Book review – The touchstone tools by Joseph Holland.

I listened to this book on Kindle unlimited, which was good, but didn’t allow me to save passages or see the chapters in advance.   – you can get the book here.

This book takes many quotes from the bible and is written by a preacher, but I still found the messages very relevant to anyone be you religious or secular.

I liked the stories on each chapter and at the end of each chapter where Rev Joseph talks though action steps and an affirmation.

The tools and action steps are as below, but get the book for the context and stories that provide the explanations:

1. Responsibility and Attitude
   1. Own your shortcomings
   2. Open a new door – take the initiative
   3. Optimise your attitude – be mindful and positive
   4. Override your pride – listen to others
   5. Offer your best – be the better you.
2. Vision
   1. Envision the picture of your life – use a tangible vision board or written goals.
   2. Face the threats and be prepared – mitigate the risks.
   3. Fuel your victory – feed your soul
   4. Fight for your dreams
   5. Find the divine in your dreams – get to know your heart and spirit to get to your dreams.
3. Self esteem
   1. Know your glory – you don’t need others approval.
   2. Know your wholeness – mind body and spirit
   3. Find your passion – what do you enjoy and brings you happiness
   4. Cultivate your passion – find time to pursue your passions.
   5. Do good / feel good – show compassion for others – have perspective as there is always someone worse off.
4. Discipline
   1. Be Persistent – don’t give up, this one more attempt could be the winning one.
   2. Be prepared – expect some things to go wrong – have a plan B
   3. Be patient – things can take longer than we think.
   4. Be prudent – you need to give up things to get ahead – control your impulses
   5. Be Plucky – be ready for the haters and be courageous and stare them down.
5. Connected relationships
   1. Flee your menace – those that hamper your goals.
   2. Fence your mystery – set boundaries to those you have to contact with
   3. Find your mentor – someone who builds your confidence, supports you.
   4. Fortify your family
   5. Forgive your team – offer mercy to those that hurt you. Acknowledge everyone is flawed.
6. Planning.  (plan to work – then work the plan)
   1. Recon with your ghost – plan with the past in mind work on cleanup plan.
   2. Rule with practicality – set your daily habits and make your daily plan.
   3. Live in the present – Realise the time is now. – make daily steps to make progress.
   4. Review your game plan – Review your daily plan and update regularly.
   5. Reach for your glory – find your purpose, spend time daily for yourself.
7. Work. – Live with integrity
   1. Work on your character – make your inner life  and integrity a priority it will help you make good decisions and have value
   2. Work on your talents – become a lifetime learner- invest in yourself to build your skill set for this market.
   3. Work on your credentials. – on job training.
   4. Work on your moral code. – Always check your code when your making decisions(from the outside) . It will guide you on moral dilemmas
   5. Work on your compass – your moral sensibility  ( from the inside)  Decide to take the high road and do the right thing.
8. Wealth
   1. Sow your talent – work at it and work at it, seek the opportunities and think outside the box.
   2. Seize your time – be a wise steward of your time, make the most of your time.
   3. Save your treasury – Make it then save it. spend wisely and save aggressively.
   4. Shape your treasury – be strategic and see the big picture.
   5. Share your treasury – Contributing to worthy causes – Give and it will be given to you.
9. Love.  – give without expecting anything in return.
   1. Be the light –  Brighten someones day with a smile,
   2. Be a solider – fight for light, for inspiration, for what vitalizes you.
   3. Be a sage – help others be the best possible version of them.
   4. Be a game changer – be the x factor to change
   5. Be a gift – give yourself as a gift.

Book review – brain rules for aging well by John Medina

This is a very research heavy book with lots of data and stories about research findings and can be quite full on. The book can be bought here.

The points I pulled from this book.

• Dance
• Cultivate your friendships
• Practice mindfulness
• Learn new things and challenge ideas with people. Read daily. Learn music,
• And the standard ones that we all should know – exercise, meditation, get enough sleep, stay away from blue light of electronic devices, feed your body right.
• There was also some interesting research around the types of brain training games you can play to keep your brain connections in use. – the good old adage of use it of lose it.

