Topics to consider for team chartering.

First things first have your preparation sorted.
– Book the room for 15mins early.
– Chartering defines the following 9 areas of knowledge. ( scope, time, cost, quality, comms, HR, Risk, Dependences, change )

POWER Start – why we are doing this – be purpose driven.

The Vision for the product / Service.

Elevator Pitch

Customer problem statement

Hypotheses (idea canvas ) for benefits and problem statement.

Current Big rocks.

Mission why team together.

What does this team do – not do?

Success Measures – how we now we have met our mission.

Definition of awesome – definition of success – future newspaper article.

WOW housekeeping (doc management, framework, cadence, meeting date / times, tools, communication, resolve conflict. )

Activity of self awareness on current behaviours

Roles and responsibilities

Market of skills – strengths and weaknesses

Working agreement.

Empathy / connection – River of life or emotional culture deck.

Personal Goals.

Delegation poker

Values / needs

Stakeholder mapping and comms channels.

Background of project.

Organisational chart.

customer journey mapping – customer profile.

Understand market and competitors – current state.

how change control works.

Timelines – Roadmap, storymapping – increment slicing.

Finances and reporting

HR – Who available when – leave dates, part time etc.

RAID and constraints.

Success sliders.

values – subset of organisations values.

Tracking responses when you want to change your behaviour.

One of the best ways for growth is to control your responses to situation. Here is a little tracker to help track how you are going and reflect on the situations. By creating visibility and creating awareness and focus to make the change happen.

When you are reflecting, think about if, then, or if may.

Eg. If you don’t thank people, they may not be so generous with their time or assistance in the future.

Time Management and choosing tasks that matter.

I went on a course around time management and while I found it made perfect sense and I understood all the concepts, it just seems so full on in the details. Here are my notes. I am hoping that writing these out I will be able to simplify it and make it more useful.

Recommendations.
– Have clearly defined activity zones. So you focus on one activity at a time and items have a clear home. There is only one logical place to find anything or put it away.
– Schedule activity zones to keep related tasks together.
– Block out regular time zones in your schedule for the activities that support your goals.
– When you place tasks within an activity zone consider grouping by (urgency, duration of tasks, energy or interest level, location )
– experiment and review.
– Schedule in “me time” then add other priorities – clarify against family values and vision.
– you will need to allow time for training and lower your initial standards for success.

Exercise 1. – Identify what’s working.
Consider the following questions.
– No matter how busy I get, I always find time for…..
– My goals are well defined when it comes to…….
– I’m pretty clear on how long it takes me to……
– I never procrastinate about …….
– I am never late for …….
– I have no problem exercising when…….
– I have no problem tackling project when……
– I always build in transition time between……
– it’s easy for me to say no to…..
– Meeting deadlines is easiest for me when…..
– I am at my happiest when I am……
– The things that I delegate easily are……

It’s not a time problem – it’s a priority problem.

Exercise 2 – What’s not working.
Think of examples for the following.
– I never have time to…….
– I spend way too much time on…..
– I don’t have well defined goals for……
– One thing I wish I could do every day is…..
– I always underestimate how long it takes to….
– I procrastinate whenever I have to….
– I am usually late for …..
– Its hard for me to say no to….
– I have a hard time finishing……

Exercise 3 – Your time management preferences.
Circle your preferences from this list.
The majority of the time, I prefer…….

working independently. Vs working collaboratively.
Exercising alone. Vs exercising with other.
Relaxing alone. Vs relaxing with other.
Concentrating in short bursts. Vs concentrating for long stretches.
Focusing on one thin at a time. Vs multi tasking (doing more than one thing at a time)
A fast and busy schedule. Vs A slow and easy schedule
plans and predictability. Vs surprises and spontaneity
Tight deadlines. Vs Long lead times.
Stewing on things. Vs Making quick decisions.
Working in Silence. Vs Working with background noice or music.
Dim lighting Vs Bright lighting.
Working with my head. Vs working with my hands.

