Agile Learning Labs

Administrative Assistant Wanted

Agile Learning Labs is a small startup company in Foster City that delivers training and coaching to project managers, executives and software developers. We are looking for a part-time administrative assistant who relishes being part of a small team as much as we do. You will be responsible for managing the infrastructure of the business, from bill-paying and document preparation to providing support for the activities of the company's CEO, publications editor and salesperson.

 The position is part-time. Growth is part of our plan and this job could become full time in the future. We’re also open to a long-term relationship with someone for whom part time work is a lifestyle choice.

Job Description, Activities, Responsibilities

• Client invoicing and billing
• Arranging venue, catering and other logistics for events
• Maintaining the website's event calendar
• Scanning, transcribing, and summarizing workshop feedback forms
• Driving, to pickup office supplies, drop off promotional materials, etc.
• Maintain and restock training kits (office supplies, printed materials)
• Field email and phone requests regarding public training class details
• Prepare documents for approval by certification organizations
• Copy and distribute fliers
• Make travel arrangements
• Do scheduling for coaching clients
• Tracking receipts and expenses
• Contribute ideas toward the continuous improvement of the business
• Post workshop announcements to various websites and other promotion and publicity channels

Required Skills

• Excel, Word, and PowerPoint
• Stickler for details
• Has a car, insurance
• Good phone and email skills

Additional Skills - willing to train

• Quickbooks
• Blogging/Content Management Systems
• HTML

More Background

Our startup is at an important juncture; to date we have all pitched in on administrative tasks to keep our business running smoothly, but none of us is a strong administrator. This means you’ll have our gratitude, respect and cooperation as you take over these functions. Hiring this position is a milestone for us, as it will allow us to focus our energies where our own talents lie and step up the growth of our business, and we can’t overstate how much we value this new role and appreciate the expertise it requires.

As for your background and qualifications, we’re looking for confidence and maturity, a knack for organization and a passion for meticulousness. You might be a former copy editor who wants to make a career change. Or you might be a retired bookkeeper who wants to stay active. Your background and experience can take many forms, from running your own business, to heading a volunteer committee.

We’re looking to hire a real person, not just a set of skills or credentials, so tell us a bit about yourself, and we’ll take it from there.  Send your resume and cover letter to: IWantToWork@AgileLearningLabs.com

Try it!

By Steve Bockman

"In theory, there's no difference between theory and practice. In practice, there is." - Yogi Berra

You've probably heard that before. Amusing as it may be, there's solid advice to be gained from Yogi's folksy wisdom.

Having been on a number of development teams over the years, I've heard my share of discussions theorizing about "the best way" (sometimes stated as "the only way") to accomplish a given task. In some cases, it seemed that more time was spent in discussing possible approaches than in actually implementing them.

The essence of Agile might arguably be distilled down to two simple words: "Try It!" In other words, spend less time theorizing and more time experimenting with ways to improve your work process or technical practices. "Try It!" is the "conduct an experiment" part of the scientific method. It also shows up in the Plan-Do-Check-Act problem-solving process, more popularly known as the Deming cycle. The spirit of "Try It!" is embodied in Inspection and Adaptation, two of the three legs in the Scrum framework.

So the next time you find yourself in a position where you and your teammates are unable to decide on the best course of action, think of it as an opportunity to conduct a short experiment. Here's a way to go about that:

• In 5 minutes, have each team member write down every idea for a course of action he or she can think of on a sticky note (one idea per
•    note).Put all of the sticky notes up on the wall for all to see.
• Eliminate all the redundant ideas.
• Have the team vote (you can use sticky dots for this) for their favorite ideas.
• Implement the most popular idea.
• If the idea doesn't work out as hoped, repeat the above process.

This method is almost certain to get you past any analysis paralysis. And you'll likely learn something useful along the way.

What Does Your Team Need? Girl Power!

By Hillary Johnson

Last weekend, Chris and I attended a marvelous event called Dare 2B Digital, aimed at addressing the gender gap in computer science careers, and at which 7th through 10th grade girls got to play at writing code, crafting business plans, and other techie things.

We held a session called "Teamstorming," leading a group of enthusiastic students in a series of the same learning games we use to teach teams of software developers on big, important enterprise projects to work together collaboratively.

We were completely blown away. The girls weren't just good: they were great. This was the most quick-witted, productive, outgoing and naturally cooperative group of individuals we've ever had the pleasure of teaching, by a significant margin. Chris and I have both mentioned to several people now our experience of finding the teenaged girls smarter, stronger, faster and sharper than their elders of any gender, and have heard a few theories about why this might be, the top three being:

They are unspoiled.
They are female.
They are female and unspoiled.

We laughed, too. But each of these notions has some merit. First, there is the unsullied youth theory: It seems patently obvious that many adults have a great deal of wariness, and weariness, to overcome before they are open to participating freely in a game-based exercise. Our teaching style is based entirely around games and simulations, and the younger a student is, the closer she is to the memory of learning almost entirely though play. It is not, however, particularly true that children are born collaborators, as any parent whose pre-school has a biter enrolled can tell you.

As for the gender question: Are females, by nature or nurture, better collaborators and problem solvers than males? To whatever extent our temperaments are deterministic, my hunch is that girls would respond better to the collaborative exercises, and the boys to the competitive ones. There is research-based evidence that there are gender-based differences in learning styles, but the same research indicates that the variation between individuals is greater than the variation between the genders.

So yes, the girls may benefit from being both female and unspoiled, but this doesn't mean they are superior to the male and the spoiled, it just means they're naturally suited to collaboration and have nothing to unlearn as they encounter collaborative situations.

But by adulthood, we are all engaged in activities that may or may not speak to our true natures. Girls don't tend to play with toy cars, but they grow up to drive real cars in the same numbers as men. And if you believe insurance companies' actuarial tables, they grow up to be the better drivers. On the flip side, I think this means that boys can grow up to be fine collaborators, as good as or better than their female counterparts, despite their greater inclination toward competitive styles.

I am not a big fan of determinism. Things do come out in the wash, and in the long run, even unlearning can be a productive process. As Chris will tell you, part of the reason he values Agile so much is that teamwork and collaboration do not always come naturally to him--he was once a boy who played with cars, after all. He has enjoyed being in a traditional leadership role, and can remember exactly what it was like to resist the urge to "help" a team, instead letting them solve their own problems through self-organization. Which is why he is good at teaching Agile techniques, especially to people who have a lot of un-learning of traditional top-down management styles to do.

The clear outcome, to me, is that the gender bias in the field of software development that persists today is entirely bogus. If boys have an edge when it comes to math--hence their delight in code--and girls have an edge when it comes to collaboration, then it seems stupefyingly clear to me that you're most likely to have a high-functioning team if you have both styles well represented, with plenty of room allowed for something even more important: individuality.

Better Retrospectives

By: Chris Sims

Today is retrospective day at Agile Learning Labs. Every month we do an all-hands retrospective to continuously improve how we run the business. It's timely then, that my latest article on InfoQ is Rules for Better Retrospectives. Check it out, and learn about James Carr's top five 'rules' for better retrospectives.

If you are just getting started doing retrospectives with your agile team, check out my 2-part post Agile Retrospectives.

Cheers,

Chris