I had a panic attack while cycling down a steep hill

September 27, 2020

I was recently cycling up a very steep and gravelly hill on the Turkish coast. As I climbed further and further up the hill, alone, I realized that I should probably turn back. As I turned around, I was faced with the stunning blue waters of the Turkish coast on my left and the steep decent ahead of me.

I have an extreme fear of heights.

Instantly, I felt my palms begin to sweat and my body filled with the loud thumping of my heart and my mind began to race.

‘I can’t stop! The gravel road…my tires will skid’

‘I forgot to wear my gloves! My hands are sweaty, I’m going slip off!’

I felt debilitated, cycling down a steep hill on a race bike with 25 mm tires. I knew enough to know that I was experiencing a panic attack. According to the Mayo Clinic: “Panic attacks, while intensely uncomfortable, are not dangerous.” In this particular case, the danger was real.

What I have been deliberately practicing for the past year surfaced to my consciousness. In this moment, I remembered: “Breath.” I employed what the Navy Seals call Tactical breathing. Something I had been practicing for months.

The panic attack went from acute to dull. It was still there but not all consuming. I kept moving forward while breathing.

I made it down the hill breathing deeply from my nose and exhaling from my mouth. As I made it down the hill, I forced myself to smile.

The next day, I was met with an even steeper hill. The difference this time was that I began breathing slowly ahead of time. My fear did not go away, the panic did.

Organizational Refactoring

September 21, 2020

Charles Duhigg describes the habit loop as

Triger
Routine
Reward

This loop that turns behaviors into habits. He asserts that the key to changing a habit is not changing either the trigger or the reward but the routine.

For example, the trigger could be work-related stress, the routine undeserved (etc. a cigarette, snacking), and the reward: a dopamine hit. Duhigg suggests only changing the routine, not the trigger or reward. Over time, that new routine will become a habit. For example, walking 1k steps.

There is a similar idea in programming. Refactoring modifies the code of a function or subroutine without changing the inputs or outputs, to avoid regression impact on the larger system. This is a laborious process, often overlooked due to the fact the eliminated technical debt is very difficult and is easier left ignored.

Can organizations be refactored?

Where the inputs and outputs remain the same but the undesired routines are changed.

	Trigger: Client escalation or production outage

Routine: Assert pressure on staff
  
 Reward: Temporary spike in productivity

Can this be refactored to:

	Trigger: Input client escalation

Routine: Remove waste from the systems
  
Output: Increase in productivity

What is the major difference? The difference is felt over time. The former’s quick fix provides an immediate improvement with long term degradation, while the latter is the opposite.

no SAX November

September 14, 2020

Dr. Leanard Sax has had a lasting impact on my family. After reading Boy’s Adrift I hunted down and destroyed every plastic bottle in the house. His books and ideas provide a counter-narrative to parenting in the 21st century. I recently finished reading his book, The Collapse of Parenting, and have decided to try an experiment for the month of November.

For everyone in the house

All electronics/wifi off by 8 pm
No Social Media(Including LinkedIn)
Dinner together(at least three times)
Phones all go into a Quarantine zone when home.

I have already told the family about this and they are all staying quiet in hopes that I forget..I’ve set a reminder :) I will track the daily habits using the the Habit loop app on android.

Let’s do this together…

(un)manager

September 7, 2020

“(un)manager: someone who helps organizations meet/exceeds its goals through elevating people as opposed to elevating themselves. ”

— Me

My work over the past couple of years has largely focused on the manager class. This is due to the following two questions:

What do managers do when teams are self-managing?
Where do we source masters of scrum? Individuals who are capable of coaching teams, product owners, and the organization.

It has become increasingly clear that these two questions are interlinked. For this to work managers need to unlearn some of the very behaviors that have made them successful in the past. I propose managers and management become re-framed and a new set of behaviors adopted.

Say no to Zoom | How does Linux and the OpenSource community do it?

August 24, 2020

Part 1: What do all day Zoom meetings and CDROMs have in common?
Part 2: How does Basecamp do it?
Part 3: How does Automattic do it?
Part 4: How does Linux do it?

It might seem odd to derive lessons for formal organisations from a self-organising volunteer activity, yet, the practices and skills found in Linux and open source workflows are invaluable when it comes to remote work, especially in times like these.

The open source system advocates trust, compassion and empathy as means for motivation and improved productivity. In its case, people have always been motivated, due to the system’s careful attention to initiative and incentive structures. What lessons can we take from these structures for use in our formal organisations today?

Work/Life

“As much as we want to retain work/life balance, we have to acknowledge that our work and home lives are being forced together in sometimes uncomfortable ways. The current situation isn't normal, and expecting normal productivity and complete focus isn't reasonable.” Stefanie Chiras, VP of the Business Unit at Red Hat Linux.

For many people, it's hard to separate work and personal life when their home is also the office. In these abnormal times, it’s important to consider employees holistically, not just in their work roles. They may be dealing with a great deal of stress that they can't just put down during work hours - this should be respected and understood. For example, avoid sending communications outside “official business hours”. If your new working time happens to be later, consider scheduling your emails to send during normal business hours to remove the expectation of working all the time. Go further, and encourage the team to take breaks during the day, not to eat lunch sitting at their desk, and, if possible, to go outside and get some fresh air.

