Coach

As a Leader How do I energize my team members?

This is a query that keeps coming up in our coaching conversation. 

What technique we have which we can share with the leadership team to enable them to be ready for a stronger leader. It pertains to us as a coach as well. 

Let us look into this model and point out this to our leader to pilot with his/her team members. 

The SCARF model of behavior is a comparatively recent theory, having first been published in 2008 by David Rock. The word SCARF is an acronym which stands for:

Status – the relative importance to others.

Certainty – the ability to predict the future.

Autonomy – the sense of control over events.

Relatedness – the sense of safety with others.

Fairness – the perception of fair exchanges.

The primary premise of the SCARF model is the assumption the brain makes us behave in certain ways, which are to reduce threats and maximize rewards.

While the brain receives a threat and reward approach to fundamental needs, such as food and water, the theory argues this same also goes on with social needs.

An anticipated threat to one’s status activates similar brain networks to a threat to one’s existence. In the same way, an anticipated rise in fairness switches on the same reward circuitry as getting a monetary reward. 

The aim of the SCARF model is, therefore, interaction with individuals in a manner that reduces the threats and enlarges the rewards in relation to the five key areas specified above.

In our conversation as a leader with the team members, when we insist on these steps to be maintained, we can observe radical transformations in the way team members behave.

In our interaction with many team members during a coaching conversation, team members do share that, the leave organization or team when they see that their leaders are not fair, leaders are not empowering and micromanaging, team members are creating silos based on languages/place, etc.

We interact with leaders with this model and ask, how do they think they can enable the team set up to eliminate some of the threats and increase rewards.

It takes a conscious effort to practice this in the patterned transaction. While coaching with the leaders, we are working as an observant and noting where the leader has missed exercising above these steps.

In subsequent observation sharing sessions with the leaders, we highlight that for the next time conversation, leaders can alter in a definite section what we have witnessed a room for improvement.

The same applies to us as a coach. We also require to communicate with our fellow team members considering all these factors.

What we are working, as we know from this model an increase in the recognition of autonomy feels rewarding for the team members, so let us minimize micromanagement and empower the team to work out their own steps and explain them with others. Let us get rid of the autonomy threat which comes from the working transaction.

In any opportunity, let us bring transparency and fairness because a threat response from a sense of unfairness can be triggered easily. Let us establish clear ground rules, expectations or objectives.

In this uncertain world, how we as a leader can bring certainty. That is the million-dollar question. We as a leader by applying our wisdom need to ask self and enable the team members with some certainty. A brain is a pattern-recognition machine that is constantly trying to predict the near future. Even a minuscule amount of uncertainty causes an ‘error’ response in the brain. The act of creating a sense of certainty is rewarding. Let us do this more. 

Relatedness allow us to determine whether others are ‘in’ or ‘out’ of our social network. In the absence of safe social synergies, the body generates a threat response, also known as feeling left out. Let us have devoted social space in some constructs. Let us identify paths to enhance safe connections between individuals.

The Gallup organizations’ research on workplace engagement showed that the statement ‘I have a best friend at work’ was significant to engagement in their ‘Q12’ assessment. Perhaps even having one trusting relationship can have a notable impact on relatedness.

I personally always have a few best friends at work wherever I go.

Another important area to work out is how can we as a leader ensure, other’s status does not suffer. A status threat can develop through offering advice or instructions, or simply suggesting someone is slightly ineffective at a task. Have you seen such a circumstance? Personally I felt it for myself. If leaders want to change others’ behavior, more attention must be paid to reducing status threats when offering feedback. One way to do this is by granting individuals to give themselves feedback on their own performance. It is not easy but with practice, we can develop. 

The story is from Control to collaboration, how easily we can move into. I am sure many individuals will argue with “Yes But…” 

Can we experiment and realize the benefit?

The Agile Coach

Big Room Planning: Are all participants Functioning Thoroughly?

