In this episode, Abtin joined Shahin to delve into project management, career transitions, Agile's role in project execution, and the complexities of risk and change management. Abtin shares stories from his extensive career journey, from navigating political advisory roles to consulting, teaching, and driving transformation in project management.

Topics Covered:

• The journey from political advisory to project management consulting and teaching
• Key turning points in a 20+ year project management career
• Transitioning between industries and adapting to new roles
• Balancing people-centric leadership with effective processes
• The critical role of risk management across project lifecycles
• Insights into Agile and waterfall methodologies in hybrid project settings
• Why velocity tracking isn’t the only indicator of project success
• The challenges of scaling Agile across large, complex organizations
• How teaching has influenced Alexis's approach to project management and consulting
• Coaching and mentoring future project managers and Agile practitioners

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In this episode, Lyssa joined Shahin to delve into the evolving landscape of leadership and Agile coaching, offering valuable insights and resources. She highlights the skills essential for thriving in an increasingly uncertain world and discusses her efforts to elevate leadership consciousness to address complex global challenges.

Topics Covered:

• Importance of Adaptive Skills: Lyssa emphasizes the need for professionals to develop the ability to adapt to change, work creatively, and collaborate effectively, rather than focusing solely on technical skills.
• Leadership and Mental Complexity: The conversation explores how leaders can enhance their mental complexity to better navigate the complexities of today's world, making decisions that benefit their organizations and the broader ecosystem.
• Elevate Change: Lyssa shares her thoughts on the concept of "elevating change," emphasizing that change should not be feared but embraced as an opportunity for growth and innovation.
• Planetary Challenges: Lyssa discusses the critical role of conscious leadership in addressing global issues such as climate change, mass migration, and societal instability.
• Collaboration with Frederic Laloux: She introduces "The Week," a program developed by Frederic Laloux that brings people together to confront the realities of our species' challenges and inspires action towards positive change.
• Agile Community's Potential Impact: Lyssa highlights the potential for the Agile community to be a force for good by applying Agile principles to global challenges and collaborating with others to create meaningful change.
• Recommended Books:
  • The Age of Thrivability by Michelle Holliday
  • Regenerative Leadership by Laura Storm and Giles Hutchins
• Personal and Professional Growth: Lyssa reflects on her journey of continuously evolving her mindset and learning from others, particularly in how to apply natural world principles to business and leadership.
• Contact and Resources: Lyssa can be reached through her website, LyssaAdkins.com, where listeners can find more information about her work and initiatives.

People Mentioned:

• Frederic Laloux: Author of Reinventing Organizations and creator of "The Week," a program that encourages deep reflection and action on global challenges.
• Michelle Holliday: Author of The Age of Thrivability, a book focused on aligning business practices with natural world principles.
• Laura Storm: Co-author of Regenerative Leadership, a book that explores how to lead organizations by drawing inspiration from the natural world.
• Giles Hutchins: Co-author of Regenerative Leadership, who collaborates with Laura Storm in exploring sustainable and regenerative practices in leadership.

Check out Elevate Change Training & Events

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Bottlenecks in Work Processes - Bottlenecks occur when demand exceeds system capacity. - Example: A team with sufficient work may face bottlenecks due to limited resources or dependencies on other teams. - Real-life scenarios are more complex than simplified examples. Bottlenecks and Solutions - Bottlenecks are challenging and expensive to deal with. - Finding opportunities within the system or reading the book 'The Goal' by Goldratt can help. - Bottlenecks exist in every system and must be identified and addressed. Bottleneck Theory in System - The pace of the system is determined by the bottleneck. - To relieve the bottleneck, identify and remove any other duties that may be holding up the bottleneck resource. - Delegate tasks to alleviate bottlenecks and enhance efficiency. - Identify opportunities to reduce capacity constraint. Identifying and Eliminating Bottlenecks - Bottlenecks can be identified by comparing the pace of the system to the delivery rate of the bottleneck. - If the system's pace is lower than the bottleneck's delivery rate, there may be another bottleneck that needs to be addressed. - The process of identifying and eliminating bottlenecks should be repeated until all bottlenecks are resolved. Check Elevate Change Training & Events (https://www.elevatechange.co/training-and-events/) Follow us Visit us at http://www.leanonagile.com Twitter: http://twitter.com/Elevate_Change LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ElevateChange

In this episode, Doc joined Shahin to talk about Beyond Velocity: Mastering Agile Coaching and Collaboration.

