Lennie Noiles

[Lennie Noiles]

What type of help do you need?

[Lennie Noiles]

Scott
I am often asked to work with teams that have a lack of trust, both as a coach and a LSP facilitator. What I have found is, unless trust has been broken, what appears to be a trust issue is usually a communication issue. Team members don’t really know their teammates. The best way to get to know someone else is to be in dialogue with them. At the end of my most recent LSP workshop the feedback was, “this is the most we have talked to each other in the history of the team.” In my followup with the team lead I was told the LSP workshop opened the door to team communication.
In this workshop I scripted mostly exercises from the Team Identity model. As the workshop progressed I adapted the exercises to what was emerging from the room.
If you want exercises that focus on trust I would first familiarize yourself with the research around psychological safety then build exercises around what a safe environment is like and how the team might design an alliance of how to work together around that model.
I hope this helps you move forward on your LSP journey.

[Lennie Noiles]

@diegomaffazzioli
“The answer is within the system.”

There is nothing special I do for LSP in an Agile environment. I follow roughly the same standard LSP process model: Skill building, individual models, shared model, Landscape, etc. following the ask, build, share, reflect sequence.
I rely heavily on my professional leadership coaching background to ask challenging questions to move through the root problem.
Although I have used Lego bricks to help teams understand Agile, I don’t use LSP materials and techniques to teach / coach Agile. I use LSP as a tool to help teams solve wicked problems, Agile or otherwise. Having a deep Agile background helps me communicate with Agile teams using their language and I can always fallback on the 4 tenants & 12 Agile principles. I have never found Agile to be the problem, but Agile does uncover problems. Where I use LSP in an Agile environment is to address the issues Agile uncovers.

For example:
I am in the early stages ofpreparing to lead a workshop for 2 Agile teams wanting to find a new way of working together. I plan to use cycles of divergence and convergence in this workshop:
– Morning skill building and individual model building.
– A shared model building sequence based on the SWOT analysis template.
– A current state landscape.
– Co-create a future state landscape model, incorporating simple guiding principles.
– Connections to identify the gap between here and there.
– Emergence to help their new process stick and become sustainable in the future.

I will spend a substantial time building out the workshop design with multiple iterations and refinement to get the right mix of exercises and questions to address the perceived issue in the allotted time.

As you can see there is nothing special here. The trick is in asking powerful challenge questions which often change from plan as the workshop unfolds.
My advice:
Focus on meeting the needs of your Agile teams, not driving a specific agenda. Be agile in your approach. Don’t be attached to outcomes. Believe the answer is within the system.

I hope this helps.

[Lennie Noiles]

I have used LSP within Agile environments to help teams and organizations solve “wicked” problems. These problems surfaced from their transition to Agile. I used LSP as a true coaching tool not as an Agile game.
The 3 dimensional aspect helps teams see a variety of perspectives that were not previously in view.

[Lennie Noiles]

I would like to follow the LSP slack channel. Thanks.
lennienoiles@gmail.com

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