Improving Remote Team Collaboration

Improving Remote Team collaboration ?

When we look into the team collaboration during a pandemic, three things look like need to strengthen the team context and it is showing the better result for most of the teams, 

What are those? 

Building Trust

Creating a shared purpose

Building relationship among team members

First and foremost is, how the Trust factors are in place.

One Harvard study showed at just how effectively employees at high-trust organizations function and feel compared to employees at low-trust organizations, and the results are incredible. High Trust Organization employee contribution is higher!

Some of the factors which promote trust and need to concentrate on remote team members.

1. How well reliability factors are in place among team members? Can they depend on each other on various challenging times? Are they supporting each other to fulfill the common objective?

One of the fundamental ingredients to building trust among team members is to uphold each other at various up and down of the team members Journey. Let us focus on this.

Let us make this a number one rule

2. Accountability: Every team member should be accountable for whatever portion they are performing on. Nobody should be overloaded and nobody should feel that they are merely holding the maximum load. Every team member should put their finest effort to assure they are contributing to their highest level based on their capability.

3. Transparency: Share information openly with the team members. Work schedules, project growth, and task status should be accessible to all members at any stage. Everyone knows why we are selecting on what explanation? There should not be anything hidden.

4. Social activities: There should be an occasion, where every team member is discussing other than work. some moment where team members are exchanging their favorite topics, which promote the team to know each other better. A dedicated session or part of the session to be spent on an informal conversation.

5. Commitment: Commitment leads to trust. Plainly stated, if a team member guarantees to work out or demonstrate something, that individual should deliver on that promise. Gain commitment to taking care of the goals established by the team leader. Team members require to be committed to meeting deadlines because they have an understanding of the underlying strategy and how their individual tasks map into it.

6. Open communication: Apply many channels to associate with the team members. One-to-one to the conversation, group discussion, group chat, one-to-one chat, etc means. Ensure all the ambiguity clarifies and we are on the same page. Set the intention clear and establish team members to understand all these

7. Manage conflict, One of the critical to assure to enhance trust is to handle conflict productively. As a Leader or team members, we require to take care of our conflicts in an effective way. Handle any type of disagreement in a stronger manner so that all team members understand what we are accomplishing and why we are doing so.

Building shared purpose:

Success starts with an explicit and shared purpose, a vision of how that purpose will look when attained, and determining outcomes to accomplish that purpose. A competent team achieves concrete, complete results.

Without a shared purpose, virtual team members could simply concentrate on local tasks and interests while excluding joint endeavors to obtain organizational objectives.

One of the powerful steps for a remote team to establish is to build the team's shared purpose. We all require to recognize the impact of what we are creating because of our deliverables.

for that, we have to

1. Finding meaning for our work. How our contribution is leading to produce an impact? How the numerous end user’s life will be impacted due to our job! how it will produce end user’s life make pleasant. Discussing this all simultaneously as a team and capture those points for subsequent reference.

2. The outcome and Impact, all the teamwork and collaboration result in the impact we as a company we are producing. When we realize the stronger end product, we choose to feel joy, we prefer to find out the significant picture and impact we are establishing in this full picture.

3. Link personal goals with an organizational goal and align. Let us ask questions about our personal goal and analyze how much those are aligned with the organizational goal. Whatever the differences are their let us work it out by reviewing it with the supervisors.

4. Inspire and influence each other, at a different juncture. Let us look for the opportunity to inspire each other, influence each other for the performance and journey we are passing through. We create an ecosystem which is inspiring and energetic to continue on.

Building a better relationship among team members working in a remote system:

The stronger relationship among team members facilitates the team to assist with a better outcome

1) Deep listening: Are we using 2 ears and one mouth! are we really listening. The better approach to connect with others is to listen and understand what others are trying to convey. Be vigilant, Paraphrasing, and summarizing whatever we have figured out. Let us inquire if we are not clear or need accuracy. The purpose of listening to understand better the others.

2) Empathesize with others: It is a prerequisite in the relationship that we understand how others feel and be compassionate toward them. Accept other’s thoughts and acknowledge their message. During conversations, concentrate your entire attention and time on listening then doing whatever you can so the individual feels understood. To accurately perceive his feelings, you can propose questions: “It rings like you’re feeling discouraged. Is that true?” Or, “Is it reasonable to tell that you’re feeling optimistic?”

3) Ask questions, Asking questions is a wonderful way for you to listen and let the other person share. They will feel closer to you when they have shared about themselves and you demonstrate you’re engrossed in what they have to respond. Then share something about yourself so the relationship develops into a two-way interaction that can help establish a bond.

4) Share stories, in the conversation, please share stories related to work or other than work. sometimes the stories help the person who is listening or it could be interesting to know. It helps the conversation to go further and in a process, many things will come up for consideration which helps the people to connect better.

5) Helps other whatever possible ways when as a team member we always exhibited these traits, members will become more related to you in a stronger way. Think from that viewpoint that whatever may be big and small, we desire to support others always.

6) Keep commitment: Whenever team members say, something it is essential they should fulfill their commitment. The part of building a better relationship is to keep the promise and commitment.

7) Build rapport., Rapport forms the basis of purposeful, warming, and amicable relationships between individuals. According to researchers Linda Tickle-Degnen and Robert Rosenthal, when you have a rapport with someone, you share:

Mutual attentiveness: you’re both concentrated on, and engaged in, what the other individual is responding

Positivity: you’re both amiable and happy, and you demonstrate care and interest for one another.

Coordination: you understand “in sync” with one another so that you experience an accepted awareness. Your energy levels, tone, and body language are also identical.

When we take care of all these 3 conditions, remote collaboration among team members will considerably improve.

Giving P A U S E in your Conversation!

I pause for a moment by reflecting on Pause!

