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October 6, 2015 by Chris Daily Leave a Comment

IU Scrum Training Lessons

Gandhi once said:

“Your beliefs become your thoughts,
Your thoughts become your words,
Your words become your actions,
Your actions become your habits,
Your habits become your values,
Your values become your destiny.”

I’m a big believer that our thoughts control our destinies. If you look at life and the professional world in these terms, you suddenly become aware of all the little things that shape you and those around you.

I’ve prided myself in my career for choosing my words and language in an inclusive way. When I was directing human resources a pet peeve of mine was hearing the executive team describe future hires (especially for leadership or technology positions) in this way ALL the time: “When we hire him, he will do XYZ” or “When we hire a CTO, he will get the team trained on XYZ”… I drove the (all-male) executive team crazy by constantly and consistently correcting them, asking them to start using she instead of he all the time.  I certainly wanted more women in these roles and the executives said they did too, but like most of us, they were just used to using he/man/guy all the time. But we needed to change – our thoughts become our destiny and we wanted our destiny to have more women in our technology and leadership roles.  By the time I left the company, I had the executive team thinking twice when describing a generic person or role… they were saying she as much as they were saying he!

Fast forward to our Scrum Training at IU.  A room full of women (well, except for Chris) from varying levels of education and professional experience, undergrads, graduates, PhD candidates.  Inclusive language was the last thing on my mind because I thought I had it covered.  I was wrong. I found myself referencing the group over and over as “you guys” and “hey guys!”.  I noticed several of our analogies and photos in the training referenced all-male sports teams but didn’t show women.  One student even commented “Hey! Women play Rugby too you know!”

As a woman in an industry dominated by men and a passion for introducing underrepresented individuals to the technology profession, I learned at our last training that just being aware of the importance of inclusive language isn’t enough.  If we want to be more inclusive our words must consistently reflect that.  Our words become our destiny after all.

Thanks for a great session, women of IU!

Tana

 

IMG_2403 IMG_2404 IMG_2405 IMG_2406

Filed Under: agile, Uncategorized Tagged With: agile, scrum, scrum indianapolis, training

July 16, 2015 by Chris Daily Leave a Comment

“Managing” Software Development – Culture is everything!

Today’s workforce doesn’t want to come to work, punch in (time clock), do their job, and then punch out (time clock).  Teammates want to be part of an organization where:

  • they are valued
  • they  get the mission
  • they feel like they belong
  • they get to do meaningful work
  • they are treated with respect

There are countless books that have been written that directly or indirectly refer to the subject of culture in business.  You’ve probably read some of them along the way, so I’m not going to regurgitate the concepts.  What I am going to say is that the effort to establish a culture that employees and customers want to embrace is not great, yet the ROI is greater than any other investment you can make.  Over my career, the culture can be the best recruiting and retention asset.  As a leader, you don’t have to take on the burden of establishing the culture by yourself.  In every organization that I have been a member of has a cadre of folks who are interested in creating an interesting and fun place to work.  Crowd source you culture.  Find a couple of teammates who share your vision, ask them to lead the effort, and get out of the way.

You can’t just walk away at this point though.  Your teammates will need, with some boundaries, to be empowered both financially and organizationally.  Nothing will take the air out of your culture than an oppressive leader who crushes or changes every idea that is presented.  In my experience, those employees will become more engaged in work.

In addition, there will be some ideas that will require moderate costs.  You don’t want to over do it, but buying pizza or bagels for your teammates can go a long way.  At my current employer, we have Donut Thursday, where donuts are provided for the entire company.  No reason other than we value what they do.  Nominal cost of about $30/week, yet it has helps contribute to our overall cultural message:  The company values you.  We also create events such as  Snack & Yaks, where the company buys Jimmy John’s for the team.  Again, not a big expense, but goes a long way.

In addition, your teammates will need counsel and advice on how to proceed.  Often, this is the first opportunity for some of your teammates to assume a leadership role.  Training and mentoring around leadership should be available to support your teammates.  Fortunately, your teammates also don’t need to go far to get ideas.  Companies, such as Lesson.Ly, Toms, and Spotify, make their opinions on culture available on corporate websites.  Spotify’s engineering culture videos are a must see.

Culture is a living thing that must be nurtured to sustain.  Get started today.

Thanks for coming in today.

Chris

 

 

Filed Under: Agile, IMO, Leadership, Scrum, Software Development, Uncategorized

July 15, 2015 by Chris Daily Leave a Comment

Arthur Ashe on Leadership

True heroism is remarkably sober, very undramatic. It is not the urge to surpass all others at whatever cost, but the urge to serve others at whatever cost. – Arthur Ashe

If you have been reading my blog for a while, you probably know how I feel about just sharing articles and quotes for the sake of sharing.  If not, you can check it out here.

