Collaboration Explained Class – Day 2 (Last Day)

I can honestly say that I have never been so exhausted after a 2 day class/workshop.  The last 2 days were filled with so much great information that my head is spinning.  Jean and Ronica did an amazing job with this class.  I don’t want to list out too much detail around my key take-aways.  If I did, this blog post would likely be a novel and I also don’t want to give away all my new found “subtle skills.”  That said, here are 3 things that really hit home for me (in no particular order):

1. I talk too much 🙂  As I am writing this, I swear I can hear my friends and family laughing.  Seriously, when I am in a facilitator role, I talk too much and don’t listen enough.  I really learned just how important it is to be quiet and neutral as a facilitator.  I think this is an area that most facilitators can improve on as well.
2. I don’t prepare enough for the meetings I run.  If Jean and Ronica had prepared for this class the way I prepare for my meetings, it would have been a disaster.  I am committing to myself to spend the appropriate amount of time preparing for meetings I facilitate (if I am planning a 2 hour meeting, then I need to spend 4 hours preparing for it).  If people are going to give up time in their day to come to a meeting I set up, then I owe it to them to make it a productive and worthwhile use of their time.
3. Managing conflict isn’t easy but I now feel very well equipped with new tools and techniques to do this.  I am no longer afraid of having conflict in meetings but am actually looking forward to the opportunity to use some of my new found skills to help with this.

One of the real benefits of this class that I was not expecting was how much I learned about myself and what type of person I am.  I am much more aware (painfully so 🙂 ) of some character traits I have that I am hoping to improve on in the work place.

I would highly recommend this class for any and all CSM’s.  I can guarantee that you will come out of it prepared to really facilitate collaborative decision making on your agile teams.

Collaboration Explained Class – Day 1

I am currently in Boulder taking the Collaboration Explained class at Rally.  We just completed day 1 of 2 and so far, this class has been just awesome!

One of my biggest pet peeves around the Certified Scrum Master class/workshop is that anyone that wants to go and sit in on a 2 day class and pay the money for it is suddenly a “certified” ScrumMaster.  I know from personal experience that by getting “certified” I was no where near being equipped or qualified to serve as a good Scrum Master on my team (or any team for that matter).

In my opinion, THIS class would be a much better CSM class.  This class is all about giving you the tools and techniques needed to be a good servant leader and facilitator.  I am already overloaded with a ton of great tools and techniques that I will be able to take back to my job and start using immediately.  

I am a huge fan of the Collaboration Explained book by Jean Tabaka and this class is the greatest compliment to it.   If you haven’t read the book, do so as soon as you can.  Once you have read it, do everything you can to attend this class – it is well worth it! 

I am going to wait until the class is over to post my favorite moments and take-aways.