Being Grateful is Part of Leadership.

It is Thanksgiving week in the United States, and it is a uniquely American holiday with its origins in the American Civil War.  The family gathers together to have a big meal and make plans for the Christian holiday in December.  The Thanksgiving holiday weekend is also a great opportunity to emotionally reset and take stock of the things in life which make you grateful.  In the lonely world of leadership, gratitude is the only thing that can keep you concentrating on long-range goals. 

General Collin Powell died this year, and this imperfect patriot had plenty of things to say about leadership.  I have plenty of respect for Powell and his style of leadership.  One of the things he says in his book on leadership is being in charge is a lonely activity with others second-guessing decisions.  A leader deals with negativity, hostility, and apathy each day, and it can make even the most enthusiastic to a cause feel crippling levels of exhaustion.  In those moments of fatigue, being grateful for even the most minor things in life make it possible to move on to the next day.  

Even in the dark moments, it helps to take time to show gratitude for what good you can find in the world surrounding you.  First of all, I am grateful to the CAPCO organization.  I was feeling discouraged about my career, and they hired me as a Senior Consultant.  Since I have joined the organization, I feel like I now have a tribe of people as my colleagues.  We are eccentrics, innovative, and want to make a difference in the business world.  Being the lone agile person in an organization is isolating.  To be part of a group of agile professionals going through the same struggles make the fight worth it. 

I am grateful my parents are alive, and I get to enjoy them in their old age.  Life expectancy has doubled in a century, and my family has benefited.  I see my mother and father grow old together.  Our family will spend the Thanksgiving holiday together, and we will catch up and love each other as an immediate family can.  I get to enjoy the wit and wisdom of my parents for a while longer.  

Four years ago, a woman entered my life, and I have been a better person for the experience.  My partner Carol is warm, empathetic, and kind.  She puts up with my crazy career and the emotional ups and downs which come with it.  She is a teacher of young children, so I am learning how to relate better to small children.  She and her grown children have accepted me into their family, and I am grateful for that acceptance.  

I could go on, but I am most grateful for many things.  It helps push away the despair and darkness.  It is a chance to reflect on gratitude which helps make our workday struggles seem less consequential.  I am grateful to you, my readers and I look forward to more agile adventures in the future.  Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.  

Until next time.

Looking Ahead to 2019

Happy New Year!
 Looking back and forward.

The Christmas holidays are a blur of family, friends, and food.  The last week has been an exercise in sleeping late, snacking on food which is bad for me, and drinking a variety of fermented beverages.  It is also a time to reflect on the last year and look forward to 2019.

I got a few predictions right in 2018.  The battle between Amazon and Google did get fiercer.  I purchased smart lights and expanded the number of Google devices in the marketplace.  It is also clear Google is starting to pull away with a better quality product.  As of August 2018, Google was starting to pass Amazon in sales.  I hope this forces more innovation and lowers prices.  It would be nice if these smart speakers were the cost of a contemporary clock radio.

I was partially correct about politics in the last year.  Democrats did make a comeback, but the GOP leveraged its structural advantages to retain the U.S. Senate and some state house governments.   It was also clear the two parties are tragically unable to compromise.  Authors pointed out these differences were not a question of ideology but epistemology.  When Christine Blasey Ford, provided credible accusations of sexual assault against a Supreme Court nominee GOP senators saw someone who was “misremembering” a teenage event to destroy a career.  Democratic senators saw it as behavior toward women which was disqualifying.  In light of these events, it is clear the GOP, and the Democrats see women and sexual assault in different ways.

Last year was not just the spectacle of politics and commerce; I made some significant changes.  I decided to concentrate more on my brand.  I presented to the Agile 2018 conference, and I am working on my 2019 white paper for next year.  I spent time at the London 2018 coaching retreat and have given more discussions on Healthy Ownership.  It is a good start, but I have more work to do.  I have to concentrate on my coaching certification with the Scrum Alliance.  I am also returning to work, so I am looking forward to working with new people and challenges.

So what does 2019 look like?  I have three predictions.

