of the release pains rather than solving the root problem. The team also did not press too much because they were internally happy of not feeling much pressure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                      The problem is represented below in the table as a sequence of Drama Triangle roles. The subtext in parenthesis is ulterior and not expressed openly. Only when I dug deeper, I found it. (https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Karpman_drama_triangle)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                      \n Persecutor\n <\/td>\n Victim\n <\/td>\n Rescuer\n <\/td><\/tr>
                      \n Manager: There are too many unplanned Leaves\n <\/td> (Team: If we ask for a planned leave, we do not get it )<\/em><\/td> Leads\/Seniors: We will (cover for the team and )<\/em>ensure the release wouldn't suffer <\/td><\/tr>
                      (Team Leads: Let us also go on an unplanned leave. We are totally burned out. Why should only we suffer?)<\/em><\/td>Manager: Oh my god! how am I going to deliver this? Team, I need you to pull the weight this time.<\/td>Team: We will do our best (to get out of this situation. Provide some temporary fixes) <\/em><\/td><\/tr>
                      Team: We tried our best but we have never been given a proper KT. (I am rather happy that I do not have to take much pressure)<\/em><\/td> Team Leads: Despite all the efforts, we get to be blamed<\/td>Manager: Don't worry, I will make sure you get all the necessary rewards for the hard work (strike the deal with the team leads)<\/em><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

                      This is typically how the Drama Triangle works. And because the roles keep switching, it will keep the \"Game\" of the recurring problem alive. And all of this happens at an unconscious level. This also results in a negative feeling for everybody involved. Because, it happens at an unconscious level for all the players, they would also struggle to come out of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                      In order to break this pattern, there should be an active involvement of all the participants to solve the root problem and address the same. How would you solve this problem?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                      ...............................................................................................................................<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                      ...............................................................................................................................<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                      ...............................................................................................................................<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                      Here is how we solved the problem:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

                      Solution<\/strong>: The first thing I did was to bring this awareness of Drama Triangle among all the participants. I showed them how each of them are playing their part in keeping the game alive without their awareness. Since they were all playing this at an unconscious level, it is very difficult to come out unless someone can bring that awareness. They had not seen this problem in the lens of a Drama Triangle at all. This helped them break the resistances on solving the problem and see how they themselves contributed to solving this problem. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

                      The main issue was that the team members did not develop enough skills in their project. We found during the session that most of it could be addressed if the team was involved in the decision making, hold them accountable and if they can be helped in enhancing the skills. The team was given a lot more autonomy. They were involved in the planning meetings and their opinions and decisions were given more weightage. While a separate time was scoped out for KT, it was made sure that the team would start fronting all the work where as the team leads would play the supporting role. The team found the work lot more challenging, while the seniors played the role of mentors. As a result, the team started to learn not only the technical skills but also the Leadership skills to feel empowered. Gradually, there was a decrease in unplanned leaves as the team felt more empowered.<\/p>\n","post_title":"CHOW#287 - The Drama of \"Unplanned Leaves\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"chow287-the-drama-of-unplanned-leaves","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-23 08:29:34","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-23 08:29:34","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=19790","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":4},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

                      Page 4 of 12 1 … 3 4 5 … 12
                      \n

                      May be remote collaboration lead to a more objective functioning of teams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                      If the newer technologies eliminate the inefficiencies of remote collaboration, may be we have a win win situation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                      With more and more automation and mechanization in manufacturing and agricultural sectors, human resource deployment will be more and more in the knowledge industry. And knowledge industry is going to leverage human resources, wherever they are available.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                      Covid has provided the fillip that the industry needed towards this move.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                      Gopal<\/a><\/p>\n","post_title":"Pandemic Positives!","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"pandemic-positives","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-24 07:57:17","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-24 07:57:17","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=20165","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"2","filter":"raw"},{"ID":19967,"post_author":"30","post_date":"2022-05-08 15:37:11","post_date_gmt":"2022-05-08 10:07:11","post_content":"\n

                      When I read the book 'Eleven Rings: The soul of success' by Phil Jackson and Hugh Delehanty<\/span><\/a> <\/span>, the legendary basketball coach, I could relate his 11 tips for leadership as good points for Scrum Masters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                      With eleven titles to his credit, helping the Chicago Bulls win six times and the LA Lakers win five times, Phil Jackson knows what it takes to build great teams and help them succeed \u2013 consistently!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                      In this book, he distils leadership styles and actions to eleven points.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                      We talk about a Scrum Masters role as a leadership role, something that can be successful by influence and not authority.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                        \n
                      1. Lead From the Inside Out<\/strong>

                        In the PM Power approach to leadership development, we combine the hard aspects as well as the soft aspects. An effective leader is one who can manage outside, by mastering inside. <\/span><\/p>

                        When one leads from inside out, the genuineness of conversations establishes true connections with people, and everyone starts to listen more to what you say. <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

                      2. Bench the Ego<\/strong>

                        Every action, it is said, has an equal and opposite reaction. <\/span><\/p>

                        This is true for leaders too. When some decisions are forced on people, there is invariably a tendency to resist, particularly if it involves change. <\/span><\/p>

                        As a Scrum Master, one needs to be able to quickly gain the consensus of the team. To do that the Scrum Master should also listen and create a safe environment for everyone to express themselves.<\/p> <\/li>\n\n\n\n

                      3. Let Each Player Discover His Own Destiny<\/strong>

                        Jackson says, \"I've always been interested in getting players to think for themselves so that they can make difficult decisions in the heat of battle.\" <\/span><\/p>

                        This translates into enabling safe spaces where each person can exhibit and share their courage, mutual respect, and resilience. <\/span><\/p>

                        This also encourages the team to go beyond narrowly defined set of duties and swarm as needed, to ensure team success.<\/p> <\/li>\n\n\n\n

                      4. The Road to Freedom is a Beautiful System<\/strong>

                        When each person in the team is actively aware of what the others are doing and where the team is moving, it enables smooth self-organization and collective ownership. The triangle system that is attributed to Phil Jackson, is a fitting example of having a common structure that is well understood, while providing a chance for creativity.<\/p> <\/li>\n\n\n\n

                      5. Turn the Mundane into the Sacred<\/strong>

                        Even for well knit teams, it is worthwhile to have some formality in terms of events [used to also be called ceremonies] that are also supported by team norms. <\/span><\/p>

                        What might otherwise be considered as a routine \u2013 say the daily standup \u2013 could become important points of sync up when infused with some formalism. Phil Jackson also introduced meditation practices for the team to help the players focus, unwind, and stay energetic. <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

                      6. One Breath = One Mind<\/strong>

                        A simple technique to get everyone aligned and in sync just before any significant event. Whether it is a crucial meeting, where consensus needs to be reached in time or the start of a release cycle, helping everyone spend some silent, reflective time together helps align the breathing, which is particularly useful in playing tandem, or like trapeze artists, when there are hand-offs to be executed as the project progresses <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

                      7. The Key to Success is Compassion<\/strong>

                        Helping the team understand and internalize the scrum value of respect for others, will lead to greater empathy for both the other team members as well as customers. That understanding will propel the team to go the extra mile when needed, to ensure that the promises to the users are always the highest priority. <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

                      8. Keep Your Eye on the Spirit, Not on the Scoreboard<\/strong>

                        This is the essential difference between DOING Agile and BEING Agile. Or not being obsessed only with some vanity metrics. When the core principles and the team values are always at the back of every thought and action, a team can focus on internalizing the values and principles of Agility. When the emphasis is to do it by the book, one may tend to be more worried about checking the boxes and ignore the outputs and outcomes. <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

                      9. Sometimes You Have to Pull Out the Big Stick<\/strong>

                        This is tricky to directly interpret for a Scrum Master, as the emphasis is usually to be a 'servant leader' who gets results through influence. This is usually true in an ideal world. Sometimes, a Scrum Master needs to be creative to highlight some issues within the team or with specific individuals, so that they can realize the impact of their action or inaction. <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

                      10. When in Doubt, Do Nothing<\/strong>

                        One of the key responsibilities of a Scrum Master if to remove impediments. This may not be quite simple at times. For an action-oriented person, it may be difficult to not do anything and observe the situation resolve itself. But, sometimes, it is best to not do anything. The triaging technique used by many teams \u2013 including emergency medical response teams \u2013 also suggests that in some situations, it is best to not do anything. This will come with experience. <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

                      11. Forget the Ring<\/strong>

                        This is also a point that is easier said than done. When one is so involved in the action, it is not easy to ignore or forget the result and the urge to win. Phil Jackson says, 'obsessing about winning is a loser's game.' The main reason he says, is that such a focus would lead to one losing control of one's emotions. He says, 'The most we can hope for is to create the best possible conditions for success, then let go of the outcome.' <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

                        The book has a lot more detailed examples including situations involving some of the high performers who were more self-centric and concerned with their own success and image, and how he was able to help them turn into more team players and mentors to other less experienced players.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Eleven Rings for a Scrum Master","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"eleven-rings-for-a-scrum-master","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 11:31:55","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 11:31:55","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=19967","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"2","filter":"raw"},{"ID":19891,"post_author":"15","post_date":"2022-04-17 19:37:10","post_date_gmt":"2022-04-17 14:07:10","post_content":"\n

                        Ever since Agile approaches became popular\nabout 15 to 20 years ago, Agile culture and mindset have been touted as the\nfoundation elements around which successful organizational transformation\nhappens. Peter Drucker\u2019s famous quote \u201cCulture eats strategy for breakfast\u201d points\nto the ineffectiveness of your strategy implementation if the company culture\ndoesn\u2019t support it. In the early years, not many organizations understood and\ninternalized the true Agile culture \/ philosophy, leading to many of them\nfailing in their Agile journey. This was helped in no small measure by the\nplethora of consultants, selling Agile as a methodology over philosophy. The\nfew successes that we had, though, led to the realization that \u201cbeing agile\u201d is\nsubstantially more important for succeeding with Agile than \u201cdoing agile\u201d. This\nessentially means implementing Agile in \u201cspirit\u201d and, we are seeing this trend\nwith many organizations today. The intent of this blog is to demystify a few\naspects relating to Agile mindset and culture, both from a team perspective, as\nwell as, from the perspective of leadership\/management.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                        What is Agile culture?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

                        Agile culture is an environment built\naround core values and principles with practices and behaviours aligned to\nthose values and principles. In today\u2019s business, this culture needs to address\nresponsiveness to customer and market needs in an extremely complex and\nuncertain environment. Essentially the organization\u2019s values and principles and\nthe related practices \/ behaviours should be reflective of this business\nneed.  For culture to be effective at the\nbusiness level, it needs to permeate through various organizational layers,\nstarting from the top. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

                        Agile culture in teams - Values, Principles and Practices<\/strong> Implementing a proper Agile culture in teams requires a good understanding of Agile values and principles and an appreciation of how these are linked to practices (and to associated behaviours). While Agile values are universal, they are also often too abstract. On the other hand, practices are ways of solving common problems and dilemmas, that we encounter in software development. Given the large perceived gap between these two, we use Principles to bridge this gap and help understand practices better. Values and Principles together guide us in adaptation and improvisation of practices, as part of our efforts to improve continuously. Let me take a couple of examples to illustrate this using the Agile Manifesto<\/a>, Principles<\/a>, Scrum Values<\/a> and XP Values and Principles<\/a>: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

                        \"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

                        From the above example, if you notice that\nthe practice of team members taking turns to provide updates (rather than each\none being prodded on by the SM) is an implementation of the principle of\naccepted responsibility (ownership). I am sure you can see a linkage of other\npractices to the values and principles that they align to. As mentioned before,\nyou can improvise on practices (such as, doing fun retrospectives, for example)\nwithout compromising on values and principles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                        In the above example, I have deliberately\nmixed values and principles from the Agile manifesto as well as specific Agile\napproaches such as Scrum \/ XP. From my own perspective, I have looked at the Agile\nManifesto as more of a position statement than a set of classical \u201cvalues\u201d -\nwhich is why approaches such as Scrum and XP expounded their own set of values.\nMost Agile approaches use the Agile manifesto as a broad guideline for their\nown specific recommendations and incorporate their own values and principles to\nsupport their practice recommendations (both management as well as technical\npractices). In my opinion, it is sensible to take such a hybrid approach to\nsupport your organization context. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

                        There is another factor to be considered \u2013\nAgile Manifesto and values and principles from other approaches are applicable\nto a software development context, which functions under a broad organizational\ncontext. The organization will have its own core values and philosophy stated from\na business perspective, and as a consequence, any Agile implementation has to\nbe aligned to and support this organizational context. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

                        Agile culture in leadership and\nmanagement<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

                        In the early days of Agile implementation,\nit was viewed largely as a bottom-up initiative focusing on delivery teams. The\npervasive nature of Agile as a culture change across all the layers of the\norganization was lost on senior leadership. \nThis introduces many internal conflicts. For example, when SMs see their\nmanager(s) practicing a directive style with them, while expecting them to be\nfacilitative with their own teams, they see a clear conflict of culture. In my\nexperience as a coach, I have personally seen managers track their teams\u2019\nburn-downs - which is clearly a team\u2019s responsibility to track for needed\nactions - wanting to know why they were looking bad, during a sprint execution.\nThis clearly goes against Principle 5 of the manifesto that says \u201cBuild\nprojects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and support\nthey need and trust them to get the job done\u201d. In essence, the Manager\u2019s role\nis to provide facilitative support to teams after providing them the big\npicture \/ vision \/ direction. Teams decide on how they will execute, and will approach\nyou as managers, only for unresolved blockers, or when they need support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                        From a leadership perspective as well, leadership practices should be based on similar values and principles to what we have discussed for teams. Some of these principles may include those relating to delegation\/empowerment, workforce diversity, freedom for experimentation, support for collaborative communities, emotional well-being of employees and so on. For those keen on an organizational perspective of Agile, would like to refer you to PM Power\u2019s recently released book \u201cThe Five Tantras of Enterprise Agility<\/a>\u201d. Incidentally, the book devotes an entire section (Book 3 within the book) to Transformational Leadership needed to succeed with Agile. <\/p>\n","post_title":"Agile Culture and Mindset - re-visited","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"agile-culture-and-mindset-re-visited","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 12:26:29","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 12:26:29","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=19891","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":19790,"post_author":"13","post_date":"2022-03-28 11:03:24","post_date_gmt":"2022-03-28 05:33:24","post_content":"\n

                        Piyush works as a Manager for a team of 20 people. He has been successfully running an IT team for the last 3 years. However, he has been constantly plagued by his people going on unplanned leaves. This has been happening for the last 8-9 months or so. It also came out in several retrospectives. However, there was no focused effort in solving the root problems. Whenever, there were unplanned leaves, the team leads would step up, they would spend night outs and would somehow make sure that the release would not get affected. And to encourage this trend, the Management would reward the Leads with \"Star of the Quarter\" or \"Team champion\" award, which would further encourage this trend. Unconsciously, the Manager was setting himself up for failure by encouraging this trend. When we dug the problem deeper, the following was what I observed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                        When I tried to dig deeper, while Piyush complained about the symptom of \u201cUnplanned Leaves\u201d, the main response from the team was that they were not getting the leaves when they asked for the same citing the amount of work that was there. The team members hardly contributed. The Leads and seniors were doing most of the heavy lifting. Even though, they were burnt out because of work , they still were getting necessary incentives both in terms of having a superior knowledge on the application that they did not want to give up. Eventually, even the seniors and leads were taking unplanned leaves mainly because they were also burnt out and partly because they knew that Piyush always had a soft corner for them. When the process of retrospective was put in place, the team explicitly stated that they did not receive a proper KT. That is one of the objectives of Retrospectives where the team can express itself freely. When Piyush heard the same, his solutioning was to reward the team leads and bail them out of the release pains rather than solving the root problem. The team also did not press too much because they were internally happy of not feeling much pressure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                        The problem is represented below in the table as a sequence of Drama Triangle roles. The subtext in parenthesis is ulterior and not expressed openly. Only when I dug deeper, I found it. (https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Karpman_drama_triangle)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                        \n Persecutor\n <\/td>\n Victim\n <\/td>\n Rescuer\n <\/td><\/tr>
                        \n Manager: There are too many unplanned Leaves\n <\/td> (Team: If we ask for a planned leave, we do not get it )<\/em><\/td> Leads\/Seniors: We will (cover for the team and )<\/em>ensure the release wouldn't suffer <\/td><\/tr>
                        (Team Leads: Let us also go on an unplanned leave. We are totally burned out. Why should only we suffer?)<\/em><\/td>Manager: Oh my god! how am I going to deliver this? Team, I need you to pull the weight this time.<\/td>Team: We will do our best (to get out of this situation. Provide some temporary fixes) <\/em><\/td><\/tr>
                        Team: We tried our best but we have never been given a proper KT. (I am rather happy that I do not have to take much pressure)<\/em><\/td> Team Leads: Despite all the efforts, we get to be blamed<\/td>Manager: Don't worry, I will make sure you get all the necessary rewards for the hard work (strike the deal with the team leads)<\/em><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

                        This is typically how the Drama Triangle works. And because the roles keep switching, it will keep the \"Game\" of the recurring problem alive. And all of this happens at an unconscious level. This also results in a negative feeling for everybody involved. Because, it happens at an unconscious level for all the players, they would also struggle to come out of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                        In order to break this pattern, there should be an active involvement of all the participants to solve the root problem and address the same. How would you solve this problem?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                        ...............................................................................................................................<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                        ...............................................................................................................................<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                        ...............................................................................................................................<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                        Here is how we solved the problem:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

                        Solution<\/strong>: The first thing I did was to bring this awareness of Drama Triangle among all the participants. I showed them how each of them are playing their part in keeping the game alive without their awareness. Since they were all playing this at an unconscious level, it is very difficult to come out unless someone can bring that awareness. They had not seen this problem in the lens of a Drama Triangle at all. This helped them break the resistances on solving the problem and see how they themselves contributed to solving this problem. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

                        The main issue was that the team members did not develop enough skills in their project. We found during the session that most of it could be addressed if the team was involved in the decision making, hold them accountable and if they can be helped in enhancing the skills. The team was given a lot more autonomy. They were involved in the planning meetings and their opinions and decisions were given more weightage. While a separate time was scoped out for KT, it was made sure that the team would start fronting all the work where as the team leads would play the supporting role. The team found the work lot more challenging, while the seniors played the role of mentors. As a result, the team started to learn not only the technical skills but also the Leadership skills to feel empowered. Gradually, there was a decrease in unplanned leaves as the team felt more empowered.<\/p>\n","post_title":"CHOW#287 - The Drama of \"Unplanned Leaves\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"chow287-the-drama-of-unplanned-leaves","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-23 08:29:34","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-23 08:29:34","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=19790","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":4},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

                        Page 4 of 12 1 … 3 4 5 … 12
                        \n

                        Associating people with their profile picture (or DP image), and not having a personal connection in the traditional way, felt uncomfortable to many of us. The lack of personal connect loomed large in our mind. But the flip side is, many feel secure behind their virtual facade and enjoy the freedom from judgement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                        May be remote collaboration lead to a more objective functioning of teams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                        If the newer technologies eliminate the inefficiencies of remote collaboration, may be we have a win win situation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                        With more and more automation and mechanization in manufacturing and agricultural sectors, human resource deployment will be more and more in the knowledge industry. And knowledge industry is going to leverage human resources, wherever they are available.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                        Covid has provided the fillip that the industry needed towards this move.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                        Gopal<\/a><\/p>\n","post_title":"Pandemic Positives!","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"pandemic-positives","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-24 07:57:17","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-24 07:57:17","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=20165","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"2","filter":"raw"},{"ID":19967,"post_author":"30","post_date":"2022-05-08 15:37:11","post_date_gmt":"2022-05-08 10:07:11","post_content":"\n

