#31: Starting Strong: Tips for Successfully Starting with a New Organization with Julie Chickering

01/18/23 • 35 min

Join Julie Chickering and Brian Milner as they discuss strategies you can use to get started on the right foot with your new organization.

Overview

It's the new year, and for many people, that means starting a new chapter in their life, maybe in a new position, with a new team, or possibly an entirely new organization. It's the perfect time for reflection to determine what you can do in these first few days and weeks to set yourself up for success.

So, we thought it would be a great time to take this episode of the show to highlight some strategies you can use to hit the ground running.

In this episode of the Agile Mentors podcast, Brian Milner and Julie Chickering discuss some strategies to set the stage for success in your new position. We will walk you through the vital steps for settling into your team and making an impact no matter what level of the ladder you are on. Plus, what to ask when you are interviewing to ensure you find the right fit.

Listen now to discover:

[01:40] - Julie Chickering is on the show to discuss starting strong with your new organization.
[02:15] - How to use team retrospective to identify where things are going well to amplify the good stuff while on a discovery mission of what needs work.
[03:35] - The one thing that Julie cautions about in one-on-one conversations that will help you avoid being influenced by others' opinions of their team members.
[05:22] - How to create curiosity instead of animosity by offering reciprocal grace to help everyone work better together.
[07:17] - Brian shares how to use an improvement board to keep a running track of things while identifying your next target, stay on the right track and avoid the worst-case scenario (as referenced by Henrik Kniberg in the Spotify Model - Part 2).
[09:23] - What Brian calls his 15-minute' cheat code" for understanding the dynamics of a team.
[11:31] - Julie shares her improvement backlog one-on-one ONE thing for Scrum Masters.
[12:08] - Essential techniques to help developers make an impact and utilize their skills in their new team.
[13:57] - How to get off on the right foot with a new team as a product owner.
[14:14] - Julie shares how to determine if an agile framework like Scrum is helping you meet your business goals (or not).
[15:34] - If you cannot communicate and collaborate with your stakeholders... you'll never deliver value to them.
[16:32] - How story mapping exercises can help product owners.
[18:31] - Why communication is the key to top-to-bottom team success.
[19:40] - The most important questions to ask when you are interviewing to determine if the organization is a good fit for what you bring to the table.
[22:17] - Why it's important to remember every interaction during an interview is a part of the job interview.
[22:33] - Brian shares a story of why it's crucial to determine if the company you are going to work for is looking for someone agile or Agile.
[24:42] - Why it's essential to do a background check on a company you're considering hitching your wagon to.
[25:38] - Start with where you are: how to start strong if you have the skills and are certified but need to gain experience.
[28:30] - How can you use your skills to give back and advance in your career?
[29:38] - How to highlight your experience and use it to your advantage when seeking various roles within a company.
[32:40] - The most powerful question you can ask your team that will help you start the new year fresh.

References and resources mentioned in the show

Spotify Engineering Culture - Part 2 (aka the "Spotify Model")
The Culture Code
How does project management work in Agile? with Julie Chickering
#7: The Sprint Review is not a Demo with Julie Chickering
Agile Mentors Community
Meetup
#13: What Does Cross-Functional Really Mean? with Lance Dacy
Mountain Goat Software
Scrum Alliance

Join Julie Chickering and Brian Milner as they discuss strategies you can use to get started on the right foot with your new organization.

Overview

So, we thought it would be a great time to take this episode of the show to highlight some strategies you can use to hit the ground running.

Listen now to discover:

References and resources mentioned in the show

Previous Episode

#30: How to Get the Best Out of the New Year with Lance Dacy

Join Lance Dacy and Brian Milner as they discuss how to get the best out of the new year.

Overview

Something about that turn of the calendar from December to January makes us want to dig into planning, goal setting, and change.

In this episode of the Agile Mentors podcast, Brian Milner and Lance Dacy discuss how to get the best out of the new year. They’ll walk through why personal retrospectives are the key to determining where to look for change. From 30-day challenges to building relationships with others in the Agile community, to fostering a fertile learning culture, listen in for insight into what might work for you to accomplish the change you seek to make this year your best.

Listen now to discover:

[01:15] - Welcome to our first podcast of 2023. [01:55] - How opening up our calendars to a new year sets us up for planning new things.
[03:17] - Lance walks us through the two types of leaders, the visionary and the executor.
[04:13] - Brian shares the benefit of personal retrospectives.
[07:15] - How 30-day challenges catapult us to success by breaking things down into smaller chunks.
[10:56] - Lance shares why New Year’s resolutions set us up for failure.
[12:35] - How to plan goals using backlogs and the cyclical nature of organizations.
[13:09] - How to use cross-training to challenge team members to broaden their horizons in the new year.
[13:09] - Why you need to think about your intentions when trying to influence up.
[14:03] - Why do 30-day challenges work well to engage in a new task, project, or skill with an experimental mindset.
[15:29] - Lance shares why it’s critical for Scrum Masters to help leadership and management formulate career plans to help grow the people in the organization.
[16:33] - If you’re doing the same thing you did last year, you’re not Agile.
[17:16] - How plugging into a community can help you maintain your focus for growth.
[19:48] - Why being a Scrum Master and a lone wolf don’t mix.
[22:36] - How networking can help you take your career to the next level.
[24:10] - Why it pays to keep an open mind (even to that which you don’t agree with), so you don’t miss out on vital information that can change your trajectory.
[26:07] - Growing as a Scrum Master and as a person.

