One of the keys to successful agile teams is to emphasize handshakes over handoffs. In other words, as a leader in a distributed organization, you want to find ways for people to spontaneously connect …
A Distributed Team Stroll Through Agile2019
Agile2019 showed a subtle theme of supporting distributed teams this year. As you may have heard in some of the podcasts I’ve joined, our book on successful distributed agile teams was …
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Virtual Lean Coffee Chat
What is Lean Coffee? Lean Coffee provides a format for individuals to quickly self-organize a conversation on topics that are most relevant for those who show up. But what does Lean Coffee look …
Why You Want a BackChannel in Distributed Meetings
When I started facilitating my first distributed meetings, I ran into a problem that many encounter: my primary collaboration tool would fail. It usually involved one person "losing connection" or in …
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Remotely Agile: The Buddy System
Over the last 10 years, while learning how agile methodologies can work in different industries and organizations, I also discovered how I could help distributed teams work as if they were …
Deep skills not soft skills
Something that always makes me wince is the term "soft skills". Dictionary.com gives the following definition of soft: yielding readily to touch or pressure; easily penetrated, …