Learning from mistakes
By Jeena / Filed under Collaboration, Self Organization, WORK is GOOD / December 19th, 2011
In our very busy lifestyle, it is not always that we pause to look back on the way we came and feel proud of both our achievements and the lessons we have learned, individually and as a group.
At the dawn of 2011, Conscires was a three-member team conducting 3 trainings per month in 5 cities across the USA. Today, as the sun sets on 2011, we are an eleven member group managing an average 12 trainings per month, across 16 cities in three countries. If that isn’t reason enough to rejoice, I don’t know what is.
It’s been an incredible journey, to put it mildly. One of the most important things we learnt as a team was to perform as a team.
There has been a bunch of interesting lessons during our journey together, derived from experiences that left us embarrassed or mad or shocked or rippling with laughter. In other words, there were several mistakes that we made, and scampered to rectify. We see them not as failures, but as opportunities that helped us learn and grow.
One such was the time when a couple of us were reviewing the training pages on our website late into the night. After a hectic day, both were exhausted and disoriented. That probably was the only excuse for almost sending a trainer, who was to take a class in Boston, to Seattle, and asking all the trainees in Boston to attend the class at Denver. We learned that an extra pair of eyes is always essential to spot mistakes just before deploying or publishing. We also discovered that if we start laughing at midnight over foolish mistakes, it is not easy to stop the laughter!
Not as funny was the time when discount codes to be sent to some trainees (offering reduced rates) got mixed up. In another instance, instead of allowing for two free discount codes, we enabled an ‘unlimited’ number, and realised our mistake only when a large number of free registrations poured in. In both cases, we made quick amendments to ensure our attendees were not at a disadvantage.
Much of our training promotional activities happen through social media groups. It was a difficult episode for one of us when the postings done on one such group were termed as spam and other members posted spiteful comments. Well, we learned to promote our programs in such a way that others do not feel overwhelmed by them!
As our trainings expanded to other cities and enquiries began to flow in, we faced a problem in handling customer queries. More than once, a couple of us replied separately to the same query without letting each other know. No damage was done since the replies were identical, except that the customer got two emails each. Since then we devised methods to determine who was going to reply and, also ensured that the rest of the customer support team were kept in the loop to avoid duplication.
Most rewarding of all has been the way we practised what we preach – the implementation of Scrum within the organization, adapted to bring only the best out of our distributed team, taking into consideration our limitations and the nature of our work.
As I said, it’s been an incredible journey that promises to get better and better in the coming years.
(With inputs from the entire team at Conscires.)
7 steps to Customer Delight!
By Jeena / Filed under Collaboration, WORK is GOOD / December 12th, 2011
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Make promises you can keep – and keep them.
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Keep communication open, two-way and positive.
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Be consistent. Be reliable. Then, be consistently reliable.
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Take feedback, criticism and suggestions in a positive way.
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Build a foundation of trust between the customer and the team.
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Make your team knowledgeable, friendly and available, to ensure quick responses.
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Better service ensures customer satisfaction. A motivated team offers better service.
My Thanksgiving Note to All
By Bachan Anand / Filed under Collaboration, WORK is GOOD / November 23rd, 2011
If I were to encapsulate the Year 2011, I would call it The Year of Growth, as Conscires and I have grown immensely this year! What was earlier a company of three persons, now comprises of ten members! For my part, I have realized that growth is a double-edged sword: One of joy and apprehension. As Edith Alizadeh, a fellow Conscires family member, so aptly pointed out, growth can sometimes lead to apprehension, as you are exploring unchartered territory. Ah, but the joy of achievement, as we have trained around 1300 individuals!
Each one of our trainees has taught us how to improve our trainings; indeed, we’re richer in our experiences from having worked with all of you! Thank you for your invaluable feedback and for spreading the word. Without you guys, we would not be around!
As I reflect on the past year this holiday season, I realize that there are many who make the work we do, possible. First and foremost, I would like to thank Indu Menon for building the Conscires family and inviting her ex-colleagues to the company. Most of us at Conscires know at least one other colleague from earlier times.
This year, I am also grateful that I experienced the joy of giving through the Pay It Forward/Donation-based classes that we had conducted internationally. Thanks to my mentor, Tobias Mayer, for inspiring me to participate in that program. Thanks also to Manoj Vadakkan, Erin Beierwaltes, Jeff Lopez, Sameer Bendre, Carlton Nettleton, Alan Dayley, Tori Abaijan, Margaret Motamed, and Lisa Montano who put monetary benefit aside and taught or supported these classes. It excites me that this program enabled us to train around 362 people in 11 cities in the United States as well as in London, England.
My sincere gratitude towards Lyssa Adkins and Michael Spayd for inviting me to Coaching Stance, from which I have benefited immensely. I now know how to step back during my coaching and other areas of work and believe that others are capable of delivering.
Here are some other folks that I would like to thank:
1. Alan and Veronica Cyment for being the great friends that they are and for conducting trainings alongside us.
2. Carlton Nettleton for being a good partner. I truly appreciate his patience with all the changes that have been made.
3. My wife, Rahmi, and daughter, Thumbi, for bringing joy into my life and helping me become more sensitive in dealing with others.
