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This has been a long time in the making.  It's taken me countless hours to fix my terrible audio (not David's) and lots of helter-skelter in my life over the past year, BUT, we are back!  I promise, the audio is merely okay in this podcast and I will improve this moving forward.   You do not want to miss this podcast.  David Fannin, a former Scrum Master and colleague of mine at Cofense, joins me in some very powerful discussion that you can go back to and reflect on days, months, even years from now.  I have been editing this recently and something we recorded 1 year ago, was able to positively impact my mindset and life just recently.  Hopefully, since I found this valuable and impactful, you will too.  It's truly timeless advice and all tends to just marry together nicely. Empathy, sympathy, compassion, strong peer selections, building healthy routines and being a valuable contributor are all integral to being a great leader.  In this episode, we dive deep into all of this and how you can better understand how to leverage these terms and concepts to make yourself a better leader in establishing very strong interpersonal relationships with people.  It's these relationships that grow them, grow your team and ultimately grow yourself.   People routinely ask me the value of an Agile Coach or Scrum Master and the most powerful value they bring to the table is relatively intangible.  They harness strong soft-skills and don't just preach these concepts, they are masters of utilizing these concepts to get results for your teams and your company.  Listen in as we explore these topics.   00:20 - Intro 02:27 - Meet David Fannin 03:24 - Hear how David was involved in an Agile Transformation 04:05 - How David approaches perceiving things from a different perspective 05:50 - We dig into empathy and learn the distinct differences between empathy, sympathy and compassion and how someone should consider each in their approach when utilizing their interpersonal connections with others - using this to build and establish powerful relationships 20:04 - Guilt and feeling I have failed in maintaining my podcast, David steps in to help me, coach me and transform my perceptions, this is amazing and very helpful to me, most important, learning to be kind to ourselves is key here 25:14 - Some advice on personal growth, surround yourself with good people and people you trust that can strengthen you 30:17 - David has some amazing advice and tips on establishing a healthy routine in your life 43:42 - How establishing your routine and the choice of your selective peer group, can help you maintain the routine - they do intertwine 46:20 - An intention is only an intention, turn it into action and leverage these tips and advice provided 47:10 - Process helps as a supporting tool 48:52 - Turn around your negative situation by putting your energy into someone who needs help in their journey 50:40 - Closing it out

I mentioned before that there are 3 things you can do to control or own every situation you are faced with.  This wasn't my advice, but advice I learned when I heard Brian Buffini interview Lou Holtz and he told a story about his relationship problem with his wife Beth Holtz.   I tell this story so that you have context and keep in mind that Lou and Beth are married to this very day over 58 years later... so this advice must work for something.  I find it useful and apply it, so I share it with you. Another thing I want to dive into are the misconceptions of using this advice.  Take a listen as I hope this can help your journey in some way or that you may find some inspiration. A great quote from Lou Holtz to remember as you listen to this show: “As long as you have an excuse, you’ll look for reasons why you can’t succeed.” Coaching Agile Journeys Website Podcast - Brian Buffini Interviews Lou Holtz Don't know who Lou Holtz is, click here to learn

This episode brings some powerful coaching advice thanks to a little exercise our leaders went through to draft a letter of advice to their younger-selves based on all the knowledge, experience and wisdom they’ve gathered through their illustrious careers. We not only did this for George who is transitioning into the Agile space, but for anyone starting out and I think it could also add value to those who have been at this for a while. With that being said, we would like to challenge you to go through the same exercise! Draft a letter of advice to your younger-self. Please share that letter with us. We’d be delighted to hear the advice you give.   Send your letter to: https://www.coachingagilejourneys.com/ Go to More in the top menu and select “Contact”    00:11 – Opening Introduction 03:30 – Start of the show, Jeff Koors reads his letter 07:10 – Heidi Araya reads her letter 08:26 – Isaac Garcia reads his letter 09:20 – Jeff broke some rules, so now we discuss cutting down content and honoring time – is he punished for his rule breaking? 10:15 - The heart and soul of the Agile community and what this is really all about… 10:50 – Words of encouragement as we part ways 13:47 – Closing out the show, what’s up next…   Tweet Us @CoachingAgileJo   Jeff’s LinkedIn  Heidi’s LinkedIn  Isaac’s LinkedIn

