Kicking off 2019 with Mike Cottmeyer

Shiny new episode of LeadingAgile Soundnotes... my interview with Mike Cottmeyer on what he's focused on for 2019 and what to expect in the Agile space.

https://www.leadingagile.com/podcast/kicking-off-2019-with-mike-cottmeyer/

Agile 2016 - Video Interview with Mike Cottmeyer on Enterprise Transformation

When I joined LeadingAgile a little over a year ago, one of the things that tipped the scale for me was the approach that Mike Cottmeyer had come up with for approaching Agile Transformation. Rather than the standard "we take you from the sucky misery you wallow in now to a magical land of agile wonderment", Mike's approach - with the compass and the basecamps, allows the organization to take small steps along the journey, transforming in stages. It also allows you to stop along the way if/when that makes business sense. This might be implied in the approach other organization's take (I'm sure they'll say it is if you ask them), but I was/am a big fan of the way it is articulated by my co-workers at LeadingAgile.

And last week, at Agile 2016, Mike gave a presentation on "An Executive’s Step-by-Step Guide to Leading Large-Scale Agile Transformation" to over 400 people. I had the chance to sit down with Mike and interview him after his session.



If you'd like to see the slides from his session, you can find them here.

And if you'd like to see any of the other video interviews from last week, you can find them here.

Live Video Podcast Interviews from Agile 2016!

I'm doing live podcast interviews from Agile 2016 all week long for LeadingAgile.

The live interviews will be showing up on LeadingAgile's Facebook site here.

And you can watch HD versions on Vimeo here.

Agile Governance at eVestment - a more Agile approach to PMO with Liana Dore

In this episode of SoundNotes, Liana Dore, the Agile Governance Lead for eVestment explains why eVestment chose to establish a group focused on Agile Governance instead of a traditional PMO. Liana explains how Agile Governance works at eVestment, what she does day to day and the positive impact it has had on the Agile teams.


Show Notes:

Intro and background on eVestment 1:48
What is an Agile Governance Lead 3:30
Making the choice to establish Agile Governance instead of a traditional PMO 3:56
What does an Agile Governance Lead do all day 5:02
How Agile Governance works differently than a traditional PMO 7:40
The benefits of training the team all at once 13:30
Understanding Team Health in an Agile organization 16:05
Creating a space for the teams to thrive 18:44
Establishing an entrepreneurial culture that can scale 20:43
Agile Governance is not about control. It has to be light touch 23:32
How to get in touch with Liana 24:35

If you’d like to get in touch with Liana, you can reach her via LinkedIn at
www.linkedin.com/in/lianadore

Getting Ready for Agile 2016 with Devin Hedge

In this iteration of SoundNotes, Devin Hedge and Dave Prior talk about how to get prepare for Agile 2016. If you’ll be heading to the conference for the first time, the Agile Conference is a big, awesome, exhausting week. You need to prepare, you need to pace yourself and you need to know what you want to get out of the conference.

In this podcast you’ll get some tips from seasoned conference veterans on how to make the best of your week in Atlanta.

The podcast is only 18 minutes long, so we’re not providing show notes this week. Instead, here is a list of the LeadingAgile events taking place at Agile 2016.

Mike Cottmeyer "The Executives Step-by-Step Guide to Leading Large-Scale Agile Transformation" Monday at 10:45

Jann Thomas "2020: The State of Agility" Tuesday at 10:45 AM

Jeff Howey "Practicing Agility in Human Resources" Wednesday at 11:30

Collective Soul June 27 at 7 PM.

To learn more, please visit: collectivesoul.leadingagile.com

If you'd like to contact Devin on Twitter -> twitter.com/agiledevin

If you'd like to contact Dave on Twitter -> twitter.com/mrsungo

Personal Accountability Partnerships Part 2: Olga Krayova

“If you compare yourself with your surroundings and you only see that you are the best you gotta leave this place because you want to develop and be better”

A few weeks ago I posted an interview with Katrina Coker on having an accountability partner and how transformative that can be. The post got a great response on the LeadingAgile site and so in this episode of SoundNotes Katrina’s actual accountability partner, Olga Kraynova shares her thoughts on accountability partnerships, how they work, and why they are valuable. In the interview Olga shares how she coped with the challenges she faced in moving to Moscow, becoming a PM and then moving to Dallas and how she makes sure she is always surrounded by people she is motivated by and able to learn from.