Trust/ Tracking

“The very essence of open source teams is built upon trust.”

Everyone is accountable for what they need to deliver. Teams need to trust each other to get things done instead of dictating what the next task will be. Through trust, people are empowered, motivated to produce high-quality work.

This snaps the phenomenon of the “all-day Zoom meeting” into sharp focus; feeling secure over monitoring employees’ actions over the last 8 hours, opposed to their level of output over unmonitored hours of the day should raise some concerns.

Allow employees to work flexible hours so they have the chance to perform at their optimal moments. Early risers and night owls should each get their personal opportunities to operate when they work best. This flexibility on how, when, and where employees work, would likely improve their productivity and their loyalty to the company. Forcing everyone into all-day meetings would greatly inhibit this.

Output/Time

“The best architectures, requirements, and designs emerge from self-organising teams.” 11th principle of the Agile Manifesto

Focusing on results. Output over time. Something we hear a lot, but hardly internalize. An entire day spent at a desk, in an office, or on a Zoom call, would not - by any means - reflect the amount of expected output. Rather, employees must know and understand what they are responsible for (as opposed to how many hours they should work) and know when they've done enough. A system like this, where priorities are communicated and clarified, and employees have the freedom to work through those priorities over a sensibly set time period, would eradicate issues of trust and lack of productivity.

This is how the open source community operates. Developers are not spoon-fed tasks, but simply communicate amongst each other what must be done, and what can be done. Their work is then left in their control, to refocus and prioritize.

So, What?

“The point of all this is to learn from those companies who have been working in a distributed modality for decades, and have not simply ported the pre-COVID method using online tools.”

Ultimately, the rules of remote work discussed in the previous two articles aren’t solely advocated by Basecamp and Automattic, respectively - they are widely accepted in the distributed world. We have all been forced to become distributed companies. The point of all this is to learn from those companies who have been working in a distributed modality for decades, and have not simply ported the pre-COVID method using online tools.

The Fish Discipline | Teaching kids Systems thinking | What is a system

August 17, 2020

The world system evokes mystery and complexity. An amorphous thing that is not easily understood that has some nefarious agenda. A political system that keeps the rich richer and the poor poorer. “The system is keeping us down.” Or a machine that is seem too complicated for us to comprehend. “I am not good with computer systems.” Systems seem unapproachable or unchangeable. “What’s the point in voting, the system is broken?”

The reality is that these intuitions are partially right:

Systems can be complex but can be understood. Systems can be changed, they just inherently don’t want to change

But what is a system?

My favorite definition is that a System has a purpose and is made of up two or more connected parts, each of the parts affect each other.

Example 1: A car is a system that is made of many connected parts (Engine, Transmission, body, etc.) and the purpose of the car is to get you from point a to b. What makes a car a car is not only the parts, but the parts fitting together. You can have all the parts but if the parts do not fit together you do not have a car.

We are inherently reductionist. To understand a thing, we take it apart and look at the parts but overlook how the parts are connected.

Key idea: the connections are as important as the parts.

Example 2: A human is a system that is made of many connected parts (heart, lung, veins) and the primary purpose is life.

“None of the parts live, only you live. That is easily provable, cut off your hand and see what it does” Russ Ackoff.

Key idea: none of the parts have can fulfill the purpose the system.

Example 3: A planet is a system containing many systems the purpose of which is to maintain life.

Key Idea: Systems are usually contained within systems.

Systems are complex yet predictable.

Local optimization hurt the whole

If you focus on a part of the system and ignore the whole system, bad things tend to happen. A body builder optimizes accelerates muscle growth and negatively impacting the other organs ultimately impacting the systems very purpose.

A young gamer over clocks their new computer so it can go faster which will raise the temperature of the computer which can impact the other components.

Other predictable behaviors of a system:

Quick fixes are usually bad
The harder you push a system the harder it pushes back
When changing a system, things will get worse before it gets better
The smallest changes in a system produce the biggest results, the hard part is to know where to make the change.
The pain in the system is usually causes some where else in the system.

Changing a system is very difficult.

It must be considered that there is nothing more difficult to carry out nor more doubtful of success nor more dangerous to handle than to initiate a new order of things; for the reformer has enemies in all those who profit by the old order, and only lukewarm defenders in all those who would profit by the new order; this lukewarmness arising partly from the incredulity of mankind who does not truly believe in anything new until they actually have experience of it. Nicolo Machiavelli (1469 - 1527)

If you plan on changing a system the first thing you need to learn is how to see a system. That is what we will explore next.

Say no to Zoom | How does Automattic do it?

August 10, 2020

Part 1: What do all day Zoom meetings and CDROMs have in common?
Part 2: How does Basecamp do it?
Part 3: How does Automattic do it?
Part 4: How does Linux do it?