If you had more time what would you use it more? Think about work, home, personal.

Exercise 4 – identifying your energy cycles and sources.
Complete the following statements.
– Morning are the best time for me to…..
– And the worst time for me to…..
– Afternoons are the best time for me to….
-And the worst time for me to….
-Evenings are the best time for me to…..
-And the worst time for me to…..
– late at night is the best time for me to….
– and the worst time for me to…..

Now think about how you recharge when you energy is flagging
Some ideas to get you thinking.
– changing activities
– exercising
– stretching
– playing some music
– reviewing my goals
– looking at photos of people I love
– drinking water
– taking a nap
– eating a high energy snack
– taking a brief break
– planning something fun
– calling a friend

Do a time audit.
– how are you spending your time.
– how important to you is this task
– break down the tasks and rank them.
– how much of your time is spent doing less enjoyable things.

Look at your dead time when travelling or waiting and plan to utilise it better. – keep in mind recharge and self care time, can you fit that in your dead time.

Determine what you want your time for.

The big picture.
– Set your priorities and actions for each area in your life.
– Develop your big picture goals
– Select activities to achieve goals.
– Choose daily tasks that make up your scheduled activities

Before you agree to something check does it fit with my chosen activities for my goals – If not say NO! Check how long it will take.

Have Bi Monthly tune ups.
What can I learn, and what can I do differently with my time.

Quotes from the book – The Monk who sold his Ferrari.

There are no mistakes in life, only lessons. There is no such thing as a negative experience, only opportunities to grow, learn and advance along the road to self mastery.

From struggle comes strength. Even pain can be a powerful teacher.

By controlling the thoughts that you think and the way you respond to the events of your life you being to control your destiny.

To savour the good, one must know the bad.

Begin to live out the glory of your imagination, not your memory.

Awaken yourself to the power of your own mind to make things happen. Once you do, the universe will conspire with you to work magic in your life.

When you are inspired by some great purpose, some extraordinary project, all your thoughts break their bonds. Your mind transcends limitations, your consciousness expands in every direction and you find yourself in a new great and wonderful world. Dormant forces, faculties and talents become alive and you discover yourself to be a greater person than you ever dreamed yourself to be.

The price of greatness is responsibility over each of your thoughts.

Be patient and live with the knowledge that all you are searching for is certain to come if you prepare for it and expect it.

Find out what you truely love to do and then direct all of your energy towards doing it.

Ensure your attention is fully and completely on the task at hand. Therefore there are no energy leaks.

Contemplate where you are and where your going.

Take time to reflect on our purpose and how you are living your life everyday. Think about how you will improve this next day. How incremental improvements can produce your lasting results.

The love of the rose mindfulness.
Stare at the rose – it’s heart notice it’s colour, texture and design. Savour the fragrance and think only of this wonderful object in front of you this is your Oasis.

Oppositional thinking.
Whenever a negative thought fills your mind, immediately take swift action to replace it with a positive one. Sit up straight, breathe deeply and smile.

Secret of the lake – Creative envisioning.
1- Close your eyes, take a few deep breaths.
2- Envision your dreams becoming reality the mind works through pictures.

Run your own race, it doesn’t matter what other people say about you. what is important is what you say to yourself. Never be ashamed of doing what is right and correct according to your heart and conscience.

Discover your life purpose and live your life by it.

Set goals for all aspects of your life. Stay focussed on your purpose.

Change is the most powerful force in our society today – most fear it. The wise embrace it.

When you have cultured a deep sense of faith in your abilities and an indomitable spirit, nothing can stop you from succeeding in all your pursuits and living with great rewards.

The only limits on your life are those that you set yourself when you dare to get out of your circle of comfort and explore the unknown, you start to liberate your true human potential.

