Projects fail to gain momentum because the leaders in the journey covered the distance travelling backwards. Consider you are driving a car, constantly looking into the rear-view mirror. How do you think your journey would be? How safe would you be? How fast would you be going? Would you be moving towards your destination at all?
Leadership is all about moving forward. Living into the future. A future that does not really exist and so that needs to be created. To understand how to create this future, we need to understand the context a leader must know about the impact of his/her Past, Present and Future.
The Past
The past is where it should belong, the past. However, leaders carry their past not only into the present but also into the future. Fear of failing is a typical example most leaders experience. Let’s talk about Hari. Hari failed repeatedly in his studies while at school. It happened in the past, yet he lives the failures each day. Worse, he refuses to take up new assignments or risks for the future, because of the failure he faced in his studies, in his past.
The Present
The Present is just what it literally means. A ‘Present’ given by life to each of us moment by moment. A moment to create, perform and live. But, guess what, leaders ignore the opportunity and replace the present with events of the past or expectations of the future. Hari fails to see his present as an opportunity to shed the discomforting events of his past. Rather, he prefers to allow uncomfortable thoughts of an uncertain future to replace his present. Hari, as a leader, has no present. His life, every moment, is either being lived with failures of his past or the uncertainties of his future. This adversely impacts his leadership abilities significantly.
The Future
The future is the most precious of the three. It is up for grabs. A leader has the freedom to do whatever he or she wants from it. It is a blank canvas. But what does Hari do instead? He clutters all possibilities of a future by pushing past events into it. He kills all the possibilities of his future by blocking it with experiences of his past. Hari refuses to adapt himself to a better future because his concept of a future is nothing but the events of his past being revisited.
Leaders such as Hari are unaware of the fact that they are leading moving backwards. He senses he is moving, but he is unaware of the direction. When a leader is walking with his back to the future, he is moving ahead, but not visualising ahead. Leaders who fail to visualise into the future generally display the following outcome behaviours:
They are risk-averse. Since they fail to envision ahead.
The tempo, velocity and direction they resort to are all unpredictable.
They do not have the faculties of forecasting, prediction and response
They fail to overcome obstacles easily and spiral into anxiety to perform
They live in constant fear of failing and do not allow others to fail
Leaders need to look ahead and walk ahead. They need to fix empowering future contexts that are not anchored by past failures. Past failures and challenges are mere beacons. Beacons which should influence a person to take workable actions and not stop him, or her, altogether. Leadership requires a clear understanding of creating powerful future contexts that are not influenced by past failures. It means walking a journey knowing fully well of the chaos, challenges and pitfalls that lay ahead, and yet being unfettered and resolute in purpose and intention.
An effective leader thrives in an environment:
Where leaders are adaptive to create a future from their present and not from the past
Where leaders place the events of their past to where it rightfully belongs; the past
Where leaders do not allow failures to impact the present or the future
Where leaders understand, that in reality, the past does not exist nor does the future.
Where leaders comprehend that it’s up to them to either enforce the present with the pain of the past or gains of a future
Leadership is all about setting a powerful context, a vision and driving oneself towards a definitive purpose using the future as an agenda. It is about operating from the present to create a future of own choosing. Most importantly, it is creating an eco-system where other human beings too are empowered operating from a present that is driven by a powerful future than an arduous past.
Transformations are led by Leaders with teams that are forward-looking and pacing with a clear understanding of the impact of the Past, Present and Future. It is about driving the car looking ahead and using the rear-view mirror intermittently to maintain safety and direction.
Training is a vital aspect of professional growth. It is an opportunity to enhance existing skills and knowledge. Training, however, has an inherent limitation. It does not improve competency. Competency is derived from persistent application. Therefore, training without application is an incomplete journey. Professional growth involves sustained improvement in skills, knowledge, and competency.
