Month: August 2020

When teaching classes at universities or delivering a workshop as a corporate trainer, I often ask the following question to my students: “With a show of hands, how many of you are happy about your current job and your career as a whole?” There’s no doubt this is a loaded question. I’m asking these individuals if they have made the best decisions for their careers up to this point, which means that the inquiry hits very close to home. You probably guessed the response … over the past 20 years that I’ve asked this question, less than 10% of the participants are happy with where they are today.

Know When It’s Time to Flee!

A quote from Paul F. Davis resonates here: “If you don’t feel it. Flee from it. Go where you are celebrated, not merely tolerated.”

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Okay … let me start by saying that I do not have a test to measure your curiosity score, but I’m sure that one exists. For the sake of this discussion, however, it’s not important to go that far and obtain a result that gauges your level of curiosity.

Founder of PC Limited

Have you heard of a company called PC Limited? My guess is that you have not. Let me give you more hints … It was started in Austin, TX in 1984? Does this help? Let’s keep going … a UT student working from his dorm room is the owner. I think we’re getting warmer, right?

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Have you heard of the Ritty’s Incorruptible Cashier? Given you were not around in the 1880s, my guess is that you haven’t. I stumbled upon this story when reading how people form habits, and I decided to investigate it a bit further.  

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In September 2019, I attended the Advanced-Certified ScrumMaster (A-CSM) 2-day training taught by veteran Scrum Alliance trainer Jim Schiel. To qualify for the A-CSM, the candidate must have completed the Certified Scrum Master (CSM) training and have at least one year of experience as a ScrumMaster after the certification is earned. The A-CSM is a key step in the progression to Scrum Alliances’ Certified Scrum Professional-SM (CSP®-SM) credential.

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On September 17-18, 2019, I attended the Certified Agile Leadership I (CAL I) training in Seattle, Washington. The course was sponsored by Braintrust Consulting Group, and taught by Anu Smalley, who is an experienced Agile coach and a ScrumAlliance Certified Scrum Trainer (CST). The ScrumAlliance Certified Agile Leadership (CAL) program (CAL I and CALL II) is a unique two-part education and practice-based program to develop agile leadership competency and maturity. After successfully completing CAL I, participants must practice the key concepts learned for at least a year before taking the CAL II course.

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The Scrum Guide (2017) states that ScrumMaster helps the team understand the Scrum theory, practices, rules, and values. One might think that meeting the requirements of this role is straightforward, and possibly easy to do. However, the fact is that performing the role of the ScrumMaster presents many challenges and requires this individual to have the necessary knowledge regarding how work gets done in the respective organization (i.e., corporate culture).

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