OMS Consulting Partners, LLC

Turn the Ship Around! is the true story of how the USS Santa Fe skyrocketed from worst to first in the fleet by challenging the U.S. Navy's traditional leader-follower approach. No matter your business or position, you can apply Marquet's radical guidelines to turn your own ship around. The payoff: a workplace where everyone around you is taking responsibility for their actions, where people are healthier and happier, where everyone is a leader. https://youtu.be/OqmdLcyES_Q

Dan Dan the Scrum Master man strikes again! First off, you should celebrate the fact that you’ve created a safe enough space for a bitch session.   I’ll take a bitch session any day over an everything’s fine session.   Remember, the job of a Scrum Master is to create the container; the team creates the content.   You did not create the underlying issues the team is complaining about, unless they are complaining about you, which is entirely possible but I have a hunch is not the situation you are dealing with.   If that is going on, celebrate twice because not only does your team feel safe, they feel safe enough around you to complain about you. When I hold retrospectives, my number one priority is creating the safety for team members to share openly and honestly with one another.   To do this, I employ set the stage type activities and pay close attention to my body language and the manner in which I am participating throughout the meeting.   C...

From a long time business associate and very wise man, Dmitry Goykhman... These social rules of thumb can help us understand any large organization better... Robert Conquest: 1) Everyone is conservative about what he knows best. 2) Any organization not explicitly right-wing sooner or later becomes left-wing. 3) The simplest way to explain the behavior of any bureaucratic organization is to assume that it is controlled by a cabal of its enemies. Parkinson: I) Work expands to fill the time available for its completion. II) Officials want to multiply subordinates, not rivals. III) Officials make work for one another.

  More from Scrum Master Dan... Working in so-called Agile-minded spaces for the better part of the past year, people always ask me “what does Agile say to do to make sure teams are accountable for their work?” and quite frankly I’m insulted by that question. First off, Agile is a set of four values and twelve principles.  It’s a mindset, a philosophy, a way of thinking.  In the  Spine Model , agility pertains to values and principles and not practices or tools. Agile principle # 5 says “Build projects around motivated individuals.  Give them the environment and support they need, and trust them to get the job done.” So let me give all of you the answer to the question “How do I hold my team accountable?” --> Trust them and get out of their way.

How can you get better, more productive, more dedicated, harder working employees for less money?  CSR or Corporate Social Responsibility studies show people will work harder with better performance for 27% less pay for companies that have a "transcendent" mission/vision. Why?  Because people want a job that has meaning, not just a place to earn a paycheck.  Here's more on the topic from the Freakonomics Podcast... "Is Good Corporate Citizenship also Good for the Bottom Line?" http://freakonomics.com/tag/csr/