How to succeed in making mistakes?

Personal Agile Development - Failures, mistakes and experiencing are great levers to success.

When I have autonomy I grow. Yes, and mainly when I have room for trying and making mistakes.

"The only way to not fail is to not try" or "you learn from mistakes" - these are sentences I believe many of us hear over and over since our childhood. Cliché? I think not.

The room for trying and making mistakes is one of the things I believe in the most. After all, we all make mistakes all the time. The question is do we learn from our mistake?. Truly learn. And the more important question is do we know how to make mistakes in order to learn?

No. Don't avoid making mistakes. Really don't. I even recommend feeling free to make mistakes. Don't stop trying even if it means making mistakes. The idea is to know how.

My boy for instance, he's a champion in computer games. The kind that has levels, adventures, where the main player gains power and knowledge... And he didn't start playing from the highest level becoming a champ without making mistakes, right?! He kept failing, fixing, repeating, experiencing again, getting better, failing again.. and in the end he feels on top of the world. Why? Because it's OK to fail and fix. Because he has the space, the legitimacy and autonomy to fail. His feeling of success comes from his ability to fix and make progress. There's nothing like small failures and small successes as part of an experience to make us feel capable and successful.

http://gamertherapist.com/blog/2012/04/07/failing-better/?goback=%2Egde_53475_member_106232276

Same goes with me. My ability to grow will be possible through the experiences I go through. But not just any experience, it's my ability to fail, to fix, try again and get better...

I don't have to get scared and shy away every time I make a mistake. I do have to be brave, take a good look at my mistake and improve on it.

So how to succeed in making mistakes?

1. Don't be afraid to try. How do people become master sportsmen? How does someone become a master at any field? By trying. A lot. Trying that comes from the ability to learn and get better.

2. By making small steps, our mistakes will also be smaller, more digestible and easier to fix. They will also increase our sense of autonomy to make mistakes. Just like in a computer game. Small mistakes are more controllable, they teach us more. They are also less scary, less noisy and are surely less harmful.

3. Inspecting our experiences and our mistakes is another important part of knowing how to make mistakes. After all, we wouldn't want to make the same mistake twice, would we?! Our mistakes are vital for our continuous improvement. They are great learning tools, because they provide us with a perfect context to our actual reality and not to what our reality should theoretically be. This is why looking at our mistakes and asking what have we learned from them, what we should stop doing and what we should start doing differently is a good and brave way to learn. I think cooking can be a good example for this. Is a recipe perfect the first time we try it? Or do we need to retry and refine it several times until I understand what are the right ingredients for my palette, until I find the "right mix" for me?

4. Sometimes we'll make small, controlled experiments, so we can test how reality responds to the change we want to make. But this will be a small experiment, so if we fail we can learn, fix and try to make it better. Small mistakes that entail some preliminary probing of the reality we have coming, are both controllable and help us learn.

5. Also from big mistakes - which regrettably do happen - we ought to learn. We won't rule ourselves out for our past mistakes. It is important for us to look back at the past, take with us what helped us get passed the hard times and learn what not to repeat.

6. By making mistakes we learn how to avoid some of them in the future. 

And... Don't forget to enjoy the journey.

Using the power of agile techniques in children education

Agile holds some powerful (and fun) tools that help Kids organize; getting things done It provides a good ground for learning. So implementing Agile at home with our kids has valuable learning benefits as well. It helps them visualize their work and their progress. It also helps us empower our kids, help gain a sense of control, a feeling of success and many more goodies...

Visual thinking - What is it?

Visual thinking, also called visual learning, is a proven method of organizing ideas graphically - with concept maps, mind maps and webs. Scientifically based research demonstrates that visual learning techniques improve memory, organization, critical thinking and planning.

Waste of Coffee

The answer

Wants some coffie from Shirly Ronen-Harel

Thing you need to know about taking agile into your home ,family and personal life .

We have prepared a two tracks overview over the concept of taking agile into the family and personal life. Obviously this is just the tip of the ice, and you are welcome to take a deep ture into these tracks recommended sites.

Enjoy :)

Applying agile principles to the day to day personal and family activities as well as for kids, small business and more applications.

