How transparency can kill productivity in Agile teams

Can transparency work against productivity? A research study at Harvard shows how it can. Listen to this episode to earn insights from this study to create a conducive environment for healthy transparency and thriving Agile teams. You can read this episode on my Serious Scrum blog post on Medium here. Want to discuss this episode in a live webinar? Click here and register to join the author, Todd Lankford, to discuss transparency’s surprising effect on productivity. Todd will be presenting in a live webinar and Q&A on April 29th, 2021 at 11:30 am EST, hosted by the great folks at Retrium.

When you find yourself trying to make your situation perfect before you try Scrum, stop. Remember that Scrum itself is built for experimentation. You can read the post behind this episode here: https://medium.com/serious-scrum/scrum-newbies-how-long-do-we-have-to-wait-for-you-to-get-started-ac154e81da9c

PI Planning will not make you Agile. And it often works against your efforts to attain an Agile mindset. In this podcast episode, learn why this happens and what you can do instead of what PI Planning offers.  You can read the episode here: https://medium.com/serious-scrum/why-pi-planning-is-like-a-wolf-in-sheeps-clothing-580adf9c1134

Nothing replaces the collaboration, exploration, and grit necessary to emerge the “Right” product. In the end, OKRs are only another planning technique. Don’t be fooled into thinking they will make you outcome-driven overnight.  You can also read the post behind this episode on medium: https://medium.com/serious-scrum/how-most-companies-misuse-okrs-puts-them-on-autopilot-towards-failure-9c4a85d8450d

It's time to break through our barriers and start changing. You can read the post behind this episode here: https://medium.com/serious-scrum/whats-your-excuse-for-not-being-agile-d88009fa2035 

Do you separate Product Discovery and Delivery into two teams? Product Discovery and Delivery are better together. Listen to this podcast episode to learn more. You can also read this episode in my Serious Scrum post on Medium. https://medium.com/serious-scrum/we-need-one-complete-product-team-5d7508125505

Is fear in charge of your Scrum team? What are Scrum Teams to do if they don’t feel safe? Do they need to continue to be opaque and wait until their organization creates a safe space? Or is there another option? Let 2021 be the year you take back control.  You can also read the text of this podcast in my Serious Scrum post on Medium: https://medium.com/serious-scrum/how-fear-can-destroy-empricism-8b4aca7da0f

We have messed up. For too long, managers have not had a home in an Agile transformation. Excluding managers has created a huge impediment for embracing the Agile Mindset. We coach on removing silos, but we have created a manager silo. Transformations all over the world stall out due to this. To be Agile, we desperately need active engagement by Agile Leaders. You can also read this post in the Startup on Medium. https://medium.com/swlh/we-need-managers-to-become-agile-leaders-63632a116e73

Are you starting Scrum by only focusing on outputs? Listen to episode 3 of the Simply Agile podcast to learn how using Scrum for outputs without outcomes & team engagement is a mistake. You can read the blog post behind this podcast on Medium: https://medium.com/serious-scrum/how-an-output-focus-makes-teams-fail-at-scrum-cc37fbb0f9b5

The other coach asked, “If you could track only two metrics for an Agile team, what would they be?”  Listen to episode 2 of the Simply Agile podcast to see how I responded.   If you prefer to read the post, you can find it on Medium here: https://medium.com/serious-scrum/the-best-metric-for-your-product-team-f35cdd6b11f