Convenor: Deborah Hartmann
Participants: still more to come here...
Deb started the conversation with this question\statement: "To be Agile you MUST get your Product Owner in the team room for 8 hours a week".
Agile is a "yes and..." methodology -> it is a set of tools for people to say "no" by saying "yes"
Weak questions have a "yes or no" answer, powerful\strong questions open the possibilities
"Do you want a cup of coffee?" - weak question
"What do you want to drink?" - strong question
Why is a blaming question and some circumstances should be avoided. Try to reframe a "why" question as a "what" question.
Learn to let go of your agenda.
Powerful Questions Examples
Can you speak more to that?
Can you try it for a week?
How's that working for you?
Can you explain that to me?
What does that cost you?
What do you want to talk about?
How can we make this more fun?
How do you feel about it?
What do you need to know?
How can you do that better?
How do you know?
What do you care about?
What is another way?
What skills can you use?
What do you need to be?
I wonder...
I'm curious...
What if...
A powerful question is one where the speaker has to stop and consider your question before answering.
As a listener, using a powerful question compels you to listen more carefully.
Item on Powerful Questions with links to more reading:
www.infoq.com/news/2008/05/powerful-questions
Roger mentioned the Situational Leadership model as a resource to help determine how proactive to be with a person or team at different times. It is a management tool that classifies an individual in a situation on a 4 quadrant graph where the axes are willingness and ability. See wikipedia for an introduction. Mike Cohn applied the model to agile teams in this paper:
SituationalLeadership.pdf (82.70 Kb)
Participants: still more to come here...
Deb started the conversation with this question\statement: "To be Agile you MUST get your Product Owner in the team room for 8 hours a week".
- I noted the reactions. My intention was to revisit this using powerful questions at the end, but we didn't seem to need it. --deb
Agile is a "yes and..." methodology -> it is a set of tools for people to say "no" by saying "yes"
Weak questions have a "yes or no" answer, powerful\strong questions open the possibilities
"Do you want a cup of coffee?" - weak question
"What do you want to drink?" - strong question
Why is a blaming question and some circumstances should be avoided. Try to reframe a "why" question as a "what" question.
Learn to let go of your agenda.
Powerful Questions Examples
Can you speak more to that?
Can you try it for a week?
How's that working for you?
Can you explain that to me?
What does that cost you?
What do you want to talk about?
How can we make this more fun?
How do you feel about it?
What do you need to know?
How can you do that better?
How do you know?
What do you care about?
What is another way?
What skills can you use?
What do you need to be?
I wonder...
I'm curious...
What if...
A powerful question is one where the speaker has to stop and consider your question before answering.
As a listener, using a powerful question compels you to listen more carefully.
Item on Powerful Questions with links to more reading:
www.infoq.com/news/2008/05/powerful-questions
Roger mentioned the Situational Leadership model as a resource to help determine how proactive to be with a person or team at different times. It is a management tool that classifies an individual in a situation on a 4 quadrant graph where the axes are willingness and ability. See wikipedia for an introduction. Mike Cohn applied the model to agile teams in this paper:
SituationalLeadership.pdf (82.70 Kb)