Practise the art of kaizen by pushing yourself daily. Work hard to improve your mind and body. nourish your spirit. Do things you fear. Start to live with unbridled energy and limitless enthusiasm. Watch the sun rise, dance in a rain shower. Be the person you dream of being. Do the things you have always wanted to do but didn’t because you tricked yourself into believing that you were too young, rich, old, poor etc. Prepare to live a soaring, fully alive life. life favours the prepared mind.

Identify what is holding you back. Face your weaknesses head on and attack your fears. Fear is nothing but a mental monster you have created, a negative stream of consciousness.

Be prepared to put off short term pleasure for the sake of long term fulfilment.

Kaizen – improving every aspect of themselves.

10 Rituals of Radiant living.
1- Ensure everyday has a period of peace. Spend time alone in silence with a beautiful image. Practice at the same time everyday. Commune with nature everyday.
2- Ritual of physical care – exercise daily and breathe properly.
3- eat lots of fresh vegetables, fruit and grains, have a salad every day.
4 – lifelong learning and expanding your knowledge base for the good of yourself and all around you. Read for 30mins every day.
5- Everynight reflect on your day and how it could have been improved and what went well. What you learned and plan to never replicate.
6- Early waking – wake with the sun, Ask yourself what would I do today if today was my last
7- spend time listening to music everyday.
8 – use mantra’s – speak them.
9- Take daily, incremental action to build your character.
10- Live a simple life, focus only on your priorities, those activities that are truely meaningful. Reduce your needs.

Within you lies all the wonders of this universe the intelligence that created these wonders is the same force that created you. All things around you come from the same source. We are all one. All souls flow into the soul of the universe.

Failure is essential to success in any endeavour. Failure tests us and allows us to grow. It offers us lessons and guides us along the path of enlightenment

When you control your thoughts, you control your mind. When you control your mind. When you control your mind, you control your life. Once you reach the stage of being in total control of your life, you become the master of your destiny.

Mantra to repeat everyday x 30 times. “I am more than I appear to be, all the worlds strength and power resets inside me. “

Creative envisioning.
See yourself as a disciplined firm person, fully in control of your mind, your body and your spirit. Picture yourself acting as you want to act in a challenging situation.

Exert your will over your habits.

80% of the results you achieve in your life come from only 20% f the activities that occupy your time.

Enlightened people are priority driven, this is the secret of time mastery.

Be aware of time thieves, learn to say No. Having the courage to say no to the the little things in life will give you the power to say yes to the big things.

The most productive people in the world have cultivated the habit of doing the things that less productive people don’t like doing. Even though they to might not like doing them.

No one should ever take life so seriously that they forget to laugh at themselves.

Act as if failure is impossible, and your success will be assured. Wipe out every thought of not achieving your objectives whether spiritual or material, be brace, set no limits.

Life doesn’t always give you what you ask for, but if always gives you what you need.

For what lies behind you and what lies in front of you matter little when compared to what lies within you.

Stop being the prisoner of your past. Become the architect of your future.

We are spiritual beings having a human experience.

Listen to your conscience, let it guide you, it knows what is right.

The quality of your life will come down to the quality of your contribution.

When you take care to practise random acts of kindness daily, your own life becomes far Fischer and more meaningful.

Ask yourself each night what good deed have you performed. What have you done for the family.

Happiness is a journey – not a desination.

Enjoy the special moments that every day offers because today, this day is all you have.

Tips for staying on top of your finances.

Make a date with our money.
– sit down with your family and draw up a financial plan that meets your future needs.
– based on your plan, design a savings / investment strategy
– write a date on your calendar that each year will be your MoneyDay. Use this day to reassess your spending / plan / strategy.
– complete a net worth analysis each year to determine your savings – your net worth should be 1/2 your annual salary.
– create your definition of wealth.
– define your saving goals and prioritise them.
– save 5-10% of your annual income for longer term financial goals e.g retirement.
– have 6 months of your salary in an emergency fund.
– stay in financial shape – a change in circumstances requires a change in your budget, insurances, priorities, goals, habits, limits
– create a one page financial plan – review every quarter.