The Messy Repercussions of Oversight – 

With Democrats controlling the House of Representatives, oversight of the executive branch will begin.  It will create numerous uncomfortable conflicts around the emoluments clause, nepotism and petty corruption from the executive branch.  I feel this oversight is necessary to hold powerful people accountable.  The aftermath of this oversight will be increase distrust in government and the deepening of the epistemic divide between the two major political parties.

Chubby Capitalism –

The American economy is chugging along creating jobs and wealth.  I suspect much of the growth is the result of low interest rates and mergers.  Gross domestic product is increasing, but there are troubling signs the good times are going to slow down.  I affectionately call the situation, “chubby capitalism,” as large companies bloated with market share and stock buy-backs struggle to adapt to the changing global market.  Some of these “chubby” companies are going to get eaten alive by faster competitors.  Others will be forced to shrink or face extinction.  Caught in the middle will be workers facing more risk and insecurity caused by the binging and purging which will happen next year.

Agile Tribes – 

I have noticed serious disagreements among the members of the Agile community.  The feud between the “No Estimates,” crowd and those who are skeptical is becoming bitter.  Kanban is growing in popularity, and this creates friction with Scrum professionals.  Finally, businesses are creating these quasi-roles for scrum coaches, senior scrum masters, and junior scrum masters.  I want both the Agile Alliance and Scrum Alliance to put down their collective feet and insist that scrum mastery and coaching are complementary skills.

So that is 2018 and a look ahead to 2019.  I hope everyone has a safe and sane New Years.

Until Next time.

Dealing with Scary Stuff

I am scared but I am going to be OK.

I have a sign on my wall which says, “If your dreams don’t scare you they are not big enough.” It has been a frightening period for me.  I am interviewing for new opportunities, sending out applications, all the while the holiday season approaches.  It is a lonely period despite the support I have received from family, friends, and colleagues.  Periods like this test a person and this week I would like to discuss it.

Since high school, I have been one of those students who could be labeled as “striver.” I wanted to advance myself and do better for myself and my family.  Pushing myself academically and participating in extra circular activities, so I would get noticed by a college.  It happened with a twist. I was offered a scholarship to a university and then it fell through.  I went to a community college for the first two years of my college career.  In hindsight, it was a perfect move as I was able to deal with the pressures of college with the support of my family.  When I transferred to a four-year university, I learned the discipline it takes to succeed academically.  It was not easy, but the early lesson was that success required sacrifice and discipline.

Sadly, those two qualities are not helpful when jobs were scarce as was the case in the recession of 1990.  Keeping the lights on and the rent paid required the swallowing of personal pride.  It meant working retail working for commission.  It was dealing cards at a casino.  I discovered I was good at computers and learning how to program them.  I was lucky when I left the casino industry, it was the giddy and stupid times of the dot-com boom.  I transitioned from dead-end jobs to a career.  It only took seven years out of school to make this basic professional milestone.

In the intervening period, I have been fired and laid off more times than I can mention.  I struggled to keep the lights on and the mortgage paid.  People have treated me in a grossly unfair fashion and I have received numerous second chances throughout my career.  The adversity which has dominated my career makes me contemptuous of others who have not had similar experiences.  It is also why I roll my eyes when I hear certain public figures discuss their “life of struggle.”

The ups and downs of my career took a heavy toll on my marriage and family life.  It has changed me more than I would like to admit.  In spite of it all, I have remained committed to the business of building working software and attempting to make work more satisfying, sustainable, and sane.  I am committed to large businesses treating people with basic decency.

I am going to give that vision a hard test.  The experience is going to challenge me in ways I am not comfortable.  I might fail.  I still have to try because I owe it to the people grinding out code.  I owe it to my family and I owe it to myself.  My dreams are very big and they scare me witless.   I look forward to defeating the fear and sharing those dreams with you.

Until next time.

Food Trucks and the Theory of Constraints.

The food truck can teach us about theory of constraints

In the global economy, events are moving at the speed of light.  An order placed in Singapore triggers a cascade of events in Tokyo and then at the corporate headquarters in Chicago.  Technology makes this kind of speed and accuracy possible.  To many people who use this technology, it is like magic.  To people who build and maintain these systems, it is hard work.  So the biggest challenge of our time is how to balance the desires of people who think technology is magic with the reality of innovation being hard work.  This week an introduction to the theory of constraints and what it means to a scrum master.