I have been using Pause for some time but unconsciously in our coaching conversation and training.

When I have come to know about the use of Pause, I feel wow! Now I have to use the same Pause Consciously!

In coaching, it is essential to give Pause! Why?

Silence is Golden!

Alan Alda says, “It is the space between the lines that make it a great performance.”

Why Pause?

Pauses can enhance delivery or be filled needlessly and perplex the audience. I had a mixed approach with Pause!

The pause permits the speaker to pick up thoughts before presenting the ultimate proposal: pause just before the assertion, figure out about what you choose to convey, and thus pass your final proposal with renewed power.

Pause prepares the audience to obtain your theme: pause and address the attention powers of your audience a rest. The thought that follows a pause is considerable higher influential than if no pause had followed.

Pause creates effective suspense: suspense can generate better engagement, curiosity in our coaching conversation. The crowd will choose to discover the resolution or what took place if you pause before the conclusion.

Pause after an essential thought: pausing gives the audience space to transform what you have just said before you advance with your transmission.

Pausing after proposing a query is again an excellent technique because it forces them to realize and mentally involves them in your conversation.

Silence is the sleep that nourishes wisdom. Francis Bacon

What are the types of Pause?

Use the sense pause to grant individuals to understand the original message and catch up with you.

Use the dramatic pause to establish a point that sticks in the audience’s minds.

Use an emphatic pause to highlight a significant objective.

Use the sentence-completion pause to establish a statement or quote a line in which everybody is conversant, thus let the audience answer it for you.

If there were a little more silence, if we all kept quiet…maybe we could understand something. Federico Fellini

Try it, it is tough!

But with practice Pause will become natural in our flow of conversation!

Strengthening Self-Organizing Cross-Functional Scrum Team

A cross-functional team is a group of individuals with diverse functional expertise working toward a shared objective.

According to the Scrum Guide, a cross-functional team is a team that is organized around a product, a defined portion of a product, a service, or a customer value stream, and must include all competencies needed to accomplish their work without depending on others that are not part of the team.

What are the challenges of establishing such a self-organized cross-functional scrum team?

a) Silos mentality( BA, dev, test, Support )

b) Communication issue( BA, dev, test, Support )

c) Competency issue( BA, dev, test, Support )

d) Alignment issues( BA, dev, test, Support )

e) Conflicts are very high ( BA, dev, test, Support )

f) Ownership and commitment challenges( BA, dev, test, Support )

g) Mindset issue ( BA, dev, test, Support )

h) Collaboration issues ( BA, dev, test, Support )

i) Blame each other

j) Trust deficit, etc

How do we minimize these? Any structural approach we have to consider?

Look at any team and we will see a mixture of behaviors and personalities. Sometimes the individuals in a team can be complete opposites of each other and there will be conflicts; Other times there will be synergy in the team.

The ‘process’ part of the team will be very dependent on the behavior preferences that team members display.

The management psychologist Dr. Meredith Belbin was one of the first people formally to identify the different roles that people play in teams.

He recognized that in teams there are individuals who take action-oriented roles.

Some team members are more people-focused and others more cerebral.

Effective teams are made up of different types of people and they consist of different types of roles.


The mix of role types that play in a team determines their effectiveness.

These roles are

Shaper, Coordinator, Plant, Resource Investigator, Monitor Evaluator, Specialist, teamworker, Implementer, Completer Finisher

Although there are nine team roles, this doesn’t mean that a team needs nine individuals in it to be effective. Individuals will tend to have more than one preferred team role, so will generally occupy more than one role in the team.

When we look for a cross-functional self-organized high-performance scrum team, which evolves after a long cycle of the experiential exploration, we require to look at these 3 factors how effectively it has been matured.

When we recruit team members, if we can balance with these 3 factors, it would be advantageous for them to grow into a high-performance team, as the team will be apt to resolve any challenges they come across.

When I encounter the best scrum teams, I could certainly locate the traces of all these roles in a team.

I could able to trace who is Plant? who is matching the role of coordinator? etc. I start improving if these roles are missing.

When we start coaching, we also nurture these roles, based on what are the gaps, and what can be done to minimize those gaps.

This is a very good structure provided to structurally do team coaching and look for an opportunity.

All the challenges listed initially will slowly resolve when we have all these 9 roles developed and depicted with the scrum team.

We mostly look for a Scrum Master who is having a mixture of all these roles

[ A ‘teamworker’ is generally co-operative, easy to get along with, perceptive, and diplomatic. They are good listeners and are able to smooth over areas of friction within the team. They help keep the team together, particularly during times of stress or pressure.

A ‘shaper’ likes to challenge and drive things forward, enjoying the pressure and the reward of overcoming obstacles. They are able to identify patterns in discussions and in work undertaken and use this to push for change.

A ‘resource investigator’ is likely to be enthusiastic and charismatic, communicating well with others. They are able to explore opportunities, develop contacts, and instigate relationships.

The ‘implementer’ is reliable and well-disciplined, often conservative, and efficient at getting the job done. The implementer is able to reliably turn ideas into practical actions, and strategies into defined and manageable tasks.

People who fulfill the co-ordinator role are generally confident and responsible. They functionwell as a chairperson, helping to clarify goals and establish priorities. They encourage others to make decisions by delegating appropriately. ]

Measuring the High-Performance team?

How do we start measuring the team performance “as-is” state before commencing the team coaching journey?

We require to start from somewhere which points out to us, what are numerous considerations which should start concentrating on during coaching to strengthening.

We may look into the below aspects highlighted here to strengthen. Do you recognize those?

Team members are passionate and unguarded in their discussion of issues? On a 1-5 scale, 5 being the highest, How do we want to rate ourselves.

