Thoughts
YOU COULD NOT STEP TWICE INTO THE SAME RIVER
A collection of writing related to agile principles, coaching, and leadership. A place to explore the connections between our everyday world and work life. Rarely is there truth here - as my thinking and perspective evolves.
An-Isotropic Scaling
“… we need to keep focused on the problem we are trying to solve, rather than simply uniformly scaling a system that works in its current situation.”
Coaching Symbiosis
“Coaching is an unending journey for both parties, and if you're not learning from the people you work with, you're probably not coaching.”
Musical Scales
“… it’s about the symbiotic and continuous exchange with people I trust and admire.”
Mindset over Mechanics
“Effectively, without helping change the mindset and consciousness (=culture!) of the people and organizations we work with, our efforts to transform the world of work will never achieve their potential.”
The Email Iron Triangle
“The cost of that decrease in effectiveness is rarely taken into account at the project level.”
Iterative / Incremental delivery to get to the Moon!
The iterative and incremental approach to one of the greatest feats of all time.
What’s in a Title?
“In reality, at least as a transitional move, the two roles are still required during the early stages of an agile transformation.”
The Satir Interaction Model and Hand Reading
“Teaching yourself to be disciplined about progressing through these steps helps greatly with minimizing miscommunication.”
An Agile Mindset in House Construction
“… building NEW software is not analagous to building a house, it's analogous to building a housing subdivision.”
Agile Education
“Educators on the forefront of their field have long understood the need to transform education into a two-way conversation between teachers and students.”
Project Grammar
“Focusing on projections of the desired outcome, based on present data or trends, is how we truly manage risk on a project”
When You’re Up to your ass in Alligators
“Of course the best solution to the problem of how to effectively drain the swamp is to prevent the swamp from forming in the first place.”
Pragmatic Moneyball
"Baseball team owners think in terms of buying players. Your goal shouldn't be to buy players but to buy wins and in order to buy wins you need to buy runs."
Applying the Dreyfus Learning Model to Focus your Coaching Approach
“We've discovered (as the model predicts) that skipping this stage of learning can lead to problems absorbing and implementing the philosophies and principles of the agile manifesto.”
Agile at the Masters
“They seem to place more value on what has been accomplished for certain rather than what the potential for the future might hold.”
Thoughts on ‘Potentially Shippable’
“Ideally it is simply a business decision whether there is enough value to actually warrant shipping.”
Spike… Do the Right Thing [Redux on Aug 30 post]
“Of course this is all just semantics ... Story, Task, Spike, Backlog Grooming ... what's the big deal? The answer to this lies in the fact that we use words to communicate intent …”
Golf, Poker and Software
“… they tend to revert back to old, less than desirable ways. For most people this transition of skills to procedural memory takes disciplined, directed effort.”