Our next instalment on alignment as a tool for agile success. If alignment is as valuable as we claimed in the previous episode, why doesn't every organisation have it? We use ideas from Dr. David Burns to classify resistance to alignment into "outcome" and "process" resistance, then give examples of each and tell a story about a startup where the founders are (according to them) totally aligned, but no one else is. Next time: steps to achieve alignment despite resistance.

SHOW LINKS:

- Dr. David Burns, Feeling Good: https://feelinggood.com/

- Theory X and Theory Y: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_X_and_Theory_Y 

- Thinking Fast and Slow: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thinking,_Fast_and_Slow

***

We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show.

Email us: see link on troubleshootingagile.com

Tweet us: twitter.com/TShootingAgile

Also, if you'd like to leave us a review on iTunes (or just like and subscribe), you'll find us here: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/troubleshooting-agile/id1327456890?mt=2

Alignment and Resistance Part 2: Obstacles to Alignment

The final episode of our mini-series on achieving alignment. We list five different objections we hear to the goals or process of alignment, and suggest ways to address them. We also tell a success story based on achieving alignment.

SHOW LINKS:

- Theory X and Theory Y: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_X_and_Theory_Y 

- Alistair Cockburn's mutiny koan: https://staging.cockburn.us/self-organization-means-mutiny/ 

***

We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show.

Email us: see link on troubleshootingagile.com

Tweet us: twitter.com/TShootingAgile

Also, if you'd like to leave us a review on iTunes (or just like and subscribe), you'll find us here: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/troubleshooting-agile/id1327456890?mt=2

Objections to Alignment

We have a look at Jason Palmer's "You Don't Need Standup" with a mutual learning, curious attitude. What can we learn from Jason? What information does he have that we don't? Where do we agree with him? We conclude that indeed some teams may be better off without standups - see Fred George's Programmer Anarchy for example - but before embarking on the experiment, it's worth asking "how will I know if it's working or not?"

SHOW LINKS:

- You Don't Need Standup: https://medium.com/@jsonpify/you-dont-need-standup-9a74782517c1 (By Jason Palmer, https://twitter.com/palmerj3 )

- Hacker News discussion of YDNS: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17671464 

- Fred George on Programmer Anarchy: https://www.slideshare.net/fredgeorge/programmer-anarchy-and-managerless-processes 

- Cockburn on people in software development: http://web.archive.org/web/20170620211523/http://alistair.cockburn.us/Characterizing+people+as+non-linear%2c+first-order+components+in+software+development

***

We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show.

Email us: see link on troubleshootingagile.com

Tweet us: twitter.com/TShootingAgile

Also, if you'd like to leave us a review on iTunes (or just like and subscribe), you'll find us here: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/troubleshooting-agile/id1327456890?mt=2

Learning from "You Don't Need Standup"

First of two episodes on reflection. We often say that learning is horrible and suggest you do it anyway - but how exactly can you learn? We use a model from Chris Argyris - single-loop and double-loop learning - and concentrate today on the single-loop style, most appropriate for gradual improvement of a particular metric or characteristic.

SHOW LINKS:

- Argyris on single- and double-loop learning: https://hbr.org/1977/09/double-loop-learning-in-organizations 

- Shu Ha Ri: https://martinfowler.com/bliki/ShuHaRi.html

***

We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show.

Email us: see link on troubleshootingagile.com

Tweet us: twitter.com/TShootingAgile

Also, if you'd like to leave us a review on iTunes (or just like and subscribe), you'll find us here: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/troubleshooting-agile/id1327456890?mt=2

Types of Reflection Part 1: Single loop learning

A Squirrel-only show since Jeffrey's away. Squirrel described the Post-It Factory Game which illustrates both work-in-progress limits and the more general notion of "Throughput over Utilisation" - as well as making your colleagues fall over themselves trying to produce blue squares at top speed.

SHOW LINKS:

Kanban by David Anderson: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Kanban-Successful-Evolutionary-Technology-Business/dp/0984521402

Similar games to illustrate agile and kanban ideas: https://availagility.co.uk/resources/games/lego-flow-game/
https://www.agile42.com/en/training/kanban-pizza-game/

***

We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show.

Email us: see link on troubleshootingagile.com

Tweet us: twitter.com/TShootingAgile

Also, if you'd like to leave us a review on iTunes (or just like and subscribe), you'll find us here: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/troubleshooting-agile/id1327456890?mt=2

The Post-It Factory Game

Another in our top tips for ensuring your agile team does not achieve its goals - assume you have pure motives and others are actively malicious. We describe several helpful biases that, if adopted, can help you take up this mindset, and describe a founder duo with negative beliefs about each other who had mastered the art of "Getting to No" - until they read Fisher/Ury and discovered they actually had a common interest and positive motives.

SHOW LINKS:

- Roger Schwarz on unilateral control: http://www.schwarzassociates.com/managing-performance/how-unilateral-control-undermines-team-results-and-relationships-2/

- Geoff Watts Top Ten Agile Podcasts: https://twitter.com/geoffcwatts/status/1057310923218698241

- Biases: Bias blind spot https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bias_blind_spot , Negativity bias https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negativity_bias , and naïve cynicism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Na%C3%AFve_cynicism

- Getting To Yes: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Getting_to_Yes

***

We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show.

Email us: see link on troubleshootingagile.com

Tweet us: twitter.com/TShootingAgile

Also, if you'd like to leave us a review on iTunes (or just like and subscribe), you'll find us here: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/troubleshooting-agile/id1327456890?mt=2

How to Fail by Acting Unilaterally - Part III

Troubleshooting Agile is a problem-solving session for agile teams. Jeffrey Fredrick and Douglas Squirrel look at common problems agile teams face and provide practical, immediately useful advice for getting back on track.

Popular tracks tagged #troubleshootingagile