LeadingAgile SoundNotes: an Agile Podcast

Today, the market for Transformation is a transition period. We see some companies looking for the next big thing, and others going back to what they know. Is this a sign that Agile is waning? Is it evolving? Or is Agile so deeply engrained in the way business gets done, people have just started calling it something else to deny the fact they just aren’t very good at it? Mike Cottmeyer and Dave Prior sit down to discuss this interesting moment in time for our industry and more in this episode of SoundNotes.

Contacting Mike Cottmeyer

If you’d like to contact Mike, you can reach him at:

LeadingAgile: www.leadingagile.com/guides/mike-cottmeyer
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/cottmeyer/
X: x.com/mcottmeyer
Email: mike@leadingagile.com

Contacting Dave Prior

If you’d like to contact Dave, you can reach him at:

LeadingAgile: www.leadingagile.com/guides/dave-prior/
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/mrsungo
X: x.com/mrsungo
Email: dave.prior@leadingagile.com

If you have a question you’d like to submit for an upcoming podcast, please send them to dave.prior@leadingagile.com

Interested in CSM or CSPO Training?

You can find all the details at www.leadingagile.com/scrum-training/

Agile practices don’t automatically lead to Business Agility. In the presence of dependencies and organizational impediments that the teams have no ability to change, going through the motions of Scrum or SAFe isn’t going to lead to greater Business Agility either. So, you can train the teams all you want, but if it doesn’t lead to greater Agility, who cares?

Listen as Mike Cottmeyer and Dave Prior discuss some common misconceptions about Agile Transformation, how training often leaves businesses wanting more, and some things to consider if you’re thinking about starting an Agile Journey of your own. Also, stick around for the end, where Mike reveals who his favorite fictional Project Manager is.

Contacting Mike Cottmeyer

If you’d like to contact Mike, you can reach him at:

LeadingAgile: https://www.leadingagile.com/guides/mike-cottmeyer
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cottmeyer/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/mcottmeyer
Email: mike@leadingagile.com

Contacting Dave Prior

If you’d like to contact Dave, you can reach him at:

LeadingAgile: https://www.leadingagile.com/guides/dave-prior/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mrsungo
Twitter: https://twitter.com/mrsungo
Email: dave.prior@leadingagile.com

If you have a question you’d like to submit for an upcoming podcast, please send them to dave.prior@leadingagile.com

Interested in CSM or CSPO Training?

You can find all the details at www.leadingagile.com/scrum-training/

People have debated whether or not SAFe is Agile for as long as it’s been around. LeadingAgile CEO, Mike Cottmeyer, joins Dave on this episode of SoundNotes to explore the roots of small team Agile and to discuss how SAFe stacks up against the ideals of the Agile Manifesto.

Contacting Mike Cottmeyer

If you’d like to contact Mike, you can reach him at:

LeadingAgile: https://www.leadingagile.com/guides/mike-cottmeyer
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cottmeyer/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/mcottmeyer
Email: mike@leadingagile.com

Contacting Dave Prior

If you’d like to contact Dave, you can reach him at:

LeadingAgile: https://www.leadingagile.com/guides/dave-prior/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mrsungo
Twitter: https://twitter.com/mrsungo
Email: dave.prior@leadingagile.com

If you have a question you’d like to submit for an upcoming podcast, please send them to dave.prior@leadingagile.com

Interested in CSM or CSPO Training?

You can find all the details at www.leadingagile.com/scrum-training/

There’s a layer to communication that is most important for understanding: intention. It’s the most often overlooked aspect because it’s hard to decipher if people are saying what they mean or if you actually understand what they’re saying.

By hunting for a shared understanding of intention, you can more deeply understand what people are saying and why. If you aren’t aligning on intent, you could be missing the mark, which can be detrimental, especially in a business environment.

In this episode of SoundNotes, Dave and Mike explore how improving communication can translate into an Agile work environment, personal relationships, and the benefits that better communication provides to individuals and groups of people.

Contacting Mike Cottmeyer

If you’d like to contact Mike you can reach him at:

LeadingAgile: https://www.leadingagile.com/guides/mike-cottmeyer
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cottmeyer/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/mcottmeyer
Email: mike@leadingagile.com

Contacting Dave Prior

If you’d like to contact Dave you can reach him at:

LeadingAgile: https://www.leadingagile.com/guides/dave-prior/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mrsungo
Twitter: https://twitter.com/mrsungo
Email: dave.prior@leadingagile.com

If you have a question you’d like to submit for an upcoming podcast, please send them to dave.prior@leadingagile.com

Interested in CSM or CSPO Training?

You can find all the details at https://www.leadingagile.com/our-gear/training/

During Transformation, we need a way to measure its performance and improvements to the organization so that leaders continue to support the initiative. Metrics need to be used to help teams get better over time and drive the right kinds of outcomes that leadership is looking for.

In this episode, Mike Cottmeyer shares his insights into different Agile metrics and what are the right ones that give leaders what they need to make the necessary changes to the system and improve overall performance.

Contacting Mike Cottmeyer

If you’d like to contact Mike you can reach him at:

LeadingAgile: https://www.leadingagile.com/guides/mike-cottmeyer
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cottmeyer/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/mcottmeyer
Email: mike@leadingagile.com

Contacting Dave Prior

If you’d like to contact Dave you can reach him at:

LeadingAgile: https://www.leadingagile.com/guides/dave-prior/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mrsungo
Twitter: https://twitter.com/mrsungo
Email: dave.prior@leadingagile.com

If you have a question you’d like to submit for an upcoming podcast, please send them to dave.prior@leadingagile.com

Interested in CSM or CSPO Training?

You can find all the details at https://www.leadingagile.com/our-gear/training/

In this episode of SoundNotes, Len Greski joins Dave to discuss leadership and emotional systems. Len is a Principal Consultant at LeadingAgile and he has a background in sociology. As Len explains, “The most difficult challenge in delivering great products is getting people to work together." During the interview, we explore emotional systems theory and how that can be applied within our organizations and teams to create sustainable change and deliver great products.

The Bowen Family Systems Theory was developed by Dr. Murray Bowen. It is rooted in taking a systems view in studying families and the relationship patterns that develop between family members. Bowen’s theory and the eight concepts that came out of it can also be applied to the workplace and the emotional systems we create and participate in day to day. The better you are able to understand these systems, the more able you will be to foster systems that lead to a positive outcome for your team, your organization, and your customer.

Links from the Podcast

• Bowen Family Systems Theory: https://www.thebowencenter.org
• Johari Window: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johari_window
• A Failure of Nerve by Edwin Friedman  https://amzn.to/3Cxc6dD

Contacting Len Greski

If you’d like to contact Len, you can reach him at:

• LeadingAgile: https://www.leadingagile.com/guides/len-greski/
• LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/leonardgreski
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/lgreski
• GitHub: https://github.com/lgreski
• Email: Leonard.greski@leadingagile.com

Contacting Dave Prior

If you’d like to contact Dave, you can reach him at:

• LeadingAgile: https://www.leadingagile.com/guides/dave-prior/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mrsungo
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/mrsungo
• Email: dave.prior@leadingagile.com

If you have a question you’d like to submit for an upcoming podcast, please send them to Dave.

This week’s podcast was created as a response to a question we were recently asked by some of our CSM/CSPO course students. This one is for all the team members and Scrum Masters, the people on the ground who see why Agile could make a huge difference in their entire organization but just don’t have the title or agency to sign the contracts to make it happen.

What they wanted to know is: How does someone who isn’t at contract-signing level create a conversation where they can get the leaders above them to be open to Agile Transformation? 

Dave and Mike will unpack the answer, including discussion on how to hone in on what executives care about and value, and some important questions to ask yourself about the organization and its goals before you start the conversation. They’ll share tips on how to craft the right kind of conversation to get leaders to understand why Agile Transformation is worth doing.

Contacting Mike Cottmeyer

If you’d like to contact Mike you can reach him at:

LeadingAgile: https://www.leadingagile.com/guides/mike-cottmeyer
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cottmeyer/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/mcottmeyer
Email: mike@leadingagile.com

Contacting Dave Prior

If you’d like to contact Dave you can reach him at:

LeadingAgile: https://www.leadingagile.com/guides/dave-prior/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mrsungo
Twitter: https://twitter.com/mrsungo
Email: dave.prior@leadingagile.com

If you have a question you’d like to submit for an upcoming podcast, please send them to dave.prior@leadingagile.com

And if you’re interested in taking one of our upcoming Certified ScrumMaster or Certified Scrum Product Owner classes, you can find all the details at https://www.leadingagile.com/our-gear/training/

So an Executive walks into a Daily Scrum and demands Team Member X who must immediately begin work on something that is not part of the Scrum Team’s commitment for the Sprint.

If you are a Scrum Master, this has either happened to you, or it is going to… soon.

What do you do? 

You know this is not ok. The Executive, who may have the power to fired you on the spot. should know better too, but apparently, they are “extra-agile”.

Your job is to protect the team from interruptions just like this. But your job is also not to get fired. In the heat of this moment, you may not have time to work on developing and evaluating different theories.

What do you do?

In this episode of SoundNotes, Vic Bonacci joins me to talk through some of the options a Scrum Master has in this situation. We explore different choices available to the SM and the potential impact of each option. And, Vic and I both came at this challenge from different angles, so it gave us an excellent opportunity to talk through how we see it through different lenses.

This week in SoundNotes, Chris Barton joins me to talk through a problem that shows up one way or another in every single CSM class I teach…

How do I get my team to want to do Agile when they don’t want to do Agile?

During the interview, Chris and I talk through different lenses you can employ to get a better understanding of what is driving the resistance and strategies for overcoming it.

We also spend some time near the end of the conversation on how to influence when you have no sway. This one came from someone on a team who is earlier in their career and is paired with an older Tech Lead that seems to view her primary role as Team Meeting Scheduler.

Whether you are the one trying to influence, or you are the recipient of someone’s efforts to influence, there is a lot here that you’ll find valuable.