Team members call out one another’s deficiencies or unproductive behaviors? on a 1-5 scale, 5 being the highest, How do we want to rate ourselves

Team members know what their peers are working on and how they contribute to the collective good of the team.? on a 1-5 scale, 5 being the highest, How do we want to rate ourselves

Team members quickly and genuinely apologize to one another when they say or do something inappropriate or possibly damaging to the team.? on a 1-5 scale, 5 being the highest, How do we want to rate ourselves.

Team members willingly make sacrifices (in their departments or areas of expertise for the good of the team? On a 1-5 scale, 5 being the highest, How do we want to rate ourselves.

Do team members openly admit their weaknesses and mistakes? On a 1-5 scale, 5 being the highest, How do we want to rate ourselves.

Team meetings are compelling, not boring? On a 1-5 scale, 5 being the highest, How do we want to rate ourselves.

Team members leave meetings confident that their peers are completely committed to the decisions that were agreed on, even if they were in initial disagreement? on a 1-5 scale, 5 being the highest, How do we want to rate ourselves

During team meetings, the most important—and difficult—issues are put on the table to be resolved? on a 1-5 scale, 5 being the highest, How do we want to rate ourselves

Team members are deeply concerned about the prospect of letting down their peers? on a 1-5 scale, 5 being the highest, How do we want to rate ourselves

Team members know about one another’s personal lives and are comfortable discussing them? on a 1-5 scale, 5 being the highest, How do we want to rate ourselves

Do team members end discussions with clear and specific resolutions and action plans? on a 1-5 scale, 5 being the highest, How do we want to rate ourselves

Do team members challenge one another about their plans and approaches? on a 1-5 scale, 5 being the highest, How do we want to rate ourselves.

Team members are slow to seek credit for their own contributions, but quick to point out those of others? on a 1-5 scale, 5 being the highest, How do we want to rate ourselves

Team members are taking a stand whenever it is required? on a 1-5 scale, 5 being the highest, How do we want to rate ourselves.

Team members are able to speak up when it is essential? on a 1-5 scale, 5 being the highest, How do we want to rate ourselves.

Team members are able to say NO when it is essential? on a 1-5 scale, 5 being the highest, How do we want to rate ourselves.

Team members do not hide any information and express what is relevant? on a 1-5 scale, 5 being the highest, How do we want to rate ourselves.

Team members express if they do not like anything ? on a 1-5 scale, 5 being the highest, How do we want to rate ourselves.

Team members respect each other opinions? on a 1-5 scale, 5 being the highest, How do we want to rate ourselves.

team members are always contributed to their shared goal? on a 1-5 scale, 5 being the highest, How do we want to rate ourselves.

Team members are measuring team performance and course correct? on a 1-5 scale, 5 being the highest, How do we want to rate ourselves.

Team members are able to finish their own assignments? on a 1-5 scale, 5 being the highest, How do we want to rate ourselves

Team members are able to fix the issues if any surprise unplanned issues come up? on a 1-5 scale, 5 being the highest, How do we want to rate ourselves

Team members have established a set of ground rules and guidelines for team performance and behaviors? on a 1-5 scale, 5 being the highest, How do we want to rate ourselves

Team members express disagreements constructively? on a 1-5 scale, 5 being the highest, How do we want to rate ourselves

Team members follow through on decisions and action items? on a 1-5 scale, 5 being the highest, How do we want to rate ourselves

The team leader has a process for sharing information with all team members? on a 1-5 scale, 5 being the highest, How do we want to rate ourselves.

Ref: Lencioni’s 5 Dysfunctions of a Team

How do I Improve my Emotional Maturity?

This is one of the core competencies as a coach everyone is looking for - Emotional Maturity.

As a coach, we should have better emotional control.

Research at the National Institute of Mental Health by Candace Pert has demonstrated that emotions are particularly intimately related with neuropeptides, long-chain protein molecules that circulate throughout the organs of the body and act like “messenger molecules,” conveying information about what is happening in one part of the body throughout the entire system.

In her book, Molecules of Emotion (1997), Pert considers emotions to be a transformative link between mind and body, the mysterious quantum mechanical interface where information turns into matter and our bodies synthesize the chemicals of consciousness.

Emotional states such as anger, sorrow, depression, and joy can be influenced and even directed by us. Controlling the same is not easy. They do not work like switch! On or off!

In 1972, psychologist Paul Eckman suggested that there are six basic emotions that are universal throughout human cultures: fear, disgust, anger, surprise, happiness, and sadness.

In the 1980s, Robert Plutchik introduced another emotion classification system known as the “wheel of emotions.” This model demonstrated how different emotions can be combined or mixed together, much the way an artist mixes primary colors to create other colors.

In 1999, Eckman expanded his list to include a number of other basic emotions, including embarrassment, excitement, contempt, shame, pride, satisfaction, and amusement.

As a coach, we have to have better control of our Emotion.

What should we do to control our emotions better way? Same we can share with team members when we find the need improvement in emotional control.
For news of the heart, ask the face. -West African saying

Some of the things that I ampursuingg to control my emotions.

a) Avoid the trigger: Iinvariablys write down andobservee what triggers the emotional hijack. I actively watch out for all these trigger points. I consciously visualize later that how well I have to perform to avoid such triggers.

b) Express the emotion to someone: I have a few trusted companions whom I express my emotional expression whatever it is. After that, I feel Great. I have to vent out all these emotions, I do not bottle those up.

c) I tried not to react but this is something I am practicing to respond. Sometimes situations trigger me to react to others. I am practicing hard consciously to improve.

d) When I felt I am not able to control my emotions, I tried to think something else, keep quiet for some time! even in the middle of the discussion. I change the thoughts, think something different esp ocean, cute animals, etc.

e) Write a note about my emotional experience: A good retrospect on a notebook about an emotional journey help me to discover the emotional strengthening exercise.

f) Breathing, I do deep breathing exercises during the emotional high or low state,. It helps to divert attention to the breathing and control the emotions.

g) I am a believer in supernatural power. Sometimes it helps me as I have faith in place there. I ask for support, and I get the same.

h) Few quick physical exercises to change of blood flow in body! Exercise helps to better emotion control.

