January 11, 2022

Greg Thomas

Show Up, Listen, Act and Learn

First, you show up – on time, with an open mind, ready to take everything in. Then you listen – patiently, attentively, without judgment or interruption. You act on what you have heard, putting it into practice, seeing what works and what doesn’t, iterating along the way. And when those three have been done, you will have learned something. Sometimes we forget what goes into the first three to get to learning, master one, forget the other two. Look back at what you have ever learned and you will realize, you always need the first three to be successul.

Remote Work Behind the Scenes

Stagehands get the stage ready between takes, they close curtains, cue fog machines, turn on lights – all that great stuff that no one sees happening but is infinitely critical to the success of a play. These people exist in your team and company, but they are harder to see when you are remote because now they are not walking past you to do your job or being “cued” in, they are simply doing it, because they need to do it, because it needs to happen, because this is what they do. Don’t forget these people, celebrate them, make sure

The Ongoing Agile Dilemma

When asked about the best methodology to follow, my answer is always the same – Common Sense. When constructing a software delivery process always do the following; Do activities that are worth doing. Do activities that provide value to yourself, your team, and your company. Ensure that anyone, at any time can know what is happening. Don’t put it onto the shoulders of one person, the team should share in it. The dilemma in agile is that we think it does all these things, but it doesn’t, just like waterfall doesn’t, just like scrum doesn’t, and just like any other

Your Coaching Support

You can be the coach, the mentor, the manager, the leader, the guide – you can do it all. But the bigger your team gets, the bigger the need to fight that person that will help with that vision and help you be all those myriad of roles to your team. The best teams are not led by one person, they are led by a team, working together, moving in the same direction, focused on the goals that matter.

What you Need in a Daily Stand Up

It doesn’t matter if it’s remote or in-person, what you need remains the same. Someone who knows the score – someone who knows where the work is in the development stream, what is coming up and what is on deck.  The best people, use data to back the conversation – boards, reports, queries Someone to ask the tough questions – where are you at, are you stuck, do you need help, what’s taking extra time Someone to keep the team on point – conversations about the weekend happen after the standup, respect people’s time, everyone has other things happening in