Paul Flewelling

20 Posts

Five ways I’ve fucked up as a coach

Lets face it, whatever your profession, you don’t always get things right. What’s probably more important than the fuck up itself, is how quickly you learn and recover from it. Here are some of the things that I haven’t got right over the last few years. If you feel like sharing some of yours, please use the comments to do so. 1. Allowing bad behaviour in a team to go on for too long The storming stage of the team can see conflict amongst team members as boundaries are tested. This is all part of a team’s formation process. In most cases the team will gel and they’ll move through it. Unfortunately, sometimes a…

Standards and the definition of done

Without standards there can be no kaizen, Taiichi Ohno. Kaizen is a Japanese word that we can translate as “change for the better”. It’s widely interpreted as meaning “continuous improvement” when referring to process or flow. As Taiichi Ohno (father of the Toyota Production System or TPS) highlights, to improve, you first need to have a baseline standard. From the TPS perspective, standards and the improvement of said standards, relate to two aspects: Process – the work carried out at a particular step on the production line. Flow – the overall flow through the production line from end-to-end. So, if we’re to translate this to cross-functional product teams, our team can determine…

The ScrumMum – an agile adoption anti-pattern

Whichever way you look at it, if you’ve ever heard yourself talking to your team and uttering the words “I’m not your mother”, it’s probably not a good thing. Even if you’re actually a Mum and have the healthy intention of creating independent and highly-functioning people – ready and equiped to face the world on their own two feet – having to tell someone who isn’t your progeny that you’re not their Mother means: 1. There is a clear case of mistaken identity and 2. The aforementioned person(s) clearly aren’t in a place of independence or higher functioning yet. If you’re their ScrumMaster and you’re saying these words, then you may…

Portals and other tools for distributed working.

We’re a team distributed between different cities who collaborate and work closely together. We’re a distributed team, but shy away from using the term “remote workers”, because one thing we definitely aim not to do is act remotely from each other. We are a highly collaborative, cross-functional team who like to maintain fast feedback loops. Here are some of the ways that help maintain a close working relationship. Technologies that help us collaborate Firstly, we work on high spec laptops, this means we’re very mobile. We also operate Activity Based Working in our offices, i.e. we don’t have fixed desks, we do have neighbourhoods, but can work at any desk we…

Do, or do not. There is no try

“Do, or do not. There is no try”, says Master Yoda in a pivotal scene from the movie The Empire Strikes Back. When Luke, his protégée, goes onto complain about his Master’s general insensitivity to how big the task in hand is, Yoda demonstrates it is in fact possible by lifting Luke’s submerged spaceship out of the swamp. Luke’s response is “I can’t believe it”, to which Yoda replies, “that is why you fail”. On the surface what Yoda is saying sounds harsh. I believe he is merely instructing Luke that he already has the necessary skills and discipline. If Luke believed in himself, he’d likely succeed. This doesn’t mean he…

The art of negotiation

I recently attended a talk organised by Agile Welly “Negotiating without shooting yourself in the foot” by negotiation coach, Stuart van Rij As Stuart began to explain how to setup a negotiation to get a good outcome, I became very aware that I go through a similar setup to get a good outcome for the teams and individuals that I coach. In fact, I view the role I perform in most meetings as lying somewhere between facilitator and negotiator. A coach often sits in the middle between two parties, for a software product that’s between those who want something built and those that are building it. If both parties are…

Negative metrics – why you shouldn’t focus on them

What is a negative metric? Well, a metric is something that you measure in order to give you an idea of how something is performing. A negative metric is a performance indicator that tells you if something is going badly, but it doesn’t tell you when that same something is necessarily going well. For example, velocity. If velocity is low, or fluctuating between iterations, this is usually a sign that something isn’t going well. However if velocity is normal there is no guarantee that the team is delivering value. We know that they are working, but that is all we know. If we want to be sure that they are delivering value,…

Why are outcomes not attached?

I’d thought I’d explain why my tagline includes the statement “outcomes not attached”. As a servant leader I’m heavily invested, one might say 100% committed, on getting good outcomes. However, those outcomes aren’t my own, they are those of the team that I serve. In getting the best result for the people that I coach, I can’t be attached to those outcomes, or how they reach them, in any way. Let me explain further. If I have the intention of steering the team in a certain direction, it might not be one that they would take. They won’t identify with, or fully understand the path that I’ve sent them on. As a result they won’t…

Retrospective – Dish the Dirt

I recently started working with a team who have been together for 18 months. A few discussions with the team revealed that there were a few issues that had been raised time and time again in their Sprint Retrospectives that they felt were beyond their control. They had now given up trying to remove these impediments to their progress. I devised this retrospective in an attempt to help the team create different perspectives on these problems to see if this would help them find solutions. What you’ll need: Paper and pens Dots to vote with A microphone or other form of talking stick A recording device Step 1: Setting the stage Explain…

Welcome to The Agile Coach

I’m an Agile Coach in Wellington, New Zealand. I look forward to sharing my thoughts and hearing yours via this blog! Talk soon, Paul