Author: Coach Dan
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The Compatibility Trap: Why “Culture Fit” is Killing Your 3 Es
When I’m coaching leaders, I often see them fall into the “Compatibility Trap”—the dangerous assumption that a team’s success is built on how well everyone likes each other or how similar their backgrounds are. Managers often rely on their “gut” to assemble teams, which is usually just a polite word for affinity bias. They look…
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Use The 4 R’s To Improve Your 3 E’s!
tldr; If your retrospectives have turned into a “complain-fest” with no action, you’re missing the chance to teach your squads a valuable lesson. Use the 4 Rs (Reflect, Root Cause, Rethink, Retool) to turn data into insights and experiments that actually move the needle for your Squad and Crew. Healthy teams improve and balance their…
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Churn Rate: The Silent Killer of Team Efficiency
There are a number of measures we coaches use to identify opportunities for squads and teams to improve and last week I had an opportunity to talk through some of these with a Crew Leader I work with. I know that most of my posts focus on mindset, or ways of thinking and behaving. Today…
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The Coach: Your Partner in Mindset and Momentum
Our Coaching Chapter has been engaged in a discussion on how best to articulate the value that our role brings to leaders and teams. We’ve had great, in depth discussions, and while we are still finalizing our shared framework for articulating our value, the exercise has caused ME to think deeply about the topic. Here’s…
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Celebrate “bad news,” it only makes us better!
tldr; The “agile mindset” means treating suboptimal results, negative feedback, and missed goals not as failures, but as invaluable data points and opportunities for improvement. Key takeaway: Leaders must foster a culture of Psychological Safety where teams are encouraged, not punished, to be transparent about disappointing results. Actionable steps: Use “bad news” to get curious, hypothesize, adjust strategy (pivot), and measure…
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If we can’t measure it, does it matter?
tldr; It has been suggested that I type… a lot. To that end – if you find that reading the whole article is untenable – I’m adding in a “Typed Long, Didn’t Read” section to surface the main points of the writing. Hope you find this useful too. Stop measuring activity and start measuring impact! True…
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Greatness is grown
Greatness is grown tldr; It has been suggested that I type… a lot. To that end – if you find that reading the whole article is untenable – I’m adding in a “Typed Long, Didn’t Read” section to surface the main points of the writing. Hope you find this useful too. Leaders create great…
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It’s not complicated
It’s not complicated There is no doubt that change can be hard. Learning new ways of working… figuring out new tools and processes… maybe even teaming up with different people… all while STILL trying to get all the work done! It’s a lot. In fact, it can be overwhelming and exhausting. When I look back at…
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The Power Of Questions
The Power Of Questions Note: This week’s message is a collaboration between Coaches Dan, Punit and Spoorthy to explore the concept of “powerful questions” and how they can help people and teams improve. Have you every noticed how a single question can turn the course of a conversation, or help a group see things differently…
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Focus on what matters…
Focus on what matters… I get to be in some incredible discussions. This week I sat in on a Crew Leader’s Meeting (Crew Lead, Product Owners, Tech Lead, Area Chapter Leads and Coaches.) The Crew is refining their various roadmaps and aligning them to focus on Crew Goals. The Crew Lead kicked us off with a…