What managers need to know about safe discussions
Discussions at work can run into a problem called “the invisible gun effect”. I read about it early on when learning about Scrum (*).
People of power are often not aware of the effect that their sheer power has on conversations. When they are present, people shy away from speaking up about conflicts or bringing up risky topics regarding the organisation, because they fear they might get shot if the discussion gets too heated. …
Small and safe experiments on a joke
Product Owner: Thanks for all being on time. Before we start, let’s agree on a common goal.
Manager: Well, I don’t know about you but I am ready to get completely wasted.
Scrum Master: Waste? That’s not good in the overall process! We try to minimize it.
Manager: (raises an eyebrow) What was the concept of a bar again?
Scrum Master: A bar is as good as any other place to hold a Sprint Retrospective! Why don’t we inspect our Definition of Done?
Manager: Well, my definition of “done” is simple: I am done when I have to take a…
And what to do instead to fix the real issue behind it
If you have not heard about “Mob Programming”, have a look at Willem-Jan Ageling’s article “Mob Programming and Scrum” to get an idea. I originally wrote this as a comment to it until it grew into an article on its own.
What’s wrong with “Mob Programming”?
“Mob Programming” is a very bad term, even worse than “Backlog Grooming”, and I am surprised that I have not read criticism about it yet.
The word “mob” as I know it in the English language has two very negative meanings:
- organized crime (like the mafia)
- a croud of agigated, furious people (asking for lynch justice, witch trials)
I…
“Just a small” article as a reminder
Don’t fool yourself with words — and do not fool others or get fooled by them. Although even popular culture tells us that judging by size is wrong, people do it again and again, especially if it happens in an abstract context where real importance is hard to determine and to explain.
Typical phrases heard in the IT world: “Just a small change request”, “just a small script”, “just a small question”, “just a small bug”… “small” has become a signal word that someone is trying to downplay the relevance of something. My usual answer to this is:
The small…
My own story and learning material
Bragging about certifications is pointless — use your experience to help others. That said, now first comes the learning material that I used to learn and can recommend from my own experience, followed by my own story.
Professional Scrum Master I learning material
- The Scrum Guide — the #1 document to know, available in >40 languages
- The Scrum Reference Card by Michael James and Luke Walter — a very valuable quick overview
- PSM Workbook and PSM Reference Guide (material from Xebia’s PSM training, not publicly available) — crucial for the “thinking parts” of the exam, to understand the reasons behind the rules
- Scrum.org Open Assessments —…
The only competence level that you can scale up indefinitely is zero competence.
Scaling may succeed up to a certain point — but without thought or limits, it can only lead to total incompetence of the majority of the people involved.
“If you want people to work together on a common goal, defining personal objectives that are conflicting each other may not be the best choice.”
— Captain Obvious
(a great addition to “How to demotivate me in three simple steps”)
In the claim to be different we are all the same. Nothing is more common than the assumption to be special.
(translated from “La bunta blogo”, originally by me in Esperanto)
For some things, there is never a good time, only bad times or very bad times.
Therefore, pick a bad time, or you will have to do them at a very bad time.
- Make it a duty what I wanted to do anyway. Do not rely on my own responsibility! From then on, I do not work proactively anymore, I just follow a goal set by someone else. Nothing kills motivation more than “running behind” compared to “stepping forward”, even if it is the same action at the same pace! This creates the illusion of non-autonomy, even if I have to organize and do most of the things myself.
- Determine in which order I have to do my tasks if there are several duties. Don’t leave me a choice. Nothing says “I do…
Gunnar R. Fischer
Multilingual IT guy and Leader of the Chocolate Guild. I can answer fluently in English, German and Esperanto — you can also contact me in Dutch and Italian.