Track your current spending.
– for 2 weeks record all your expenses and write them down.
– from your expenditures, assess how important these expenses are to you (how much happiness do you derive from buying x)
– look beyond the product to understand what is really motivating your purchases. What do you hope it will achieve. Become aware when you are lusting for a product because you feel you should have it. “There is that thing happening again” – take a moment
– Give gifts that enhance the other persons life.

Get rid of dumb debt
– pay off any outstanding credit card balances, hire purchases etc.
– do not borrow to buy anything that is not essential, save the money first.
– never buy anything on credit card that you can’t afford to pay off in full when the bill comes in.

understand and be aware of your feelings and beliefs about money.

Book Review – The little book of emotional intelligence by Any Cope and Amy Bradley

I loved this book, it was a refreshing way of looking at emotional intelligence and how to flourish in a crazy world.

Its about the ability to make healthy choices based on accurately Identifying, understanding and managing your own feelings and those of others.

If you feel angry – acknowledge that its a result of your thinking. you can keep living and reciting your script or you can impromptu. – What’s your other options.

Your happiness is determined by how you allocate your attention. your attention is what creates your reality and the focus creates the thinking in your head and your choice of focus becomes your reality, our brains are foraging for information to weave into our memory and perception to create a view of the world whose detail is so compelling we never question it. Your thoughts create your feelings. You can let that thought pass and catch on to another more uplifting one.

Negative thoughts are not real things, they will pass. Remember what’s true and beautiful when things seem shitty.

The trick with negative emotions is to express them in a socially acceptable and healthy manner and in a way that aligns with your values.

Exercise – The Four horsemen of negativity
Define these for yourself, what makes you negative. And then think of ways to combat them.

Goleman’s 5 domains of EI

• Knowing your emotions
• Managing your own emotions
• Motivating yourself.
• Recognising and understanding other people’s emotions
• Managing relationships.

Emotions and their purpose

– Disgust keeps you safe.
– Anger gives you power
– Fear stops us doing stupid things
– Sadness – makes us reflect on what’s important.
– Joy opens the mind to possibilities and creative solutions on how to move forward

Your attitudes and behaviours are infectious as we tend to mirror and have tribe mentality.

Imagine the world is going to end a week from today , what would you do with your week and find your mission and purpose. For when your heart and your brain work together it = intelligent living. Reset your life to active and engage with your emotions.

Emotional Intelligence – My research notes.

I have been working through putting my paper notes on here, having hit my information on emotional intelligence I realised that I didn’t reference where I got the information from. I therefore apologise to those I have not credited.

Focus on self regards (accept yourself)
focus on self actualisation ( set and meet your goals)
focus on interpersonal relationships ( good family and friend relationships)
focus on optimism (positive and persistent)
You will improve your happiness levels

Self Perception. (Emotional and social functioning)

1- Self awareness is the ability to recognise emotions as they happen and what causes those emotions.
Recognise and make proactive choices rather than just reacting to the emotion. Understand how your emotions affect others.

2- Self regards is understanding strengths and limitation and accepting and respecting yourself despite your limitations.
identify what you are good at, what do you struggle with and accept these. Set realistic goals and achieve them to increase your self confidence and encourage independence.

3- Self actualisation is striving to realise potential, setting appropriate goals and achieving them and receiving satisfaction and meaning from pursuits.
Set goals about participation and performance. Set your expectations about effort and follow through and about work quality.

Tools – Mindfulness
Focus thoughts on yourself or the environment in the present moment. Set aside judgement. Steps – observe an object or the environment or your body, Focus on thoughts and feelings then do the A- E method. (Action some event has occurred, Beliefs exist, Consequence of beliefs, Dispute irrational beliefs with facts and evidence, Effect (new) what is the new outcome ) can you now experience the action with a calmer reaction.

Self Expression (well being, performance)

1- Emotional expression is expressing appropriate emotions verbally and non verbally and for that expression to be congruent . Non verbal actions matching worlds. Label all the feelings and allow others to have their feelings. Use I messages and give outlets for feelings. Complete the cycle.

