leadership

Person about to slip on a banana peel 3 Mistakes Teams Make When Choosing a ScrumMaster

One cause of agile project failure is choosing the wrong person as your ScrumMaster. While a bad ScrumMaster is a problem for any team, it is particularly bad for teams new to agile, as the team won’t know they are being led down the wrong path. Here are three mistakes organizations make when choosing a ScrumMaster.

Jeffery Payne's picture
Jeffery Payne
Manager with tape over her mouth Things Managers Should Never Say

Managers have to communicate regularly with the people they're managing. However, managers also need to try harder to be mindful of what they are saying, instead of speaking before they think. Here are some things a manager should never say—avoid these lines and people will be more likely to follow your lead.

Naomi Karten's picture
Naomi Karten
Caution tape stretching across a construction site 5 Pitfalls Agile Coaches Must Avoid

Successful agile teams often have a coach driving continuous improvement. While some coaches are effective initially, many eventually succumb to pitfalls that inhibit their team’s growth and fail to compel any lasting changes. Here are five common pitfalls of agile coaches in most projects that fail to improve.

Alan Crouch's picture
Alan Crouch
A two-lane road heading toward a mountain, photo by Jamison McAndie The Importance of Goal Alignment in Agile and DevOps

For agile and DevOps teams to succeed, there must be a common vision that strives for detailed customer-focused outcomes. There’s never a magic bullet to address goal misalignment, as the challenges are context-specific, but here are some approaches that help move organizations and teams toward better alignment.

Michael Sowers's picture
Michael Sowers
Roadblock sign reading "Road closed" 4 Impediments to Nurturing a Feedback-Rich Culture

Being able to have open, candid conversations that fuel learning, growth, and improvement is critical to a team’s success, so it is important to look out for impediments that can get in the way of having a feedback-rich culture. Here are four common impediments to watch for, as well as behaviors you should nurture.

Joanna Vahlsing's picture
Joanna Vahlsing
Climbing tower on a playground, photo by Basil Lade Creating an Environment That Encourages Resilience

Creating environments at work that acknowledge that failures will happen—and supporting the efforts team members make to recover—can help your organization become more effective. You cannot predict every challenge, but by embracing risk and providing opportunities for people to experiment, you can be more productive.

Steve Berczuk's picture
Steve Berczuk
Sign in shop window that says "Sorry, no change" Dealing with a Change-Resistant Manager

With almost any change, whether a trivial adjustment in procedures or a large-scale organizational change, people will vary in their receptiveness to it. But if you and your teammates have some good ideas to improve processes and your manager keeps shutting them down, you may be dealing with a change-resistant manager.

Naomi Karten's picture
Naomi Karten
person drawing Do Most Agile Teams Lack Creativity and Innovation?

You can’t solve the problem unless you know what that problem is, and you can’t rekindle your creativity if you just don’t know why you’re doing what you’re doing. Pinpoint your team’s purpose, let everyone on your team contribute, and rekindle the innovative nature at the core of agile.

Josiah Renaudin's picture
Josiah Renaudin