20 Questions from “Agile Conversations”- Part-2

Book review of “Agile Conversations” by Douglas Squirrel & Jeffrey Fredrick

This blog is in continuation to part-1

20 questions I asked myself while reading “Agile Conversations”

9. Are we afraid of the fear itself?

Any organization may suffer from the fear of error, failure, building the wrong product, disappointing managers, exposing poor leadership, of any number of other disasters. Uncover your own fear, locate & understand the fear of others, & lead a fear conversation to mitigate fear on all sides. Fear of complexity, disengagement, skill gaps, missing key steps, deadlines & bugs.

10. Did we prep before the “why” conversations?

We are exposed to the “why” questions all the time during sprint delivery. So in such scenarios we have to make sure of the following:

• Redefining the team lead’s role & coaching him in collaborative leadership.
• Making quality fears discussable & reshaping the release process to address them.
• Removing an ineffective senior leader whose actions had undermined trust.

11. Why designing of the “why” jointly for the organization is difficult?

This is harder because it means negotiating & compromising, one step back & 2 step forward- a seeming waste of time.

It’s also harder because it means the death of the ego for all sides; we can no longer believe that we are the only source of truth & direction in our working lives.

It’s especially difficult for executives or founders who sincerely believe the they are the only ones who know, or should know, the right direction for the organization.

12. Why teams are unable to have productive conflicts instead of interminable debates?

Position & interests are always conflicting within a group of people. The success of the team depends on how they concentrate on productive conflicts rather than having never ending debates over things just to justify the hierarchy or designations.

13. Why having compliance is just not enough?

This is a compliance vs commitment conversation:

• Compliance is ‘showing up’; commitment is engaging with your whole self.
• Compliance is filling the space; commitment is participating.
• Compliance can be enough for routine day to day tasks, compliance is not enough to generate change, to improve, to excel. I f these are your aims, you need commitment.

14. Why definition of done is so hard to understand for team?

When you’re asking for a commitment to a process or cultural change, it’s even more important to align on the meaning of your language by using specific examples. “Done” are not well defined inside our brain only through examples we can align about their meaning.

15. How to define a successful commitment?

• Agree on the meaning of the commitment
• Agree on the next outcome to commit to.
• Reaffirm the commitment.

16. Is it reasonable or even sensible to expect accountability from your team?

We can get better results more cheaply by using the drive for success inherent in each individual. Instead of trying to micro- manage them just because we don’t trust them:

• Give motivated individuals the environment & the support they need.
• Trust them to get the job done.
• Empower the team.
• Trust that everyone is doing their best for their business.

17. How we are understanding the gap in plans & outcomes?

• Knowledge gap- what we would like to know & what we actually know.
• Alignment gap- what we want people to do & what they actually do.
• Efforts gap- what we expect our actions to achieve & what they actually achieve.

18. Why conversations are so important in agile?

The only way you make the work transfer from one point to the other is conversation or communication. To really think about making your effort agile, you will also have to focus on your conversations during agile.

19. We really talk in the agile ceremonies?

Most of us just focus on keeping the ceremonies time boxed and focus less on what is actually being done within the ceremonies. The purpose of having ceremonies in agile was to increase collaboration within team members but now focusing more on making it “effective”, we somehow forgot the real purpose of the ceremonies.

20. So what does the authors meant with “Agile conversations”?

The author gave a great thought about what we are conversing about, and how it should be conversed. They also focused on treating conversations as the hook to keep all the team members as close as possible. They also talked about how to project anything within your conversation so that it transfers to the listeners with the same effect.

— The END —

This book has tons of pointers and I am sure this is not the exhaustive list that I have shared 😊. If you have also read this book and got something to share, feel free to drop your comments.

You can share this book to your team while you work, you can quote its examples and discuss about it.

Wish you the best!

Like what you read? I deserve a clap then !