The Delivery Space

Making Difficult Conversations Easier

Drumroll, please…The latest Delivery Space Podcast is out and this week we’re talking about… Making Difficult Conversations Easier.Who among us relishes the thrill of a tough talk? Show of hands? Anyone? No? Didn't think so. We’ve all encountered scenarios where we’ve had to deliver bad news, ask for a promotion, a pay rise or even apologise for a mistake.These chats can turn even the bravest among us into a bundle of nerves. However, there are ways in which we can have these conversations to honour ourselves and the other person. Sharon Williams and Nisha Joshi were joined by the remarkable Sam Kiani who shared some helpful tips that we can put into action to help you navigate these conversations in a balanced way. Sam is a Change Alchemist, a Coach, Facilitator, Transformational Space holder with more than 25 years’ experience of delivering & leading change within both IT and the business, for some of the biggest Investment Banks where she reached Director level as well as entrepreneurial start-ups including my own.Throughout her career, Sam's experiences have revealed that the technical problems we face are never the things that hold us back and cause the most stress – it’s all in the way we work and collaborate – or not. Sam loves to help make working life better by helping Individuals, Teams and Leaders find their full capability, learn tools of successful collaboration and unlearn everything else that gets in the way of creativity, innovation and growth. Sam is also a yogi & bio-optimiser, trained by the Human Potential Institute, deeply looking into the factors that underpin exceptional performance, vibrant energy and radiant health.  Sam teaches performance breath work and mind training sessions both privately and for corporate clients.We delved into:The anatomy of a difficult conversation (6:25)The art of preparing for the dreaded talk (10:34) Managing emotions to stay present, express our truth, and truly listen (12:36) Turning the conversation into a positive experience (16:32) Tools to handle defensive responses (29:18) Join us in this enlightening conversation and empower yourself with these great tips!

The Artistry of Coaching Up

🎙 Scrum Masters & Agile Coaches - are you wanting to build impactful relationships with senior executives that you’re coaching ?Our latest episode of The Delivery Space podcast is a prime opportunity to pick up some super useful coaching tips!Sharon Williams and I had a delightful chat with Bob Galen 🇺🇦, Author of Extraordinarily Badass Agile Coaching: The Journey from Beginner to Mastery and Beyond, to discuss:⭐️The Artistry of Coaching Up⭐️Bob is an Agile leader, coach, author, speaker, and community builder.He has a knack for turning around struggling organisations, teams, and products in a sustainable and productive way. Bob is also a proven team builder and a servant-leader.For ~20 years, he’s been focused on leveraging agile methods as the best way to deliver software value. While not being a silver bullet, these methods simply work better than anything he’s tried.Bob is also a Certified Enterprise Coach (CEC) providing agile team coaching & training with a focus on Scrum+XP, Lean and Kanban practices.Our conversation included:🎯 Tips for building relationships with the exec so you can appreciate their vision, challenges and the organisation through their eyes. (09:42)🎯For those Agile Coaches and Scrum Masters who don’t necessarily have a management background, what steps they can take to advise senior executives when coaching up.(12:42)🎯 The push and pull elements of the coaching relationship (17:45)🎯 How reframing resistance allows Agile Coaches and Scrum Masters to build rapport, and a mutual understanding, so they can help organisations solve complex problems for customers and end users. (28:28)🎯 The importance of self-care for Agile coaches and Scrum Masters (35:22)Leave us a review and make our day !

The Meta-Skills of an Agile Coach

🎙️ 🚀 Exciting news! Our latest episode of The Delivery Space Podcast has landed, featuring an insightful conversation with Paddy Corry, a seasoned Agile Coach at ESW (eShopWorld), a rapidly expanding e-commerce business.🔑 In this episode, we explore meta-skills - the philosophy, attitude, and principles Agile Coaches operate from, shaping how they interact with their clients.This episode is brimming with insights on:📌 How Agile coaches can discern which meta-skill is needed for coaching situations 3:03📌 The Coaching Agreement and other tools that Agile coaches can use to frame the coaching conversation with teams and with leadership 8:46📌 Why Agile coaches need to be aware of their inner state, the energy that they are taking into coaching conversations and the impact of this on coaching conversations 20:32📌 The importance of reflection and feedback to evaluate how we show up as coaches 22:42📌 How to adopt the coaching stance of a disruptor, when we know it is needed but may not be received well 26:31📌 The range of stances we are comfortable adopting and recognising where we need further development 36:44Paddy's journey spans 20 years in software development, from developer to Scrum Master and Agile Coach. Currently, he's expanding his knowledge, pursuing Scrum Alliance Certified Team Coach certification, and the ICF's ACC certification. Paddy also writes for Serious Scrum on Medium.com. If you want to benefit from practitioners sharing their direct experiences on practice of Scrum and brining agility to organisations, check out Serious Scrum, it’s an invaluable resource.🚀 Working with the Lean-Agile Centre of Excellence team at ESW, Paddy is at the heart of a rapidly growing e-commerce business, guiding it to adapt and evolve through agile approaches.👥 Join us in this enlightening conversation and enrich your Agile Coaching journey! Follow Paddy here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paddycorry/Follow Nisha here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nishajoshi1/Follow Sharon here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sharon-williams-pmo/