As all of us know it is not so easy, it is a life long endeavor to mature our emotional state. People say we will be happier when we have better emotional control.
“A man who is master of himself can end a sorrow as easily as he can invent a pleasure. I don’t want to be at the mercy of my emotions. I want to use them, to enjoy them, and to dominate them.” - Oscar Wilde (1992, 88)

Why Customer Collaboration is Painful? How can we improve?

James is an Agile Coach. He has picked up his current assignment for Agile Transformation for large product development.

One of his observations was business or customer was no way involved in product solutions development.

They were far from the product development teams.

Team members were tried to invite the business and customers to share their insight with the PO, but the PO was not accessible most of the time.

Business does not find any value to involve themselves with IT on the solution side. They want results!

IT is an expert in building IT solutions and the Business wants to keep themselves aways for all these discussions.

Team members were not able to appreciate what they are developing and how those solutions will be consumed by the end-users. They were struggling to visualize the end-users’ usages of the systems.

Team members discover issues later the course of the development proceeding in feature delivery flow.

In today’s digital era, we have to build the first time right product as often as feasible. When the customer has been involved in co-creating the end solution, it is very much likely we may succeed in this approach.

James had an incredibly challenging assignment as an Agile coach to address this issue. How to enhance customer engagement?

One of the Agile Values says,

Customer collaboration over contract negotiation

One of the principles says

Business people and developers must work together daily throughout the project.

Now, where are the business involvement? How to expand?

After several months of close scrutiny, James discovers there are many impediments in the organization which is not supporting the customer to come to close to the IT organizations.

One of the blockers is Organizational structure.

IT and Business are 2 building blocks.

One invests money to build products, and another builds the products.

As everyone needs capital to exist, IT always seeking funds.

So Businesses, as they are generating revenues, are invariably in upper controls. There is always conflict and wrestling.

In the end, who has money they dominate in the argument! else fund will go somewhere else! Nobody dares to pinpoint such an issue which is slowing down the organization.

There are many people who are playing the interface role. There are many roles created to complete these jobs. All these roles are a very senior role, and their everyday activities involve managing the same. Both of the IT side and the Business side. They are gatekeepers, enablers, and messengers from both sides of the wall in the product development flow!

Those employees are feeding the business organization. The business is pretty comfortable with these jobs. As they are not directly involved and information is also fed to them. They were protecting each other and defending each other roles.

87 percent of organizations agree on traditional experiences no longer satisfy customers. (Source: Accenture)

86 percent of employees and executives cite lack of collaboration or inadequate communication for workplace failures (Source: Salesforce)

James had an arduous task to break, these communication barriers, and establish a strong agile team by dismantling these barriers need to find out. He involves a third-party consultant to undertake this assignment.

He & the consultant did a value stream mapping workshop to understand the execution speed. And figure out where most of the time consumed. He had found that as too many layers are involved in between development teams and business stakeholders, the time taking is remarkably significant.

The new team of Change agents has recommended a new lean organization. The layers in between, people/roles in between have been optimized. Team members should be able to access direct customers with minimal layers and communication barriers.

Initially, customer representatives(Business) were not comfortable with these new ways of working. There were many unknown initially. But with an appropriate workshop and hand-holding, they started feeling comfortable. There was a lot of top pressure as the Business people were not enthusiastic to participate in such events. For a substantial period of their career, they were not done with such work. They are more comfortable with domain work. They would love to continue to play the role of end-users of the IT system. They feel lost when we talk about IT jargon.

Earlier model customer representatives are in the upper hand. They were the receiver of the solution. In that model, it was natural to get into conflict and blame mode. Team members used to waste a lot of time in mail exchange, in meeting to demonstrate who is right. As customers used to pay money, they used to dictate the discussion. This creates disappointment, dissatisfaction at the team level. Their KPI was different. By collaborating with the IT product development team, they were not getting many benefits. All these aspects had to alter with the new model.

Leadership was not convinced for long to let their business people involve IT solutions building. After several rounds of benefits realization discussion, these factors are obvious that at a certain % of their involvement to start with and incrementally we can expand based on the demand. The pilot approach demonstrated the issue of discovery at a subsequent period has reduced with this fresh approach. This leadership is again convinced that it is workable and value-added. Once leaders are agreeing, it considers much natural to coach the business team members to collaborate with IT.

The change management team has submitted to optimize some of these roles and direct, in small size connectivity with the development team members. E.g. the Earlier model, many large size flow of requirements were handled by the many business representatives. Now Few large size flow of requirements were managed by a few business representatives. It was comfortable for business people to deal with volumes and sizes. It was easy for the development team members to instantaneously access the business.

New roles and responsibilities for this new structure has been clearly defined. There were autonomy and commitment improved among team members for this new structure. With the help of the agile scrum model team members are able to rapidly minimize the risk and demonstrate the progress.

Various automated tools have been used to establish there is complete transparency of product development flow. Product team members are able to clearly view the bottleneck and eliminate rapidly. Business stakeholders were are having concerns if they have to spend more time with IT or not. But with the right structure and eliminating ambiguity through tools, everything is unusually apparent. Who is going to do what, by when? The frequent synch has have diminished any such issues.

Scrum team members are a coach to accept, support, and welcome the business team members. They were encouraged to inspire the business team member’s participation in the initial days. They handhold the business respectively for initial days. The redundant roles were coming in the middle layers of the development flow e.g proxy roles, interface roles either they have been moved to the business side or in other teams similar business side roles.