I am an RTE, I require following up with all the stakeholders participating in the Big Room planning/PI Planning event to identify if they are carrying the activities they supposed to do, including myself!

My preparation item for the Big Room planning event. 

Who are they and what they should do? 

Big Room Planning pushed to obtain:

• Business Context 
• Collaborate with stakeholders
• Visualize dependencies
• Identify and ROAM risks
• Create capacity-based planning 
• Structure communication plans
• Make shared commitment

I am a Business Owner, I will perform a key role in supporting the ART deliver value.

• I am the key stakeholders of the ART and have ultimate responsibility for the business outcomes of the train.
• I participate in a mission setting, planning, draft plan reviews, conducting management reviews, and problem-solving.
• I assign business value to Team PI Objectives and approve the PI plan.
• I participate in Pre-PI Planning as required.
• Understand and help ensure that business objectives are understood and agreed to by key stakeholders of the train, including the Release Train Engineer (RTE), Product Management, and System Architects Prepare to communicate the business context, including Milestones and significant external dependencies, such as those of Suppliers
• Actively circulate during planning, communicating business priorities to the teams, and maintaining agreement and alignment among the stakeholders regarding the key objectives of the train Participate in the management review and problem-solving meeting to review and adjust scope, resolve problems and compromise as necessary

If I fail to do all these, It will be a significant Chaos in the Big Room Planning event.

Enterprise Architect:

I Attend PI Planning events to guide the implementation of enabler epics.

If I fail to do all these, It will be a Big Mess in the Big Room Planning event.

Product Management & Solution Management:

• During each PI planning session, I, presents the vision, which highlights the proposed features of the solution, along with any relevant upcoming Milestones. I also participate as the train’s business owners, responsible for approving PI objectives and establishing business value.
• I will Review, Prioritize and update Program backlog item definition and develop acceptance criteria and benefit hypothesis
• I will do final backlog preparation, update the vision briefings, and work with Product Owners to further socialize the backlog before the PI event
• At each PI boundary, we agree on the percentage of work be devoted to new features or capabilities versus enablers.

If I fail to do all these, It will be a significant Chaos in the Big Room Planning event.

I am a Product Owner:

• Before the planning event, I will update the team backlog and typically reviews and contributes to the program Vision, Road-map, and content presentations.
• As a member of the extended Product Management team, I am heavily involved in program backlog refinement and prep for PI planning and also plays a significant role in the planning event itself. 
• During the event, I will involved with story definition, providing the clarifications necessary to assist the team with their story estimates and sequencing.
• I work with Product Management, who is responsible for the Program Backlog, to prepare for the Program Increment (PI) Planning meeting.
• I will also attend most relevant Product Management meetings about planning and Program Backlog/Vision refinement.
• I will also drafts the team’s specific objectives for the upcoming PI.

If I fail to do all these, It will be a significant Chaos in the Big Room Planning event.

System Architect/Engineering:

• I will play a critical role in aligning teams on the ART and Solution Train to a shared technical direction and partner with those teams in elaborating the solution, validating technology assumptions, evaluating implementation alternatives, and creating the Continuous Delivery Pipeline.
• I will participates in the pre-PI planning event, working with the Solution Train stakeholders to define the architectural approach, capability road map, and high-level objectives for the upcoming PI planning. 
• In the post-PI planning event, I will helps summarize findings into an agreed-to set of solution PI objectives and validates the alignment of the various ART technical directions.

If I fail to do all these, It will be a significant Chaos in the Big Room Planning event.

Agile Team:

• Participate in PI Planning and create Iteration plans and Team PI Objectives
• Working towards a shared vision and road map, we will collaborate on ways to achieve the objectives.
• Clear content authority roles facilitate the planning and execution process.
• Develop and commit to Team PI Objectives and iteration goals

If I fail to do all these, It will be a significant Chaos in the Big Room Planning event.

