Homegrown Agile: A Discussion with My Son on Team

As a Dad, there are never a loss of times that can be used to grow closer to, educate, enrich, empower, and even correct my kids.  The art is knowing which of those – growing closer to, educating, enriching, empowering, correcting – is needed at which time.  Sometimes, we use the situation or problem to … Continue reading Homegrown Agile: A Discussion with My Son on Team

3 Ways to Apply Agile at the Executive Level

A while ago, I read a book and a short white paper that fit both of my user story needs. The first was about how leadership can apply agility at the executive leadership level. The second was about how we must change to get the right talent in our current Agile environment. Both brought up key Holistic Agile concepts that I constantly attempt to apply in Agile adoptions and transformations at MATRIX. When it happens successfully, the initiative seems to “take a turn” for the better as the organization (not just IT) “gets it.” When these practices are not applied to senior leadership, there is a chasm that drags Agile transformations to a halt. Without Holistic Agility, organizational change will fail. These practices and principles are building teams, being responsive, and self-management.

Homegrown Agile: The Beginning and being a dad in agility

My first thoughts about Agile practices were not those of increasing productivity (even though they can), improving product speed to market (which they do), or even breaking down the walls between traditional "business" and "IT" (which happens, all the time).  Rather, I kept seeing a cultural and environmental shift in the ways people interacted - from the client relationships to the leadership relationships.  I saw how, at the core, we empowered people to do what they do even better and deliver things of value in order to improve relationships and the subsequently the wealth of all parties involved.

Leadership is the Key – Agile 2017 Day 1

It's Agile2017 time again!  Woohoo!.  Everyone from developers and scrum masters and lowly vendors to the "stalwarts" of the agile movement is here.  Over the next week, we will listen to speakers talking about principles, application of agility, tools, systems, and even the new shiny stuff that is all around.  But it tells me something about where we are headed as a "philosophy" when the first keynote speaker, David Marquet, doesn't speak of principles, tools, processes, or practices, but instead speaks of "leadership."