Nearly 6 months ago I saw another Top 20 list of Agile people. I was troubled. As a result I started anti top 100 list: (from Looking for 100 Agile Voices we should hear more from)

In the past few years a number of Agile people I respect have published Top 100 or even Top 200 lists. While I, like many others appreciate the attention they’ve brought, the whole idea seems very anti-Agile. Agile promotes a democratic meritocracy. These lists do the opposite; they create “hero’s” – people whose ideas are more important than others. Instead of this I think we should be widely read in the Agile community, often reaching outside our immediate realm. To that end I’m asking for your help in creating a list of voices that we should hear more from. My goal is find 100; this limit being more from my lack of time and energy than from the lack of the number of people we could possibly find.

I naively assumed that once this went “live” I would be flooded with names. The first few came in rapidly, and they’ve trickled in on and off ever since. Well, the list has now reached 70 people; I’ve long since had my minimum viable product, but summer and family time intervened.

As a reminder – my simple rules for inclusion are:

• Nominees have to have a track record of doing something Agile for at least a year
• Not be in the Top 100 of any previous list
• The list isn’t sorted – no one is more important than anyone else
• I’m most interested in people who write about their experiences, either good or bad
• Please don’t suggest yourself

There is no order to this list.

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In the past few years a number of Agile people I respect have published top 100 or even top 200 lists. While I like many others appreciate the attention they’ve brought the whole idea seems very anti-agile. Agile promotes a democratic meritocracy. These lists do the opposite, they create “hero’s” people whose ideas are more important others. Instead I think we should be widely read in the Agile community often reaching outside our immediate realm. To that end I’m asking for your help creating a list of voices we should hear more from. My goal is find ~100, the limit is more from my time and energy than the lack of more people we could find.

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In my Certified ScrumMaster Training I ask students not use their laptops and CrackBerry’s. Why?

Some people want to take notes using their laptops. Unfortunately my experience shows that laptops do more harm than good. They put up a barrier between people at a table and reduce collaboration. They send a signal that this person isn’t open. They even reduce interaction with the trainer. Finally with tools like outlook even if you don’t have web access they’re often a source of distraction. For these reasons I ask that you not use a laptop.

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In the past few months I’ve seen the following question several times: “Who’re the Agile/Scrum Guru’s or Thought Leaders?” The urge to ask the question is good but misplaced. I assume it comes from people who’re new to Agile and want to know where to get good ideas. Inevitably people reply with long lists of people.

There is just one problem, the whole concept of thought leaders is alien to Agile thinking. We promote the value of cross functional teams and always assume that even the least experienced person has a contribution to make even if its asking a question.

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That’s the Way We (Used to) Do Things Around Here – Jeffrey Schwartz, Pablo Gaito, and Doug Lennick team up to write about understanding the mechanics of change through the lens of neuroscience. As many of you will know this is topic near to my heart.

A brilliant brainstorming technique – Edward Boches – explains how to improve brainstorming through silent listing. I’ve used this and related approach of working in pairs on a number of occasions. Both approaches are faster and seem to generate better results than traditional approaches.

People Know When First Impressions Are Accurate – apparently we know when we’re right.

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In Science Daily Week: Which is more effective: bonuses or raises? Guy Kawasaki remarks on an interesting study:

According to this “Bonuses Boost Performance 10 Times More Than Merit Raises” in Science Daily which pointed to a Cornell study called “Using Your Pay System to Improve Employees’ Performance: How You Pay Makes a Difference” by Dr. Michael C. Sturman, a bonus yields far better results.

But both the study and Guy miss what is perhaps the most important point.

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