The power of asynchronous communication

“You may still want to say it right now, but they can almost certainly hear it later.”

Automattic does not use meetings as a primary form of communication - after all, people should be occupied with their work. If everyone is working on different things, the only way to get them all to break at the same time, is to force them to stop what they’re doing! This is why asynchronous communication is so powerful - it encourages focus. Is forcing people to stop, or postponing their start, really worth what they’re about to hear?

However, Automattic won’t shun meetings altogether. Undeniably, there are situations where meetings are simply unavoidable, and sometimes, even productive.

Two tips to boost meeting productivity

A meeting should only be held in the case that the same outcomes can’t be reached via a phone call, email, or instant message.

Set the meeting to 15 minutes by default, and only make it longer if absolutely necessary (the shorter the meeting, the less time there will be for pointless small talk).
Set a specific agenda and desired outcome before going into the meeting, and only include those whose involvement is absolutely necessary.

Two Automattic-specific habits

“For the high flyers”

Post the agenda ahead of time, so that those who need more time to prepare, or don’t speak English as their first language, get the opportunity to prepare.
Rotate the call host and note takers so that each member of the team gets a go at it. And, when the host is someone in a different timezone, shift the call to accommodate their workday.

These are some ways to maximise meeting productivity in the case that they can’t be avoided. But ultimately, real-time communication encourages distraction, asynchronous communication encourages focus.

“Don’t take people’s attention, give people back their attention so they can spend it in much more profitable ways.”

The Fish Discipline | Teaching Kids Systems Thinking | Introduction

August 3, 2020

Fish are consuming micro plastics to the extent that they are getting brain damage.

We are eating sushi containing plastics.

We are now pooping plastic which is filling the sewage with even more micro plastic… This has created a reinforcing loop that has unforseen consequences on our planet and our bodies.

Yet we continue this cycle. This notion is concisely captured by renowned systems thinker Peter Senge:

“Reality is made up of circles but we see straight lines.”

This can be explained because we are intuitively not trained to see the connections, and how parts impact each other. In other words, we have not been trained as systems thinkers. Children are intuitively reductionist. To understand something, children take it apart to see its parts or elements. That is only part of the story.

Every system consists of three things: the parts, the interconnections, and it’s primary purpose. For example, a person is more than just a collection of limbs and organs. A dead human is no longer a system, although the parts remain.

Over the next four weeks, I will explain how I trained my children to start becoming systems thinkers and what I learned in the process.

Part 1: What is a system?

Part 2: What is systems thinking?

Part 3: How to learn systems thinking?

Say no to Zoom | How does Basecamp do it?

July 27, 2020

Part 1: What do all day Zoom meetings and CDROMs have in common?
Part 2: How does Basecamp do it?
Part 3: How does Automattic do it?
Part 4: How does Linux do it?

There is no “Now”

“Now" is often the wrong time to say what just popped into your head. It's better to let it filter it through the sieve of time. What's left is the part worth saying.”

Basecamp abolishes the notion of 'Now', ‘Immediate’ and 'ASAP'. We need to understand that the immediate is often the worst time to share thoughts, as our mental processes are underdeveloped. Letting what popped into our heads ‘Now’ "filter through the sieve of time", would help greatly in communicating the point more concisely, articulately, and with the least risk of error or offence. The second thing we need to clarify, is the superiority of asynchronous over real-time communication. "Chat dissolves, while writing solidifies". Zoom meetings are classic examples of chat sessions, where important points and actions are lost through chatter and catch-up. Writing takes longer, feels more distant, and has become almost a last-resort for many, but it brings to the table much more than it takes away, and is the method Basecamp uses and recommends. In with the old, out with the new.

Long form writing over Meetings

“Eight people in a room for an hour doesn’t cost one hour; it costs eight hours.”

Basecamp prefers long-form writing as a method of communication allows for better quality relations where things are thought through far more carefully than if they were verbally transmitted. It also happens to be far more inclusive and benefits everyone - especially those who cannot make a meeting due to time or internet restrictions. Communication shouldn’t require schedule synchronization. Writing instead of meeting is more direct, and is independent of any kind of schedule. Furthermore, this kind of communication allows deeper discussions and conversations to develop and ‘sink in’, prior to judgement being made. Real-time meetings where calls to action are expected to be resolved immediately often result in rushed decisions.

Centralized communication

“There may not be a perfect time, but there's certainly a wrong time.”

Basecamp also has a solution for company-wide announcements; they don’t send emails or have fragmented meetings, instead, they use a centralised ‘message board’ where all employees can see and hear the same thing. This is crucial in upholding consistency, as no information is altered via different communication channels; nothing is lost and nobody is left out. Replacing live meetings with public written updates saves dozens of hours a week and affords people larger blocks of uninterrupted time, affording them good stretches of time to immerse themselves in work - which is crucial in order to allow employees to complete a ‘proper’ job. If this is not achieved, people are left scrounging for focused time, and are forced to squeeze project work in between all the other nonessential, yet mandated, things they’re expected to do. Meetings break time into “before” and “after.”

