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March 15, 2019 by Drew Kincius Leave a Comment

Seeking Unicorns: The Pitfalls of Requirements-Based Hiring

03.15.19 | Chris Daily |

It’s time to come clean.

In spite of being a part of a startup, over the last year, I have applied for a couple of jobs. They have typically been at a moment of insecurity when my neurotic self kicks in, and I convince myself that the future looks bleak.

If I actually had to schedule time for an interview and go talk to someone first, I would probably chicken out. Since I can apply while cowering in my home office and no one knows but me, I will occasionally do it.

I got a rejection email two days after applying for a VP of Engineering job at a relatively small company a few weeks ago without talking to anyone.

I didn’t write this post as a confession or to trash anyone. But I’d like to throw something out there to the C-Suite folks who make these decisions:

How many development/engineering directors/VPs do you have to go through before you stop and look in the mirror?

Maybe the problem you have is not that you haven’t found a unicorn, but that you are looking for one at all. In other words, you are the problem.

If you are still reading this and you have CXO in your title, there is still hope for you.

So, let’s carry on.

What is it you are really looking for? An example set of requirements:

A leader who can still code, has been through an exit, and has experience leading a product development team of 20.

Let’s break this down a bit.

“Requirement” #1 – Can Still Code

Let’s take the “can still code” first. Why is this a requirement? Are you trying to avoid the tired executive from a Fortune 500 company who still loves COBOL who wants a big salary?

If you are managing a 20 person product delivery team, do you really want your VP to be able to dig in and solve a technology problem?

Is that the way you want to spend your money?

Does that build teamwork and trust when the so-called “VP Superhero” saves the day?

How do your developers react when the VP thinks they know more than the folks who actually work for a living? Probably not in a positive way.

“Requirement” #2: Has Been Through An Exit

Next up is “has been through an exit.”

Why is this relevant?

What are you trying to say?

Don’t you have advisors to assist with this?

How many positive exits are there?

Is there some other trait, like knowing when to speak and how to speak with others, that you are looking for?

Not sure if this literal “exit strategy” is a reasonable requirement.

“Requirement” #3: Led a 20 Person Team

Finally, let’s tackle “has led a 20 person product team”. \I can happily admit that this IS a quality requirement. This is the one thing you need to figure out how to genuinely identify.

Leadership comes from a combination of experience, skills, attitude, and emotional intelligence. Are you looking for the intangible skills that your organization so desperately needs? These skills are the primary enabler to the future success of leaders, and yet they are very often ignored or neglected.

Most organizations have tunnel vision and are only focused on the next few months.

What’s next?

So, if folks who can still code, have been through an exit, and led a 20 person product team are few and far between, why are these attributes the essential criteria for making the hiring decision?

I am all most done with my rant, so hang with me.

Instead of looking for a unicorn, I’d like to propose a different approach.

Place a priority on the cultural fit of the candidate.

Here are a few questions that can provide cultural insight:

Describe the work environment or culture in which you are most productive and happy.
What are some of the characteristics that were demonstrated by the best boss you’ve ever had?
What kind of management style brings out your best efforts and makes work enjoyable?
Describe what you believe are the most effective roles that a good manager plays in his or her relationship with reporting staff members.
What do you like about your current job and work environment?
What do you not like about your current situation and work environment?
What work style do you prefer? Do you like working alone or as part of a team? What percentage of your day would you allot to each if it’s left to you?

Successful employees know how to work effectively within the context of the company that they work in. Prospective employees are more likely to be a good match for both your position and your organization if they fit the job and the workplace culture.

Be careful to not fall into the trap of hiring people who are just like you. New employees are your opportunity to add new ideas, viewpoints, and direction to your organization. Picking employees purely on whether they could become your new best friend rarely works out.

Thanks for coming in today.

Chris

Let’s connect.
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VAULT: empowering individuals and organizations through Agile methodologies, SAFe frameworks, soft skills development, modern leadership and more.

March 8, 2019 by Drew Kincius Leave a Comment

Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe): Adopting a Multi-Team Agile Solution

03.08.19 | Chris Daily |

Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) training is coming to beLithe.

As many of you know, the focus of Scrum is creating an environment for a group of people (a team) to get work done.

One of the significant challenges and debates in the Agile community revolves around trying to figure out how to have multiple teams working on the same product.

SAFe: empowering multiple Agile teams.

One popular solution that has emerged: Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe).

I have to admit: in my earlier dogmatic Agile days, I was not a fan of SAFe.

