• What is PMI Agile. We are a grassroots collection of PMI members advocating the creation of a dedicated PMI component for Agile and Lean techniques.
• Why is PMI Agile worth while? With over 250,000 members, the Project Management Institue (PMI) is the largest Project Management organization in the world. A growing body of PMI’s membership are becoming intruiged by the effectiveness of Agile and Lean techniques to execute an organization’s project, programs, and portfolios. A dedicated Agile/Lean community would serve that interest with high-value events, insightful presentations, and effective networking. The Agile community would have an opportunity to introduce human best practices to a broader audience, beyond Agile’s core innovators and early adopters.
• What specifically would PMI Agile offer? Right now, we are hosting a series of events to ask you that very question. An organization that seeks to add value to its members needs to know exactly what those members want. If you have some thoughts, you can attend these events, or just submit those thoughts to pmiagile-board@excella.com
• How can I help? The most compelling needs are to
  1. Send an email to vcp@pmi.org telling PMI that you, as a PMI member, want to see a PMI Agile community happen as soone as possible
  2. Spread the word to your colleagues that this is actually happening. You can use any of our networking channels, such as blogs, podcasts, webinars, chapter meetings, and anything else you can think of.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=q1RqhRcPJZ0

Remember the days when you were a kid playing cops and robbers, or monopoly, or in my case "playing business" (I used to charge rent and write receipts to the kids next door, you know, for fun). But think about how you played: you threw yourself into it. You suspended all disbelief and BECAME the evil villain, the landlord, the t-rex. You ran around the yard dressed up in crazy costumes. You weren't afraid to talk in a different accent to play up your character, or wear a cowboy hat. You would chase your friends around the neighborhood on horses (um, bicycles) and play freeze tag until the last rays of the sun retracted beneath the horizon. Your parents had to water you down with a waterhose because at the end of the day you were too dirty to even come inside the house to get a bath, and this felt like they were washing off the fun. You were sad that the day was over! You slept so well, and woke up early just to do it all over again. When your neighbor friend was sick, you were sad, bored, kicked around the dust, wondered what to do with life. It was no fun not having someone to pretend with.

What happens to us between those long summer days of childhood and now, when we're all grown up? What changes? Bitterness of life, of experience? Disappointment of expectations? We grow older, we get stressed, we break down. We forget how to smile, how to laugh, how to throw ourselves into a situation with unabashed wonder and happiness. We become too self-critical, too self-aware, too self-absorbed, too stiff.  We forget how to poke our friends in the ribs and yell "You're it!" and dash off running. We play hide-and-seek in the business world, not for fun, but for survival.

I challenge each and every one of you to have fun today. Play freeze tag in the office. Step out for ice cream (with gummi worms) with your team. Go bowling. Go to the park for a picnic. Heck, play cops and robbers if you want. Lighten up. Have fun. Bring the enthusiasm of childhood, innocence and play into your daily work life. Stop taking everything so seriously. Make a business card that says "Expert Hide-and-Seeker" or "Terrifying T-rex of Technical Development". Put up yellow caution tape around your cube. Put a picture of your family on your taskboard. Say hello and MEAN IT when you're walking down the hall. Offer a candy bar to someone you've been struggling with lately. Wear a silly hat. Do a silly walk. If you're not having fun building new products, what are you DOING?

TAG: You're IT! 

From that point on, team members were clearly just as disrespectful. All the laptops opened up at one point or another. People were late, stepping in and out of our training. This made things really difficult because the course is so hands-on! From time to time, I observed disrespectful giggles and passing of notes. I'm surprised I didn't have a 'kick me' sign on my rear by the time I left that day. I went back to the hotel feeling defeated, exhausted, and not really looking forward to the second day.

The second day started just like the first day ended. It was so bad that the VP had to make an announcement that no laptops would be allowed in the room and that people needed to be on time. I had already made these announcements several times, but it was clear that the group had no respect for me and this was allowable because, well, their manager didn't respect either.  All in all the absolute worst training experience ever.

I see this in other scenarios as well. Just today I was observing a planning meeting in which a manager was involved. There were several Pune team members on the open conference call as they were an extended part of the team. When the team would play planning poker, the manager would strongly announce "We have a unanimous 5 over here in the US!". I started to realize that the Pune team would have "unanimous" points after awhile, too. This manager did not realize that his use of the word "unanimous" could have been pressuring the Pune team to pick a number. Picking a number is not the purpose of planning poker (well, ultimately it is) but the discussion had by observing differences in numbers is what is really important. Again, another manager influencing a team and not even realizing it.

Managers, be careful of the messages you give to your team members. Non-verbal cues are just as strong, if not stronger, than the words you say. Words are very important too. When trying to build a team that is self-managing and self-directed, remember that you serve as primary role model. Remember this and take responsibility for your actions so that they can take responsibility for their learning.

The first question I have is Why? Why does the team feel like this meeting is not helping them? Turns out that the team feels like they already have their direction everyday and the daily scrum meeting seems like a waste of time. They see no value or impact from attending it and would rather put their heads down and just work.

I asked Why? again. Why does the team see no value? They said because they already know their tasks everyday because their Manager gives them their work. Aha! Now we've discovered some helpful information.

I asked Why? again, but to the Manager this time. Why do you feel like you need to be the taskmaster of the team? The Manager responded that he needs to keep the team on track? But Why? - again I asked. Because we're under pressure. Yes, and Why? - again I asked.  Because we were just bought out and we need to quickly merge our technology with our new parent company's. Aha!

My synopsis: Pressure by parent company forcing undue pressure on management who must then feel as if they need to revert to form (aka "micro-manage") to get anything done. Becoming TaskMaster means that team members don't have to think for themselves or own the work, so of course they feel like the Daily Scrum is useless.

When you need to get to the root of the problem, use one word posed as a question: "Why?" Otherwise, you could make assumptions that aren't necessarily true. For example, in this case the ScrumMaster thought that the team members had ADD or were not very focused on their work. Turns out that they were focused, but only at the direction of their manager. A ScrumMaster could also make a false assumption that the team members were just fighting Scrum. They weren't. Their manager was.

Click here to go to SixSigma's website that explains more about the Five Why's. Additionally, check out this description of Fishbone diagrams, another helpful tool to sort out various causes of behavior.