As an executive, you will be faced with the choice to do the pivot (if you can) or persevere (if you have no other choice). This will lead to a series of “bets”. You lead with a hypothesis that the things you change will allow you to operate at pre-event levels. But, how long will it actually take for you to validate your hypothesis and have a bet pay off with pre-event levels? If you run out of time to figure it out or run out of bets you can place, then you either lose your standing in the market or worse risk going out of business.
Regardless of the organization or institution, there will always be dependencies. The larger the organization, the greater chance of the existence of dependencies. This template is available for download from Tableau Public
In the following interview (both video and audio), Dave Prior and I explore why Value Stream Management is so important, how it works, the connection to Value Stream Mapping, and how you can get started with it.
Key performance indicators (KPIs) are metrics that are used to evaluate the performance of an organization or individual. They are used to measure progress towards achieving specific goals or objectives and to determine whether an organization or individual is meeting their targets.
I keep getting asked, does Jira Align support Flow Metrics, as defined in the Flow Framework and SAFe? The short answer is yes. If you believe these metrics will help unlock the potential of your teams, use this community post to see working examples of Tableau reports I have created using Jira Align and Enterprise Insights.
As Hurricane Sandy approaches the East Coast, we're already feeling its impact. You can't find batteries, milk, toilet paper, or bread anywhere. The only thing I went out looking for yesterday was coffee. Strangely enough, I didn't have to fight anyone for it. It was interesting to watch people and see how they handled the stress of the situation.
What I find even more interesting is how leaders are handling all of this. By title alone, they should lead, right? I see this as an opportunity for us to distinguish the wheat from the chaff. Some leaders are doing just what they should. They are leading. They are establishing states of emergency, they are closing schools, and shutting down public transportation. Others are just waiting to see what others are going to do. Though I am a strong proponent of waiting to make a decision until the last responsible moment, it feels like that moment has passed. Has your leader stepped up?
I'm curious how this weather event is going to impact local elections. I'm not referring to people not having electricity. Hopefully, we'll all be on the mends by next week. No, I think Hurricane Sandy is bringing attention to where there is leadership and where there is a lack of it.
I am back from the PMI Global Congress in Vancouver, British Columbia.
My lack of fancy pants went pretty much unnoticed. I brought plenty of energy (and coffee) to my session and it appears people were very happy with the results. I was referred to, at one point, as the Energizer Bunny and even the PMI quoted me.
I definitely left people wanting more. It was an introductory talk and I only had 1:15 to present. With 20 minutes dedicated to people in the audience working together to create their own Visual Control Systems, I found myself all over the room and loving every second of it.
It was great to meet people I've known for several years via the blog and through the PMI Agile Community of Practice. It was also great to meet so many new people excited about Agile becoming more mainstream.
Side note: If you saw me limping during my session and at the Congress, it was because I may have a fractured heel. I guess my OJ Simpson run through the airport to make my flight did it.
There isn't a week that goes by that I don't hear some awesome quote or analogy. I put as many as I can into my mental back pocket, hoping for an opportunity to pull one out at a moments notice. When you're stuck for a quote or analogy, to help someone understand what you're trying to say, do you ever ask yourself what's that awesome quote that I just heard the other day?
Here are 10 that I keep handy. Are there any quotes you would like to share? Please add them to the comments section.
Because the needs of the one... outweigh the needs of the many. - Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, Captain Kirk.I like to use this quote when explaining the contrast between egoism, utilitarianism, and altruism (servant-leadership).
The more they overthink the plumbing, the easier it is to stop up the drain. - Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, Scotty.I'm admittedly a Star Trek geek. I've used this once when trying to articulate Lean thinking. I also segway into the untrue but compelling story of the Million Dollar Space Pen.
The thing is, Bob, it's not that I'm lazy, it's that I just don't care. - Office Space, Peter Gibbons.I like to use Office Space quotes, particularly when referring to empowered teams and while drinking from my Initech coffee cup. Mmm'kay? Greeeeat.