It seemed to be overly prescriptive, in that teams were asked to essentially plan their work for the next two to three months, and then synchronize their deliveries on the same schedule.

It seemed very much like traditional project management and not very Agile.

A gradual appreciation.

Over the years, I’ve thawed out a bit. I have become less dogmatic and more focused on understanding customer wants and outcomes.

Recently I’ve had multiple opportunities to teach and coach Scrum in organizations that have adopted SAFe. While the purist in me was not a fan, I started to understand that for some organizations, adopting SAFe might be their best and only chance at starting down their Agile journey. For other organizations, SAFe doesn’t seem to be necessarily a good fit for many reasons.

In early December of last year, I put my biases on a shelf and attended an SPC class in San Jose.

What was surprising to me was that I started to gain an appreciation for some of the aspects of SAFe. While SAFe focuses on scaling Agile across organizations, I’m a fan of the fact that it’s built on the foundation of Scrum and Kanban teams.

What’s next?

I’m excited to announce that beLithe is now offering four unique certifications within SAFe:

Leading SAFe (MARCH 21-22)
SAFe Scrum Master (APRIL 4-5)
SAFe Product Owner*
SAFe for Teams*

Our hope is that by offering these workshops, that we can help Agilists in the local community prepare themselves to be a part of any SAFe journey.

*We haven’t locked in a date yet for these courses, but if you’re interested in attending, let’s chat.

Thanks for coming in today.

Chris

Let’s connect.
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VAULT: empowering individuals through Agile methodologies, SAFe frameworks, soft skills development, modern leadership and more.

March 5, 2019 by Drew Kincius Leave a Comment

Management 3.0: Empowering Better HR Through Agile

03.04.19 | Drew Kincius|

A typical business structure involves a manager in charge of another manager in charge of another manager in charge of a bunch of people, and so on and so forth. This approach is called “waterfall,” and one of its biggest downfalls (pun intended) is that typically, authority stems from titles and assigned roles, not from gaining trust and respect through work.

Management 3.0 is an incredible program created to address the issues that come with traditional “trickle-down” work environments. It unpacks and discards the classic excuse that holds back so many work environments:

“But we’ve always done it this way!”

I’d like to introduce Kari Kelly. She attended our latest session Management 3.0, and instantly upon shaking her hand, I could immediately tell that she shared the same fiery passion that we do for disrupting organizations that are continuing to assign leadership instead of letting it grow organically.

She’s now a licensed facilitator for the program. I’m happy to announce that beLithe and Kari’s company, Atypical Workplace, are co-hosting a two-day immersive Management 3.0 workshop in Cincinnati in mid-April.

In anticipation of our collaboration, I was able to chat with her more in-depth about what makes her so passionate about MGMT 3.0’s model of putting teams first.

What got you into Management 3.0?

I got into Management 3.0 because I wanted to get into Agile HR, and I noticed that many of my Agile HR connections on LinkedIn were Management 3.0 facilitators. Agile HR is very popular in Europe so all my Agile HR connections at the time were European. Upon performing a Google search for course options, I was excited to see that Management 3.0 had already made its way to the USA.

After a decade in the HR industry, I recognized a massive gap between the needs of today’s knowledge workers and HR’s ability to serve them. The gap I experienced was enough to compel me to leave my job in corporate America and look for answers. As a result, I started writing a book called Agile Tribes, which combines cutting edge behavior science, Agile frameworks and practices, and findings from research that studies human’s natural tendency to self-organize into tribes.

My ultimate goal is to create an introductory 2-day training based on the tools and methods I’m uncovering through research and interviews for my book. When I took Management 3.0, however, I realized that the course I’m creating already exists! Becoming a Management 3.0 facilitator was a natural next step to start bridging the gap between where HR “is” and where HR “needs to be”. The course I’m creating is now more focused on creating high performing, self-organized teams and Management 3.0 will serve as a great primer.

What aspect of the program do you feel to be particularly impactful?

What was particularly impactful for me was seeing how all the topics so naturally come together through a collection of games and other team structures. Many of the topics were already familiar to me through my research, so I enjoyed experiencing how someone from a technical background (Jurgen) wove these topics together in an enjoyable, Experiential way.

As leaders, we can send our people to training programs meant to increase emotional intelligence in a classroom setting, or we can provide our teams with engaging games that naturally provoke behaviors critical for healthy teaming, and have them learn on-the-job. I choose the former!