Scrum Master:

• I will Facilitate preparation and readiness for ART events – Assists the team in preparation for ART activities, including PI Planning, System Demos, and the Inspect and Adapt.
• I will helps the team to coordinate with other teams on the Agile Release Train (ART) and communicates status to management as needed.
• Help the team focus on daily and Iteration Goals in the context of current Program Increment (PI) Objectives.

If I fail to do all these, It will be a significant Chaos in the Big Room Planning event.

RTE:

• I, Establish and communicate the annual calendars for Iterations and Program Increments (PIs)
• Facilitate PI Planning readiness by fostering a Continuous Exploration process which drives the synthesis of a Vision, a Roadmap, and Backlogs,
• and through Pre- and Post-PI Planning meetings Facilitate the PI planning event Summarize Team PI Objectives into Program PI Objectives (the RTE)
• and publish them for visibility and transparency Summarize program PI objectives into Solution PI Objectives (the STE) and publish them for visibility and transparency

If I fail to do all these, It will be a significant Chaos in the Big Room Planning event.

Big Room Planning event provides the time and space to align all stakeholders around the next set of deliverable.

The successful completion of the Program Increment establishes a high degree of trust in the joint development process and generates data that improves forecasting and economic modeling.

I am successful as an RTE if I can get these done, after the Big Room planning event,

• Release scope established for next time-box
• The team better embraces the objectives for the whole PI.
• A shared understanding of what it takes to release
• Program risks reviewed and actions established to strengthen the plan
• Release objectives reviewed and scored by business stakeholders
• Team and program confidence vote on the plan
• Collective ownership of the plan

I am sure, as an RTE, you have done this homework for the Big events day.

Reference : https://www.scaledagileframework.com/

We are on the journey to develop into a superhero!

Which superhero you like most, and what are you turning into?

A new superhero which nobody ever discovered? Batman, Catman, Apeman, etc.

We are all on a quest of making ourselves a superhero.

We are unique and we have to be exceptional and we choose to be exclusive!

Only we can control how we want our life to illustrate.

We can’t command every feature of our development, but we can build a long-term vision and develop steps to achieve that vision and turn into a new Avatar! a new superhero who is going to be born! 

Apple challenged the world to “Think Different.” Nike encouraged people, regardless of age, gender, or physical fitness level, to “Just Do It.” Dunkin’ Donuts persuaded busy professionals that “America Runs on Dunkin’.”

What is your central message which will become to grow into a superhero? a definite unique YOU as an unusual brand? Give it a thought.

What do you expect about yourself? What do you value as self? 

We could be an image, design, name, voice, reputation, Leader, Icon, tone, and much more—that separates one element from another.

It’s based on what you’re capable to bring into the table. What is it that you do exceptionally well and who does it best serve?

Our brand is what distinguishes us from our competitors, helping to form a stable impression in the minds of our audience and customers and we become a unique superhero.

The key to differentiating ourselves from our competition is establishing a particular brand. 

When we think of ourselves as a brand, we are in the process of becoming a superhero where we are writing our own story as a director. 

The more we recognize our value, the simpler it becomes to articulate and achieve it.

We start to build trust with our audience and position ourselves as an authority and a thought leader in our industry. We are the helper for them as a superhero. They will come to us on need basis to solve their specific problem

That’s the secret to competitive marketing. It’s not just our product, it’s how we position our brand personality compared to everyone else.

• Our skills & credentials: Once we have identified our uniqueness and strengths, refine them and take ownership of them.
• Our passions & interests
• Our Core values & beliefs
• Our value proposition. What is the value that we provide to our clients in exchange for charging them?

By doing this, we will unearth the skills and traits that make us distinct, as well as the areas where we require to improve or gain new knowledge in order to advance. Forecasting where we want to be in five or 10 years—and the attributes we want to be known for—can benefit us better determine what steps we need to take in order to get there.

As a Superhero, we need to ask e.g I am going to Superman, 

• Why do we exist?
• What differentiates us?
• What problem do we solve?
• Why should people care?