As I reflected on this quote, I couldn’t help but substitute the word “leadership” for “heroism”.

Restated:  True leadership is remarkably sober, very undramatic. It is not the urge to surpass all others at whatever cost, but the urge to serve others at whatever cost. – Arthur Ashe

The quote seems applicable to managing people and seems to embrace Servant Leadership.  When I got my first management position, I got in for the wrong reasons.  I wanted people to respect me, and I wanted to make a lot of money.  Luckily, I got some good advice along the way.  Hopefully, you’ll take this quote as a piece of advice.  If you don’t know anything about Servant Leadership, click here for a start.

Thanks for coming in today.

Chris

 

Filed Under: Business Musings, IMO, Leadership, Uncategorized Tagged With: Character, development, growth, Leadership, Motivation

June 16, 2015 by Chris Daily Leave a Comment

“Managing” Software Development – Honey-do List

This is the fourth in a series of posts about “Managing” Software Development.  If you missed the first three, you can find them here, here, and here.

Time to come clean.  I am a kleptomaniac.  I have been trying to cope with it all of my professional life.  I can’t seem to help myself.  I see a video, talk to someone, or read a blogpost and I immediately jump to a mode of “how can I use this in my work life”.   All the tools in my virtual tool box have been stolen from someone else.

One of my most effective heists is the concept of a backlog.  A backlog is also know as a todo list, a priority list, or even a honey-do list.  Most folks are familiar with the concept of a backlog, yet it seems they disappear right before I start at a company.  Rather than go into a long discussion about scrum, user stories, and backlogs, I am going to focus on an example that is closer to home for most of us.  I am sure the concept of a honey-do lists have been around as long as the institution of marriage.   Let’s take a look at that.

What is a honey-do list?  With married couples and committed partners, a honey-do list is comprised of items/tasks/activities and is created for the purpose of prioritization and execution.   Typical items on a honey-do list include things like paint the bedroom, clean the garage, fix the dishwasher, etc.  The honey-do list itself doesn’t provide much value, but the resulting conversation between partners can create a common understanding of what should be done and what the priority is.  A backlog in business is essentially the same thing.  It is a list of things to that someone wants done, and the resulting conversation about the items on the list creates a similar common understanding between stakeholders and the team that actually does the work.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with Agile thinking can stop right here.  You have a tool that you can use.  For those of you who are open to Agile concepts, what follows is critical.  The tool in this post is the idea of a backlog (honey-do list).  The real value comes not from the tool itself, but from the conversation that occurs as a result of the management and prioritization of the items on the list.  That conversation doesn’t happen very often in most companies.  Employees are told to get to work, without a clear understanding what needs to be done.  Without an understanding of why the work needs to be done, employees lacking passion produce mediocre results at best.  The creation of a backlog helps address both issues by encouraging the conversations that need to happen.

Common sense should tell you that a prioritized list will help an organization, yet backlogs often don’t exist or aren’t maintained.  Take advantage and create backlogs.  You won’t be sorry.

Thanks for coming in today.

Chris

Filed Under: Uncategorized

June 9, 2015 by Chris Daily Leave a Comment

“Managing” Software Development – Stay in touch

This is the third in a series of posts about “Managing” Software Development.  If you missed the first two, you can find them here and here.

In my last post, I spoke about embracing Servant Leadership as an important first step.  Once you embrace Servant Leadership, you have to figure out how you can serve them.  I have only found two tools that, when combined, enable you to start serving your team.  Brace yourself!  This is the money shot.  As a leader, you have to really communicate with your teammates.  For me, the first tool that works is to get up off my kiester, go to where my teammates are, and talk to them.  I didn’t say text, or email, or IM.  Good old fashion talking.  Personal communication.  I try to get out at least every other day and provide an opportunity for collaboration.  Some communication won’t happen in this format.

The second tool that I use is regular one-on-one meetings.  With each teammate, I put a recurring meeting for 1/2 hour on the calendar.  Frequency depends on a lot of different factors, but should occur at least once a month.  The agenda for these meetings is up to my teammates.  The discussions in these meetings range from “How’d your weekend go?” to “I need help dealing with Bob.”  Some might suggest, I am just shooting the crap, killing time.  Guilty as charged.  This tool, however, gives your teammates another opportunity to communicate with you.  Some topics are better behind closed doors.  This tool provides that opportunity.

One of my former teammates once said “I am here for you the entire year.  All I ask is that you give me an hour of feedback once a year.”  That quote by Joey Cruz has stuck with me.  As a servant leader, you should be available to provide feedback throughout the year.  Having a recurring meeting with each teammate on the calendar ensures that you are putting yourself in another opportunity to communicate with your teammate.

I have found that, when bumpy times occur in the business, these meetings turn into valuable opportunities for bi-directional collaboration and feedback.

Thanks for coming in today.

Chris

 

Filed Under: Uncategorized

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