They kept repeating the same mantra:
You are an agile coach! Why are you so concerned about code quality and software excellence???

My client was incredulous and somewhat irritated with my suggestions.

I was explaining that focusing only on scrum team behaviors will lead to mediocre results.

In their minds – agile coach (es) should constrain themselves to making observations about the various scrum ‘ceremonies’ and improving the team adoption of team agile patterns.

When I started talking about DevOps and the CI/CD pipeline they were convinced that I was violating an agile coach boundary.

At the same time, there were others in the organization that understood the benefits of a holistic perspective on scaling a high performing engineering organization.

Yes, agile coaching is often team focused, however only focusing on team agility is detrimental to success.

In many engagements as an agile coach I find myself walking a fine line; Integrating team agility, tech agility and product agility. I share with clients the Three Shades of Agile Venn diagram to dispel agile coaching myths; In this post I’ll share the same with you!

Agile Coaching and Scrum Mastering is more than Scrum practices 

The reality of agile is more complex than merely building scrum practices into teams and agile coaching the teams to that effect. Team agile is hard – yet insufficient to creating team greatness.

For more on getting to team greatness from Team Agile perspective – Scrum- the art of doing twice the work in half the time.

The problem is that organizations adopting agile practices focus on the Agile Team practices, ignoring the vital elements of Tech and Product agile. This leads to un-balanced results. Teams improve and start creating code faster, however that code is riddled with bugs and not delivering value.

This pattern is exacerbated by the onslaught of big placement agencies. They are whole-selling agile coaches with little consideration to the client needs. This results in coaches who are predominantly Team Agile coaches.

In other words, without the proper focus on Tech Agile – the code the teams create lacks quality and engineering craftsmanship. The teams become ‘code monkeys’ (a somewhat derogatory term that I wasn’t familiar with until recently).

The teams are doing things fast – but not necessarily doing them right.

Without the proper focus on Product Agile – the code teams produce can be of high quality and delivered fast, however might not be aligned with delivery of customer value.

The teams are doing things right but not the right things.

The three shades of agile are vital to scale high performance agile teams and produce a highly functioning software organization. Many times focusing on Team Agile can lead to Agile by name only; see Understanding Fake Agile by Steve Denning.

Agile Coaching and Scrum Mastering is also about Tech Agile

I think we are letting ourselves off the hook way too easy!

By limiting our agile coaching to Agile team practices and scrum specifically we forget our commitment to the team’s overall success.

The signers of the Agile Manifesto were mostly software evangelists; their thoughts, posts and books were discipline specific. They discussed agile with the context of delivering better software. Since then, scrum has become the prevalent agile method and in turn assimilated other agile methods into it. The unintended result is that the Tech Agile practices are pushed aside;

Agile coaches and for-hire scrum masters working in software organizations  (sometimes erroneously referred to interchangeably) – who lack software background are hesitant to challenge the team with concepts such as: engineering excellence, build in code quality, daily clean code, continuous integration, continuous deployment, craftsmanship etc. For a great read about agile coaching both Tech and Team Agile – read: Scrum and XP from the Trenches

However, as coaches and scrum masters it is our duty to challenge the team with exactly these concepts. High performance software teams can only become such when they mature both in the Team Agile and their Tech Agile practices!!!

Note that Tech Agile practices are domain specific; the software Tech agile practices are software specific. Teams operating in other domains would have their own Tech Agile practices. For example read my post on Lean Agile Delivery on Cadence.

Master the balance – Tech, Team and Product Agile

Agile coaching is about offering what the teams need when they need it.

Starting with Team Agile practices such as:

• Definition of Done, Definition of Ready, Retrospective done well.
• Team agile scrum patterns – the metrics identified by Sutherland et al is a great starting point.
• Stop Starting Start Finishing to accelerate delivery.
• Team behaviors Trust, Psychological Safety – talking about the hard stuff.

Are a great first step in getting high performance agile teams – however without the complementing Tech agile patterns mentioned above – high performance often eludes the team.

From a team perspective, in order to have a successful DevOps transformation; Agile Product methods are needed:

• Lean UX.
• Value stream mapping.
• Lean startup – hypothesis and validated learning – Build Measure Learn cycle.
• Agile story mapping.
• Lean Agile intake process.

Learn more about Product Agile in this Graphic Novel – How To Survive When Technology Disrupts Your Business.

Getting Agile Product behaviors and patterns in place and improving them is also necessary to scale agile across an organization successfully.

Moving from dysfunction to high performance is a daunting challenge. Agile coaching provides teams with the necessary insights, support and mentoring to transform. Agile coaches and scrum masters must embrace more than just the prescriptive Team Agile practices. They need to transform themselves and develop understanding and insight in Tech and Product Agile to serve both the teams and the organization on the journey to high performance.

Learn more: My Lean-DevOps-Agile journey – The Good the Bad and the Ugly.

The post Agile Coaching – Three Shades => Team Agile, Tech Agile, Product Agile appeared first on Michael Nir.