I have been reading a book entitled, “The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement,” by Eliyahu M. Goldratt.  It puts the reader in the shoes of a plant manager of a failing company.  His wife is unhappy with all the responsibilities he has which keep him away from his family.  His boss threatens to shut down his plant in 90 days.  He is also dealing with his children and his aging parents.  It is a trifecta of stress which would grind down any person. 

The main character has to juggle these competing demands on his time and energy while confronted with the collapse of his marriage and loss of his job.  He decides to concentrate on saving his job to provide for his wife and family.  Over the course of the book, the protagonist learns about the theory of constraints and how to use it to save his plant.  I will let you find out for yourselves if his marriage survives. 

I am personally surprised that I did not get exposed to this idea sooner in my career.  In layman’s terms, the theory of constraints posits that a system can only operate at the speed of its slowest sub-unit.  For instance, if you have a food truck, you have someone taking orders, someone doing food preparation, and someone plating finished products and delivering them to customers.  I realize that this example features a crowded food truck but stay with me.  The cashier can take an order every two minutes.  The owner can prep food for about 10 minutes per items on the menu.  Plating and delivering food takes five minutes. 

In this simple example, it is clear the slowest part of the process is preparing the food.  If there are ten items on the menu, it takes 100 minutes or almost two hours.  If done in a just in time fashion, then it takes 10 minutes.  So, a busy developer visiting the food truck outside of the office has to wait almost 20 minutes to get a meal.  This kind of service would put the food truck out of business.  The bottleneck is food prep.  Most food trucks avoid this issue by doing food prep in advance.  It reduces meal time from 20 minutes to seven. It is a major improvement, and it might keep the food truck in business. 

As a scrum master, it is important you recognize the bottlenecks which slow down the flow of value through the organization.  Are product owners not writing stories?  Are developers not doing test-driven development?  Maybe the release process is taking too long.  A good scrum master will figure this out and try to smooth worth through the system. 

The theory of constraints contains plenty of mathematics and ways to measure flow through the system, but the general idea is to find the slowest part of the system and maximize it to find the slowest part of the system and maximize its output while preventing work from stacking up before the bottleneck and slack gathering behind it.  Like many discoveries in science, engineering, and project management it is pretty simple once we understand it. 

Until next time. 

When your office resembles high school

We grow up but never out of high school

When I was a high school student, I had an irrational fantasy about being an adult.  I truly believed when I left school, I would enter an adult world and be surrounded by grown-ups acting in grown up ways.  In the thirty years since high school, I have been bitterly disappointed. This week a few thoughts about how your office resembles high school.

Any American who attended a public high school knows that the students live in a social and cultural limbo. Over achieving strivers are wedged together with cheerleaders.  Hard rock students in black concert shirts walk the hallways with people into hip-hop wearing track suites.  The public high school is one of the few places where people from different economic circumstances, races, and levels of educational acumen are forces to interact with each other.  Naturally, they self-separated and create tribes.

As a dorky kid, I was both outcast and court jester for the insular and sad world.  Eventually, I found a niche in forensics to develop my public speaking and in JROTC to improve my self-discipline. The formative time shaped me into what I am today.

To my surprise, the mean girls who tormented me in school would resurface as marketing, human resources, and project management professionals.  The homecoming kings and athletes would transform into sales professionals and executives.  The dorky people who said not to drugs, studies hard, and developed insane technical skills.  We still answer to these monster in corporate environments.  No wonder so many of us become entrepreneurs.

The first thing I have learned is that mean girls grow up to be mean woman.  I have also learned that mean people are not worth your emotional energy.  They are going to remain mean so the best strategy is to ignore them or treat them with the contempt they deserve.  Telling someone they are being a jerk is the first step in getting them to change.  It is also good to point out to their bosses that the mean person’s attitude is why projects are not getting done on time or on budget.  You will be pleasantly surprised what happens next.  A good leader will fix that situation immediately.

As for the athletes and popular people who become executives, I have found listening to sports radio and watching ESPN sports center gives me enough knowledge to talk sports without sounding totally clueless.  It also allows you to use sports metaphors to describe technical situations.  For instance, I was building a web site and running into problems with the corporate active directory.  I told a boss that the situation was like a basketball team with a player who won’t pass the ball.  A few phone calls later my issue was fixed.

