Last Tuesday, I had a blast at Boston SPIN. I led a roundtable about transitioning to agile, and discovered that not everyone takes the feedback the timebox gives them. In this case, people weren't finishing what they “attempted to commit to” in the timebox, but they extended the timebox. I suggested that was not such a hot idea; that they should take the opportunity to do a little retro and discover why they couldn't finish in the time. Maybe it was an estimation problem, maybe it was something else.
For the main talk of the evening, Andrew Stellman and Jenny Greene spoke about Beautiful Teams. I wrote an article (what do you call it when it's part of a book?) and Andrew and Jenny asked me to explain it during their talk! (If you click on their link, they have a picture of me too. How sweet is that?) Abby graciously allowed me to use her as one of my props. I pretended to be tall and she pretended to be short. Great fun all around.
One of the best things about Beautiful Teams: Inspiring and Cautionary Tales from Veteran Team Leaders
Andrew and Jenny, thanks so much for giving me some microphone time. I had a blast!
Thanks for the pointer to Beautiful Teams. I’m looking forward to reading it now after seeing the slides. (I really love the HeadFirst style – Kathy Sierra’s book series rocks!) That PlayPumps system seems like a really great solution too, worthy of donations.
I heard about your blog from an aussie friend who is part of a team working on The Core Protocols as a volunteer. A big part of the core are protocols to help a team build a shared vision by starting out with full mutual support on individual goals as a foundation for the group goal. I’ve seen that lead to beautiful teams several times.
I’m inspired also by the work of Gervase Bushe in his book Clear Leadership. We clear out the “interpersonal mush” by getting better at making stories about each other and what we’re doing. Dare I say we get skilled at making beautiful stories?
Harold
haha, happy to oblige. We just don’t get to do enough role playing in software development!
And I agree, that was definitely one of the more fun SPIN meetings.
@Harold, I like the beautiful story idea. One of the things I thought was cool about seeing this presentation and then reading their book was that it just makes you think about all the stories you’ve got of teams you worked on. I had some fun blogging this one:
http://www.thehackerchickblog.com/2009/04/beautiful-teams.html
@Abby thanks for the link – I loved your post and the dialog it stimulated. People should definitely go there and share their beautiful stories of beautiful teams.