Iterate to Great: Create a learning environment to raise Scrum team performance

🚀 🔔 The Delivery Space, New Podcast Alert: "Iterate to Great: Create a learning environment to raise Scrum team performance" 🎙️ This week, Christiaan Verwijs, co-creator of The Scrum Team Survey and Co-Founder of The Liberators, talks to us about how we can navigate the tricky waters of balancing customer needs with the pursuit of continuous improvement 🔄. 📝 Episode Highlights: The purpose and impact of The Scrum Team Survey created by Christiaan and Barry Overeem,(4:14) Revealing a scientifically backed model for Scrum team effectiveness, involving comprehensive data from over 2000 global Scrum teams (06:04) Mastering the art of balancing learning opportunities with the necessity of delivering value to stakeholders (10:57) Understanding the critical role of a learning environment for Scrum team's continuous improvement (11:47) Discussing the strategies Scrum Masters can adopt to foster a learning culture (16:25) The influence of Liberating Structures in shaping a learning environment (18:23) The effectiveness of The Coaching Centre software in driving improvements (23:00) 👥 About Christiaan: He enjoys igniting positive change in teams and organisations. He has an academic background in organisational psychology and software engineering. Together with Barry Overeem, he founded The Liberators, wrote the Zombie Scrum Survival Guide, spread Liberating Structures far and wide in the Agile community, and engaged in scientific research. Christiaan lives in Utrecht with Lisanne. He loves writing, software development, data analysis, reading, and learning. To date, he has worked with hundreds of Scrum teams and dozens of organisations.Christiaan's Linked in Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christiaanverwijs/Barry's LinkedIN Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/barryovereem/ Empower your team with the right tools and techniques to excel. #TheDeliverySpace #ScrumMaster #PerformanceImprovement #scrum #agile #continuousimprovement #learning #agilecoaching #teamcollaboration

Talking Yourself Into A New Career

🎙So you’ve come to the realisation that your current career path doesn’t fully satisfy you. But what comes after the epiphany? 🤔Figuring out next steps - whether that’s investing in a mentor, diving into a fresh career, or working on a side hustle, can feel like navigating a maze 🌀⭐️ Simon Minall-Burdett, opens up about his own journey, sharing valuable insights and real-life lessons on navigating career changes.He shares his very own story of how he talked himself into a new career from working in customer accounts to becoming a Principle Enterprise and Transformation Consultant with Improving in the US.Simon considers himself something of an 'accidental agilist' after being introduced to it fortuitously in 2013. This isn’t an episode about uncovering a secret 7-step blueprint or embracing intense daily workouts.This is a story of inquisitiveness, leaning on a nurturing network, bouncing back, and in Simon's words – administering the occasional "boot to the backside" to spur him on, when necessary!If you want to break free & reinvent, listen to Simon’s experience on the podcast to get some inspiration!Simon Minall-Burdett’s LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/simon-minall-burdett-49413887/In this podcast we discuss:🥘 Simon’s love of Curry - 1:36💡 The moment Simon realised that his career path was not satisfying him - 3:05🔍 How Simon started to express an interest in Testing and widen his net at work - 6:39⏳ A flashback to how Simon made an early breakthrough in Software Testing aged 10/11 - 10:53🤝 The support Simon received from his managers once he’d decided on his new career path - 13:24🌟 Stellar advice from Harry Redknapp - 14:15🚀 The daunting journey of a Scrum Master starting out with just a CSM - 16:39🎭 The stage presence Scrum Masters need to bring into the room - 18:45📘 Avoiding information overload whilst you learn - 25:36💼 How taking responsibility for our own learning also benefits our clients - 27:51🌱 The importance of resilience when changing career direction - 33:54🔗 How looking outward for support in the community, helped Simon advance in career 42:17Follow the Delivery Space on: Spotify & all other podcast platformshttps://open.spotify.com/show/2HW2Ni2ZAetmzUnqXFbZzD?si=Iwd9zcbtQiCqgGTziY-3Hw&utm_source=copy-link LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/77075379 Instagram ttps://instagram.com/delivspace?utm_medium=copy_linkFollow Nisha on https://www.linkedin.com/in/nishajoshi1/ Follow Sharon on https://www.linkedin.com/in/sharon-williams-pmo/

Scrum or Kanban? Does it have to be choice?