Running with a mask is changing my life...in a good way

July 20, 2020

Of the many strange new changes brought upon by COVID-19, I am forced to run with a mask. In Istanbul, where I live, there is a stiff penalty for not wearing a mask and an even stiffer social penalty for not adhering to the new societal norm.

I hate running with the mask because it restricts my breathing and it usually ends up as a chin strap. I assumed that mouth breathing is critical because it maximizes the amount of oxygen I have in my system.

Turns out I have been breathing all wrong.

I was listening to a podcast with author James Nestor where he was comparing nose breathing with mouth breathing. According to Nestor and some further googling, the effects of nose-breathing vs mouth breathing are stark.

Effects of mouth breathing
Sleep Apnea
Increased stress and Anxiety
Increased illness 
Bad breath
Respiratory issues
Neurological issues

Effects of Nose-breathing:
	Slows down your breathing which will increase the amount of oxygen in your system but up to 20%

Heats, humidifies and conditions the air before entering your lungs

Filters out bacteria before air enters you lungs

Reduction in stress and anxiety

The nose is a miraculous organ that prepares the air so that the body can maximize oxygen consumption as well as keep us in balance emotionally. Our nose is key to performance and balance. Its volume is actually larger than I thought - it’s the size of a small fist and extends above the eyes. The more you use it, the stronger it gets. If you don’t it will atrophy and will actually get harder to breath from your nose.

In short, deep breathing via the nose will help my running and intellectual performance. The challenge is that we breathe 25,000 times and I'm used to breathing from my mouth. How do I train myself to breath from the nose?

But now I have a daily cue to practice deep nose breathing. Putting on the mask is a constant reminder. Now during my run and bike rides I do “sets” of 10 “reps” where I breath deeply in and out from my nose.

Thank you Covid for reminding me to improve my breathing.

More resources:

First-Principles Thinking vs Reasoning by Analogy

July 13, 2020

“Through most of our life, we get through life by reasoning by analogy, which essentially means copying what other people do with slight variations.” -Elon

Say no to Zoom | What do all-day Zoom meetings and CD-ROMs have in common?

July 6, 2020

It seems that the entire professional world is spending its days on Zoom calls.

Manager @ Gemba Checklist

October 26, 2019

(Prepared with the help of Agile Zen Master, Kevin Lynch)

Things to do at Gemba

Watch every single task of a PBI (every single one, make no assumption that you know how it’ll get done – see it with your own eyes).
Start a list of Tech Debt – prioritize it using business terms (no techie jargon)
Don’t fix everything as it happens; watch for a recurring pattern and commit to fixing one thing
Have lunch with the teams
Check the scrum rules (there aren’t many, so check to see if they are doing them)
Lighten the mood / elevate the tone
Talk about why the work is important to the client
Give short and non-emotional feedback in the moment and regularly
Look at the sprint plan – is the team adjusting? Accounting for risks?
If team dynamics are ‘off’; observe! Try to find out the causes and conditions driving the individual behavior(s). What about the whole is impacting the one?
Lead sprint planning and try to ensure all tasks are broken down to less than 4 hours
Lead a retrospective
Lead a Product Backlog Refinement session

Things not to do at Gemba

Don’t worry about looking dumb
Don’t worry about trying to impress the team
Don’t rush to judgement
Leave for long periods of time
Get frustrated at the first sign of issues/problems
Constantly check phone or email
Check-out

Questions to ask the team or team member

How are you doing?
Can I pair with you?
Is it worth communicating this to the product owner?
Would you mind explaining "x" to me
Tell me more about why you do “x” this way?
How is this tested?
Can that be automated?
Can this step be done earlier in the process?
How will this impact quality?
Should this be documented for others?
How will this impact the customer?
Has this item met the definition of done?
Does the process of delivering vary for some PBIs (where? If so, why?)
Has this item met the definition of Done?
What’s on your mind?

Questions to ask myself

Is this an antiquated process that I can remove?
Is there a teachable moment here?
Can I make their job more enjoyable?
Is this a value added activity?
Is this a blocker I should remove or a blocker I should teach the team to remove?
Is this dysfunction related a historic management decision?
How is the team interacting with the greater organization?
Is this a teachable moment for the rest of the team?
What skills should I learn in the future to make me more effective at Gemba?
Is there workplace suffering that I could reduce or eliminate?

How to run a SWOT analyses workshop in four hours

February 3, 2019

Background

I’ve always resisted using SWOT analyses. To me it was a tool that large consultancies used to charge companies a lot of money. They send in dozens of analysts to produce a huge binder that is never actioned.

Recently a client asked me to help them with a SWOT analyses of there organization and I was forced to revisit my thinking and biases.

How can I make it my own?

The SWOT analyses is a tool created by a management consultant in the 60’s named Albert Humphries. He created a framework for companies to analyze their Strengths Weaknesses, opportunities and Threats.

Rather then send in a small army of analyses I decided to trust that the collective wisdom of the leadership team would have the necessary information they need to do a comprehensive SWOT analyses. That also has the added benefit of the team owning the result rather than renting the result from a third party.