                        When I read the book 'Eleven Rings: The soul of success' by Phil Jackson and Hugh Delehanty<\/span><\/a> <\/span>, the legendary basketball coach, I could relate his 11 tips for leadership as good points for Scrum Masters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                        With eleven titles to his credit, helping the Chicago Bulls win six times and the LA Lakers win five times, Phil Jackson knows what it takes to build great teams and help them succeed \u2013 consistently!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                        In this book, he distils leadership styles and actions to eleven points.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                        We talk about a Scrum Masters role as a leadership role, something that can be successful by influence and not authority.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                          \n
                        1. Lead From the Inside Out<\/strong>

                          In the PM Power approach to leadership development, we combine the hard aspects as well as the soft aspects. An effective leader is one who can manage outside, by mastering inside. <\/span><\/p>

                          When one leads from inside out, the genuineness of conversations establishes true connections with people, and everyone starts to listen more to what you say. <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

                        2. Bench the Ego<\/strong>

                          Every action, it is said, has an equal and opposite reaction. <\/span><\/p>

                          This is true for leaders too. When some decisions are forced on people, there is invariably a tendency to resist, particularly if it involves change. <\/span><\/p>

                          As a Scrum Master, one needs to be able to quickly gain the consensus of the team. To do that the Scrum Master should also listen and create a safe environment for everyone to express themselves.<\/p> <\/li>\n\n\n\n

                        3. Let Each Player Discover His Own Destiny<\/strong>

                          Jackson says, \"I've always been interested in getting players to think for themselves so that they can make difficult decisions in the heat of battle.\" <\/span><\/p>

                          This translates into enabling safe spaces where each person can exhibit and share their courage, mutual respect, and resilience. <\/span><\/p>

                          This also encourages the team to go beyond narrowly defined set of duties and swarm as needed, to ensure team success.<\/p> <\/li>\n\n\n\n

                        4. The Road to Freedom is a Beautiful System<\/strong>

                          When each person in the team is actively aware of what the others are doing and where the team is moving, it enables smooth self-organization and collective ownership. The triangle system that is attributed to Phil Jackson, is a fitting example of having a common structure that is well understood, while providing a chance for creativity.<\/p> <\/li>\n\n\n\n

                        5. Turn the Mundane into the Sacred<\/strong>

                          Even for well knit teams, it is worthwhile to have some formality in terms of events [used to also be called ceremonies] that are also supported by team norms. <\/span><\/p>

                          What might otherwise be considered as a routine \u2013 say the daily standup \u2013 could become important points of sync up when infused with some formalism. Phil Jackson also introduced meditation practices for the team to help the players focus, unwind, and stay energetic. <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

                        6. One Breath = One Mind<\/strong>

                          A simple technique to get everyone aligned and in sync just before any significant event. Whether it is a crucial meeting, where consensus needs to be reached in time or the start of a release cycle, helping everyone spend some silent, reflective time together helps align the breathing, which is particularly useful in playing tandem, or like trapeze artists, when there are hand-offs to be executed as the project progresses <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

                        7. The Key to Success is Compassion<\/strong>

                          Helping the team understand and internalize the scrum value of respect for others, will lead to greater empathy for both the other team members as well as customers. That understanding will propel the team to go the extra mile when needed, to ensure that the promises to the users are always the highest priority. <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

                        8. Keep Your Eye on the Spirit, Not on the Scoreboard<\/strong>

                          This is the essential difference between DOING Agile and BEING Agile. Or not being obsessed only with some vanity metrics. When the core principles and the team values are always at the back of every thought and action, a team can focus on internalizing the values and principles of Agility. When the emphasis is to do it by the book, one may tend to be more worried about checking the boxes and ignore the outputs and outcomes. <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

                        9. Sometimes You Have to Pull Out the Big Stick<\/strong>

                          This is tricky to directly interpret for a Scrum Master, as the emphasis is usually to be a 'servant leader' who gets results through influence. This is usually true in an ideal world. Sometimes, a Scrum Master needs to be creative to highlight some issues within the team or with specific individuals, so that they can realize the impact of their action or inaction. <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

                        10. When in Doubt, Do Nothing<\/strong>

                          One of the key responsibilities of a Scrum Master if to remove impediments. This may not be quite simple at times. For an action-oriented person, it may be difficult to not do anything and observe the situation resolve itself. But, sometimes, it is best to not do anything. The triaging technique used by many teams \u2013 including emergency medical response teams \u2013 also suggests that in some situations, it is best to not do anything. This will come with experience. <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

                        11. Forget the Ring<\/strong>

                          This is also a point that is easier said than done. When one is so involved in the action, it is not easy to ignore or forget the result and the urge to win. Phil Jackson says, 'obsessing about winning is a loser's game.' The main reason he says, is that such a focus would lead to one losing control of one's emotions. He says, 'The most we can hope for is to create the best possible conditions for success, then let go of the outcome.' <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

                          The book has a lot more detailed examples including situations involving some of the high performers who were more self-centric and concerned with their own success and image, and how he was able to help them turn into more team players and mentors to other less experienced players.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Eleven Rings for a Scrum Master","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"eleven-rings-for-a-scrum-master","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 11:31:55","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 11:31:55","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=19967","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"2","filter":"raw"},{"ID":19891,"post_author":"15","post_date":"2022-04-17 19:37:10","post_date_gmt":"2022-04-17 14:07:10","post_content":"\n

                          Ever since Agile approaches became popular\nabout 15 to 20 years ago, Agile culture and mindset have been touted as the\nfoundation elements around which successful organizational transformation\nhappens. Peter Drucker\u2019s famous quote \u201cCulture eats strategy for breakfast\u201d points\nto the ineffectiveness of your strategy implementation if the company culture\ndoesn\u2019t support it. In the early years, not many organizations understood and\ninternalized the true Agile culture \/ philosophy, leading to many of them\nfailing in their Agile journey. This was helped in no small measure by the\nplethora of consultants, selling Agile as a methodology over philosophy. The\nfew successes that we had, though, led to the realization that \u201cbeing agile\u201d is\nsubstantially more important for succeeding with Agile than \u201cdoing agile\u201d. This\nessentially means implementing Agile in \u201cspirit\u201d and, we are seeing this trend\nwith many organizations today. The intent of this blog is to demystify a few\naspects relating to Agile mindset and culture, both from a team perspective, as\nwell as, from the perspective of leadership\/management.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                          What is Agile culture?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

                          Agile culture is an environment built\naround core values and principles with practices and behaviours aligned to\nthose values and principles. In today\u2019s business, this culture needs to address\nresponsiveness to customer and market needs in an extremely complex and\nuncertain environment. Essentially the organization\u2019s values and principles and\nthe related practices \/ behaviours should be reflective of this business\nneed.  For culture to be effective at the\nbusiness level, it needs to permeate through various organizational layers,\nstarting from the top. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

                          Agile culture in teams - Values, Principles and Practices<\/strong> Implementing a proper Agile culture in teams requires a good understanding of Agile values and principles and an appreciation of how these are linked to practices (and to associated behaviours). While Agile values are universal, they are also often too abstract. On the other hand, practices are ways of solving common problems and dilemmas, that we encounter in software development. Given the large perceived gap between these two, we use Principles to bridge this gap and help understand practices better. Values and Principles together guide us in adaptation and improvisation of practices, as part of our efforts to improve continuously. Let me take a couple of examples to illustrate this using the Agile Manifesto<\/a>, Principles<\/a>, Scrum Values<\/a> and XP Values and Principles<\/a>: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

                          \"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

                          From the above example, if you notice that\nthe practice of team members taking turns to provide updates (rather than each\none being prodded on by the SM) is an implementation of the principle of\naccepted responsibility (ownership). I am sure you can see a linkage of other\npractices to the values and principles that they align to. As mentioned before,\nyou can improvise on practices (such as, doing fun retrospectives, for example)\nwithout compromising on values and principles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                          In the above example, I have deliberately\nmixed values and principles from the Agile manifesto as well as specific Agile\napproaches such as Scrum \/ XP. From my own perspective, I have looked at the Agile\nManifesto as more of a position statement than a set of classical \u201cvalues\u201d -\nwhich is why approaches such as Scrum and XP expounded their own set of values.\nMost Agile approaches use the Agile manifesto as a broad guideline for their\nown specific recommendations and incorporate their own values and principles to\nsupport their practice recommendations (both management as well as technical\npractices). In my opinion, it is sensible to take such a hybrid approach to\nsupport your organization context. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

                          There is another factor to be considered \u2013\nAgile Manifesto and values and principles from other approaches are applicable\nto a software development context, which functions under a broad organizational\ncontext. The organization will have its own core values and philosophy stated from\na business perspective, and as a consequence, any Agile implementation has to\nbe aligned to and support this organizational context. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

                          Agile culture in leadership and\nmanagement<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

                          In the early days of Agile implementation,\nit was viewed largely as a bottom-up initiative focusing on delivery teams. The\npervasive nature of Agile as a culture change across all the layers of the\norganization was lost on senior leadership. \nThis introduces many internal conflicts. For example, when SMs see their\nmanager(s) practicing a directive style with them, while expecting them to be\nfacilitative with their own teams, they see a clear conflict of culture. In my\nexperience as a coach, I have personally seen managers track their teams\u2019\nburn-downs - which is clearly a team\u2019s responsibility to track for needed\nactions - wanting to know why they were looking bad, during a sprint execution.\nThis clearly goes against Principle 5 of the manifesto that says \u201cBuild\nprojects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and support\nthey need and trust them to get the job done\u201d. In essence, the Manager\u2019s role\nis to provide facilitative support to teams after providing them the big\npicture \/ vision \/ direction. Teams decide on how they will execute, and will approach\nyou as managers, only for unresolved blockers, or when they need support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                          From a leadership perspective as well, leadership practices should be based on similar values and principles to what we have discussed for teams. Some of these principles may include those relating to delegation\/empowerment, workforce diversity, freedom for experimentation, support for collaborative communities, emotional well-being of employees and so on. For those keen on an organizational perspective of Agile, would like to refer you to PM Power\u2019s recently released book \u201cThe Five Tantras of Enterprise Agility<\/a>\u201d. Incidentally, the book devotes an entire section (Book 3 within the book) to Transformational Leadership needed to succeed with Agile. <\/p>\n","post_title":"Agile Culture and Mindset - re-visited","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"agile-culture-and-mindset-re-visited","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 12:26:29","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 12:26:29","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=19891","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":19790,"post_author":"13","post_date":"2022-03-28 11:03:24","post_date_gmt":"2022-03-28 05:33:24","post_content":"\n

                          Piyush works as a Manager for a team of 20 people. He has been successfully running an IT team for the last 3 years. However, he has been constantly plagued by his people going on unplanned leaves. This has been happening for the last 8-9 months or so. It also came out in several retrospectives. However, there was no focused effort in solving the root problems. Whenever, there were unplanned leaves, the team leads would step up, they would spend night outs and would somehow make sure that the release would not get affected. And to encourage this trend, the Management would reward the Leads with \"Star of the Quarter\" or \"Team champion\" award, which would further encourage this trend. Unconsciously, the Manager was setting himself up for failure by encouraging this trend. When we dug the problem deeper, the following was what I observed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                          When I tried to dig deeper, while Piyush complained about the symptom of \u201cUnplanned Leaves\u201d, the main response from the team was that they were not getting the leaves when they asked for the same citing the amount of work that was there. The team members hardly contributed. The Leads and seniors were doing most of the heavy lifting. Even though, they were burnt out because of work , they still were getting necessary incentives both in terms of having a superior knowledge on the application that they did not want to give up. Eventually, even the seniors and leads were taking unplanned leaves mainly because they were also burnt out and partly because they knew that Piyush always had a soft corner for them. When the process of retrospective was put in place, the team explicitly stated that they did not receive a proper KT. That is one of the objectives of Retrospectives where the team can express itself freely. When Piyush heard the same, his solutioning was to reward the team leads and bail them out of the release pains rather than solving the root problem. The team also did not press too much because they were internally happy of not feeling much pressure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                          The problem is represented below in the table as a sequence of Drama Triangle roles. The subtext in parenthesis is ulterior and not expressed openly. Only when I dug deeper, I found it. (https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Karpman_drama_triangle)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                          \n Persecutor\n <\/td>\n Victim\n <\/td>\n Rescuer\n <\/td><\/tr>
                          \n Manager: There are too many unplanned Leaves\n <\/td> (Team: If we ask for a planned leave, we do not get it )<\/em><\/td> Leads\/Seniors: We will (cover for the team and )<\/em>ensure the release wouldn't suffer <\/td><\/tr>
                          (Team Leads: Let us also go on an unplanned leave. We are totally burned out. Why should only we suffer?)<\/em><\/td>Manager: Oh my god! how am I going to deliver this? Team, I need you to pull the weight this time.<\/td>Team: We will do our best (to get out of this situation. Provide some temporary fixes) <\/em><\/td><\/tr>
                          Team: We tried our best but we have never been given a proper KT. (I am rather happy that I do not have to take much pressure)<\/em><\/td> Team Leads: Despite all the efforts, we get to be blamed<\/td>Manager: Don't worry, I will make sure you get all the necessary rewards for the hard work (strike the deal with the team leads)<\/em><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

                          This is typically how the Drama Triangle works. And because the roles keep switching, it will keep the \"Game\" of the recurring problem alive. And all of this happens at an unconscious level. This also results in a negative feeling for everybody involved. Because, it happens at an unconscious level for all the players, they would also struggle to come out of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                          In order to break this pattern, there should be an active involvement of all the participants to solve the root problem and address the same. How would you solve this problem?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                          ...............................................................................................................................<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                          ...............................................................................................................................<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                          ...............................................................................................................................<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                          Here is how we solved the problem:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

                          Solution<\/strong>: The first thing I did was to bring this awareness of Drama Triangle among all the participants. I showed them how each of them are playing their part in keeping the game alive without their awareness. Since they were all playing this at an unconscious level, it is very difficult to come out unless someone can bring that awareness. They had not seen this problem in the lens of a Drama Triangle at all. This helped them break the resistances on solving the problem and see how they themselves contributed to solving this problem. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

                          The main issue was that the team members did not develop enough skills in their project. We found during the session that most of it could be addressed if the team was involved in the decision making, hold them accountable and if they can be helped in enhancing the skills. The team was given a lot more autonomy. They were involved in the planning meetings and their opinions and decisions were given more weightage. While a separate time was scoped out for KT, it was made sure that the team would start fronting all the work where as the team leads would play the supporting role. The team found the work lot more challenging, while the seniors played the role of mentors. As a result, the team started to learn not only the technical skills but also the Leadership skills to feel empowered. Gradually, there was a decrease in unplanned leaves as the team felt more empowered.<\/p>\n","post_title":"CHOW#287 - The Drama of \"Unplanned Leaves\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"chow287-the-drama-of-unplanned-leaves","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-23 08:29:34","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-23 08:29:34","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=19790","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":4},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

                          Page 4 of 12 1 … 3 4 5 … 12
                          \n

                          Secondly, being a minority of any kind in a team can be challenging. Many times, hidden biases play out. A quick glance from some co-participants can be unnerving for some. This aspect is completely eliminated in the virtual meetings. In remote working, people feel they are judged less for being different; and there is more focus on work related matters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                          Associating people with their profile picture (or DP image), and not having a personal connection in the traditional way, felt uncomfortable to many of us. The lack of personal connect loomed large in our mind. But the flip side is, many feel secure behind their virtual facade and enjoy the freedom from judgement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                          May be remote collaboration lead to a more objective functioning of teams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                          If the newer technologies eliminate the inefficiencies of remote collaboration, may be we have a win win situation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                          With more and more automation and mechanization in manufacturing and agricultural sectors, human resource deployment will be more and more in the knowledge industry. And knowledge industry is going to leverage human resources, wherever they are available.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                          Covid has provided the fillip that the industry needed towards this move.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                          Gopal<\/a><\/p>\n","post_title":"Pandemic Positives!","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"pandemic-positives","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-24 07:57:17","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-24 07:57:17","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=20165","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"2","filter":"raw"},{"ID":19967,"post_author":"30","post_date":"2022-05-08 15:37:11","post_date_gmt":"2022-05-08 10:07:11","post_content":"\n

                          When I read the book 'Eleven Rings: The soul of success' by Phil Jackson and Hugh Delehanty<\/span><\/a> <\/span>, the legendary basketball coach, I could relate his 11 tips for leadership as good points for Scrum Masters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                          With eleven titles to his credit, helping the Chicago Bulls win six times and the LA Lakers win five times, Phil Jackson knows what it takes to build great teams and help them succeed \u2013 consistently!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                          In this book, he distils leadership styles and actions to eleven points.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                          We talk about a Scrum Masters role as a leadership role, something that can be successful by influence and not authority.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                            \n
                          1. Lead From the Inside Out<\/strong>

                            In the PM Power approach to leadership development, we combine the hard aspects as well as the soft aspects. An effective leader is one who can manage outside, by mastering inside. <\/span><\/p>

                            When one leads from inside out, the genuineness of conversations establishes true connections with people, and everyone starts to listen more to what you say. <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

                          2. Bench the Ego<\/strong>

                            Every action, it is said, has an equal and opposite reaction. <\/span><\/p>

                            This is true for leaders too. When some decisions are forced on people, there is invariably a tendency to resist, particularly if it involves change. <\/span><\/p>

                            As a Scrum Master, one needs to be able to quickly gain the consensus of the team. To do that the Scrum Master should also listen and create a safe environment for everyone to express themselves.<\/p> <\/li>\n\n\n\n

                          3. Let Each Player Discover His Own Destiny<\/strong>

                            Jackson says, \"I've always been interested in getting players to think for themselves so that they can make difficult decisions in the heat of battle.\" <\/span><\/p>

                            This translates into enabling safe spaces where each person can exhibit and share their courage, mutual respect, and resilience. <\/span><\/p>

                            This also encourages the team to go beyond narrowly defined set of duties and swarm as needed, to ensure team success.<\/p> <\/li>\n\n\n\n

                          4. The Road to Freedom is a Beautiful System<\/strong>

                            When each person in the team is actively aware of what the others are doing and where the team is moving, it enables smooth self-organization and collective ownership. The triangle system that is attributed to Phil Jackson, is a fitting example of having a common structure that is well understood, while providing a chance for creativity.<\/p> <\/li>\n\n\n\n

                          5. Turn the Mundane into the Sacred<\/strong>

                            Even for well knit teams, it is worthwhile to have some formality in terms of events [used to also be called ceremonies] that are also supported by team norms. <\/span><\/p>

                            What might otherwise be considered as a routine \u2013 say the daily standup \u2013 could become important points of sync up when infused with some formalism. Phil Jackson also introduced meditation practices for the team to help the players focus, unwind, and stay energetic. <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