Most ‘ self-made’ leaders attribute their leadership competence from sheer experience. They have mastered the art of learning from failure and being in constant action. Such leaders derive their skills from what they have been practising, and so, find themselves limited when it comes to breaking into new domains of doing business. It is here that training finds its relevance. Agile leaders especially need to train themselves periodically due to the following merits borne from the environment they work in:
Agile training courses fill the necessary ‘skill gap’ that a leader would like to upgrade upon
Agile training courses are designed to create awareness on the best practices prevalent in the market
Agile training courses facilitate peer to peer interactions
Agile training courses serve as opportunities for deep self-introspection and recalibration of personal and professional milestones
Agile training courses are an excellent medium to invest in networking with like-minded professionals
Agile training courses create possibilities to explore new horizons and discoveries which hitherto were in proverbial blind spots
Agile training courses offer post-training contact programs that allow the application of knowledge into domain-specific performance in action
Agile leaders operate in complex and highly volatile environments. Due to the prevailing importance of human centricity, ‘mindset influence’ is a key factor in which leaders need to constantly hone their skills on. Developing a growth mindset is a function of knowledge, skill, and competency that can be initiated from an Agile training course. The learning objectives of such Agile training courses are so designed that they encourage developing a growth mindset. The links to the learning objectives of the Agile Coaching Track of IC Agile are given below. Feel free to explore and gauge as to how the Agile training courses on Agile Coaching and Agile Facilitation enable impactful training and sustainable training.
ICP-ACC
The course focuses primarily on the mindsets, roles, coaching skills and responsibilities of an Agile Coach, and after successful completion of the course, you will be ICP-ACC certified. You will be able to differentiate between mentoring, facilitating, consulting, teaching and coaching.
Contact us to at [email protected] to know more on our ICP ACC Coachings scheduled in your city
ICP-ATF
The ICAgile Agile Team Facilitation (ICP-ATF) certification focuses primarily on the mindset and role of an agile team facilitator, while also providing group facilitation tools and techniques for effectively designing meetings and workshops that both engage the entire audience and drive towards agreed-upon outcomes.
Contact us at [email protected] to know more on our ICP ATF Coachings scheduled in your city.
The Value of an Agile Training Course
Agile training courses are rich in experiential knowledge. They are not knowledge-centric sessions. A typical Agile training course would have the following design elements factored into it:
Agile training courses are based on the concept of learning, unlearning and relearning
Agile training courses are not theoretical and academic
Agile training courses are more practical in approach and focus more on improving the competence and value addition of participants
Agile training courses are iterative and designed to undergo a review process to incorporate the most relevant skill/knowledge into the sessions
Agile training courses are conducted by highly competent, skilled and experienced trainers who have been through a thorough accreditation process by a central governing body
Agile training courses award certifications from world-renowned and industry-approved accreditation agencies
Agile training courses offered by leading training providers (such as Leadership-Tribe) are so designed that they devote equal time for skill gap realization, brain science-based knowledge and practical exposure to fundamental and key concepts of coaching and facilitation
As mentioned earlier, Agile training courses cover all three domains of sound professional up-gradation i.e., skill, knowledge, and competency. Training institutions such as Leadership Tribe support the development of all three in its contact programs. Agile training courses mustn’t serve as mere certification windows. Such an intent would be grossly unethical and distanced from the core philosophy of Agile principles. Hence, Agile training courses must be of value to its participants. They should expand the competencies of both the trainer and trainee. It is, therefore, absolutely worth periodically investing in an Agile training course, especially so if you are an Agile practitioner. In the next article, we shall examine if it is worth investing time and money in an Agile Certification.
Earlier in my career, I used to hear that the most abused role is a “Scrum Master” and now it is applied to the word “Coach”. How often are Sports Coaches or Agile Coach roles understood well by the team members and sometimes even the coach themselves?
I had a chance to read an excellent book “The Bare Foot Coach” by Paddy Upton on Coaching. I have tried to summarize it over here from the Agile and Coaching perspective.
The book starts by saying – to understand the difference between Facilitating, Coaching, Mentoring and a brief on how coaches could be great servant leaders.
The Indian Cricket team never went to great heights with their previous coach before 2008 as it was more instruction based and probably there were no coaching conversations at all.
Bring in specialization in the team rather than one Coach who plays all the roles of Batting, Bowling, Fielding, Fitness, Mental fitness coaches. Most importantly it’s great to work from BCCI who were convinced of the need of a Mental fitness coach and not just Batting, Bowling Coaches.
What can we learn from this book Bare Foot Coach which can be applied for Agile teams and as an Agile Coach?
Accept Fear and Failure
Failure is temporary
Look at what you can control and what is beyond your control
What actions you took to overcome the failure matter and that should speak not the winning or losing
Embrace the fear, make it your friend
When to Coach and When not to
Coaching Vs Instructing
Get great achievers from other Industry, hear out their stories and leave it to the team to learn lessons they want
As coaches sometimes it is too difficult to draw a line between instructing as by our experience, we might know what to do but allow the team to decide what they need to do as a group.