As our brand name grows, so do the responsibilities and expectations to continue with brand building. Our brand will either grow in strength, or remain dormant, or recede with time

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos rightly said: “Your brand is what other people say about you when you are not in the room.”

Which superhero character are you creating?

Agile Budgeting for my Products

This is a version of my product portfolio management and how I am safeguarding funding in all the products and products pipeline.

I am employing the Agile Budgeting approach to invest in these products.

I have 2 books which I am considering my products in the market and another one is in construction.

The Agilist Guidebook, which is in the market from 2018.

The Scrum Master Guidebook, which is the market from 2019.

The question is, as I can not afford for annual budgeting for these products, how can I continue to invest resources into these flow?

What I am experimenting with and trying to improve is below 

Each product I have multiple EPICs to push to the productions.

Each book takes 1-year cycle time to reach production and after production promotional exercises.

Every product will go through is product development life-cycle before it progresses to its natural death.

I have practically 4 EPICs, each considering three months cycle time to accomplish.

The Agilist Guidebook has 4 EPICs. Each EPIC has a benefit hypothesis mentioned and connected Lean Business Case hooked up to the EPIC. Before books go to the market incrementally, I am spending time and money to each EPIC and validating my learning.

I have a portfolio backlog, which has all these EPICs now.

I have the 3 Value streamline, One for The Agilist Guidebook, One for The Scrum Master Guidebook and Another One for The Guidebook for Personal Leadership & Self coaching.

Each EPIC reflects the Lean startup model.

Some MVP hypotheses I add into each EPIC and this cycle goes on.

I include leading indicators to conclude if I should scale up or pivot.

Most of the KPIs are the number of books sold, Reader satisfaction information I collect.

Mostly the Traction data of these books guide me to organize my resource( Time and Money).

I have a portfolio Kanban board to oversee the product development FLOW.

How am I spending? 

I am applying Agile Budgeting for these books. I cannot afford the annual budget cycle. I have to extremely conscientious about my money and time(both are restricted for everybody).

Some money I kept for The Agilist Guidebook (10% of my time and money)

Some money I kept for The Scrum Master Guidebook (30%-40% of my time and money)

Some money I kept for the new book which is coming, The Guidebook for Personal Leadership & Self coaching., (50%-60% of my time and money). This is a research project for me. The EPIC Hypothesis and Lean Business Model instruct me to invest on EPIC or Pivot some of the hypotheses.

Based on the decision Go-No Go cycle, I can organize my resources to another value stream if traction is good.

Every quarter I have analyzed with a few team members, how I am proceeding against these hypotheses. A few of my colleagues helped me to validate those with data and judgments.

Though I do not have many individuals to handle all these, it is my publisher and a few of my trusted companions to drive the whole show.

Do you find these similar in which we work out the same in Organization esp in SAFe Lean Portfolio Management is all about these? Mine one is a very modest product portfolio.

Checklist for Facilitation

Facilitation is a means of working with individuals. 

10 days back I had to Facilitate a large scale planning meeting.

There were 20 teams, 150 team members, 4 different geographic locations.

As a facilitator, I have employed this checklist.

I will Plan meetings using an agenda

I will establish the ground rule and keep the time of everything

I will support all the team members collectively through a common process

I will ensure people’s participation and pull people to come up with ideas, thoughts, and perspectives that add value.

I will convey the hard truth when necessary

I know when to push and when to pull back.

I will explore and establish what is best for each situation.

I will wear a creative hat to steer the meeting.

I will be flexible to welcome fresh ideas and change my plan when required.

I will appear credible, articulate and knowledgeable in front of the participants till end.

I must care about my group and its accomplishment.

I will be asking questions and assessing responses to develop to a learning point.

I will inspire everybody to contribute to the conversation.

I will Use silence to form space.

I will evaluate the group dynamics and execute accordingly.

I will serve the group to make decisions.

