Showing posts with label mindmapping. Show all posts
Showing posts with label mindmapping. Show all posts

3 Things to do before you wrap up 2017

Lets get straight to the point, the year just went by.

  • Revise your job profile and interest- because you have a specific job title doesn't mean you cannot rethink or change it. The goal is to always be updated and be in a job that aligns with your interests. This means:
      • Observe the market shifting- and get yourself a new certification or  learn something new. Websites like Coursera allow you to enrol for them without having to pay a dime. You join the course of your choice and learn and if you want the certification you can pay.
  • Be thankful and take a break- to revise your goal and intentions you need to remove yourself from the current environment. You can reset your goals every quarter or once in two years. This means you dont need a sabbatical to decide the course of your life- it could be couple of hours in your favorite coffee shop.  For me personally, this year (in fact starting today), I am taking a couple of weeks off where I can travel and revise my goals.
  • Find  a sponsor- mentors are life changing but a sponsor is mandatory. A sponsor is also rather difficult to find,someone who will play a very active role in promoting you and ensuring you are in a role that interests you and climbing up the ladder.  3 ways to find a sponsor:
      • Have a work ethic- project your work personality and what you stand for.
      • Talk about your goal/career path- figure out where you want to career path to be at and then talk about it with your manager, mentors and sooner or later you will find your sponsor. 
      • Prove your worth- this is a no brainer, you have to prove you have it in you and are ready to work for it. No one will be willing to take a risk on you otherwise.
(Pic courtesy: Google images)

Being Human in Agile

Agile is one of the most-discussed subjects in any process domain.

With commercialization and certification now so easily available to many, the approach has become easier to learn and implement, and with that has come the liability of seeing it as only a set of rules and practices. The "individual" who was the center of the process has now taken a back seat among the fancy tools and apps. Among many, Agile has become only a term.

As an Agile coach working with multiple teams and organizations, I have always felt that miracles are expected just because you gather together for 15 minutes. We look for data and stats and obsessively check tools. We have made the tool bigger than the process. Rarely does anyone talk about the human factor in Agile. No one wants to take the time to make the connections; we only want the productivity increased.

Have you ever noticed how you work your best? Let’s take a blind guess — maybe you like the freedom in the way you work, the human connection with your peers, and an understanding manager or mentor. No matter which process you are part of, doing your best work shouldn’t change.

If you are still old school like me and prefer the human connection, here are three ways to bring it back.

Storytelling

Don’t approach an Agile transformation with hard-set rules and terminologies. Instead, take the time to explain why, as a team or organization, you are going for it, what benefits you are hoping for, and the challenges that will be encountered. Tell the story of failures, recall the successes you have seen, how you have mentored or coached other teams, and the fact that every transformation is unique and should be treated as such.

Hear their stories, too; try to create a story card. Divide a paper in four quadrants and create your guided storytelling pattern. I have seen that when given a structure to tell a story — based on a question or an activity — people respond better, and it opens up a real conversation rather than just encouraging free-flowing conversation.

You can choose any of the following to create your story card for the teams and then talk one-on-one to understand them:

  • Myers-Briggs Type Indicator score (personality type): Try the free online assessment. This is just for fun and provides some insight into the person. Even if people disagree with the results, they will talk about why it doesn’t match up.
  • Moving Motivators: I find it interesting to see the most- and least-favorite motivators; it's usually an eye-opener. Asking the right question along with this assessment helps form some perspective you will need as a coach or manager to work with each individual. You can find the game at the Management 3.0 website.
  • Who you are: That 30-second elevator speech is rather difficult when you take out of the equation their job title or technical domain expertise. People really must think about who they are, and that’s what you want.
  • The improvement you would like to see in your team/process: Depending on their comfort level, people will talk. Trust me on this; you will get more information here than from looking at the trends in your team's velocity.


Mind Mapping
Sometimes we think better when articulating clearly, and the train of thought is easier to chase when we can come back to it. Mind mapping is a wonderful tool that can be used in various scenarios to get to know a person and to explain the process, and it can even be used in retrospectives. The transformation doesn’t need to be done in the same way everywhere. Learn about others and who you are working with, and bring new techniques to work that bring out the personal point of view and perspective.

