In last week’s post, I shared the first of 10 recommendations on how to become a great Product Owner. In this post, I complete the list by sharing my top 5 recommendations. 5.) Share your Product Roadmap – Having a Product Roadmap allows a great Product Owner to communicate the next steps that he or...Read More
One of the most common questions that we get when teaching people about Scrum involves the Scrum Master. Specifically, does a Scrum Master need to be “technical”? In order to answer this question, we first need to explore what it means to be “technical”. Defining this word isn’t as easy as it seems. First, everyone...Read More
In Leo Tolstoy’s book, Anna Karenina, he offers this famous quote: “All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” This quote has been applied to many contexts from the obvious familial setting to larger organizations of various shapes, sizes and forms. It’s true that each of these organizations is...Read More
Based on over 4-decades of observational research, I can confidently assert that intellectual laziness is an all-too-common leadership fail. It is a myth that managers manage by the numbers. So many leaders that I’ve observed in action simply were not skilled thinkers, having little understanding of data, statistical methods, empirical analysis, and probabilistic decision-making. In...Read More
I’m writing this in May 2021. It varies, but the global COVID-19 pandemic caused much of the world to push pause on “normal” life and go into and stay in emergency mode since March 2020, or earlier. Thankfully, amazingly safe and effective vaccines now allow us to realistically envision a return to “normal.” That said,...Read More
There are a number of great anecdotes and quotes associated with American Football. From Vince Lombardi, “What the hell is going on out there?” to Dick Butkus, “I only cheat in league games,” to Randy Moss’ “Straight cash, homie!” the characters of the game have provided us with a number of memorable one-liners and stories....Read More
Do you think it is possible for an organization to be Agile if its leader is not Agile? This question is a little deeper than you might think. Do you think it is possible for someone to be a leader of an Agile organization if they are not personally Agile in the leadership of their...Read More
Part 7—Interdependence & Series Wrap-Up In Part 1 of this 7-part series of posts we looked at VUCA, where the term originated, what it means, and how it relates to Agile leadership. The speed and interdependence of events in today’s world will ultimately overwhelm the time-honored processes and culture we’ve so far built. Once comforting...Read More
Part 6—Price Factor Equalization In Part 1 of this 7-part series of posts we looked at VUCA, where the term originated, what it means, and how it relates to Agile leadership. The speed and interdependence of events in today’s world will ultimately overwhelm the time-honored processes and culture we’ve so far built. Once comforting constants...Read More
Part 5—The Butterfly Effect In Part 1 of this 7-part series of posts we looked at VUCA, where the term originated, what it means, and how it relates to Agile leadership. The speed and interdependence of events in today’s world will ultimately overwhelm the time-honored processes and culture we’ve so far built. Once comforting constants...Read More