People and Teams
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Lessons Learned from Product Failures Being agile is all about learning from failures and building on experiences. This applies to not just individuals, but even to large organizations. The key is being transparent and objective in accepting and understanding failures, and taking away lessons for future actions and decisions. Just keep innovating. |
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Superior Leaders Ask the Tough Questions Inspiring quotes can be motivating, but there's more to good leadership. New leaders may feel compelled to find clever and memorable things to say, when in reality, they should probably focus less on what they’re saying and more on what they’re hearing. The best leaders ask good questions and listen to the answers. |
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Coaching Senior Management to Be Agile Embracing an agile mindset isn’t always easy, and it can be especially difficult for senior managers who spent most of their careers working in more traditional development methodologies. By trying to speak the same language and demonstrating successful self-organization, teams can help senior management become agile. |
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Your Vacation Time Should Be Your Vacation Time Many people can’t take all the vacation time they’re entitled to. Some take it, but they're so constantly in contact that they might as well be in the office. Taking time off reduces stress, improves focus, and even increases productivity once you're back at work, so even if you can't travel, take your vacation time. |
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Use Self-Evaluation to Stay on the Right Career Track Employer evaluations measure your performance against expected objectives, evaluate you against other employees, and aim to keep you relevant in your company. But it’s also a good idea to perform a self-examination in relationship to your place of employment, to ensure you stay attractive to potential future employers. |
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How to Make the Most of Your Conference Experience You researched the conference you want to attend and gained approval to go—now what? These tips will ensure you make the most of your conference experience, from planning who and what you want to see while you're there, to starting to network ahead of time, to making sure you bring back the most valuable information. |
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Understanding the ScrumMaster's Role in Team Communication Some agile teams believe the ScrumMaster is the sole point of communication between them and the product owner, so the team can abdicate any responsibility to communicate with stakeholders. That couldn't be more wrong. It's actually the ScrumMaster's job to enable communication and coach or guide the team to solutions. |
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Effectively Measuring Agile Leadership Culture drives performance, and agile leaders set a team's culture, so leaders should be measured at how effectively they’re doing just that. The challenge is, what might that look like? Here’s an idea for a four-quadrant measurement approach for leaders' organizational and personal effectiveness in agile contexts. |
