Partnership & Possibilities

In December 2011, cbsnews.com published an article by Dave Logan, Ph.D., author of Tribal Leadership, suggesting that “work-life balance “ is a crock, an idea whose time has come and gone. Although I too have felt that this is an unrealistic ideal, I’m not so sure that I could clearly articulate what I do believe […]

“Our experience thus far has been that while self-organizing teams may enable the organization to operate from day to day without active management, a more integrated organization and more productive teams make the value-add of managers highly transparent and place a premium on specific leadership skills.” from Adam Light, Chris Vike and Diana Larsen. “Teamwork […]

When the rains came down and the flood waters rose in Nashville TN one month ago, it became clear the Agile Alliance would have to “respond to change” rather than “following the plan” for our annual Agile 2010 conference–with the conference scheduled to open in only 14 weeks.
Leaders and the conference team at the […]

While in Washington D.C. last month, for the first time I visited the U.S. Library of Congress. Guided by writer and experienced LoC researcher David Schmaltz, I received a temporary library card to research early management thought.
In the glorious reading room under its amazing dome, I held two precious books. One, an (out of […]

For some time, I’ve been ruminating on how to answer folks who query, “How do I convince people that Agile is better?”

I’ve been fortunate to have experienced many great team building moments, activities and events on several great teams. One of the best, involved feeding each other.
In Fearless Change, Mary Lynn Manns and Linda Rising counsel that a pattern called “Do Food” “makes an ordinary gathering a special event” and reference Christopher Alexander’s pattern “Communal […]

Agile retrospectives aren’t just for teams or organizations. Individuals (like you and me) also use them as a way of taking stock and choosing how to move forward—reflecting, inspecting, and adapting to the changing conditions in our lives. Chronological milestones serve as a great prompts for a personal retrospective (e.g., year’s-end, birthday, anniversary, solstice, etc.). […]

A group of people in the alt.net community in Seattle have organized a conference in just a couple of months. They decided to use an Open Space Technology format and asked me to facilitate the conference. My company, FutureWorks Consulting, agreed to sponsor the conference by donating my time, so I jumped at the chance. […]

As of this morning (Feb 23, 2009), hundreds of potential presenters have submitted 922 possible sessions for Agile 2009. Each of those 922 sessions needs feedback to become the best it can be. Think of it as a massive multi-player perfection game (MMPPG). All of us need your help to make sure our sessions give […]

In this video from the ÖreDev conference, I present some ideas about the changing role of managers in organizations that have adopted Agile methods.