Rewards and recognized as a whole team. The complete teams win when they were able to build features at every sprint level. The entire chain of product development is celebrating success and taking the blame for failure. The measurement indicates the improvement team is making, The satisfaction index has progressively raised to substantiate this new model.

It took James and his team to optimize the structure and improved the customer engagement for 6 months to one years with many activities, discussion, workshop and pilot, etc work.

The top leaders’ blessing and good change agents were key in this drive.

There was considerable value, speed improvement has been observed in these unique ways of working.

Organization Change Operation for a Fresh Drive?

My friend recently joins an organization as a Change Lead! New Position different office and unique change manager!
We were informally reviewing what are the factors we should study out and how can we set ourselves for success.
He takes up an assignment to know further about his new organization, to understand further about them so that he can position himself better.

He was a part of the team which is performing satisfactory, it seems. My friend wants to know the stuff “as it is”, so that he can perform the desirable change management proposal. To function better in the organization he has to recognize the as-is state of the team culture & Organization culture.

What he was using is called “The Cultural Web”, which identifies six connected elements that help to make up what Johnson and Scholes call the “paradigm”–the pattern or model–of the work environment.

I was not cognizant about this model, but when he was explaining, I felt wow, that is how it can help individuals to set themselves initially in a structural way which is a marvelous approach.

What precisely are all these factors to look upon?

1. Stories and Myths: Lookout all the previous and current stories going on within the organization about the organization? Note down all these points without analyzing anything. Just collect as initial days. More is better. Through these incidents try to capture organization values, beliefs, etc, and why with how part.
Collect & Write about 20 pages on these stories & Myths. It will provide remarkably valuable insight.

2. Rituals and Routines: Observe and Collect daily actions and behaviors of individuals within the organization. Participate in numerous informal and formal meetings and note down different levels of discussion, roles in how people behave, exchange, and exhibits.
3. Symbols: The visual representation of the company; how they show up to both employees and individuals on the outside. It includes logos, office spaces, dress codes, and sometimes advertisements. How the organization and team feel about the symbols, logos, and colors.

4. Control Systems: Collect all the points through which the organization is getting controlled? The quality system, customer base, products, cash flow, etc how all these elements control the whole organization or different teams. These give valuable insights into the organization flow. How about the teams, team members getting punished, or recognized by whom for what? etc

5. Organisation Structures: Read out the prevailing organization structure. Unwritten power and influence that some members may exert, which likewise indicates whose contributions to the organization are most appreciated by those above them. Where the power centers, why, and how those influence the numerous decision making.
6. Power Structures: Note who are the individuals, are those who hold the strongest influence over decisions and commonly have the ultimate say on significant actions or changes.

Now he has gathered all the intelligence, So what?
As he is a Change agent into the new ambient, by integrating this system of analysis, he can identify himself and will be adequate to break free of ritual and belief systems within a company to achieve real change and innovation.

Whenever there is a fresh initiative that can start we need to address most of these below areas. The below areas are vital as this is how organizations operate. This is what culture is about.

For example, there is an initiative from Projectized organization, we have to move to the Productized organization. This is a new change organization that is willing to bring in to overcome some of the anti agile practices and raise the business agility in the delivery team.

1. Stories and Myths: What are the numerous challenges “projects based” approach experiences, What new stories we can bring into? How can rewrite some of the old stories with a new productized concept? Internally and externally what are the new development due to productized approaches can bring into.

2. Rituals and Routines: The projects based funding, execution, etc, what are numerous routine is going to transform when we move into the productized approach? What the platform we have which can communicate these changes in ritual and routine, explains betters. Who are the individuals who are responsible to bring those changes in rituals and routines?

3. Symbols: What are the new colors, logo for in product-based approach will look like. How do we advertise and brand within the team environment? The change from Project to product approach should have an original look feel and transmit some clear message.

4. Control Systems: What is the formal and informal approach to the new change. The pilot of the productized approach in a certain team, how the progress will be presented by whom etc information needs to be presented. How the decision will be taken and by whom need to highlight.

5. Organisation Structures: What will be the structure of the productization initiatives. Who are the core team members and who will make the pivotal decisions? A formal and information structure of the team members serving to fulfill some of the activities.

6. Power Structures: Who are the investors in this productization drive. How success will look like. Who drives through this approach?
This provides a structural thought process on how to roll out the change management plan for an initiative where success will be high as we are aligning with the organizational cultures.

All these aspects need to look into when we introduce fresh changes to the organization.

In this procedure, we are also taking care of the present organizational culture.

As the cultural paradigm influences and is influenced by the six inter-relating factors of the model, each aspect should be considered in terms of mapping out and designing the necessary changes (Johnson et al, 2011).

Understanding the dominant culture permits consideration of whether or not change can be accommodated within the culture of any given labor ward. Alternatively, if this is not possible, a shift in culture is definitely required (Johnson et al, 2011).

It also allows identification of what is problematic about the existing culture, indicating the type of change required and highlights aspects of culture that act as facilitators or block change (Johnson et al, 2011).

We all can try this? see how this approach enables us to become better whatever we are working on.....

How do we engage Product Owners or business owners at scrum events?

Most of the team members complain that their Product Owners and diverse business stakeholders are not actively partcipating in various scrum events.

They always ask for status information at the end of some intermission.

They are illiterate about the challenges team members are facing.

They are consistently seeking solutions, not interested to identify the team challenges, They invariably indicate that they are extremely busy and no time for such an arrangement.

It is crucial that we should co-create the solution with the Business. But business is not concerned to work out on such a thing. It is a challenge that every scrum team facing.

What will happen to such scrum team where Business stakeholders are not at all involved!