What are MOST impactful for the HR industry are the implications of the course content, starting with the move towards seeing people and organizations are co-evolving Complex Adaptive Systems (CAS). Management 3.0 does a great job taking learners through industrial era assumptions and revealing how they don’t work in today’s complex, non-linear world. Everything builds off of the notion of updating our set of assumptions.

As an HR professional, I recognized the primary implication of these new assumptions is that Agile transformation has to start with HR. Shifting from the assumptions that “work is linear and predictable” to “work is nonlinear and emergent” is massive because functioning within a nonlinear and emergent system requires an entirely new set of behaviors, skills, and rewards.

An organization’s practices, skills, and prizes are all determined by HR. HR’s systems and processes ultimately drive the culture because they shape behavior through their compensation and incentive structures, recruitment processes, performance management systems, leadership and career development programs, leadership pipeline, and overall organizational structure. Optimizing only one part of the business through an Agile transformation without transforming HR is not sustainable, and research shows this. HR has to lead the way.

How are you using these concepts on a daily basis?

Every day I recognize how my thinking has been shaped by the industrial era assumptions that are still being made in education and most workplaces. And because I now understand the impact, I’m able to take steps to transform my thinking and therefore my life and work.

For example, consider the concept of SMART goals, which presuppose that we can merely identify a specific result, and under the right conditions, we can achieve it. This tends to work for results that can be obtained by solving simple or straightforward problems (like losing weight by eating healthy and going to the gym).

However, organizations like Google are recognizing that SMART goals don’t work for knowledge workers who solve complex problems in today’s complex world. They’ve moved to what is called OKRs, which stands for “Outcomes” and “Key Results”. In this new goal setting model, “Outcomes” are aspirational statements regarding a desired future state, along with a well-defined purpose.

The “key results” are measurable ways an individual, team, or organization can take towards that desired outcomes. These OKRs are regularly revisited, renegotiated, and revised based on ongoing feedback from internal and external customers, as well as the market. There is an inherent experimental mindset required for OKRs which is wonderfully consistent with Agile.

For someone who says waterfall is “working wonders”, what would you say?

I would invite them to map out their current process and then explore what could happen to net profit if we reduced the batch sizes and the number of steps in the process (through creating cross-functional teams).

Waterfall has institutionalized large batch sizes. In fact, waterfall encourages us to use the largest possible batch size. It says, “take all the work you’re going to do on a project, put it in a big box, and do ALL of the requirements for ALL of the work before you move that ENTIRE batch to the next station.” So we’re moving the MAXIMUM batch size through the system… and guess what? The theory of constraints tells us that we’re only going to move as fast as the slowest parts of my system. We know that batch size is directly proportional to cycle time. The maximum batch size, therefore, corresponds to the maximum cycle time, so what waterfall does is create the LARGEST POSSIBLE COST OF DELAY for the work that we are doing.

This is the difference between waterfall and agile. Agile works with smaller batch size so that we can actually move the work through the system faster. Smaller batch sizes lead to shorter cycle times. Waterfall does not do well at solving for cycle time. Cut the batch size in half, and cut the cycle time in half, which ultimately leads towards a higher net profit.

What are your greatest ambitions for implementing Management 3.0?

I launched a consultancy, Atypical Workplace, that specializes in Business Agility and the Future of Work. The greatest goals I have for my firm is to travel the world helping leaders cultivate adaptable, bold, and courageous teams that are inclusive and fun.

Humans are hardwired to self-organize into Complex Adaptable Systems that can evolve according to shifting needs and conditions. Creating bureaucratic structures stifle this self-organization and leads to antifragile organizations. I believe that organizations need to become a network of teams where the organizational culture is shaped by the unique subcultures of each team and aligned through shared vision, principles and values.

If someone has no idea about what Agile is, where do they start?

I love what Pia Maria, an HR Agilist out of Sweden, recommends to people who want a roadmap: (NOTE: These can happen in any order! )

Start with PRACTICES… so something little, like a retrospective or a daily planning meeting
Introduce new PRACTICES bit-by-bit… then EVALUATE and TWEAK
Find a common project or task to run in an agile manner
Do some training around Agile Principles… EXPERIMENT and LEARN
Gradually REMOVE old ways of working that probably have become
superstitions with time and a DEEPEN Agile awareness
FOCUS on value creation for the business
Involve the business in VALUE CREATION

Inspired? Catch us at our next Management 3.0 session, just one of our numerous offerings within our Agile training programming series VAULT, covering Agile methodologies, SAFe frameworks, soft skills, modern leadership, remote teams, and more.

