I recently had a sudden reason to do something I had not done since childhood. I went to the hospital as a patient. Surgery could not wait. I’m doing well now, moving on the road to full recovery. As I reflect back on the experience, I found things to learn about team work, skill boundaries […]
Tag Archives: people
The Power of Smaller Teams
The issue of team size comes up very often in my interactions and online. People are very anxious about this detail and for good reason. The size of a team directly effects the culture and work they do, for good or bad. Documents Say… The Agile and Scrum literature, including training classes, recommend a team […]
Teams Over Projects
A team I have been working with recently had a crisis. The customer of their project had put everything on hold. In other words, the project was cancelled. The company had plenty of other work to be done so they were not worried about losing their jobs. The biggest worry for the team was breaking […]
Agility Requires Clear Communication
The topic of communication has become a bit of an irritant lately. Certainly I’m not the best communicator in the world, so I work at it. I’m starting to wonder if many others have forgotten this key to productivity and enjoyment. I have many thoughts on this subject. Today I’ll address communication as an enterprise […]
Mentors and Mentoring at Gangplank
I recently learned yet another something through Gangplank. January is National Mentoring Month. That gave me pause to think about what mentors have meant to me. My Mentors Don Dayley, my father – Taught me all the foundational things in life, including how to mow the lawn when I did not want to, sometimes through […]
Guest Post For Gangplank
I was invited by Katie Charland, Director of Operations at Gangplank HQ, to write a guest post on their blog. The post was published this morning (January 5th, 2011). Gangplank is a place and movement that redirects us to see the people. Where we see the value of tapping the full human, not just functional […]
A Holistic View
A few weeks ago, lying in bed, waiting for my mind to turn off, my thoughts carried me to think about an Agile enterprise. What would be important? What would it look and feel like? A diagram of concepts formed to define the general areas of focus for an Agile enterprise. The next day I […]
Volunteering for Agile
I’ve spent my life participating in volunteer work. It started when I was very young doing charitable things with my family and church. It expanded to wider interests and included leadership opportunities too. At 14-years old I served on an organizing committee for about 350 youth doing clean-up work on a large non-profit farm. Several […]
Shortest Time As “New Guy.” Ever!
Last week the VP and CTO of my division wanted to have a chat. While not wholly unusual, it’s always a good thing when we chat! Running out of time during the week, he suggested we meet for breakfast on Saturday morning. (Liberty Market in Gilbert, Arizona, USA) When the VP invites to Saturday breakfast, […]
Scrum Teams Have A Team Lead
Many companies define positions by a list of “Roles, Responsibilities, Accountability and Authority.” The RRAA concept is that every individual needs to have RRAA defined for them so everyone knows what each person is supposed to do. This supports the common focus on individuals as “resources.” (Funny how companies talk about the importance of teamwork […]
A member of