I wrote this book about influence without authority 6 years ago – check it out.

However, I missed something key – while I discussed the motions of how to become a great influencer – it lacked the overlying message – and in this ongoing post I’ll make it right.

Influence without authority – why does it matter – the bigger picture

You see – it’s not enough to become a great influencer (which I teach how at workshops I offer – read also here about silent influencing) it is crucial to have the goal in mind.

Influence without authority helps people navigate social interactions where they need to assert their position. The image of a puppeteer controlling marionettes springs to mind. Many times it meets resistance as people feel it lacks moral support and puts them in a manipulator position.

Using Influence without authority  as a goal ignores a core problem and misses a more holistic and ethical solution.

The core problem is that people are disengaged.

If you are part of a disengaged organization applying Influence without authority  tools in the traditional way might be counterproductive by alienating people even further. These in turn impact dreadful employee disengagement we experience at the work place!

In contemporary settings the image of a puppeteer is not appealing.

Creating engaged communities

The goal is to create engaged communities.

Employee disengagement is real and inflicting pain! Not to speak that it’s killing the bottom line.

So, yes, read the book however come back here to learn how to Build Engaged Communities through Horizontal Influencing.

The post Influence without authority? How I messed it up, and what you can learn! appeared first on Michael Nir.

• The first thing I do is slow down, take a breath and observe the process

• I might then ask an open-ended question

• Influence authority manifested in the physical environment
  

• Influence authority is improved through practice
  

Changing Difficult Settings

There we go again, no raise. If only I knew how to get it right this time!

Jennifer – the client doesn’t agree to our terms – how can we influence him to sign the contract? Robert – there is no way the team will follow you – maybe you can show some leadership? Sounds familiar?

From the denizens of corporate cubicles to the ever distressed home business owner all the way to the supply chain, engineering, development, finance and marketing departments – knowing how to influence can greatly impact your results.

Review the following scenario:

Let’s revisit the situation of a tough colleague who you need to work with. They assume a hostile, close position and are unwilling to join, collaborate, open up, and so on. Realistically, even with influence authority we are not always able to change such a position.

However, there are tools and techniques to silently influence this scenario.

When I encounter a negative closed attitude where there is no cooperation, I appreciate that there is little use in continuing the interaction.

Breath!

Often, it is futile to work against powerful resistance. The first thing to gain influence authority is to: slow down, take a breath and observe the process. Breathing is a very important and often neglected remedy to overcome challenging scenarios.

Awareness of a situation is heightened when we offer ourselves the possibility to take the time to notice our breathing.

As we are focusing on our breathing, we magically loosen up and build our personal It increases our perception and option for viewing the situation with a new point of view and heightened empathy. This in turn, enhances our propensity for influence and leadership.

Ask open ended questions

Ask an open-ended question! I avoid asking a yes/no question such as: “so do you agree with the proposed solution?”.

I also refrain from asking: “WHY don’t you agree?” WHY is a problematic word, as it carries a hint of blame to it and would intensify the conflict.

I use softer framing with the word HOW, such as: “HOW would you suggest continuing now?” Or alternatively: “can you offer us your perspective?”.

And even: “I would like to receive your view on the solution.”

By stating what I want, I lead by example and create an opportunity for others to do the same.

Many decision making meetings are at an impasse, as everyone is doing what s/he thinks should be done rather than stating what s/he would like to achieve.

Sometimes, to overcome an influence authority impasse, you can carry out a shrewd move and offer the resisting colleague an object such as a pen, a document, a paper during the meeting to influence his/her chosen closed position physically.

This can result in him/her opening his/her folded hands, or shifting forward in his/her chair. Also, my leaning forward toward him/her will create some physical response in him/her. The change in the outward behavior changes the inner attitudes, just as surface behaviors generally are a reflection of inner feelings.

Overcome stalemates

To overcome an impasse,  carry out a shrewd move and offer the resisting colleague an object such as a pen, a document, a paper during the meeting to influence his/her chosen closed position physically.

Influencing Through Surrounding Space

Notice how you use the space around you. An object on which you place your hands at is if as though you claimed ownership for. Pay attention where your hands wander. Moreover, a meeting table is virtually divided into personal zones.

These zones are maintained zealously. Make sure you aren’t crossing the lines. Alternatively, it can also serve as an opportunity to move away from negotiation stalemates and conflict situations by reorganizing the physical setting as the meeting progresses and no decision is reached.

Be the King!

King Arthur knew about personal space and seating hierarchies and opted for a round table.

Sometimes, better decisions are reached away from the formal meeting table with the long rectangle heavy mahogany. A low circular table in the lobby or sitting in a corner can yield better results.

Observe your personal office space; can you imagine how guests and colleagues feel there?

Experiment with changing the physical surrounding. Change seating arrangements often to increase the opportunities for silently influencing.

Want to learn more about influence authority ? Silent Influencing? Silent Influencing – Employing Powerful Techniques for Influence and Leadership  available on Amazon Also in Print http://smarturl.it/silentinfPrint

The post Influence authority – Win success with Silent Influencing appeared first on Michael Nir.

