Every executive knows that access to credible, reliable and independent data is the key to making sound decisions. Yet, while many organisations turn to intuition, gut instinct, self-reporting, and vanity metrics when it comes to agile capability maturity, now there’s a way to have an objective picture.
It would be great if training in the virtual world were as simple as training in person, but it’s not. As workplaces transitioned to working remotely, we had to rapidly pivot and work out how to deliver virtual training but also keep the vibe of interaction and discussion that makes face to face (F2F) sessions so valuable.
Running remote PI planning for the first time 100% virtual was a bit daunting a few weeks ago when the reality set in that with the current crisis, this was now our reality. We prepared, thought through worse case scenarios and had back up plans and felt eerily calm as the day began. It was a great success and here are our tips.
De-stressing when you’re working from home with a brisk walk around the block is essential for productivity. There is, unfortunately, all the unwanted breaks. Notifications on your phone. Email alerts that have popped up. A tick-tock video that needs watching. Unfortunately, switching tasks for just a few seconds is ruining your productivity.
Scrum teams excel in rapidly changing complex environments and their ability to adapt and pivot to fast changing business priorities can be a huge advantage. However, the current abrupt shift from co-located to remote working would challenge even the most high performing agile team.
Since the outbreak of COVID-19, remote working is becoming more and more the norm. While employees are starting to settle into remote working, leaders find themselves challenged in ensuring their employees are engaged and productive.
There’s a temptation in times of crisis for leadership to feel the need to redeploy people. The idea is that urgent priorities are best handled by moving people around, creating tiger teams, and putting them on the urgent work. Are long lived agile teams a luxury we can no longer afford?
Now more than ever, the ability to respond to change over ‘following a plan’ couldn’t ring truer. Now we are working from home, readjusting to a new ‘norm’, but all the while living in a state of chaos whilst still ‘keeping the lights on’ in the space of not months or years but in weeks, days and even hours. How do executives ensure their agile teams remain productive when working remotely?
The concern is that with remote working, we lose visibility and transparency and may not identify a problem till later down the track when a release or delivery is at risk. We analysed teams and provided executives with transparency of which teams we needed to target for coaching support and guidance to uplift the team’s ability to work remotely, remain cohesive as a team and deliver successfully.
In the face of disruptive change, the ability for executives to mobilise action is paramount. While self-organisation is a key enabler, how do you support and encourage teams to organise themselves without micromanaging them solving every impediment for them?
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