                          6. One Breath = One Mind<\/strong>

                            A simple technique to get everyone aligned and in sync just before any significant event. Whether it is a crucial meeting, where consensus needs to be reached in time or the start of a release cycle, helping everyone spend some silent, reflective time together helps align the breathing, which is particularly useful in playing tandem, or like trapeze artists, when there are hand-offs to be executed as the project progresses <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

                          7. The Key to Success is Compassion<\/strong>

                            Helping the team understand and internalize the scrum value of respect for others, will lead to greater empathy for both the other team members as well as customers. That understanding will propel the team to go the extra mile when needed, to ensure that the promises to the users are always the highest priority. <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

                          8. Keep Your Eye on the Spirit, Not on the Scoreboard<\/strong>

                            This is the essential difference between DOING Agile and BEING Agile. Or not being obsessed only with some vanity metrics. When the core principles and the team values are always at the back of every thought and action, a team can focus on internalizing the values and principles of Agility. When the emphasis is to do it by the book, one may tend to be more worried about checking the boxes and ignore the outputs and outcomes. <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

                          9. Sometimes You Have to Pull Out the Big Stick<\/strong>

                            This is tricky to directly interpret for a Scrum Master, as the emphasis is usually to be a 'servant leader' who gets results through influence. This is usually true in an ideal world. Sometimes, a Scrum Master needs to be creative to highlight some issues within the team or with specific individuals, so that they can realize the impact of their action or inaction. <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

                          10. When in Doubt, Do Nothing<\/strong>

                            One of the key responsibilities of a Scrum Master if to remove impediments. This may not be quite simple at times. For an action-oriented person, it may be difficult to not do anything and observe the situation resolve itself. But, sometimes, it is best to not do anything. The triaging technique used by many teams \u2013 including emergency medical response teams \u2013 also suggests that in some situations, it is best to not do anything. This will come with experience. <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

                          11. Forget the Ring<\/strong>

                            This is also a point that is easier said than done. When one is so involved in the action, it is not easy to ignore or forget the result and the urge to win. Phil Jackson says, 'obsessing about winning is a loser's game.' The main reason he says, is that such a focus would lead to one losing control of one's emotions. He says, 'The most we can hope for is to create the best possible conditions for success, then let go of the outcome.' <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

                            The book has a lot more detailed examples including situations involving some of the high performers who were more self-centric and concerned with their own success and image, and how he was able to help them turn into more team players and mentors to other less experienced players.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Eleven Rings for a Scrum Master","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"eleven-rings-for-a-scrum-master","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 11:31:55","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 11:31:55","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=19967","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"2","filter":"raw"},{"ID":19891,"post_author":"15","post_date":"2022-04-17 19:37:10","post_date_gmt":"2022-04-17 14:07:10","post_content":"\n

                            Ever since Agile approaches became popular\nabout 15 to 20 years ago, Agile culture and mindset have been touted as the\nfoundation elements around which successful organizational transformation\nhappens. Peter Drucker\u2019s famous quote \u201cCulture eats strategy for breakfast\u201d points\nto the ineffectiveness of your strategy implementation if the company culture\ndoesn\u2019t support it. In the early years, not many organizations understood and\ninternalized the true Agile culture \/ philosophy, leading to many of them\nfailing in their Agile journey. This was helped in no small measure by the\nplethora of consultants, selling Agile as a methodology over philosophy. The\nfew successes that we had, though, led to the realization that \u201cbeing agile\u201d is\nsubstantially more important for succeeding with Agile than \u201cdoing agile\u201d. This\nessentially means implementing Agile in \u201cspirit\u201d and, we are seeing this trend\nwith many organizations today. The intent of this blog is to demystify a few\naspects relating to Agile mindset and culture, both from a team perspective, as\nwell as, from the perspective of leadership\/management.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                            What is Agile culture?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

                            Agile culture is an environment built\naround core values and principles with practices and behaviours aligned to\nthose values and principles. In today\u2019s business, this culture needs to address\nresponsiveness to customer and market needs in an extremely complex and\nuncertain environment. Essentially the organization\u2019s values and principles and\nthe related practices \/ behaviours should be reflective of this business\nneed.  For culture to be effective at the\nbusiness level, it needs to permeate through various organizational layers,\nstarting from the top. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

                            Agile culture in teams - Values, Principles and Practices<\/strong> Implementing a proper Agile culture in teams requires a good understanding of Agile values and principles and an appreciation of how these are linked to practices (and to associated behaviours). While Agile values are universal, they are also often too abstract. On the other hand, practices are ways of solving common problems and dilemmas, that we encounter in software development. Given the large perceived gap between these two, we use Principles to bridge this gap and help understand practices better. Values and Principles together guide us in adaptation and improvisation of practices, as part of our efforts to improve continuously. Let me take a couple of examples to illustrate this using the Agile Manifesto<\/a>, Principles<\/a>, Scrum Values<\/a> and XP Values and Principles<\/a>: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

                            \"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

                            From the above example, if you notice that\nthe practice of team members taking turns to provide updates (rather than each\none being prodded on by the SM) is an implementation of the principle of\naccepted responsibility (ownership). I am sure you can see a linkage of other\npractices to the values and principles that they align to. As mentioned before,\nyou can improvise on practices (such as, doing fun retrospectives, for example)\nwithout compromising on values and principles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                            In the above example, I have deliberately\nmixed values and principles from the Agile manifesto as well as specific Agile\napproaches such as Scrum \/ XP. From my own perspective, I have looked at the Agile\nManifesto as more of a position statement than a set of classical \u201cvalues\u201d -\nwhich is why approaches such as Scrum and XP expounded their own set of values.\nMost Agile approaches use the Agile manifesto as a broad guideline for their\nown specific recommendations and incorporate their own values and principles to\nsupport their practice recommendations (both management as well as technical\npractices). In my opinion, it is sensible to take such a hybrid approach to\nsupport your organization context. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

                            There is another factor to be considered \u2013\nAgile Manifesto and values and principles from other approaches are applicable\nto a software development context, which functions under a broad organizational\ncontext. The organization will have its own core values and philosophy stated from\na business perspective, and as a consequence, any Agile implementation has to\nbe aligned to and support this organizational context. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

                            Agile culture in leadership and\nmanagement<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

                            In the early days of Agile implementation,\nit was viewed largely as a bottom-up initiative focusing on delivery teams. The\npervasive nature of Agile as a culture change across all the layers of the\norganization was lost on senior leadership. \nThis introduces many internal conflicts. For example, when SMs see their\nmanager(s) practicing a directive style with them, while expecting them to be\nfacilitative with their own teams, they see a clear conflict of culture. In my\nexperience as a coach, I have personally seen managers track their teams\u2019\nburn-downs - which is clearly a team\u2019s responsibility to track for needed\nactions - wanting to know why they were looking bad, during a sprint execution.\nThis clearly goes against Principle 5 of the manifesto that says \u201cBuild\nprojects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and support\nthey need and trust them to get the job done\u201d. In essence, the Manager\u2019s role\nis to provide facilitative support to teams after providing them the big\npicture \/ vision \/ direction. Teams decide on how they will execute, and will approach\nyou as managers, only for unresolved blockers, or when they need support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                            From a leadership perspective as well, leadership practices should be based on similar values and principles to what we have discussed for teams. Some of these principles may include those relating to delegation\/empowerment, workforce diversity, freedom for experimentation, support for collaborative communities, emotional well-being of employees and so on. For those keen on an organizational perspective of Agile, would like to refer you to PM Power\u2019s recently released book \u201cThe Five Tantras of Enterprise Agility<\/a>\u201d. Incidentally, the book devotes an entire section (Book 3 within the book) to Transformational Leadership needed to succeed with Agile. <\/p>\n","post_title":"Agile Culture and Mindset - re-visited","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"agile-culture-and-mindset-re-visited","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 12:26:29","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 12:26:29","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=19891","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":19790,"post_author":"13","post_date":"2022-03-28 11:03:24","post_date_gmt":"2022-03-28 05:33:24","post_content":"\n

                            Piyush works as a Manager for a team of 20 people. He has been successfully running an IT team for the last 3 years. However, he has been constantly plagued by his people going on unplanned leaves. This has been happening for the last 8-9 months or so. It also came out in several retrospectives. However, there was no focused effort in solving the root problems. Whenever, there were unplanned leaves, the team leads would step up, they would spend night outs and would somehow make sure that the release would not get affected. And to encourage this trend, the Management would reward the Leads with \"Star of the Quarter\" or \"Team champion\" award, which would further encourage this trend. Unconsciously, the Manager was setting himself up for failure by encouraging this trend. When we dug the problem deeper, the following was what I observed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                            When I tried to dig deeper, while Piyush complained about the symptom of \u201cUnplanned Leaves\u201d, the main response from the team was that they were not getting the leaves when they asked for the same citing the amount of work that was there. The team members hardly contributed. The Leads and seniors were doing most of the heavy lifting. Even though, they were burnt out because of work , they still were getting necessary incentives both in terms of having a superior knowledge on the application that they did not want to give up. Eventually, even the seniors and leads were taking unplanned leaves mainly because they were also burnt out and partly because they knew that Piyush always had a soft corner for them. When the process of retrospective was put in place, the team explicitly stated that they did not receive a proper KT. That is one of the objectives of Retrospectives where the team can express itself freely. When Piyush heard the same, his solutioning was to reward the team leads and bail them out of the release pains rather than solving the root problem. The team also did not press too much because they were internally happy of not feeling much pressure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                            The problem is represented below in the table as a sequence of Drama Triangle roles. The subtext in parenthesis is ulterior and not expressed openly. Only when I dug deeper, I found it. (https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Karpman_drama_triangle)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                            \n Persecutor\n <\/td>\n Victim\n <\/td>\n Rescuer\n <\/td><\/tr>
                            \n Manager: There are too many unplanned Leaves\n <\/td> (Team: If we ask for a planned leave, we do not get it )<\/em><\/td> Leads\/Seniors: We will (cover for the team and )<\/em>ensure the release wouldn't suffer <\/td><\/tr>
                            (Team Leads: Let us also go on an unplanned leave. We are totally burned out. Why should only we suffer?)<\/em><\/td>Manager: Oh my god! how am I going to deliver this? Team, I need you to pull the weight this time.<\/td>Team: We will do our best (to get out of this situation. Provide some temporary fixes) <\/em><\/td><\/tr>
                            Team: We tried our best but we have never been given a proper KT. (I am rather happy that I do not have to take much pressure)<\/em><\/td> Team Leads: Despite all the efforts, we get to be blamed<\/td>Manager: Don't worry, I will make sure you get all the necessary rewards for the hard work (strike the deal with the team leads)<\/em><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

                            This is typically how the Drama Triangle works. And because the roles keep switching, it will keep the \"Game\" of the recurring problem alive. And all of this happens at an unconscious level. This also results in a negative feeling for everybody involved. Because, it happens at an unconscious level for all the players, they would also struggle to come out of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                            In order to break this pattern, there should be an active involvement of all the participants to solve the root problem and address the same. How would you solve this problem?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                            ...............................................................................................................................<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                            ...............................................................................................................................<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                            ...............................................................................................................................<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                            Here is how we solved the problem:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

                            Solution<\/strong>: The first thing I did was to bring this awareness of Drama Triangle among all the participants. I showed them how each of them are playing their part in keeping the game alive without their awareness. Since they were all playing this at an unconscious level, it is very difficult to come out unless someone can bring that awareness. They had not seen this problem in the lens of a Drama Triangle at all. This helped them break the resistances on solving the problem and see how they themselves contributed to solving this problem. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

                            The main issue was that the team members did not develop enough skills in their project. We found during the session that most of it could be addressed if the team was involved in the decision making, hold them accountable and if they can be helped in enhancing the skills. The team was given a lot more autonomy. They were involved in the planning meetings and their opinions and decisions were given more weightage. While a separate time was scoped out for KT, it was made sure that the team would start fronting all the work where as the team leads would play the supporting role. The team found the work lot more challenging, while the seniors played the role of mentors. As a result, the team started to learn not only the technical skills but also the Leadership skills to feel empowered. Gradually, there was a decrease in unplanned leaves as the team felt more empowered.<\/p>\n","post_title":"CHOW#287 - The Drama of \"Unplanned Leaves\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"chow287-the-drama-of-unplanned-leaves","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-23 08:29:34","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-23 08:29:34","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=19790","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":4},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

                            Page 4 of 12 1 … 3 4 5 … 12
                            \n

                            People seem to feel more secure while working from home. Guess it is only to be expected that people feel safest while they are in their own territory - physical or otherwise. As a result, even while participating in virtual meetings, since the participants are in their respective homes, feel freer. Many find their voice in virtual meetings, whereas they would have just been quiet, if the meeting was physical and in the presence of others. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

                            Secondly, being a minority of any kind in a team can be challenging. Many times, hidden biases play out. A quick glance from some co-participants can be unnerving for some. This aspect is completely eliminated in the virtual meetings. In remote working, people feel they are judged less for being different; and there is more focus on work related matters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                            Associating people with their profile picture (or DP image), and not having a personal connection in the traditional way, felt uncomfortable to many of us. The lack of personal connect loomed large in our mind. But the flip side is, many feel secure behind their virtual facade and enjoy the freedom from judgement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                            May be remote collaboration lead to a more objective functioning of teams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                            If the newer technologies eliminate the inefficiencies of remote collaboration, may be we have a win win situation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                            With more and more automation and mechanization in manufacturing and agricultural sectors, human resource deployment will be more and more in the knowledge industry. And knowledge industry is going to leverage human resources, wherever they are available.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                            Covid has provided the fillip that the industry needed towards this move.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                            Gopal<\/a><\/p>\n","post_title":"Pandemic Positives!","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"pandemic-positives","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-24 07:57:17","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-24 07:57:17","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=20165","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"2","filter":"raw"},{"ID":19967,"post_author":"30","post_date":"2022-05-08 15:37:11","post_date_gmt":"2022-05-08 10:07:11","post_content":"\n

                            When I read the book 'Eleven Rings: The soul of success' by Phil Jackson and Hugh Delehanty<\/span><\/a> <\/span>, the legendary basketball coach, I could relate his 11 tips for leadership as good points for Scrum Masters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                            With eleven titles to his credit, helping the Chicago Bulls win six times and the LA Lakers win five times, Phil Jackson knows what it takes to build great teams and help them succeed \u2013 consistently!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                            In this book, he distils leadership styles and actions to eleven points.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                            We talk about a Scrum Masters role as a leadership role, something that can be successful by influence and not authority.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                              \n
                            1. Lead From the Inside Out<\/strong>

                              In the PM Power approach to leadership development, we combine the hard aspects as well as the soft aspects. An effective leader is one who can manage outside, by mastering inside. <\/span><\/p>

                              When one leads from inside out, the genuineness of conversations establishes true connections with people, and everyone starts to listen more to what you say. <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

                            2. Bench the Ego<\/strong>

                              Every action, it is said, has an equal and opposite reaction. <\/span><\/p>

                              This is true for leaders too. When some decisions are forced on people, there is invariably a tendency to resist, particularly if it involves change. <\/span><\/p>

                              As a Scrum Master, one needs to be able to quickly gain the consensus of the team. To do that the Scrum Master should also listen and create a safe environment for everyone to express themselves.<\/p> <\/li>\n\n\n\n

                            3. Let Each Player Discover His Own Destiny<\/strong>

                              Jackson says, \"I've always been interested in getting players to think for themselves so that they can make difficult decisions in the heat of battle.\" <\/span><\/p>

                              This translates into enabling safe spaces where each person can exhibit and share their courage, mutual respect, and resilience. <\/span><\/p>

                              This also encourages the team to go beyond narrowly defined set of duties and swarm as needed, to ensure team success.<\/p> <\/li>\n\n\n\n

                            4. The Road to Freedom is a Beautiful System<\/strong>

                              When each person in the team is actively aware of what the others are doing and where the team is moving, it enables smooth self-organization and collective ownership. The triangle system that is attributed to Phil Jackson, is a fitting example of having a common structure that is well understood, while providing a chance for creativity.<\/p> <\/li>\n\n\n\n

                            5. Turn the Mundane into the Sacred<\/strong>

                              Even for well knit teams, it is worthwhile to have some formality in terms of events [used to also be called ceremonies] that are also supported by team norms. <\/span><\/p>

                              What might otherwise be considered as a routine \u2013 say the daily standup \u2013 could become important points of sync up when infused with some formalism. Phil Jackson also introduced meditation practices for the team to help the players focus, unwind, and stay energetic. <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

                            6. One Breath = One Mind<\/strong>

                              A simple technique to get everyone aligned and in sync just before any significant event. Whether it is a crucial meeting, where consensus needs to be reached in time or the start of a release cycle, helping everyone spend some silent, reflective time together helps align the breathing, which is particularly useful in playing tandem, or like trapeze artists, when there are hand-offs to be executed as the project progresses <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

                            7. The Key to Success is Compassion<\/strong>

                              Helping the team understand and internalize the scrum value of respect for others, will lead to greater empathy for both the other team members as well as customers. That understanding will propel the team to go the extra mile when needed, to ensure that the promises to the users are always the highest priority. <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

                            8. Keep Your Eye on the Spirit, Not on the Scoreboard<\/strong>

                              This is the essential difference between DOING Agile and BEING Agile. Or not being obsessed only with some vanity metrics. When the core principles and the team values are always at the back of every thought and action, a team can focus on internalizing the values and principles of Agility. When the emphasis is to do it by the book, one may tend to be more worried about checking the boxes and ignore the outputs and outcomes. <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

                            9. Sometimes You Have to Pull Out the Big Stick<\/strong>

                              This is tricky to directly interpret for a Scrum Master, as the emphasis is usually to be a 'servant leader' who gets results through influence. This is usually true in an ideal world. Sometimes, a Scrum Master needs to be creative to highlight some issues within the team or with specific individuals, so that they can realize the impact of their action or inaction. <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

                            10. When in Doubt, Do Nothing<\/strong>

                              One of the key responsibilities of a Scrum Master if to remove impediments. This may not be quite simple at times. For an action-oriented person, it may be difficult to not do anything and observe the situation resolve itself. But, sometimes, it is best to not do anything. The triaging technique used by many teams \u2013 including emergency medical response teams \u2013 also suggests that in some situations, it is best to not do anything. This will come with experience. <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

                            11. Forget the Ring<\/strong>

                              This is also a point that is easier said than done. When one is so involved in the action, it is not easy to ignore or forget the result and the urge to win. Phil Jackson says, 'obsessing about winning is a loser's game.' The main reason he says, is that such a focus would lead to one losing control of one's emotions. He says, 'The most we can hope for is to create the best possible conditions for success, then let go of the outcome.' <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

                              The book has a lot more detailed examples including situations involving some of the high performers who were more self-centric and concerned with their own success and image, and how he was able to help them turn into more team players and mentors to other less experienced players.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Eleven Rings for a Scrum Master","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"eleven-rings-for-a-scrum-master","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 11:31:55","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 11:31:55","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=19967","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"2","filter":"raw"},{"ID":19891,"post_author":"15","post_date":"2022-04-17 19:37:10","post_date_gmt":"2022-04-17 14:07:10","post_content":"\n