I will ensure people Respect each other. 

I will ensure to create and maintain an atmosphere of trust.

I will Paraphrase to formulate or demonstrate understanding.

I will ensure Agreements made, points of consensus, agreements and action items.

I will ensure the entire group becomes involved early in the process and then stays involved, dealing with conflicts before they retard the group’s development.

I will be neutral and nonjudgmental.

I will ensure the group feels that the ideas and decisions are theirs.

I will ensure collaboration by creating an environment that encourages team members to not only talk but to listen to ideas and be susceptible to modifying them based on the participation of the entire group.

I will Prepare relentlessly, comprising self-preparation, arranging the learning environment, and strengthening the content.

I will watch for my continuous improvement of facilitation skills.

How do you rate yourself in the Facilitation skill in 1-10,10 is highest, for large scale program facilitation? I am still learning.....

Going out of comfort Zone?

All of us learn and know, we will obtain better when we move out of our comfort zone.

Our nature or habit is content with the comfort zone.

What is a comfort zone for anyone?

The comfort zone is “what I know”; the unknown lies outside the comfort zone and, in relation to the grade of fears, an individual will be more or less inclined to remain in the known territory and the comfort zone. Fears prevent us from stepping out of our comfort zone, so that our fears “guide” or influence our behaviors.

How can I build confidence to go out from my comfort zone?

7C Chakra model will support you to strengthen confidence.

To go out from your comfort zone, You require to study at your current condition of all these chakras

These chakras will empower to you to escort through the unknown zone to reach growth zone.

These chakras will serve you to explore the unknown and move to Magic zone.

For example you wish to go abroad to perform for an Assignment says large scale digital transformation coaching, you are not confident about this digital transformation. Mostly your engagement was so far team level coaching.

How could all these 7C Chakras help you?

As an individual, we need to assess how these chakras are currently developed

If they are not adequately developed, we demand to work for it to strengthen these chakras. 

7C Chakras, named as 7 different C’s

Let us pick up one by one chakra.

Each chakra is a force for you that enables you to pass through the unknown smoothly.

Communication: This skill can construct an entrance for you to associate with many people, through the power of this skill you can expand the future world. As this skill is adequately developed for you, you will be able to do more and get much information through the power of communication.

Creativity: With this skill, you will come out with a distinctly unique approach to figure out your current problem, where nobody has ever done such a proposal. This skill helps you to think extraordinary. The more you exercise to polish this skill the more powerful this chakra will become. 

Companion-ability: When you have the power of this chakra you can get along with any kind of individuals. individuals will embrace to work with you and you get the benefit of the people power. You become magnet for the people. It is your ability because of which they love to get along with you. 

Competent team: When this chakra is developed, you have developed the art of the team player, you know the dynamics of teams, you can manage the team to accomplish the bigger objective. You work for building the finest team, you know how to do this. With the power of powerful team, you can go any limit.

Change agent: When you develop this chakra, you concentrate on the art of bringing new change and get confirmed by the people.You can install the new thing and efficiently get acknowledged by the many people. If this Chakra is weak, you will get maximum resistance if you introduce new things, as you do not know the art of Change management. You know how to remove friction so that Ball keep rolling.

Charismatic leader: You have many followers when this chakra is well developed, you know the art of influencing people, mobilizing the people. People love you as you are able to guide them, inspire them. They can do anything for you. 

Catalyst: when you have work for this chakra to develop, you can inspire people to work with you, you know the art of mobilizing people. You can energize even a dull person, you know where to press the button. You are passionate full of energy and radiate the same to others.

When you work for all these chakras, you armed yourself with the power of all these 7 chakras. These chakras will help you to come out of the comfort zone and throw you into magic zone.

Try this with any of the engagement you are presently dealing with.

Do not expect a miracle in a few months, it is a life long endeavor.

But still, you should realize the initial benefit. Do not believe me, please try it, in a process, you will not lose anything, you will polish with these skills.