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The Human Side of Agile

About the book

Putting people before process is the first Agile value. If you’re a Scrum Master, project manager, delivery lead, or manager — or you aspire to be one — you can make all the difference to your Agile team. Not by being a taskmaster, administrator, or process enforcer, but by leading your team to greatness. Written by Gil Broza, an Agile coach/trainer/facilitator since 2004 and founder at 3P Vantage, The Human Side of Agile will help you to:

  • Build and cultivate an engaged team that can handle almost any challenge
  • Catalyze team communication, collaboration, and continuous improvement
  • Establish yourself as a confident and capable leader who adds value
  • Reap the full benefits of Agile in the real world with real people

“I’ve rarely seen so much useful, concrete advice packaged in such a simple and accessible way.” — Henrik Kniberg, Agile coach and author, Lean from the Trenches

To this day, most Agile teams experience the following problems. Does your team experience them too?

  • Members use established Agile practices and tools, but with little motivation or buy-in.
  • Even though the team is cross-functional, members don’t collaborate effectively or leverage everyone’s abilities.
  • Rather than act empowered, they wait for permission and approval.
  • Improvement has stalled — the team performs okay, but it can do so much better.

You can’t solve these problems with more practices, rules, and tools. These are people problems.

“Agile teams need effective leaders who ‘get’ the people stuff. Without that you’re merely going through the Agile motions.” —  Scott W. Ambler, co-creator of Disciplined Agile Delivery

Check it out: Read a sample on Amazon or expand the follow table of contents to listen to several audio samples.

Table of contents with audio samples

Foreword by Jim Highsmith
Foreword by Christopher Avery
Preface
Introduction

Part I: Design your role for outstanding value
Chapter 1: Step into Agile Team Leadership
Chapter 2: Add Value as an Agile Team Leader
Chapter 3: Be the Best Leader for Your Team

Part II: Grow a solid team
Chapter 4: Select Members for a New Team
Chapter 5: Fulfill Preconditions for Teamwork (audio sample)
Chapter 6: Cultivate Team Agility
Chapter 7: Manage Behaviors That Derail Teams

Part III: Engage people in powerful conversations
Chapter 8: Master Your Communication
Chapter 9: Make Meetings Matter

Part IV: Be the Agile leader
Chapter 10: Champion Your Team (audio sample)
Chapter 11: Lead People Through Change
Chapter 12: Defuse Resistance

Part V: Sustain your team for the long haul
Chapter 13: Make Continuous Improvement a Reality (audio sample)
Chapter 14: Stay the Course

What Do I Do Next?
Appendix: What Do Managers and Directors Do in Agile?

The audiobook's visuals and end notes

Visuals: The print and electronic formats of the book include a few diagrams and images. Since the audio format can’t include them, we put them here for you. All are PDFs.

Chapter 1: Step into Agile Team Leadership

Section 5.5 What Are the Elements of Effective Co-Location

Section 6.1 What Are the Stages of Team Evolution.pdf

Section 11.1 What Happens to Performance During Change

Section 11.5 Why Do Some Changes Stick Better Than Others

End Notes: The print and electronic formats also have 12 pages of end notes, containing bibliographic references, source attributions, and some additional commentary. While we incorporated a few into the text, we couldn’t include the rest without breaking the listening flow. You can download the entire set of notes here.

“Practical answers to the most relevant and pressing questions that team leaders ask.” — Chris Young, VP Engineering, Entertainment Group, Autodesk

Where to buy…

The book’s supplementary resources

Packed with practical guidance on the human side of Agile, almost every chapter comes with free additional resources to help you turn its ideas into action. There are 17 checklists, posters, worksheets, mental walkthroughs, and other tools to support leadership growth and team dynamics.

To gain access to the full set of resources, please enter your name and valid email. By that you’ll also allow Gil Broza and 3P Vantage (his company) to send you more resources to help you deliver better results: articles, insights, tips, additional book material, news, and invitations to webinars and workshops. With every email, you’ll have the option to stop receiving communication. Your privacy is assured and your contact information is safe.


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