                              Ever since Agile approaches became popular\nabout 15 to 20 years ago, Agile culture and mindset have been touted as the\nfoundation elements around which successful organizational transformation\nhappens. Peter Drucker\u2019s famous quote \u201cCulture eats strategy for breakfast\u201d points\nto the ineffectiveness of your strategy implementation if the company culture\ndoesn\u2019t support it. In the early years, not many organizations understood and\ninternalized the true Agile culture \/ philosophy, leading to many of them\nfailing in their Agile journey. This was helped in no small measure by the\nplethora of consultants, selling Agile as a methodology over philosophy. The\nfew successes that we had, though, led to the realization that \u201cbeing agile\u201d is\nsubstantially more important for succeeding with Agile than \u201cdoing agile\u201d. This\nessentially means implementing Agile in \u201cspirit\u201d and, we are seeing this trend\nwith many organizations today. The intent of this blog is to demystify a few\naspects relating to Agile mindset and culture, both from a team perspective, as\nwell as, from the perspective of leadership\/management.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                              What is Agile culture?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

                              Agile culture is an environment built\naround core values and principles with practices and behaviours aligned to\nthose values and principles. In today\u2019s business, this culture needs to address\nresponsiveness to customer and market needs in an extremely complex and\nuncertain environment. Essentially the organization\u2019s values and principles and\nthe related practices \/ behaviours should be reflective of this business\nneed.  For culture to be effective at the\nbusiness level, it needs to permeate through various organizational layers,\nstarting from the top. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

                              Agile culture in teams - Values, Principles and Practices<\/strong> Implementing a proper Agile culture in teams requires a good understanding of Agile values and principles and an appreciation of how these are linked to practices (and to associated behaviours). While Agile values are universal, they are also often too abstract. On the other hand, practices are ways of solving common problems and dilemmas, that we encounter in software development. Given the large perceived gap between these two, we use Principles to bridge this gap and help understand practices better. Values and Principles together guide us in adaptation and improvisation of practices, as part of our efforts to improve continuously. Let me take a couple of examples to illustrate this using the Agile Manifesto<\/a>, Principles<\/a>, Scrum Values<\/a> and XP Values and Principles<\/a>: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

                              \"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

                              From the above example, if you notice that\nthe practice of team members taking turns to provide updates (rather than each\none being prodded on by the SM) is an implementation of the principle of\naccepted responsibility (ownership). I am sure you can see a linkage of other\npractices to the values and principles that they align to. As mentioned before,\nyou can improvise on practices (such as, doing fun retrospectives, for example)\nwithout compromising on values and principles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                              In the above example, I have deliberately\nmixed values and principles from the Agile manifesto as well as specific Agile\napproaches such as Scrum \/ XP. From my own perspective, I have looked at the Agile\nManifesto as more of a position statement than a set of classical \u201cvalues\u201d -\nwhich is why approaches such as Scrum and XP expounded their own set of values.\nMost Agile approaches use the Agile manifesto as a broad guideline for their\nown specific recommendations and incorporate their own values and principles to\nsupport their practice recommendations (both management as well as technical\npractices). In my opinion, it is sensible to take such a hybrid approach to\nsupport your organization context. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

                              There is another factor to be considered \u2013\nAgile Manifesto and values and principles from other approaches are applicable\nto a software development context, which functions under a broad organizational\ncontext. The organization will have its own core values and philosophy stated from\na business perspective, and as a consequence, any Agile implementation has to\nbe aligned to and support this organizational context. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

                              Agile culture in leadership and\nmanagement<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

                              In the early days of Agile implementation,\nit was viewed largely as a bottom-up initiative focusing on delivery teams. The\npervasive nature of Agile as a culture change across all the layers of the\norganization was lost on senior leadership. \nThis introduces many internal conflicts. For example, when SMs see their\nmanager(s) practicing a directive style with them, while expecting them to be\nfacilitative with their own teams, they see a clear conflict of culture. In my\nexperience as a coach, I have personally seen managers track their teams\u2019\nburn-downs - which is clearly a team\u2019s responsibility to track for needed\nactions - wanting to know why they were looking bad, during a sprint execution.\nThis clearly goes against Principle 5 of the manifesto that says \u201cBuild\nprojects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and support\nthey need and trust them to get the job done\u201d. In essence, the Manager\u2019s role\nis to provide facilitative support to teams after providing them the big\npicture \/ vision \/ direction. Teams decide on how they will execute, and will approach\nyou as managers, only for unresolved blockers, or when they need support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                              From a leadership perspective as well, leadership practices should be based on similar values and principles to what we have discussed for teams. Some of these principles may include those relating to delegation\/empowerment, workforce diversity, freedom for experimentation, support for collaborative communities, emotional well-being of employees and so on. For those keen on an organizational perspective of Agile, would like to refer you to PM Power\u2019s recently released book \u201cThe Five Tantras of Enterprise Agility<\/a>\u201d. Incidentally, the book devotes an entire section (Book 3 within the book) to Transformational Leadership needed to succeed with Agile. <\/p>\n","post_title":"Agile Culture and Mindset - re-visited","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"agile-culture-and-mindset-re-visited","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 12:26:29","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 12:26:29","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=19891","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":19790,"post_author":"13","post_date":"2022-03-28 11:03:24","post_date_gmt":"2022-03-28 05:33:24","post_content":"\n

                              Piyush works as a Manager for a team of 20 people. He has been successfully running an IT team for the last 3 years. However, he has been constantly plagued by his people going on unplanned leaves. This has been happening for the last 8-9 months or so. It also came out in several retrospectives. However, there was no focused effort in solving the root problems. Whenever, there were unplanned leaves, the team leads would step up, they would spend night outs and would somehow make sure that the release would not get affected. And to encourage this trend, the Management would reward the Leads with \"Star of the Quarter\" or \"Team champion\" award, which would further encourage this trend. Unconsciously, the Manager was setting himself up for failure by encouraging this trend. When we dug the problem deeper, the following was what I observed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                              When I tried to dig deeper, while Piyush complained about the symptom of \u201cUnplanned Leaves\u201d, the main response from the team was that they were not getting the leaves when they asked for the same citing the amount of work that was there. The team members hardly contributed. The Leads and seniors were doing most of the heavy lifting. Even though, they were burnt out because of work , they still were getting necessary incentives both in terms of having a superior knowledge on the application that they did not want to give up. Eventually, even the seniors and leads were taking unplanned leaves mainly because they were also burnt out and partly because they knew that Piyush always had a soft corner for them. When the process of retrospective was put in place, the team explicitly stated that they did not receive a proper KT. That is one of the objectives of Retrospectives where the team can express itself freely. When Piyush heard the same, his solutioning was to reward the team leads and bail them out of the release pains rather than solving the root problem. The team also did not press too much because they were internally happy of not feeling much pressure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                              The problem is represented below in the table as a sequence of Drama Triangle roles. The subtext in parenthesis is ulterior and not expressed openly. Only when I dug deeper, I found it. (https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Karpman_drama_triangle)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                              \n Persecutor\n <\/td>\n Victim\n <\/td>\n Rescuer\n <\/td><\/tr>
                              \n Manager: There are too many unplanned Leaves\n <\/td> (Team: If we ask for a planned leave, we do not get it )<\/em><\/td> Leads\/Seniors: We will (cover for the team and )<\/em>ensure the release wouldn't suffer <\/td><\/tr>
                              (Team Leads: Let us also go on an unplanned leave. We are totally burned out. Why should only we suffer?)<\/em><\/td>Manager: Oh my god! how am I going to deliver this? Team, I need you to pull the weight this time.<\/td>Team: We will do our best (to get out of this situation. Provide some temporary fixes) <\/em><\/td><\/tr>
                              Team: We tried our best but we have never been given a proper KT. (I am rather happy that I do not have to take much pressure)<\/em><\/td> Team Leads: Despite all the efforts, we get to be blamed<\/td>Manager: Don't worry, I will make sure you get all the necessary rewards for the hard work (strike the deal with the team leads)<\/em><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

                              This is typically how the Drama Triangle works. And because the roles keep switching, it will keep the \"Game\" of the recurring problem alive. And all of this happens at an unconscious level. This also results in a negative feeling for everybody involved. Because, it happens at an unconscious level for all the players, they would also struggle to come out of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                              In order to break this pattern, there should be an active involvement of all the participants to solve the root problem and address the same. How would you solve this problem?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                              ...............................................................................................................................<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                              ...............................................................................................................................<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                              ...............................................................................................................................<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                              Here is how we solved the problem:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

                              Solution<\/strong>: The first thing I did was to bring this awareness of Drama Triangle among all the participants. I showed them how each of them are playing their part in keeping the game alive without their awareness. Since they were all playing this at an unconscious level, it is very difficult to come out unless someone can bring that awareness. They had not seen this problem in the lens of a Drama Triangle at all. This helped them break the resistances on solving the problem and see how they themselves contributed to solving this problem. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

                              The main issue was that the team members did not develop enough skills in their project. We found during the session that most of it could be addressed if the team was involved in the decision making, hold them accountable and if they can be helped in enhancing the skills. The team was given a lot more autonomy. They were involved in the planning meetings and their opinions and decisions were given more weightage. While a separate time was scoped out for KT, it was made sure that the team would start fronting all the work where as the team leads would play the supporting role. The team found the work lot more challenging, while the seniors played the role of mentors. As a result, the team started to learn not only the technical skills but also the Leadership skills to feel empowered. Gradually, there was a decrease in unplanned leaves as the team felt more empowered.<\/p>\n","post_title":"CHOW#287 - The Drama of \"Unplanned Leaves\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"chow287-the-drama-of-unplanned-leaves","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-23 08:29:34","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-23 08:29:34","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=19790","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":4},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

                              Page 4 of 12 1 … 3 4 5 … 12
                              \n

                              Enough discussions and articles have been shared in the net, about the difficulties and advantages of working remote. After reading many articles and talking to many people about the challenges and advantages of remote working, a strikingly strong point came out while talking to a couple of young developers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                              People seem to feel more secure while working from home. Guess it is only to be expected that people feel safest while they are in their own territory - physical or otherwise. As a result, even while participating in virtual meetings, since the participants are in their respective homes, feel freer. Many find their voice in virtual meetings, whereas they would have just been quiet, if the meeting was physical and in the presence of others. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

                              Secondly, being a minority of any kind in a team can be challenging. Many times, hidden biases play out. A quick glance from some co-participants can be unnerving for some. This aspect is completely eliminated in the virtual meetings. In remote working, people feel they are judged less for being different; and there is more focus on work related matters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                              Associating people with their profile picture (or DP image), and not having a personal connection in the traditional way, felt uncomfortable to many of us. The lack of personal connect loomed large in our mind. But the flip side is, many feel secure behind their virtual facade and enjoy the freedom from judgement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                              May be remote collaboration lead to a more objective functioning of teams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                              If the newer technologies eliminate the inefficiencies of remote collaboration, may be we have a win win situation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                              With more and more automation and mechanization in manufacturing and agricultural sectors, human resource deployment will be more and more in the knowledge industry. And knowledge industry is going to leverage human resources, wherever they are available.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                              Covid has provided the fillip that the industry needed towards this move.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                              Gopal<\/a><\/p>\n","post_title":"Pandemic Positives!","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"pandemic-positives","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-24 07:57:17","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-24 07:57:17","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=20165","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"2","filter":"raw"},{"ID":19967,"post_author":"30","post_date":"2022-05-08 15:37:11","post_date_gmt":"2022-05-08 10:07:11","post_content":"\n

                              When I read the book 'Eleven Rings: The soul of success' by Phil Jackson and Hugh Delehanty<\/span><\/a> <\/span>, the legendary basketball coach, I could relate his 11 tips for leadership as good points for Scrum Masters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                              With eleven titles to his credit, helping the Chicago Bulls win six times and the LA Lakers win five times, Phil Jackson knows what it takes to build great teams and help them succeed \u2013 consistently!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                              In this book, he distils leadership styles and actions to eleven points.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                              We talk about a Scrum Masters role as a leadership role, something that can be successful by influence and not authority.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                \n
                              1. Lead From the Inside Out<\/strong>

                                In the PM Power approach to leadership development, we combine the hard aspects as well as the soft aspects. An effective leader is one who can manage outside, by mastering inside. <\/span><\/p>

                                When one leads from inside out, the genuineness of conversations establishes true connections with people, and everyone starts to listen more to what you say. <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

                              2. Bench the Ego<\/strong>

                                Every action, it is said, has an equal and opposite reaction. <\/span><\/p>

                                This is true for leaders too. When some decisions are forced on people, there is invariably a tendency to resist, particularly if it involves change. <\/span><\/p>

                                As a Scrum Master, one needs to be able to quickly gain the consensus of the team. To do that the Scrum Master should also listen and create a safe environment for everyone to express themselves.<\/p> <\/li>\n\n\n\n

                              3. Let Each Player Discover His Own Destiny<\/strong>

                                Jackson says, \"I've always been interested in getting players to think for themselves so that they can make difficult decisions in the heat of battle.\" <\/span><\/p>

                                This translates into enabling safe spaces where each person can exhibit and share their courage, mutual respect, and resilience. <\/span><\/p>

                                This also encourages the team to go beyond narrowly defined set of duties and swarm as needed, to ensure team success.<\/p> <\/li>\n\n\n\n

                              4. The Road to Freedom is a Beautiful System<\/strong>

                                When each person in the team is actively aware of what the others are doing and where the team is moving, it enables smooth self-organization and collective ownership. The triangle system that is attributed to Phil Jackson, is a fitting example of having a common structure that is well understood, while providing a chance for creativity.<\/p> <\/li>\n\n\n\n

                              5. Turn the Mundane into the Sacred<\/strong>

                                Even for well knit teams, it is worthwhile to have some formality in terms of events [used to also be called ceremonies] that are also supported by team norms. <\/span><\/p>

                                What might otherwise be considered as a routine \u2013 say the daily standup \u2013 could become important points of sync up when infused with some formalism. Phil Jackson also introduced meditation practices for the team to help the players focus, unwind, and stay energetic. <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

                              6. One Breath = One Mind<\/strong>

                                A simple technique to get everyone aligned and in sync just before any significant event. Whether it is a crucial meeting, where consensus needs to be reached in time or the start of a release cycle, helping everyone spend some silent, reflective time together helps align the breathing, which is particularly useful in playing tandem, or like trapeze artists, when there are hand-offs to be executed as the project progresses <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

                              7. The Key to Success is Compassion<\/strong>

                                Helping the team understand and internalize the scrum value of respect for others, will lead to greater empathy for both the other team members as well as customers. That understanding will propel the team to go the extra mile when needed, to ensure that the promises to the users are always the highest priority. <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

                              8. Keep Your Eye on the Spirit, Not on the Scoreboard<\/strong>

                                This is the essential difference between DOING Agile and BEING Agile. Or not being obsessed only with some vanity metrics. When the core principles and the team values are always at the back of every thought and action, a team can focus on internalizing the values and principles of Agility. When the emphasis is to do it by the book, one may tend to be more worried about checking the boxes and ignore the outputs and outcomes. <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

                              9. Sometimes You Have to Pull Out the Big Stick<\/strong>

                                This is tricky to directly interpret for a Scrum Master, as the emphasis is usually to be a 'servant leader' who gets results through influence. This is usually true in an ideal world. Sometimes, a Scrum Master needs to be creative to highlight some issues within the team or with specific individuals, so that they can realize the impact of their action or inaction. <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

                              10. When in Doubt, Do Nothing<\/strong>

                                One of the key responsibilities of a Scrum Master if to remove impediments. This may not be quite simple at times. For an action-oriented person, it may be difficult to not do anything and observe the situation resolve itself. But, sometimes, it is best to not do anything. The triaging technique used by many teams \u2013 including emergency medical response teams \u2013 also suggests that in some situations, it is best to not do anything. This will come with experience. <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

                              11. Forget the Ring<\/strong>

                                This is also a point that is easier said than done. When one is so involved in the action, it is not easy to ignore or forget the result and the urge to win. Phil Jackson says, 'obsessing about winning is a loser's game.' The main reason he says, is that such a focus would lead to one losing control of one's emotions. He says, 'The most we can hope for is to create the best possible conditions for success, then let go of the outcome.' <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

                                The book has a lot more detailed examples including situations involving some of the high performers who were more self-centric and concerned with their own success and image, and how he was able to help them turn into more team players and mentors to other less experienced players.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Eleven Rings for a Scrum Master","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"eleven-rings-for-a-scrum-master","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 11:31:55","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 11:31:55","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=19967","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"2","filter":"raw"},{"ID":19891,"post_author":"15","post_date":"2022-04-17 19:37:10","post_date_gmt":"2022-04-17 14:07:10","post_content":"\n

                                Ever since Agile approaches became popular\nabout 15 to 20 years ago, Agile culture and mindset have been touted as the\nfoundation elements around which successful organizational transformation\nhappens. Peter Drucker\u2019s famous quote \u201cCulture eats strategy for breakfast\u201d points\nto the ineffectiveness of your strategy implementation if the company culture\ndoesn\u2019t support it. In the early years, not many organizations understood and\ninternalized the true Agile culture \/ philosophy, leading to many of them\nfailing in their Agile journey. This was helped in no small measure by the\nplethora of consultants, selling Agile as a methodology over philosophy. The\nfew successes that we had, though, led to the realization that \u201cbeing agile\u201d is\nsubstantially more important for succeeding with Agile than \u201cdoing agile\u201d. This\nessentially means implementing Agile in \u201cspirit\u201d and, we are seeing this trend\nwith many organizations today. The intent of this blog is to demystify a few\naspects relating to Agile mindset and culture, both from a team perspective, as\nwell as, from the perspective of leadership\/management.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                What is Agile culture?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                Agile culture is an environment built\naround core values and principles with practices and behaviours aligned to\nthose values and principles. In today\u2019s business, this culture needs to address\nresponsiveness to customer and market needs in an extremely complex and\nuncertain environment. Essentially the organization\u2019s values and principles and\nthe related practices \/ behaviours should be reflective of this business\nneed.  For culture to be effective at the\nbusiness level, it needs to permeate through various organizational layers,\nstarting from the top. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                Agile culture in teams - Values, Principles and Practices<\/strong> Implementing a proper Agile culture in teams requires a good understanding of Agile values and principles and an appreciation of how these are linked to practices (and to associated behaviours). While Agile values are universal, they are also often too abstract. On the other hand, practices are ways of solving common problems and dilemmas, that we encounter in software development. Given the large perceived gap between these two, we use Principles to bridge this gap and help understand practices better. Values and Principles together guide us in adaptation and improvisation of practices, as part of our efforts to improve continuously. Let me take a couple of examples to illustrate this using the Agile Manifesto<\/a>, Principles<\/a>, Scrum Values<\/a> and XP Values and Principles<\/a>: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                \"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