We have the distinct honor and incredible opportunity to help out someone who is just starting their Agile journey. Our special guest will ask us a few questions that anyone new to Agile will surely want to know. We hope to share some powerful advice and tips so that our guest and anyone who listens can get a good jumpstart in the Agile world. If you are experienced and have a passion for this Agile space, listen in and when we are asked these questions, think: “What advice would I give or how would I answer that question?” Actually – don’t just think. Please, Tweet us (@CoachingAgileJo), or email us at: https://www.coachingagilejourneys.com/ Go to à More and select “Contact” I’d love to do a podcast where I share with all the listeners advice our audience has provided and how our audience answered these same questions.   00:20 – Opening Introduction 03:15 – Start of the show, meet George Black 06:57 – How does an Agilist or Scrum Master get their start and how do they become active in the Agile community? 16:32 – Are there stepping stone roles, or a career progression path in Agile? 28:09 – People Over… - Let’s talk about how and why this is such a huge thing. 33:00 - What learning opportunities would you recommend to an aspiring Agilist? 40:20 – Closing out the podcast

This is an Open Leadership Symposium speaker interview with Doug Kirkpatrick that happened to unlock some very valuable information and insight into creating self-managed people and teams, as well as how leadership works within this culture.  This is the direction of the future, get ahead of the curve now and take up some learning with this podcast episode. If you suffer from bureaucracy, dogma, fiefdoms and feel your organization can do better, you want to tune in!   If you are a business or organization leader looking for real business agility, this is also the show for you! If you are in HR and want to modernize the culture, empower people and teams, this is for you! Your organization can be good, if not great.... it doesn't matter, there's always room to rise to excellence or become elite... we have you covered, this podcast is also for you too! 00:19 : Show Intro 00:40 : What is the Open Leadership Symposium and Why should I attend? 02:16 : Self-Managed workplace - what is this? 02:52 : Some advice and inspiration from a friend's Facebook post, check yourself and your attachments 04:51 : People are already in tune with self-managing themselves, find out how 06:19 : Making it clear; Boss does not equal leader, Manager does not equal leader, Executive does not equal leader 08:04 : Meet Doug Kirkpatrick  14:16 : Yes, Doug is a Financial Controller and was able to lead a self-managed organization that became wildly successful 16:35 : Who is more connected to the problem and has ideas to improve the problem?  Workers or Manager? AND, do they feel they can present this and make a difference? 17:39 : What is Beyond Empowerment?  How do you actually go "beyond" empowering people? 19:30 : What constitutes me being a leader?  Is it a role I can be assigned to? 20:56 : Why is this movement to allow people to self-manage, decentralize command or to empower teams so difficult? 23:20 : Can adrenaline and dopamine be a primary driver to not allowing certain people in positions of power to relinquish their authority? 25:35 : How can you help influence this Self-Management movement? 27:46 : Some people want to work alone or be an order taker or time clock puncher, how are they managed in Self-Management? 30:12 : If everyone is Self-Managed, how do you manage a situation where someone has skill deficiency or is not a good fit in a position/role? 32:54 : Interesting concept - Gamify the Workplace for Optimum Results 36:25 : Why should people come to the Open Leadership Symposium see you speak? 38:55 : How you can connect with Doug? 41:22 : Doug's word of encouragement to you on how you can begin applying a Self-Managed work culture & will it benefit your personal life too? 42:33 : You have the power in you, no matter what forces you may feel are holding you back   Open Leadership Symposium May 14th and 15th, 2019 in Boston: http://www.openleadershipnetwork.com Doug Kirkpatrick: http://www.nufocusgroupusa.com/doug-kirkpatrick/ Beyond Empowerment Book: Amazon Link for Book, Click Here Beyond Empowerment Ted Talk with Doug Kirkpatrick: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ej4n3w4kMa4 Doug's Linked In https://www.linkedin.com/in/redshifter3/   Doug on Twitter: @redshifter3

