Posted on Tuesday, January 3, 2017

[Updated] Mr. Number to your Rescue!

Mr. Number to your Rescue! Remember those telemarketers calling you just as you finish your dinner? I used to get them a lot on my landline, even after getting onto Do not Call list. Those dreaded, 9:00 pm dinner time calls are back! Now I started getting them on my Mobile as well.

These unwarranted, unsolicited calls are a big drain on your energy. They disrupt your ‘flow‘ and introduce unnecessary ‘switching cost’ as you are yanked away from the work you were doing. Often times you don’t know until you have picked up the call, and if you don’t pick up the call, you are wondering if you missed an important call. [For those of us whose family is overseas, we get a call from them and it shows up as a random number on Caller ID]

Mr. Number to the Rescue

I have found an easy solution, though! Call Mr. Number to your rescue!

On your mobile, just install this app and it scans the incoming calls. It scans each incoming call against its vast database of telemarketers and scam callers. It automatically blocks the call if any match is found. This results in you not even picking up that call and saving you that energy, the switching cost. More importantly, it allows you to stay in the flow!

Use this app, along with the Do not Disturb feature of your phone, and you have your own personal secretary (remember those creatures!) that is guarding your time, for you 🙂

[bctt tweet=”minimize the distractions + minimize/eliminating the switching cost = Hyper Productivity! #getHyper with Mr. Number!” username=”beyondCSM”]

[Updated on 27Dec2016]

We beat AT&T as well a Wall Street Journal 🙂

AT&T recently introduced an app named ‘Call Protect’. This FREE app promises to block robocall and all the other junk calls. Essentially, this app is powered by Hiya; the app we talked about earlier when we published our post. Here is the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) article talking about this app. Didn’t I tell you we beat WSJ ?!

[bctt tweet=”Claim back your valuable time! #getHyper” username=”beyondCSM”]

Please add this app to your tools, start using it and claim back some of your valuable time!

Posted on Tuesday, December 20, 2016

True Catalysts of Change

True Catalysts of Change. At beginning of 2016, this was one of my goals. As we draw it to close, I am happy to look back to a list of books I have read. These are the true catalysts. They have the power to change your world!

When you review this list. Notice that I do not have agile/scrum related books on my list. That’s easier to learn. The harder part is shifting the mindset. These books will help you there. With the right mindset, you will go further than you can imagine now. You will surprise yourself!

I read about two books per month. And, spend almost $0 for reading those books. [Hit me if you want to know how]

For now, here are the top 5 books from my list with tremendous power to influence and change your world in 2017.

Creativity Inc – Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration by Ed Catmull and Amy Wallace

Creativity Inc – Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration

2.Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard by Chip Heath and Dan Heath

Switch, Transformation,GetHyper, Agile, Get hyper

Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard

3.Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less by Greg McKeown

Essentialism, Agile, transformation, getHyper

Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less

4.Onward: How to Starbucks Fought Its Life without Losing Its Soul by Howard Schultz

Onward: How to Starbucks Fought Its Life without Losing Its Soul

5.The Rich Employee by James Altucher

The Rich Employee

The Talent Code by Daniel Coyle (Canada: Bantam Books, May, 2009)

The Talent Code by Daniel Coyle

The talent code author @DanielCoyle makes a case that practice can groomed a talent. And, with a deep practice that process can be accelerated. It is a simple process of learning on the edge of discomfort, making and identifying mistakes, fixing and learning from them to get better. And then, repeat this whole cycle again and again.

Ignition + Master Coaching + Deep Practice = Talent

Anything, from learning on how to play football to learning the social skills of interacting with individuals. Or navigating a group of people can be learned. And accelerated with this formula (need I remind you learning the skills of networking!). Deep practice helps build and increase mylein – the cellular wrapper and insulation that can turn your brain nerves into a T1 line, into a Broadband!

Skills is a cellular insulation that wraps neural circuits and that grows in response to certain signals – Daniel Coyle

As an Agilist, as a change agent, you are in the business of change. You are constantly pushing the boundary of what is comfortable to the individual or teams that you are training, coaching and mentoring. As Enterprise Transformation Coach and a Trainer, I often tell my class to the step of their comfort zone. You have to be comfortable with the notion of being uncomfortable.That’s the only way to learn new stuff. As coach wooden’s quote perfectly sums it up seek the small improvement, one day at a time; that’s the only way it happens and when it happens it lasts.

A must ready for you as a Change Agent!

Three Quotes from the book:

Experience where you are forced to slow down. Make errors and correct them = Deep Learning
Talent Whisperer use the formula {Examination + Diagnostics + Prescription}
Ignition + Master Coaching + Deep Practice = Talent

Three tips from the book:

Want to build Talent? Accelerate Deep Practice! Get your game of ‘Foosal’
“It’s not how fast you can do it. It’s how slow you can do it correctly.” Chunk it and slow it down.
Get a Mentor! Great Teachers are Key! They look for and offer small, targeted, highly specific adjustments.