Drew

Let’s connect.
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VAULT: dynamic, interactive workshops covering Agile methodologies, SAFe frameworks, soft skills, modern leadership and more.

February 28, 2019 by Drew Kincius Leave a Comment

Your New Boss: The Team

02.28.19 | Chris Daily |

What’s one common experience that every individual has had at one point in their career or another? I’ll give you one guess. You nailed it:

A bad boss.

A common workplace nuisance.

Over the years, the term “boss” has really taken on a negative connotation. In my mind, the term was so bad, that I would tell my teammates that the term meant the same as jerk or idiot.

My opinions about the term were a result of observations of my environment. Most of the managers and leaders that I knew were given the opportunity to be a manager or a leader based on one criterion:

“Being the best developer, tester, product manager, etc.”

What often followed was an announcement and a congratulatory email. The requirements and the associated knowledge that was required to be a manager was typically covered On the Job (OJT).

We all know how well that works, right?

The team as the boss.

So how did we get to Management 3.0? Good question.

A brief history of how we’ve gotten things done:

Management 1.0 is doing the wrong thing by viewing people as cogs in a machine.

Management 2.0 is doing the right thing, with the best intentions, in the wrong way with old-fashioned top-down hierarchical initiatives.

Management 3.0, developed by Jurgen Appelo, is doing the right thing for your team, involving everyone in improving the system and fostering employee engagement.

What’s more, I’ve noticed a lack of concerted effort to train managers. OJT isn’t working. A different approach is needed.

I first heard Jurgen speak about Management 3.0 in London in 2011 at a Scrum gathering. I have been a believer ever since. Consistent with Agile values, Management 3.0 has foundations built on the need for more collaboration across our organizations.

Comprised of a variety of topics and tools, Management 3.0 can become the go-to toolbox of great managers and leaders.

What’s next?

Check out the Management 3.0 website. There is a ton of stuff on there that can help. Via beLithe, I am offering one day and a two-day Management 3.0 classes.

Whether you’re a leader, or you work for a boss, take a look at Management 3.0. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.

Thanks for coming in today.

Chris

Let’s connect.
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VAULT: dynamic, interactive workshops covering Agile methodologies, SAFe frameworks, soft skills, modern leadership and more.

February 26, 2019 by Drew Kincius Leave a Comment

Defining Our Intrinsic Motivators

02.26.19 | Chris Daily |

What truly drives us?

Last week I was watching the whiteboard animation of Dan Pink’s talk titled Drive, which takes numerous ideas from his book of the same name.

Every time I watch that video, I am reminded about how wrong I was in my early days as a manager. I am sure you have probably seen or heard the video. If not, check it out.

This concept goes against what I was taught over the first half of my career regarding management and motivators: that people are resources that can be moved around in a plug-and-play fashion.

Our solution to getting people engaged was often to give them a promotion, or if we had to, throw money at them. Quite often the promotion (and/or raise) was not justified by performance, but by the sheer fact that we were scared to lose people. Its impact was seen in how the rest of the team reacted to the news. These created inequities became more and more substantial over time.

Great leaders are embracing humanity.

The second half of my career has been a different story.

I’ve come to believe in the concept that people aren’t just resources. It’s our job as leaders to create an environment where our teammates can do their best work.

Sounds great, but how does this type of empowerment grow legs?

As many of you know, I am a proponent of a philosophy that embraces people as people, and that we need to address and embrace the complexities that come with humanity. This philosophy is Management 3.0, and I’m currently serving as a facilitator for Management 3.0 workshops.

Management 3.0 is a collection of concepts, practices, and tools that can enable managers in their role as the leader of engagement with their teammates. Two essential areas of focus are motivation and commitment.

In our workshop, we explore the Management 3.0 model for engagement termed CHAMPFROGS.

Hopping into our motivators.

As you can guess, CHAMPFROGS is an acronym. The model includes ten unique and distinct intrinsic motivators that fuel individuals in the workplace.

Curiosity: I have plenty of things to investigate and to think about.
Honor: I feel proud that my personal values are reflected in how I work.
Acceptance: The people around me approve of what I do and who I am.
Mastery: My work challenges my competence, but it is still within my abilities.
Power: There’s enough room for me to influence what happens around me.
Freedom: I am independent of others with my work and my responsibilities.
Relatedness: I have good social contacts with the people in my work.
Order: There are enough rules and policies for a stable environment.
Goal: My purpose in life is reflected in the work that I do.
Status: My position is good, and recognized by the people who work with me.