                                From the above example, if you notice that\nthe practice of team members taking turns to provide updates (rather than each\none being prodded on by the SM) is an implementation of the principle of\naccepted responsibility (ownership). I am sure you can see a linkage of other\npractices to the values and principles that they align to. As mentioned before,\nyou can improvise on practices (such as, doing fun retrospectives, for example)\nwithout compromising on values and principles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                In the above example, I have deliberately\nmixed values and principles from the Agile manifesto as well as specific Agile\napproaches such as Scrum \/ XP. From my own perspective, I have looked at the Agile\nManifesto as more of a position statement than a set of classical \u201cvalues\u201d -\nwhich is why approaches such as Scrum and XP expounded their own set of values.\nMost Agile approaches use the Agile manifesto as a broad guideline for their\nown specific recommendations and incorporate their own values and principles to\nsupport their practice recommendations (both management as well as technical\npractices). In my opinion, it is sensible to take such a hybrid approach to\nsupport your organization context. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                There is another factor to be considered \u2013\nAgile Manifesto and values and principles from other approaches are applicable\nto a software development context, which functions under a broad organizational\ncontext. The organization will have its own core values and philosophy stated from\na business perspective, and as a consequence, any Agile implementation has to\nbe aligned to and support this organizational context. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                Agile culture in leadership and\nmanagement<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                In the early days of Agile implementation,\nit was viewed largely as a bottom-up initiative focusing on delivery teams. The\npervasive nature of Agile as a culture change across all the layers of the\norganization was lost on senior leadership. \nThis introduces many internal conflicts. For example, when SMs see their\nmanager(s) practicing a directive style with them, while expecting them to be\nfacilitative with their own teams, they see a clear conflict of culture. In my\nexperience as a coach, I have personally seen managers track their teams\u2019\nburn-downs - which is clearly a team\u2019s responsibility to track for needed\nactions - wanting to know why they were looking bad, during a sprint execution.\nThis clearly goes against Principle 5 of the manifesto that says \u201cBuild\nprojects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and support\nthey need and trust them to get the job done\u201d. In essence, the Manager\u2019s role\nis to provide facilitative support to teams after providing them the big\npicture \/ vision \/ direction. Teams decide on how they will execute, and will approach\nyou as managers, only for unresolved blockers, or when they need support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                From a leadership perspective as well, leadership practices should be based on similar values and principles to what we have discussed for teams. Some of these principles may include those relating to delegation\/empowerment, workforce diversity, freedom for experimentation, support for collaborative communities, emotional well-being of employees and so on. For those keen on an organizational perspective of Agile, would like to refer you to PM Power\u2019s recently released book \u201cThe Five Tantras of Enterprise Agility<\/a>\u201d. Incidentally, the book devotes an entire section (Book 3 within the book) to Transformational Leadership needed to succeed with Agile. <\/p>\n","post_title":"Agile Culture and Mindset - re-visited","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"agile-culture-and-mindset-re-visited","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 12:26:29","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 12:26:29","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=19891","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":19790,"post_author":"13","post_date":"2022-03-28 11:03:24","post_date_gmt":"2022-03-28 05:33:24","post_content":"\n

                                Piyush works as a Manager for a team of 20 people. He has been successfully running an IT team for the last 3 years. However, he has been constantly plagued by his people going on unplanned leaves. This has been happening for the last 8-9 months or so. It also came out in several retrospectives. However, there was no focused effort in solving the root problems. Whenever, there were unplanned leaves, the team leads would step up, they would spend night outs and would somehow make sure that the release would not get affected. And to encourage this trend, the Management would reward the Leads with \"Star of the Quarter\" or \"Team champion\" award, which would further encourage this trend. Unconsciously, the Manager was setting himself up for failure by encouraging this trend. When we dug the problem deeper, the following was what I observed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                When I tried to dig deeper, while Piyush complained about the symptom of \u201cUnplanned Leaves\u201d, the main response from the team was that they were not getting the leaves when they asked for the same citing the amount of work that was there. The team members hardly contributed. The Leads and seniors were doing most of the heavy lifting. Even though, they were burnt out because of work , they still were getting necessary incentives both in terms of having a superior knowledge on the application that they did not want to give up. Eventually, even the seniors and leads were taking unplanned leaves mainly because they were also burnt out and partly because they knew that Piyush always had a soft corner for them. When the process of retrospective was put in place, the team explicitly stated that they did not receive a proper KT. That is one of the objectives of Retrospectives where the team can express itself freely. When Piyush heard the same, his solutioning was to reward the team leads and bail them out of the release pains rather than solving the root problem. The team also did not press too much because they were internally happy of not feeling much pressure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                The problem is represented below in the table as a sequence of Drama Triangle roles. The subtext in parenthesis is ulterior and not expressed openly. Only when I dug deeper, I found it. (https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Karpman_drama_triangle)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                \n Persecutor\n <\/td>\n Victim\n <\/td>\n Rescuer\n <\/td><\/tr>
                                \n Manager: There are too many unplanned Leaves\n <\/td> (Team: If we ask for a planned leave, we do not get it )<\/em><\/td> Leads\/Seniors: We will (cover for the team and )<\/em>ensure the release wouldn't suffer <\/td><\/tr>
                                (Team Leads: Let us also go on an unplanned leave. We are totally burned out. Why should only we suffer?)<\/em><\/td>Manager: Oh my god! how am I going to deliver this? Team, I need you to pull the weight this time.<\/td>Team: We will do our best (to get out of this situation. Provide some temporary fixes) <\/em><\/td><\/tr>
                                Team: We tried our best but we have never been given a proper KT. (I am rather happy that I do not have to take much pressure)<\/em><\/td> Team Leads: Despite all the efforts, we get to be blamed<\/td>Manager: Don't worry, I will make sure you get all the necessary rewards for the hard work (strike the deal with the team leads)<\/em><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

                                This is typically how the Drama Triangle works. And because the roles keep switching, it will keep the \"Game\" of the recurring problem alive. And all of this happens at an unconscious level. This also results in a negative feeling for everybody involved. Because, it happens at an unconscious level for all the players, they would also struggle to come out of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                In order to break this pattern, there should be an active involvement of all the participants to solve the root problem and address the same. How would you solve this problem?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                ...............................................................................................................................<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                ...............................................................................................................................<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                ...............................................................................................................................<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                Here is how we solved the problem:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                Solution<\/strong>: The first thing I did was to bring this awareness of Drama Triangle among all the participants. I showed them how each of them are playing their part in keeping the game alive without their awareness. Since they were all playing this at an unconscious level, it is very difficult to come out unless someone can bring that awareness. They had not seen this problem in the lens of a Drama Triangle at all. This helped them break the resistances on solving the problem and see how they themselves contributed to solving this problem. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                The main issue was that the team members did not develop enough skills in their project. We found during the session that most of it could be addressed if the team was involved in the decision making, hold them accountable and if they can be helped in enhancing the skills. The team was given a lot more autonomy. They were involved in the planning meetings and their opinions and decisions were given more weightage. While a separate time was scoped out for KT, it was made sure that the team would start fronting all the work where as the team leads would play the supporting role. The team found the work lot more challenging, while the seniors played the role of mentors. As a result, the team started to learn not only the technical skills but also the Leadership skills to feel empowered. Gradually, there was a decrease in unplanned leaves as the team felt more empowered.<\/p>\n","post_title":"CHOW#287 - The Drama of \"Unplanned Leaves\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"chow287-the-drama-of-unplanned-leaves","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-23 08:29:34","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-23 08:29:34","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=19790","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":4},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

                                Page 4 of 12 1 … 3 4 5 … 12
                                \n

                                Many technologies are evolving to enhance the ease of working remote. Many systems are being developed to support remote collaboration. We need to see how the emotional aspect of human collaboration is going to play out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                Enough discussions and articles have been shared in the net, about the difficulties and advantages of working remote. After reading many articles and talking to many people about the challenges and advantages of remote working, a strikingly strong point came out while talking to a couple of young developers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                People seem to feel more secure while working from home. Guess it is only to be expected that people feel safest while they are in their own territory - physical or otherwise. As a result, even while participating in virtual meetings, since the participants are in their respective homes, feel freer. Many find their voice in virtual meetings, whereas they would have just been quiet, if the meeting was physical and in the presence of others. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                Secondly, being a minority of any kind in a team can be challenging. Many times, hidden biases play out. A quick glance from some co-participants can be unnerving for some. This aspect is completely eliminated in the virtual meetings. In remote working, people feel they are judged less for being different; and there is more focus on work related matters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                Associating people with their profile picture (or DP image), and not having a personal connection in the traditional way, felt uncomfortable to many of us. The lack of personal connect loomed large in our mind. But the flip side is, many feel secure behind their virtual facade and enjoy the freedom from judgement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                May be remote collaboration lead to a more objective functioning of teams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                If the newer technologies eliminate the inefficiencies of remote collaboration, may be we have a win win situation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                With more and more automation and mechanization in manufacturing and agricultural sectors, human resource deployment will be more and more in the knowledge industry. And knowledge industry is going to leverage human resources, wherever they are available.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                Covid has provided the fillip that the industry needed towards this move.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                Gopal<\/a><\/p>\n","post_title":"Pandemic Positives!","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"pandemic-positives","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-24 07:57:17","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-24 07:57:17","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=20165","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"2","filter":"raw"},{"ID":19967,"post_author":"30","post_date":"2022-05-08 15:37:11","post_date_gmt":"2022-05-08 10:07:11","post_content":"\n

                                When I read the book 'Eleven Rings: The soul of success' by Phil Jackson and Hugh Delehanty<\/span><\/a> <\/span>, the legendary basketball coach, I could relate his 11 tips for leadership as good points for Scrum Masters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                With eleven titles to his credit, helping the Chicago Bulls win six times and the LA Lakers win five times, Phil Jackson knows what it takes to build great teams and help them succeed \u2013 consistently!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                In this book, he distils leadership styles and actions to eleven points.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                We talk about a Scrum Masters role as a leadership role, something that can be successful by influence and not authority.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                  \n
                                1. Lead From the Inside Out<\/strong>

                                  In the PM Power approach to leadership development, we combine the hard aspects as well as the soft aspects. An effective leader is one who can manage outside, by mastering inside. <\/span><\/p>

                                  When one leads from inside out, the genuineness of conversations establishes true connections with people, and everyone starts to listen more to what you say. <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

                                2. Bench the Ego<\/strong>

                                  Every action, it is said, has an equal and opposite reaction. <\/span><\/p>

                                  This is true for leaders too. When some decisions are forced on people, there is invariably a tendency to resist, particularly if it involves change. <\/span><\/p>

                                  As a Scrum Master, one needs to be able to quickly gain the consensus of the team. To do that the Scrum Master should also listen and create a safe environment for everyone to express themselves.<\/p> <\/li>\n\n\n\n

                                3. Let Each Player Discover His Own Destiny<\/strong>

                                  Jackson says, \"I've always been interested in getting players to think for themselves so that they can make difficult decisions in the heat of battle.\" <\/span><\/p>

                                  This translates into enabling safe spaces where each person can exhibit and share their courage, mutual respect, and resilience. <\/span><\/p>

                                  This also encourages the team to go beyond narrowly defined set of duties and swarm as needed, to ensure team success.<\/p> <\/li>\n\n\n\n

                                4. The Road to Freedom is a Beautiful System<\/strong>

                                  When each person in the team is actively aware of what the others are doing and where the team is moving, it enables smooth self-organization and collective ownership. The triangle system that is attributed to Phil Jackson, is a fitting example of having a common structure that is well understood, while providing a chance for creativity.<\/p> <\/li>\n\n\n\n

                                5. Turn the Mundane into the Sacred<\/strong>

                                  Even for well knit teams, it is worthwhile to have some formality in terms of events [used to also be called ceremonies] that are also supported by team norms. <\/span><\/p>

                                  What might otherwise be considered as a routine \u2013 say the daily standup \u2013 could become important points of sync up when infused with some formalism. Phil Jackson also introduced meditation practices for the team to help the players focus, unwind, and stay energetic. <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

                                6. One Breath = One Mind<\/strong>

                                  A simple technique to get everyone aligned and in sync just before any significant event. Whether it is a crucial meeting, where consensus needs to be reached in time or the start of a release cycle, helping everyone spend some silent, reflective time together helps align the breathing, which is particularly useful in playing tandem, or like trapeze artists, when there are hand-offs to be executed as the project progresses <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

                                7. The Key to Success is Compassion<\/strong>

                                  Helping the team understand and internalize the scrum value of respect for others, will lead to greater empathy for both the other team members as well as customers. That understanding will propel the team to go the extra mile when needed, to ensure that the promises to the users are always the highest priority. <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

                                8. Keep Your Eye on the Spirit, Not on the Scoreboard<\/strong>

                                  This is the essential difference between DOING Agile and BEING Agile. Or not being obsessed only with some vanity metrics. When the core principles and the team values are always at the back of every thought and action, a team can focus on internalizing the values and principles of Agility. When the emphasis is to do it by the book, one may tend to be more worried about checking the boxes and ignore the outputs and outcomes. <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

                                9. Sometimes You Have to Pull Out the Big Stick<\/strong>

                                  This is tricky to directly interpret for a Scrum Master, as the emphasis is usually to be a 'servant leader' who gets results through influence. This is usually true in an ideal world. Sometimes, a Scrum Master needs to be creative to highlight some issues within the team or with specific individuals, so that they can realize the impact of their action or inaction. <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

                                10. When in Doubt, Do Nothing<\/strong>

                                  One of the key responsibilities of a Scrum Master if to remove impediments. This may not be quite simple at times. For an action-oriented person, it may be difficult to not do anything and observe the situation resolve itself. But, sometimes, it is best to not do anything. The triaging technique used by many teams \u2013 including emergency medical response teams \u2013 also suggests that in some situations, it is best to not do anything. This will come with experience. <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

                                11. Forget the Ring<\/strong>

                                  This is also a point that is easier said than done. When one is so involved in the action, it is not easy to ignore or forget the result and the urge to win. Phil Jackson says, 'obsessing about winning is a loser's game.' The main reason he says, is that such a focus would lead to one losing control of one's emotions. He says, 'The most we can hope for is to create the best possible conditions for success, then let go of the outcome.' <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

                                  The book has a lot more detailed examples including situations involving some of the high performers who were more self-centric and concerned with their own success and image, and how he was able to help them turn into more team players and mentors to other less experienced players.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Eleven Rings for a Scrum Master","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"eleven-rings-for-a-scrum-master","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 11:31:55","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 11:31:55","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=19967","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"2","filter":"raw"},{"ID":19891,"post_author":"15","post_date":"2022-04-17 19:37:10","post_date_gmt":"2022-04-17 14:07:10","post_content":"\n

                                  Ever since Agile approaches became popular\nabout 15 to 20 years ago, Agile culture and mindset have been touted as the\nfoundation elements around which successful organizational transformation\nhappens. Peter Drucker\u2019s famous quote \u201cCulture eats strategy for breakfast\u201d points\nto the ineffectiveness of your strategy implementation if the company culture\ndoesn\u2019t support it. In the early years, not many organizations understood and\ninternalized the true Agile culture \/ philosophy, leading to many of them\nfailing in their Agile journey. This was helped in no small measure by the\nplethora of consultants, selling Agile as a methodology over philosophy. The\nfew successes that we had, though, led to the realization that \u201cbeing agile\u201d is\nsubstantially more important for succeeding with Agile than \u201cdoing agile\u201d. This\nessentially means implementing Agile in \u201cspirit\u201d and, we are seeing this trend\nwith many organizations today. The intent of this blog is to demystify a few\naspects relating to Agile mindset and culture, both from a team perspective, as\nwell as, from the perspective of leadership\/management.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                  What is Agile culture?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                  Agile culture is an environment built\naround core values and principles with practices and behaviours aligned to\nthose values and principles. In today\u2019s business, this culture needs to address\nresponsiveness to customer and market needs in an extremely complex and\nuncertain environment. Essentially the organization\u2019s values and principles and\nthe related practices \/ behaviours should be reflective of this business\nneed.  For culture to be effective at the\nbusiness level, it needs to permeate through various organizational layers,\nstarting from the top. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                  Agile culture in teams - Values, Principles and Practices<\/strong> Implementing a proper Agile culture in teams requires a good understanding of Agile values and principles and an appreciation of how these are linked to practices (and to associated behaviours). While Agile values are universal, they are also often too abstract. On the other hand, practices are ways of solving common problems and dilemmas, that we encounter in software development. Given the large perceived gap between these two, we use Principles to bridge this gap and help understand practices better. Values and Principles together guide us in adaptation and improvisation of practices, as part of our efforts to improve continuously. Let me take a couple of examples to illustrate this using the Agile Manifesto<\/a>, Principles<\/a>, Scrum Values<\/a> and XP Values and Principles<\/a>: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                  \"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

                                  From the above example, if you notice that\nthe practice of team members taking turns to provide updates (rather than each\none being prodded on by the SM) is an implementation of the principle of\naccepted responsibility (ownership). I am sure you can see a linkage of other\npractices to the values and principles that they align to. As mentioned before,\nyou can improvise on practices (such as, doing fun retrospectives, for example)\nwithout compromising on values and principles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                  In the above example, I have deliberately\nmixed values and principles from the Agile manifesto as well as specific Agile\napproaches such as Scrum \/ XP. From my own perspective, I have looked at the Agile\nManifesto as more of a position statement than a set of classical \u201cvalues\u201d -\nwhich is why approaches such as Scrum and XP expounded their own set of values.\nMost Agile approaches use the Agile manifesto as a broad guideline for their\nown specific recommendations and incorporate their own values and principles to\nsupport their practice recommendations (both management as well as technical\npractices). In my opinion, it is sensible to take such a hybrid approach to\nsupport your organization context. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                  There is another factor to be considered \u2013\nAgile Manifesto and values and principles from other approaches are applicable\nto a software development context, which functions under a broad organizational\ncontext. The organization will have its own core values and philosophy stated from\na business perspective, and as a consequence, any Agile implementation has to\nbe aligned to and support this organizational context. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                  Agile culture in leadership and\nmanagement<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                  In the early days of Agile implementation,\nit was viewed largely as a bottom-up initiative focusing on delivery teams. The\npervasive nature of Agile as a culture change across all the layers of the\norganization was lost on senior leadership. \nThis introduces many internal conflicts. For example, when SMs see their\nmanager(s) practicing a directive style with them, while expecting them to be\nfacilitative with their own teams, they see a clear conflict of culture. In my\nexperience as a coach, I have personally seen managers track their teams\u2019\nburn-downs - which is clearly a team\u2019s responsibility to track for needed\nactions - wanting to know why they were looking bad, during a sprint execution.\nThis clearly goes against Principle 5 of the manifesto that says \u201cBuild\nprojects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and support\nthey need and trust them to get the job done\u201d. In essence, the Manager\u2019s role\nis to provide facilitative support to teams after providing them the big\npicture \/ vision \/ direction. Teams decide on how they will execute, and will approach\nyou as managers, only for unresolved blockers, or when they need support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                  From a leadership perspective as well, leadership practices should be based on similar values and principles to what we have discussed for teams. Some of these principles may include those relating to delegation\/empowerment, workforce diversity, freedom for experimentation, support for collaborative communities, emotional well-being of employees and so on. For those keen on an organizational perspective of Agile, would like to refer you to PM Power\u2019s recently released book \u201cThe Five Tantras of Enterprise Agility<\/a>\u201d. Incidentally, the book devotes an entire section (Book 3 within the book) to Transformational Leadership needed to succeed with Agile. <\/p>\n","post_title":"Agile Culture and Mindset - re-visited","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"agile-culture-and-mindset-re-visited","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 12:26:29","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 12:26:29","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=19891","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":19790,"post_author":"13","post_date":"2022-03-28 11:03:24","post_date_gmt":"2022-03-28 05:33:24","post_content":"\n

