A few weeks ago Don Kim put up a blog post challenging the value of certifications. I reached out to Don in hopes of doing an interview about it and found out he’s also written a new book “I think Therefore I Plan”. In this interview we discuss the pros and cons of different certifications, taking an artisan approach to managing projects as well as Don’s new book.
(This is an update to my 10/28/12 post on 
Guessing is not a strategy: How to build decision velocity with AI and real-time data
June 10, 2026 | Live Webinar
Certified Agile Leadership Training with Olaf
Categories:
Temenos,
Olaf Lewitz,
Product Owner,
TrustTemenos,
Certified Agile Leadership,
CAL,
Showing Up,
Christine Neidhardt,
Safety,
Scrum,
Agile
Categories: Temenos, Olaf Lewitz, Product Owner, TrustTemenos, Certified Agile Leadership, CAL, Showing Up, Christine Neidhardt, Safety, Scrum, Agile
| The Trust Artist, Olaf Lewitz, along with his partner, Christine Neidhardt, are gearing ready for their upcoming TrustTemenos Certified Agile Leadership trainings. Certified Agile Leadership trainings are a new, advanced level of training classes being offered through the Scrum Alliance. In this interview Olaf and I discuss the reason for his TrustTemenos CAL class, how it can help people become better Agile leaders, and the value of Certified Agile Leadership. Safety is a very hot topic in the Agile space right now. During our conversation about safety, Olaf shared one of the most powerful things I have heard during an interview this year: “When you talk to people about trust, it rises. When you talk to people about safety, they get scared.” Every conversation I have with Olaf leaves me more aware and (I hope) a bit smarter than I was when it began. I hope you will get as much value from listening to this as I did from recording the conversation. And you can find links to Olaf’s upcoming classes and events, as well as his contact info, below the show notes.
Show Notes00:07 Podcast Intro 01:27 Begins 01:57 An overview of Agile Leadership Training 04:48 A skeptical response to the idea of Agile Leadership Training and Olaf’s response 07:16 Developing a thinking model to understand what we need and how that drives our actions 09:11 The power of metaphor in leadership and Dave’s aversion to boats 11:03 Giving people tools to grow their awareness of how they show up 11:34 These classes cover advanced leadership topics - not the basics 12:16 “If you trust in yourself… you will still get beaten by people” 13:05 Skepticism is an important part of any class and any transition 13:32 It’s about being intentional and aware 15:23 There is a specific type of learning that involves being uncomfortable because what you believe is challenged 15:57 Extending the question of leadership beyond work and helping them understand more about their awareness and intention 17:00 Olaf shares a story about his first experience working as a boss 21:29 The advice Olaf about give his 29 year-old self about being a boss for the firs time 22:23 It’s okay to ask for help 24:05 A question about safety and what it means to create a safe space 25:42 When you talk to people about trust, it rises, when you talk to people about safety, they get scared 27:22 What is Certified Agile Leadership Training? What level of knowledge experience do you need to attend? 28:08 What will CAL training do for a leader/manager in an Agile organization? 29:28 Where to learn more about Olaf’s upcoming classes, where you can see him speak and how to get in touch with him if you have questions.
Links from the PodcastShowing Up - the book written by Olaf and Christine https://leanpub.com/showingup TrustTemenos Leadership Academy: https://trusttemenos.de Upcoming CAL Trainings - https://trusttemenos.de/certified-agile-leadership-cal1/ Olaf’s session at the 2017 Scrum Gathering San Diego is called: Product Owner: Mapping Dramas and Dreams and it will be held in the Harbor Island 1 room on Monday, April 10 from 1 PM until 2:15 PM For more info on the Scrum Gathering: https://www.scrumalliance.org/sgcal Contacting OlafLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/olaflewitz/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/OlafLewitz Website: http://trustartist.com |
Posted on: April 09, 2017 01:55 PM
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Don Kim - I Think, Therefore I Plan
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You can find Don’s book here: http://amzn.to/2n7VEHu You can find Don’s blog post about certifications here: http://bit.ly/2okDUZA
Show Notes:00:07 Interview Start 00:30 What is a Human APEE 03:38 What is an Artisan approach to Project Management 05:15 Don’s Philosophy of Project Management 07:22 Trying to slow down and do less 08:21 Don explains his way of approaching project work and the reason for the book 10:56 How has the traditional vs. Agile debate changed over the past few years 12:53 Seeing the value in every project you work on - regardless of how you got it 16:15 The downside of certifications 17:29 The positive aspects of certifications 18:03 There is more to project management training than just PMP certification 19:48 Making the case for the value certifications can provide and how it can be misunderstood 23:22 Does it make sense for people to want to have a way of gauging their professional achievement? 23:55 What Don expected from PMP certification and how he went deep with the Kerzner to get the most learning out of it (instead of just passing the test) 26:41 Is it the certification that is an issue, or the way people interpret it as an end point rather than a beginning 27:50 An overview of the approach Don’s book takes towards the art of Project Management 30:56 Where you can find Don’s book and how you can reach him with follow up questions 31:54 Podcast Ends You can reach Don Kim on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/donkim/ Feedback/Comments: [email protected] |
Posted on: March 31, 2017 11:55 AM
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Comments (9)
Scrum in School - A Case Study of Grandview Prep's Transformation
Categories:
Scrum Alliance,
Mike Vizdos,
eduscrum,
john miller,
Grandview Prep,
Scrum in Schools,
AgileClassroom,
Agile Classroom,
Scrum,
Agile
Categories: Scrum Alliance, Mike Vizdos, eduscrum, john miller, Grandview Prep, Scrum in Schools, AgileClassroom, Agile Classroom, Scrum, Agile
| This podcast features an interview with two educators from Grandview Prep in Boca Raton, FL. Aileen Palmer and Susan Rose have been working with the Scrum Alliance, John Miller and Mike Vizdos to help the school implement Scrum for both the students and school administration. The interview explains how Scrum got started at Grandview, the impact it has had on the students, as well as the benefits and challenges they’ve experienced along the way.
