Posts from — March 2010

Here’s a video that very prettily relates the Fibonacci sequence to nature and the golden mean.

This is part of why I love estimating with these numbers rather than any old whole numbers. It’s not just that we simplify argument & agreement, but there is something nifty and natural and just plain elegant about using this sequence.

It’s lovely to have something in our processes that is both useful and beautiful.

Esther Derby posted this lovely Mary Parker Follett quote earlier, and I share it because it elegantly describes what I think about leadership.

We talk a fair amount about “servant leadership” to project and functional managers making the transition into agile roles. But this isn’t really a new or different kind of leadership, just a new way of interpreting where the leader’s power comes from. Leaders – even ones radically changing the world or heading troops into battle – derive their power from people’s willingness to follow them. [This doesn't remove the usefulness of things like management or positional authority. If you've ever gotten lost with a group of friends, you've experienced how easy it is to just follow someone because they're in front of you.]

Leaders don’t need an immense, soaring vision. I’d argue that too detailed a soaring vision can actually get in the way of leadership’s main task: this co-active power of finding the best, most awesome things in a person or team. Leadership, too, need not reside only in the people with positional authority. It’s better when every member of a team can call forth their own, others’ and the group’s best potential.

Encouraging that leadership among team members, by the way, is a big part of the raison-d’etre for the coach, PM, Scrum Master, etc. – anyone who takes on the role of holding up the mirror to the team. The first (and frankly, constant – I have to redo this for myself often) step is recognizing that your own personal leadership comes largely from being a decent person who keeps growing.

The second step is to read Esther’s blog. *

* I kid, and yet I don’t. Part of being a decent, inspiring person is being inspired and growing yourself.

I finished my first coaching project today, and am leaving the lovely little city of Boston tonight. It’s exciting to imagine what will happen next, both for the teams I leave and for me. It’s a little sad, too: I’ve spent time with some pretty fantastic people, both the tiny ThoughtWorks team (in other words, Patrick Turley, with a little Ron and Greg for seasoning) and the gang from the client side. They’re swell, even when they’re a pain in the ass, and I’ll miss them.

People who rescue wild animals probably feel a bit like this. You like them, but ultimately the point is to send them back out on their own. The whole effort is impermanent by design. I’d like to install little tags on all these folk (painlessly, of course, and with their consent) so I can check in on everyone. Flying ok? Still favoring that frail left wing? Check it out! They met mates and are laying new generations of birdlets! [Er... maybe I'm taking the metaphor a bit far.]

Unlike wild animals, though, the best outcome from consulting and training is that we grow our future peers. I hope to see these client folk – especially the PM’s, if y’all are reading – at conferences and such in the future. Or writing books; whatever, I just want them to succeed and give back later.