Preparation

Before the session, I divided the room into four sections and placed a flip chart in each section. I labeled each flip chart either STRENGTH, WEAKNESS, OPPORTUNITIES or THREATS.

At the base of each flip chart I placed appropriately colored Post-It notes.

The session

I asked the leadership team to self-organize into groups of four.
I gave them 25 minutes to generate as many ideas as they can(one-per Post it)
After 25 minutes, I had one person remain to explain the board and the rest rotate counter clock-wise.
During the next round, the presenter would rotate leaving behind a new presenter.
We did this five times(25m,20m, 15,10m, 10m)
I then brought the 4 flip charts to a central location for a debrief. After reviewing them and removing duplication I have each member three dots to vote what they felt where:
1. The greatest strength
2. The biggest weakness
3. The greatest opportunity
4. The most dangerous threat.
They had three dots per sheet, that could be used in any way they want, three dots for a single post it or distributed.
After this, I prioritized based on the number of dots and asked the question:
Is this in fact the greatest two strength, weakness, opportunity and threats?
After discussion and reorientation, we had the top 2,3 for each.
After a break we took the top 2-3 from each and placed them on a separate board.
I divided the group into four groups to generate as many ideas as we can and asked the following questions (one per team)
1. What projects can we undertake to make these strengths even stronger
2. What projects can we undertake to eliminate these weaknesses
3. What projects can we undertake to capitalize on these weaknesses
4. What projects can we undertake to turn these threats into opportunities
Similar to above, we rotated until everyone had a chance to add their ideas
Dot vote to select the most impactful ideas with the least effort.

Further resources

More on SWOT: https://www.professionalacademy.com/blogs-and-advice/marketing-theories---swot-analysis
Dot-voting: http://dotmocracy.org/dot-voting/
Diverge Merge: https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/diverge-before-you-converge-tips-for-creative-brainstorming/

How I Accidentally Eliminated Brain Fog and Became a Morning Person...

February 2, 2019

I generally hate the morning. I usually wake up later than I want, feeling foggy, chest full of mucus, and joints aching.

“I’m just not a morning person.” Is what I have always told others and myself.

I have long desired to become a morning person though. Waking up at 4 am, working out, journaling, meditating, etc. has always been an elusive dream. I tried watching inspirational YouTube videos, internet how-to’s, usually at 1 am, to help me become a morning person, but it never sticks.

Now that I control my schedule even more, things have gotten worse.

That is, until about 2 months ago.

I was visiting family in New Jersey and had a string of caffeine-fueled days and late nights that resulted in pretty crappy mornings.

The crappier I felt, the more caffeine I would consume.

On a night out with my wife, I decided to have a quick double espresso to start the night off right. We were discussing something, when my heart started to beat uncontrollably. She looked at me and told me that I should sit down and that my face was getting pale.

My terrible sleep habits, roughly 1200 mg of caffeine a day, and dehydration had resulted in that.

“That’s it! I’m quitting coffee.” I told her.

“I don’t think that is possible,” she replied.

We have been together for 20 years and I have been addicted to coffee the entire time.

Doing the Impossible

But that is exactly what I did. I quit coffee.

The following week is what can only be described as hell week. I was tired all the time, irritable, and just not myself.

After a week, I started to feel better, I stayed hydrated and exercised which seemed to help.

During this time, I started to read about what was happening with my body that resulted in the strange heart pounding incident. I learned about adrenal fatigue, inflammation, & circadian rhythms.

I calculated that I had been alive over 14,000 days and I didn’t want to waste any more. I didn’t want to wake up feeling like crap and going to sleep struggling to actually sleep.

Stopping caffeine was my critical first step. What I noticed as my body started to detox was that rather than going between 2 and 10, I was at a steady 6 or 7.

During this time we made a long trip back from New York to Istanbul with a stopover in Amsterdam. Doing an overnight with 4 kids and a layover is not a lot of fun, but to my surprise I was very zen the whole time. Even when we had issues with one of the kids papers, I was still at a 6.

During the following weeks, I started to sleep earlier and earlier. My body would get tired and I would just sleep. As someone who tracks their sleep habitually, my deep sleep went from 1 hour a night to 3 hours. I found myself sleeping less and waking up earlier.

I started waking up clear and feeling great. I became over-protective of maintaining that feeling. My nervous energy and excitability was replaced with a more mellow personally.

“Are you ok? Is everything ok?” Was something I heard a lot. I was perfectly fine.

Waking up at 4 or 5 AM poses a major issue: What do I do with that quiet time?

Rather than wasting the time on the internet or YouTube, I created an ever-evolving protocol:

The night before:

No electronics after 8 PM & keep the phone outside the room
Golden milk (This turmeric-based drink is a magical potion and has eliminated virtually all morning mucous)
Go to bed around 9 PM but not sleep
1. Journal (What did I do that day and what I want to do the next day)
2. Read a physical book
3. Talk to wife etc.

