E-Book, Englisch, 296 Seiten
Sasse / Kaltenecker / Pfeffer Agile Short Stories
1. Auflage 2021
ISBN: 978-3-947487-16-5
Verlag: peppair
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 6 - ePub Watermark
34 Stories about Becoming and Staying Agile
E-Book, Englisch, 296 Seiten
ISBN: 978-3-947487-16-5
Verlag: peppair
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 6 - ePub Watermark
Stories convey more than just knowledge. They touch, inspire, and create closeness. Stories reveal something of ourselves and can thus guide us when we encounter similar situations.
In this book, 30 authors share their experiences from the world of Agile. They are experienced Product Owners, Scrum Masters, executives, Agile Coaches, consultants, and organizational developers. They tell true stories from their everyday work and personal lives: about the first steps and tensions in teams, conducive and obstructive leadership, losses and fears, amazing developments, clear values, and attitudes. These stories invite us, the readers, to learn from each other as human beings.
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Through Love to Agility
With the list of participants in hand, I stand alone in a well-prepared seminar room. The circle of chairs is perfect. The flipcharts are covered with blossom-white paper, and fresh fruit, water glasses and small nibbles are also ready for the arriving participants. My coaching idol from Switzerland is supposed to inspire the seminar group for the next two days in a »Coaching Masterclass«. I already know this training. I have taken it three times so far. Nevertheless, I’m always the first to answer whenever the question arises as to who in our team would like to accompany the next seminar on solution-focused coaching with Peter Szabo. Oh yes, my name is Veronika, and at this point, I have been working successfully for six years as a solution-focused coach in Vienna. As a cooperation partner, I am happy to take on assignments from my mentor and teacher Günter, who runs the Solution Management Center in my beautiful hometown. I have just got divorced, and apart from my two young daughters, it is only my enthusiasm for solution-focused work that keeps me going. And that is what I do. I work, I learn, I take care of my children. Just don’t look back. Everything will be okay. At this moment I have no idea that my life will soon take two all-changing turns. Then the door opens, and the first participants enter. I greet them warmly and help them to find their way around. In the group, I notice a familiar face. Unfortunately, I cannot remember how I know this man. But his smiling eyes are very familiar to me. The seminar day is – as expected – going great. Peter Szabo is a master in inspiring others with solution-focus. The atmosphere in the room is exuberant, and we experiment according to the trainer’s instructions. After 5 pm people leave. Only I stay behind as hostess to put the empty coffee cups, water glasses and plates in the dishwasher and prepare the room for the next day. Okay – I am not all alone. Ralph, the man with the smiling eyes, is still here as well. And after we’ve cleared away all the leftovers from the seminar day together, he asks me to accompany him for a drink in a neighbouring pub. One drink turns into three, and after we have exchanged our life stories and he has found out that my maiden name is »Jungwirth«, we remember: Ralph and I worked together in the cinema 15 years earlier. Me at the box office and him as an usher – that’s the guy at the entrance who checks the tickets. Somehow, I liked him even then because I had given him my pager number – at least that’s what he claims. Shortly after our first encounter, he went to England to study. Later, back in Austria, he found his way and his love for agility – but that is his story. You can find it here in this book. In any case, at the time of the Peter Szabo Seminar, Ralph had already been working independently as an Agile Coach for two years. What exactly that is, I don’t understand at first. It doesn’t seem to have much in common with coaching, as I do. At least I find out that much: it has something to do with software development. I decide to put the subject aside for me. At least for the time being. A few weeks later – we are now an inseparable, a very much in love couple and behaving like teenagers – Ralph invites me to accompany him to Rückersbach for the weekend. There is the annual Agile Coach Camp Germany taking place. I’m supposed to spend three days in the countryside with enthusiastic software developers. Supposedly it’s a lot of fun. I can imagine. Sure. Of course, I agree – despite my weak gut feeling. For the sake of love. Unfortunately, I still have a seminar to run in Vienna on the day of my arrival and have to travel alone late in the evening. Upon my arrival, right at the reception, I am stormily hugged and welcomed by a complete stranger. He has a beard, glasses and a T-shirt, with an imprint I do not understand. Similar scenarios repeat about four more times until I find Ralph, and I find myself thinking desperately: »I wonder if the taxi is still outside to take me back to the airport?