That which does not kill us makes us stronger. - Friedrich Nietzsche.I think of this quote during almost every run I take. After taking an inventory as to my physical condition, I have a mental debate as to stopping or keep pushing forward. I keep pushing forward.
We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things, because we're curious and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.- Walt Disney.I've told my son over and over again to challenge the status quo (I don't call it the status quo because he's seven) and when given the choice, try new things.
When we go into that new project, we believe in it all the way. We have confidence in our ability to do it right. - Walt DisneyThe power of positive thinking and an empowered team.
Plans are of little importance, but planning is essential – Winston Churchill. Another almost identical quote came from Dwight D. Eisenhower: Plans are worthless, but planning is everything When I talk about the Agile Manifesto and how we should be responding to change over following a plan, this becomes one of my most commonly used quotes.
Stable Velocity. Sustainable Pace - Mike Cottmeyer.This quote appears on the back of the LeadingAgile running shirt. It has become the unofficial motto of my life, as it applies to work, family, and running
We don’t need an accurate document, we need a shared understanding - Jeff Patton. I was attending Jeff's session at Agile 2012, when I heard him say this. It really resonated with me. I don't know if the quote was scripted or impromptu. Regardless, when I recently quoted him at a Project Managment Symposium in Washington DC, I saw over 400 project managers nodding their heads.
This post was originally published on LeadingAgile
I want to thank everyone for coming out to the PMI Washington D.C. Project Management Symposium. It was a great crowd. The ballroom was full and I was told there were up to 400 people in the room for my talk. As promised, here is the SlideShare of my presentation. If you go to the SlideShare site, you have the ability to download it.
Regardless of your organization and goals, everyone is trying to do things better. I commonly hear about management asking its people to do more faster, often with less.
One major mistake I see time and time again are organizations trying to do things faster before really understanding their own processes. If you don't stop and really ask yourself if you've optimized the whole of your processes, before trying to go faster, any successes will be short lived. I can assure you that speed without optimization is not sustainable.
Recently, I got back into running. I haven't ran consistently for a few years and honestly, I always hated it. The goal was never to run a half or full marathon. The goal was always to stay under 28 minutes for 3 miles. That was the minimum speed requirement on a Marine Corps PFT back in the late 80's, when I was enlisted. Without fail, my feet and knees always hurt. So, I did what any novice runner would do. I bought really cushioned running shoes. I was able to run a couple miles at a time, at the pace I wanted, but I had to stop due to sharp pain in my knee and lower back.
A few weeks ago, I had lunch with a friend who is also a former Marine but he does a lot of distance running. His goals include running half and full marathons. I told him of my pains and he said I needed to read the book Born to Run and consider barefoot running. Now, barefoot running includes both running barefoot or wearing minimal footwear. Remember, the modern running shoe wasn't invented until the 1970's. By getting rid of my cushy shoes and changing how my feet strike the ground, suddenly the pain is gone. It was that simple. A few days ago, I ran five miles and I could have kept going. Suddenly, three miles in 28 minutes is no longer the goal. Because I have a stable velocity with no pain, I now have a sustainable pace. I know I can now go the distance.
Think about your organization again. Do you meet your commitments, but it's painful? Do you sometimes not meet your commitments, because your pace is not predictable or it's just too fast? Stop and think about what you're doing. Really take a fresh look at how you're doing things and consider making some changes. Don't use the excuse of "this is just how we've done it in the past". Once you find and address the root causes of your pains, you can refocus on what you're trying to accomplish and reaching both those short and long term goals.
Regardless of where I coach or teach, there is always someone who approaches me and says something like, "Agile is great for software projects but what about projects that aren't software related?" When asked the question, I usually give examples like a U.S. Marine fire team or air crew or a home construction site. (I'll save those stories for another time). I now have a new story to tell about a cross-functional, highly collaborative team, which competed for the Progressive Insurance Automotive X Prize.
