SPaMCAST 784 - Agile Best Self, A Conversation With Michaele Gardner and Brian Hackerson

Software Process and Measurement Cast 784 features our interview with Michaele Gardner and Brian Hackerson. We talk about their Agile Best Self Initiative. We also, and perhaps more importantly, discuss being in control of yourself so you can truly deliver value to those around you. As we start to close out 2023 it is a wonderful opportunity to reflect on how you can be your best self.

Michaele Gardner started out as a counselor at an emergency crisis line. Clients were too messy: clear inputs did not lead to predetermined outputs. So she moved into the world of IT and has not looked back. Becoming a developer on an XP team brought together her interests in psychology, flow, teamwork and problem solving. She quickly realized that many teams (and organizations) poured their hearts and souls into projects that added little value. Her next natural step was to help engineers and organizations understand business value at a micro and macro level. At all levels, Michaele loves giving change agents tools to define their own “why” and stay emotionally resilient.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaele-gardner-0829205/

Brian R. Hackerson is the co-creator of the Agile Best Self mindset, the VP of People Operations and Enterprise Agile Consultant at Scrum Inc. An innovator at the intersection of Agile practices and personal development, Brian has revolutionized team engagement and performance in various leadership roles. His approach uniquely blends professional growth with personal empowerment, embodying his belief in the transformative power of aligning individual journeys with Agile principles.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bhackerson/ 

Agile Best Self: https://agilebestself.com/ 

Re-Read Saturday News

Chapter 11 of Leadership is Language: The Hidden Power of What You Say – and What You Don’t is titled Saving The El Faro. In this final chapter, the author could have just as easily reimagined the outcomes of the Pinto design or the Deepwater Horizon disasters. The theme throughout the book is that Industrial-age thinking fails more often in the age of Knowledge Work. 

 

My final thoughts on this book? Not to put too fine a point on it, this is Marquet’s most important book yet.

Use the links below to read all of my final thoughts on Leadership is Language: The Hidden Power of What You Say – and What You Don’t and to catch up on previous installments.

Week 1: Logistics, Introduction, Foreword – https://bit.ly/3sTqyu3 

Week 2: El Faro – https://bit.ly/3RnkUue 

Week 3: The New Playbook – https://bit.ly/3Llgmki 

Week 4: Control the Clock – https://bit.ly/45UFp5Z

Week 5: Collaborate – https://bit.ly/3PzFiXI  

Week 6: Commit – https://bit.ly/46DMmsF 

Week 7: Complete – https://bit.ly/47aTDQe  

Week 8: Improve – https://bit.ly/3FMT1Vw 

Week 9: Connect – https://bit.ly/3QW05Wj 

Week 10: Applying – https://bit.ly/3ufAq1K 

Week 11: Red-Blue Operating System – https://bit.ly/3SQLuNb 

Week 12: Saving The El Faro - https://bit.ly/3R8PIgw 

Next week we begin the READ (my first time) of Actionable Agile Metrics Volume II, Advanced Topics in Predictability; which is available at LeanPub.  We re-read Volume I in 2018 (link to the first installment) that book was life changing…I am looking forward to Volume II.

Learn to Solve IT's Dirtiest Secret!

Work input, which includes prioritization and sequencing, is how work gets to an organization or team. If you get it wrong you are throwing time and money away. Simply put, poor work intake means “no agile for you”. Jeremy Willets and I have written Managing Work Intake tackling the topic that JRoss Publishing will publish in January 2024. In support of the book, we are building a live, workshop-based course for anyone involved in deciding on what work gets completed!  This includes Agile Coaches, Scrum Masters, Product Owners, Project Managers, Program Managers, and Portfolio Managers - lots of people are involved which is part of the problem! The workshop will cover why work intake is the biggest challenge to teams and organizations today. Attendees will also learn what to do to solve this challenge. This cohort-based course will combine very short lectures, discussions, and exercises. It will provide space to learn and share with peers. We’re using a survey to build a waitlist for the first cohort – link below. We will use the list to alert you when the workshop is available.

https://bit.ly/3MdmvQa 

 

Next SPaMCAST 

As we celebrate the impending publication of Managing Work Intake (it is going to the printers very soon) I will continue the discussion of work intake scenarios that bedevil teams and organizations. Controlling work entry is controlling WIP which helps us be our best selves.  

We will also have a visit from Jeremy Berriault bringing his Evolutionary Agilist Column to the cast!