The team needs to demonstrate the benefits PO and Business owners will receive by investing time and effort. How PO & Business stakeholders will gain visibility, benefits due to scrum events participation. They should feel psychologically safe as IT is sometimes foreign to them. The team needs to onboard them with comfort. “Handle with care!”

We have few rules to adhere to which has established the sign of PO & Business stakeholders’ engagement gradually.
The facilitator has to steadily pursue this practice to be adhered to for some moment.
Rules of engagement do not have to be lengthy, but they must fit into team members or extender team members and be welcomed by all the team members.
Ensure PO/business stakeholders feel significant and relevant to the team’s needs.
Acknowledge their contribution and time spend on the team.
All product owners or business owners must participate in most of the scrum events( Convey repeatedly to them).
They must be shown an enthusiastic interest in what is going on with the project team. Try to establish that curiosity in their minds by doing some activities.
Ensure they have reviewed and contributed to the product development journey.
In the project learning session, PO/BO engagement challenges and progress need to examine. Come out with action points.
Every team member identifies points that can strengthen the Product Owner and business stakeholders’ engagement.
Each team members need to demonstrate that they do care about their PO and business stakeholders’ participants.
Have fun in the Scrum events, let us not merely talk business but some other topics also require to discuss. Plan such topics as a part of the discussion.
Respects their time. Facilitate well so that in minimal time, everyone can get maximum output.
Exercise all the tools to build transparency and visibility & Challenges etc information captured well.
Share your views and concerns in the room. Show each other courage and respect by including the tough conversations that require to be had immediately.
Ask better and thought-provoking questions. Ensure you have performed better home works and you have all the data to reinforce your conversation.
Be a good listener and empathize with the business stakeholders.
Manage negative feedback effectively. Sometimes, the team may get negative feedback from annoyed business stakeholders.
Demonstrated as a team, your dedication, commitment, and ownership always to business stakeholders
Do not attack, people, address the underlying process for improvement.

Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much. - Helen Keller

Coaching Rotten Apples?

As an Agile coach, it is too part of our exercises to identify the bad apples from the team.

If we have to establish a high-performance agile team, we require to work out this exercise. It is not only reporting manager jobs, you as a coach desire to support the manager to surmount this crisis.

How can we help the bad apples so that other apples also do get rotten!

Else all the coaching efforts will go in vain!

We have to rapidly stop bleeding to recover the team!

As the traditional maxim goes, one bad apple can spoil the whole barrel

It merely takes one “rotten apple” to influence employee engagement across your whole business. If you place one bad apple with other few good apples, it has been discovered over a period of a timeline all apples will be started becoming bad! It is an absolutely genuine fact.

First, identify those bad apples, there is a diverse school of opinion suggesting, there is no bad apple, it is the only circumstance which creates those bad apples, once you alter the condition they will spiral into a Good apple.

As a coach, we need to understand all the circumstances which induce those. It is part of the assessment and we are liable to turn a team into a high-performance team. Also a part of change management activities.

a) Find the individuals who spend most of the time complaining about the system. Whenever they comment, it commences with a complaint. Looks for the evidence if he/she has done anything to alter the situation. Or just grievance!

A recent study organized by the University of Washington Business School examines just how much damage one bad apple can inflict. The study, published in Research in Organizational Behavior, reveals that in the presence of bad apples individuals aren’t as willing to handle problems that arise, don’t communicate with one another, and generally stop functioning as a team—not a great recipe for high performance and productivity.

Let us find if such bad apples are not passing from one team to others

b) Need to coach those Bad apples. Emphasize and try to understand what kind of challenges those individuals are dealing with. Talk to the reporting manager about the strength and weaknesses of those individuals. Need to observe them thoughtfully and ask managers to talk periodically about those individuals. Provide feedback for the progress.

c) Most of the time those individuals are street smart individuals. They know extremely well how to play the game in the system. Dialogue and agreement with such individuals have to be recorded and set the expectation very precisely. Measure the outcome based on their contribution. Need to involve reporting managers in any such arrangement and improvement plan. The goal has to be SMART and evaluate with the right feedback for such individuals.

d) Those individuals have not polished themselves to stay relevant with the modern technology trend. To come out of the inability they will try to distract the attention or discussion in some other way. A coach needs to talk to those individuals structurally. Need to convey what they can contribute in 6 months and a 1-year timeline to upgrade their knowledge gaps. Coach them and update their reporting managers.

e) Those individuals(Bad Apples) due to some reason have forgotten the passion, aspiration to establish something significant. As a result, they are not capable to match the expectations organizations are demanding from them. Some way the innovation speed has diminished a contribution has come down. They have to rekindle the fire within themselves to create something worth it. Need to understand their world and point out the modern way of thinking so that they can become self-driven to rehabilitate their world.

f) Communicate to their Manager, sometimes, the ecosystem push to those team members to move to this Bad apple state. Understand what action Mangers are performing for those team members. Observe the manager’s management style and look for opportunities if we can help those managers to modify some of their styles which is not aligning with Mentoring, supporting, coaching style of leadership.

g) Coach other good apples to help the bad apples in all the desirable ways. There could be a timeline for those bad apples to turn into Good apple. Organizations can assure that there is enough support system in place, by using these approaches a Bad apple can turn into a good apple. All the other team members require to serve those bad apples by coaching, mentoring, and training based on their capacity. The coach and Reporting manager can discuss and measure improvement and progress.

h) Most of the time, bad apples will not walk the talk. These are truly typical symptoms. They will talk loud and tall. But their contribution is absolutely minimal. It takes courage and wisdom to catch hold of such individuals. As a coach, we do not stand for any such confusion. Looks for improvement, contribution, and the impact they are making month on month. Regularly update their reporting manager regarding the action you are taking for those bad apples. How those individuals are performing in their day to day progress.

i) Look for the cues from the team members, who are not taking many activities, watch for the individuals who are having maximum excuses most of the time, Looks for the individuals who are not able to accomplish their activities most of the time and what reason, look for the individuals in the meeting says many different ideas but not able to contributes as the expected level, talk to the team members. These are clues where we can make out who are the bad apples. They are great manipulators so search for those clues and reach the bad apples to diminish the damage rapidly.

