All of this content used to be spread over three different blogs at three different domains and it's now been merged into one. Why was it ever three? Because at the time it seemed reasonable that each of them was for a different audiences, and yet over time I've found that the lines between topic areas got blurrier and tended to overlap. So now they're all together in one place.

If you encounter things that seem broken, please let me know and I'll get them fixed.

Browse by topic area:

• Psychology & Behaviour (Formerly UnconsciousAgile.com)
• Flow, Kanban, Scrum (Formerly ImprovingFlow.com)
• Technical Practices (Formerly AgileTechnicalExcellence.com)

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There's a lot here and if you're not sure where to start, here are some popular starting points. From these, you'll find crosslinks to even more topics. Enjoy!

• Psychological Safety: An overview. For the science, see the SAFETY model. For Google's research into why it's important for high performing teams, see Project Aristotle. What happens when we don't have that safety?
• Anxiety and Stress: For the science, see Polyvagal Theory or a description of some neuroscience, illustrated with a bear encounter. To let go of that anxiety, see the Anti-Anxiety toolkit.
• Recommended reading: I'm often asked for book recommendations.
• Generally more about the brain: Cognitive bias, motivation, default mode network, systems 1 & 2 and neurotransmitters (chemicals) that drive behaviour.
• Language patterns: Why language is so important, and Clean Language, a specific language pattern that has excellent application for coaching.
• Improving your meetings: Specifically retrospectives (my video course), and standups. What if your people won't participate?
• Improving learning: with neuroscience and LEGO.
• Flow & Kanban: Flow metrics, probabilistic forecasting, and understanding waste.
• Technical practices: Continuous integration, TDD as design, and ensemble programming.
• Something fun: The millennial whoop, and inattentional blindness.

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Craving certainty - why we distrust probabilistic forecasts

When faced with the question of “when will we be done?”, the most factually accurate answer we can give is one from a probabilistic forecast. Yet counter-intuitively, despite being the most correct answer, it’s usually not the one many people want. What they want is a deterministic answer, even if it’s less accurate.

Growth vs Fixed mindsets and the influence of AI

In her book Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, Carol Dweck talks about the difference between the Growth and Fixed mindsets. I’d encourage you to read her words on this, but in a nutshell, people with a growth mindset believe that their intelligence can expand and develop, whereas people with a fixed mindset believe that intelligence is fixed and what you’ve got now is all you’re getting.

Collecting metrics for no reason

I’ve worked in many places where an edict has come down from senior management to start collecting metrics, without any direction. While usually well intentioned, these requests are frequently poorly considered and poorly implemented. Many times I’ve asked “what decisions are going to be made from these” and nobody knows.

Tacit knowledge

When I was a teenager, I read a book called Juggling for the Complete Klutz, which seemed just perfect for me. It came with three bean bag balls, and instructions on how to use them.

Stalled work

I talked recently about how many items in progress (WIP) we have and how lower is better. That’s absolutely true, and yet it’s not the whole picture. Of the items that are started, how many of those are actually being worked on?

Work in Progress (WIP) for a team

I’m frequently asked what is the optimal amount of work in progress (WIP) for a team, and everyone is disappointed to hear that there isn’t one.

Motivation and deadlines

While in a meeting, I heard “It’s easier to get things done when there is a deadline”, and that tells me something about motivation, or more specifically, lack of it.

Sometimes we just need to pick up the fax machine

My friend Dave once got brought in to help with a large project. The company was purchasing a large fax system from a vendor and then planned to extensively customize it to work in their environment.

LEGO Serious Play and Threat Modeling

Here’s a great case study of how the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has used LEGO® Serious Play® to do threat modeling around digital identity.

What can we share from a retrospective?

We talk a lot about having a safe space for a retrospective, about creating that environment where it’s safe to open up and honestly talk about the real problems. We tell management that they should have no expectation of knowing about the specific conversations that went on inside a team’s retro, and that’s correct.