Agile methods depend on effective cross-functional teams. We’ve heard many Agile success stories…at the team level. But what happens when a product can’t be delivered by one team? What do you do when the “team” that’s needed to work on a particular product is 20 people? Or 20 teams? There are no simple answers. But
Slides from a talk I gave on Double Loop Learning in Retrospectives: Double Loop Learning in Retrospectives View more presentations from Esther Derby And take a look at PROMOTING DOUBLE LOOP LEARNING IN RETROSPECTIVES.
I’ve been talking about (and using) Human Systems Dynamics tools lately–Rally Success Tour, OTUG, Practical Agility and Retrospective Workshops in Stockholm. I find Containers, Differences, Exchanges offers my clients (and me) a useful way to see past events and see structures. Working at the level of structures gives both insights and opens up opportunities for
From time to time, I hear from people who aren’t realizing value from their retrospectives. When I probe to understand the situation, I understand why they aren’t getting results–the process they are using isn’t designed to actually help the team think, learn, and decide together. So here’s a primer for Agile Retrospectives, a process to
Slides from Team Traps! Team Traps View more presentations from Esther Derby. (a subset of )The Traps (and how to avoid them). Zeroth Trap Part-time Team Members? Neither Leaderless, nor Leader Dominated. Leaderful. Withholding Information Deal with the Human, then the Work Ignoring the Role of Trust Six Ways that Team Members Build Trust with
When companies decide they want the benefit of the team effect, or adopt agile methods, they (sometimes) realize that they need to update their management style as well. And too often, they enter an 4-step dance of oscillation. Managers feel overburdened and overwhelmed. Teams are disengaged. They want teams to take more responsibility, and show
Questions matter. The questions we ask open one avenue of inquiry, but close others. If we want to change the way we manage, we need to change our questions. And so, here are my slides from my talk at Agile 2010: 14 Essential Questions aimed at refocusing management attention on creating work systems that work–creating