The following have been topics of our conversation:

• Coaching, leadership, and software development
• Exploring different aspects of coaching, including technical, leadership, and agile coaching.
• Coaching helps clients achieve sense of accomplishment, while also providing accountability.
• Using velocity metrics in agile software development, with a focus on their limitations and potential misuse. ⁠
• Velocity is often misused in Agile development despite being useful for high-performing teams.
• Challenges of measuring velocity in Agile development.
• A framework for management behavior, emphasizing connection, excellence, safety, autonomy, diversity, and leadership.
• Agile's evolution from values-based to practice-focused
• Emphasizing importance of collaboration, frequent releases, and automation.

Check Elevate Change Training & Events (https://www.elevatechange.co/training-and-events/)

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Writing Effective User Stories - User stories are often written poorly, leading to challenges in estimation and development. - They should be small, easy to understand, and consumable by developers. - Agile coaches can help teams write better user stories by providing tools and guidance. Using User Stories Effectively - User stories should provide value to users. - Improper use of user stories can lead to confusion and ineffective implementation. - Organizations should consider the limitations of their systems when using user stories. Writing User Stories - Writing better user stories is not the main goal. - Spending more time writing user stories means less time for collaboration and understanding. - Educating teams on writing effective user stories can be beneficial. Writing smaller user stories for faster delivery - Writing smaller user stories can lead to faster delivery and increased velocity. - It's important to understand the reasons behind requests for smaller stories and to provide assistance in writing better user stories. - Focusing on smaller stories can help avoid piling up work and toiling unnecessarily. Focusing on Collaboration over Documentation - Shifting focus from documentation to collaboration and working software. - Writing better user stories emphasizes collaboration rather than documentation. - Encouraging a mindset change to improve user story practices in organizations. Influence of User Feedback on System Improvement - Users' time investment in writing should be valuable. - Feedback can drive system changes.

In this episode, Don joined Shahin to talk about Systems Thinking, Leadership Habits, and Organizational Change.

The following have been topics of our conversation:

Transitioning from technical skills to people management.

• The importance of people in software development, highlighting their creative force and impact on success and well-being.

• The importance of trusting and empowering knowledge workers, who are closer to the work than managers.
• Jerry Weinberg (author) highlighted the shift from Taylorism (structured tasks) to coaching (personal and process-related goals), with managers becoming more interested in people's educational and career goals.

Leadership development and problem-solving.

• The importance of adapting to change and the need for problem-solving leaders to observe and understand motivation, organization, and information.

Software development, leadership, and personal growth.

• The importance of developer satisfaction, citing the costly consequences of losing experienced developers.
• Find empathetic leadership insights through reading and self-reflection.
• Software development challenges, complexity as the primary issue.

• Agile methodology requires tailoring to individual contexts, rather than following a one-size-fits-all approach.
• Organization must be ready to start software development before investing time and money.

Leadership habits and systems thinking.

• Management prioritizes cost over readiness, despite worker demand for training and success.
• Coach helps team break habits and improve systems in leadership roles.
• The "core habits" for leaders, including sharing the vision, measuring actual delivery, and creating free informational flow.

Systems thinking, agile development, and team dynamics.

• Wardley maps visualize product evolution, highlighting reinforcing and balancing loops.
• The importance of understanding how personal and cultural factors impact decision-making in complex systems.
• Agreeing to try and visioning with team members led to successful product development.

Software development, leadership, and organizational change.

• Using organizational change management techniques to facilitate change within software development teams.
• The increasing presence of women in leadership positions in the tech industry
• The importance of happiness in software development.

