TL; DR: Dysfunction Mapping — Food for Agile Thought #405
Welcome to the 405th edition of the Food for Agile Thought newsletter, shared with 48,416 peers. This week, we delve into Maarten Dalmijn’s introduction of “Dysfunction Mapping” to address organizational complexities, explore the principles behind Jeff Bezos’ success as dissected by Jason Evanish, and learn about the emotional roots of resistance to change with insights from David Burkus. Additionally, Miss_HayaX reflects on the prevalent use of Scrum in technical projects and explores when teams might consider alternatives.
Then, we discover Peter Yang’s valuable insights on acing behavioral interviews for PM candidates, explore what Deb Liu learns from the 1960s Milgram experiment about requests, and dive into Lenny Rachitsky’s comprehensive playbook for kickstarting and scaling B2B businesses.
Finally, we explore Tim Metz’s advocacy for essential “team health checks,” delve into Christoph Roser’s insights into the “soft power” of the Toyota Production System, unravel Kim Scott’s reflections on the misconceptions surrounding Radical Candor, and find out about a precarious alternative approach to Product Backlog refinement.
🏅 The most popular discussion on LinkedIn this week was: What is the worst #Retrospective #antipattern you have encountered?
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🏆 The Tip of the Week: Dysfunction Mapping
: A Gentle Introduction to Dysfunction Mapping
Maarten Dalmijn emphasizes that all organizations face problems, and the real challenge is viewing these problems from a system’s perspective, introducing the concept of “Dysfunction Mapping” to address organizational complexities.
🍋 Lemon of the Week
(via Leading Agile): How to Create a Definition of Ready
The protagonists promote a dangerous alternative to deal with a non-issue if a team values and practices proper Product Backlog refinement.
➿ Agile & Scrum
(via Get Lighthouse): Jeff Bezos’ Leadership Style: 5 Powerful Principles to Apply
Jason Evanish explores Jeff Bezos’ leadership style, highlighting the five principles that helped him build one of the world’s most valuable companies.
: How To Overcome Resistance To Change
David Burkus explores the emotional reasons behind employee resistance to organizational change rather than the change itself, suggesting the need to address underlying emotions.
(via Reddit): At what point does a team reach the ‘tipping point’ where following Scrum becomes a burden rather than an asset?
Miss_HayaX highlights the prevalence of Scrum in technical project development, reflecting on various experiences and asking when a team should consider alternatives to Scrum.
🎓 🖥 🇬🇧 Advanced Professional Scrum Master Online Training w/ PSM II Certificate — August 29-30, 2023
Discover Scrum’s four success principles in this 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 a compact 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 — August 29-30, 2023.
👉 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
: 10 Advanced Tips to Ace Your PM Behavioral Interviews
Peter Yang shares insights from interviewing hundreds of PM candidates, revealing that behavioral interviews often determine the outcome, sharing ten advanced tips to excel and avoid common mistakes.
: How the most successful B2B startups came up with their original idea
Lenny Rachitsky announces an in-depth playbook for starting and scaling a B2B business based on interviews with successful B2B companies.
: The Dark Side of Influence: Understanding the Power of Requests
Deb Liu reflects on what the 1960s Milgram experiment can teach us about asking and being asked.
📯 Minimum Viable Library (1) — Scrum Master Edition
The Minimum Viable Library is available! Explore a series of carefully curated collections of essential books, newsletters, podcasts, and tools to elevate your agile expertise.
Read on and learn how the recommendations for Scrum Masters cover a wide range of topics, including Scrum, servant leadership, customer value creation, coaching teams, improving team dynamics through Retrospectives, and navigating agile enterprise transformations.
Learn more: Minimum Viable Library (1) — Scrum Master Edition.
🛠 Concepts, Tools & Measuring
(via Parabol Focus): 9 Team Health Check Methods To Unlock Team Potential
Tim Metz emphasizes the importance of “team health checks” in the workplace, likening them to a doctor’s visit for warning signs like burnout or productivity dips.
: The Soft Power of the Toyota Production System—Yokoten, Nemawashi, and More
Christoph Roser delves into the “soft power” of the Toyota Production System, contrasting it with the “hard power” prevalent in Western companies.
(via Medium): Brutal Honesty and Radical Candor: 6 Ways You’re Getting Radical Candor Wrong and 6 Ways to Get It Right
Kim Scott reflects on the misunderstandings surrounding Radical Candor, a concept often mislabeled as brutal honesty or a license to be rude.
🎶 Encore
There are no entries to this category this week.
📅 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 5,000-plus Agile Peers on Youtube
Now available on the Age-of-Product Youtube channel to improve learning, for example, about social status:
- Hands-on Agile EXTRA: How Elon Musk Would Run YOUR Business with Joe Justice.
- 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 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 Dysfunction Mapping — 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 dysfunction mapping by pointing them to the free Scrum Anti-Patterns Guide: