Collaborative Leadership Team to offer LKU Certified Kanban Training in Minnesota

MINNEAPOLIS (PRWEB) MARCH 06, 2019

Kanban is a method of organizing and managing professional services work. It uses Lean concepts such as limiting work in progress to improve results. A Kanban system is means of limiting work-in-progress and signaling when capacity is available to start new work. This is known as a “pull system.”

"CoLeadTeam continues its commitment to helping the amazing organizations of the Twin Cities and the Midwest deal with the barrage of challenges to their survival” said Angela Johnson, Founder and CEO of CoLeadTeam. “Change is the only constant. The organizations that can learn and adapt the fastest, will be the ones that succeed. Working differently takes a combination of Training & Coaching. Organizations have smart, knowledgeable employees that need the time and the training to embrace and overcome the obstacles that this business climate will constantly throw at them."

The series of 3 classes build upon one another from team level work through multiple workstreams allowing an organization to progress as their circumstances dictate. COO and Product Owner, Teri Bylander-Pinke shared, “Kanban provides a lower barrier to entry for some organizations looking to improve their agility but who are unable to make required structural changes that Agile frameworks such as Scrum require. Offering Kanban will enable CoLeadTeam to help a wider variety of organizations.”

Accredited Kanban Trainer (AKT), Rand Eaton, adds “The Kanban method is an alternate path to Agility that organizations can use to balance their demand with their capability. Companies begin to see their organizations as workstreams providing value to their customers instead of have products that impact each other.”

To learn more about these programs, please contact us at: info@coleadteam.com

About Collaborative Leadership Team: CoLeadTeam provides the unique combination of Certified Training, Coaching, Customized Training, Assessments, and Ignite AgilityTM plans. Our core values are focused on optimizing Individuals and Teams, improving their ability to deliver valuable, working product. Agile & Scrum is useful for much more than software. We have experience using this for software, hardware, services, manufacturing, house flipping, and strategic decision making. For more information on our service offerings, please visit our website https://www.collaborativeleadershipteam.com.

Contact Collaborative Leadership Team: 
Teri Bylander-Pinke 
Chief Operations Officer 
Collaborative Leadership Team 
Teri@CoLeadTeam.com 
https://www.collaborativeleadershipteam.com/

Coaching "Up" - New ScrumMaster techniques

A common theme we hear among newly minted Certified ScrumMasters (CSMs) is their surprise that “coaching up” in the organization is part of their job. The official Scrum Guide (https://scrumguides.org/) is clear that the Scrum Master is a servant leader not only to the Development Team and Product Owner but also to the Organization.

What follows is usually the CSM gulping, nervously shifting their gaze or sighing.  When we ask them what’s wrong, they say things like “But I don’t know how to talk to a CIO, CEO, VP (fill in the executive blank).” “They won’t listen to me, I’m supposed to be neutral.”

The fact that the Scrum Master is neutral makes them the perfect person to talk to the organization’s leaders about the use of Scrum or Agile as a way to do work. The Scrum Master also escalates impediments to the Scrum Team’s success on their behalf within the organization.

Here are a few tips and reminders that may help:

·       Exhibit Courage: One of the Scrum values is Courage. Scrum Masters may need to summon up the courage to have necessary conversations with leaders. Remember the organization’s leaders are people too and why wouldn’t they want to know about something that is impeding a Scrum Team’s ability to deliver value to the organization’s customers?

·       Don’t Overuse the Scrummy Language: Scrum is far easier done than said. Leaders may or may not be versed in the vocabulary in the framework. Instead of saying something like - “The Development Team’s impediment to meeting their Sprint Goal is the company process” you could start with a question “If our procurement process is holding up the release of New Product X would you want to know about it?” Any leader vested in the organization’s success is sure to answer “Yes”. Follow with “Here are the details of exactly how that process is preventing our people from delivering that value as we speak.”

·       Be Brief in Messaging: A mistake many Scrum Masters make is approaching a leader in the same way they might approach a Development Team Member, a Product Owner or Subject Matter Expert. Depending on the level of leadership, sometimes they need items “bulleted” or rolled up. Come prepared to deliver your message in a few, short statements. If it makes more sense to ask a question as described in the previous tip and adapt accordingly that works also.

Collaborative Leadership Team recently joined forces with Michael Nir on this topic of how to influence when you do not have authority. Michael is a nationally recognized speaker and author who helps people learn how to have these conversations. Listen for Free to tips from Michael on our Ignite AgilityTM podcast.

To check out our upcoming course opportunities, head to our course schedule!