🚀A fresh episode of The Delivery Space podcast has landed, featuring our stellar guest, Helen Meek!🚀Scrum Masters & Agile Coaches! Do you ever feel like there's more you could do to boost your team's performance? The title "Scrum Master" may suggest a sole emphasis on Scrum, but that doesn't mean we're restricted from incorporating other methods to elevate team effectiveness. Helen Meek comes on board to discuss how embracing Kanban practices can lead to data-driven insights and unveil team enhancements that'll leave you questioning why you didn't give it a shot earlier 🤯.Helen is an outgoing and driven coach and trainer who is passionate about working with Individuals, teams and organisations on their road to agility. Helen has working with many varied organisations and teams in many different industries and brings this vast wealth of experience and knowledge to her training and coaching.Helen has a holistic approach to coaching operating with individual team members, whole teams, leaders, managers and executives across technical and non-technical departments. You will often find her working with clients on rolling out enterprise level Kanban or Scrum.Helen is proud to be an Accredited Kanban Trainer with the Kanban University (KU) and runs regular classes publicly and privately. Helen is also one of the few people to hold the Train the Trainer title for the KU. Not forgetting her roots Helen is a regular trainer for Agile and Scrum.Helen's Linkedin Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/helenjmeek/We discussed:1️⃣ Tackling misconceptions directly that it must be either Scrum or Kanban, as if they're in some sort of rivalry, rather than considering their potential to complement one another. (2:08)2️⃣ Helen’s direct experiences of why Scrum teams switch to Kanban practices - the good and the bad (3:21)3️⃣ No framework is a silver bullet. The importance of using your Scrum practice to the fullest extent and not just jumping from one framework to another, but dealing with dysfunctions and challenges as they come up. (6:10)4️⃣ Merging the worlds of the Agile advocates and Senior leadership whose aim is to grow and evolve their businesses (8:01) 5️⃣ Evolving through the Kanban Maturity Model to get consistent results and showing visibility of the flow work through the entire system. (15:00)6️⃣ Helen’s take on securing leadership buy-in when introducing new practices and ways of working. (20:11)Follow the Delivery Space on: Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/2HW2Ni2 LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-delivery-space/ Instagram https://www.instagram.com/delivspace/ Follow Nisha on: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nishajoshi1/ Follow Sharon on: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sharon-williams-pmo/

Dysfunction Mapping, Helping Agile Teams Thrive

🗣 Agile Coaches and Scrum Masters play a crucial role in overcoming dysfunctions within Agile teams. These dysfunctions can present as behaviours, or patterns that can hinder teams in their ability to work effectively, collaborate, and deliver business outcomes.⭐️ Michael Lloyd has created #DysfunctionMapping as a means to surface anti-patterns, monitor symptoms and help fellow Scrum Masters and Agile coaches tailor their coaching strategies, to ensure they are making lasting changes, and bringing the most benefit to teams and organisations. 🚀Michael joined us on The Delivery Space to talk about the Dysfunction Mapping method that he’s offering in a workshop format, to equip Agile Coaches and Scrum Masters to solve challenges faced by teams. Michael's Linkedin Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-lloyd-124621177/We discussed:📌 Michael’s motivation for creating Dysfunction Mapping (2:27)📌 Feedback on the Dysfunction Mapping tool from those in the community, that have used it (3:45)📌 Our early experiences as Scrum Masters (15:39)📌 Using the method to form a coaching backlog (25:06)📌 The importance of articulating our value as Scrum Masters and Agile Coaches (27:02)Make sure you follow The Delivery Space for more great episodes like this 🚀Follow the Delivery Space on: Spotify & all other podcast platformshttps://open.spotify.com/show/2HW2Ni2ZAetmzUnqXFbZzD?si=Iwd9zcbtQiCqgGTziY-3Hw&utm_source=copy-link LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/77075379 Instagram ttps://instagram.com/delivspace?utm_medium=copy_linkFollow Nisha on https://www.linkedin.com/in/nishajoshi1/ Follow Sharon on https://www.linkedin.com/in/sharon-williams-pmo/

