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The Soft Stuff Is The Hard Stuff: The Agile Soft Skills Toolkit
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Collaboration
Change Management
Individuals And
Interactions Ionut Grecu----------------------------
W: ionutgrecu.com
T: @ionutgrecu_com
Soft Skills85%
Hard Skills15%
Professional Success Equation--------------------------------------------
Research done at Harvard University, the Carnegie Foundation and Stanford Research Center
Objectives--------------------------------------------
Demonstrate the impact that interpersonal and communication skills have on an agilist’s effectiveness
Help agilists become more effective and efficient at creating software by improving their ability to understand, communicate with, and collaborate with each other
Explore new ways of thinking and adapting behaviours to face some common challenges in agile teams
The Nitty Gritty--------------------------------------------
Soft skills definition
The role of soft skills in an agile environment
The relationship between perception, soft skills and failure
Key psychological bugs
Essential soft skills and guidelines for cultivating them
In Search Of A Definition---------------------------------------------------------- the cluster of personality traits, social graces,
facility with language, personal habits, friendliness, and optimism
Wikipedia, March 2011
Soft Skills
Engineering is easy. People are hard.
Bill Coughran, VP Of Engineering - Google
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Manifesto For Agile Software Development
---------------------------------------------Individuals and interactions over processes and
tools
Working software over comprehensive
documentation
Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
Responding to change over following a plan
The Most Significant Causes Of Failure--------------------------------------------
• Inability to work in a team
• Poor interpersonal relations
• Difficulty handling change
Dear Stress, Let’s Break Up------------------------------------------------------
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Stress is not what happens to us. It's our response to what happens and
response is something we can choose.
Maureen Killoran
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The Way We See The Problem Is The Problem
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The Inside-Out Approach-----------------------------------------------
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Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.
Carl Gustav Jung
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7 Laws To Reach Collaborative Nirvana--------------------------------------------
1. Be a model, not a critic
2. Be part of the solution, not part of the problem
3. Don't argue for other people's weaknesses
4. When you make a mistake, admit it, correct it and learn from it
5. Don't get into a blaming, accusing mode
6. Work on things you have control over
7. Look at the weaknesses of others with compassion, not accusation
Who Push Our Hot Buttons?--------------------------------------------
Psychological Bugs
How dare you think differently than me!?
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Be Proactive--------------------------------------------
Stimulus Response
Freedom To
Choose
No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.
Eleanor Roosevelt
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It’s All About ME!--------------------------------------------
Think Win-Win--------------------------------------------
Adopt a new philosophy of cooperation (win-win) in which everybody wins.
W. Edwards Deming
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Flap My Gums To Save My Ears--------------------------------------------
Be Heard By Listening--------------------------------------------
Ignoring
Pretend listening Selective listening Attentive listening Empathic listening
We have two ears and one mouth and we should use them proportionally.
Susan Cain
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Teamwork Doesn’t Make The Dream Work
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Let’s Synergise--------------------------------------------
Together
Everyone
Achieves
More
1 1 2
None of us is as smart as all of us.
Kenneth H. Blanchard
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Hello! I’m Mr. Know It All--------------------------------------------
Renew Yourself Every Day------------------------------------------------------
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Small daily improvements are the key to staggering long term results.
The journey of a thousand miles begins with one small step.
Lao Tzu
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1. Start doing the little things you already know you can do
2. Start living in a state of awareness
3. Become a keen observer of others & help them where necessary
4. Listen to what is really being said
5. Have fun doing it!
Top Tips --------------------------------------------
Summary--------------------------------------------
Presented soft skills definition
Identified the role of soft skills in an agile environment
Identified the relationship between perception, soft skills and failure
Described key psychological bugs
Presented essential soft skills and offered guidelines for cultivating them
References--------------------------------------------
• Individuals and Interactions: An Agile Guide - Ken Howard, Barry Rogers
• Building a High-Performance Team (Soft Skills for It Professionals) - Sarah Cook
• Collaboration Explained: Facilitation Skills for Software Project Leaders - Jean Tabaka
• The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People - Stephen R. Covey
• 42 Rules for Successful Collaboration: A Practical approach to Working with People, Processes and Technology - David Coleman
• Emotional Intelligence for Managing Results in a Diverse World: The Hard Truth About Soft Skills in the Workplace - Anita Rowe, Lee Gardenswartz, Jorge Cherbosque
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... The End.--------------------------------------------