                                  Piyush works as a Manager for a team of 20 people. He has been successfully running an IT team for the last 3 years. However, he has been constantly plagued by his people going on unplanned leaves. This has been happening for the last 8-9 months or so. It also came out in several retrospectives. However, there was no focused effort in solving the root problems. Whenever, there were unplanned leaves, the team leads would step up, they would spend night outs and would somehow make sure that the release would not get affected. And to encourage this trend, the Management would reward the Leads with \"Star of the Quarter\" or \"Team champion\" award, which would further encourage this trend. Unconsciously, the Manager was setting himself up for failure by encouraging this trend. When we dug the problem deeper, the following was what I observed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                  When I tried to dig deeper, while Piyush complained about the symptom of \u201cUnplanned Leaves\u201d, the main response from the team was that they were not getting the leaves when they asked for the same citing the amount of work that was there. The team members hardly contributed. The Leads and seniors were doing most of the heavy lifting. Even though, they were burnt out because of work , they still were getting necessary incentives both in terms of having a superior knowledge on the application that they did not want to give up. Eventually, even the seniors and leads were taking unplanned leaves mainly because they were also burnt out and partly because they knew that Piyush always had a soft corner for them. When the process of retrospective was put in place, the team explicitly stated that they did not receive a proper KT. That is one of the objectives of Retrospectives where the team can express itself freely. When Piyush heard the same, his solutioning was to reward the team leads and bail them out of the release pains rather than solving the root problem. The team also did not press too much because they were internally happy of not feeling much pressure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                  The problem is represented below in the table as a sequence of Drama Triangle roles. The subtext in parenthesis is ulterior and not expressed openly. Only when I dug deeper, I found it. (https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Karpman_drama_triangle)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                  \n Persecutor\n <\/td>\n Victim\n <\/td>\n Rescuer\n <\/td><\/tr>
                                  \n Manager: There are too many unplanned Leaves\n <\/td> (Team: If we ask for a planned leave, we do not get it )<\/em><\/td> Leads\/Seniors: We will (cover for the team and )<\/em>ensure the release wouldn't suffer <\/td><\/tr>
                                  (Team Leads: Let us also go on an unplanned leave. We are totally burned out. Why should only we suffer?)<\/em><\/td>Manager: Oh my god! how am I going to deliver this? Team, I need you to pull the weight this time.<\/td>Team: We will do our best (to get out of this situation. Provide some temporary fixes) <\/em><\/td><\/tr>
                                  Team: We tried our best but we have never been given a proper KT. (I am rather happy that I do not have to take much pressure)<\/em><\/td> Team Leads: Despite all the efforts, we get to be blamed<\/td>Manager: Don't worry, I will make sure you get all the necessary rewards for the hard work (strike the deal with the team leads)<\/em><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

                                  This is typically how the Drama Triangle works. And because the roles keep switching, it will keep the \"Game\" of the recurring problem alive. And all of this happens at an unconscious level. This also results in a negative feeling for everybody involved. Because, it happens at an unconscious level for all the players, they would also struggle to come out of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                  In order to break this pattern, there should be an active involvement of all the participants to solve the root problem and address the same. How would you solve this problem?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                  ...............................................................................................................................<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                  ...............................................................................................................................<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                  ...............................................................................................................................<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                  Here is how we solved the problem:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                  Solution<\/strong>: The first thing I did was to bring this awareness of Drama Triangle among all the participants. I showed them how each of them are playing their part in keeping the game alive without their awareness. Since they were all playing this at an unconscious level, it is very difficult to come out unless someone can bring that awareness. They had not seen this problem in the lens of a Drama Triangle at all. This helped them break the resistances on solving the problem and see how they themselves contributed to solving this problem. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                  The main issue was that the team members did not develop enough skills in their project. We found during the session that most of it could be addressed if the team was involved in the decision making, hold them accountable and if they can be helped in enhancing the skills. The team was given a lot more autonomy. They were involved in the planning meetings and their opinions and decisions were given more weightage. While a separate time was scoped out for KT, it was made sure that the team would start fronting all the work where as the team leads would play the supporting role. The team found the work lot more challenging, while the seniors played the role of mentors. As a result, the team started to learn not only the technical skills but also the Leadership skills to feel empowered. Gradually, there was a decrease in unplanned leaves as the team felt more empowered.<\/p>\n","post_title":"CHOW#287 - The Drama of \"Unplanned Leaves\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"chow287-the-drama-of-unplanned-leaves","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-23 08:29:34","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-23 08:29:34","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=19790","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":4},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

                                  Page 4 of 12 1 … 3 4 5 … 12
                                  \n

                                  Most companies have been compelled to provide the WFH option. Providing flexibility to each employee, to choose the work location, is becoming the norm. Even industries that were thought to be unfit for remote work, are finding ways to provide workplace flexibility to most, if not all employees. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                  Many technologies are evolving to enhance the ease of working remote. Many systems are being developed to support remote collaboration. We need to see how the emotional aspect of human collaboration is going to play out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                  Enough discussions and articles have been shared in the net, about the difficulties and advantages of working remote. After reading many articles and talking to many people about the challenges and advantages of remote working, a strikingly strong point came out while talking to a couple of young developers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                  People seem to feel more secure while working from home. Guess it is only to be expected that people feel safest while they are in their own territory - physical or otherwise. As a result, even while participating in virtual meetings, since the participants are in their respective homes, feel freer. Many find their voice in virtual meetings, whereas they would have just been quiet, if the meeting was physical and in the presence of others. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                  Secondly, being a minority of any kind in a team can be challenging. Many times, hidden biases play out. A quick glance from some co-participants can be unnerving for some. This aspect is completely eliminated in the virtual meetings. In remote working, people feel they are judged less for being different; and there is more focus on work related matters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                  Associating people with their profile picture (or DP image), and not having a personal connection in the traditional way, felt uncomfortable to many of us. The lack of personal connect loomed large in our mind. But the flip side is, many feel secure behind their virtual facade and enjoy the freedom from judgement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                  May be remote collaboration lead to a more objective functioning of teams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                  If the newer technologies eliminate the inefficiencies of remote collaboration, may be we have a win win situation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                  With more and more automation and mechanization in manufacturing and agricultural sectors, human resource deployment will be more and more in the knowledge industry. And knowledge industry is going to leverage human resources, wherever they are available.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                  Covid has provided the fillip that the industry needed towards this move.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                  Gopal<\/a><\/p>\n","post_title":"Pandemic Positives!","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"pandemic-positives","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-24 07:57:17","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-24 07:57:17","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=20165","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"2","filter":"raw"},{"ID":19967,"post_author":"30","post_date":"2022-05-08 15:37:11","post_date_gmt":"2022-05-08 10:07:11","post_content":"\n

                                  When I read the book 'Eleven Rings: The soul of success' by Phil Jackson and Hugh Delehanty<\/span><\/a> <\/span>, the legendary basketball coach, I could relate his 11 tips for leadership as good points for Scrum Masters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                  With eleven titles to his credit, helping the Chicago Bulls win six times and the LA Lakers win five times, Phil Jackson knows what it takes to build great teams and help them succeed \u2013 consistently!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                  In this book, he distils leadership styles and actions to eleven points.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                  We talk about a Scrum Masters role as a leadership role, something that can be successful by influence and not authority.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                    \n
                                  1. Lead From the Inside Out<\/strong>

                                    In the PM Power approach to leadership development, we combine the hard aspects as well as the soft aspects. An effective leader is one who can manage outside, by mastering inside. <\/span><\/p>

                                    When one leads from inside out, the genuineness of conversations establishes true connections with people, and everyone starts to listen more to what you say. <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

                                  2. Bench the Ego<\/strong>

                                    Every action, it is said, has an equal and opposite reaction. <\/span><\/p>

                                    This is true for leaders too. When some decisions are forced on people, there is invariably a tendency to resist, particularly if it involves change. <\/span><\/p>

                                    As a Scrum Master, one needs to be able to quickly gain the consensus of the team. To do that the Scrum Master should also listen and create a safe environment for everyone to express themselves.<\/p> <\/li>\n\n\n\n

                                  3. Let Each Player Discover His Own Destiny<\/strong>

                                    Jackson says, \"I've always been interested in getting players to think for themselves so that they can make difficult decisions in the heat of battle.\" <\/span><\/p>

                                    This translates into enabling safe spaces where each person can exhibit and share their courage, mutual respect, and resilience. <\/span><\/p>

                                    This also encourages the team to go beyond narrowly defined set of duties and swarm as needed, to ensure team success.<\/p> <\/li>\n\n\n\n

                                  4. The Road to Freedom is a Beautiful System<\/strong>

                                    When each person in the team is actively aware of what the others are doing and where the team is moving, it enables smooth self-organization and collective ownership. The triangle system that is attributed to Phil Jackson, is a fitting example of having a common structure that is well understood, while providing a chance for creativity.<\/p> <\/li>\n\n\n\n

                                  5. Turn the Mundane into the Sacred<\/strong>

                                    Even for well knit teams, it is worthwhile to have some formality in terms of events [used to also be called ceremonies] that are also supported by team norms. <\/span><\/p>

                                    What might otherwise be considered as a routine \u2013 say the daily standup \u2013 could become important points of sync up when infused with some formalism. Phil Jackson also introduced meditation practices for the team to help the players focus, unwind, and stay energetic. <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

                                  6. One Breath = One Mind<\/strong>

                                    A simple technique to get everyone aligned and in sync just before any significant event. Whether it is a crucial meeting, where consensus needs to be reached in time or the start of a release cycle, helping everyone spend some silent, reflective time together helps align the breathing, which is particularly useful in playing tandem, or like trapeze artists, when there are hand-offs to be executed as the project progresses <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

                                  7. The Key to Success is Compassion<\/strong>

                                    Helping the team understand and internalize the scrum value of respect for others, will lead to greater empathy for both the other team members as well as customers. That understanding will propel the team to go the extra mile when needed, to ensure that the promises to the users are always the highest priority. <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

                                  8. Keep Your Eye on the Spirit, Not on the Scoreboard<\/strong>

                                    This is the essential difference between DOING Agile and BEING Agile. Or not being obsessed only with some vanity metrics. When the core principles and the team values are always at the back of every thought and action, a team can focus on internalizing the values and principles of Agility. When the emphasis is to do it by the book, one may tend to be more worried about checking the boxes and ignore the outputs and outcomes. <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

                                  9. Sometimes You Have to Pull Out the Big Stick<\/strong>

                                    This is tricky to directly interpret for a Scrum Master, as the emphasis is usually to be a 'servant leader' who gets results through influence. This is usually true in an ideal world. Sometimes, a Scrum Master needs to be creative to highlight some issues within the team or with specific individuals, so that they can realize the impact of their action or inaction. <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

                                  10. When in Doubt, Do Nothing<\/strong>

                                    One of the key responsibilities of a Scrum Master if to remove impediments. This may not be quite simple at times. For an action-oriented person, it may be difficult to not do anything and observe the situation resolve itself. But, sometimes, it is best to not do anything. The triaging technique used by many teams \u2013 including emergency medical response teams \u2013 also suggests that in some situations, it is best to not do anything. This will come with experience. <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

                                  11. Forget the Ring<\/strong>

                                    This is also a point that is easier said than done. When one is so involved in the action, it is not easy to ignore or forget the result and the urge to win. Phil Jackson says, 'obsessing about winning is a loser's game.' The main reason he says, is that such a focus would lead to one losing control of one's emotions. He says, 'The most we can hope for is to create the best possible conditions for success, then let go of the outcome.' <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

                                    The book has a lot more detailed examples including situations involving some of the high performers who were more self-centric and concerned with their own success and image, and how he was able to help them turn into more team players and mentors to other less experienced players.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Eleven Rings for a Scrum Master","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"eleven-rings-for-a-scrum-master","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 11:31:55","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 11:31:55","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=19967","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"2","filter":"raw"},{"ID":19891,"post_author":"15","post_date":"2022-04-17 19:37:10","post_date_gmt":"2022-04-17 14:07:10","post_content":"\n

                                    Ever since Agile approaches became popular\nabout 15 to 20 years ago, Agile culture and mindset have been touted as the\nfoundation elements around which successful organizational transformation\nhappens. Peter Drucker\u2019s famous quote \u201cCulture eats strategy for breakfast\u201d points\nto the ineffectiveness of your strategy implementation if the company culture\ndoesn\u2019t support it. In the early years, not many organizations understood and\ninternalized the true Agile culture \/ philosophy, leading to many of them\nfailing in their Agile journey. This was helped in no small measure by the\nplethora of consultants, selling Agile as a methodology over philosophy. The\nfew successes that we had, though, led to the realization that \u201cbeing agile\u201d is\nsubstantially more important for succeeding with Agile than \u201cdoing agile\u201d. This\nessentially means implementing Agile in \u201cspirit\u201d and, we are seeing this trend\nwith many organizations today. The intent of this blog is to demystify a few\naspects relating to Agile mindset and culture, both from a team perspective, as\nwell as, from the perspective of leadership\/management.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                    What is Agile culture?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                    Agile culture is an environment built\naround core values and principles with practices and behaviours aligned to\nthose values and principles. In today\u2019s business, this culture needs to address\nresponsiveness to customer and market needs in an extremely complex and\nuncertain environment. Essentially the organization\u2019s values and principles and\nthe related practices \/ behaviours should be reflective of this business\nneed.  For culture to be effective at the\nbusiness level, it needs to permeate through various organizational layers,\nstarting from the top. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                    Agile culture in teams - Values, Principles and Practices<\/strong> Implementing a proper Agile culture in teams requires a good understanding of Agile values and principles and an appreciation of how these are linked to practices (and to associated behaviours). While Agile values are universal, they are also often too abstract. On the other hand, practices are ways of solving common problems and dilemmas, that we encounter in software development. Given the large perceived gap between these two, we use Principles to bridge this gap and help understand practices better. Values and Principles together guide us in adaptation and improvisation of practices, as part of our efforts to improve continuously. Let me take a couple of examples to illustrate this using the Agile Manifesto<\/a>, Principles<\/a>, Scrum Values<\/a> and XP Values and Principles<\/a>: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                    \"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

                                    From the above example, if you notice that\nthe practice of team members taking turns to provide updates (rather than each\none being prodded on by the SM) is an implementation of the principle of\naccepted responsibility (ownership). I am sure you can see a linkage of other\npractices to the values and principles that they align to. As mentioned before,\nyou can improvise on practices (such as, doing fun retrospectives, for example)\nwithout compromising on values and principles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                    In the above example, I have deliberately\nmixed values and principles from the Agile manifesto as well as specific Agile\napproaches such as Scrum \/ XP. From my own perspective, I have looked at the Agile\nManifesto as more of a position statement than a set of classical \u201cvalues\u201d -\nwhich is why approaches such as Scrum and XP expounded their own set of values.\nMost Agile approaches use the Agile manifesto as a broad guideline for their\nown specific recommendations and incorporate their own values and principles to\nsupport their practice recommendations (both management as well as technical\npractices). In my opinion, it is sensible to take such a hybrid approach to\nsupport your organization context. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                    There is another factor to be considered \u2013\nAgile Manifesto and values and principles from other approaches are applicable\nto a software development context, which functions under a broad organizational\ncontext. The organization will have its own core values and philosophy stated from\na business perspective, and as a consequence, any Agile implementation has to\nbe aligned to and support this organizational context. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                    Agile culture in leadership and\nmanagement<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                    In the early days of Agile implementation,\nit was viewed largely as a bottom-up initiative focusing on delivery teams. The\npervasive nature of Agile as a culture change across all the layers of the\norganization was lost on senior leadership. \nThis introduces many internal conflicts. For example, when SMs see their\nmanager(s) practicing a directive style with them, while expecting them to be\nfacilitative with their own teams, they see a clear conflict of culture. In my\nexperience as a coach, I have personally seen managers track their teams\u2019\nburn-downs - which is clearly a team\u2019s responsibility to track for needed\nactions - wanting to know why they were looking bad, during a sprint execution.\nThis clearly goes against Principle 5 of the manifesto that says \u201cBuild\nprojects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and support\nthey need and trust them to get the job done\u201d. In essence, the Manager\u2019s role\nis to provide facilitative support to teams after providing them the big\npicture \/ vision \/ direction. Teams decide on how they will execute, and will approach\nyou as managers, only for unresolved blockers, or when they need support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                    From a leadership perspective as well, leadership practices should be based on similar values and principles to what we have discussed for teams. Some of these principles may include those relating to delegation\/empowerment, workforce diversity, freedom for experimentation, support for collaborative communities, emotional well-being of employees and so on. For those keen on an organizational perspective of Agile, would like to refer you to PM Power\u2019s recently released book \u201cThe Five Tantras of Enterprise Agility<\/a>\u201d. Incidentally, the book devotes an entire section (Book 3 within the book) to Transformational Leadership needed to succeed with Agile. <\/p>\n","post_title":"Agile Culture and Mindset - re-visited","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"agile-culture-and-mindset-re-visited","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 12:26:29","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 12:26:29","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=19891","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":19790,"post_author":"13","post_date":"2022-03-28 11:03:24","post_date_gmt":"2022-03-28 05:33:24","post_content":"\n

                                    Piyush works as a Manager for a team of 20 people. He has been successfully running an IT team for the last 3 years. However, he has been constantly plagued by his people going on unplanned leaves. This has been happening for the last 8-9 months or so. It also came out in several retrospectives. However, there was no focused effort in solving the root problems. Whenever, there were unplanned leaves, the team leads would step up, they would spend night outs and would somehow make sure that the release would not get affected. And to encourage this trend, the Management would reward the Leads with \"Star of the Quarter\" or \"Team champion\" award, which would further encourage this trend. Unconsciously, the Manager was setting himself up for failure by encouraging this trend. When we dug the problem deeper, the following was what I observed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                    When I tried to dig deeper, while Piyush complained about the symptom of \u201cUnplanned Leaves\u201d, the main response from the team was that they were not getting the leaves when they asked for the same citing the amount of work that was there. The team members hardly contributed. The Leads and seniors were doing most of the heavy lifting. Even though, they were burnt out because of work , they still were getting necessary incentives both in terms of having a superior knowledge on the application that they did not want to give up. Eventually, even the seniors and leads were taking unplanned leaves mainly because they were also burnt out and partly because they knew that Piyush always had a soft corner for them. When the process of retrospective was put in place, the team explicitly stated that they did not receive a proper KT. That is one of the objectives of Retrospectives where the team can express itself freely. When Piyush heard the same, his solutioning was to reward the team leads and bail them out of the release pains rather than solving the root problem. The team also did not press too much because they were internally happy of not feeling much pressure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                    The problem is represented below in the table as a sequence of Drama Triangle roles. The subtext in parenthesis is ulterior and not expressed openly. Only when I dug deeper, I found it. (https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Karpman_drama_triangle)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                    \n Persecutor\n <\/td>\n Victim\n <\/td>\n Rescuer\n <\/td><\/tr>
                                    \n Manager: There are too many unplanned Leaves\n <\/td> (Team: If we ask for a planned leave, we do not get it )<\/em><\/td> Leads\/Seniors: We will (cover for the team and )<\/em>ensure the release wouldn't suffer <\/td><\/tr>
                                    (Team Leads: Let us also go on an unplanned leave. We are totally burned out. Why should only we suffer?)<\/em><\/td>Manager: Oh my god! how am I going to deliver this? Team, I need you to pull the weight this time.<\/td>Team: We will do our best (to get out of this situation. Provide some temporary fixes) <\/em><\/td><\/tr>
                                    Team: We tried our best but we have never been given a proper KT. (I am rather happy that I do not have to take much pressure)<\/em><\/td> Team Leads: Despite all the efforts, we get to be blamed<\/td>Manager: Don't worry, I will make sure you get all the necessary rewards for the hard work (strike the deal with the team leads)<\/em><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