It plays out like this: the successful company wants to scale production;

The CEO, VP of operations and VP of Marketing head out to a big manufacturing trade show  They are enamored with the big robots and the automatic machinery;

They fall in love with the curved white lines, the huge arms and the sleek user interface.

And especially– the manpower reduction – they won’t need those pesky low wage employees anymore.

And the VP adds, this would make them a global player and they could take on the pending RFP for the Burmese government.

And so, like all love in first sight, they write the check for five million dollars and sleep well that
night knowing they are on the right track to automation – and ‘hey’ aren’t robots the coolest thing ever?

Lean manufacturing – big robots die hard

Back at the plant the senior production director is somewhat tenacious; haven’t we been in this game before?
Haven’t we tried the robotic automation path just 3 years ago and we are still paying the price for it?
Not to forget the legions of highly skilled engineers required to program it.

It will be different this time – rest assured they tell the production director – this new robot is a game changer.
The technology has advanced so much; and in any case that previous machine was the decision of the previous management team, and we all know what incompetent fools they were.

Lean manufacturing – robots die with a vengeance

But, as things have it, the production director was right all along. She was an avid learner of lean manufacturing.
She knows the truth about big inflexible machines; she know that big investment in automation usually don’t produce the expected results:

A recurring pattern has already been uncovered years ago.
In Lean Thinking: Banish Waste and Create Wealth in Your Corporation, authors Womack and Jones, traveling across the US and Europe showed how big investments in automation usually provide mediocre results.

While automation looks nice on paper, once it is installed in production lines it:

• Limits manufacturing flexibility – reduces ability to tweak the product to the consumers preference
• Require constant feeding of raw material so it doesn’t stand ideal (making the books look nice) – leading to waste and over production
• Require armies of highly skilled engineers to configure
• Require ongoing maintenance completed in house or by paying expensive third party vendors
• Limits the adaptability of the production area, constrains the layout of the production plant
• Requires construction and maintenance of feeder conveyor systems

In other words, it becomes a liability rather than an asset.

It falls short of the high hopes of faster production and meeting consumer demand;
It becomes a ‘white elephant’ usually a step in a long series of failures of leadership, not understanding that flexibility and adaptability in today’s market place trumps utilization and capacity.

Lean manufacturing – the Toyota way

Surely, people investing millions of dollars in automation of production line already read the book. Why then did Elon Musk fall in this trap?  It has to do with our being enamored with technology.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/joannmuller/2018/02/16/tesla-thinks-it-will-school-toyota-on-lean-manufacturing-fixing-model-3-launch-would-be-a-start/#4c710f3b4c74

The reason I believe is that his error stems from the framing of Tesla as a Silicon Valley startup that leads to the next transportation revolution as software companies brought the communication revolution.
This frame might work in people’s minds however it fails on the manufacturing floor.

There’s a big difference between agile and lean the way it is done in software and the painful lessons learned by car manufacturers – producing tangible products in the real world.

While the lean agile principles hold across industries, the practices are different.

Automation in software development is a holy grail.

Automation in manufacturing is a tricky compromise between speed, capacity and flexibility.

Scaling software follow other rules than scaling production.

It behooves Silicon Valley to assume they know it all.
However sometimes the experts in Detroit can teach Silicon Valley geniuses a thing or two.
In the meantime, Tesla invests in automation, while Toyota downscales robotics.
When it comes to car production, I’d hedge my bets and go with Toyota.

The information contained herein is personal opinion and experience and should not be considered professional financial investment advice

Michael Nir
www.michaelnir.com
Author of The Pragmatist Guide to Corporate Lean Strategy

As seen on ABC, NBC, CBS, Boston Herald, FOX, and more

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Do you think Facebook can go completely bust?

I heard experts saying that Facebook is too big to fall; fortunately, Facebook isn’t a bank that trades in currency, making it a danger to the economy when it disappears.

Facebook is different, their currency is the LIKE, it is a weird currency; people kept harvesting likes by constantly posting stuff to get more likes; however we don’t know what the residual value of a LIKE is. Never before we faced this kind of situation; where a huge global enterprise that was built on social currency is flailing and people are urging others to desert it. It is a weird situation and any result is possible.

Facebook bust? Trading in Memories

So, what will happen to us, the users, should Facebook disappear?

From the user perspective – us – Facebook offers a list of all our historical social interactions – all of the information we have in our Facebook profile boils down to a summary of our digital memories. The fact is that we don’t know what value is in those memories for us – the end users.

What we do know is that people are highly protective of their physical memories and go to great lengths to preserve them – As Nobel Prize Laureate Daniel Kahneman described on TED– we are slaves to our memories.

Even if there is no actual value to Facebook memories, people and businesses invested a lot of efforts in creating a well-groomed presence on Facebook. Under the current situation they definitely got the short end of the stick since they don’t necessarily own their Facebook page. While Facebook can trade the information and sell our well-groomed– individual profiles to the highest bidder, or any bidder for that matter, eventually when Facebook will disappear from the face of the earth it will not preserve our photos from the trip to Alaska.

