Partnership & Possibilities

In a Sept 26 blog post, Bob Sutton, co-author of Hard Facts, Dangerous Half-Truths and Total Nonsense, refers to five points he’s learned about teaching people to innovate. Point number 1? “1. Producing smart individuals is the first step; teaching them to collaborate is the second step.” Just a small reminder to all the smart [...]

As I surf the web-o-sphere, I continually look for clues and keys to effective collaboration for teams. This morning I found Power of Two on Wray Herbert’s blog

At a recent users group meeting, I heard about a retrospective activity someone created. It wasn’t an activity I would use as described (which is why I’m not more specific about who and where), but I thought it had possibilities. It’s based on the idea of asking team members to write thoughts on index cards [...]

My theory which is mine. (Thank you Monty Python.) It’s only a theory and I haven’t developed a test for it yet. Though I’d like some suggestions on how to do so. My theory is: iterative development + daily stand-up meetings + frequent retrospectives +a culture that supports learning = eventual invention of a home-grown [...]

Once again you have the opportunity to attend the workshop, “Secrets of Agile Teamwork: Beyond Technical Skills” in Portland, Oregon, December 5-7. For more about the workshop and a downloadable registration form, please look in the Events section of this blog. (See that sidebar over there?) This will be the fourth time Esther and I [...]

Yesterday I had the opportunity to lead a retrospective for the last class session of a new course at Portland State University. Jim Shore and Andrew Black put together a four week, 11 session (7 classes and 4 labs), course on Extreme Programming for twelve enthusiastic students – a few undergraduates, a few graduates students, [...]