August "Are We There Yet?" - FAST, Simply Agile, and Leadership Lessons from Tom Brady

Welcome to the August edition of the "Are We There Yet?" newsletter!?

August is often a slow, quiet, and peaceful month, as we wind up the summer season here in the Northern hemisphere. I indeed spent some time relaxing on vacation and also had the opportunity to take a class on FAST to learn more about its innovative ways of working.?

Therefore, this month's newsletter is focused on just a few items:

• Fluid Scaling Technology (FAST Agile)
• "The Art of Leading Teammates" - a Harvard Business Review article co-written by Tom Brady and Nitin Nohria
• The new agile community collaboration platform, Simply Agile

You will also find information on my recent speaking engagements and upcoming public sessions and appearances.

I hope you enjoy this month's newsletter.? If anything in the newsletter sparks your interest that you'd like to discuss further or if you want to talk to me about working with you or your teams, please DM me on LinkedIn , send me a message via our website: https://www.practical-agility.com/contactus , or schedule time with me at? https://www.practical-agility.com/book-an-appointment .

Fluid Scaling Technology (FAST Agile)

If you have been following my recent writing and presentations, you've heard me talk about Fluid Scaling Technology (FAST) and how I am encouraged about the ability of teams using FaST to combine aspects of product discovery and delivery in the same team and visualization structure.?

I first became acquainted with FAST in 2022 when I sat in a session where Quinton Quartel was sharing the results of a new way of product development that he and his colleagues had experimented with. As I started to see the need for emergent planning instead of the traditional fixed planning we usually practice, I was attracted to FAST's discovery trees and how they support a better visualization for emergent work. This year, I have been speaking about how product discovery and product delivery will likely become more tightly intertwined at top performing product companies (see below in the Media Matters section). So the next logical step was for me to learn more details about FAST by attending the FAST 101: Understanding FAST class these past four days.

In some ways, the class was first and foremost about what I would consider organizational and technical leadership best practices.? We talked about topics like agency and autonomy, complex adaptive systems, and work visualization.? We also discussed things like teaming, psychological safety, and self-organization.

One thing I took from the topics covered is that you need to be an open-minded, progressive leader to create the right environment for FAST to flourish in.? I took great comfort in the fact that my 9 classmates and myself all seem to be those sort of modern leaders that understand these concepts, embrace them, and are capable of cultivating a good culture in which FAST teams can succeed.? The result was many conversations about leading product and engineering teams and how FAST either does or doesn't address specific challenges we have all faced.

Some interesting nuggets I heard during the class:

• From Quinton Quartel, "Don't just scale for scale's sake.? Ask how lean can we go."
• FAST is good at both scaling and de-scaling
• In the one collective doing both discovery and delivery, designers weren't yet as comfortable working with inline discovery alongside the delivery work
• The recommendation in FAST is to use single-track (discovery and delivery items in the same collective at the same time) instead of the more traditional dual-track approach (discovery is often an iteration or more ahead looking at defining future delivery work). The general philosophy is "Work is just work."
• Value cycles, which are the short time boxes in between collective sync meetings, are most commonly 2-2.5 days (although you should use whatever length works for your collective)
• Do conversations with customers whenever you need to versus having to schedule them at repeating intervals
• FAST focuses on resilience and adaptability - "That's why FAST is a game-changer."
• Adaptive capacity - this is becoming more important in an ever more complex environment
• "Use whatever you need" - not one way to do it - indicative of the philosophy of self-organization and adaptability
• One testimonial that caught my attention: one engineering manager was quoted as saying, "In our fully remote workplace, this is the closest I’ve felt to being in an office." That's a pretty eye-opening statement.

Going into the class, I really wanted to analyze whether FAST can be a bridge to product-thinking and single track discovery and delivery. I also wanted to consider if FAST supports the parallel consideration of multiple solutions until we know enough to double-down on a single solution, likely in conjunction with continuous discovery and opportunity solution trees?