As an Agile Coach/Agile Values – Take away
Team building sessions
Respect
Allow people to speak at all the levels
Junior most person like Sanju Samson and Senior-most person Praveen Thambe (lesser-known before IPL) both had equal rights to speak and share their knowledge with the team
Did Dravid know well about a cricketer who played for, under 13, 15 or Sanju Samson know better about him as he played or watched the player more than anyone else in the team?
Discipline
As a coach asking powerful questions to Dhoni who decided what should be fine if even one team member come late to the sessions
Team Culture
Win or lose – Music runs in the dressing room
Celebrate the best moments even when the team had lost the match
Sachin’s example of how the state team members had a conversation and how it helped Sachin to be more humble right from the beginning of the career. Even today Sachin or any other great players are remembered how they behave outside the playing field
Build Self Organizing Teams
Team member decides how much hours and what he would be practicing in a day rather than instruction based on a coach. The schedules can be on their own rather than decided by the Coach
Do you know your body well or the Coach? Lovely example on how Harbhajan Singh learned other exercise routine suits him more than running
It is not always winning but how well we played the game
Focus
Plan for readiness 10 months before the world cup. As a team are we ready to win the cup and what actions can be taken on the same
Focus on strength, making it perfect than draining your energy over your weakness
Specific coaching for Virendra Shewag to leave the bouncers which ideally, he would have hooked it for a Six!
Commitment
How each team member committed to giving their best and will be supportive of each other
Everybody gets their time
Dhoni exhibited this in the finals of the World Cup who didn’t have many runs scored in that season till the day came where it mattered the most
Who can forget the famous Helicopter shot to win the Cricket world cup 2011
Courage
Sanju Samson’s courage to attack Dale Steyn by playing a few feet before the crease. It shows the character that he was ready for the big games
Transparency
Create transparency in the team where this was well exhibited during team meetings on why a player is dropped and what is considered for that match. These were discussed right in front of the player than behind them
The lockdown has been a profound realisation of what a VUCA world really is. Teams working on projects have been abruptly disconnected and are now working from home to meet project deadlines. The tempo of doing business and market orientation is now in flux and there exists a level playing field for all. Unexpected events cause unexpected outcomes, and with the corona lockdown, there is a possibility of unprecedented discomfort that shall slowly seep into the minds of people. Teams that have been truly Agile would have adapted to the change and may have figured out ways to overcome challenges. However, it is important to examine the likely dysfunctions that could inflict distributed teams and find ways to prevent undesirable patterns of behaviour emerge.
Having operated in intense VUCA environments with distributed teams spread over a large geographical area during my stint in the Indian Army, I wish to share key issues that need to be addressed to ensure Agile teams remain resilient and productive irrespective of the uncertainties created by the lockdown.
What are your Team members experiencing?
Fear of losing the job?
Fear of the unknown?
Work from home constraints?
Financial stress?
Domestic pressures?
Health-related issues?
What should be done?
The Team leaders need to empathise with the members and figure out ways to channelize the prevailing mindset with two outcomes in mind:
That dysfunctional behaviour does not infect the team during the lockdown period.
That teams are psychologically attuned to resume normal operations once the lockdown period is lifted.
What Can Leaders Do?
Leaders now need to emerge as islands of support, care and courage. Some of the steps that they should be taking on are:
Connect with each member online every day and engage in conversations that are empowering and provide succour
Build trust with each individual by allowing free expression and sharing the pain
Avoid being sympathetic and pitiful
Operate from a mindset of Hope of Success than Fear of Failure
Prevent psychological and physical inertia amongst members
Demonstrate resilience and courage
Establish a sense of purpose and value-based actions
Alter the perceptions of Uncertainty and Fear
Create virtual structures to ensure the Agile Values and Principles are present when teams are working remotely
The above call for emergent leadership, flexibility in thinking and a deep sense of people connect. How do we go about applying the issues above into desirable actions than mere insights? What does it take to be there for your teams despite the pain? Why should Agile teams relook at the Agile Values and Principles in the backdrop of the pandemic? How can Agile teams build reliance and courage to operate in a zone of productivity and purpose while preserving the safety and interests of their loved one?
Would you like to seek possible answers to the questions above? Do you see value in ensuring your teams are safeguarded from dysfunctionality?
A forest once experienced a flood. The swollen river had breached its banks and water inundated the forest floor. It was not a good time for the animals, more specifically those that lived off the land. Fortunately, in the middle of the forest was a rocky outcrop, an elevated table that rose from the ground. It was here that all the animals were safe.
