Blog

Do Craig Larman’s Laws of Organizational Behavior really mean we always need to start with a structural change? What do they say about starting with Kanban?

I’ve been following Craig Larman’s work for a while now. I find the books he wrote with Bas Vodde on scaling agile to be very insightful and actionable. I recently discovered Craig’s “Laws of Organizational Behavior”: 1. Organizations are implicitly optimized to avoid changing the status quo middle- and first-level manager and “specialist” positions & …

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Pull-based Change Management

A main theme of my work and thoughts recently has been Pull-based change. I noticed that I don’t have one place that I can refer people to for my work on this subject. Until I write a book about it, here are some links: Most Recently – Bringing invitations into SAFe™ A series on the …

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Helping with Kanban – Thoughts from reading Helping by Edgar Schein

I recently read Helping: How to Offer, Give, and Receive Help by Edgar Schein (actually I listened to it on Audible and then read it again on kindle to better process/digest). I can highly recommend it if you are interested in ways to become a more helpful consultant, manager, person – one who is able …

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Kanban FAQ: Should I FINISH what I’m working on or help the team READY new work items?

Once people start to get “Stop Starting Start Finishing” thinking (Kanban) or the “Focus on the current sprint” thinking (Scrum) a frequent question that comes up is how to deal with people who are required for different activities throughout the work life cycle. Some example scenarios: “I’m a tester who both participates in ATDD spec. …

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Lean Kanban North America is coming to San Francisco but when will I have time to enjoy the city?

Lean Kanban North America a.k.a Modern Management Methods conference for 2014 is coming up. This year it will take place in beautiful San Francisco.  I love San Francisco and the conference hotel is smack in the area I love most – the waterfront… But I’m not sure how much time I will have to wander …

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