After attending the class, it seems like there is potential in using FAST along with continuous discovery principles to have a single track for discovery and delivery. What I didn't see in the case studies, but what I think is quite feasible in the future, is being able to hold multiple solutions in semi-active consideration while proceeding on some level of delivery on one or more of the solutions. Being able to actively consider multiple solutions to a customer opportunity or problem will become increasingly important the more complex our world becomes and the more unlikely that true certainty can be achieved in our product decisions.

It may be that most of that multiple solution consideration is held together visually in the opportunity solution tree (discovery-oriented) while there is one discovery tree (FAST) for each solution being actively worked on in delivery. The future will tell us exactly how this will work, but I think there is enough there within continuous discovery habits and FAST that gives me confidence someone will figure out the best practices of how to do this well.

If you are interested in attending a future class, here is information about the course. The FAST community also has a wonderful set of Slack channels with frequent sharing of current experiences working with FAST collectives.

If you want to engage in a conversation with me about FAST and how it might be applicable in your environment, please DM me on LinkedIn, reach out via our website: https://www.practical-agility.com/contactus , or schedule a meeting at: https://www.practical-agility.com/book-an-appointment .

The Art of Leading Teammates

Although I always hate to see the summer end, fall is always a special time of year for me as it heralds the start of both the NFL and college football seasons. As many of you know, I am a proud University of Michigan alumnus and a huge sports fan. When I was browsing through the September-October 2024 issue of the Harvard Business Review , I was understandably intrigued that there was an article on leadership , one of my favorite topics, co-written by Tom Brady, a fellow Michigan alumnus and perhaps the greatest of all time NFL quarterback having won seven Super Bowls in his incredible career. While I was intrigued, I also was very skeptical about the article, suspicious that it was included mostly for Tom Brady's name recognition.

After reading the article, entitled "The Art of Leading Teammates" and co-written by Nitin Nohria, I can say that I was pleasantly surprised at the valuable insights shared throughout the article. Some notable takeaways from the article are:

• Leadership can and should come from all levels of the organization
• "Leadership requires trust, and trust usually comes from deeply caring about one another and the belief that winning is about the team."
• "Put the team first, always" - given the Tom Brady connection and the emphasis on team accomplishments (which he said was part of what he learned as a member of the University of Michigan football program), I'd like to reference a blog article I wrote a couple of years ago about being part of a team that features a famous pep talk by legendary former coach of the Michigan football team, Bo Schembechler, to add some visceral reinforcement of always putting the team first.
• "As I’ve gotten older, I’ve come to recognize that when people give me tough love and tell me the truth, it’s often the best sign that they really care about me." - this is an important part of leadership, knowing when and how to give honest feedback
• Every individual in your organization is unique - you should treat them in an appropriate manner based on their uniqueness
• Understand where incentives and other aspects of your organizational structure work against the values and behaviors you are trying to cultivate

I encourage you to read the article for yourself if you are interested in a unique perspective on the different ways of leading your colleagues and others in your organization.

Simply Agile

One of the people that I met during the #agile2024 conference was Nelson Ingle , the founder of Simply Agile , a “community of communities” where agile practitioners, coaches, and organizations can connect to collaborate and thrive together!? Nelson Ingle has a strong vision to create a richer virtual community for anyone looking to find others who are using agile practices to learn from each other, network, and collaborate.

Simply Agile recently achieved the significant milestone of reaching 1,000 community members!? As the platform continues to grow, I've committed myself to participate in the Simply Agile community.? You can connect with me on the platform where I am planning to post items on a regular basis.

I have also created coaching packages available through the Simply Agile Allies Network for those who are interested in engaging me to help further develop your capabilities as an organizational change agent.? If you want a partner to help you strengthen your change abilities and to increase the positive impact you have within your organization, I hope you will consider investing in yourself by selecting the right coaching package for you.?

Don't see exactly what you are looking for?? Reach out to me and let's talk to craft the right package for you.

