Successful Distributed Teams with Jim Benson and Mark Kilby

Jim Benson and Mark Kilby join me to discuss their new Successful Distributed Teams offering. This new course focuses on how to build strong remote teams, how to create a humane, healthy balance of productivity and accountability, and what tools you can use to make it all work. During the interview we cover how the idea of remote work has changed over the past few years, what makes it so challenging, and things you can start doing to foster a thriving collaborative remote team. 

You can watch the video version of the interview here: https://tinyurl.com/y5387jma

You can listen to the audio version of the interview here: https://on.soundcloud.com/rpdiR

The Future of AI with Mark Kilby

The Agile Alliance is hosting a MiniCon on the Future of Artificial Intelligence on 12/8/23. As part of the event,  Mark Kilby, co-author of From Chaos to Successfully Distributed Agile Teams,  will be hosting a roundtable discussion with the speakers at the event to explore the ways AI is poised to impact how we work and what it will take to utilize it in an ethical and responsible way.  

I asked Mark to join me to discuss how he is using AI, why he is taking the time to get schooled up on this emerging technology, and where he thinks it is leading as we head into the future. 

You can find the podcast here: https://tinyurl.com/nhhnbte8

Building Trust and Connection In Your Team with Cozy Juicy Real

Looking for a great way to help your distributed/remote team members connect on a deeper level? Cozy Juicy Real may be just what you are looking for. This interview is with Jed and Sophia Lazar, creators of the game Cozy Juicy Real. During the interview, you'll see how the game works as the three of us play a few rounds and discuss why and how it can be such an effective way to build connections.

You can find the video version of the interview here: https://bit.ly/3JJOynW

You can find the audio version of the interview here: https://on.soundcloud.com/KXkdk

(I recommend the video version so you can see us play the game.)

Distributed Teams and the Five Lenses with Mark Kilby

Distributed Teams are always tough - even for seasoned pros. In this episode of the podcast, Mark Kilby joins me to utilize the Five Lenses of Humane Management to explore some of the wins and challenges from working on a distributed team we are both a part of. 

You can find the podcast here: https://bit.ly/3x7xvY8

Remote Forever with Molood Ceccarelli

While most of us have spent the past several months struggling to adjust to the new normal of being 100% remote, Molood Ceccarelli has not. In 2016, Molood realized that even though Agile coaches and thought leaders frequently talk about how important it is for all of us to be co-located, most of her work was remote and she’d been able to figure out how to work with agile teams. This realization inspired her to start Remote Forever and refocus her efforts 100% on helping people get better at working remotely.

In this episode of the podcast, Molood and I discuss some of the key things she has learned in developing her ability to work remotely, how she runs experiments to continue improving at working this way and how she stays inspired with the work she does. We also discuss the upcoming 2020 Remote Forever Summit. The Summit will take place from November 11-17, 2020. The summit is 100% online. Last year they had 10,000 attendees and you can attend this year for free!

Click here to check out my interview with Molood.

You can learn more about the 2020 Remote Forever Summit and register to attend here: https://remoteforeversummit.com/

Johanna Rothman vs. The Pandemic

 Johanna Rothman is one of the most inspiring people I know. Usually she writes a book a year, but with the pandemic and all the chaos that has thrown into the mix, this year she wrote five.

In this interview on ProjectManagement.com, Johanna and I discuss her new books and catch up on a wide range of topics including staying productive and inspired, leading and empowering people, how being distributed has changed under Covid-19, not losing your *** during the pandemic, and what it might mean for the working world if decide we don't actually need all those office buildings anymore.

You can find the interview and links to all her new books here.

Product Ownership and Online Education with Braden Cundiff

Braden Cundiff  works in the International Division of McGraw-Hill Education serving in a Product Ownership role for international education products. His work involves creating tools and products that are used in collaborative, educational environments all across the globe. He also has a background that includes teaching, agile coaching, and transformation. This allows him to offer a unique perspective on how to create an effective online environment for your teams. 

We also spend time at the start of the interview discussing something which is asked about in every Certified Scrum Product Owner class  I teach:  how to say "No".

You can find the podcast here.

Remote Faciitation Best Practices and Anitpatterns with Mark Kilby

The impact of Covid-19 and the Corona Virus on how we interact with co-workers and teams is unlike anything we've seen before. Yes, you might have had some remote team members or been part of a distributed team, but we've never had a global situation where everyone had to work from home.

And it has made the easy things difficult and some of the difficult things easy.

Mark Kilby, is the co-author of the book From Chaos to Successfully Distributed Agile Teams, which he pair wrote with Johanna Rothman. In this episode of the podcast, Mark and talk about some of the things we've been learning about how to successfully engage in this new way and also, some of the things we've done, and seen others do, that bring on the sound of the sad trombone.