Watching the video last week, I decided to see how the ten CHAMPFROGS motivators aligned with Daniel Pink’s three principles of autonomy, mastery, and purpose.

I thought it would be pretty straightforward.

It was a little more difficult than I anticipated.

Here’s what I came up with:

Autonomy – Curiosity, Goal, Acceptance, Freedom
Mastery – Mastery, Power, Order
Purpose – Relatedness, Status, Honor

The Drive principles are very well known by most folks who have either read Drive or have watched the video. Yet they don’t capture the nuances that the CHAMPFROGS model does.

What’s important is that both models have a lot in common. They are both attempting to address the 800lb gorilla of most work environments: the ongoing challenge of motivating and engaging teams.

What’s next?

Take a look at the CHAMPFROGS model and become familiar with it. Incorporate the Moving Motivators game in your next team meeting. Playing the Moving Motivators game with your team will provide discovery for you and them as to their respective individual motivations.

As each team member has their own unique motivators, you can’t take a one size fits all approach. Once you discover what is motivating each of your teammates, you better meet their needs with motivators that matter.

In case you’re interested in learning more, we’re hosting our next Management 3.0 session soon. Or feel free to drop me a line.

We’ve also developed an entire series of workshops covering the importance of developing and nurturing soft skills in the workplace. It’s called The Interchange.

Thanks for coming in today.

Chris

Let’s connect.
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VAULT: dynamic, interactive workshops covering Agile methodologies, SAFe frameworks, soft skills, modern leadership and more.

February 6, 2019 by Drew Kincius Leave a Comment

Scrumban: An Agile Love Child

02.06.19 | Chris Daily |

It happens quite often: I have somebody ask me if Kanban is more suited for their organization.

When I dig in to try to understand where the question is coming from, I often get a response that Kanban will be easier for the organization to adopt because it doesn’t have the commitment to a two to four-week duration that Scrum does.

The typical follow-up comment is that Kanban also doesn’t have all the meetings that Scrum does.

One Size Doesn’t Fit All

As many of you know, Kanban comes from manufacturing and is a workflow system whose strength is visual workflow management.

Originally based using cards, its focus is on ensuring that work items flow through boards with lanes that represent process stages.

Teams using Kanban continuously plan, work, review, and measure the outcomes of their work. By limiting the number of items being worked at any one time, teams are more focused, and the complexity of the work is substantially reduced by incorporation Work-In-Process (WIP) limits.

Building on its manufacturing roots, Kanban teams measure lead time, cycle time, and use those measures to optimize their process with the goal of continuously delivering a predictable flow of value to customers.

In many ways, Kanban teams are more mature in their Agile maturity than teams that have adopted Scrum. As a stepping stone towards Kanban, teams will incorporate both Scrum and Kanban at the same time, which is often referred to as Scrumban.

Scrumban: Utilizing Benefits of Two Frameworks

Scrumban is used by teams who need the structure of continuous improvement incorporated in Scrum with the flexibility that a flow-based method such as Kanban offers.

For teams already using the Scrum framework, there are minor variations to the Scrum roles, events, and artifacts. The Sprint Planning event is one example of a slight variation. Teams using the Scrum framework enter the Sprint Planning event with the objective of, based on the order, identifying the Product Backlog items that will be completed in the upcoming Sprint. The artifact that is created is the Sprint Backlog, which essentially becomes the work plan of the Development Team during the sprint.

Scrumban incorporates the pull approach of Kanban: the team starts work when it can; therefore less emphasis is placed on forecasting what work will be completed by the end of the Sprint.

For a list of all the variations, you can download our beLithe Scrum vs. Kanban vs. Scrumban cheat sheet.

Scrumban vs. Kanban vs. Scrumban Download

Putting Our Ramblings Into Action

Scrumban is an Agile process that is a valuable tool to help a team when Scrum or Kanban alone don’t solve the problem.

Retaining the intent of Scrum while allowing for the flexibility and transparency of Kanban make Scrumban a powerful tool.

While many find it helpful in teams that provide services to other teams, I have seen that teams in areas outside of IT and software development (HR, Accounting, Marketing, Customer Support, and Sales) can benefit from using Scrumban.

The risk is low, so don’t be afraid to experiment for a Sprint or two. Given the minor differences, it’s easy to step on into Scrum or Kanban.

Are you currently adopting Scrumban? I’d love to hear how you’re implementing it. Drop me a line.

Thanks for coming in today.

Chris

Let’s connect.
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January 25, 2019 by Drew Kincius 1 Comment

What the heck is Kanban?