As part of my commitment to the Simply Agile community, I am also offering a free mentoring call to Simply Agile members.? Make sure you take advantage of this opportunity if you are looking for a mentoring check-in.

I am also experimenting using the collaboration functionality in Simple Agile to augment the level of discourse for our Philadelphia Area Agile Coaching Dojo members in between our live events.? You can check out our sister group on Simple Agile: Philly-Style Agile Coaching Dojo .? Whether or not you are a member of our Meetup group, please consider joining us on the Simply Agile platform.? We plan to add additional events directly through the Simply Agile platform in the future, so stay tuned!

Media Matters

"An Agile Coach's Guide to Constructive Collaboration with Leadership" at the Agile Practitioners Virtual Special Interest Group Meetup - Back in July, I had the pleasure of leading a session entitled, "An Agile Coach's Guide to Constructive Collaboration with Leadership" with the Agile Practitioners Virtual Special Interest Group Meetup run by Alexander Frumkin .?

In this session, I highlighted into the best ways to partner with leadership to bring about organizational change.?? We discussed what leadership is concerned about and how to speak in a manner that captures the attention of leadership.

If you missed the session, you can view the full session here .? If you are looking for some key snippets to watch, here are two that may be of interest:

• A review of the organizational leader persona
• A conversation on how leaders view predictability versus adaptability when looking at deviations from an original plan

If you are interested in seeing the slides from the presentation, please reach out to me and I will share them with you.

Lightning Talk at Agile 2024 - "Product Development's Future at the Intersection of Product Discovery and Delivery"

The premise of my talk was that we, in both the agile and product development world, tend to focus too much on the efficiency of product delivery and not enough on the effectiveness of product discovery.? I concluded that given how much we need to improve in figuring out which features customers will actually find valuable and with AI technology promising some improvements on the delivery side, we will see product discovery and product delivery efforts begin to merge more closely together.

If you are interested in digging deeper into how your product discovery and product delivery efforts can move in this direction or learning about new metrics related to your capacity to quickly consider and evaluate potential product solutions, please DM me on LinkedIn , reach out via our website: https://www.practical-agility.com/contactus , or schedule a meeting at: https://www.practical-agility.com/book-an-appointment .

Upcoming Events / Happenings

Thursday, September 12, Noon EDT - Philadelphia Area Agile Coaching Dojo - In this meeting, we will be using a lean coffee format to discuss topics related to agile coaching that attendees choose collectively.? This is a great place to discuss situations you may be facing in your organizations and with your teams and a great way to get different perspectives from other members.?

This is intended to be a safe place where people of all skill and experience levels can improve through practice and observation.? The session is open to anyone who is interested in practicing agile coaching, no matter your title.? As this event is virtual, it is open to people in any location.?

This is a free, virtual event.? You can RSVP for the session here .

Tuesday, September 17, Noon EDT - Philadelphia Area Agile Coaching Dojo - In this meeting, we will be using an actual dojo format to break off into groups of 3-4 to practice our agile coaching chops in scenarios of our own choosing.? People will take turns being the coach, the coachee, and the observer.?

This is intended to be a safe place where people of all skill and experience levels can improve through practice and observation.? This is open to anyone who is interested in practicing agile coaching, no matter your title.? As this event is virtual, it is open to people in any location.??? This is also a free event.? Here is the signup for the event .

September 24-25, Cleveland, OH - Industry, the Product Conference - I'm excited to be attending this product management focused conference to keep up with all the latest product-related practices, experiments, and thought leadership.? If you are planning on attending this conference, please let me know so we can arrange to meet up during the conference.

Contact / scheduling info

If you have any comments about something you read in the newsletter or have suggestions for topics you'd like to see covered in future newsletters, feel free to DM me on LinkedIn or via our website: https://www.practical-agility.com/contactus .

If you'd like to schedule time to discuss a topic in an introductory meeting, you can schedule a meeting at: https://www.practical-agility.com/book-an-appointment .

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