Automation in the PMO

👉🏽Do you use automation to drive the maximum value in your PMO❔❔Automation allows team members to focus time & energy on the high value activities which in turn can help with more informed decision making from portfolio level to projects, deliver value to customers, boost overall morale and improve job satisfaction & staff retention. 💡We had the opportunity to speak to John McIntyre from Hot PMO 🔥 on all things automation! 🤖John heads up a niche UK project management office (PMO) consultancy, HotPMO, which promises to help organizations “deliver the right things, faster.” He has over 20 years of experience helping organizations deliver projects and programs that deliver business outcomes.You can get in touch with John on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnmcintyrepmo/We discussed:📌 What automation means in a PMO context📌 Where & how automation can add value in PMO’s📌 The link between use of automation tools & improved delivery of projects and programmes📌 Future automation trendsFollow the Delivery Space on: LinkedInhttps://www.linkedin.com/company/the-delivery-spaceInstagram https://www.instagram.com/delivspace/Follow Nisha on: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nishajoshi1/Follow Sharon on:https://www.linkedin.com/in/sharon-williams-pmo/

The Scrum Master and Product Owner Relationship

If you want to learn more about how the Scrum Master and Product Owner relationship is crucial to high performing teams, this episode is for you !On this episode, we are joined by Maarten DalmijnMaarten has been in the trenches for more than 10 years wearing many hats that are necessary to deliver value. Maarten Dalmijn has worked with many award-winning start-ups, scale-ups and corporations in various roles before taking the leap as an independent Product Management, Agile and Scrum consultant working with companies all over the globe.Maarten believes in 'less, but better'. Product management is about getting the right things done. It is easy to come up with a list of things to add to make something better. It is much harder to decide which things to leave out to make something better.Maarten Dalmijn’s LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/maarten-dalmijn/In this podcast we discuss:Examples from Maarten’s own career when the SM and PO relationship has worked wellWhy a sense of play is important to high-performing teamsImpact of Silos on this relationshipScaling and solving dysfunctions in an agile wayScrum Master - does the role name truly represent the function the Scrum Master performs today in the quest to bring more agility into their teams and organizations?Importance of data driven evidence to changes made to the Scrum GuideTips to deal with conflict between Product Owners and Scrum MastersBeing visible at high levels within Organisations to make the bigger impactsFollow the Delivery Space on: Spotify & all other podcast platformshttps://open.spotify.com/show/2HW2Ni2ZAetmzUnqXFbZzD?si=Iwd9zcbtQiCqgGTziY-3Hw&utm_source=copy-link LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/77075379 Instagram ttps://instagram.com/delivspace?utm_medium=copy_linkFollow Nisha on https://www.linkedin.com/in/nishajoshi1/ Follow Sharon on https://www.linkedin.com/in/sharon-williams-pmo/

What Makes an Effective Leader?

What Makes an Effective Leader ? Is it title, status, authority, the impressive salary and benefits, having all the answers or the ability to influence others and help teams work together for the best outcomes ? When life passes you the leadership mantle, what you do with it has a significant impact on the teams you serve.Authentic leadership is truly an inside out job and the ability to self reflect is key.Which qualities do you pull from within yourself to show up for your teams ?Our teams can become our mirrors.As leaders, when we hold ourselves to high standards, our teams get inspired and crush it !This week we are joined by Pete Brown. Pete Brown’s LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pbrown3Pete has been a senior leader for over 25 years, working with global clients across retail, financial, hospitality, logistics, travel, and construction on a vast array of operational and digital transformation programmes. Pete prides himself as being a professional disrupter and has built an impressive reputation in helping organisations reach optimal performance and growth ambitions. In this podcast we discuss:The character traits of a good leader.The different styles of leadership, & what scenarios they are effective.How Leaders can empower the team to also become leaders in their own right.The impact the pandemic has played on leadershipTips for our listeners who want to develop leadership skills and any resources or tools that can help.How a leader can foster diverse thinking to deliver programmes.Follow the Delivery Space on: Spotify & all other podcast platformshttps://open.spotify.com/show/2HW2Ni2ZAetmzUnqXFbZzD?si=Iwd9zcbtQiCqgGTziY-3Hw&utm_source=copy-link LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/77075379 Instagram ttps://instagram.com/delivspace?utm_medium=copy_linkFollow Nisha on https://www.linkedin.com/in/nishajoshi1/ Follow Sharon on https://www.linkedin.com/in/sharon-williams-pmo/