The situation was precarious. Hunter and hunted were now together. Resources were limited. The time now hinged on when the water level receded in the river. It looked like it would take a couple of months. Then something strange happened. The animals started to exist in harmony. They did not pounce on one another, they did not push the other away to make space, instead, they started to look for innovative ways of nourishment. Living with what was present for them, by existing and innovating within given conditions. That was now the new normal!
Agile Teams we have worked with during the lockdown, are akin to these animals. They have adapted and persevered. The Scrum values of Commitment, Focus, Openness, Respect, and Courage took a new meaning for all of us. Suddenly, they were just not words, they became the new normal of working in these disruptive times! They literally became the rallying points on which we built a whole new way of working. Disruptive times only means that existing patterns have been altered. It does not mean opportunities no longer exist. The same opportunities exist, just that one needs to create new patterns and achieve them in altered conditions.
So what is that we at Leadership Tribe do, to create new ways of working, such that we never lost the essence of working as Agile Teams in spite of the challenges that we faced?
We innovated five new patterns or new ways of working.
Increasing Number of Rituals:
Teams were now abruptly distributed. We had to work remotely. That meant spending more time working online. Instead of engaging in unscheduled and open-ended zoom meetings, we created two Stand Up meetings a day. This gave us the space to communicate not only what we are committing for the day, but also to freely express the impediments or blockers that each of us faced. Two Stand Up’s a day clearly communicating and addressing just blockers (personal and professional) became the most important issue for us on a daily basis. We also increased the number of times we did our Sprint Planning & Sprint Reviews in a week. All the while, ensuring the meetings were strictly time-boxed and the safety of people respected.
Modifying Retrospectives:
We modified our Retrospectives by changing the format. What we started to discuss on were; Mistakes We Made, Mistakes We Can Repeat, Mistakes We Cannot Repeat. By allowing for this psychological shift in making mistakes as something natural and a given, we quickly started to transform as a learning organization. Our team members were now ok to deal with the uncertainties of the conditions they faced and were able to deal with rapidly shifting mindsets more effectively.
Use of Online Tools:
We started to experiment with various online tools. We exploited all the free ones that existed! We used multiple online tools to create a better visualization of the work we did. If a tool became too cumbersome or complex, we simply abandoned it and simplified our processes, till we homed into just three primary tools to collaborate from. The aim was to convert most of what we used to do earlier in a near realistic fashion. Mural and Miro, for example, gave us the liberty to use the ubiquitous Post IT notes, while Trello got us back to the feel of Kanban.
Leadership Conversations:
The first Agile Value was paramount in our working philosophy; “Individuals and interactions over processes and tools”. While we adapted and meshed in with various new online processes and tools, we could not lose focus of the essence of the human element and human interaction, irrespective of the fact that we were all forced to be separated by distance and time. We initiated leadership conversations with all our stakeholders, sponsors, and clients. A one-hour interaction just to converse on the realities of our respective worlds and how we are dealing with the consequences of this unprecedented global occurrence. We didn’t engage in coaching, facilitation, or mentoring. We just decided to listen, to just be ’there’. These conversations were an opportunity to build and strengthen human relationships, the business was not on the agenda. This was an opportunity for us to make friends!
Redesigning OKRs:
We went and redrew all our existing OKRs. Most of the proposed outcomes had lost their significance due to the fluctuating markets and economic uncertainties. Our clients were on a rethink in engaging with us, and we had to be proactive. We conducted a webinar to educate our clients on this issue and went onto reconsider almost 80% of our existing Key Results. We made new ones. Market sentiments, reduced business valuation, and apprehensive strategic thinking demanded we look at our existing Key Results and redefine them to the new normal. Our Objectives didn’t change, they still remain valid irrespective of the given circumstances. They are very much achievable.
Forests are sensitive habitats. They are at the peril of nature’s wrath. Be it a fire, flood, or drought, the animals who co-exist in it are at her mercy. Yet, nature has a marvelous way of persevering through the odds. Animals, over years of evolutionary change, adapt, and survive. While individual entities may perish, the species doesn’t. Nature only creates a mass extinction, it isn’t selective. We humans, too are masters at adaptation. It is our ability to stay connected that has got us to the very top of the living order. Agile teams are an epitome of human efficiency and perseverance. It is built on Values and Principles that are agnostic to external circumstances and disruptions. In fact, the very existence of Agile is to effectively and efficiently navigate through a VUCA world.
