Teams Going Boldly

Written By Allison Pollard

Photo by Amanda G

Saturday was my birthday, and by coincidence, my company's holiday party was that evening.  My goals were to have a relatively stress-free day and to look AMAZING for the party.  Without sounding too brazen, I think I accomplished both goals... by relying on a few experts.  I had help picking out my dress.  And advice for my hair and accessories.  And I even had someone else do my makeup.  I felt a little like Cinderella with fairy godmothers to help transform my look for one special night, but I noticed that each seemed to advocate courage [without using that exact term].

The 5 values of Scrum are courage, commitment, openness, focus, and respect.  They sound so simple, but I feel like courage is often underplayed when it comes to teams.  A high-performing team believes it can solve any problem, owns its decisions and commitments, and displays constructive disagreement.  The team needs to be not only self-organizing but empowered.  And as Esther Derby recently told the DFW Scrum user group, "One way to keep a team self-organizing is to treat them like adults."

Allison Pollard

Allison Pollard is a coach, consultant, and trainer who brings the power of relationship systems intelligence to go beyond tasks, roles, and frameworks to create energy for change. She engages with people and teams in a down-to-earth way to build trust and listen for signals to help them learn more and improve. Allison focuses on creating alignment and connection for people to solve business problems together. Her experience includes working with teams and leaders in energy, retail, financial, real estate, and transportation industries to help improve their project/product delivery and culture. Allison currently volunteers as program director for Women in Agile’s mentorship program. Her agile community focus is championing new voices and amplifying women as mentors and sponsors for the next generation of leaders. Allison earned her bachelor’s degrees in computer science, mathematics, and English from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, TX. She is a Certified Professional Co-Active Coach (CPCC), a foodie, and proud glasses wearer. Allison is a prolific speaker at professional groups and international conferences, including Scrum Gatherings and the Agile Alliance Agile20xx conferences. Allison is co-owner of Helping Improve LLC.

http://www.allisonpollard.com
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