If you’d like to get in touch with Olga to learn more about her story and her approach to being an accountability partner, you can reach her via LinkedIn at:
www.linkedin.com/in/kraynova/en

And if you’d like to check out the initial interview with Katrina Coker, you can find that here: Leadingagile – The-power-of-accountability-partnerships
 

Show Notes:

Interview Start 1:47
Olga’s Background in Startups and Project Management 2:25
Why Olga liked working at Startups and how it prepared her for PM work 4:15
How Olga got started with Personal Accountability 5:53
How Olga defines Personal Accountability Partner 7:09
How Olga and Katrina communicate on a daily basis 7:33
How Olga approaches Goal Setting 8:16
Staying motivated 10:03
Experimenting until you get the result you are looking for 11:17
How Olga and Katrina work the Accountability Partnership 11:43
The very essential thing 13:47
Tracking the plans you make for yourself and making daily updates 14:36
Olga’s journey to Moscow, becoming a PM and then moving to Dallas 17:27
Managing stress and coping challenges and not giving up 20:51
Prioritizing your needs and finding the opportunities to get them addressed 22:51
When you can’t see the whole path, taking on one challenge at a time and saying “Yes” 23:04
Having the courage to take just one step and letting the next thing arise 24:37
The benefit of not having the luxury of just shutting down and giving up 26:06
Being driven for the things you have to fix and finding people to help keep you motivated 27:57
“If you compare yourself with your surroundings and you only see that you are the best you gotta leave this place because you want to develop and be better” 28:42
Olga’s explains why you should find an accountability partner 29:17
If you don’t trust you will not be able to be open 31:56
How you can reach Olga if you have any follow up questions 32:02

Agile Transformation and Craftsmanship of the Self

In this SoundNotes interview, LeadingAgile’s Tom Churchwell explains what it’s like to stick with an Agile transformation all the way through, the Agile and Beyond conference, and the fundamental questions that lead to craftsmanship of the self.



Tom Churchwell Notes 

Interview Begins 1:48
Background on Tom 2:14
Tom’s path to Agile 3:23
The long haul of transformation 4:20
I lost my cube, but I got this shirt 5:05
The long haul 6:05
I trust you implicitly from right out of the gate 7:16
Creating a safe space to make it work 8:00
Change is slow 8:30
Agile Beyond 9:55
Reorienting around excellence 10:45
Ae we still pushing the boundaries? 13:35
Creating the Safe Space 14:15
Increased focus on the human side of Agile 16:00
What do you do when excellence fails? 17:45
I don’t believe that there are dark places 18:38
If your team is in the doldrums, it is the fault of leadership 19:24
Enroll and Inspire, nor command and control 19:40
Craftsmanship and art are a part of what high technology people do 21:00
Bob Hoover - an amazing scary story about trust 23:00
We need a safe space where people can make mistakes 24:25
On volunteering and how it can inspire you 26:30
The fundamental questions of the self 32:30
Tom’s mission and craftsmanship of the self 33:18
Volunteering for Agile and Beyond 35:30
Getting in touch with Tom 37:15

Tom can be reached at tchurchwell@twitter.com

IHG Product Ownership Outside of Software

In this LeadingAgile SoundNotes podcast IHG's Rebecca Williamson and LeadingAgile's Russ Pena talk about the role of Product Owner and how it has evolved through IHG's adoption of Agile on a project that has nothing to do with software... they are using it to redesign hotel rooms.

LEADING INDICATORS YOU CAN USE TO ASSESS AGILE PORTFOLIO HEALTH

LeadingAgile's Dr. Dan Greening shares details on three key leading indicators you can track to get a better understanding of your portfolio health.

Click here for the SoundNotes Podcast and Show Notes

Hybrids Environments - Making Agile Work in the Waterfall

Click here to go straight to the podcast

Dhaval, Richard and Dave discuss the challenges that come with trying to use Agile practices in the context of a waterfall environment and offer some tips on how to make it work. We also discuss ways that the waterfall folks can help, not inhibit Agile when working in a hybrid environment.

Agilistocrats Episode 5 How to Convince Your Organization To Want Agile (with Maria Matarelli)

Click here to go straight to the podcast

In this episode of The Agilistocrats! we are joined by our good friend, Maria Matarelli.

Our topic for the podcast was How to Convince Your Organization to Want Agile.

Please to enjoy...