Facebook bust – Four Practices to Keep our Digital Memories

Here are four things you can do if or when Facebook bust and stops being your friends’ favorite social network and you find yourself alone, in the dark, with only Mark Zuckerberg holding a candle for you.

1. Download a list of all your friends on Facebook and make sure you have their email address and other contact information. At least do that for the real friends. According to Dunbar’s number – you really have approximately 125 real friends on Facebook, so make sure you have their contact details.
2. Download a summary of major post, interactions and events – Facebook has an option to create summary ‘albums’ usually shoved involuntarily down the users – ours – throats. Instead, download a summary story of your Facebook life and keep it as a document, presentation or any available format on your device.
3. Save photos, videos and all other downloadable information to your device, back it up to somewhere that you actually own; and then, if you feel like it, share it with your friends on a cloud based picture sharing application.
4. if you’re serious about your digital presence and sharing your information with others – move your social posting to a page you own to share through social networks, so you are the owner of your destiny…

Or ,if you don’t care about your virtual memories as they are presented on Facebook then just grab a glass of real wine and take a front row seat as these weird events are unfolding.

Read more digital thoughts

About me

The post Facebook bust? Life without Facebook appeared first on Michael Nir.

Really?

Again?

She asked me.

Aren’t you going to change the subject of your talk? You’ve been going on it for years.

It is still relevant – the same way microwaves are still around – I replied.

Microwaves?

Yes, microwaves; I’ll get to that later.

Is that so – she asked – why are you so passionate about the agile PMO?

Well, I answered, project program and portfolio management offices (PMO) are here to stay and making them agile is crucial.

Actually, organizations separate between teams that are agile, and program and portfolio structures that follow rigid top down mandates. In other words; agile project management is limited to teams using a mish-mash of scrum and kanban methods with little business understanding or any buy in.

But everyone has been saying that we have crossed the chasm – and that agile is king!

Lean Agile PMO – connect business to agile teams

Well, many of the scrum masters are project managers in disguise.

We keep lying to ourselves about it.

We haven’t adopted an agile mindset to delivery. Traditional approaches still guide program and portfolio execution in the organization. And, these approaches often contradict the emergent leadership, self-organizing and self-directing agile teams.

In this hybrid playing ground, some teams are successful others less so, however the end result isn’t better delivery of products that make customers happy.

That’s sad…you’re actually saying that the teams are ‘free’ to plan and estimate as long as they are within the top down roadmap timeline, budget control and scope directions.

Exactly!

And therefore, it is the agile project management offices (agile PMO) that must drive business agility. They are the connection between the business mindset and the teams – that’s the agile pmo!

So why are they failing?

Mostly because they are misguided!

When you read the PMBOK – PMI®’s project management body of knowledge are you inspired?

Not really, they describe that the PMO main task is to standardize project-related governance processes, I don’t find that inspiring and visionary.

YES, not that there’s anything wrong with processes… However to change the organizational mindset we have to rethink the value PMOs provide to projects, programs and portfolios.

Okay, I get it, but how? And why do you keep mentioning microwaves?

We identified four fundamentals in how agile project management offices (Lean Agile PMO) can be more agile.

Yes, I remember watching the video.

Actually, my thinking has adapted since…. I recently revisited the ideas.

Lean Agile Project Management Office (Lean Agile PMO) – focus on the work that matters

The second fundamental of the four in our model, is: Pivot quickly from wasteful features and products. An agile project management office (Lean Agile PMO) makes sure that the teams are working on the valuable stuff.

Why is that important?

Because most of the features and projects we deliver are waste, wrong and don’t deliver customer value. At a client we worked with several years ago, a software shop, we analyzed the return on investment for features we delivered. (read more on this Harvard Business Review article).

The analysis validated existing research: approximately sixty to seventy percent of the features that are created are not used. In other words, we wasted about seventy percent of our engineering and product development capacity.

To put it bluntly, we could have fired seventy percent of our five hundred engineers and still appreciated the same revenue for that year. This thinking, however, is flawed, since we never know which of the features would be revenue generating and which wouldn’t.

Wow – are we that misguided?

Yes – our program and portfolio delivery approach is mismatched with the results we need.

Lean Agile PMO – the microwave challenge – how many features are needed?

Take a trip to your kitchen and look at your microwave, how many buttons and features does it have?

Mine is really advanced – it has 30 buttons and probably 50 programs.

That’s great, now, how many do you use? Because if you are like me, I use only 2 options! I know that there are various options to heat chicken, bake a potato, make rice and boil pasta. But I end up just pressing the one minute button several times until my dish is warm enough.

I see your point – you’re saying that we deliver way too many features, that are not used. And the actual way we are using the device is totally different then the way it was envisioned.

Exactly!

So what’s the solution?

An effective agile PMO promotes a culture of experimentation, failure and learning. However that’s very foreign to how we operate!

Tell me more.