                                    This is typically how the Drama Triangle works. And because the roles keep switching, it will keep the \"Game\" of the recurring problem alive. And all of this happens at an unconscious level. This also results in a negative feeling for everybody involved. Because, it happens at an unconscious level for all the players, they would also struggle to come out of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                    In order to break this pattern, there should be an active involvement of all the participants to solve the root problem and address the same. How would you solve this problem?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                    ...............................................................................................................................<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                    ...............................................................................................................................<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                    ...............................................................................................................................<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                    Here is how we solved the problem:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                    Solution<\/strong>: The first thing I did was to bring this awareness of Drama Triangle among all the participants. I showed them how each of them are playing their part in keeping the game alive without their awareness. Since they were all playing this at an unconscious level, it is very difficult to come out unless someone can bring that awareness. They had not seen this problem in the lens of a Drama Triangle at all. This helped them break the resistances on solving the problem and see how they themselves contributed to solving this problem. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                    The main issue was that the team members did not develop enough skills in their project. We found during the session that most of it could be addressed if the team was involved in the decision making, hold them accountable and if they can be helped in enhancing the skills. The team was given a lot more autonomy. They were involved in the planning meetings and their opinions and decisions were given more weightage. While a separate time was scoped out for KT, it was made sure that the team would start fronting all the work where as the team leads would play the supporting role. The team found the work lot more challenging, while the seniors played the role of mentors. As a result, the team started to learn not only the technical skills but also the Leadership skills to feel empowered. Gradually, there was a decrease in unplanned leaves as the team felt more empowered.<\/p>\n","post_title":"CHOW#287 - The Drama of \"Unplanned Leaves\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"chow287-the-drama-of-unplanned-leaves","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-23 08:29:34","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-23 08:29:34","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=19790","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":4},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

                                    Page 4 of 12 1 … 3 4 5 … 12
                                    \n

                                    When we were forced to move to WFH in 2020, with the onset of Covid, a lot of people did not enjoy the model. In addition to the established challenges of working from home, many of us missed coming to office and networking with colleagues. After being forced to manage working from home for a couple of years, we decided to open up the office and return to the traditional office based work model. We did anticipate some resistance to this move, since it is normal for people to oppose any change. However, we thought that most will welcome the thought of returning to office. What we found is not just reluctance to return, but pretty much a refusal to want to go back to work from office. That too on a regular basis. Given a choice, a majority of employees prefer to work from home. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                    Most companies have been compelled to provide the WFH option. Providing flexibility to each employee, to choose the work location, is becoming the norm. Even industries that were thought to be unfit for remote work, are finding ways to provide workplace flexibility to most, if not all employees. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                    Many technologies are evolving to enhance the ease of working remote. Many systems are being developed to support remote collaboration. We need to see how the emotional aspect of human collaboration is going to play out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                    Enough discussions and articles have been shared in the net, about the difficulties and advantages of working remote. After reading many articles and talking to many people about the challenges and advantages of remote working, a strikingly strong point came out while talking to a couple of young developers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                    People seem to feel more secure while working from home. Guess it is only to be expected that people feel safest while they are in their own territory - physical or otherwise. As a result, even while participating in virtual meetings, since the participants are in their respective homes, feel freer. Many find their voice in virtual meetings, whereas they would have just been quiet, if the meeting was physical and in the presence of others. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                    Secondly, being a minority of any kind in a team can be challenging. Many times, hidden biases play out. A quick glance from some co-participants can be unnerving for some. This aspect is completely eliminated in the virtual meetings. In remote working, people feel they are judged less for being different; and there is more focus on work related matters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                    Associating people with their profile picture (or DP image), and not having a personal connection in the traditional way, felt uncomfortable to many of us. The lack of personal connect loomed large in our mind. But the flip side is, many feel secure behind their virtual facade and enjoy the freedom from judgement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                    May be remote collaboration lead to a more objective functioning of teams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                    If the newer technologies eliminate the inefficiencies of remote collaboration, may be we have a win win situation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                    With more and more automation and mechanization in manufacturing and agricultural sectors, human resource deployment will be more and more in the knowledge industry. And knowledge industry is going to leverage human resources, wherever they are available.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                    Covid has provided the fillip that the industry needed towards this move.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                    Gopal<\/a><\/p>\n","post_title":"Pandemic Positives!","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"pandemic-positives","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-24 07:57:17","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-24 07:57:17","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=20165","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"2","filter":"raw"},{"ID":19967,"post_author":"30","post_date":"2022-05-08 15:37:11","post_date_gmt":"2022-05-08 10:07:11","post_content":"\n

                                    When I read the book 'Eleven Rings: The soul of success' by Phil Jackson and Hugh Delehanty<\/span><\/a> <\/span>, the legendary basketball coach, I could relate his 11 tips for leadership as good points for Scrum Masters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                    With eleven titles to his credit, helping the Chicago Bulls win six times and the LA Lakers win five times, Phil Jackson knows what it takes to build great teams and help them succeed \u2013 consistently!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                    In this book, he distils leadership styles and actions to eleven points.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                    We talk about a Scrum Masters role as a leadership role, something that can be successful by influence and not authority.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                      \n
                                    1. Lead From the Inside Out<\/strong>

                                      In the PM Power approach to leadership development, we combine the hard aspects as well as the soft aspects. An effective leader is one who can manage outside, by mastering inside. <\/span><\/p>

                                      When one leads from inside out, the genuineness of conversations establishes true connections with people, and everyone starts to listen more to what you say. <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

                                    2. Bench the Ego<\/strong>

                                      Every action, it is said, has an equal and opposite reaction. <\/span><\/p>

                                      This is true for leaders too. When some decisions are forced on people, there is invariably a tendency to resist, particularly if it involves change. <\/span><\/p>

                                      As a Scrum Master, one needs to be able to quickly gain the consensus of the team. To do that the Scrum Master should also listen and create a safe environment for everyone to express themselves.<\/p> <\/li>\n\n\n\n

                                    3. Let Each Player Discover His Own Destiny<\/strong>

                                      Jackson says, \"I've always been interested in getting players to think for themselves so that they can make difficult decisions in the heat of battle.\" <\/span><\/p>

                                      This translates into enabling safe spaces where each person can exhibit and share their courage, mutual respect, and resilience. <\/span><\/p>

                                      This also encourages the team to go beyond narrowly defined set of duties and swarm as needed, to ensure team success.<\/p> <\/li>\n\n\n\n

                                    4. The Road to Freedom is a Beautiful System<\/strong>

                                      When each person in the team is actively aware of what the others are doing and where the team is moving, it enables smooth self-organization and collective ownership. The triangle system that is attributed to Phil Jackson, is a fitting example of having a common structure that is well understood, while providing a chance for creativity.<\/p> <\/li>\n\n\n\n

                                    5. Turn the Mundane into the Sacred<\/strong>

                                      Even for well knit teams, it is worthwhile to have some formality in terms of events [used to also be called ceremonies] that are also supported by team norms. <\/span><\/p>

                                      What might otherwise be considered as a routine \u2013 say the daily standup \u2013 could become important points of sync up when infused with some formalism. Phil Jackson also introduced meditation practices for the team to help the players focus, unwind, and stay energetic. <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

                                    6. One Breath = One Mind<\/strong>

                                      A simple technique to get everyone aligned and in sync just before any significant event. Whether it is a crucial meeting, where consensus needs to be reached in time or the start of a release cycle, helping everyone spend some silent, reflective time together helps align the breathing, which is particularly useful in playing tandem, or like trapeze artists, when there are hand-offs to be executed as the project progresses <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

                                    7. The Key to Success is Compassion<\/strong>

                                      Helping the team understand and internalize the scrum value of respect for others, will lead to greater empathy for both the other team members as well as customers. That understanding will propel the team to go the extra mile when needed, to ensure that the promises to the users are always the highest priority. <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

                                    8. Keep Your Eye on the Spirit, Not on the Scoreboard<\/strong>

                                      This is the essential difference between DOING Agile and BEING Agile. Or not being obsessed only with some vanity metrics. When the core principles and the team values are always at the back of every thought and action, a team can focus on internalizing the values and principles of Agility. When the emphasis is to do it by the book, one may tend to be more worried about checking the boxes and ignore the outputs and outcomes. <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

                                    9. Sometimes You Have to Pull Out the Big Stick<\/strong>

                                      This is tricky to directly interpret for a Scrum Master, as the emphasis is usually to be a 'servant leader' who gets results through influence. This is usually true in an ideal world. Sometimes, a Scrum Master needs to be creative to highlight some issues within the team or with specific individuals, so that they can realize the impact of their action or inaction. <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

                                    10. When in Doubt, Do Nothing<\/strong>

                                      One of the key responsibilities of a Scrum Master if to remove impediments. This may not be quite simple at times. For an action-oriented person, it may be difficult to not do anything and observe the situation resolve itself. But, sometimes, it is best to not do anything. The triaging technique used by many teams \u2013 including emergency medical response teams \u2013 also suggests that in some situations, it is best to not do anything. This will come with experience. <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

                                    11. Forget the Ring<\/strong>

                                      This is also a point that is easier said than done. When one is so involved in the action, it is not easy to ignore or forget the result and the urge to win. Phil Jackson says, 'obsessing about winning is a loser's game.' The main reason he says, is that such a focus would lead to one losing control of one's emotions. He says, 'The most we can hope for is to create the best possible conditions for success, then let go of the outcome.' <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

                                      The book has a lot more detailed examples including situations involving some of the high performers who were more self-centric and concerned with their own success and image, and how he was able to help them turn into more team players and mentors to other less experienced players.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Eleven Rings for a Scrum Master","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"eleven-rings-for-a-scrum-master","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 11:31:55","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 11:31:55","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=19967","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"2","filter":"raw"},{"ID":19891,"post_author":"15","post_date":"2022-04-17 19:37:10","post_date_gmt":"2022-04-17 14:07:10","post_content":"\n

                                      Ever since Agile approaches became popular\nabout 15 to 20 years ago, Agile culture and mindset have been touted as the\nfoundation elements around which successful organizational transformation\nhappens. Peter Drucker\u2019s famous quote \u201cCulture eats strategy for breakfast\u201d points\nto the ineffectiveness of your strategy implementation if the company culture\ndoesn\u2019t support it. In the early years, not many organizations understood and\ninternalized the true Agile culture \/ philosophy, leading to many of them\nfailing in their Agile journey. This was helped in no small measure by the\nplethora of consultants, selling Agile as a methodology over philosophy. The\nfew successes that we had, though, led to the realization that \u201cbeing agile\u201d is\nsubstantially more important for succeeding with Agile than \u201cdoing agile\u201d. This\nessentially means implementing Agile in \u201cspirit\u201d and, we are seeing this trend\nwith many organizations today. The intent of this blog is to demystify a few\naspects relating to Agile mindset and culture, both from a team perspective, as\nwell as, from the perspective of leadership\/management.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                      What is Agile culture?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                      Agile culture is an environment built\naround core values and principles with practices and behaviours aligned to\nthose values and principles. In today\u2019s business, this culture needs to address\nresponsiveness to customer and market needs in an extremely complex and\nuncertain environment. Essentially the organization\u2019s values and principles and\nthe related practices \/ behaviours should be reflective of this business\nneed.  For culture to be effective at the\nbusiness level, it needs to permeate through various organizational layers,\nstarting from the top. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                      Agile culture in teams - Values, Principles and Practices<\/strong> Implementing a proper Agile culture in teams requires a good understanding of Agile values and principles and an appreciation of how these are linked to practices (and to associated behaviours). While Agile values are universal, they are also often too abstract. On the other hand, practices are ways of solving common problems and dilemmas, that we encounter in software development. Given the large perceived gap between these two, we use Principles to bridge this gap and help understand practices better. Values and Principles together guide us in adaptation and improvisation of practices, as part of our efforts to improve continuously. Let me take a couple of examples to illustrate this using the Agile Manifesto<\/a>, Principles<\/a>, Scrum Values<\/a> and XP Values and Principles<\/a>: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                      \"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

                                      From the above example, if you notice that\nthe practice of team members taking turns to provide updates (rather than each\none being prodded on by the SM) is an implementation of the principle of\naccepted responsibility (ownership). I am sure you can see a linkage of other\npractices to the values and principles that they align to. As mentioned before,\nyou can improvise on practices (such as, doing fun retrospectives, for example)\nwithout compromising on values and principles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                      In the above example, I have deliberately\nmixed values and principles from the Agile manifesto as well as specific Agile\napproaches such as Scrum \/ XP. From my own perspective, I have looked at the Agile\nManifesto as more of a position statement than a set of classical \u201cvalues\u201d -\nwhich is why approaches such as Scrum and XP expounded their own set of values.\nMost Agile approaches use the Agile manifesto as a broad guideline for their\nown specific recommendations and incorporate their own values and principles to\nsupport their practice recommendations (both management as well as technical\npractices). In my opinion, it is sensible to take such a hybrid approach to\nsupport your organization context. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                      There is another factor to be considered \u2013\nAgile Manifesto and values and principles from other approaches are applicable\nto a software development context, which functions under a broad organizational\ncontext. The organization will have its own core values and philosophy stated from\na business perspective, and as a consequence, any Agile implementation has to\nbe aligned to and support this organizational context. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                      Agile culture in leadership and\nmanagement<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                      In the early days of Agile implementation,\nit was viewed largely as a bottom-up initiative focusing on delivery teams. The\npervasive nature of Agile as a culture change across all the layers of the\norganization was lost on senior leadership. \nThis introduces many internal conflicts. For example, when SMs see their\nmanager(s) practicing a directive style with them, while expecting them to be\nfacilitative with their own teams, they see a clear conflict of culture. In my\nexperience as a coach, I have personally seen managers track their teams\u2019\nburn-downs - which is clearly a team\u2019s responsibility to track for needed\nactions - wanting to know why they were looking bad, during a sprint execution.\nThis clearly goes against Principle 5 of the manifesto that says \u201cBuild\nprojects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and support\nthey need and trust them to get the job done\u201d. In essence, the Manager\u2019s role\nis to provide facilitative support to teams after providing them the big\npicture \/ vision \/ direction. Teams decide on how they will execute, and will approach\nyou as managers, only for unresolved blockers, or when they need support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                      From a leadership perspective as well, leadership practices should be based on similar values and principles to what we have discussed for teams. Some of these principles may include those relating to delegation\/empowerment, workforce diversity, freedom for experimentation, support for collaborative communities, emotional well-being of employees and so on. For those keen on an organizational perspective of Agile, would like to refer you to PM Power\u2019s recently released book \u201cThe Five Tantras of Enterprise Agility<\/a>\u201d. Incidentally, the book devotes an entire section (Book 3 within the book) to Transformational Leadership needed to succeed with Agile. <\/p>\n","post_title":"Agile Culture and Mindset - re-visited","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"agile-culture-and-mindset-re-visited","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 12:26:29","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 12:26:29","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=19891","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":19790,"post_author":"13","post_date":"2022-03-28 11:03:24","post_date_gmt":"2022-03-28 05:33:24","post_content":"\n

                                      Piyush works as a Manager for a team of 20 people. He has been successfully running an IT team for the last 3 years. However, he has been constantly plagued by his people going on unplanned leaves. This has been happening for the last 8-9 months or so. It also came out in several retrospectives. However, there was no focused effort in solving the root problems. Whenever, there were unplanned leaves, the team leads would step up, they would spend night outs and would somehow make sure that the release would not get affected. And to encourage this trend, the Management would reward the Leads with \"Star of the Quarter\" or \"Team champion\" award, which would further encourage this trend. Unconsciously, the Manager was setting himself up for failure by encouraging this trend. When we dug the problem deeper, the following was what I observed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                      When I tried to dig deeper, while Piyush complained about the symptom of \u201cUnplanned Leaves\u201d, the main response from the team was that they were not getting the leaves when they asked for the same citing the amount of work that was there. The team members hardly contributed. The Leads and seniors were doing most of the heavy lifting. Even though, they were burnt out because of work , they still were getting necessary incentives both in terms of having a superior knowledge on the application that they did not want to give up. Eventually, even the seniors and leads were taking unplanned leaves mainly because they were also burnt out and partly because they knew that Piyush always had a soft corner for them. When the process of retrospective was put in place, the team explicitly stated that they did not receive a proper KT. That is one of the objectives of Retrospectives where the team can express itself freely. When Piyush heard the same, his solutioning was to reward the team leads and bail them out of the release pains rather than solving the root problem. The team also did not press too much because they were internally happy of not feeling much pressure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                      The problem is represented below in the table as a sequence of Drama Triangle roles. The subtext in parenthesis is ulterior and not expressed openly. Only when I dug deeper, I found it. (https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Karpman_drama_triangle)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                      \n Persecutor\n <\/td>\n Victim\n <\/td>\n Rescuer\n <\/td><\/tr>
                                      \n Manager: There are too many unplanned Leaves\n <\/td> (Team: If we ask for a planned leave, we do not get it )<\/em><\/td> Leads\/Seniors: We will (cover for the team and )<\/em>ensure the release wouldn't suffer <\/td><\/tr>
                                      (Team Leads: Let us also go on an unplanned leave. We are totally burned out. Why should only we suffer?)<\/em><\/td>Manager: Oh my god! how am I going to deliver this? Team, I need you to pull the weight this time.<\/td>Team: We will do our best (to get out of this situation. Provide some temporary fixes) <\/em><\/td><\/tr>
                                      Team: We tried our best but we have never been given a proper KT. (I am rather happy that I do not have to take much pressure)<\/em><\/td> Team Leads: Despite all the efforts, we get to be blamed<\/td>Manager: Don't worry, I will make sure you get all the necessary rewards for the hard work (strike the deal with the team leads)<\/em><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

                                      This is typically how the Drama Triangle works. And because the roles keep switching, it will keep the \"Game\" of the recurring problem alive. And all of this happens at an unconscious level. This also results in a negative feeling for everybody involved. Because, it happens at an unconscious level for all the players, they would also struggle to come out of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                      In order to break this pattern, there should be an active involvement of all the participants to solve the root problem and address the same. How would you solve this problem?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                      ...............................................................................................................................<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                      ...............................................................................................................................<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                      ...............................................................................................................................<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                      Here is how we solved the problem:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                      Solution<\/strong>: The first thing I did was to bring this awareness of Drama Triangle among all the participants. I showed them how each of them are playing their part in keeping the game alive without their awareness. Since they were all playing this at an unconscious level, it is very difficult to come out unless someone can bring that awareness. They had not seen this problem in the lens of a Drama Triangle at all. This helped them break the resistances on solving the problem and see how they themselves contributed to solving this problem. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                      The main issue was that the team members did not develop enough skills in their project. We found during the session that most of it could be addressed if the team was involved in the decision making, hold them accountable and if they can be helped in enhancing the skills. The team was given a lot more autonomy. They were involved in the planning meetings and their opinions and decisions were given more weightage. While a separate time was scoped out for KT, it was made sure that the team would start fronting all the work where as the team leads would play the supporting role. The team found the work lot more challenging, while the seniors played the role of mentors. As a result, the team started to learn not only the technical skills but also the Leadership skills to feel empowered. Gradually, there was a decrease in unplanned leaves as the team felt more empowered.<\/p>\n","post_title":"CHOW#287 - The Drama of \"Unplanned Leaves\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"chow287-the-drama-of-unplanned-leaves","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-23 08:29:34","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-23 08:29:34","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=19790","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":4},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