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Standup Meeting in Agile Teams - Standup meetings are short daily meetings held in agile teams to discuss progress and challenges. - They are typically held at the start of the day and should be kept to 15 minutes or less. - Standups can be helpful for identifying and resolving issues early on. Managing Lengthy Team Meetings - Discussing the issue of lengthy team meetings that exceed 15 or even 30 minutes. - Exploring strategies for addressing this problem and ensuring efficient use of time during meetings. - Providing practical tips and techniques for keeping meetings focused and productive. Impact of Lengthy Stand-up Meetings on Productivity - Extended stand-up meetings can significantly reduce productivity. - A 15-minute meeting for 8 people equates to 2 man-hours spent in unproductive discussions. - Prolonged meetings result in the loss of valuable work time and hinder progress on tasks. Considering Reducing Meeting Time - Discussion on whether to reduce meeting time. - Concerned about losing valuable insights and support from leadership. - Need to consider if dependent teams have representatives in the meeting. Effective Meeting Strategies - The purpose of a meeting should be to facilitate collaboration and information sharing among team members. - Reducing the time spent in meetings is a desirable outcome. - Focusing on challenges and roadblocks should be avoided. Transparency and Collaboration in Meetings - Collaboration and community occur during meetings. - Leaders suggest improvements during conversations. - Identifying the purpose of meetings can reduce meeting time. Separate Dependency Management Meeting - Daily meeting with team representatives to discuss important matters. - Separate dependency management meeting with representatives from dependent teams. - Clear focus and goal of the dependency management meeting. Daily Standoff Meeting - Daily standoffs can help teams prioritize meetings and focus on important outcomes. - Effective for well-functioning teams that communicate well and are aware of team goals. - Not necessary for teams that already communicate effectively through offline and online channels. Effective Daily Standup Meetings - Daily standup meetings should be short and focused, with a clear purpose and agenda. - The more meeting time taken from team members, the less time they have for actual work. - Customize daily meetings to fit the team's environment and purpose.

Hybrid Work Environment: Encouraging Team Collaboration Decision Making in Change Management - Discussing the role of change agents and initiators in decision-making. - Exploring the concept of shared decision-making versus individual decision-making. - Considering the complexities of decision-making in change management using a hypothetical scenario. Levels of Decision-Making - Different levels of decision-making exist, each requiring varying levels of preparation and time investment. - Making decisions oneself may yield less effective results compared to seeking input from others. - Consider the level of decision-making desired when making choices. Follow us: Visit us at http://www.leanonagile.com Twitter: http://twitter.com/Elevate_Change LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ElevateChange

In this episode, Anna joined Shahin to talk about Burnout, Technology, and Personal Growth.

The following have been topics of our conversation:

• Burnout, stress, and self-care.
• NLP and its role in communication.
• NLP and its effectiveness in personal growth.
• NLP and coaching with a focus on organizational change.
• Work-life balance and self-validation.
• Feedback, burnout, and mental health.

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• Twitter: http://twitter.com/Elevate_Change
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In this episode, ⁠Shahin⁠ talks about Kanban Ninja, KLR and New Open Space.

The following have been topics of our conversation:

• Insights from attending Kanban Leadership Retreat in San Diego
• Customized open space format for efficient topic selection and discussion.
• "Kanban ninjas" session in KLR23 to teach techniques for using Kanban method without telling people, focusing on efficiency and effectiveness
• Techniques to smooth burndown chart in scrum fashion, including "look right, look up, look left" rule.
• Encouraging team members to take ownership of tasks by providing excuses for not completing them.
• Discussing techniques like "last one to the meeting" and "CFD with arrival and departure rates" to improve team productivity and time management.
• Encouraging teams to celebrate small victories and identify areas for improvement.
• Assume positive intent keeps a healthy atmosphere in the team.
• Introducing a color-coding voting technique to help teams identify areas for improvement in Kanban maturity model.
• Discusing techniques like "What do you really do well?" to uncover sources of dissatisfaction in a team conversation.