Show Notes01:16 Interview Begins 02:01 How Grandview Prep got interested in Scrum 04:59 Agile can be a lot easier for kids than adults 05:52 How Scrum has changed the way the students at Grandview collaborate 06:32 How the kids self-organize to make sure everyone is participating in the work 06:59 How teaching Scrum to a junior in high school impacts their ability to get work done and prepare for college 07:54 How visualizing the work is helping the students understand how to break work down into manageable pieces 08:35 Teaching students and teachers about how to break down the work and plan things out 10:20 Differences between how 1st graders and older kids are using Scrum at Grandview 11:17 The hardest parts of getting started with Scrum in school 13:17 Sometimes the transparency and seeing how much you have to do is overwhelming for adults 14:03 The struggle between Trello and Post-its 14:59 Student rankings and grading at Grandview - and how it has been impacted by Scrum 17:14 How using Scrum has improved the students and teachers ability to give and receive feedback 17:45 The reaction from parents/stakeholders to the introduction of Scrum at Grandview Prep 20:28 What Scrum means for the quiet kids who like to sit back and let others lead and drive the work 21:30 How will Grandview measure success to determine if/how Scrum is helping 22:33 The support Grandview Prep received from the Scrum Alliance 23:14 Advice for educators who are interested in learning more or trying to implement it at their school 24:39 How to get in touch with Susan and Aileen to learn more about Scrum at Grandview Prep 26:10 Wrap up 26:48 Podcast End
For more information:
Grandview Prep Info and ContactsGrandview Prep Aileen Palmer Susan Rose
Scrum Alliance Info and ContactsScrum Alliance John Miller Mike Vizdos Heather Leigh |
Posted on: March 06, 2017 08:15 PM
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Comments (3)
Podcast Interview with Stephen Denning
| My Projects at Work interview with Stephen Denning, author of "The Leaders's Guide to Radical Management" and new board member of the Scrum Alliance. |
Posted on: October 02, 2013 11:41 AM
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Comments (1)
Individual Capacity Calculator
| Note: The link to the file has been updated. It can be found here. (3-4-13)
For awhile now I have been using an excel spreadsheet I put together to work out the calculations I detailed in the post on avoiding overcommitment. I have also been sharing it with the students in my CSM classes. I recently updated it so that the times allocated for the different Scrum meetings is in sync with the current version of the Scrum Guide and I thought it would be a good idea to post here just in case it can be of help to anyone.
In case you missed the earlier post, the intention of this calculator is to help individual team members on a Scrum Team gain a better (more true) understanding of the amount of time the can realistically commit/forecast to be able to contribute to the work the team will do during a Sprint. I have found this to be very helpful for teams who are struggling with understanding their capacity.
An example of how this could be used in s Sprint Planning is...
1. Once a Scrum Team has forecasted the amount of Story Points it can expect to get through during a given Sprint based on average historical velocity.
2. And defined tasks for all the stories.
3. And estimated the ideal engineering hours required to complete each individual task.
4. And totalled up the collective ideal engineering hours required to complete all the work they are forecasting to complete in the Sprint.
5. Each team member can use this calculator to determine how much time he/she can expect to be able to contribute in the Sprint.
6. Once each team member has come up with his/her number, you would total those up to get the total amount of ideal engineering hours the Team expects to be able to working during the Sprint.
7. If the value resulting from Step 4 is greater than the value from Step 6, then you may need to reconsider the amount of work your team is forecasting to complete in the Sprint, or modify the scope (and tasks) for one of the stories.
8. If the value resulting from Step 4 is significantly less than the value resulting from Step 6, you may need to consider adding some additional stories/work into what is being forecasted for the Sprint.
* Some teams I have worked with have taken the additional step of applying this technique by work type within a Sprint, i.e. Development, QA, UX, etc.
Here is the file
This work is licensed under Dave Prior is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.">Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License |
Posted on: February 19, 2013 02:31 AM
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Comments (3)