The morning:

Wake-up naturally between 4-5
Make a large peppermint tea, I prefer this to a large glass of water
Spiritual practices (30 min)
60 minutes on the stationary bike (Check email, WhatsApp, etc)
Hot/Cold shower
High protein breakfast & 500 ml of water
Wake-up the kids and make them breakfast

The sacrifice

This new protocol is not without it’s scarifies. 9-1 AM was when I would hang out most with my wife. We have replaced this with having breakfast together or going for a walk together in the morning. The lack of caffeine has also meant that it’s harder to get to a high when I’m feeling sluggish. I am also finding myself saying no to any social gathering that will force me to stay out too late.

My 5 Laws of Facilitation

August 18, 2017

Click here for the Presentation Mindmap

Law # 1 - Prepare, but don't stick to the plan

You need to come in prepared. I usually spend twice as long as the session itself to prepare for it. The trick is to be prepared to let the plan go. Have a sample agenda ready. There's nothing like killing a great discussion by sticking hard to an agenda and forcing people to move on. Creativity gets stifled and peoples' minds remain on the previous discussion, as you try to move onto the next subject.

One of the biggest novice mistakes a person can make is forcing a conclusion to a thoughtful discussion. Time boxing is an art not science.

Flexibility is key to this first law.

Law # 2 - 20/80

The key to this law is remembering it is not about you, it is about the people in the room. This is not a presentation. This requires a different set of skills. Don't worry about what you are going to say. The more you are focused on yourself, rather than the group, the more likely you are to stagnate the facilitation. Make sure the attention is off of you, do not stand in the front of the room especially when discussion is going on. See Sharon Bowman's technique for training from the back of the room.

For the 20% of the time you are talking, your role is to ask questions, as well as synthesizing what people are saying in the discussion. Synthesis should come after someone has given a long and elaborate explanation that can really be shortened into a Tweet, give them that Tweet so they understand that discussion isn't a place for wasting others time with drawn out statements.

For the 80% of the time that you are being a listener, you need to develop two habits: Active listening (see below) and reading the room. Reading the room is an art. If there is just two people talking back and forth, that means the discussion is falling flat. Stop those people who dominate the discussion with humor, or volunteer someone who has been quiet to give their thoughts. It is your duty to make sure everyone is contributing. If people are having trouble keeping their eyes open, something is going wrong and an adjustment needs to be made. But by the same token, if everyone is ultra engaged in what is going on, do not interrupt, unless the discussion has become repetitive and what is being said is not adding benefit overall.

Make sure everyone is working. This can be accomplished by checking in on individual groups. Ask each member to use one word that describes their mood at that moment. Ask them to anonymously describe how safe they're feeling on a sheet of paper, and then read it back to the group. Have everyone say what one thing they want to accomplish in the meeting that day.

Active listening can be broken into four parts:

1) Contact

Listen to each participant and reinforce what is being said by maintaining eye contact and/or non-verbal responses

2) Absorb

Take in what each person says as well as their body language without judgment or evaluation.

3) Feedback

Paraphrase and summarize what the speaker says back to the speaker.

4) Confirm

Get confirmation from the speaker that you understand their points accurately.

Law #3 - Find the Qwan

The goal of the facilitation is to create a shared understanding amongst the group, it should ideally be a shared mental model. Your job is to take their ideas and help them build towards that common model. The tools are your disposal are:

The 5 whys: Simple enough, ask why continuously to get to the underlying cause or reason for a certain problem, or goal.

Casual loop diagram: A visualization of how different variables of a system are interrelated.

Sequence diagram: Shows how objects relate to each other and in what specific order.

Influence diagram: A graphical representation of a decision situation. It shows all the key elements that go into the decision as well as outcome effects. Great video by Kent Beck using influence diagram.

The Qwan is found when there is a collective "aha" moment. When everyone gets on the same page, and has the same understanding, your job is complete.

Law #4 - It should be fun

There might be nothing worse for a groups creativity and morale than monotony. You should start off by disorienting your group. Change the location of the session, take them outdoors if the weather is nice. Make the group do something that seems completely random, like making a group of MD's do air squats. It makes everyone seem a bit ridiculous and gives everyone the courage to be seen failing.

Keep the sessions light-hearted. Be self-deprecating and employ humor into your facilitation technique, it keeps people lively. People who are generally uncomfortable in group situations, become more comfortable with humor and group laughter. This allows everyone to feel like they can share their ideas, and the creativity flows even better this way. You can even play music, and start singing along and force others to sing as well (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCy7lLQwToI). The measures of success for this law are smiles and laughter.

Law #5 - Continuously Improve

Your first experiences as a facilitator likely won't be the best, so take every opportunity to practice facilitation. It may sound silly, but you can even try it with your friends or your kids at the dinner table. Take a step back from dominating the conversation and get others to throw their ideas out there. You'll gain subtle practice in asking the right types of questions in a comfortable environment. More practically, get feedback from the sessions you facilitate. Ask them what they liked, what they didn't like. Also, make sure to observe other facilitators, what do they do that intrigues you? When do you find yourself most engaged? And then add those things to your own arsenal. It's okay to steal from others if it makes you better!

