Add "Project Weather" to your retrospective design to both "Set the Stage" and "Close the Retrospective". As an opening, it provides a useful segue into creating a shared story and begins the process of gathering data. As a closing, it illustrates any shifts in team members' perspectives that have occurred as a result of their collaboration in the retrospective.
To Prepare:
Create a pre-drawn flip chart with a heading at the top: Project Weather. Add hand drawn graphics across the top, like a sun coming out from behind clouds, clouds and rain, or even the occasional tornado! Divide the flip chart...
In December 2011, cbsnews.com published an article by Dave Logan, Ph.D., author of Tribal Leadership, suggesting that “work-life balance “ is a crock, an idea whose time has come and gone. Although I too have felt that this is an unrealistic ideal, I’m not so sure that I could clearly articulate what I do believe about this idea. I decided to take a look at some other current commentators writing about work and life balance. Here’s a sample of what I found:
David Greuse at Convergence Design, noted that “…we reject the notion of work-life balance, although...
As part of my commitment to my own professional development, a few months ago I attended a certification training program on effective practices in organizational change and leadership development. Although it required more time commitment than usual on my part, I found the experience well worth it. I would make the same decision again if I had it to do over. So when I heard that the Human Systems Dynamics Institute was bringing its HSDP Certification Training Program to Portland in January 2012, I wanted to share my experiences and how the HSD methodology has positively impacted my practice and my work with my clients.
Some months ago I read a fascinating article from the British newspaper, The Guardian, forwarded to me by a colleague who knows my interest in the area of what is commonly called “gender intelligence”, or the relationship between brain chemistry and structure and male/female behaviors. Written by Madeleine Bunting, the article claims that virtually all of the scientific studies purporting to show that there are indeed, biological differences between men and women, are either misleading or so badly bungled that their results have no merit. She claims that the so-called breakthroughs in neuroscience, genetics, and evolutionary psychology suggesting the feminist consensus of the last 30 or so years that gender is entirely a social construct may be inaccurate, simply wrong or bad science.
Our experience thus far has been that while self-organizing teams may enable the organization to operate from day to day without active management, a more integrated organization and more productive teams make the value-add of managers highly transparent and place a premium on specific leadership skills.
From Adam Light, Chris Vike and Diana Larsen. "Teamwork Required: Managing Agile Application Delivery in a Matrix Organization", Cutter Agile Product & Project Management Executive Update, Vol. 12, No. 19. October 2011.
For a free download of the article pdf, register at the Cutter site. You can also order reprints from Cutter to use...