Liftoff, 2nd Edition

Liftoff, 2nd Edition

by Diana Larsen, Ainsley Nies
Released June 2016
Publisher(s): Pragmatic Bookshelf
ISBN: 9781680503845

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Book description

Ready, set, liftoff! Align your team to one purpose: successful delivery. Learn new insights and techniques for starting projects and teams the right way, with expanded concepts for planning, organizing, and conducting liftoff meetings. Real-life stories illustrate how others have effectively started (or restarted) their teams and projects. Master coaches Diana Larsen and Ainsley Nies have successfully "lifted off" numerous agile projects worldwide. Are you ready for success?

Every team needs a great start. If you're a business or product leader, team coach or agile practice lead, project or program manager, you'll gain strategic and tactical benefits from liftoffs.

Discover new step-by-step instructions and techniques for boosting team performance in this second edition of Liftoft. Concrete examples from our practices show you how to get everyone on the same page from the start as you form the team. You'll find pointers for refocusing an effort that's gone off in the weeds, and practices for working with teams as complex systems. See how to scale liftoffs for multiple teams across the enterprise, address the three key elements for collaborative team chartering, establish the optimal conditions for learning and improvement, and apply the GEFN (Good Enough for Now) rule for efficient liftoffs. Throughout the book are stories from real-life teams lifting off, as seasoned coaches describe their experiences with liftoffs and agile team chartering.

Focused conversations help the team align, form, and build enough trust for collaborating. You'll build a common understanding of the teams' context within business goals. Every liftoff is unique, but success is common!

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Table of contents

  1.  Foreword
  2.  Acknowledgments
  3.  Introduction: Defying Gravity
    1. What Is a Liftoff?
    2. Why We Wrote This Book
    3. What’s Inside?
    4. Who’ll Benefit from Reading This Book?
  4. 1. Plan for a Successful Liftoff
    1. Are You Ready to Plan a Liftoff?
    2. Who Plans the Liftoff?
    3. Planning the Liftoff
    4. It’s Never Too Late
    5. What’s Next?
    6. In Practice: Team Restart
  5. 2. Navigate Learning Environments
    1. Setting Conditions for Optimal Team Learning
    2. Focus on Learning
    3. What’s Next?
    4. In Practice: Applying the Rules
  6. 3. Design a Great Liftoff for Your Team
    1. Initial Design Considerations
    2. Designing the Start
    3. The Heart of Your Liftoff
    4. Ending Your Liftoff
    5. What’s Next?
    6. In Practice: A Kickoff Workshop Gem
  7. 4. Smooth the Path to Performance with Agile Chartering
    1. What Is Agile Chartering?
    2. Leading the Two Parts of Chartering
    3. Amending the Living Charter
    4. What’s Next?
    5. In Practice: The System Tracking Project
  8. 5. Charter a Clear Team Purpose
    1. Understanding Purpose
    2. How to Facilitate Agile Chartering for Purpose
    3. What’s Next?
    4. In Practice: How a Team Found the Power of Purpose
  9. 6. Create Coherence by Chartering Alignment
    1. Understanding Alignment
    2. How to Facilitate Agile Chartering for Alignment
    3. What’s Next?
    4. In Practice: Team Building in Transition
  10. 7. Charter Context to Influence Work
    1. Understanding Context
    2. How to Facilitate Agile Chartering for Context
    3. What’s Next?
    4. In Practice: A Tale of Two Projects
  11. 8. Soar from Liftoff to Flight
    1. Preparing for a Liftoff Retrospective
    2. Conducting a Liftoff Retrospective
    3. Keeping the Team Charter Alive
    4. Have a Great Flight!
    5. In Practice: The Yardbirds
  12. A1. Sample Charters
  13. A2. Sample Chartering Agendas
  14. A3. Contributor Biographies
  15.  Bibliography

Product information

  • Title: Liftoff, 2nd Edition
  • Author(s): Diana Larsen, Ainsley Nies
  • Release date: June 2016
  • Publisher(s): Pragmatic Bookshelf
  • ISBN: 9781680503845