While I was at Agile 2012, I met Joe Justice of Team WIKISPEED and had a chance to actually touch a car that was designed and built using Agile methods. (see cool photo enclosed)
Here is some back story from a 2011 press release: Based in Seattle and led by Joe Justice, WIKISPEED is a collaborative team of over 50 experts and volunteers dedicated to offering ultra-efficient, ultra low-cost, mass-production road-legal vehicles. In 2010 the team's SGT01 prototype placed in the top 10 in their class out of 136 cars overall in the Progressive Insurance Automotive X Prize.
Joe was able to build his first functional prototype in just three months. The car that competed in the X Prize got 114 MPG (Highway). Compare that to the Toyota Prius which currently gets 51 MPG (Highway) and was introduced in 1995. The reason auto manufacturers are so slow to "better" their products is because change is very expensive for them. It is not uncommon for auto manufacturers to operate on 10 to 25 year development cycles. Before Object-oriented programming methods were introduced, software teams used to operate much the same way.
By modularizing how we build software, we're able to shorten our development cycles down to days. By shortening our development cycles down to days, we give ourselves the opportunity to get feedback from our customers and create things that they really want, not things that we think they want. We save ourselves and our organizations countless dollars in wasted development, due to waiting too long to get feedback from our customers or by operating in functional silos. My breaking our teams down into small, cross-functional, empowered teams, we shorted feedback cycles as much as we can.
Being Joe is a client facing software consultant, building Agile teams and practices, why would he limit the benefits of Agile to just his customers? Joe and his team have a car that has a development cycle of seven days. They do this by modularizing the car. They can switch the gasoline engine to an electric one in about the same time it takes to change a tire. They could change the car body from a convertible to a pickup truck. All of this allows them to make changes and develop quickly.
The car is safe (passes road safety standards), because Team WIKISPEED developed safety tests before building the actual parts. This helps them lower waste (Lean). Next time you say you can't afford to do test-driven development, think about that. They do all of their work in pairs, avoiding time training that is not productive. (XP Practices) Again, the next time you say you cannot afford to pair people, think about that. Pairing also helps lower the need for most types of documentation. If everyone has a shared understanding, you have less need for it. They visualize their workflow to help identify hidden delays and deliver something every seven days (Scrum).
So, do you still think Agile is only for software projects? The fact that they use 7 days sprints on hardware, when I hear people say they can't do anything less than 30-days on software, just goes to show you where there is the will there is a way.
I was updating my Agile Certified Practitioner (ACP) Training slide on Emotional Intelligence and thought of the relationship it has with our humanity. A few clicks later, I found myself reading a passage on Wikipedia on "the virtue of humanity"
The three strengths associated with humanity are love, kindness, and social intelligence. Humanity differs from justice in that there is a level of altruism towards individuals included in humanity more so than the fairness found in justice. That is, humanity, and the acts of love, altruism, and social intelligence are typically person to person strengths while fairness is generally expanded to all.
Emotional Intelligence from ACP
To me, social intelligence is nothing more than social competencies of emotional intelligence. We need empathy and we need social skills. I'm left conflicted from the Wikipedia passage where it says humanity and justice differ. Fairness should be found in both social and individual competencies. It just doesn't have to be explicitly stated.
Well, the wait is finally over. My paper, "Traffic Lights to Burndowns, an introduction to Visual Management Systems" was selected for presentation at the PMI Global Congress being held in Vancouver, British Columbia in October. Now all I have to do is respond to this letter by Friday and fill out yet even more paperwork.
As Hurricane Sandy approaches the East Coast, we're already feeling its impact. You can't find batteries, milk, toilet paper, or bread anywhere. The only thing I went out looking for yesterday was coffee. Strangely enough, I didn't have to fight anyone for it. It was interesting to watch people and see how they handled the stress of the situation.
What I find even more interesting is how leaders are handling all of this. By title alone, they should lead, right? I see this as an opportunity for us to distinguish the wheat from the chaff. Some leaders are doing just what they should. They are leading. They are establishing states of emergency, they are closing schools, and shutting down public transportation. Others are just waiting to see what others are going to do. Though I am a strong proponent of waiting to make a decision until the last responsible moment, it feels like that moment has passed. Has your leader stepped up?