Get ready, because this is the show where we can rally around Healthy and Positive Agile/Agility Our last episode dove into some of our points of view on why Agile gets a bad rap. This episode will enlighten you on what the heart of Agile is and was meant to be.   I have a feeling you’ll be surprised with the context of how we bring forward ways of getting Agile back onto a positive track as leaders. Actually, I think this episode will help those who resist or don’t understand what Agile is, to understand the true value of Agile and change the perception of what they experienced or thought Agile was that led them to originally go against it. Even those with great Agile tenure and experience may be a bit mind blown at how this show wraps up the entire context of the episode with a statement mic drop. Stop, and take the time to listen to this episode to recalibrate your own mind on how we can all focus on getting Agile healthy and perceived as a positive way for everyone to embrace working together. Listen in and let’s give Agile a better name and image!   00:16 – Show Intro 01:43 – Show Segway from Why Agile is bad, to How Agile is great 02:02 – We gave Isaac a magic wand, he waved it and this is how Agile got better 05:59 - How does a young girl falling off her bike and getting hurt have anything to do with Agile?? 07:47 - Engineers so far removed from connecting to the problems they are helping solve, is hierarchy the obstacle 09:50 - A good exercise to demonstrate impact of layered feedback loops 11:32 - Is the feedback, really the voice of the end user OR someone who feels they know what end users want? 13:01 - Lost art of personas, or personas have never been used correctly to begin with 15:01 - Use-Ability Lab can open eyes and check egos - but it was so simple, build so perfect and had great requirements 18:00 - BUT, we do the demos.... and do all the other steps and you mean to tell me, Agile still isn't working??? 19:28 - Believe in the team - PERIOD w/ values first 21:30 - Someone to lead, who has been successful doing it and TRUST in this person, support this person, engage 27:08 - Scale does not equal consistent and we need more recognizing healthy achievements in Agile 29:03 - Creating a culture of winning, lessons learned through the hotel industry 32:33 - So hard to ship something minimal, WE WANT IT ALL, cram next thing through pipeline 35:57 - User Story Tyranny, is this what we've come down to... could this be the key thing? 38:07 - How can Proof of Concepting or The Scientific Method help us understand healthy Agile? 39:22 - How can "Wizard of Ozzing" help you and your teams & Mark drops a secret statement he intends to copyright 40:15 - Connecting the actual results of what a team delivered to the problem they helped solve  42:00 - Here it comes.... the moment you've been waiting for -- you had to listen to everything to understand THIS! 43:27 - What... did our podcast studio just blow up or WHAT 43:54 - Wrapping up with some great tips for you to use  48:57 – Close out of show, what’s up next We know you have thoughts, reactions, comments or even some strong opinions and we want to hear them.  Tweet us or contact us with them.  We'd love to connect with you and possibly even use it on our show or have you as a guest.  Please, connect! Twitter: @CoachingAgileJo Coaching Agile Journeys Website: http://www.coachingagilejourneys.com

If Agile is so great, what in the world is going on that many people can’t stand the thought of it? Is there a root cause? One of our leaders, Heidi Araya, wrote a great blog called, “A Dilemma of Our Time – Achieving Business Agility” and yes, it is a dilemma most likely caused by 2 decades of paradigm shift into the future of management and leadership in a rapidly changing world. This does not excuse Agile for getting a bad rap. We must be open to explore why we got here and what we can do about it. And… that is what we intend to do. You are in for another 2 part podcast that is sure to help open your mind. 00:17 – Show introduction 03:15 – Show opening 04:20 – A powerful reading of a statement from Neil Killick about Agile 07:50 – Meet our other CAJ leader, Mark Cruth 09:05 – Anarchy over Agility – Agile is really becoming a problem 10:59 – Entirely writing of the entire concept of Agile, due to bad experience 13:40 – We start exploring by “Starting with Why” 14:47 – Does the one-size-fits-all mentality bring Agile to its knees? 15:42 – People lack understanding, don’t know “why they should be” 16:51 – Expectation of maximum return for most minimum input 18:26 – Doing Agile, process for sake of forced process – not a real commitment 19:96 – A bad fad diet it has become 20:55 – Failure modes defined a decade ago, still relevant today 22:04 – Companies using this to lure in top talent wanting to work this way 23:45 – If you only partially invest, it won’t make anything healthy 24:48 – Teaser where we will dive into What we can do to make positive change 25:21 – Closing out of the show A Dilemma of Our Time, blog by Heidi Araya: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/dilemma-our-time-achieving-business-agility-heidi-araya/   Neil Killick on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/neilkillick   Jean Tabaka’s 12 Agile Adoption Failure Modes https://thisagileguy.com/12-agile-adoption-failure-modes-by-jean-tabaka/   The Backwards Bike; “Knowledge does not equal understanding” https://youtu.be/MFzDaBzBlL0   “Why developers consider Agile development to be nonsense” blog by: Kevin W. https://medium.com/@web.development/why-developers-consider-agile-development-to-be-nonsense-1eaf28715e66  

