Most companies now either have jumped onto the Agile bandwagon, are considering it, or even in the middle of hiring consultants to help them “transform.” However, only 6% of companies think that they are “highly agile”, according to a 2017 Deloitte study. I’d like to convey a few thoughts to the executives and leaders considering an agile transformation, based on over 10 years of experience with many transformations and years sitting with executive leaders.

Does your team struggle to get items to Done? Do they experience a high amount of spill-over into the next cycle because they are waiting on another team or another person? Do items sit in a blocked state and age out while waiting on other teams or people to complete work?

Dependencies are an epidemic in software development. There could be many reasons why – perhaps your organization has adopted an Agile framework, but you’re not yet structured to support sustainable teams. You may have a strong reliance on vendors or specialists when you start your Agile journey. And, some large-scale systems changes require some level of dependencies. The reality is, dependencies are not going to go away. As you scale your Agile efforts, the dependencies scale as well. The good news is, there are strategies you can use to move your teams from managing dependencies to mitigating dependencies.

One of my favorite improvements to running conferences (when we used to attend those in person) was adding a code of conduct. It was clear the behavior of a few dictated the need for everyone to play by a different set of rules. Granted, it hasn’t halted all of the behavior it was meant to prevent. It cannot be denied, though, that progress has been made.

Combine that with an expanded view of what it means to be inclusive to all, the amazing work Women in Agile has done, and providing a safe environment for all, I must say how proud I am to be a part of this little family.

I love Sprint Reviews. At this event, empiricism works full throttle. The Scrum Team has added new potential value to the product Increment. Now the team and its stakeholders inspect the Increment and discuss what to do next.

The Sprint Review can be a powerful event to influence the direction of the product. But often Product Owners and their Scrum Teams waste excellent opportunities. They are in a vicious circle and only discuss the latest additions to the products. The stakeholders appear out of courtesy, not to help improve the product. In this unfortunate scenario, the Sprint Review is relegated to be just a demo or a status report.

Have you ever found yourself in a situation, where you feel that you have so much great value to bring to your potential client, that you are so much better than anyone else they may have considered for the role so far …. yet, a client is hesitant to bring you in? Why?

Below are some recommendations for professional coaches.

“We had record breakthroughs in operational efficiency last year, but our client complaints went up.” Margaret, director of client services at a workforce training center, went on to tell me that the chair of the board was thrilled with the cost savings while still being able to serve more clients. “I think we are missing the point,” she sighed.

Margaret’s not wrong. There is an invisible and powerful cultural message that more with less is always better and that productivity is a goal unto itself. This is the Productivity Trap. The Productivity Trap mindset was at work in Margaret’s company and the costs were growing, but none of it was showing up on the quarterly balance sheet.

Let me start a discussion with a beautiful sentence written on the preface of the Agile Leader Toolkit book [1]. “A Leader is like a farmer, who doesn’t grow crops by pulling them but instead creates the perfect environment for the crops to grow and thrive.” Everyone has a different definition of leadership, and that also changes over time, Peter G. Northouse explains a brief history of the evaluation of leadership definition[2]. Here is a simple description of leadership from the same book.

“Leadership is a process whereby an individual influences a group of individuals to achieve a common goal.” [2]