If a lot of people in organizations engage in “politics”, does that mean scrum masters (and such) engage in “diplomacy”? I think so. What do you think?

Originally posted on 2023-08-29 at 20:24 via https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn%3Ali%3Ashare%3A7102385574962987008

Whenever you see “buy now, pay later”, read it as “yes, I’m willing to pay way more than the sticker price”

Originally posted on 2023-08-25 at 14:27 via https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn%3Ali%3Ashare%3A7100846042702655488

The expression about “you can’t have your cake and eat it too” never made sense to me. When I’m eating cake and someone asks me what I’m doing I say “I’m having cake.” Send help, please.

Originally posted on 2023-08-24 at 19:50 via https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn%3Ali%3Ashare%3A7100565164969652224

Scrum is a bit like when you’re trying to track your food intake for body weight management. It doesn’t really help much if you only track the vegetables you eat and not the chocolate cake.

Originally posted on 2023-08-24 at 16:31 via https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn%3Ali%3Ashare%3A7100514961893859329

Wordle 792 2/6

⬜

This will never happen again in my lifetime. I play, like, once a year. What a fluke. I should buy a lottery ticket.

Originally posted on 2023-08-20 at 14:41 via https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn%3Ali%3Ashare%3A7099037793019981824

Exponential this, accelerated that. I’m still feeling triggered by those words. I tend to see them as invitations to exceed sustainable work. More often than not, going at high speed (the result of acceleration and exponential thinking) causes us to miss things.

Think about the difference of driving a car on the highway compared to taking a walk on a trail. When you’re in the car, the only thing you can really pay attention to are things far away. You completely miss things near you because you’re passing them so quickly. When you’re on the trail, you have the ability to really take in your surroundings in detail, seeing all the textures and patterns in the natural world.

Perhaps this story can illustrate as well: The other day, I was trying to go shopping. To do that, I had to exit the alley behind the house onto city surface streets. Near the alley exit there is a telephone pole on the right, and on this day a car was parked on the left, so close that my car barely fit through the opening between the pole and the other car. What did I do to make sure neither car got any damage? I slowed down so I could check and re-check the distance between my side mirrors and the car and pole. Imagine if I had floored the gas pedal and just taken my best guess at how to steer. Most likely, that would have ended badly, either for my car or the other car.

Why do we rush so much in our lives? What are we chasing? Why is so much about acceleration and exponentiality?

Originally posted on 2023-08-14 at 21:14 via https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn%3Ali%3Ashare%3A7096962269506375681

“To the heart and mind, ignorance is kind
There’s no comfort in the truth, pain is all you’ll find.”
– Andrew Ridgeley / George Michael

Such a poetic way to express the idea that we tend to see only what we already believe. And part of a massive 1980’s hit song to boot! #CarelessWhisper

Originally posted on 2023-08-14 at 15:31 via https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn%3Ali%3Ashare%3A7096875904454303744

At the risk of being blasphemous: We are often asked to justify why it’s worth it to have us as agile practitioners/coaches/guides on payroll/contract. What value do we bring, since we don’t “do” anything? And we are asked to argue for our worth and show our value in a direct-line-causation-chain. I wonder if anyone ever asks that of middle managers (directors, senior directors, VP’s, etc.)?

If you take something like Esther Derby’s SEEM model (she’s my source for that, at least), how does someone who is charged with Enabling & Enhancing draw a direct-line-causation-chain to the value and outcomes of their work? Is it just assumed that that value is there? If so, why can’t it just be assumed that the same holds true for agile practitioners/coaches? I’m genuinely curious what your take on this might be.

#agile #coaching #value #worth #ComplexAdaptiveSystems #HumanSystemsDynamics

Originally posted on 2023-08-11 at 14:25 via https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn%3Ali%3Ashare%3A7095772138409771008