We want to encourage you to prepare and take leadership. We care deeply about your journey and how you can make a difference in this world. This episode is full of great information to help you grow your soft skills and personal self-awareness.   Keep this in mind as you enter this episode: “Never above you. Never below you. Always beside you.” ~Walter Winchell   00:11 – Show introduction 02:38 – Show opening 04:01 – Lori and Isaac on what they think of first 4 episodes and today’s topic 07:18 – Tips on how we can be honest about assessing ourselves  10:05 – Are you perfect? We have the answer 12:32 – You poured your heart and soul into an activity that gets critiqued heavily – how do you respond? 17:11 – Things you can do to improve soft-skills 21:20 – Look for key negative words and who is your audience 23:24 – The power of listening, Global Listening to be exact 25:20 – Learn about 3 levels of listening, BUT, is there a 4th you don’t know about? 27:35 – Listen to how Jeff offends Isaac! 31:10 – If you work remote, should that camera be on? 32:04 – If you are just who you are and that makes you unique, should you change that? 37:46 – Close out of the show and what is next

Part 1 of a 2 part series: Don’t lose focus on yourself in this Agile world. A better you, can help out those around you. This episode focuses on you. When you seem like the work world is falling apart around you, more than likely a lot of others on your team are feeling the same. But, you are there to help and we have some things to share to help you!   0:10:   Intro – Uplifting and obtaining peace & what this show segment is all about 03:07: Opening of the show, leading into the topic – what does losing cabin pressure have to do with Agile? 10:40: Round table of tips and tools our CAJ leaders use to maintain a positive mindset and get results  Get your notepad ready, there’s some great advice here!  28:48: Closing out the show, how to connect with us 30:26: A last uplifting word of encouragement and what to expect next podcast   Host - Jeff Koors Co-Hosts - Lori Townsend and Cristin Hernandez Tweet us @CoachingAgileJo Website - www.coachingagilejourneys.com

This is a don't miss episode of Open to be Agile. Daniel Mezick surfaces why the power of decision making through the Authority Distribution Schema is a vital component, quite possibly the core component to the health of Agile and complete Organizational Business Agility.  Here why and we venture into some other very interesting topics as well. 00:21 – Show Intro 02:07 – Jeff kicks off the show w/ Lori 02:51 – Meet Daniel Mezick 03:35 – State of Agile Today discussion 14:30 – Where is Agile heading or evolving moving forward 18:13 – Can you shape organizational culture & how 28:11 – Rapid fire questions with our guest 31:36 – Close out & what to expect next episode   Dan’s Links: The Open Leadership Symposium – May 14-15 Boston https://openleadershipnetwork.com/ The Authority Circle https://newtechusa.net/authoritycirclepdf/  Inviting Leadership https://www.invitingleadership.com/  Open Space Agility http://openspaceagility.com/ Dan’s Twitter  @DanielMezick

On this episode we introduce 2 of our other leaders at Coaching Agile Journeys, Heidi Araya and Lori Townsend. Get to learn a little about their journey in Agile. We also will cover some Q&A that we were never able to cover during our online presentations. Some very solid questions at that!   00:17 Show intro   02:20 Meet Heidi and Lori   06:05 How to bride the gap between traditional project management to Agile?   11:45 How do you synchronize value delivery and minimize dependencies when you have 2-3+ teams working from a common backlog?   15:47 I’m going from being in the office with teams everyday to being 100% remote, any tips on making this transition successful?   20:15 A team is struggling with being ambiguous with each other, alignment, agreeableness within the team, how can we improve this situation?   25:15 Show wrap up   27:26 Outtro

Get to know Jeff Koors and Isaac Garcia. What is Agile’s Latin origin? Does this even matter? Well, check out our first show. Meet Jeff Koors & Isaac Garcia 2:40 Open to be Agile, Say what? 7:10 Benefits to you 13:40 What is your flavor of Agile? 17:05 Even more value & can participate 22:25 No way, Agile doesn't mean that! 26:35 Better do it just like the book says 30:30 What we hope you’ll gain 34:30