You can review this image to guide you in the lean startup assumption validation cycle.

The agile PMO is best suited to lay the required foundations of this approach and then lead and manage the experimentation.  To remove the extra features that are not used, and to develop what the consumer actually needs. This removes waste from the development process.

In other words, the agile teams are focused on executing assumption validation.

The agile PMO pulls work based on the ongoing result of the experiments.

We achieve business agility.

I agree, that’s a more inspiring role for the PMO compared with process creation and control. I understand why you are passionate about the role an agile PMO has in promoting business agility.

Not to mention that most organizations have too much process as it is, and often process gets in the way of delivery. We could discuss how to remove process… Did you know that reducing the scope of a template (for example a project charter) takes ten times longer than adding a template?

Maybe next time, as VP of programs, you’ve just given me an idea of how we can better use our enterprise PMO, thanks!

Remember – you can register to this newsletter – here

The post Microwave Thinking – Lean Agile PMO – focus on the right things appeared first on Michael Nir.

Lean Agile Team Leadership lessons from Hobie sailing

Heading south from delivering a workshop in San Francisco,
I was up for a Hobie sailing adventure with family in San Diego’s Mission Bay;

while having been a deckhand on a weeklong sailing excursion
in Greece many years ago ( that ended up with severe back pain – but that is another story ), some calm water dinghy sailing on the
East coast and open water sailing in the Med;

Sailing a Hobie is a different story.

With its two pontoons, no boom and no nonsense
acceleration it requires agility in maneuvering and offers
plenty of opportunities for collaboration.

Agile leadership concepts intertwine on any boat,
even more-so on a Hobie:

Agile Leadership – One boat, one skipper, and lots of collaboration

Yes, any sailboat is great for teaming up, the Hobie however,
with the wide deck and accessibility of the two throttles –
Jib and Main; as well as a rudder extension and wide rudder;
requires constant communication for proper adjustment of
the sails, heading and avoiding obstacles;

The explicit scrum master makes sure collaboration
occurs on all levels, while the product owner sets the
destination and provides feedback on progress;
the rest of the team moves from side to side to stabilize the boat.

Agile teams also spend time figuring out how to
complement one another; all too often, lack of
communication leads to a mentality of throwing the
code over the wall to QE/testing – which tends to flip the boat.

Early morning there’s little wind, it grows stronger

As with an agile team, the start can be slow;
the morning wind was light…this didn’t deter us from
heading out, enjoying the slow start for getting our
bearings and figuring out how to work together.

Agile teams need the same focus up front,
especially if they are destined for the long haul.

The down time can be spent creatively for learning
‘man over board’ maneuvers; while agile teams can
spend the time to figure out architecture and better
understand each member’s contribution.

No wind – the goal within reach, sometimes you have to lug the Hobie

The Hobie has no keel, sailing upwind requires tacking as
in any boat, without a keel, this is a challenge;
our goal was upwind and while we wanted to hit home,
eventually we had to let go of the goal and pivot.

We ended up tugging the Hobie on the shore back to
our destination; no worries – good team work and high
morale made this change of plans work for all of us.

The iterative nature of agile requires a prioritized backlog
that is driven by a vision set forth by leadership.

Often the team needs to tack, overcoming
headwinds and adjust the plan; finally the have to pivot
if the original goal is not within reach.

Obstacles Abound – what is your agile leadership?

Due to our sailing speed we had to constantly monitor
jet skis zipping around us, motor boats with water skiers
that seemed to be out to get us and lazily paddling SUPs and Kayakers.

By keeping a vigilant lookout, we frequently changed our course.

You will surely see the parallel in an Agile development
environment where flexibility is key to working around
obstacles and charting a new direction.

Retrospective is key

Last week I polled participants in a workshop about the
value they find in their retrospectives.

I wasn’t surprised to see that 15 of the 25 participants
said that they were ambivalent towards their
retros and 10 downright disliked it and saw no value in the retro.

This saddened me, since the single mechanism for
a team to improve and become high performance is the retrospective.

Over the weekend I experienced how the retro is essential
to any improvement; on Saturday morning we sailed the
Hobie adequately; we improved during the afternoon;
and the next day we rocked! How come?

We learned how to collaborate, where the wind was,
the angle of the sail and the value of collaboration.

Agile teams have to do the same!

Whether you’re sailing the blue ocean of San Diego,
the Caribbean, the Med or just about anywhere else, Agile concepts abound;

And if you’re on an agile team, the ocean is always beckoning t
o learn practices of agile leadership in natural surroundings.

Remember – with Agile Leadership Retrospective is key

Reach out to learn how Lego Retrospective Workshop and other tools and techniques can help your team improve their retrospective.

View Michael’s latest video

Check out Michael Nir updated speaker website

The post Lean Agile Team Leadership lessons from Hobie sailing appeared first on Michael Nir.

• We know positive feedback yields improved performance

• Statistical regression to the mean governs the behavior we observe

• I provide positive feedback I am being paid with a worse outcome.

• I provide negative feedback, the performance improves – how is that possible?
  

