TL; DR: The Origin of Ideas and Innovation — Food for Agile Thought #392
Welcome to the 392nd edition of the Food for Agile Thought newsletter, shared with 46,619 peers. 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?
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🏆 The Tip of the Week: The Origin of Ideas and Innovation
: Where Do Great Ideas Come From?
Mario Gabriele shares the results of seven research studies, revealing the people, incentives, and environments that create innovation.
🍋 The Lemon of the Week
: You don't need Scrum. You just need to do Kanban right.
Lucas F Costa believes that Scrum is useless as Kanban covers everything teams may ever need to solve their customers’ problems.
➿ Agile & Scrum
: 10 Bitter Pills for Agile Leaders
Bob Galen reshares @virtual_agile ’s LinkedIn post on misconceptions leaders harbor about agility.
: 5 Habits Of High-Performing Teams
David Burkus examines the habits of high-performing teams and offers some guidance for adopting these habits on your team.
(via SessionLab): What is a facilitator and what do they do?
SessionLab created an excellent primer on facilitation, answering questions from “What is a facilitator?” to “What is it that you 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 live-virtual immersive class with like-minded agile peers from 09:00 – 17:30 o’clock CEST.
Learn more: 🖥 💯 🇬🇧 Advanced Professional Scrum Master Online Training w/ PSM II Certificate — May 30-31, 2023.
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🎯 Product
(via Medium): Agility, UX, Building & Dwelling
Jason Godesky believes that design and development are the two sides of the same medal, delving into a contested area: agility.
(via WHU's Most Awesome Founder Podcast): The Art of Hypothesis Testing in Startups
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.
(via Mind The Product): Designing conversations in 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.
📯 Agile Negotiations — Life Is a Negotiation; Why Would Scrum Be Different?
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 — Life Is a Negotiation; Why Would Scrum Be Different?
🛠 Concepts, Tools & Measuring
(via Medium): Creating a Culture of Listening
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.
(via Daily Stoic): Perseverance: 7 Stoic Lessons on How To Keep Going
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.
Marcus Aurelius: “To be like the rock that the waves keep crashing over. It stands unmoved and the raging of the sea falls still around it.”
🎶 Encore
(via Harvard Business Review): 📈 Employees Are Losing Patience with Change Initiatives
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.
(via The New Yorker): Will A.I. Become the New McKinsey?
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.
📅 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.
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📺 Join 5,000-plus Agile Peers on Youtube
Now available on the Age-of-Product Youtube channel to improve learning, for example, about your second brain:
- Hands-on Agile 50: The Product Community of Practice with Petra Wille.
- Hands-on Agile 46: The Agile Fluency Model ® with Diana Larsen.
- Hands-on Agile 44: Honey, I Shrunk the Backlog with Allan Kelly.
- Hands-on Agile 43: Outcome-Based Product Planning with Jeff Gothelf.
- Hands-on Agile 42: Lean Roadmapping and OKRs with Janna Bastow.
- Hands-on Agile 38: The Product Owner with Roman Pichler.
✋ Do Not Miss Out and Learn more about the Origin of Ideas and Innovation — Join the 12,000-plus Strong ‘Hands-on Agile’ Slack Community
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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.
Help your team to explore the origin of ideas and innovation by pointing them to the free Scrum Anti-Patterns Guide: