Food for Agile Thought #392: Origin of Ideas and Innovation, What Agile Is Not, UX & Development, Culture of Listening

Welcome to the 392nd edition of the ‘Food for Agile Thought’ newsletter, shared with 46,619 peers. My name is Stefan Wolpers.

This week, we delve into the origin of ideas, sharing the results of seven research studies and revealing the people, incentives, and environments that create innovation. Also, we address misconceptions leaders harbor about agility; we examine the habits of high-performing teams and offer some guidance for adopting these habits on your team, and we share a primer on facilitation, answering a vital question: “What is a facilitator?” (The guide pairs well with this week’s blog post on: Agile Negotiations — Life Is a Negotiation; Why Would Scrum Be Different?)

Then, we share Jason Godesky’s belief that design and development are the two sides of the same medal when he explores a contested area: agility. Moreover, Alex Osterwalder dives into the art of testing and developing hypotheses, from desirability over feasibility to leveraging AI to testing in corporate or B2B environments, and Daniel Stillman points to the crucial role of conversations in product management: types, designing techniques, empathy’s significance, and facilitation’s role.

Finally, we introduce Kim Scott’s Get Stuff Done (GSD) wheel, where she clarifies that you must first establish the groundwork for collaboration through a listening culture for GSD to succeed. Additionally, we address statistics on change fatigue: In 2022, employees faced ten enterprise changes on average, up from two in 2016. However, support for change dropped to 43% due to change fatigue. Lastly, we ponder whether AI is comparable to a management-consulting firm like McKinsey. The parallels between the pervasive use of consulting firms and AI are apparent.

The most popular discussion on LinkedIn this week was: 🧐 Are you planning to hire a new Scrum Master?

PS: 🗞 Did you miss past issues? No worries, here we go: 390, 391.

PPS: 🎓 📅 See all upcoming events and classes here.

PPPS: 📖 Get notified when the Scrum Anti-Patterns Guide will become available.

📅 Join your peers on June 14: Hands-on Agile 51: Fast, NoWaste Agile Estimating w/ Ron Lichty (English).

🏆 Tip of the Week

Mario Gabriele shares the results of seven research studies, revealing the people, incentives, and environments that create innovation: "Where Do Great Ideas Come From?"

🍋 The Lemon of the Week

Lucas F Costa believes that Scrum is useless as Kanban covers everything teams may ever need to solve their customers’ problems: "You don't need Scrum. You just need to do Kanban right."

➿ Agile & Scrum

• Bob Galen reshares Chris Stone’s LinkedIn post on misconceptions leaders harbor about agility: "10 Bitter Pills for Agile Leaders."

• David Burkus examines the habits of high-performing teams and offers some guidance for adopting these habits on your team: "5 Habits Of High-Performing Teams."

• SessionLab created an excellent primer on facilitation, answering questions from “What is a facilitator?” to “What is it that you do?” "What is a facilitator and what do they do?"
  
  

🎓 🖥 💯 🇬🇧 Advanced Professional Scrum Master Online Training w/ PSM II Certificate — May 30-31, 2023

Discover Scrum’s four success principles in this guaranteed official Scrum.org Advanced Scrum Master training class including the industry-recognized PSM II certification. The PSM II training class is designed as a live virtual class and will be offered in English.

Enjoy the benefits of an immersive class of two compact sessions with like-minded agile peers from 09:00 – 17:30 o’clock CEST.

👉 New in 2023: Refresher Classes: Attend a free refresher class as a former student upon arrangement and availability.

Learn more: 🖥 💯 🇬🇧 Advanced Professional Scrum Master Online Training w/ PSM II Certificate — May 30-31, 2023.

Customer voices: “Outstanding PSM II experience: Having looked forward to attending this class, literally for years, it was everything I expected, hoped for and then some. I am so grateful that this was an online virtual class, as it added an additional dimension to the learning, and was incredibly insightful. The trainer did an outstanding job of taking us through the learning plan, facilitating discussions, guiding the outcome and believing in the structures. Whether the learning was tangible curriculum, or intangible observation, it was excellent – made even more solid by the open sharing from my classmates and willingness from everyone to participate.” (Link.)

👉 From time to time, we can offer last-minute seats for training classes at cost to individuals who do not have access to a corporate training budget. If you like to be notified about these opportunities, please register here.

🎯 Product

• Medium: Jason Godesky believes that design and development are the two sides of the same medal, delving into a contested area: agility: "Agility, UX, Building & Dwelling."

• WHU's Most Awesome Founder Podcast: Alex Osterwalder dives into the art of testing and developing hypotheses, from desirability over feasibility to leveraging AI to testing in corporate or B2B environments: "The Art of Hypothesis Testing in Startups."

• 🎙 Mind The Product: In this podcast, Daniel Stillman points to the crucial role of conversations in product management: types, designing techniques, empathy’s significance, and facilitation’s role: "Designing conversations in product."
  
  

🛠 Concepts, Tools & Measuring

• Medium: Kim Scott introduces the Get Stuff Done (GSD) wheel, clarifying that you must first establish the groundwork for collaboration through a listening culture for GSD to succeed: "Creating a Culture of Listening."
  
  

• Daily Stoic: The Daily Stoic reflects on persevering well, from accepting your fate to realizing it’s not the end of the world to stopping torturing yourself: "Perseverance: 7 Stoic Lessons on How To Keep Going."

🎶 Encore

• 📈 Harvard Business Review: Cian O Morain and Peter Aykens analyze an interesting statistic: In 2022, employees faced ten enterprise changes on average, up from two in 2016. However, support for change dropped to 43% due to change fatigue. Consequently, leaders must prioritize initiatives, manage fatigue, and build resilience for sustainable change: "Employees Are Losing Patience with Change Initiatives."

• The New Yorker: Ted Chiang ponders whether AI is comparable to a management-consulting firm like McKinsey. The parallels between the pervasive use of consulting firms and AI are apparent: "Will A.I. Become the New McKinsey?"

📯 Agile Negotiations

Life is a negotiation; why would Scrum be different, particularly given its egalitarian nature?

As you may recall, no one on a Scrum team can tell anyone else what to do, how to do it, or when to do it. Instead, solving your customers’ problems in a complex environment requires communication skills, empathy, patience, diplomacy, and professionalism. So let’s have a look at some typical agile negotiation scenarios.

👉 Learn more: Agile Negotiations.

📅 Training Classes, Meetups & Events

Upcoming classes and events:

• 🖥 💯 🇬🇧 May 16 — Live Virtual Class: Professional Scrum Facilitation Skills Class (PSFS; English)
• 🖥 💯 🇩🇪 May 23-24 — Live Virtual Class: Advanced Professional Scrum Product Owner Training (PSPO II; German)
• 🖥 💯 🇬🇧 May 30-31 — Live Virtual Class: Professional Scrum Master Training (PSM II; English)
• 🖥 💯 🇩🇪 June 13-16 — Live Virtual Class: Professional Scrum Product Owner Training (PSPO I; German)
• 🖥 💯 🇬🇧 June 14 — Live Virtual Meetup: Hands-on Agile 51: Fast, NoWaste Agile Estimating w/ Ron Lichty (English)
• 🖥 💯 🇩🇪 June 21-22 — Live Virtual Class: Professional Scrum Master Training (PSM I; German)
• 🖥 🇩🇪 June 27-30 — Live Virtual Class: Advanced Professional Scrum Master Training (PSM II; German)

See all upcoming classes here.

📺 Youtube Channel

• Petra Wille: The Product Community of Practice — Hands-on Agile 50.

Your Opinion Matters

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Best,