• Always opt for constructive, building positive feedback, since it provides better results in the long term and paves the way for a long lasting high performance team

Positive feedback counters our observed experience

I am reviewing my presentation on building highly effective teams, preparing tomorrow’s keynote in Charleston, thanks Ron. The ninth and probably elusive Must Have of building and leading a highly effective team is: Provide development opportunities and recognition.

We know that constructive positive feedback is the cornerstone for individual and team growth yet many times we find ourselves focusing on the negative.

Why?

Let’s start by observing the possible feedback options we have: (see full pitcure below)

We can add and subtract a positive feedback and a negative – four options.

For example: my son returns from school with an A+ in math, I am very happy and let him watch TV until late. That is an example of a Positive Feedback Addition.

Compare that with my son returning from school with a D in math, so I make him visit my mother in law, that is supposedly a Negative Feddback Addition…(don’t fret Nitza you’re a lovely mother in law J )

So these are our options, question is, why do we find it so easy to focus more on the negative.

To our help comes a break-through research by Nobel Prize Laureate Daniel Kahneman. In his bestseller book: Thinking Fast and Slow Professor Kahneman discusses many irrationalities in our thinking.

He tells a story of, as a young psychologist, observing the behavior of feedback at a military flight training school.

Positive feedback and regression to the mean

Before that though let’s discuss the concept of statistical regression to the mean which in everyday life translates to something like: No matter how bad things get or how good, things always come back to the middle.

So when we are at our lowest and all traditional medicine fails, and we seek the help of an alternative healer, there’s a good chance that probability wise we will get better and wrongly attribute it to a Lay-of-Hands. And if we don’t make it, than we won’t be able to debunk it….

Jerry Seinfeld episode depicts the concept succinctly.

Back to Kahneman, he noticed that:

When an instructor provides praise for good performance the next landing is worse; when an instructor provides criticism for bad performance the next landing is better. Though the instructor might have learnt that positive feedback is better, it doesn’t coincide with the actual experience.

Actually we are witnessing a vicious cycle. When my son returns with an A+ ; I am thrilled and we go to eat out at MacDonald’s ; next time he has a D- we eat at Legal Seafood (cold soup and overpriced mains), next time he evens-out and gets a B+.

So my thinking is something like: bad sea food is nourishing.

Seriously though, what I am experiencing is that when I provide positive feedback I am being paid with a worse outcome. When I provide negative feedback, the performance improves.

Of course, the performance in this case has nothing to do with the feedback given, rather it revolves around an unseen statistical mean.

However: if we wish to improve the MEAN we get much better results by pulling upward from a constructive positive feedback approach.

We know it, yet because of the feedback cycle described, we fail to Experience it!

Positive feedback and our personal experience

Does it happen to us? Normally people refute these findings…however many of our interactions our governed by the described process.

Actually on average when we are nice to others we might be paid with a lesser than expected response and when we are rude we might be paid we a nicer than expected response – quite confusing.

However in the long term being nice yields better results no matter the local occurrences.

If we want our teams to improve – always opt for constructive, building positive feedback, since it provides better results in the long term and paves the way for a long lasting high performance team!

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What Do You Think?

Whether you’re a PMO member or reporting to one, what insights would you offer your PMO to become lean agile rather than prescriptive?  What would be one thing you would have your PMO change?

Add your insights below.

Positive feedback leadership of teams

Positive feedback leadership of teams – Daniel Kahneman – Thinking fast and slow

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Is Traditional PMO thinking in software companies in 2019 still happening? (check out the book – The Agile PMO)

This is not how it is supposed to be…

I thought to myself

Yet the fatigue in the eyes of my friend and colleague

Told me otherwise.

“She just told me to forecast the delivery for the next year”

My friend shared with me.

“Do you mean the new Enterprise PMO?”

“Yes” my friend replied and continued:

“Ever since she was brought onboard to transform us

It’s been like this – every day a new mandate.

I stopped investing my time in what’s important

I stopped managing the 12 managers reporting to me

And the 120 strong developers that are

Responsible for creativity and innovation in our

Competitive industry.

It’s become an around the clock constant barrage of

PMO stuff….or can I say: crap?”

Our catchup meeting ended and I was reflecting on what

my friend was saying…

After all he is working in a software company which implemented agile

and things were working well. They had a local lean agile PMO.

It was focused on best practices and lean agile methods – scrum, kanban, communities of practice, fast delivery ect.

Until a new SVP was hired. In his mind, the forecasting was subpar so he hired a manager to lead the Transformational PMO. He in turn mandated reports, templates, standard operating procedures – annoying bureaucracy – and lots of traditional forecasting.

Sounds familiar?

I empathized with my friend.

Traditional project management offices drive in inefficient forecasting

How much do we need to read and learn on forecast bias to understand that top down roadmaps are BS.

Roadmaps done the agile way are better –because we have the people doing the job committing to the delivery. Moreover we get better roadmap estimates.

It is 6 years since I’ve written the Lean agile PMO – which through its four editions changed as my thinking changed.

