TL; DR: Organizational Silos, Staying Calm—Food for Agile Thought #233
Welcome to the 233rd edition of the Food for Agile Thought newsletter, shared with 25,738 peers. This week, we delve into mental models that support decision making in heated situations; we examine how organizational silos emerge and how to take a shot at them, and we embrace a comprehensive analysis of the ‘right’ size of a Scrum team.
We then applaud an epic book-club facilitation guide covering Melissa Perri’s ‘Escaping The Build Trap’ book; we get a better understanding of how we can turn WFH time into quality time from a product management perspective, and we tackle six common product leadership challenges.
Lastly, we take another step towards organizational agility by understanding the importance of multi-functional learning for your team members.
Did you miss last week’s Food for Agile Thought’s issue #232?
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🏆 The Tip of the Week
(via Farnam Street): Using Models to Stay Calm in Charged Situations
Shane Parrish shares various mental models to support us in making the right decisions in controversial situations.
Agile, Organizational Silos & Scrum
: How Organizational Silos Form
Len Lagestee gets to the bottom of what organizational silos are, how they form, and how to remove them.
(via Scrum.org): Multi-Functional Learning is the Heart of Agility
Ilia Pavlichenko points at why the development of multi-functional specialists within your teams is the route to organizational agility.
: What is the Recommended Scrum Team Size?
Mark Levison explores the research and shares his personal experiences about a practical Scrum team size.
📅 Remote Agile: Live Virtual Class on March 26, 2020: Tips, Tricks & Tools for Scrum Masters & Agile Coaches
Agile has always been about colocation, about direct communication, physical boards, and all the other haptic and analog moments to create value in the digital realm. For the first time, though, with the SARS-CoV-2 causing havoc in our communities resulting in the work-from-home trend, this mental model is challenged, and remote Agile becomes a contender. To ease the entry into this new world, the webinar “Remote Agile” addresses tips, tricks, and tools for Scrum Masters, Agile Coaches, and Product Owners on how to facilitate agile events effectively.
This live virtual class will be in English, and you can book your seat right here:
Looking for a different date? Back to the training schedule for the Advanced Scrum Master Training (PSM II).
Learn more: 📅 Remote Agile: Tips, Tricks & Tools for Scrum Masters & Agile Coaches — Webinar, March 19, 2020, 4-6 pm CET.
Product & Lean
: Working From Home
Marty Cagan shares ten suggestions on how to use #WFH to find quality time for the most essential yet most time-consuming aspects of a product manager’s job.
: Escaping The Build Trap - Book Club Facilitation Guide
This is another epic contribution from Viktor Cessan—a complete guide to Melissa Perri’s ‘Escaping The Build Trap’ book.
: How to Overcome 6 Key Product Leadership Challenges
Roman Pichler advises on how product managers and Product Owners can address and overcome six leadership challenges from lacking transactional power to guiding self-organizing teams.
📯 Development Team Anti-Patterns
After covering the Scrum Master and the Product Owner, this article addresses Development Team anti-patterns, covering all Scrum Events as well as the Product Backlog artifact. Learn more about what to look out for if you want to support your fellow teammates.
Read more: Development Team Anti-Patterns.
📅 Scrum Training & Event Schedule
You can secure your seat for Scrum training classes, workshops, and meetups directly by following the corresponding link in the table below:
See all upcoming classes here.
You can book your seat for the training directly by following the corresponding links to the ticket shop. If the procurement process of your organization requires a different purchasing process, please contact Berlin Product People GmbH directly.
📺 Join 1,975-plus Agile Peers on Youtube
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✋ Do Not Miss Out and Learn about Organizational Silos: Join the 7,000-plus Strong ‘Hands-on Agile’ Slack Community
I invite you to join the “Hands-on Agile” Slack Community and enjoy the benefits of a fast-growing, vibrant community of agile practitioners from around the world.
If you like to join all you have to do now is provide your credentials via this Google form, and I will sign you up. By the way, it’s free.