Rockstar Support Bands and Two-Steps-Then-Passing Teams

Teams playing basketball
Photo by Max Winkler on Unsplash

Two kinds of teams, who couldn’t be working more differently. They differ in their structure, how they work together, and how they communicate and share information. I do think that only one strives in an Agile environment and that organisations who want to hold on to the other will face difficulties. Here’s a description of these two kinds of teams.

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How Stephen Colbert helped us to achieve a female quota of 42% when organising a conference

Opening Circle ACCAU Melbourne 2017

The current female quota for all ticket holders for the Agile Coach Camp 2019 Melbourne, Australia, is 42%. We achieved that by selling exclusively 40% of all tickets to people who identify themselves as female. Here’s how we did that with the help of Stephen Colbert.

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Sprint Review, a Feedback Gathering Event: 17 Questions and 8 Techniques

The Sprint Review is a feedback gathering event. You better listen carefully…
The Sprint Review is a feedback gathering event. You better listen carefully…

In this post, I’ll clarify the intent behind the Sprint Review. It’s not about applause or reports. It’s a feedback gathering event which has to be properly prepared. Here are 17 questions and 8 techniques on the what and how to ask for feedback in product development. Continue reading

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Please Help to Create the Most Awesome Lean Kanban Conference in Australia

Lean Kanban Australia/New Zealand 2013
Lean Kanban Australia/New Zealand 2013

Dear Lean Kanban Aficionado,

With any luck there’s a conference coming up later this year: Lean Kanban Australia/New Zealand, or LKANZ if you like, (pronounced el-cance, rimes with bell dance). It’s the southern hemisphere extension of the famous Lean Kanban conference series. This year the series consists of 10 conferences, well, 9 actually, and we want to make the 10th happen in Melbourne, Australia, on 12th-13th September – with crowdfunding. We need you for this, so please read on! Continue reading

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The Agile Onion – 4 Fundamental Aspects of the Agile Universe

agileonion
My Agile Onion (in a bottling jar)

Whenever I give an overview of Agile, e.g., in classes or to clients, I use an onion to describe it. My Agile Onion consists of a core, has two layers, and it rests in a bottling jar. The Agile Onion represents the Agile Developer Skills, Scrum, Kanban and Agile Management Innovations. For me, the Agile Onion represents the 4 fundamental aspects of the Agile universe out there. Continue reading

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140 Second Presentation: Inspire with AMIs

iStock_000017810603Medium
It’s all about inspiration!

A few decades ago, writer and poet Antoine de Saint-Exupery wrote: “If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up the men to gather wood, divide the work and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea.

In my opinion it’s not actions what people are looking for, but inspiration. That’s what I like about Stoos Connect: it inspires people all over the world to yearn for new management ideas.

Therefore we came up with the term Agile Management Innovations, or short AMI (which sounds like the name Amy, like Amy Winehouse or Amy Farrah Fowler, which means “The beloved one”, which I find kinda nice). Continue reading

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99 Second Presentation: Kanban Values or How I Almost Attacked a Manager With Hot Coffee

kanban_values
Kanban Values by Mike Burrows

Once there was this day when I almost attacked a manager with hot coffee. I had booth duty at a conference in 2009, and a manager came by and asked about Kanban. I grabbed my coffee mug and explained Kanban by refering to the practices, like “Visualize” and “Limit WIP”, and to the principles, like “Start with what you know”, etc. As I explained, the manager’s face went from sceptical over interested to pleased – actually it was more like an evil grin. So I asked him what he thinks about it, and he said: “This is awesome! That’s exactly the kind of method I was looking for to finally get more control over my lazy employees!Continue reading

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