I am sure you are also coming across such individuals, Let us all find those and help the organization to be a better place to work for. One day those apples will turn into a good one.

Why I am not taking Accountability?

When a high-performance team falls back to the normal team?

Accountability is the issue! If you can't find a way to get people to be accountable, you're going to find it hard to make anything else work, let alone your business. Robert Lebow; Randy Spitzer, Accountability

One of the pivotal issues I have noticed which are stopping the team to become High-Performance team is, about accountability from each team member.

I am finding leaders are screaming every issue because team members are thinking like silos, not owing end to end deliverables, criticizing each other, finding fault from each other, etc

Accountability is a statement of personal promise, both to yourself and to the people around you, to deliver specific defined results. Brian Dive, The Accountable Leader

Lack of accountability is absolutely contagious!

When we encounter our team members are not taking up ownership, our mind like viruses get infected with the same thought.

It spread like wildfire! Except for a few high energy passionate individuals, rest all to start defaulting in ownership.

When we are accountable, we take ownership of situations that we are committed in. We see them through, and we accept responsibility for what happens–good or bad. We don’t blame others if matters go awry. Instead, we do our finest to make things right.

When did Leaders fear to empower team?

When they think that team can not fulfill the deliverables which have an immense consequence in the outcome.

The moment leader realizes that team is owning and taking end to end accountability of the aftermath, leaders will slowly empower the team members. Else Control and Micromanagement!! Be content with this if you can not modify your ways of taking ownership!

When individuals don’t accept accountability and things commence going awry, as they don’t feel ownership they move into spectator mode and observe as things fail.

Whereas when individuals take ownership, if things start to go wrong, then they step into solution mode. They commence to try and figure out what’s going wrong, investigate and fix it.

Behavioral change expert, Peter Bregman, presents it effectively in his HBR article on accountability: “Accountability is not simply taking the blame when something goes wrong. It’s not a confession. Accountability is about delivering on a commitment. It’s the responsibility to an outcome, not just a set of tasks. It’s taking initiative with a thoughtful, strategic follow-through.”

Why Team is not taking accountability? How can we enhance the same?

A team’s success depends upon accountability.

It is a leader’s responsibility for designing a culture of accountability on the team. All the team members require to inspire for a common purpose and big vision. Team members require to be hooked into the common mission.

As a Leader, we have to assign accountability to the team members. They need to know that if something happens to the end result, they have to take end to end ownership.

As Leader, we require to be clear about what we are expecting. Team members are not taking accountability because they do not know what is expected of them. There could be a possibility that they do not know what to be done, as they are not competent to perform the same. Leaders need to be a mentor for them to ensure there will be assistance, but deliverable need to show up and all of us are responsible for the consequences. It is not to blame some, but to strengthen the ownership of the given assignment.

As a Leader, we need to ensure, if team members are not over-committed something. When we have too many things to be done, we occasionally can not express, but we stop taking accountability for some of the items. It is fundamental that we speak out and convey what will be the consequence to the team and leaders.

When leaders provide feedback, team accountability improves. Every team members need to express and take the feedback positively about what best can be done. Once team members know where they stand against the set expectations and leaders have given them actionable tasks to work on, it is easy for them to see a clear path for development and success.

Leaders when they establish control culture and micromanage, it generates a fearful culture. In the fearful environment, team members always serve for short-term gain. Their mind does not look for long term commitment, as they do not own the end result from their heart. As a leader, we need to create a fear-free long-term goal. No blame for any mistake, inspire, and encourage team members.

As a leader, we need to convey performance improvement points. No blame on individuals but analyze the performance gaps and what could be the steps to improvement. As a leader, we should not tolerate the poor performance and need to deal with structurally how to overcome those competency issues. Team members will feel more accountable as they are growing and will own the end to end outcomes. Understand the challenges employees are undergoing and try to coach them.

Teams keep leaders accountable for the goal. Individuals connected to no one can change the goal without accountability. John C. Maxwell, The 17 Indisputable Laws of Teamwork Workbook

In the VUCA world, things will not be very clear. All together, we need to have a mindset where we are figuring out and ensuring we do our best. This should demonstrate in our deliverables that we tried our 100% and we own the consequence.

I have visited many places in India. Every year we managed to travel to a different place to stay at. One of the stories which distinctly appear in my mind where I could discover the accountably of an individual was 100%. We were in Aurangabad to visit Ajanta and Ellora caves. The day I have booked the hotel, since day one, the individual ensures, everything goes smoothly. He ensures we get the finest room. The car he arranged, the driver we got, the places we visited, the foods and other activities that we did in Aurganbad was perfect. I have lost my sandals in Ajanta! the driver took us to the city and assure; we purchase my required sandal as well, other than sandal any other things also without any irritation. The end to end journey with very minimal affordable cost, the individual demonstrated the greatest level of accountability from his side. As a tourist, I felt wow commitment from that individual, which I yet to find another person like this. Complete end to end integrated service he has arranged for us.

I do see that when we are all accountable for what we are doing, things will start changing at the team level, we all need to look for this and remind each other, is there a possibility to improve the accountability whatever state we are in today?

Why These Guidebooks?

Why does Organizations choose to invest in YOU?

It is not requisite that you have excellent skills and knowledge; if you not are saleable!!

