I’m a Manager since 2011 and I always thought I am quite a good listener, that was until I attended the Co-Active Coaching training where I got introduced to the different levels of listening and had the chance to extensively practice it.
When a flower doesn't bloom,
Alexander Den Heijer
you fix the environment in which it grows,
and not the flower
If you’re applying Scrum in your project you are most likely aware of the three questions from the Scrum Guide that can be used to structure your Daily Standup:
- What did I do yesterday that contributes to the sprint goal
- What am I going to do today that contributes to the sprint goal
- What is blocking me
I was never really convinced and didn’t see real evidence with the teams I worked with that they help to organize the work for the Day.
Too many initiatives in parallel, unrealistic production targets, and milestones. Daily status updates, tracking, rushing, hurry….why does it take so long? What have you been doing? While waiting why not starting with this other task?
Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.
Leo Tolstoy
While we were encouraged to work from home for the last two weeks because of Coronavirus, it’s now officially a mandate starting tomorrow, March 17, 2020. Our office will be closed. Nobody is allowed to go to work. Everybody has to stay at home and work remotely.
Most of us are working from home every now and then and most of my work colleagues are part of a fully or partly distributed team. However, being at home every day, not seeing your work colleagues in the office, not having ad-hoc social interactions and suddenly being in fully remote meetings is a major change and can be challenging. That is why, from tomorrow on, I’ll post daily thoughts and tips on remote working and being in general as well as remote meeting facilitation. And I will do this for as long as the imposed working from home quarantine is going to last.
When you are tired of saying it, people are starting to hear it
Jeff Weiner
I recently facilitated a session for my team at our quarterly team gathering to introspect about who they are as a team and how they are working together. We’ve done this session during a transition phase where one team member was about to leave while a new team member just joined the team. Both were present in the room.
What does truly matter to you? Are you living the life you want to live? Are you spending your time where you want to spend it?
These are big question that trigger deep reflection about what’s really important. This is what Personal Agility did to me ever since I took the Practitioner Workshop in late 2019. I started to reflect on my whole life situation and decided to take myself on a journey to improve my personal and work life. One step at a time.
Be kind to everyone you meet, for they too are fighting a great battle.
Dr. John Watson
Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.
Soren Kierkegaard
The Personal Maps activity from Jurgen Appelo’s Management 3.0 practices is a great way to lower the mental distance and create trust between teammates.