Going Agile

Agile is not just a load of ceremonies and process. All the conditions for team success need to be in place to make it work. Use this simple guide to the 3Cs that is tuned for agile: https://7942349.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net/hubfs/7942349/3-Dec-12-2023-10-07-45-3937-AM.png

So many challenges that teams take on today are new, so a crucial part of our agile approach is learning. Getting good at that will accelerate your team and give you better outcomes.

Some keys to a successful retro: Give everyone a chance to reflect and have a set of points that they then share on a whiteboard or similar so that it’s not just the vocal folks like us that get a say Secondly, keep working psychological safety. One of the best ways to do this is to set the tone, especially for question 2 – what didn’t go so well.  You lead the way – call out some things that you could have done better. That will clear the way for others to feel they can do the same. 

This week we get into the heart of agile execution – the stand-ups that punctuate your sprints and keep the team on track.  Guide to a good stand-up:  Keep it time-boxed and concise. While 15 minutes is the classic stand-up, we often take a little longer so that we can discuss the cards in a bit of detail if needed but remember – this is not a meeting, it’s a check-in so if you need more time, book a separate call. Use the Kanban to track progress visually. Go through the progress cards one at a time. Focus on the three key questions: yesterday's progress, today's plans, and any blockers. Capture action items for follow-up. Encourage participation, foster transparency and accountability and address blockers collaboratively. This has to be a safe space where there is no blame and people can speak up about their challenges. 

In this connect, we are in the depths of sprint planning! If you are looking for a way to do this virtually (strongly recommdened), we love Trello: https://trello.com/home   If you want a really deep dive into the topic, take a look at Atlassian’s view on sprint planning: https://www.atlassian.com/agile/scrum/sprint-planning. 

This week we are building the high level plan to guide our activities in the long and short term. This should not take too long as it is all hypothetical so is likely to change in the future! However, it is vital to give people clarity at each stage.  Here is a “Building your agile roadmap” template: https://hubs.ly/Q024r8SK0  (Link to the file I sent by email, Sarah!) HERE is the link: https://hubs.ly/Q024r8SK0 

This week we start a mini-series on how to execute as a team in a complex world. It’s all about Agile and you can read more about it here: https://www.atlassian.com/agile  The experiment for this week is just to observe your team: How aligned is everyone to a long term goal? How good is the team at changing direction and keep everyone with it? How good are we at reflecting to learn how to execute better?