Using Improv to Improve Your Listening Skills w Jessie Shternshus

Jessie Shternshus, Founder and CEO of The Improv Effect, was kind enough to share some of her time and talk about how Improv techniques can be used to improve your skills as a listener and deepen you ability to read a room when you are teaching or presenting.

Talking to Jessie is always a lot of fun and very educational, but in the latter part of this interview, she completely schooled (in a kind, supportive and patient way) on how one of my "habits" when teaching is maybe not helpful in the way I intended and it is something I definitely intend to change.

You can find the interview here

Melissa Watts - Tips for ScrumMasters

Over the past two years, Melissa Watts, who is a Technical Project Manager at Major League Baseball, has been making her bones as a ScrumMaster. She and her team work  in a very complex environment, tightly coupled with external and legacy systems, supporting a wide range of platforms, in which downtime is not really an option.

In this episode of the Reluctant Agilist, Melissa shares some of her experiences over the past two years, offers advice for those dealing with similar challenges and explains why cat meme's are so very critical to her survival.

Chris Bailey - Hyperfocus and Optimizing Your Productive Time

If you ever wonder whether the various productivity hacks you read about on the interweb work or not, Chris Bailey is someone to pay attention to - he's basically a productivity hack stuntman. Chris gave the opening keynote this summer at Agile 2019. We weren't able to connect for an interview at the conference, but he was kind enough to make time for one afterwards. Chris has been running experiments, testing out the different productivity techniques for several years. You can read all about them on his website https://alifeofproductivity.com/ and in his book The Productivity Project. His more recent book, Hyperfocus, explores how to optimize your attentional space so you can get the most our of each hour of the day.

My interview with Chris is up on The Reluctant Agilist. It includes tips on how to optimize your time each day, why it is so critical to plan for time to let your mind wander, tips on meditation and some advice on what to do when your attempts at being more productive falter.

Scott Ambler on PMI's Acquisition of Disciplined Agile

In August of 2019, The Project Management Institute announced that it had acquired Disciplined Agile as part of its ongoing effort to find ways to introduce Agile tools and methods to the members of the Project Management Institute.

In this interview on ProjectManagement.com, Disciplined Agile co-founder, Scott Ambler, shares his thoughts on what this acquisition means for DA, PMI and the Agile community in general.

Making the Case for the Role of Agile Project Manager

For a long time now I have held strongly to the opinion that there is no such thing as an Agile Project Manager. There are Project Managers and there are ScrumMasters but the value systems they serve are different and at odds.  I am comfortable playing either role, but I cannot do them both at once. (That is based on personal experience as well as observation.)

Mike Anderson gave a presentation at a PMI event in New York where he made the case for the role of Agile Project Manager as a next evolutionary step. Mike makes a compelling argument and he completely changed my opinion on the topic. I think this is an important conversation that I hope will continue to grow.

You can check out the interview here. (And after you listen, please post comments - I'd love to hear people's thoughts on this topic.)

The Scrum Fieldbook w/ JJ Sutherland

Scrum Inc, CEO, JJ Sutherland’s new book The Scrum Fieldbook: A Master Class on Accelerating Performance, Getting Results and Defining the Future offers a compelling collection of stories breaking down what makes Scrum (and other forms of Agile) succeed or struggle in organizations. The book will be released on October 1.  It offers a wide range of case studies exploring different aspects of what is needed to make Agile work for an organization.

Podcast Interview

Click here to check out my podcast interview with JJ on his book, the Renaissance Enterprise and some tips on steps you can take to help Scrum and Agile succeed in your company.

The Scrum Fieldbook

• Amazon - https://amzn.to/2lILCRE
• Google http://bit.ly/2nfHcST
• Barnes and Noble http://bit.ly/2msNuyn 
• Apple Books https://apple.co/2ngyXpw

7 Rules for Positive, Productive Change w/ Esther Derby

Esther Derby is one of the most inspiring people I get to interview. She draws on four decades of experience in helping individual, teams and organizations figure our how to introduce positive change that helps create a better environment for people to live and work in.

This summer Esther released her new book 7 Rules for Positive, Productive Change: Micro Shifts, Macro Results. I had the chance to interview Esther about her new book, some of the most important lessons it offers as well as a number of other new projects she is working on.

You can find the interview here.

Motivational Interviewing w/ Zach Stone

Zach Stone is an agile coach with a background that includes organizational change management, conflict transformation, and behavioral science. He leverages these experiences in his work helping organizations, teams, and individuals adopt an agile approach to work. One of the primary techniques in Zach’s toolbox is Motivational Interviewing. In this episode of the podcast, Zach explains what motivational interviewing is, how it works, and why it is such a powerful approach to helping individuals move towards choices that can better help them achieve the outcomes they are looking for.

You can find the interview here:
https://www.projectmanagement.com/blog-post/55853/Motivational-Interviewing-w--Zach-Stone

Agile 2019 Podcasts

Agile 2019 was amazing. I learned more in that one week that I probably will the remainder of the year. The people I got to talk to in the interviews were awesome, but I had just as many incredible conversations during the networking events as well.

You can check out all the interviews I did at Agile 2019 on the LeadingAgile Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/leadingagile

They've also begun posting higher-res versions on YouTube and will be adding a few each week for the next few weeks.

Here is a link to the SoundNotes post with the interviews from Day 1:
https://www.leadingagile.com/podcast/soundnotes-live-at-agile-2019-day-one/

This includes interviews with:

• Troy Magennis
• Rachel Howard
• Matt Smith
• Chris Papadakis and Yaton Bowens
• Natalie Warnert
• Erika Massie
• Johanna Rothman
• Heather Dunning
• Dennis Stevens
• Mike Cottmeyer

Live from Agile 2019!!!!

This week is Agile 2019! It's the biggest, busiest Agile week of the year and I'll be doing live interviews from the LeadingAgile booth, talking with speakers and Agile thought leaders who are attending the show. It's going to be an amazing week!

So if you can't make it to the show, keep an eye on https://www.facebook.com/leadingagile and you'll be able to get a sense for all the amazing things happening at the conference this year.