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• Twitter: ⁠http://twitter.com/Elevate_Change⁠
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In this episode, Fahd joined Shahin to talk about Embracing Failure, Coaching, and Clear Goals.

The following have been topics of our conversation:

• The following have been topics of our conversation:
• Breaking down a large program into smaller teams.
• Letting things play out and not being afraid of coaching.
• The importance of welcoming failure and pauses.
• Recommendation for people starting their journey.
• Iterative development and iterative development.
• The importance of being a service leader.
• Assume positive intent keeps a healthy atmosphere in the team.
• The challenge of having clear goals.

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• Visit us at http://www.leanonagile.com
• Twitter: http://twitter.com/Elevate_Change
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ElevateChange

In this episode, Horia joined Shahin to talk about Kanban and Various Aspects of Coaching & Consulting, as part of the Kanban Clinic series.

The following have been topics of our conversation:

• Collaboration is the main mechanism to untangle the system.
• One of our responsibilities is to manage our own workload.
• What is your self-care as a coach & How to avoid burnout in your career?
• How do you deal with changes?
• Basic steps for listeners to get to a trustful environment.
• Collaboration, alignment and teamwork.
• Hacking the culture of agile & the evolution of agile at each level.
• Correlation between agile practices and culture.

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• Visit us at http://www.leanonagile.com
• Twitter: http://twitter.com/Elevate_Change
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In this episode, Craeg joined Shahin to talk about Kanban and Various Aspects of Coaching & Consulting, as part of the Kanban Clinic series.

The following have been topics of our conversation:

• From extreme programming to Kanban.
• The differences between implementing kanban at the organizational level vs. the team level.
• The importance of having a beginner mindset.
• Other branches of kanban, exploring different aspects.
• Differentiating and differentiating from cheap knockoff kanban.
• Taking kanban beyond teams and groups to enterprise level.
• Portfolio kanban and strategy level kanban.
• How kanban helps with visualization and leadership.
• Finding opportunities to use kanban tools.

Note: It is the speaker’s intent to add that Nimble, formerly known as Swif, does not suffer from the limitation implied.

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In this episode, Carlos joined Shahin to talk about the product and innovation.

The following have been topics of our conversation:

• The secret sauce of becoming a successful learner and being able to apply that.
• Identifying where to start in the customer journey.
• Don’t be afraid to fail.
• The two ways to look at innovation: solving problems and improving the overall experience.
• The two ways to look at innovation: incremental or breakthrough.
• The challenge of getting a shared understanding in the room.

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• Twitter: http://twitter.com/Elevate_Change
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In this episode, Andreas joined Shahin to talk about Dependencies and Scalability in Kanban, as part of Kanban Clinic series.

The following has been topics of our conversation:

• Dependency management in Kanban vs waterfall.
• Kanban management of dependencies vs Scrum.
• How to implement business agility in your organization.
• Kanban, simple or complicated?
• Kanban v.s. Scrum
• The easiest way to understand Kanban fully.

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• Twitter: http://twitter.com/Elevate_Change
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ElevateChange

In this episode, Jason joined Shahin to talk about Lean Change, Modern Change and Agile Change and much more.

The following has been topics of our conversation:

• Lean Change Management
• Modern Change Management
• Agile in Startup and Large Orgs, and in Different Pockets
• Lean Startup Machine
• Enterprise Aware
• Exceptional Change
• Who is Responsible for Change?
• That Change Show

The followings we have referenced:

• Becoming a Change Artist - Jerry Weinberg
• Are your lights on?
• The secrets of consulting
• The psychology of computer programming
• Virginia Satir Ecosystem
• MIT's Leading Organization Change

In this episode, Mike joined Shahin to talk about Kanban, Leadership, Strategy, Games and non prescriptive Agile and much more

Quotes from this session:

• Leadership is about providing just the right amount of space.  Don’t give them so much space that they lose heart, control, or their  grip on what they are trying to do.
• If Agile is something that happens to you, it’s pretty awful.
• Rolling things out is a recipe for pain, not for success!
• There is no way a leader can control anybody!
• The world would be very very dull if we are only allowed one framework.
• Agile can be done in investment banking.