2- Independence is the ability to be self directed. Look for ways to support independence

3- Assertiveness is the ability to express opinions, beliefs and stand up for yourself in an appropriate and constructive way. Declarative statements that revise your opinions, preferences or needs. Assists with setting and keeping boundaries and shows respect for others and clarity of purpose.

Interpersonal ( emotion and social functioning )

1- Interpersonal relationships is developing relationships with others that involve mutuality, trust and sharing. the skills to make friends and build friendships and be comfortable with others. Skills to help relationships. Start a conversation with someone your don’t know. How to move conversation from a surface level to meaningful level, how to compromise, how to resolve conflict, how to give and take, how to build trust, how to emotionally connect with others, how to make a relationship fun, understand what trust is and how it impacts relationships, pay attention to the environment and resources cues.

2- Empathy is developing awareness that other may have a different perspective and trying to understand their perspective and the reasons for it. Help think about others hardships and if they might be experiencing something or in a situation that might explain their otherwise bad behaviour. Be empathetic with other, show you understand their view.

3- Social Responsibility is the ability to contribute and be constructive members of society. helpfulness when asked and when not asked. Develop skills in working with a variety of people and understand the value of everyone in the community doing well, think about how to help the group succeed and collaborate skilfully.

Decision making.

1- Reality testing is being able to distinguish between fantasy or hopes and what’s real and accurate reading of the environment and fact without over / under reacting.Be curious and seek information, look past the initial fact and get more information. Calibrate your response to the information collected to ensure you are not over or under reacting. Use natural consequences to help think more broadly about behaviours and what the other party may need to consider that they have not yet considered.

2- Problem solving is the ability to identify and define problems and germinate ideas for effective solutions. Recognise a problem exists, understand the emotions involved, accurately identify the problem (contributing reasons / factors), seek information, generate solutions, evaluate solutions, implement solution, evaluate and review the implementation of the solution.

3- Impulse control involves resisting temptation, being patient, delaying gratification. Understanding and controlling emotions long enough to think about a decision before acting.

Stress Management

1- Flexibility is being comfortable with change and adjusting emotions through and behaviour to changing situations . To shift priorities easily and enable you to handle multiple demands or tasks without being overwhelmed. Flexibility is part of stress management for a reason. know how to adapt to change gracefully to find more enjoyment in life. Expose yourself to change to know it can be mastered, know how it initiate change and shift priorities at a given movement without a disrupting impact.

2- Stress tolerance is the ability to withstand things that activate stress without falling apart, not being fearful of new situations and staying focused on the task at hand. Understand how to reduce the threat level. Ask what’s the worst that can happen, what’s likely to happen, what are all the good things that can happen. Identify the resources you have available to you.

3- Optimism is the ability to remain positive and to persist even when faced with adversity. happiness is the ability to feel satisfied and enjoy life. Optimism helps perseverance in the face of challenges. Find hope where you can and stay positive.
Tools – Coping strategies.
Identify the activities, relationships etc that help you manage change, for example, mindfulness, mediation, music, a hobby, exercise, talking with friends.

Dr David Walton raises these points about emotional intelligence .

Mindfulness is being aware of yourself and others.
Being in control of your thoughts, emotions and needs,
Being positive and self motivated in the face of setbacks.
using empathy (putting yourself in others shoes)
communicating effectively to build relationships
use emotional reasoning to enhance your thinking.

Strengthen your self esteem by:
– stop comparing yourself to others.
– don’t put yourself down
– get into the habit of saying positive thins about you to yourself.
– accept compliments.
– use self help books to change your beliefs
– spend time with positive people.
– acknowledge your positive qualities and things your good at.
– be assertive
– be helpful and considerate of others
– engage in work and hobbies you enjoy.

We must stop working on autopilot and choose to act differently by being mindful.

My notes from the CAUDIT conference on Emotional Intelligence.

