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October 22nd: Agile Craftsman in a Living Lab

For more than 15 years, InRhythm has been in the business of practicing agile methodology, building high velocity teams and accelerating product development through a combination of staffing solutions, processes and tools. We’re agile craftsmen, constantly learning, testing new ideas and sharing what we’ve learned or developed with our partners. In essence, we are a living lab for agile best practices.

Going forward, our Learning & Growth newsletter and InRhythm blog will highlight agile values and principles through examples to demonstrate how we are putting each of the values and principles into action. As agile craftsmen, it is imperative that we assess every process and method with a lens designed to identify inefficiencies. When recognized, these opportunities for improvement must be raised and discussed as a team to uncover ways to address the inefficiencies.

Within our own walls at InRhythm, we analyze processes to learn why they work – and why they don’t. Learning by doing is often the best form of instruction. Agile craftsmen must recognize that there is the potential to fail and “feel the fear but do it anyway” in the words of Coach Jeffers. 

Our practice leads scrutinize each effort at each partner and bring back new ideas and best practices. Internally, we test these new concepts, practice implementing and executing them then review what we did with a lens on how to make it better. By first testing new ideas ourselves, we can assure our partners that we are bringing vetted concepts forward to make their high velocity teams even stronger. As a living lab of agile craftsmen, we cannot be afraid to pivot.

Inherent in our success is learning, learning through observation, application and implementation. What doesn’t work within our own walls is unlikely to work at a partner site. Recognizing the difference between an agile concept that has the potential to be beneficial once artfully defined and practiced versus a concept that is flawed in its conception and will never work despite excellent execution can only be done through trial and error. 

A hallmark of agile product development and of high velocity teams is failing fast. However, in order to fail, you first need to try. Wayne Gretzky, a hockey legend, masterfully articulated this his popularized quotation, “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.”

Over the weeks and months ahead, we look forward to sharing some of our “experiments” as agile craftsmen practicing new concepts to make the available to you and our partners.

I’m interested to learn how have you been able to apply internal learnings to your business success, and create your own living lab? Share your thoughts with @GetInRhythm or on the InRhythmU blog.

Thanks and Keep Growing,

Gunjan Doshi

CEO, InRhythm

What We’re Reading Around the Web

What is Agile Testing?
Guru99
“Agile Testing can begin at the start of the project with continuous integration between development and testing.”

Engineering Higher Quality Through Agile Testing
Atlassian
“Project owners face an unwelcome choice: delay the release, or skimp on testing. (I’ll give you one guess as to which option wins 99% of the time.)”W

Agile Testing, Principles & Advantages
ReQtest
“Agile testing not only facilitates the early detection of defects but also reduces the cost of bugs by fixing them early.”

Agile Methodology: The Complete Guide to Understanding Agile Testing
RTricentis
“This frequency has forced testers to shift when they conduct testing, how they work with developers and BAs and even what tests they conduct, all while maintaining quality standards.”

October 8th: How to Achieve High Performance Cultures

Everyone wants a high performance culture. Here’s why it matters. Research shows that high performance organizations have a 14% job turnover rate compared to 48% as seen in low performance organizations. 

Throughout nearly 20 years of management consulting, I’ve completed over 100 organizational assessments of companies ranging from startups like Yodel and Vimeo to great enterprises like Consumer Report and Amazon. These assessments revealed the reasons why companies struggle to attain high performance cultures. Additionally, these evaluations highlighted how investments in team culture enabled transformation into successful enterprises. 

The key message is that high performance cultures require what we refer to as “10x teams.” Success of 10x teams is not the result of a secret formula. Rather, it’s based on an approach that can be consistently repeated.

That said, one of the main roadblocks to developing 10x teams is the process itself. Furthermore, the obsession with process. There is a preconceived notion that adoption of a process, whether it be agile development, safe or lean mindset, or some other process, will solve every problem. Not so. 

Working with my clients has illustrated that it is the convergence of people, culture, process and business structure that spurs the magic. Ultimately, it is this convergence that creates 10x teams and high performance cultures. The adoption of key practices accelerates performance improvement. These practices include pulling group members together, propelling groups into action, encouraging groups to push boundaries as a team so that they can achieve an increasingly greater impact together over time.

Off-the-shelf processes for 10x team transformation simply do not exist. Bespoke processes must be developed based on your people, culture, org structure, geography and so on. Efforts to design a process in the absence of these factors typically have the reverse effect: your business will slow down and you typically will not achieve the desired outcome. Additionally, unintended consequences include expectations for a transformed culture which is unattainable with a vanilla approach. Confusion and dissatisfaction often result.

Without a doubt, based on my experience, adopting a generic process that does not factor in the aspects unique to your business is the number one reason teams are prevented from becoming 10x. Another important consideration is that team transformations are dynamic processes which are either cumulatively additive or negative. Given that the long-term goal is a sustainable culture, continuous adaptation is required to keep your teams and company moving in the right direction. 

I’m curious. How has process limited your organization from growing and what barriers have you come across along the way? Share your thoughts with @GetInRhythm or on the InRhythmU blog.

Thanks and Keep Growing,

Gunjan Doshi

CEO, InRhythm

What We’re Reading Around the Web

Why Some Rules are more likely to be Broken
Harvard Business Review 
“Our intuition was that rules that were high in either type of complexity would be harder to follow. Because organizations rely on routines for following rules, complex rules would require complex routines, which would be harder to execute reliably.”

5 Team Attributes that are Killing Your Creative Tension
WForbes
“Fear of failure can stifle the engagement, speaking up and risk taking that are hallmarks of creative thinking.”

Companies do Best when they Encourage this Kind of Culture
Forbes
“Businesses do best when they’re built around high-purpose cultures, which are equally focused on both employees and customers.”