Monthly Archives: January 2009

Empowerment

Posted on January 27, 2009 by Liz

Simon Baker has written a superb post, capturing the elusive nature of empowerment. He mentions “an environment that tolerates mistakes to cultivate learning”. For me, this is an essential part of innovation; of the Lean metaphor that suggests a Software … Continue reading →

Posted in lean | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Six thinking hats

Posted on January 22, 2009 by Liz

I’ve been wanting to try out Edward de Bono’s Six Thinking Hats for a while now, and finally got the opportunity in a workshop last week. I was working with a team who had a vague understanding of the roles … Continue reading →

Posted in breaking models, coaching | 5 Comments

Who’s the best person to fix this?

Posted on January 16, 2009 by Liz

I hate blame cultures. If you hate them too, then you don’t need me to tell you why. If you don’t, you probably haven’t worked in one yet. At one client, they have a strong dislike for blame cultures. Unfortunately, … Continue reading →

Posted in nlp | 7 Comments

Standing-up dragging on?

Posted on January 14, 2009 by Liz

There’s a standard format for stand-ups that goes: What did you do yesterday? What are you going to do today? As well as this, it helps to keep the focus on things that are interesting to the team. Sometimes this … Continue reading →

Posted in learning | 1 Comment

Love for Pigs and Chickens

Posted on January 12, 2009 by Liz

A phrase frequently used in the Scrum teams I’ve been involved in – as well as a few of the XP teams – is “Pigs and Chickens”. Googling the origin, I found out where it came from. Like many terms … Continue reading →

Posted in scrum | 4 Comments