One of the first articles I published referencing the book was:  marrying agile and waterfall – Interfacing between Linear Waterfall and Agile Approaches or The Odd Couple: Marrying Agile and Waterfall

It was trying to illustrate a truce or even integration between agile team thinking and PMO traditional mindset.

Well, it turns out to be a horrible marriage where the couple constantly argues and bickers.

Basically, I was wrong.  The approach is unsustainable – you can’t have the PMO represent the top down command and control managerial structures and hope to grow a lean agile delivery environment.

To succeed at least one has to undergo substantive therapy. If we want agility to succeed, it’s the PMO that has to visit a retreat

Why invest in a Lean agile PMO?

Because we’re losing the race, because every time we have a traditional PMO ask for another progress report or made up forecast …an angel dies. Really!

Because the FANGs [Facebook, Amazon, (Netflix), Google – and Apple] have figured fast iterative delivery of the right features and if we want to stay in business and compete with the them; we need to remove process and the blind adherence to top down mandates, we must adopt lean agile thinking across the organization – the lean agile PMO drives such this type of thinking.

Just listen to what the richest man in the world has to say about it – 10 Ways to Think Like Jeff Bezos

Are Project Agile Offices inherently evil?

So no – I don’t think that PMOs are inherently evil – I think we must unlearn what we know, about PMOs and structure Lean agile PMO in a way that delivers true lean agile value to the organization:

Remove process – cut down unneeded process and bureaucracy (Lean agile PMO 1)

One of the most effective ways to impact value delivery in an organization is waste removal. It contributes to the organization’s profitability as well as provides a bridge towards Agility.  Do you really need to 70 page long Business Requirement document?

Pivot quickly from wasteful features and products (Lean agile PMO 2)

As a rule of thumb, about 25% of the active projects create an overloaded system and can be eliminated. Read more here.

Drive local decision making and adaptive forecasting (Lean agile PMO 3)

The PMO provides cross team dependency resolution by implementing TOC or Kanban techniques rather than forecasting resource capacity and managing it across the entire organization. Forecasting is done at team level – very similar to this approach.

Drive towards business agility (Lean agile PMO 4)

Create the bridge between team agile delivery and the business – drive for business agility. I refer to it as  the “Agile And Waterfall Shoe Continuum” – the PMO is the driver to make business portfolio leaders collaborate rather than fight with agile team.

What Do You Think?

Whether you’re a PMO member or reporting to one, what insights would you offer your PMO to become lean agile rather than prescriptive?  What would be one thing you would have your PMO change?

Add your insights below

Lean Agile PMO – Side Bar Musing

Hard to believe; I’m in the project management field for 20 years give or take; I played with Primavera and MSProject and got my PMP in 2005

I implemented in my management consulting business traditional tools of Project Management and made great revenues in my first years at Sapir Consulting; selling snake oil like PMO know how until I saw the light around 2012.

In the past, I read in disdain all the stories of born again zealots who have seen the agile scrum light and when I met Henrik Kniberg in 2013 I think I came across as a traditional sceptic.

But I have acquiesced – maybe – seen the light.
Maybe I am still not a true scrum zealot,  but getting there – I mean – really – using construction based project management techniques from 1950 to manage a software project in 2018?

The Problem is: traditional PMOs tend to go over 10 X what’s needed.

And – the real culprit is forecasting – as its foundational to what a PMO is about – provide forecast of completion – a roadmap of delivery based on progress reports and planned vs. actual data === time and cost control.

Bringing a transformational PMO to get rid of the amazing work in team based long term forecasting and mandate a top down forecasting approach – how stupid is that?

In my chat with Henrik in 2013 he told me that Spotify eventually  will grow in size. Then what?

How much can they sustain true agile leadership?
It seems that the big responsible boys will bring their traditional methods and get rid of tribes and guilds and squads and chapters. I am happy to say that I was proved wrong.

But they are the exception. Increasingly we are witnessing a schism between teams that are using agile and scrum and traditional thinking.

Later on I structured a value driven PMO model. You can find a presentation about here

https://www.slideshare.net/Mnira111/pmi-portland-michael-nir-the-agile-pmo

Check out – Building Highly Effective Teams in agile!

The post Lean agile PMO appeared first on Michael Nir.

Lean Agile Delivery on Cadence

We were stumped

All three of us

It was a lean agile delivery project:

Improve the Color coating production line at Delmar Industries

The Color Coating Production Line

The building that housed the large metal-parts color-coating production line was like a complex maze.
The metal parts were hung from above on a slow moving conveyor belt by a team of three employees, the parts then went into pre-heating.

The core part of the system was color-coating; two workers were spraying the parts using spray guns.
Next, the parts went into a curing oven and later into low heat.

The last step was unmounting the parts from the conveyor belt and placing them in an orderly fashion on the finished good inventory; ready to be transferred to the next assembly lines.

There were hundreds different parts in various sizes and shapes, the weights of the parts varied dramatically from several pounds to thousands of pounds.
Three coating colors were applied: green for agriculture, blue for city waterworks and red for fire protection, the latter required the most care.

