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Three questions about leaders

Clipped from an article entitled - Are Leaders Born or Made?

Amplify’d from www.vanguardscotland.co.uk
 I had three questions. 
1. What do good leaders achieve?
2. What do good leaders do?
3. How do they do it?Read more at www.vanguardscotland.co.uk
 

literacy and learning

The article was good but the quote was irresistible.

Amplify’d from sivers.org
“The illiterates of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.”- Alvin Toffler
Read more at sivers.org
 

Lean at starbucks (lean without the social side isn’t lean at all)

The article I’ve clipped from here is a response from John Shook to an article in the Wall Street Journal regarding a Lean transformation effort in it’s early stages at Starbucks.

But that’s not why I’ve clipped it.

The aspect of the article I wanted to draw attention to was the emphasis on the social aspects of Lean. As I see more people talking about Lean and Kanban in software engineering environments I wonder - who is owning this process, the team or the coach? As John puts it, who is the scientist?

Amplify’d from www.lean.org
The problem with Taylor’s Scientific Management: Who is the scientist when it comes to process improvement? Scientists must see real work to do science on the work.
Toyota revolutionized the social dimension of work, respecting workers brains as well as their hands
By redefining roles, Toyota changed the answer to the question of who is the scientist in scientific management.
The technical side of lean without the social side isn’t lean at all.Read more at www.lean.org
 

Frog thinkers and bicycle thinkers.

A delightful metaphor that cuts to the heart of systems thinking.

Thanks to Richard for sharing!

Amplify’d from www.richarddurnall.com
There are two types of thinkers in the world, frog thinkers and bike thinkers
This to me is the heart of systems thinking Read more at www.richarddurnall.com
 

As a manager define outputs, not process

Liz haz written a great post here describing a situation where the deployment team needed to learn for to leverage the development team to achieve a more effective rout out of development into QA and live environments.

The line that made me smile was -

Ask for consistent outputs, not consistent processes

This is a big leap for many managers and senior stake-holders. I worked with a team recently who had been told to do daily stand-up meetings. They were told that each must answer three questions (you know the three, what yesterday, what next and what’s blocking). The teams manager had a team member minute the meeting and send him an e-mail to save time.

I was asked to have a chat with the team about why they seemed unhappy with this new “agile” approach. The first step was to invite the manager to write a contract in terms of his information requirements and agree that so long as the team could fulfil the contract he would accept their approach.

A short retrospective later and the team are posting key information on a board for all including the manager to see, the minuting of the meeting has stopped and they have taken back their stand-up whic it turns out they quite liked now it could move faster without minuting.

So thanks for the reminder Liz and thanks for sharing.

Amplify’d from lizkeogh.com

Ask for consistent outputs, not consistent processes

Read more at lizkeogh.com
 

The lean manager

Some insights from Jim Womack on the nature of a lean manager.

Amplify’d from www.lean.org
Tools — for process analysis and for management — are wonderful things. And they are absolutely necessary. And managers love them because they seem to provide short cuts to doing a better job. But they can’t achieve their potential results, and often can’t achieve any results, without managers with a lean state of mind to wield them.
the lean manager eagerly embraces the role of problem solver.
no manager at a higher level can or should solve a problem at a lower level
the lean manager believes that all problem solving is about experimentation by means of Plan Do Check Act
the lean manager knows that no problem is ever solved foreverRead more at www.lean.org
 

5 wrong reasons to adopt Kanban

All true!

I see a significant risk that Kanban becomes a new and exciting way for teams to fail.

I do believe that there are good reasons to apply a Kanban approach but more on that another day.

Amplify’d from www.targetprocess.com

#1. User Stories Diversity

#2. Failed Iterations

#3. Failed Retrospective Meetings

#4. Shared People / Functional Departments

#5. Simplicity

5 Wrong Reasons To Apply Kanban

Read more at www.targetprocess.com
 

Scrum meeting late fees

It’s good to see someone speaking out against this practice.

Also nice to see Rachel and Tobias chiming in.

Punishing lateness avoids the root cause and can breed resentment as the team feel that the process is being imposed.

Amplify’d from powersoftwo.agileinstitute.com
In order to deter people from showing up late to their daily “Scrum” or “stand-up” meeting, some teams charge the culprit(s) a fine, or make them do some embarrassing activity (such as singing) for the team. Some teams use the money to buy lunch for the team once a month or so. (If that’s you: Please stop it! You’re rewarding the wrong behavior.)
Read more at powersoftwo.agileinstitute.com
 

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