The following has been topics of our conversation:

• Kanban Through Its Values
• Kanban From The Inside
• non prescriptive agile and change
• 3 layers of leadership
• Servant leadership, Host leadership, Leader leadership, Clear leadership
• Mindset of integration
• Descriptive vs. prescriptive models and designs
• Clean language
• Leader is not a therapist
• Generative question and conversations

Games:

• Featureban
• Changeban
• 15 minutes photo
• Celebration 5W

The following books we have referenced:

• Clear leadership – Gervase Bushe
• Turn the ship around

Where you can find more about Mike and his work

• academy.agendashift.com
• agendashift.com/mike
• agendashift.com/books
• agendashift.com/resources
• agendashift.com/slack

In this episode, Ricardo joined Shahin to talk about Practical Agile; and indulge in an in-depth conversation on Agile through time from trenches to executives, and much more.

• Coach please come on in, help us with this. That's the dream scenario.
• Never hire Agile Coaches that are gonna tell you what they are going to do to make things better.
• The one thing I recommend is never to be a hero!
• Hiring for Leader: I am hiring you for how you think. I can teach you what you do not know. But I can't teach you how to think.

The following has been topics of our conversation:

• Scrum Fit and/or Kanban Fit
• CSP through times - Scrum Alliance
• Coaching & Consulting Stories
• 10 years of Agile
• How to start Agile
• Don’t stop at Scrum

The following books we have referenced:

• Agile Samurai (Amazon Canada)
• Doing Agile Right (Amazon Canada)

We mentioned the following people:

• Mary Poppendieck
• Ester Derby 
• Diana Larsen
• Jason little

Contact Information:

• https://www.linkedin.com/in/riclee3/

In this episode, Dave joined Shahin to talk about Kanban; and indulge in an in-depth conversation on Kanban going main stream, Consulting, Kanban vs Others, Training, and much more. 

The following has been topics of our conversation:

Kanban Facts

• Kanban’s take on Estimation
• Kanban Spread to Whole Company
• What really does Kanban do?
• Misconceptions of Kanban
• Kanban offers a long-term solution rather a short-term achievements
• One reason that the Kanban Method was created, was to make life better for people.
• Kanban;  it’s just a way to see your problems, describe solutions, put them in a  place that everybody understands, and to bring all of your people  together to solve these problems.
• Scrum, SAFe, XP Barrier on evolving change in any organization

Kanban Going Mainstream

• Draft letter of the start of Kanban University – Soestduinen, Netherlands 2012
• AKC – AKT – KCP – KMP programs
• Kanban Conference – Kanban Week – Kanban Leadership Retreat
• Kanban University YouTube
• Dave White Session in Europe LKUK 2013 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9vLfEz4aqY

Lean Software Society Boston 2012

High-Performing Team vs High-Performing Organization

The following books we have referenced:

• Kanban From Inside
• Kanban essential guide
• Kanban Blue Book

We mentioned the following people:

• Mike Burrows (Also)
• Klaus Leopold
• Alexei Zheglov
• Katrin Dietze
• Patrick Steyaert
• Mathis Skarin
• David Anderson
• JaniceLinden-Reed
• Dave White
• Masa k Maeda
• Jasper Boeg
• James Newkirk (nunit)

Contact Dave:

• @AgileRamblings
• dave@depthconsulting.ca
  

In this episode, Joey joined Shahin to talk about Kanban; and indulge in in-depth conversation with select audiences.

• Kanban as a Method vs a Tool
• Upstream and Delivery Stream
• Stealth Kanban
• KLR - Kanban Week
• Q&A with JoeyScrum and/vs Kanban in large organizations 
• Kanban in Transformation world 
• Chaos being hidden as Expedie

The following books we have referenced:

• Upstream Kanban
• Kanban essential guide
• Kanban Blue Book
• Agile Management Book
• Fit For Purpose

We mentioned the following people:

• Mike Burrows (Also)
• Klaus Leopold
• Alexei Zheglov