Emotional Intelligence is the ability to understand and manage your own emotions and those of the people around you.
People with EI know what they are feeling, what their emotions mean and how these affect others.

1. Self awareness- be clear on your strengths and weaknesses especially (keep a journal, slow down to understand the emotion. )
2. Self regulation – stay in control with flexibility and personal accountability to your values and practice calm.
3. Motivation – know your why for each task, set goals, increase your motivation to lead (find something good)
4. Empathy – pay attention to body language, respond to feelings, put yourself in someone else’s shoes.
5. Social skills – learn conflict resolution, improve communication and give praise.

How to improve EI

• Put yourself in the others persons shoes and observe how you react to people
• Give others the chance to shine and give praise.
• Examine how you react to stressful situations.
• Take responsibility for your actions and apologise directly.
• Examine how your actions affect others before you take them.

Self awareness – keep a journal, practice mindfulness and understand your strengths and weaknesses and ask for feedback.

Self regulation – know what your triggers are, understand how to calm yourself and pause, deep breathe, take responsibility for your actions and behaviours.

Motivation – boost motivations through self discipline and celebrate small wins, set long term goals. Know your why and purpose.

Empathy, understand others viewpoints and use active listening. Look at and interpret body language.

Socials skills – Develop trust and rapport and good working relationships. Learn how to deal with conflict effectively and practice your skills.

Dealing with emotions.

Anger – recognise your trigger, know the signs, stop what your doing and imagine what you look like to others. .

Frustration – Deal with the feelings quickly – stop and evaluate – write it down and be specific – then think of one positive thing about the current situation – then think of the last time you felt the feeling and how everything worked out.

Worry – practise Deep breathing – focus on how to improve the situation – write down a worry log and do a risk analysis.

Disappointment – check your mindset, realise life happens, adjust your goal, record your thoughts and smile!

Cognitive restructuring

• Write down situations causing negative thoughts.
• Write down emotions and feelings and list automatic thoughts that come up for these emotions.
• List all evidence to support negative thought and evidence that refutes it.
• List some fair, balanced, objective thoughts about the situation.

Building confidence with a success file.

Many agile coaches I know suffer from imposter syndrome, myself included. There is so much to learn, so much experience to gain, so many people that you want to help but how to know if what your doing is the best and why should they even listen to you. what do you know anyway.

Well one way to help counter this is through a success file.

As our role doesn’t normally produce anything tangible in results it is easy to dismiss the value.

Bring on the success file.

Record your actions / experiments / things you want to achieve as a statement.
e.g Sit and pass PSM exam.

Next write down all the negative thoughts you are having around this.
e.g I’ll fail, I don’t really know this agile thing. I’ll never get it. Etc.

Now write down the actual outcome and feelings.
e.g passed 99%, feeling relieved and proud.

And finally write down your ultimate feelings and outcome.
Greater value, more opportunities and greater employability.

The aim of this exercise is to start training your brain that those negative thoughts are not the outcome, they are not something to be focussed on. It’s about going for the ultimate outcome.

The cycle of emotions.

As per the ADKAR change model the first process is making change is to have awareness.

To become aware of emotions and their impacts I was taken through this circle process.

It show the cyclic process of our emotions and actions and how we need to break that cycle by becoming more aware and choosing how we respond and why. It also helps to fully understand the core emotion not just the outer high level emotion. S

tart in the middle of the circle with how you feel and the action you take from that emotion.

E.g when I feel angry I explode.

Then take the action and move to the next outer circle.

E.g When I explode I feel guilty for overreacting.

Then explain what you do next.

E.g I then overcompensate for my anger and give in and am not consistent in my communication.

Now explain how that impacts on your boundaries, principles and values.

E.g By not being consistent I am not being true to my boundaries and voicing my opinions and sending the wrong messages.

And finally what does that mean.

E.g I then let things slide again until it all builds up again and I explode.

From this you can see that my anger is actually from my lack of ability to communicate consistently.

My identifying this I can then put in strategies to work on this.