Posted on Tuesday, November 8, 2016

Shrink or Grow Sprint Length

Why teams should not shrink or grow sprint length

Sprint length to shrink or grow. Jen, one of the Scrum Master I am coaching and mentoring asked recently:

I am scrum master for this team and generally, we do two-week sprints. But, for this sprint the team does not have enough work, so they want to shorten the sprint from two weeks to one week. Can I allow them to do that?

Now, let’s ponder on this question. Take a minute and think about it. What would be your answer? Why?

To answer her original question, I said a big resounding NO! In bold capital letters!

Value of regular Heartbeats

There are many reasons for not allowing the Sprint to shrink or grow. We want the team to pick a sprint length and stick to it, no matter what. Instead of focusing on why we do not allow it to shrink or grow, let’s focus on the positives. Let’s review the reasons and value of staying on the same length. Keeping the sprint length same provides:

Consistency and a Rhythm for the team
Repeatable and Predictable Cadence
Consistent length provides valuable data that can be used for forecasting
Schedules that are known well in advance, and can be put onto calendar to help block time on key players calendar
Valuable data they can help team in deciding how much or how little work to take into next sprint

Don’t flush them down the toilet

There are several measurements that are linked to sprint length. Measurements such as:

Velocity
Say: do
Story burn-up
Release burn-up
Feature burn-up

You allow your sprint to shrink (or grow) and you are invalidating all the data, you are essentially flushing all these down the toilet!

Use it Wisely

If you have a situation where the team does not have enough work for the next sprint, it might be an indicator of the team not doing backlog grooming; or at a minimum, it is an indicator that the backlog grooming is not done properly.

In a scenario where the team has spare capacity, instead of shrinking the sprint length, the team could do other, very useful activities. They could use that extra time on:

Refactoring the code
Learning new stuff
Cross training within the team
Automation
Spike or research on the next priority features functionality
Experimentation

Sprint’s are fixed length. Scrum does not allow them to shrink or grow. Once the team agrees to a specific length, they have to, rather, they need to stick to it. Fixed length eventually will enable them to settle on a rhythm giving them even heartbeats!

mentorME

We offer mentoring and coaching to up and coming Agilists; often time doing 1:1 coaching. If you want to grow in the agile space, if you want to expand your horizon, if you want to learn the tools and tricks, sign up for mentorME.

Got more questions? Please get in touch with us here.

Posted on Tuesday, October 25, 2016

Nimesh’s Coaching Box

A simple tool to deliver your message effectively that creates impact, and do it with eeeease!

Want to deliver your session with ease? That is effective and impactful?

Of course, you want to be clear about the message you want to deliver; but being clear about it is just a start. Delivering your message effectively that is impactful – that’s the key. And, making it easy to digest for your audience is essential.

One of my good friend and colleagues introduced me to this concept while we were together at Paypal, coaching and mentoring the organization and teams on Agile adoption. [Thank You Monica!] Nowadays, you will see me walking around with this coaching box, almost all the time.

: Nimesh’s Coaching Box

Why this Coaching Box?
You are the change agent, but you don’t just want to talk about the change. You want to deliver your message effectively that creates an impact, and doing it with ease is the key to success. I have found that having this coaching box handy helps tremendously in achieving that. With this coaching box on my side, I can deliver my message, my presentation, my session with an ease that is effective and impactful. As a coach, as a change agent, it is your Toolbox!

What’s in it?
This coaching box essentially has the tools of the trade in it, readily available by my side at a moment’s notice. No more fumbling around for a whiteboard marker that really works!

Let’s look at what I have in the coaching box:

Post It notes. We can’t live without them, can we? [Check out my series of posts on how I use Post It notes]
Sharpie Pens
Whiteboard markers, that really work!

At a minimum, you should have these three items in your Coaching box. You can throw in some electronic tools in it along with these three items.

Remote Clicker, with spare batteries
Mac connector cable (to connect to Projector)
Old iPhone (that is not connected to any network)
Evernote or OneNote on your mobile device, making sure that you have the reference material and worksheets handy. Most importantly, make sure that you have the worksheets and checklists handy.
Other apps such as Office Lens to take pictures of your whiteboard drawings, Scannable to scan physical papers, etc. [Read my post on various apps that can help you]
Spare reading glasses
Lip balm
Two Cereal bar (my emergency energy source)
Two tea bags – like to drink hot tea (no sugar,no milk) before and during the sessions I facilitate. Helps me keep hydrated while keeping my throat clear helping in projecting my voice higher.

I add in a few cereal bars that can double as my lunch as well as a snack. Often times while you are delivering your sessions, you don’t have the time and luxury to have the proper lunch!

But, I need reasons to carry this coaching box…

I will give you three reasons why you want this box by your side.

Instead of grabbing ten things, you are grabbing just one thing. This has bailed me out many times as I have been asked to present or coach at a moments notice by the executives. You know your executives in the organization 🙂
It sends a very clear, strong, positive message that this guy (or gal) is always ready!
You have all the supplies handy and within arms reach, supplies that you are familiar with and know they work, supplies that help you deliver your message effectively that creates impact.

With this box handy, I am ready to deliver any session at a moment’s notice. Let’s go, and make change happen!