I am not suggesting that you become a tattle tale but I have discovered that when interpersonal issues prevent a project getting completed leaders behave like a high school principle and step in.  It is not pretty but in a world where dollars and cents count.  The person who gets work done is always going to receive preferential treatment over the person preventing that from happening.

So none of us really escape high school but hopefully as adults we can deal with the people who act like they are still in it.

Until next time.

The Power of No

Sometimes it just needs to be said.

This week I wanted to discuss something which is pretty important to every business person and entrepreneur I know.  For years we have been taught the importance of yes, getting other people to say yes, saying yes to the deal, and making sure you say yes to any reasonable request.  People who say no are not team players or willing to succeed.  The reality is that saying no is as just as important to success as saying yes.

Daily we read stories about work life balance and what it takes to be successful.  A common theme in many of these articles is the ability to say yes.  It is easy to see why coaches and mentors say this.  Saying yes is easy; doing what you promised when you say yes is hard.  This way it is easier to make a promise and break it because you can always ask for forgiveness.  Business is filled with plenty of people who can make promises but cannot fulfill them.  This situation means that as a business person or leader you spend a majority of your time in a constant state of distrust because you do not know who is telling the truth and who is just saying what you want to hear.  It is madness.

This is why “no” is so powerful.  Because it cuts through the phoniness of typical business interactions and lets people know what is really going on.  The word “no” builds trust because they can honestly engage in pragmatic discussions about what can and can’t be done. I am not advocating being negative or reflexively saying no all the time but the judicious use of the word no can make your life much easier.

Let me give you a few examples:

• Can you stay late tonight – “No, my daughter is playing softball tonight.  Can I come in early tomorrow or work on this after the game”
• I need this software by X – “No we do not have enough developers or time to build all those features.”
• Can you build this software for a fixed bid – “No, this does not compensate properly for the work we do.  Feel free to take your chances with someone else”
• Can you take an extra project – “No, I am flattered but I want to devote my attention to these other projects and make them successful.  I might not give this new project the attention it deserves”

In each of those examples, saying no sets limits.  You are not being negative or hostile you are just setting limits to prevent others from exploiting your desire to help them.  There are plenty of people in business who don’t respect limits and those are people who have high turn-over and bad work environments.  By outlining limits you act as a warning sign to people in authority.  They have to hire more people or redo budgets rather than taking undo advantage of people working for them.  It also prevents vendors or clients from making demands which might cost you money.

So the next time you are tempted to say yes, take a deep breath and remember the power of no.  It may just save you time, money and aggravation.

Until next time.

Things you learn on Vacation

Getting some exercise on vacation.

The blog has been on hiatus for the last three weeks because I have taken some time off to rest and recharge.  In that time, I witnessed a family member get married and I experience some of the American frontier.  Now that I am starting to settle back into my usual routine; I wanted to share with my readers what I have learned.

First of all, I desperately needed some time off.  I was working during the week over fifty hours and struggling to maintain my business at night and on weekends.  It took an emotional and physical toll upon me.  I was eating poorly.  My sleep cycle was swinging wildly between insomnia and twelve hour power naps on weekends.  I also noticed that it was becoming increasingly difficult to concentrate on anything.  I was a textbook definition of burnt out.

The next thing I notices is that when I finally got on the road on my trip to Jackson, Wyoming was that the cycle of my work had become so consuming it took about three days before I stopped checking mail from the office.  I felt like I should be doing something when what I really should have been doing is enjoying myself. I was exhibiting the pathology many professionals suffer and it was the inability to disconnect.

I also noticed that relationships with my family were frayed and that I needed to spend time with them.  Most of my cousins are grown and have spouses and children of their own.  I began to reconnect with them.  It was a nice and a chance to focus on what was important.  It amazed me what remarkable people my cousins has become in their adult years.

The good news was that Jackson was the perfect antidote to my self-induced fatigue.   The altitude was bracing for a Midwestern fellow like me.  The scenery reminded me how important nature is in our lives.  I also attended one of the most beautiful weddings I have ever witnesses with the Grand Teton Mountains acting as the cathedral.  I even got to get some exercise which I have been neglecting for most of my career.