« In the evening, I experience my first Open Space opening. Almost 80 people – mainly men – sit in a triple circle of chairs. Two presenters explain in a calm and nearly solemn voice what this is all about. They say something about bumblebees and butterflies, and I wonder if Ralph dragged me to a cult meeting. Even before I can contemplate this worry completely, at least twenty people jump up, pick up large sticky notes and pencils and write down topics they would like to talk about over the next few days. A giant chart is prepared on the wall, in which rooms and times are written, and it slowly fills up with these sticky notes as the topics are presented. The enthusiasm of the crowd infects me. I hardly understand a word of the content – maybe because all the participants speak English. But somehow it seems great. The next morning, we start. After a short welcome in a round of chairs, the people disperse to meet in the different rooms. Ralph goes to a technical session and recommends another one which is about coaching. So, it’s only fitting that I sit in the »Austria« room and ask myself what I’m doing here. The fifteen or so people who sit with me in a – you guessed it – circle of chairs talk about coaching, and I listen. And then it happens: one of them makes a statement that I can’t possibly let stand. I gather all my courage, open my mouth and hear myself – in English – talking about solution-focus. Everyone looks at me captivated. After a short silence, questions pour in. Here I sit, surrounded by enthusiastic software coaches, and with my knowledge, I can contribute something that seems to interest them. I have arrived. From this moment on, I can hardly be stopped. I venture into ever more unfamiliar topics, learn what retrospectives are, what a Scrum Master does, what a Minimum Viable Product is, and much more. In the course of these days, it becomes more and more clear to me: These people have the same goal as I do. They want to make this (working) world a better place. They want to help teams to celebrate successes together, and customers and organisations to work hand in hand in a satisfied and long-lasting way. This requires a lot of cooperation. These people here in Rückersbach know how to promote good collaboration. And I know how good communication works better eye-to-eye. Together we have the answer. A perfect fit. That must be it! Ralph beams as he listens patiently to my enthusiastic comments. He knew even before we met that solution-focus and agile approaches go hand-in-hand. After all, as a trained systemic coach, he is an expert in both areas. However, I do not want to interfere with his story again – if he tells it at all. Back in Vienna, I dig out a new roll of flipchart paper from the cabinet, and we juxtapose the most important statements from the agile world with those from the solution-focused world. What we find out is phenomenal: the agile values and the solution-focused ones support each other. The principles of the two worlds fit together like puzzle pieces. What emerges here on paper is like a symphony of meaningful acting in modern organisations and in times of digitalisation! Excitement, heart beating, enthusiasm! This story is now almost exactly eight years ago. Maybe almost nine, depending on when this book is published. Today, I discuss the core of the agile approach on an equal footing with experienced Agile Coaches. I still haven’t written a single line of code. I can’t do it, and I probably won’t learn it anymore. What interests me enormously, on the other hand, is how people can interact as well as possible in the most diverse situations. And for me, agile work is hardly different from a love affair: The people involved have to struggle with external resistance and demands, and they can only do that if they stick together unconditionally. When there are little children in a relationship who need attention or parents who don’t find it funny when their Catholic raised Viennese girl gets divorced and suddenly appears with a German citizen at her side. Unconditional unity is necessary when an agile team has to struggle with constantly changing customer requirements, with the star attitude of individual team members or with dictatorial leadership styles. And it helps in both worlds to communicate a lot with each other, to experiment and to understand mistakes as learning opportunities. I am glad and grateful for every step I have been able to take on this journey so far and look forward to each and every one of them coming. I learn more every day, go beyond my limits and make mistakes in the process. I can be creative, inspire others and learn from them. And sometimes, I am just tired. Then I would like to hide away somewhere. That’s okay too – in the agile world as well as in the private one. Because it’s always about love stories, about enthusiasm, about passion, about meaning – with all its ups and downs. This is not just a job. It’ my is life. Veronika Kotrba is a solution-focused coach, consultant and trainer in Vienna. Since 2012 she has been supporting – together with Ralph Miarka – executives in the agile business environment. In 2015 they founded sinnvollFÜHREN GmbH in Vienna and published their book »Agile Teams lösungsfokussiert coachen« (soon to be published in English as “Solution-focused...