The following will present the radical idea for healthy family communication and getting things done using agile. Implementing Agile at home with our kids and families has valuable learning benefits as well as empowerment, dealing with overwhelming day to day tasks and developing a healthy communication as a family. So can children and families benefit from Agile? Yes, they can! Remember: Our children go through childhood once , and we are the ones responsible for it. Most of the links roundup in this track is taken from this blog. Enjoy .

If you wish to Empower me talk to me with question marks!?

“I want you to end every sentence with a question mark, do you think you can do that?  Why? Maybe because it’s a small and easy step towards empowerment and it’s also fun?”

In this post I would like to present a magnificent technique I frequently use with scrum teams and with managers as part of an agile coaching towards developing an agile mindset. Whenever I feel the need to emphasize the experience of empowerment while at the same time add some fun and value to the team without dealing with too much ego risks and project risk, I turn to this fun technique.

Well, like many other techniques we use in agile coaching, this one, I believe can also be used with our kids at home or with anyone else. You’ll be amazed how fun and creative it becomes.

First thing first, What is empowerment ?

In one sentence, we can define empowerment as a process where the one with power (that’ll be you, the manager or a parent) gives up some of his power for another (your employee or your children), and at the same time he also maintains his limits and authority. This way BOTH sides grow and gain in strength. In fact, we change from a position of no control, to a position of relative control. The empowerment process strengthens the self-confidence of the one being empowered, in his ability to function, make decisions and complete tasks. (From the Wikipedia article)

Frequently when we start implement agile we talk about empowerment. This concept is not that easy to comprehend, or to act upon. It demands practice, understanding, techniques, coaching, confrontation with verity of challenges and it takes time. It often comes to my attention that a day workshop and some games may only introduce some tools that may be later use for empowerment, but it does not mean that the students will know how to use it in a verity of challenges that their day to day supply them.

Well, you may say , this is why you are there. Isn’t it?

Right again I answer; I see my duty as an agile coach to supply tools fits to the stage of learning, organization and atmosphere. Those tools should also be easy to use. But my main goal is to be able to supply the scrum master, team and mangers with such tools that allow ongoing and a true firsthand experience according to subjective challenges.

This is exactly what talking with question marks does.

And what if there is no coach around? This is one of those tools you can easily use by yourself J

So how do we do it?

1.    Usually I use this game during daily sessions of a scrum team. A team that I already have a fierily good buy-in with , but still  are in the early stages of the agile mindset where empowered is not yet understood.

2.    I will ask the Team leader or the scrum master to start talking with question marks.

(It depends on my insight as a coach whether we will have the entire team talking with question marks or will it be just the scrum master assignment)

3.    Then, obviously I give some examples at first. (Remember the “I do , we do , you do” learning technique ? This is the “I do” - step )

·         “I think this and that, what do you think?”

·         “I it will be good for our goal that you start working on this task… what do you thin?.”

·         “Who’s next? Do we have any impediments?”

·         “And so on..

4.    During the meeting I will guide the scrum master/ manger or the team and encourage them to use the technique, sometimes even correct a sentence to a question form. (Remember the “I do , we do , you do” learning technique ? This is the “We do” - step )

5.    I will even write a big question mark on the team white board. So it will remind them the assignment at hand.  (Remember the “I do , we do , you do” learning technique ?  This is a preparation to the  “you do” - step )

6.    The team next assignment is to use this technique when they communicate, first during the daily session and next in other forms of communication. (Remember the “I do , we do , you do” learning technique ? This is the “You do” - step )

I will usually asked, how was it for them? What did they learn from this drill?

I will check upon them again in few days and see if they had a chance to “play the game “again.

If not, why? If yes, why?

***We may elaborate this session asking the entire team to talk with question marks. We may also ask them to return a question to a question for 2-3 times. The options are endless.

Using this fun technique I learned that:

·         The team likes it. It’s light, easy, productive and fun. I got very good feedbacks from managers and scrum masters that used it, that it improves their ability to learn more, its easy and doesn’t demand any special “psychology craft” skills.

·         It’s so easy to use that it holds almost no resistance.