Product level Agile Metrics template

May 25, 2017

Template

More metrics resources:

7 Lean metrics (link)
Measure anything by Tom Gilb (video)
Many different measurements from the SAFe world (link)

On effective retros

May 17, 2017

v.01

What is the point of a retrospective?

Continuous improvement over delayed perfection -Mark Twain

For the team to improve use a little bit each sprint. that's it.

What are the two key ingredients?

Great facilitation

Care more about the team then how they come across.
Empathetic
Can read room
Ask the right questions

People who care about improving

A group of people who don't to improve will not
A safe enviroment
Trust

Tools/Techniques/Patterns I find useful:

Iskikawa Diagram. Useful diagram for route cause analyses
5 Why's. One of most popular route cause analyses tool. Tip: be comfortable not knowing where the journey is going.
Influence diagram. Useful for modelling the impacts negative reinforcing loops. Kent Beck uses influence diagrams to explain not having enough time to test
Fog Grid. Useful framework for incremental behavior change
Dot Voting/Dotmocracy. Quick wisdom of crowds technique to prioritize

Hackers and Slackers (Guest Post)

January 4, 2017

By Lynette A Cain (Scrum Master, Former Actress, Improv & overall awesome human)

Think back to the old Waterfall Days - not so long ago - and imagine the office at 5 PM. Most of the staff is packing up their bags, shutting down their computers, and has their minds on dinner. At 6 PM a handful of people remain, trying to finish up that last email or task. By 7 PM, only three are left: Molly, Evan, and Linda. Molly has been in the department for over eight years. She knows the most complicated rules engine code inside and out, and everyone knows it. The whole team runs their client-related tests through Evan. He has a dozen polite ways to tell the client that the problem is on their end without making his executive director nervous. Linda is the only person the department trusts to break down an intricate client request. Molly, Evan, and Linda have a bit of running banter, when they see each other at the water cooler: they’re the heroes, the ones who can fly through dozens of tasks after the slackers go home. They enjoy the rush of putting out fires and rescuing projects. Their peers quietly acknowledge their prowess. The heroes’ managers know they’re saving the day. It all seems to work.

Now let’s come back to the present time, in which Scrum has replaced Waterfall. Molly, Evan, and Linda each chose a different Scrum team. As usual, Molly, Evan, and Linda still rescue the department, while their teammates do…very little. Their lack of delivery is clearer, now. The “slackers” have little to report at daily Scrums while the heroes have a long list of what they completed and what they have in progress. The managers, and their own managers, wonder how they can get everyone else to work with the same sense of urgency. The Scrum Masters see waste, an unsustainable pace, and other symptoms something is very wrong here. The heroes don’t want to hear the Scrum Masters’ observations. Molly, Evan, Linda still know they are carrying the department and feel the Scrum Masters add no value - where are they at 7 PM while the heroes are still working? Long gone.

It’s clear the heroes are valued team members. But what if, in fact, they’re also bottlenecks? The Theory of Constraints tells us the entire team can only work as fast as they can. The knowledge and experience Molly, Evan, and Linda have is limited to them. If Evan gets hit by a bus tomorrow (and he could, since he’s so tired he’s barely aware of his surroundings), so much for the client testing. So why, knowing that Molly, Evan, and Linda are so valuable, isn’t anyone learning from them? They’re endlessly busy executing, with no time to mentor or teach new employees. Other team members are bored and frustrated because they want to do more than busy work. They aren’t slacking; they’re frozen assets, unable to reach their potential.

Something has to change. The Scrum Masters propose an experiment: for a sprint, Molly, Evan, and Linda are not allowed to take on sprint deliverables – they are reserved exclusively as teachers and mentors. In the short term, this experiment is incredibly painful. The Product Owner sees a sharp temporary drop in velocity. The heroes sit on their hands, willing themselves not to take over and save the day as they have so many times before. Theirs is, in many ways, the biggest leap of faith. Surrendering knowledge and expertise makes them feel vulnerable. Who are they, if they aren’t always SMEs? Can they learn something new, becoming humble beginners again? The frozen assets, the people who weren’t previously meaningful contributors, are also forced to step outside of their comfort zones, unable to vanish into the background. They now carry responsibility for delivery. They fear, what if I can’t learn fast enough? The Scrum Masters observe, encourage, facilitate…but mostly worry that the results of the experiment will not come fast enough to make the sacrifice worth it in the eyes of the Product Owner and managers.

The experiment runs for a sprint, and then another. The product team gets benefit from starting to relieve the bottlenecks, and decides to continue in this manner. They document everything the heroes have been doing, so the next time that Molly fixes an obscure rules engine bug, someone else knows how to do it. Molly’s mentees are accountable for retaining and spreading their new knowledge; they are now the first responders. Linda and Evan take similar approaches, so that they are able to spend more and more time anticipating ways to add value instead of reacting to problems.