References and resources mentioned in the show

Agile Mentors Community
Meetup
#13: What Does Cross-Functional Really Mean? with Lance Dacy
Mountain Goat Software
Scrum Alliance
Subscribe to the Agile Mentors Podcast on Apple Podcasts

Want to get involved?

This show is designed for you, and we'd love your input.

Enjoyed what you heard today? Please leave a rating and a review. It really helps, and we read every single one.
Got an agile subject you'd like us to discuss or a question that needs an answer? Please share your thoughts with us at [email protected]

This episode's presenters are:

Brian Milner is SVP of coaching and training at Mountain Goat Software. He's passionate about making a difference in people's day-to-day work, influenced by his own experience of transitioning to Scrum and seeing improvements in work/life balance, honesty, respect, and the quality of work.

Lance Dacy is a Certified Scrum Trainer®, Certified Scrum Professional®, Certified ScrumMaster®, and Certified Scrum Product Owner®. Lance brings a great personality and servant heart to his workshops. He loves seeing people walk away with tangible and practical things they can do with their teams straight away.

Next Episode

#32: Scrum in High School Sports with Cort Sharp

Join Cort Sharp and Brian Milner as they discuss experimenting with Scrum in other out-of-the-box environments, including how Cort uses it to train the high school swim team he coaches.

Overview

In this episode of the Agile Mentors podcast, Cort Sharp joins Brian to explore how to use Scrum tools in other environments outside of the software development arena.

Cort shares the lightbulb moment when he realized Scrum might help him become a more effective coach for his high school swim team.

Listen in as he walks us through his real-world experience using Scrum to coach swimmers, including what worked and what didn't and how he redefined things to make using Scrum successful for the team.

Listen now to discover:

[01:27] - Brian introduces Cort Sharp, the Agile Mentors Community Manager and high school swim coach.
[02:49] - Scrum is used chiefly in software, BUT there are other options. Examining out-of-the-box uses from Scrum.
[03:46] - Cort shares the story of how he got started as a high school swim coach.
[06:26] - Cort meets Scrum.
[08:39] - The discovery during Certified Scrum Training that led Cort to believe he could use Scrum to become a more effective swim coach.
[10:20] - Brian shares his own light bulb moment from his first exposure to Scrum.
[11:53] - What’s the product: Cort shares the process of translating Scrum to the swimming world.
[15:57] - How the sprint review brought everything home for Cort.
[17:03] - Evaluating how things were working with the parents of the swimmers (the stakeholders) at the weekly invitational swim meets.
[17:48] - Brian describes how Scrum helps you break things down into smaller, digestible chunks when you want to reach a big goal but don't see progress every day.
[19:02] - Cort shares how they developed the user stories for each swimmer and used feedback to develop the backlog for swim practices.
[19:44] - Cort shares the process of developing the backlog for swim practices.
[21:19] - How Agile principles (i.e., sustainable pace) translate into arenas other than software.
[24:30] - Cort explains how Scrum events like daily stand-ups and sprint reviews helped the team organize practices.
[24:47] - Which Scrum practices were harder to implement for the team? [26:47] - Opening yourself up to experimentation. (And how to reach Cort with your coaching ideas and suggestions).
[27:36] - Cort shares the biggest changes he had to make to make things work for the swim team.
[28:00] - So, who is the Scrum Master for the swim team? Redefining the Scrum roles and responsibilities to make them work in other environments.
[30:04] - Cort shares what he’s learned in the process of using Scrum with the swim team.
[33:29] - Do you have a topic or guest you'd like to see on the Agile Mentors podcast? If so, send us an email. We'd love to hear from you.

References and resources mentioned in the show

Want to get involved?

This show is designed for you, and we’d love your input.

Enjoyed what you heard today? It would be great if you left a rating and a review. It really helps, and we read every single one.
Got an agile subject you’d like us to discuss or a question that needs an answer? Share your thoughts with us as [email protected]

This episode’s presenters are:

Brian Milner is SVP of coaching and training at Mountain Goat Software. He’s passionate about making a difference in people’s day-to-day work, influenced by his own experience of transitioning to Scrum and seeing improvements in work/life balance, honesty, respect, and the quality of work.

Cort Sharp is the Scrum Master of the producing team and the Agile Mentors Community Manager. In addition to his love for Agile, Cort is also a serious swimmer and has been coaching swimmers for five years.