                                      Page 4 of 12 1 … 3 4 5 … 12
                                      \n

                                      In summary, providing an open and\ntrustworthy environment, involving teams in decisions that impact them and\nproviding them the required support in autonomous working and decision making\nare all vital elements of empowerment. All these go a long way in improving the\nsense of belonging to the organization and ownership of associates and teams.\nThis, in turn, improves productivity and drives creativity and innovation, both\nof which contribute to higher value for the customer, and to the organization\u2019s\nlong-term vitality.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Do we really understand Empowerment?","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"do-we-really-understand-empowerment","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 12:26:00","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 12:26:00","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=20336","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":20165,"post_author":"12","post_date":"2022-07-01 00:44:07","post_date_gmt":"2022-06-30 19:14:07","post_content":"\n

                                      When we were forced to move to WFH in 2020, with the onset of Covid, a lot of people did not enjoy the model. In addition to the established challenges of working from home, many of us missed coming to office and networking with colleagues. After being forced to manage working from home for a couple of years, we decided to open up the office and return to the traditional office based work model. We did anticipate some resistance to this move, since it is normal for people to oppose any change. However, we thought that most will welcome the thought of returning to office. What we found is not just reluctance to return, but pretty much a refusal to want to go back to work from office. That too on a regular basis. Given a choice, a majority of employees prefer to work from home. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                      Most companies have been compelled to provide the WFH option. Providing flexibility to each employee, to choose the work location, is becoming the norm. Even industries that were thought to be unfit for remote work, are finding ways to provide workplace flexibility to most, if not all employees. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                      Many technologies are evolving to enhance the ease of working remote. Many systems are being developed to support remote collaboration. We need to see how the emotional aspect of human collaboration is going to play out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                      Enough discussions and articles have been shared in the net, about the difficulties and advantages of working remote. After reading many articles and talking to many people about the challenges and advantages of remote working, a strikingly strong point came out while talking to a couple of young developers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                      People seem to feel more secure while working from home. Guess it is only to be expected that people feel safest while they are in their own territory - physical or otherwise. As a result, even while participating in virtual meetings, since the participants are in their respective homes, feel freer. Many find their voice in virtual meetings, whereas they would have just been quiet, if the meeting was physical and in the presence of others. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                      Secondly, being a minority of any kind in a team can be challenging. Many times, hidden biases play out. A quick glance from some co-participants can be unnerving for some. This aspect is completely eliminated in the virtual meetings. In remote working, people feel they are judged less for being different; and there is more focus on work related matters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                      Associating people with their profile picture (or DP image), and not having a personal connection in the traditional way, felt uncomfortable to many of us. The lack of personal connect loomed large in our mind. But the flip side is, many feel secure behind their virtual facade and enjoy the freedom from judgement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                      May be remote collaboration lead to a more objective functioning of teams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                      If the newer technologies eliminate the inefficiencies of remote collaboration, may be we have a win win situation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                      With more and more automation and mechanization in manufacturing and agricultural sectors, human resource deployment will be more and more in the knowledge industry. And knowledge industry is going to leverage human resources, wherever they are available.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                      Covid has provided the fillip that the industry needed towards this move.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                      Gopal<\/a><\/p>\n","post_title":"Pandemic Positives!","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"pandemic-positives","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-24 07:57:17","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-24 07:57:17","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=20165","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"2","filter":"raw"},{"ID":19967,"post_author":"30","post_date":"2022-05-08 15:37:11","post_date_gmt":"2022-05-08 10:07:11","post_content":"\n

                                      When I read the book 'Eleven Rings: The soul of success' by Phil Jackson and Hugh Delehanty<\/span><\/a> <\/span>, the legendary basketball coach, I could relate his 11 tips for leadership as good points for Scrum Masters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                      With eleven titles to his credit, helping the Chicago Bulls win six times and the LA Lakers win five times, Phil Jackson knows what it takes to build great teams and help them succeed \u2013 consistently!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                      In this book, he distils leadership styles and actions to eleven points.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                      We talk about a Scrum Masters role as a leadership role, something that can be successful by influence and not authority.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                        \n
                                      1. Lead From the Inside Out<\/strong>

                                        In the PM Power approach to leadership development, we combine the hard aspects as well as the soft aspects. An effective leader is one who can manage outside, by mastering inside. <\/span><\/p>

                                        When one leads from inside out, the genuineness of conversations establishes true connections with people, and everyone starts to listen more to what you say. <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

                                      2. Bench the Ego<\/strong>

                                        Every action, it is said, has an equal and opposite reaction. <\/span><\/p>

                                        This is true for leaders too. When some decisions are forced on people, there is invariably a tendency to resist, particularly if it involves change. <\/span><\/p>

                                        As a Scrum Master, one needs to be able to quickly gain the consensus of the team. To do that the Scrum Master should also listen and create a safe environment for everyone to express themselves.<\/p> <\/li>\n\n\n\n

                                      3. Let Each Player Discover His Own Destiny<\/strong>

                                        Jackson says, \"I've always been interested in getting players to think for themselves so that they can make difficult decisions in the heat of battle.\" <\/span><\/p>

                                        This translates into enabling safe spaces where each person can exhibit and share their courage, mutual respect, and resilience. <\/span><\/p>

                                        This also encourages the team to go beyond narrowly defined set of duties and swarm as needed, to ensure team success.<\/p> <\/li>\n\n\n\n

                                      4. The Road to Freedom is a Beautiful System<\/strong>

                                        When each person in the team is actively aware of what the others are doing and where the team is moving, it enables smooth self-organization and collective ownership. The triangle system that is attributed to Phil Jackson, is a fitting example of having a common structure that is well understood, while providing a chance for creativity.<\/p> <\/li>\n\n\n\n

                                      5. Turn the Mundane into the Sacred<\/strong>

                                        Even for well knit teams, it is worthwhile to have some formality in terms of events [used to also be called ceremonies] that are also supported by team norms. <\/span><\/p>

                                        What might otherwise be considered as a routine \u2013 say the daily standup \u2013 could become important points of sync up when infused with some formalism. Phil Jackson also introduced meditation practices for the team to help the players focus, unwind, and stay energetic. <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

                                      6. One Breath = One Mind<\/strong>

                                        A simple technique to get everyone aligned and in sync just before any significant event. Whether it is a crucial meeting, where consensus needs to be reached in time or the start of a release cycle, helping everyone spend some silent, reflective time together helps align the breathing, which is particularly useful in playing tandem, or like trapeze artists, when there are hand-offs to be executed as the project progresses <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

                                      7. The Key to Success is Compassion<\/strong>

                                        Helping the team understand and internalize the scrum value of respect for others, will lead to greater empathy for both the other team members as well as customers. That understanding will propel the team to go the extra mile when needed, to ensure that the promises to the users are always the highest priority. <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

                                      8. Keep Your Eye on the Spirit, Not on the Scoreboard<\/strong>

                                        This is the essential difference between DOING Agile and BEING Agile. Or not being obsessed only with some vanity metrics. When the core principles and the team values are always at the back of every thought and action, a team can focus on internalizing the values and principles of Agility. When the emphasis is to do it by the book, one may tend to be more worried about checking the boxes and ignore the outputs and outcomes. <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

                                      9. Sometimes You Have to Pull Out the Big Stick<\/strong>

                                        This is tricky to directly interpret for a Scrum Master, as the emphasis is usually to be a 'servant leader' who gets results through influence. This is usually true in an ideal world. Sometimes, a Scrum Master needs to be creative to highlight some issues within the team or with specific individuals, so that they can realize the impact of their action or inaction. <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

                                      10. When in Doubt, Do Nothing<\/strong>

                                        One of the key responsibilities of a Scrum Master if to remove impediments. This may not be quite simple at times. For an action-oriented person, it may be difficult to not do anything and observe the situation resolve itself. But, sometimes, it is best to not do anything. The triaging technique used by many teams \u2013 including emergency medical response teams \u2013 also suggests that in some situations, it is best to not do anything. This will come with experience. <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n\n\n\n

                                      11. Forget the Ring<\/strong>

                                        This is also a point that is easier said than done. When one is so involved in the action, it is not easy to ignore or forget the result and the urge to win. Phil Jackson says, 'obsessing about winning is a loser's game.' The main reason he says, is that such a focus would lead to one losing control of one's emotions. He says, 'The most we can hope for is to create the best possible conditions for success, then let go of the outcome.' <\/span><\/p><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

                                        The book has a lot more detailed examples including situations involving some of the high performers who were more self-centric and concerned with their own success and image, and how he was able to help them turn into more team players and mentors to other less experienced players.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Eleven Rings for a Scrum Master","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"eleven-rings-for-a-scrum-master","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-29 11:31:55","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-29 11:31:55","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=19967","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"2","filter":"raw"},{"ID":19891,"post_author":"15","post_date":"2022-04-17 19:37:10","post_date_gmt":"2022-04-17 14:07:10","post_content":"\n

                                        Ever since Agile approaches became popular\nabout 15 to 20 years ago, Agile culture and mindset have been touted as the\nfoundation elements around which successful organizational transformation\nhappens. Peter Drucker\u2019s famous quote \u201cCulture eats strategy for breakfast\u201d points\nto the ineffectiveness of your strategy implementation if the company culture\ndoesn\u2019t support it. In the early years, not many organizations understood and\ninternalized the true Agile culture \/ philosophy, leading to many of them\nfailing in their Agile journey. This was helped in no small measure by the\nplethora of consultants, selling Agile as a methodology over philosophy. The\nfew successes that we had, though, led to the realization that \u201cbeing agile\u201d is\nsubstantially more important for succeeding with Agile than \u201cdoing agile\u201d. This\nessentially means implementing Agile in \u201cspirit\u201d and, we are seeing this trend\nwith many organizations today. The intent of this blog is to demystify a few\naspects relating to Agile mindset and culture, both from a team perspective, as\nwell as, from the perspective of leadership\/management.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                        What is Agile culture?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                        Agile culture is an environment built\naround core values and principles with practices and behaviours aligned to\nthose values and principles. In today\u2019s business, this culture needs to address\nresponsiveness to customer and market needs in an extremely complex and\nuncertain environment. Essentially the organization\u2019s values and principles and\nthe related practices \/ behaviours should be reflective of this business\nneed.  For culture to be effective at the\nbusiness level, it needs to permeate through various organizational layers,\nstarting from the top. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                        Agile culture in teams - Values, Principles and Practices<\/strong> Implementing a proper Agile culture in teams requires a good understanding of Agile values and principles and an appreciation of how these are linked to practices (and to associated behaviours). While Agile values are universal, they are also often too abstract. On the other hand, practices are ways of solving common problems and dilemmas, that we encounter in software development. Given the large perceived gap between these two, we use Principles to bridge this gap and help understand practices better. Values and Principles together guide us in adaptation and improvisation of practices, as part of our efforts to improve continuously. Let me take a couple of examples to illustrate this using the Agile Manifesto<\/a>, Principles<\/a>, Scrum Values<\/a> and XP Values and Principles<\/a>: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                        \"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

                                        From the above example, if you notice that\nthe practice of team members taking turns to provide updates (rather than each\none being prodded on by the SM) is an implementation of the principle of\naccepted responsibility (ownership). I am sure you can see a linkage of other\npractices to the values and principles that they align to. As mentioned before,\nyou can improvise on practices (such as, doing fun retrospectives, for example)\nwithout compromising on values and principles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                        In the above example, I have deliberately\nmixed values and principles from the Agile manifesto as well as specific Agile\napproaches such as Scrum \/ XP. From my own perspective, I have looked at the Agile\nManifesto as more of a position statement than a set of classical \u201cvalues\u201d -\nwhich is why approaches such as Scrum and XP expounded their own set of values.\nMost Agile approaches use the Agile manifesto as a broad guideline for their\nown specific recommendations and incorporate their own values and principles to\nsupport their practice recommendations (both management as well as technical\npractices). In my opinion, it is sensible to take such a hybrid approach to\nsupport your organization context. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                        There is another factor to be considered \u2013\nAgile Manifesto and values and principles from other approaches are applicable\nto a software development context, which functions under a broad organizational\ncontext. The organization will have its own core values and philosophy stated from\na business perspective, and as a consequence, any Agile implementation has to\nbe aligned to and support this organizational context. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                        Agile culture in leadership and\nmanagement<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                        In the early days of Agile implementation,\nit was viewed largely as a bottom-up initiative focusing on delivery teams. The\npervasive nature of Agile as a culture change across all the layers of the\norganization was lost on senior leadership. \nThis introduces many internal conflicts. For example, when SMs see their\nmanager(s) practicing a directive style with them, while expecting them to be\nfacilitative with their own teams, they see a clear conflict of culture. In my\nexperience as a coach, I have personally seen managers track their teams\u2019\nburn-downs - which is clearly a team\u2019s responsibility to track for needed\nactions - wanting to know why they were looking bad, during a sprint execution.\nThis clearly goes against Principle 5 of the manifesto that says \u201cBuild\nprojects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and support\nthey need and trust them to get the job done\u201d. In essence, the Manager\u2019s role\nis to provide facilitative support to teams after providing them the big\npicture \/ vision \/ direction. Teams decide on how they will execute, and will approach\nyou as managers, only for unresolved blockers, or when they need support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                        From a leadership perspective as well, leadership practices should be based on similar values and principles to what we have discussed for teams. Some of these principles may include those relating to delegation\/empowerment, workforce diversity, freedom for experimentation, support for collaborative communities, emotional well-being of employees and so on. For those keen on an organizational perspective of Agile, would like to refer you to PM Power\u2019s recently released book \u201cThe Five Tantras of Enterprise Agility<\/a>\u201d. Incidentally, the book devotes an entire section (Book 3 within the book) to Transformational Leadership needed to succeed with Agile. <\/p>\n","post_title":"Agile Culture and Mindset - re-visited","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"agile-culture-and-mindset-re-visited","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-25 12:26:29","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-25 12:26:29","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=19891","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":19790,"post_author":"13","post_date":"2022-03-28 11:03:24","post_date_gmt":"2022-03-28 05:33:24","post_content":"\n

                                        Piyush works as a Manager for a team of 20 people. He has been successfully running an IT team for the last 3 years. However, he has been constantly plagued by his people going on unplanned leaves. This has been happening for the last 8-9 months or so. It also came out in several retrospectives. However, there was no focused effort in solving the root problems. Whenever, there were unplanned leaves, the team leads would step up, they would spend night outs and would somehow make sure that the release would not get affected. And to encourage this trend, the Management would reward the Leads with \"Star of the Quarter\" or \"Team champion\" award, which would further encourage this trend. Unconsciously, the Manager was setting himself up for failure by encouraging this trend. When we dug the problem deeper, the following was what I observed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                        When I tried to dig deeper, while Piyush complained about the symptom of \u201cUnplanned Leaves\u201d, the main response from the team was that they were not getting the leaves when they asked for the same citing the amount of work that was there. The team members hardly contributed. The Leads and seniors were doing most of the heavy lifting. Even though, they were burnt out because of work , they still were getting necessary incentives both in terms of having a superior knowledge on the application that they did not want to give up. Eventually, even the seniors and leads were taking unplanned leaves mainly because they were also burnt out and partly because they knew that Piyush always had a soft corner for them. When the process of retrospective was put in place, the team explicitly stated that they did not receive a proper KT. That is one of the objectives of Retrospectives where the team can express itself freely. When Piyush heard the same, his solutioning was to reward the team leads and bail them out of the release pains rather than solving the root problem. The team also did not press too much because they were internally happy of not feeling much pressure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                        The problem is represented below in the table as a sequence of Drama Triangle roles. The subtext in parenthesis is ulterior and not expressed openly. Only when I dug deeper, I found it. (https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Karpman_drama_triangle)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                        \n Persecutor\n <\/td>\n Victim\n <\/td>\n Rescuer\n <\/td><\/tr>
                                        \n Manager: There are too many unplanned Leaves\n <\/td> (Team: If we ask for a planned leave, we do not get it )<\/em><\/td> Leads\/Seniors: We will (cover for the team and )<\/em>ensure the release wouldn't suffer <\/td><\/tr>
                                        (Team Leads: Let us also go on an unplanned leave. We are totally burned out. Why should only we suffer?)<\/em><\/td>Manager: Oh my god! how am I going to deliver this? Team, I need you to pull the weight this time.<\/td>Team: We will do our best (to get out of this situation. Provide some temporary fixes) <\/em><\/td><\/tr>
                                        Team: We tried our best but we have never been given a proper KT. (I am rather happy that I do not have to take much pressure)<\/em><\/td> Team Leads: Despite all the efforts, we get to be blamed<\/td>Manager: Don't worry, I will make sure you get all the necessary rewards for the hard work (strike the deal with the team leads)<\/em><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

                                        This is typically how the Drama Triangle works. And because the roles keep switching, it will keep the \"Game\" of the recurring problem alive. And all of this happens at an unconscious level. This also results in a negative feeling for everybody involved. Because, it happens at an unconscious level for all the players, they would also struggle to come out of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                        In order to break this pattern, there should be an active involvement of all the participants to solve the root problem and address the same. How would you solve this problem?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                        ...............................................................................................................................<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                        ...............................................................................................................................<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                        ...............................................................................................................................<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                        Here is how we solved the problem:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                        Solution<\/strong>: The first thing I did was to bring this awareness of Drama Triangle among all the participants. I showed them how each of them are playing their part in keeping the game alive without their awareness. Since they were all playing this at an unconscious level, it is very difficult to come out unless someone can bring that awareness. They had not seen this problem in the lens of a Drama Triangle at all. This helped them break the resistances on solving the problem and see how they themselves contributed to solving this problem. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                        The main issue was that the team members did not develop enough skills in their project. We found during the session that most of it could be addressed if the team was involved in the decision making, hold them accountable and if they can be helped in enhancing the skills. The team was given a lot more autonomy. They were involved in the planning meetings and their opinions and decisions were given more weightage. While a separate time was scoped out for KT, it was made sure that the team would start fronting all the work where as the team leads would play the supporting role. The team found the work lot more challenging, while the seniors played the role of mentors. As a result, the team started to learn not only the technical skills but also the Leadership skills to feel empowered. Gradually, there was a decrease in unplanned leaves as the team felt more empowered.<\/p>\n","post_title":"CHOW#287 - The Drama of \"Unplanned Leaves\"","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","post_password":"","post_name":"chow287-the-drama-of-unplanned-leaves","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2024-01-23 08:29:34","post_modified_gmt":"2024-01-23 08:29:34","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/pm-powerconsulting.com\/?p=19790","menu_order":0,"post_type":"post","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"next":false,"prev":true,"total_page":4},"paged":1,"column_class":"jeg_col_3o3","class":"epic_block_11"};

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