Others should also discover you, and they should get an interest in you.

And you should be useful to them! You develop an interest to those fishermen so that they move behind you to catch You!!

“Hiring people is an art, not a science, and resumes can’t tell you whether someone will fit into a company’s culture.” – Howard Schulz

Some of the outstanding factors which you can be ready with so that organization grabs you!

The organization chooses to invest in you based on the track record you have with the execution of a substantial scale critical program. Do you have any?

A track record is a key motivator for businesses or organizations to acquire you!

You have potential skills and knowledge which are profoundly significant in the forthcoming market and relevant to the prevailing technology trend.

You also have some indicator that you have exercised those skills and knowledge. The more hot the skills are, the higher demand you can create.

The organization is thinking long term by utilizing these skills they will build products and solutions and generate a lot of wealth.

They seek the opportunity and anticipate the potential use of those products and solutions which you will be capable to generate and will establish an impact on the same for the organizational bottom line.

“Dating and hiring have a lot in common.” – Scott Wintrip

What particular problem you will be solving for the organization. How significant is the problem for the organization, How efficient you are to solve those problems? How complex those problems which only you can solve?

Have you dealt with such problems earlier and how is wisdom? what is feedback from the people who have benefited from your service?

What is the unique strength you are bringing about this problem where the organization is searching for the solution?

You also require to ready with the proposal if the organization ask, what are the distinct way your skills and competencies can serve? What alternative approach you can apply to figure out these problems, etc?

If you have any failure in your current track record, that again benefits you to sell yourself to the organization, every experience affects.

You need to aware about your competitor and come up with a better proposal than your offering, which is unique and nobody has such a solution, you can bargain with the organization better

You should be capable to present your offering for 1 mins pitch, 20 mins pitch, and 1 hrs pitch about your key attributes and services flawlessly.

You should have business acumen about making wealth, how to exercise your skills and knowledge to build up the business.

What are numerous cultures, countries, and challenges you have struggled with, stronger is the story, they more attractive the story is, they will generate into more curiosity about your offering, so what is your selling story?

what is your current demand of yours in the market, can you show someway statistics to persuade? 

Organizations may pick up you and amalgamate with some other remarkable team members who have complimenting skills and establish a greater solution and service which you alone can not produce

“You need to have a collaborative hiring process.” – Steve Jobs

Organizations may take you, train you, and strengthen you for a grander mission, they have seen something which with limited investment can expand.

Are you warm up? are you watching at the horizon and strengthening yourself for those powerful people who can grab you?

Which Book Cover you will Choose? Please advice

Leaders, How to drive results from your work?

“Execution is everything.” –John Doerr

“You don’t get any medal for trying something, you get medals for results.” – Bill Parcells

We might have a perfect plan, great team members, but when we do not get the desire result, the leader has failed, and the team has failed.

So as a leader what are the skills we choose to polish which will assure that we drive for the result.

All the leaders who want to drive result they all have a common skill which they refined well. They consistently employ these skills to drive the result.

What are those skills which support leaders to drive result?

“Success is almost totally dependent upon drive and persistence. The extra energy required to make another effort or try another approach is the secret of winning.” – Denis Waitley

Effective leaders inspire team members to embrace the company’s mission and work hard to contribute to team success. 

Set stretch Goal: All leaders who drive for the result, formulate a stretch goal for all the team members and influence all the team members to accomplish the same. 

"One of the huge mistakes people make is that they try to force an interest on themselves. You don't choose your passions; your passions choose you." - Jeff Bezos 

Accountable: People should be accountable for their own work. If they are not serious, then work will not be done. A leader has to ensure team members understand accountability and impact on the end result. Leaders coach the team members if they meet any challenges with accountability.

Committed: Team members should be committed to their result, Leaders should look for the opportunity to help their team members to increase their commitment. Committed team members always keep their promise.

End in mind: Leaders begin each day, task, or estimate with an explicit vision of your desired objective and target, and then proceed by flexing your proactive muscles to make things happen. Leaders who drive for results always visualize the result, they search for all the opportunity to achieve the end goal whatever may be the challenges. 

Cadence and follow up: All the leaders who drive for the end result, they establish regular cadence with the stakeholders, seek for issues or bottlenecks and work to mitigate those.

Resilience: While executing there will be many challenges but leaders desire to demonstrate a bounce back mindset. Leaders should be able to rapidly come back to a natural situation. The leader who is high resilience is aware of situations, their own emotional reactions and the behavior of those around them. In order to manage feelings, it is fundamental to understand what is causing them and why. By remaining aware, resilient leaders can keep regulation of a situation and realize of fresh ways to tackle problems.

“He who would accomplish little must sacrifice little; he who would achieve much must sacrifice much; he who would attain highly must sacrifice greatly.” – James Allen

Curious and open mindset: All these leaders are Curious and ask compelling questions to discover what is progressing on at the ground level. They encourage the team members to accomplish the result by collaborating with them.

Communicate and stakeholder management: Leaders who drive the result, constantly communicate their expectations clearly and clarify if there is any ambiguity in the message. 

Motivate: These leaders realize the need of their people. These leaders connect and engage with their people so that these team members extend beyond their defined boundaries to accomplish the goal.

Taking care of the individuals: These leaders take care closely about their employees. Their well-being everything whatever it is require to achieve that. Leaders recognize the strength and weaknesses of all the team members and work based on that. 

Vulnerable: Leaders are vulnerable to all the team members in a process leaders establish a trusting relationship with other team members. Leaders accept they mistake and confirm that they do not know everything. With the team members they learn together.

“Be spectacularly great at what you do. Wear your passion on your sleeve and hold your heart in the palm of your hand. And work hard. Really hard.” – Robin Sharma

When we have all these setups and ensure every progress as expected the result will come.