·         As a team member you don’t lose the sense of control when someone makes decision over matters that affect your performance and goals.  In fact you gain the sense of power,  when you require to answer and to bring your opinion over matters that should affect your performance.

·         The feedback is immediate. The person who asks the questions sees the feedback right away and the information starts to flow better and with better cooperation.

·         The team leader, that needs to answer everything with a question mark, is denied from giving a direct order as a reaction to a team member issue. This teaches him to think first, then to listen, then to get the feedback. This teaches the importance of listening and gives him firsthand experience of the first step of empowerment.

·         Since the assignment is part of a team session, and introduced as a game and Team members are aware of it, it’s easier to the team leader to go along. After all it’s just a game.

·         It becomes a fun session.

·         The issues raised are a true day to day challenges with the real actors and the real need to solve real problems. It’s not just another workshop simulation.

·         No one listen to us? They listen now.  We ask, and we listen, and most of all, as team member, someone is asking us and listening to what we have to say. The one, who is asked, gets a proper attention. We want to hear what he thinks. It brings our opinion out to the air where in other circumstance team members will not be able to say nothing till it accumulate into a  burst of anger.

·         When opinions are out to the air, it enhanced decisions making and makes it easy to solve problems. Especially when we add the rule to answer a question with another question.

Trying this at home with our kids has almost the same effect.

With kids, it’s even more fun. I will usually start first to get into a fun mood by having a good laugh on that technique using variation of questions.

The parent learns to listen, the kids learns to answer and the same advantages happens here as in the workplace. Just replace the words “team members” with “our children” and the words “manager, team leader or scrum master” with “a parent” in the section above. J

So try it, you’d be amazed how fun and easy it is.

My cool Favorite Sticky notes tools:

The reason I fell in love with scrumblr, is that it takes two seconds to get going with. You don’t need to register, sign up or log in. You just get started.

To check it out, just click here. You create a new board by simply using a unique URL - like http://srumblr.ca/your_team_name_your_board_name.

Now this tool may be lacking in functionality for more elaborate stuff, but it’s an excellent way to get you started.

Lino is an amazing online tool that serves as a personal white board!

It’s seriously cool, with endless options.

First, I really appreciate the fact that by creating a personal board I can customize it to reflect my entire “world” of doings and interests. For example, I can arrange my career interests, customer related issues, personal tasks and my entire area of interest, and have them laid out right in front of me.

Second, I can create several boards, each with a different scope of interests. For example, one board will be for managing my personal tasks, and another board for my customers.

Being able to visualize the whole, while also scoping over a specific issue is a very powerful tool for getting things done.

Third, I just love the digital sticky notes option.

Lino is online, so I can, of course, access it from anywhere and design my own set of boards. It’s simple to use, colorful, has tons of options, video tutorials and a friendly introduction.

Features include adding tasks or pictures, due dates, tasks icons, tasks priority, pinning tasks, and more!

And of course, there’s a mobile app as well, for both iPhone AND Android users!

I love it!

Here’s another post, showing you how people use Lino as an amazing classroom tool.

 

How to use a white board to understand your work load.

Guest post : AviK, Owner at A2O Marketing

 

While managing my small business with agile techniques I had a problem.

 

I had myself a task list, which I managed daily. I would tick off the ‘done’ tasks, I make sure to work on the ‘doing’ tasks, and I would look at what I still need to accomplish in my ‘backlog’.

 

But I didn’t see how I was doing each day for each project . I’ve been ticking off tasks (in order of importance), but was I working only on the new feature? What about fixing old bugs? Managing the team? Launching the new website? I could see tasks being marked as ‘done’, but it wasn’t always easy to see what project they related to, and frankly, I would end up frustrated, and not sure if I was getting everything done.

 

Luckily, I work with Shirly. And with her using white boards and sticky notes, along with an endless supply of ideas on how to make your day more effective, and strictly related to my case (no theoretical experiments please) helped me come with an idea. I would create a task board that only shows what I’ve done - per project!

 

 

What do I mean?