01.25.19 | Chris Daily |

Kanban = Focus

It’s no secret that, as those of you who have worked with me in the past know, I sometimes have a hard time sticking to one thing. I often find myself drifting off to look at some new shiny object/topic that leads me down a rabbit hole. I call this “squirreling.”

So what’s the antidote? Does one exist? I have found over the years that time and time again, utilizing Kanban is powerful stuff.

I learned Kanban as part of my Agile journey and use it as a tool that improves productivity and the flow of work. It formalizes the concept of Visual Management by allowing a team to see the work that is in progress, as well as the relationships and risks that affect a team’s ability to deliver its work on time.

It has been widely used by IT service groups and software development teams.

Power in Transparency

Here’s a surprise: with its foundation in lean manufacturing, Kanban works for non-IT related work as well.

By adopting Kanban, anyone can see:

Work in progress
Impediments to completing work
Improved communication among the team
Improved engagement by the team due to better collaboration
The priority of the work, and where it is at in the process

Make it yours – KANBAN YOUR WAY!

Trust Your Eyes: Visual Management

Why does a visual approach to work matter? Because we, as humans, are visual creatures. Research shows that the brain can process visual information over 50,000 times faster than text.

Let’s look at an example.

Here is some wording to warn you of something to be cautious about:

“While you are traveling down this road, there is a chance that one or more rocks of varying size may fall from the slopes on one or both sides of you. You should be aware of this before you travel this way so that you are cautious of this particular type of hazard.”

Here’s a visual version of the same thing.

What is quicker? Reading a little more than 50 words, or looking at the sign? If you were driving down the road, which warning would you prefer?

This is the power of Kanban.

You can quickly get a sense of what is happening at a glance. This is known as visual management.

Visual management is a way to visually communicate expectations, performance, standards or warnings in a way that requires little or no prior training to interpret. By being visual, Kanban boards allow you to see the status and find information about tasks without having to sort through your email and then reading through the email thread to find out whether the work is complete or not.

As a leader, you can just say, “Check out the board!”

Now Planning: Everywhere

At its simplest, a Kanban board consists of three columns:

To Do
Doing
Done

With some sticky notes and some blue painter’s tape, any setting with a flat surface (wall, whiteboard, tabletop) can become a Kanban board. It doesn’t have to get any more complicated than that. It’s entirely up to you. How involved do you want to make it? Make it yours.

Kanban has some rules and practices that are defined, yet many people customize their use to reflect better what they are trying to accomplish.

Here are a couple of sites that have excellent info on Kanban:

A Visual Plan for Results

Once you’ve created your Kanban board, the power of Kanban leaps out at you every time you take a look at the board. Things to look for include:

Items stuck in the same state for long periods
Amount of work in process at a given point
Waste in the forms of handoffs and wait times

Using a Kanban board creates transparency while improving effectiveness by improving collaboration. Instead of status reporting, project managers can focus on other items that provide more value. What’s more, onsite and remote team members can see the status of a project in real time.

Kanban can be used to identify waste visually with a goal of improving efficiency.

Kanban also helps teams to visually identify log jams and identify opportunities for improving the process. Effectively managing the work improves focus and engagement, resulting in an improvement in morale.

Common sense tells us people are more efficient when they can focus on only a few tasks at once.

Kanban is one of the simplest, yet most powerful tools in the Agile Toolbox. It’s applicable across industries and is even relevant in your personal life. We’re happy to provide a dynamic, comprehensive one-day “crash course” to get you comfortable and empowered with Kanban. During The Framework Series: Kanban 101, you’ll discover how adopting this framework will help you process lightly: to be lean, adaptable, and Agile during any step of your project’s journey.

Thanks for stopping by.

Chris

Let’s connect.
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January 18, 2019 by Drew Kincius Leave a Comment

The Glass Half Full: Manifesting Hope

01.18.19 | Chris Daily |

I hope you’re ready: it’s time for a confession.

I’ve been noticing the “glass-half-empty” mentality more and more from those around me. I’m not without blame, either.

I’ve been wondering what the future holds. At times, I have asked if we, as a world, are heading to a place with no hope. Real challenges of modern society: global warming, immigration issues, trade tariffs, trampling of personal freedoms, dominate the 24/7 news cycle.

Add in the difficulties of starting a business, including an expanisve open-enrollment program, and I find myself getting overwhelmed at times.

An Inspirational Source

I decided to review older draft blog posts for inspiration, and an article by Steve Denning gave me pause, providing a bit of perspective. The piece focused on Steve tackling a societal retrospective, taking a look at how things have changed throughout recent history.