For a while, everyone works as if this is temporary, and some day Molly, Evan, and Linda will all return to their former habits when the team is up against a tough deadline. But somewhere along the way, Molly takes a vacation. Evan gets to learn performance testing, and it’s a nice change of pace. Linda feels a little exposed, since the teammates that never used to touch client requests have learned her tricks of the trade. She may doubt her value, but they don’t. They’re impressed by what a great teacher she is.

The truth is there are many experiments that could allow the teams to break through the bottlenecks. All of them come back to control, though: the heroes must surrender their burdens to both lighten their own loads, and give the others a chance to be meaningful contributors. Molly, Evan, and Linda aren’t the whole department. Once they don’t have to be, they will get to (or have to) turn to their coworkers and see true peers: equals, partners, and the reason they go home for dinner on time tonight.

No lunch but plenty of food for thought...

September 29, 2016

Artefacts

Class deck (Link)
Class mind map(Link)
Note: Requires XMIND
Metrics Spreadsheet(Link)
Printable Scrum Mindmap (Link)

Articles I mentioned

Unfreezing an organization (Link)
How to form teams at scale (Link)
The taxonomy of A-Holes (Link)
Running an impact mapping session (Link)

Books I mentioned

The Five Dysfunctions of a Team
(Amazon)(video)
The Phoenix Project
(Amazon)
The Fifth Discipline
(Amazon)(Video)
Specification by Example
(Amazon)(Video)
The Art of Learning
(Amazon)
Hard Facts, Dangerous Half-Truths, and Total Nonsense: Profiting from Evidence-based Management
(Amazon)(Video)
Leading Teams
(Amazon)(Video)
Scaling Lean & Agile Development
(Amazon)
Lean Startup
(Amazon)(Video)

Hacks

Become a faster reader using RSVP (e.g. Spreader)
Prepare your speaking voice via repeating: " I slit the sheet, the sheet is slit, on the slitted sheet I sit" (Video)
Mindmapping as a tool to retain and correlate information. (Video by Creator)
Pomodoro technique (Video)
Glucose Transporter type 4 (Link)

Class soundtrack

Led Zepplin
Cat Stevens
Bruce Springsteen
Grateful Dead
Brian Adams
My Saxobeat
James Taylor

Class blog posts

LeSS – Day 1

By Scott and Abishek

Over the course of Day 1 in our 3 day LESS training which is designed to scale scrum across larger teams/projects in BNY. We adopted a repetitive learning approach where we covered high level the principles, people, process and adoption on day one and then will explore these concepts in much more detail on day 2 and day 3.

We utilized techniques like mind mapping, classroom exercise and instructor lead learning. Each methods of these yielded real-life examples of application and successes. One of the key evaluation was the queueing theory at Starbucks- separate queues for the people who wanted regular coffee vs special orders to expedite the delivery. Automating the orders through smartphone apps. At the same time, barista was limited to not more than 2 orders of coffee maintain the high quality. Similar technique can be applied in software processes by reducing the queueing of requirements by letting the team work in collaborative manner with product owners to create the requirement themselves. It also explains that by limiting the work queue hence increasing the throughput.

Also reviewing the principles outlined in the program allowed us to visualize or better understand where we at BNY could make significant strides for a better agile adoption. Specifically, a single product owner across x number of teams, co-location and dedicated scrum masters to help serve and support the value generating development teams. Product owner, location strategy and scrum master expertise are all quite immature in practice amongst many of the teams.

As a group we discussed the concept of waste within a system specifically how we may invest a lot of time in unnecessary waste tasks (like the beautification of communications and ppt) vs necessary waste like crafting wiki for teams to consume information.

We also learnt about an example of finding the root cause of the delay in delivery through the 5Whys and “Go See” technique. After some hesitation, senior Management (CIO/CTO) committed to meeting the team at different geographical locations with diverse culture, understanding the technical issue by casual conversation. It revealed the root cause as the non-realistic timeline given to the development team to build a feature that resulted in technical debt creating the overall code to become complex to change.

Looking forward to day 2!

LeSS Is More

By Ciara, Brian & Laureen

Today we attended the LeSS is More Agile Training for product development. This is the first day of a three-day training. Can you imagine changing the culture within your organization where someone with total understanding of the product is working with the team to add purpose and priority to your work? Well… it can happen to you as we learned today! How would you do this? By being part of a smaller team where labels do not exist. You have to trust one another to gain knowledge of the product together and learn the process.

All the while the customer is the primary focus as you are developing and working on the product. Increasing customer satisfaction by having your customer at the table and having accountability along with the team.

Working towards perfection helps to continuously learn and constantly apply what you’ve learned the day before. Infinite Improvement! Imagine spending 85 of your years perfecting the art of sushi and still not feeling satisfied with your work and ready to retire. A sushi chef in NYC works every day to continuously improve his work. He is not content with mediocrity and every day he is working towards perfection. Now take this lesson and apply it to your product development.

The TEAM….. small, no labels, no manager. What no MANAGER!! Teams will rely on each other to get the job done!

And, last but not least you deliver something viable after 2 weeks instead of waiting several months before testing and delivering what the customer does not want! Even though it may be smaller, it is something of value to the customer that can be applied to the system much quicker.