Trying very hard to remain curious

I have a person at work is I find very challenging. I have recently worked with all the support people to create some improvements to the service support handover process. The support teams were very grateful and excited about the new streamlined document, they found it much clearer and really enjoyed being involved early on and collaborated with. I thought we were making progress.

Then the next project came to do a project handover document – we asked the BA to do that document and I helped them through it. It was made very complicated and I am not sure why exactly, the BA put together a 17 page powerpoint presentation to present the project to the support team. I kept trying to say to her that we just need to talk through the project with them, any known issues and the support escalation flow, then fill in the RACI on who is responsible for what.

The meeting was supposed to happen tomorrow, it has now been cancelled. I tried to remain curious and asked how they saw it happening now. The Director had got involved and decided that the document was not fit for purpose, even though he has no involvement with this document at all, he is not one of the sign off people, he does not work with the support teams. He decided the meeting to inform everyone was not required and only needed one other person in the room – the support team director.

I was then told that BA’s are not to complete the support handover document. While I am all for change, and Agile encourages us to embrace change even late in the piece I am struggling with changing the process with no collaboration or involvement from those involved. One person has decided that they don’t agree with how things are done and causing a roadblock. I tried to ask them to explain to me what they were trying to achieve, I asked them to explain who they saw as doing the work. I was not given clear answers.

How do I combat people who are throwing their power around and don’t see me as their equal. He kept saying it was a leadership strategic decision. So much for self managing and cross functional teams. So much for giving people intent and allowing them to determine how they will deliver the result.

So taking the positives, negatives and interesting points technique from Edward De Bono.

positives.

• If it is a PM’s responsibility then I can continue the way we have been doing it and tweak it as we were.
• If only one person is responsible for sign off that reduces the number of people I need to communicate to and it becomes their responsibility to communicate it down within their teams.

Negatives

• The feedback loop does not involve collaboration from those involved in the project.
• We will go back to the days of the support teams not being part of the project and complaining about projects being thrown over the fence at them.
• IT will create a big stage gate for handover.
• there are inconsistent processes between projects.
• the BAs are limited in their growth and development and experience within projects.

Interesting points.

• management believe they are in charge of directing the way the teams work.
• management believe the way of working is a strategy.
• I can fast forward my agenda for cross functional teams by bringing in the support team members into the core team as soon as I can.
• I am going to get a good chance to see how my new boss is at removing obstacles for the team.

My Action plan.

Continue on our early engagement with the support teams and fast track their involvement in the project teams.

Meet with my boss and give her a heads up and allow her to manage the politics at that level.

Continue to refine the documentation needed by the support teams for support after project go live so that it is part of the knowledge base for the support teams.

Where do I fit? another new opportunity to drive change.

It seems people don’t really know what team to put me in.  A quick google shows that it is a point of confusion.  Do I belong with the development team as I am working with them on a day to day basis?  Do I belong with the business partnerships team because their goal is to support all other teams?  This does make sense but not all the people that should be in this area are here yet, e.g. the business analysts are not here yet either.  Or should I belong with HR as put forward in this article .

I was worried about losing some of the knowledge I had gained from being in the development team, being part of the team meetings and getting the insight of what the tech leads and development director were thinking.  Though I do completely agree I am a better fit in the business partnerships space.  I didn’t have the mandate to drive the change in processes from within the development team.

I am now communicating the way I want to work with the team, getting an understanding of how they want to work with me.  We have a planning day next week and I have a lot of ideas to put forward and see where the team wants to go and how they want to work.  I am hoping to drive some full value stream changes now that I am in this team.

Starting with a value stream/ projects weekly meeting.  It’s a bit of an experiment and I still have to get the rest of the people to give it a try.  My only real concern is that it will be a large group of people, about 13 all up.  I want it to be a kindof standup for the whole value stream.  Starting with the account managers talking about what is coming up and looks to be the highest priority from incoming work and capex work.  then onto hiring and budget information, then analysis and backlog grooming teams, then onto the development teams to talk about what is being worked on and is almost ready for deployment.  We will have the release, communications and app support team representatives there as well so that they can have that high level heads up of whats coming up for them.