When you take some time and read the article, you realize that we’re making progress. We have reduced poverty, extended life expectancy, and, speaking in a very general manner, have made people’s lives better.

We have come a long way.

Most of the folks who were alive 100 years ago would have struggled to imagine the world we currently live in. Today is yesterday’s dreams of science fiction.

The Power of Hope

We have a come a long way, but there’s still so much to do.

No doubt the challenges in front of us are immense. We as Americans are divided on about every topic. Discrimination, sexual harassment, and racial hatred are still alarmingly clear and present dangers.

To survive in this environment, we have to find hope. We have to believe that things will get better in the future. Thinking that we will overcome the challenges and issues in front of us may seem like science fiction today, but without hope, what do we have?

Do you walk on eggshells to avoid confrontations? We have to continue to push forward, being brave enough to face the challenges head-on, fighting the good fights, knowing that things can get better. We have to be living examples ourselves of the world we want to see.

After all, isn’t that what got our species to this point?

If you want to check out Steve’s article, you can see it here.

Thanks for coming in today.

Chris

Let’s connect.
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December 14, 2018 by Drew Kincius Leave a Comment

Surprise! Agile’s Effect on Nonprofit Organizations

12.14.18 | Kendrea Williams |

If you are currently a Scrum Master, you’ve probably heard this a thousand times:

“Scrum is an Agile framework that is used to build complex products and/or software…incrementally.”

But let’s say you’re not a Scrum Master. Nor do you have any experience with Agile methodologies and the frameworks within them. Did you know that it’s possible to take an Agile framework, such as Scrum or Kanban, and apply it to the management of projects outside tech to other industries?

Yes – it’s true.

Imagine using Agile outside the world of tech. Perhaps managing a nonprofit’s fundraising campaign or its marketing strategy? Or, maybe applying it to something as simple as planning a family vacation?

If it is efficiency you desire, then it’s time to adopt an Agile framework. It may help you get to your end goal faster, and with fewer errors and hiccups.

Scrum Starts with the End in Mind

No matter what the goal, starting with the end in mind allows a project to be effectively divided into separate small and manageable tasks.

When applying Agile principles, Scrum emphasizes dividing large pieces of work into manageable tasks amongst the team. This allows the team to complete and deliver their assigned tasks while being able to remain flexible in the event the needs of the organization change, or the goal of the overall project to become obsolete.

Scrum also allows you to identify inefficiencies early in a project while increasing transparency. This process reduces the potential of unnecessary financial and human capital waste later on in a project.

Real Impact: Implementing Agile Frameworks

Agile environments allow self-organized teams to collaborate and share ideas. The goal of this method is to produce solutions and successfully manage the ever-changing needs of a project, as a team.

Below are a few nonprofit organizations who have seen tremendous success by dropping traditional project structures and organizational management and implementing Agile frameworks such as Scrum.

New BoCo – a nonprofit organization focused on making their community more resilient to the changing economy by supporting entrepreneurship, innovation and tech education. The organization uses Agile frameworks to manage their projects.
Data Arts – a national nonprofit service organization that promotes data-informed decision making in the arts and cultural sector. They accomplish this primarily by providing access to high-quality financial and programmatic data collected through its flagship service, the Cultural Data Profile (CDP). The organization uses Agile frameworks to provide program-based data to its constituents efficiently.
Vermont Arts Council – a nonprofit organization that is committed to building a culture in Vermont where art, culture, and creativity are at the heart of our communities. The organization uses Agile principles to manage various methods of communication, across the organization.

How Can We Help You?

When it comes to nonprofits, organizational leaders can use Scrum to understand their “organizational why,” as it provides a process for organizations to deconstruct their goals and activities using impact mapping and other techniques.

These techniques can help an organization determine which specific actions or tasks hold the highest value, and which functions should be acted upon sooner rather than later.

I’m a huge fan of the mission at beLithe: helping individuals be catalysts for organizational transformations using Agile frameworks for empowering impactful, dynamic results.

If you’re in the nonprofit world and struggling to meet your organization’s lofty ambitions, Team #Slinkythink can help. Shoot an email to marketing@belithe.com and mention this post to sign up for a complimentary assessment.

But wait, there’s more: check out VAULT, the 2019 programming open enrollment calendar featuring Agile frameworks training, soft skills development, and much more.

