Get Agile Podcast

Alex Sloley, Agile Coach, sits with Tomasz Wykowski from ProCognita to discuss how Scrum teams can learn the ‘whys’ of Scrum.

In this episode of the Get Agile Podcast, Tomasz Wykowski from Procognita meets with Dragan to deep dive into the unrealised consequences of async code reviews. Dragan shows how developers are often forced to work in isolation, and instead of forming one team, they become N teams of one person. Often, with different engineering cultures and coding practices.

“CI is developers’ behavior, it has nothing to do with running Jenkins,” says Tim Ottinger, XP coach from Industrial Logic.

Join Tomasz Wykowski from ProCognita as he sits down with Alexey Kryvitsky, Certified Scrum Trainer, Certified LeSS Trainer, and co-creator of Org Topologies. Together they discuss how to avoid making the implementation of the Agile framework as an organizational goal. Alexey introduces the concept of Org Topologies as a mapping technique to help companies discover where they are, where they want to be, and how to get there. He discusses two dimensions of the map, which are the scope of capabilities and the scope of work. Then he explains each of the four levels on both axis.

Intent-Based Leadership is a way of leading when we give control based on technical competencies and organizational clarity. Created by David Marquet, author of “Turn the Ship Around” it was popularized in the Agile community by Jenni Jepsen. Tomasz Wykowski from ProCognita interviews Jenni, on why Intent-Based Leadership works, and how to apply it.

“You need to make a distinction between which direction you’re going and what you’re going to do as a first step,” says Viktor Grgic, Certified LeSS Trainer.

“There’s no better or worse, there’s more awareness and choice,” says Pete, explaining the Leadership Agility model. He describes three main stages of self-awareness as a leader: Expert, Achiever, and Catalyst. Together, Tomasz and Pete look at each stage’s main characteristics, strengths, and weaknesses, analyzing how these leaders behave, make decisions, or create a strategy. Pete explains what hollow leadership is and how leaders shape culture. He also clarifies how reflections help leaders grow and how they can get feedback from peers, using systemic approaches such as 360 reviews, or informal feedback sessions.

Finally, they discuss leaders’ behaviors during stress and where the firefighting culture might be coming from.

Zuzi shares her story of becoming Scrum Master, what was her greatest challenge, and the biggest change she needed to make. She tells how coaching helped her on her path and how she now works with executives to help them find their dreams. They also discuss how confidence and courage are necessary for leaders to try new things, and how different types of leaders work with their teams.