Visualization
Reactions will always change more when people see something than when they are told something over and over again. Instead of telling teams that they are full of flaws and that productivity and velocity have to increase, try value stream mapping with the team. Let the team draw with colored pens and crayons and have some fun. Then let them see where they have been lagging. When realizations come from within, changes are easier.

The bottom line from all of the above is that we are trying to keep the uniqueness of an individual and not trying to assume that everyone is the same. Data matters; however, you won’t know the authenticity of the data if the team is always gaming it up to protect themselves from you.

Yes, we are busy — always busy moving from one meeting to another. But not even for a second do we think that the human connection is replaceable with a process or data. When we showcase the human within us and try to understand the other person, it makes the transformation and the assumed role much more fulfilling for all.

This article was originally published in Scrum Alliance

(Pic courtesy: Google Images)

Finding your Purpose (Ikigai): In your Work

What does a job mean to you?
  • Is it a way to earn your paycheck? 
  • A way to find out your calling? 
  • Or is it your life’s purpose

If you are struggling to figure out what’s your life purpose, the Japanese concept of Ikigai explains it all

If we are fortunate enough to match up our purpose with the jobs we have, life can only be amazing.

If you are trying to match it up here are 5 tips:
  • Find out what you like to do. Try Mind Mapping
  • Once you know your Ikigai, try internship positions/volunteer
  • Try reading up/taking courses on the subject matter (like from Coursera ). Having a degree will only add up to the chances of finding a job in that domain
  • Revise your resume. Don’t send resumes that cater to all types of jobs you are thinking about, it will make you look less serious to the one you are applying for. Customize your resume line by line for the job.
  • You will know when your job matches your Ikigai- it’s probably also your hobby. You enjoy waking up and heading out for your job. 
This can be you as a newbie or someone who continuously grows and evolves your interest might have just changed. As they say, you are never done finding purpose in your work

(Pic courtesy: Google Images)

Mind Mapping: What are you good at?

If you belong to a certain domain or hold a fancy job title- does it mean that’s the only thing you are good at? Or that's your life calling for the next thirty years?

Did you know that more than 70 % of the workforce is disengaged from the job they hold- this cannot be true if you are truly inspired by your profession. So, may be the job you have isn’t what you are interested in anymore because you figured they are other things you are better at.

Meet Anisha, who has a comfortable job and has been in it for a while till she woke up one day and felt she wasn’t being recognized for her loyalty and the long hours of work. she isn't drawn to her job anymore. She’s looking for something that excites her ...  So, what does she do- she joins the disengaged workforce.

So, how can you figure out what you want to do or better: what you are really good at?

Close your eyes and imagine yourself as a toddler and think of what you wanted to be when you grow up. I wanted to be a teacher. To me that was the power figure- in control of a class of 60 students. That seemed a coveted position to hold for me.

Over the years as we grow and environment shifts and changes happen, our interest changes, skillsets take shape and we find a job.

Ten years later- is that what you still want? How can you navigate your career to ensure that its synced with your interests?

So, let’s try mind mapping- no fancy tool or budget required.

  • In the center place yourself ...  think of anything you like to do or makes you happy and start writing/sketching. Write as many as you can. Against each idea, see if you are still doing it (example- poetry- I published a coffee table book or I have a diary full of poems written and hidden because I think my friends will laugh at me and call me sappy). Rupi Kaur self-published her first book of poems in Amazon and it went to become a NYT best seller.
  • When you have sketched everything you can think of, add 5 more. Once you start thinking, it becomes easy.. Now see how you can take each of these ideas and keep thinking deeper- what does it mean to you. For example if you mentioned “creating” – you can mention writing blogs, clicking pics, creating travel vlogs, writing articles for magazines, becoming an author. Once all are done, take a different color pen and look for patterns. Common things that have surfaced- it could be similarity in the main ideas/categories or it could be sub categories within the categories- mark them.
  • Can you see the trend now- what you really like to do- in most cases you can also see a profession shaping up? Against the profession/interest you found- try adding ways on how you can achieve it or make money from it. That can lead to clarity- if this is something you want to take up as a profession, or you want to prepare for it (like take certifications) or talk to friends or references who are already in the profession of your choice.
  • That’s your calling. You don’t have to give up your job and go for it but if it does make sense- think about it. Think how you can try out this opportunity. 

This can be a wonderful way to find yourself back and be inspired again. So, did you find what you are good at?

(Pic courtesy: google images)