Sep 14, 2022Uncovering biases and assumptionsHow to use Dixit cards to improve teamwork — We all have beliefs, assumptions and biases that impact not only our decision making, but also how effective we are as a team. In this article I’ll show you a way of uncovering these biases to improve teamwork. The basis is a workshop with Dixit cards that I have developed…Bias7 min readBias7 min read
Jul 15, 2021How to reframe a limiting beliefAre you inadvertently sabotaging the Psychological Safety of your team? Thanks to Amy C. Edmondson and Google’s project Aristotle many of us know that Psychological Safety is a key prerequisite for a high performing team. …Reframing4 min readReframing4 min read
Jun 28, 2021How to better balance your backlogWithout imposing or enforcing anything According to the Scrum Guide, the Product Owner is accountable for maximizing the value of the product resulting from the work of the Scrum Team. The main mechanism that the Product Owner has to achieve this, is ordering the backlog. If you are a Product…Backlog5 min readBacklog5 min read
Jun 21, 2021My Recipe for a Failure Partyand why you should try it. — Fancy a different kind of party, where the usual suspects don’t always steal the show? Try my Failure Party recipe and you’ll be amazed. The purpose of a Failure Party is to reinforce the message that failures are okay and to spread the learning to a large group. Ingredients Serves 1…Failure6 min readFailure6 min read
Published inCrucial Conversations·Jan 9, 2020First steps towards a high performing organisationPicture this: while doing an upgrade you accidentally deleted the database. The one all your customers use. You think to yourself “Oops, how can I get away with this?”. Then you realize that you don’t have to worry. The team has your back. They’ll help you get the database restored…Leadership4 min readLeadership4 min read
Dec 31, 2019Grateful for 2019I’ve been looking back at all that 2019 has brought me. There is much to be grateful for. Small things, like my daily gratefulness practice. Big things, like the wonderful people I’ve been working with. Highlights for me include the Liberating Structures Global Gathering; being part of the design team…Gratitude2 min readGratitude2 min read
Published inThe Startup·Dec 14, 2019Member-onlyWhat Buddhism teaches us about refinementI’ve seen many teams struggle with refinement. Problems I often encounter include: doing too little, wasting a lot of time in unproductive meetings, not capturing important decisions, assuming each backlog item has to be a user story, not allowing any uncertainty in the backlog items, etc. …Agile4 min readAgile4 min read
Nov 30, 2019My name is RobertMy name is Robert. French pronunciation, with emphasis on the second syllable: Robèrt. Those of you that know me probably know me as Rob or Robert (English pronunciation). From now on please call me Robèrt. Let me explain why. My parents named me Robert, pronounced the French way (Robèrt). Before…Names4 min readNames4 min read
Oct 12, 2019The beauty of connecting with strangersI promised to experiment and share those experiments here. This time I want to share my experiences doing Biodanza. Els (my wife) and I were looking to do some more things together. Dancing appealed, so we started looking into that. …Dance4 min readDance4 min read
Sep 20, 2019Grateful for a cancelled experimentI promised to experiment and share those experiments here. I thought this past week would be easy: I had a nice experiment planned. Linda van Sinten and I would run a Silence workshop at Agile Open Holland. The workshop would be a try out of some exercises in silence. It…Gratitude3 min readGratitude3 min read