The time taken to pre heat and then cure each part was in relation to size and functionality.
Switching from colors was a time consuming ordeal and required scheduling in advance the daily production order.

Lean Agile Delivery Mindset

We were stumped by the magnitude of the problem, the solution eluded us for weeks and we needed inspiration.

I remember sitting with Michelle observing the color-coating process at 10 PM on a Sunday night and together trying to formulate the problem we were witnessing;

The truth is that when engineers set to solve a problem of efficiency,  they usually ask themselves how can we accomplish more or work faster.

But that’s wrong – the key fundamental for getting stuff delivered is cadence – that’s lean agile delivery!

Without cadence some parts of the system deliver results, while other parts are waiting.
When there is no cadence you wait for the subway longer, don’t receive your package on time, forget to get flowers on Valentines, or miss the plans for your summer vacation.

Back in the color coating production line, we noticed that the erratic behavior of the incoming parts lead to exhaustion.
The painters were tired; they had to stop the line often to catch their breath.
The conveyor belt was often stopped and the downstream production lines were not able to plan their activities.

So what did we do?

Lean Agile Delivery Solution

 We slowed down the line. We defined a constant rate

Instead of parts moving faster through the system, we increased the allotted painting time from an average of 4.5 minutes to a constant 6 minutes.

That’s illogical isn’t it?

It goes against everything we learn about achieving more with less.

However it brought order to a chaotic system, it allowed all the employees to plan around a consistent flow.

I mentioned that the production line was like a maze; by introducing lean agile delivery on cadence to the system the employees could now experience the same flow without seeing one another.

What was the overall impact?

Completion rate improved by 23% without any capital investment

Lean Agile Delivery thinking and practice revolves around figuring out your delivery cadence and organize your efforts around it.

Big organizations fail because they forget their cadence.
Spend time with your colleagues and identify which activities are out of sync and ask yourself what might be a relevant cadence.

Since, cadence is the rhythm of nature, the passing seasons, the setting sun.

In Lean Agile Delivery, Cadence is king.

What’s your cadence?

What about a tool to validate your assumptions? Check out – Lean Case – “Do you have a viable business model?”  – Why Unit Economics is So Important!

Read similar stories, best practices, tools and ant patterns, in my upcoming book: The Pragmatist’s Guide to Corporate Lean Strategy

About me

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Read more below on how we solved the challenge:

The truth is that when engineers set to solve a problem of efficiency, or for that matter, any person that is set to tackle a problem of efficiency, they usually ask themselves how can we accomplish more or work faster.

That’s true for almost any problem of efficiency, and there are many such problems that are similar in nature:

• How can I study faster.
• How can I complete my tasks faster so I finish the work day and head home.
• How can I go faster through my emails, how can I complete shopping faster.
• Which is the faster route through traffic, how do I add more features on a product.
• How do I get more likes on my page and so on.

We measure the time to complete the task and ask ourselves how can we increase time or decrease costs.

However, we often miss the holistic nature of the environment we operate in.
We are primed for these problems from a very young age so we rarely look at the non-work time, the time that we are not engaged in the task.
Still , the fact remains that most opportunities for increasing the rate of completion or throughput are by addressing the non-work time – the waste, in Japan, where Lean Thinking originated, they call this non required work process steps – Muda.

What We Observed and TAKT

During her observations Michelle noticed something odd; while the painters direct working time was rather erratic, the combined non-work time for the two painters was complimentary to the work time and both were consistent and a constant.
Thus, regardless of the many variables, the combined value of both times across all products could be articulated easily.

We both knew the value of one piece flow and Takt time – both are lean manufacturing concepts that have later been adapted to agile project management.

Takt time, or cadence, is the average time between the start of production of one unit and the start of production of the next unit, these production times are set to match the rate of customer demand.

Our problem was how to define the cadence for the coloring production line with the various moving parts and what was the internal consumer demand.
Now we had an answer, a simple solution, that was hard to accept and counter-intuitive.

The Solution

I mentioned previously that the average time to color-coat ranged from 60 seconds to 8 minutes.
We analyzed the data and noticed the parts taking more than 7 minutes were outliers and occurred only when the coffee was too hot or due to external impacts.

Actually most part were colored in 2 to 5 minutes, however the perception of the painters was that they were working very hard all the time, which was true since they were missing a constant rhythm.
They didn’t have a sense of a beat, rather the parts kept coming erratically and they were frantically keeping up.

This impacted the entire line since there was no consistent flow.
What if we slowed the line for all the parts to 6 minutes? Reflect about that for a moment, what are the benefits accomplished by identifying a constant rate?

Naturally it brings order to a chaotic system, it allows all the employees to plan around a consistent order and flow.
I mentioned that the production line was like a maze; by introducing cadence to the system the employees could now experience the same flow without seeing one another.

We could mount clocks with counters that showed the progress of the cadence.

It was truly revolutionary.

It was bringing order from chaos.

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