Coaching is hard. Trying to help teams change their habits and move to a different way of working can be incredibly frustrating. If only people would stop resisting, right? If only they got it like I do… Well, let’s talk about that. Do we let this attitude creep into our coaching? I do, sometimes. And […]
Thought For The Day: Carbless Feedback, an Extra Helping
I was given a gift today. After our retrospective, a teammate gave me an honest to god, solid gold slice of carbless feedback. Brilliant. Now, after posting on “carbless feedback” last week, a few folks asked me for an example. I’ve pondering the best way to share an example. Much like instagramming a pic of […]
Thought for the Day: Carbless Feedback
The sh*t sandwich. Most of us will have heard of it, potentially more of us will have experienced it. Direct feedback wrapped in a couple of platitudes designed to save our feelings. I don’t know about you folks, but I really dislike receiving feedback this way. I often find the message confusing, and rarely know […]
Thought for the Day: Iterate as I say, not as I do…
I’m sitting at lunch, berating myself for how long it is taking me to write up a couple of client workshops. I can almost see the value of the workshop notes diminishing before my eyes. Why is it taking so long you might wonder? I wondered the same thing… And then it dawned on me. […]
Thought for the Day: The Call of the Coach
This week has been one of those tricksy, landscape changing weeks where clarity became less so, and the future less certain… As I was driving home yesterday pondering where to go next with coaching my clients, I saw the picture above and smiled. “Let’s make things better” – the remnants of a once bold, glossy […]
3 Facilitation Tips to Help Level Up Your Next Meeting
5 years ago the word “facilitation” did not exist in my vocabulary. I still remember my first retrospective. My coach was in the room with me, reassuring me that it was OK not to “run” the meeting and that, believe it or not, facilitating active participation was a waaaaaay better idea than a group of […]
Tumbling Tower Retrospective
Ever wanted to bring the excitement of tumbling wooden blocks into your retrospective? Want a way to demonstrate how our daily decisions impact our sprint goal? Got a few folks in your team who enjoy Role-Playing Games (RPGs)? Then have I got a retro for you! Recently I’ve been prepping for a Halloween game of […]
Value Star
Have you ever wondered how the practical work of producing a product relates back to the Scrum Values? I know that the teams I’ve worked with often separate out the two, with one being the reason they come to work and the other being something theoretical that doesn’t really apply to the practicality of their […]
Relative Story Sizing
Ever wondered how to help keep the “relative” in Relative Sizing? Do you struggle as a team to get consistency with your story points? Well, fear not, there is a way to keep previous stories and sizes in your mind, while in refinement, without trawling through your story tracker. Introducing the Story Point Ruler! Taken […]