You can find the interview here.

Patrice Embry - Finessing Retrospective - 2018 Digital PM Summit

Patrice Embry gave a lightning talk called “Finessing a Retrospective to Get Results” at the 2018 Digital PM Summit. After her talk Patrice and I had a chance to sit down and talk through some of the ideas she shared that you can use to hep you get more value out of the moments where you and your team stop to inspect and adapt how things are working on your project. The tips Patrice shares in the interview (and in her talk) will work for you whether you are holding a more traditional review (like a Post-Mortem or a Project Review), or if you are working with Agile and holding a Retrospective Meeting. (Including how to hold these meetings if you are working remotely.)

If you’d like to get in touch with Patrice with follow up questions, here is how you can reach her via her website: http://www.patrice-embry.com.

Communication Tips for Distributed Teams - from Agile 2018 w/ Johanna Rothman and Mark Kilby

In this podcast interview, which was recorded live at Agile 2018, Johanna Rothman and Mark Kilby offer some tips on how to improve communication in distributed teams.

Many of the tips were discovered while writing their new book "From Chaos to Successful Distributed Agile Teams" which they've co-written AS A DISTRIBUTED TEAM.



If you'd like to pick up the book you can find on LeanPub using the link below
https://leanpub.com/geographicallydistributedagileteams

If you'd like to get in touch with Johanna:

• jrothman.com/
• https://twitter.com/johannarothman

If you'd like to get in touch with Mark:

• markkilby.com
• https://twitter.com/mkilby

LeadingAgile Podcast - Working with Distributed Teams with Jann Thomas and Adam Asch

Whether you are separated by one floor in the same building or thousands of miles, working with distributed teams is never an easy. But for most of us, it’s the reality of how we work now. In this podcast, LeadingAgile’s Jann Thomas and Adam Asch share tips for how to get better results from your distributed teams and remote team members.


Show Notes

08:00 Introductions
01:21 Topic Intro
02:22 What are the common issue you see with Distributed Teams
02:37 Making people aware of your schedule the you are remote
05:51 Understanding your own best way of working and dealing with it when it is not in sync with your team
08:11 Working with people in different time zones
10:06 The time zone problem
11:14 - Sending team members to a physical location to build rapport and knowledge transfer
12:17 Helping remote team members see themselves as part of a team instead of adversaries
13:25 Cultural Training
14:05 When you’re in the same building but on different floors
15:08 Meeting up in the middle
16:22 The importance of meeting up for the Daily Standup
17:28 They’re home, but are they actually “working”?
18:20 Working for a virtual company
19:13 Making intentional choices to stay connected to your team
20:00 Suggestions for the team members who don’t want to participate
22:21 Better technology for better communication
23:22 The SM  and PO working together to create a communicative, collaborative culture
25:10 Getting in touch with Jann and Adam for more tips

If you’d like to reach out to Jann or Adam with follow up questions here is how to contact them:

Jann Thomas
Email: jann@leadingagile.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/agile_jann

Adam Asch
Email: adam@leadingagile.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/adamasch

Podcast Interview with Brent Beer from GitHub on Making Distributed Teams Work

Click here for the interview

Just before Christmas I got the chance to interview BrentBeer from GitHub. Brent and I met while we were both at Øredev last November presenting during the conference.

If you aren’t already familiar GitHub, the interview provides a quick overview of it’s capabilities and what it does. If you are a PM and you use Github, Brent is currently working on reaching out to the PM community learn more about of how project managers can leverage source control applications to make their jobs easier.

During the conversations we had in Malmo, one of the most interesting things Brent and I discussed was how GitHub works from a distributed employee standpoint. They are based in San Francisco, but 70% of the staff work remotely. If you are struggling to cope with the challenges of distributed teams, check out the interview to hear some of the ways that GitHub has managed to establish itself as an organization that was able to function in a distributed way.  Brent shares a lot of the critical things that GitHub does to make sure the relationships and interactions are deeply established despite the virtual nature of the organization.

One of the exploding lightbulb moments for me during the interview was at 9:40 in when Brent says that during the previous day he had been “trying not to work”. This struck me because I often struggle with the same thing when I am home, and I wonder if this will be a new challenge distributed organizations have to learn to cope with. When you have a group of highly motivated, energized people who work for your company, and they enjoy what they do so much that the hard part is getting them to stop and take a break, how does that impact sustainable pace? In the same way that teams are sometimes forced to work all night and all weekend, I’m wondering if we may reach a point where we have to stop teams from working all night and all weekend.

Here is Brent's Twitter

Brent's Github Page

Free Training on GitHub

Brent's Øredev Presentations

GitHub's You Tube Channel