4. Rahmi, again, for taking a stance that she would like me to focus more on the family.
5. Tom and Beth Moore for all the open discussions, and welcoming me into their company.
6. Lisa Montano for identifying things that I sometimes don’t realize about myself.
7. Yalda Shafihie who works for the sheer pleasure of the experience, and for providing invaluable feedback.
8. Tobias Mayer for inviting me to coach with him. Consequently, I got the opportunity to work with Laura Murphy, Dan Hoffman, Ryan Southwick, and Patrick Tracey.
9. All the teams of the numerous companies that I was fortunate to coach: Thank you for being patient with yourselves and others during the changes that were brought about by the workshops.
10. Everyone in the Conscires family—Jeena Ramachandran, Reema Raj, Deepa Jeetu, Indu Menon, Neeta Singh, Lalita Rao, Lisa Montano, Vanessa Schmidt, Rahmi Anand, and Edith Alizadeh—for being so open and willing to learn as we grow as a team.
11. Last, but not the least, to a Power greater than myself in making me realize that to give up control is hard, but definitely worth it. I’ve gotta do more of it to create more meaningful and thriving work environments so that Work is, indeed, Good!
Thanks, again, one and all! May you and yours have a beautiful Thanksgiving!
-Bachan Anand
Founder, Conscires Agile Practices
Baking with Scrum
By Lisa / Filed under Collaboration, Scrum / November 16th, 2011
I like to think that I entered the Scrum world through the “side door”, but really it is just one of the entry points for a well-integrated scrum practice. My journey to Scrum started with Literature, Accounting, and then as the “First Among Equals” or as we know it, the “Product Owner”. So in keeping with my track record of approaching Scrum in an “unconventional” way, I decided to practice some Scrum values during a baking project with my seven-year-old son. The product: pumpkin cookies with cream cheese icing, topped with a solitary pecan. We dedicated some effort to planning: we read the recipe from beginning to end, pre-heated the oven, greased the cookie sheets, and got out all of the ingredients.
Then, we planned our Sprints:
Sprint 1: Measuring
Sprint 2: Mixing
Sprint 3: Spooning
Sprint 4: Baking
Sprint 5: Decorating
I was the ScrumMaster and James was the cross-functional team. Dad was the Product Owner. We inspected and adapted as we went. I provided the tools (measuring spoons, bowls, scale, ingredients, recipe) James scooped, cracked (eggs, yikes!), and poured. During the scooping, leveling, and pouring, I observed and provided reference back to the recipe and measuring implements, and James delivered a colorful variation on 1/2 cup, 1 tsp, and 4 oz.
Although our last step involved more sequencing than anything else, that delicious pumpkin aroma, and the cotton fluff of creamy white icing swirled on top was a testament to a collaboration, teamwork, and planning. We invited Dad to see the the product as we completed each Sprint, though he saved most of his enthusiasm for the Release Retrospective held at the end of the project. This recipe showed a remarkable improvement over our last baking day, with improved and more accurate measurement, cleaner pours, fewer spills, and no eggshells in the batter!
I hope you are able to envision the value of Scrum in your daily life, and an “unconventional” adoption of Scrum across your organization– inspect and adapt to improve the experience of the participants and the quality of your results. Here’s to a Thanksgiving Holiday filled with collaboration, vision, and communication among your family, friends, and colleagues.
P.S. Let me know if you’d like the recipe for pumpkin cookies!
- Lisa Montaño
10 methods to keep your team motivated
By Bachan Anand / Filed under Collaboration, WORK is GOOD / November 3rd, 2011
1. Display trust and faith in their work and let them do it their way without looking over their shoulders all the time. This allows the team members to develop a sense of ownership.
2 Show appreciation, celebrate individual and team successes and performances. When a person’s performance is poor, deal with it, find out the reasons and educate the person about the consequences on the overall results. Work together on how to make things better.
3 Be understanding. Everyone has lows in life that affect their work. Give people space and time to emerge from the situation, and the rest of the team can show their support by pitching in.
4 Involve the team in activities and decisions of the project or the organization. Seek team-members’ opinions and ideas, and implement those ideas as far as possible. Team members proactively contribute to implementing ideas and have a sense of ownership when they are part of the brainstorming and decision-making.
5 Communicate and keep everyone updated on the team/company ‘s business, successes and failures. The feeling of disconnect and indifference arises when team members do not know the important things going on or they get to hear them as rumours. Share all information related to the project.
6 Give the team the resources/tools they need. Teams get demotivated if poor infrastructure keeps them from performing their best.
7 Encourage learning. Help them expand their knowledge in other domains/tools/topics and provide them opportunities to work in other areas of interest.
8 Set challenging yet achievable goals. There is nothing more satisfying than facing a challenge and overcoming it. If the team feels they always fall short of expectations because the goals are too high, they get demotivated.
9 Encourage the team to collaborate. Team bonding activities, outing, parties, etc. bring the team together. If there are conflicts within the team, have healthy discussions and resolve differences of opinion.
10 Support your team, listen to your team members, be open to discussing difficulties faced by team members and try to help in getting them resolved.