Simple:

 

 

I added a row for each project I am working on, and each time I completed a task, I put it up on the board. Color coded, of course, so I could see if it was a ‘small’ task, a ‘medium’ one, or a ‘big’ one. This way, I can tell at a glance exactly what I’ve been working on today, and what projects require my attention more.

 

 

It really helps me focus better on what I need to do, and helps me prioritize my remaining tasks.

So thanks, Shirly!

 

 

Initiating the to-do list using a mood chart

Just take few minutes at the end of your day and stick a mood note into your task board reflecting your current mood. Was it a good day? A bad day? a sad day? What was it like today? We do it with agile teams, why not doing it as a family or for personal feedback?

Sometimes, when coaching an agile team we use this neat tool called “mood chart”. This mood chart allows the team to reflect over its mood for a period of time.

Why? Because we mind how the team feels, especially when we are in a methodological or organizational transition.

And what else? Awareness. When I see something on my task board I am becoming aware of it. When the team needs to reflect over their mood, the mood becomes something that they are aware of. Since they need to visualize it as a team, they need to talk it over to think and agree over the current mood status of the day.

And what else? The mood visualization allows the coach, the team and others to see the team mood, identify trends, changes and relevant affects. In fact it welcomes others to approach the team and talk about it. These are issues that sometimes are pretty hard to talk about and perceived as “complaints” especially when we are dealing with negative mood signs.  Furthermore, visibility, and “allowing talking about it”, also open the door to get to the root cause of things, understand what we need to change, keep or fix. We can also detect and relate in a very early stage changes in the team mood. Usually, once we solve one issue, a new one raise posing new challenges. Isn’t it just wonderful? Deal with one thing, and get another as a gift? It is, it means we have made a progress. Being able to deal with events that are feelings related, during an organization transition is crucial to our transition success.

In fact, this method is not an agile hi-tech new invention , it is widely used outside the hi-tech industry for decades.

I have seen coaches offering tables of characters with lots of moods and colors display allowing to analyzing and conclude over specific mood and behaviors.

In this post I will try to present the simplest way I think we can use the  “mood chart” at home with our kids. I am counting on you guys that you will know how to make it a fit and change it to your own needs. Anyhow, I have added few links at the bottom of this post for further reading.

So, when we take the mood chart into our family with our kids, the advantages are pretty much the same as for a working team

·         It is a wonderful and ‘legit’  way to talk about our feelings. After the kids have just placed it on the task board for everyone to see.

·         The mood is visible, we don’t need to guess it.

·         Our kid’s mood and feelings gets a proper attention.

·         It actually replaces “complaints”.

·         We may find areas, issues or feelings we weren’t aware of as parents till this day.

When I am offering to use agile , I am also referring to a practical way to get things done. So how do take this mood signs and make it practical? How do we draw out action items out of it ?  How  can we deal with the verity of issue raise due to mood chart visibility?

Obviously, let’s first create the mood visibility. We can draw graphs, or just place happy faces on the task board, whatever we think is good for us.

1.       Gather the family and introduce the new “mood chart” idea. (“…from now on each family member will place on the task board (wall, window, white board, paper, whatever) a  face reflecting today’s mood. ..”)

2.       Define as a family 1-3 or 1-6 levels of mood faces. It doesn’t really matter how many. What matters is the ability of the family members to reflect over their mood and feelings and to relate to it. The conversation, as a family is important. I have already seen, how kids elaborate faces as they go.

3.       Once a day, during the family daily gathering, relate to these mood faces. How do you feel today? What does the face mean? What made you feel this way? What was hard? What helped you out? What needs to be done so tomorrow you will get a deferent/same/whatever face? And so on…

4.       Take an action task for the next day that is related to a mood change and add it to the family task board.

5.       And don’t forget to have fun .

Here’s an example:

Here is another example where you can see how the kids placed the mood stickies inside their task board as part of their daily tasks.

 Further reading:

http://www.agiledevelopment.nl/measuring-development-teams/

http://meme-pictures.feedio.net/color-meanings-chart/gentle.de*Mood.jpg/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/indysmom/3683294186/ http://thebipolarcuriousblog.com/2012/07/03/mood-charting-the-color-band-mood-chart/

http://www.happinesspages.com/mood-diary.html