I am hoping it works out as at the moment there is not the visibility across the whole stream for the key mid level people that need to know.

 

Book review – the 8 dimensions of leadership.

The 8 Dimensions of Leadership: DiSC Strategies for Becoming a Better Leader (Bk Business) 0th Edition by Jeffrey Sugerman  (Author), Mark Scullard  (Author), Emma Wilhelm  (Author)– get the book here.   

 

The book introduces the following 8 leadership dimensions: Pioneering, energizing, affirming, inclusive, humble, deliberate, resolute, commanding. These dimensions form a circular relationship.

The author then elaborates on these and your encouraged to find your natural style and identify those that challenge you.

The later chapters then go through 3 activities you can try to develop yourself in the other dimensions.

Www.bkconnection.com /dimensions

I really enjoyed this book and will be getting a copy for our work library. I also enjoyed learning about how other leaders in our team see things. It gave me a greater insight into them as well, which I think can only help to improve my relationship with them.

Book review – the gifts of imperfection by Brene Brown.

This book talks about how we need connection, compassion and courage.

We need to have conversations about what makes us feel uncomfortable. Reach out and share with those who support you and Practise shame resilience.

It also talks about how we need to let go of measuring ourselves against others, and feeling we are unworthy. This is a big bear of mine with tv and media, I don’t think they show good role models at all.

She talks through the 10 guideposts which she unpack individually and discusses how they are related so that we can live a wholehearted life.

It was interesting to hear about the perfectionist part. It cleared up some of the problems I am having with a lady at work and one of the mum’s at school. Both women are self confessed perfectionists. I just couldn’t get a good connection with them and it seemed like I was always doing something wrong, but I suddenly realised it’s not me, it’s not my story it’s theirs. It definitely helped for me to think about how i could be more compassionate and share my imperfections so that I might try and help them embrace theirs. Everyone has faults and I know some people think I have it all together which I most surely do not. I am still learning and growing and making mistakes just like everyone else. I am doing the best I can and I am improving little by little every day.

She mentions that spirituality is very important for resilience, knowing that we are all in this together and By getting Purpose, meaning and perspective we don’t feel so alone and overwhelmed.

Agile and common sense

I just read this article.  I admit to not fully reading it, I skimmed a lot of the details, but what I loved about it was that I totally agree, during my initial learning of Agile and in fact during my training sessions I said “Agile practices are nothing new, you will likely have heard of many of them before, It’s just packaged and marketed better”.   Many of the research we did during our training preparation resulted in finding that many practices stemmed from the 1960s and 1970s, they have been around a long time.  We also found that many of the practices were ones that we wanted the company to have, it was the way we wanted to work, it was common sense.

What is common sense exactly – google gave me this definition from the Collins English dictionary – “common sense is your natural ability to make good judgments and to behave in a practical and sensible way.”

If it’s so much common sense, why are we not doing it that way? I have been reading a bit lately and many of the books about teams and management bring up about having your vision and the transparency of it with the team, planning, reviewing regularly with the team, reflecting on what has gone well and what could be improved both with the way the people work and also the way the process works, (sounds very similar to scrum ceremonies to me).   Maybe we don’t do it because of the natural human need of wanting to control things.  Maybe we need to be more aware of what is within our circle of control and influence.

I think the hardest part of Agile is the mindset and finding the balance, one of the ladies at work has just been promoted and she has been in constant change for about 6 months, always learning and growing and changing the way things are working, both at home and at work,  she admits to feeling very change fatigued.  She is eager for the change and to grow the teams and support them to achieve.  I think she will be able to do this at the rate that is in tune with the teams, making it sustainable for them and her.   Even in my teams, we have had changes to the way we work, changes to the people in the teams, changes to the projects that the teams are working on.  This year I want to be really aware of the sustainability aspect, connecting and listening to people so that I can support the teams to work at a pace that fits them.  Working on the planning side of the things and coming up with a 90 day rolling window.  Planning the work so we can work the plan, that is within my circle of control and influence.  It’s all common sense really. Don’t want to burn the teams out and get them despondent, and planning so we can succeed.