Let’s connect.
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December 12, 2018 by Drew Kincius Leave a Comment

Introducing: The Framework Series + The Interchange

12.12.18 | Chris Daily |

In a previous post, I mentioned that at beLithe, we want to join in your Agile journey by providing roadmaps, tools, webinars, and workshops that allow you to further explorer the concepts.

Well, Drew and I started talking about these offerings from our first chat about working together. Lately, we’ve been focusing on what courses we offer. That conversation continues, but we have decided on an initial approach of how we are going to group like-minded sessions together.

Please say hello to The Framework Series + The Interchange.

Framing Your Foundation

The Framework Series consists of workshops diving into topics which are foundational to your Agile Journey. From the perspective of the learner, they are primarily outward-facing, focused on how to “influence” those around us.

Current courses include topics like Product Owner I & II, Scrum Master I & II, Management 3.0, #Workout, Work Together Anywhere, Kanban, User Story Mapping, and Agile Testing (TBD) to name a few.

As an entry point, these courses are more accessible for folks new to the concepts to consume, and typically easier to get the boss to approve. Why? After it’s all said and done, you now have a new skill.

Most of the traditional courses touted today fit in a limiting category: the defining achievement of completing the class and a test resulting in a certification (CSM, SSM, PSM, ACP). Certifications aren’t bad but should be considered an entry point as opposed to a final destination. My own Agile journey started in a CSM course 9 years ago.

Embracing Humanity, In and Out of Work

The Interchange will be brimming with workshops focused on topics that are foundational to your work life. From the perspective of the learner, they are primarily inward-facing, providing an opportunity for the learner to take a look in the mirror and discover themselves.

Planned course offerings include concepts such as Agile Facilitation, Agile Behaviors, Agile Intelligence, Change Management (TBA), Agile Coaching, Design Thinking, etc.

These “soft” skills are applicable throughout one’s career, yet are often overlooked, out of date, or ignored. Many of us are less than excited about the topics in general. Why would you want to pay good money to take a workshop to be uncomfortable? Consider someone whom you personally know and admire in business. It’s a safe bet that they have mastered some, or all, of these skills. Yet, these skills are the ones that most of us ignore.

The Path to Balance: “The Middle”

When forced to choose between a Framework or an Interchange workshop, most of us select Framework.

It’s a more straightforward, more binary concept to grasp – and it’s easier for us to demonstrate our knowledge after the course by passing the certification test.

Yet, the Interchange workshops provide a more in-depth understanding by transcending our professional lives.

We’ve all encountered people at both ends of the spectrum. Picture an individual that is chained to the process, ticking all the boxes while going through the motions. They are on one side of the spectrum.

Now, picture someone that knows all about themselves, but can’t spell “process” to save their lives are on the left. Throughout the majority of my early career, I will admit that I was certainly more of a “box checker.”

Ideally, we should strive to be somewhere near the middle of the spectrum, taking both into account.

We’ve got a name for our cumulative collection of programs: VAULT. The first three months of 2019 are already scheduled, with enrollment now open. Over the next few months, we’ll announce even more courses, because why not? Please take some time to check them out.

Here’s to empowering your Agile journey. Hope to see you in the middle.

Chris

Let’s connect. 
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“Requirement” #1 – Can Still Code

“Requirement” #2: Has Been Through An Exit

“Requirement” #3: Led a 20 Person Team

What’s next?

SAFe: empowering multiple Agile teams.

A gradual appreciation.

What’s next?

What got you into Management 3.0?

What aspect of the program do you feel to be particularly impactful?

How are you using these concepts on a daily basis?

For someone who says waterfall is “working wonders”, what would you say?

What are your greatest ambitions for implementing Management 3.0?

If someone has no idea about what Agile is, where do they start?

A common workplace nuisance.

The team as the boss.

What’s next?

What truly drives us?

Great leaders are embracing humanity.

Hopping into our motivators.

What’s next?

One Size Doesn’t Fit All

Scrumban: Utilizing Benefits of Two Frameworks

Putting Our Ramblings Into Action

Kanban = Focus

Power in Transparency

Trust Your Eyes: Visual Management

Now Planning: Everywhere

A Visual Plan for Results

An Inspirational Source

The Power of Hope

Scrum Starts with the End in Mind

Real Impact: Implementing Agile Frameworks

How Can We Help You?

Framing Your Foundation

Embracing Humanity, In and Out of Work

The Path to Balance: “The Middle”

UPCOMING EVENTS

#SLINKYTHINK:DIRECTLY TO YOUR INBOX

#SLINKYTHINK:
DIRECTLY TO YOUR INBOX