While I was away a few things became obvious to me.  First, when you are striving to be successful the only people who are going to be in your corner are family.  Next Jackson, Wyoming is a weird mixture of conspicuous wealth and rugged cowboy heritage.  The juxtaposition is very disorienting.  Finally, for most of my trip I could not escape the presence of the technologies which are responsible for my livelihood.

The great frontier is no different than my sweet home Chicago.  Tourists fill the streets listening to music streaming on smart phones.  Jackson had 4G LTE service.  Tablet computers and laptops were being user openly in the national parks.  Finally, all of my pictures were taken with my phone.  You can try to escape the 21st century but it keeps finding you.

All of the revelations were good for me and I look forward to getting back to work and making sense of my business.  We are also working on a new project for the business which we will be sharing on-line soon.  It is nice taking time off and I am glad that you could indulge me.

Until next time.

Learning Servant Leadership from Marines

Marines can teach you a lot about
servant leadership.  You just have to listen.

The life of a software developer and entrepreneur is filled with adventure.  It is also filled with countless hours of meetings, moments of terror, and a few lighthearted memories.  This week I danced around my day jobs office like a portly fool to the popular summer hit “Happy” by Pharrell.  It did it because I had made a bet with one of the scrum teams that they could not get their work done at the end of a sprint.  They accepted my playful challenge and they came through for me.  I had no choice but to dance around the office.  This got me thinking about leadership and what software professionals have to do in order to be successful.

As a younger person, I remember being taught about leadership by two Marine Corps veterans from Vietnam.  Sergeant Major David Ogle and Lieutenant Colonel Richard Weidner were larger than life figures from my youth.  Like many teens in the classroom the lessons they gave me really did not sink in until later in life.  Both taught me a leader had two responsibilities to accomplish the mission goals and to look after the well being of the people under your command.  When forced to choose always accomplish the mission.  I didn’t understand this right away.  Marines made life and death decisions.  Getting a mission done often means getting someone killed.

It would only be later in life that I understood what this unusually lesson would mean.  First, a leader looked after his people because some day you will have to ask them to accomplish a mission.  The people you lead will have to sacrifice themselves and their family lives to get things done.  In a military context, they may risk injury and death.  The other part of this simple lesson was that the leader is not really there to lead others but to serve them.  This is why I noticed officers in the Marines eat last in the mess hall making sure their people ate first.  It is also why most senior enlisted men and officers did not rest until all of the people they led were safely back at base.

This left a lasting impression on me.  It also influenced me on how I lead software development team.  I refer to them as “ladies and gentlemen” since I have the rare privilege of working with co-ed software teams.  I stick up for my developers when there are struggling and give them a kick in a seat when they are loafing.  I purchase hard candy to keep them from smoking and dance around my office when I lose a bet with the team.  It just comes with the job of being a scrum master.  A scrum master is a servant leader who helps his people be the best they can be.

This is not an easy life but I find it very rewarding.  It is all part of the adventure.

Until next time.

A Little Help from My Friends and Family.

It is nice having people look out for you.

The biggest enemy of an entrepreneur is time.  Time to get your business up and running.  Time to develop your product.  Finally, time to pivot your business to deal with a changing market place.  It is exhausting and I do not think that I could keep it up without the help and direction of my friends and family.  This week on the blog I want to discuss the unsung heroes of the entrepreneurial movement.  

Many people have this weird notion that being an entrepreneur is a lonely business where and individual eats, breathes, and sleeps his business all day long to the exclusion of everything else.  There is a kernel of truth to this as we spend countless hours building products, refining sales pitches and marketing our organization.  It can be all consuming.  This is why it is up to friends and family to step in and make sure that you are taking time out to focus on your physical and mental health.  An entrepreneur is worthless if they are not sleeping and they are even more worthless when all they can discuss is the market capitalization of their start up.

Family members remind you to get a good meal and take some time off on the weekend.  Friends offer to play cards or have a beer with you and discuss something, anything other than work.  I am deeply grateful for the help and assistance they have given me over the years.  Without them, I would be an emotional ball of putty with frayed nerves.

Until next time.