Dr. Dominic Lindner, Autor bei agile Companies

Agile organization 21. March 2021

What is scrum

You have probably heard of the Scrum method in connection with agile teams. Then you must have asked yourself: What is Scrum? Perhaps you are currently looking for a way to manage your teams in a more self-organized but structured manner? If you are willing to give up a bit of responsibility for this, but at the same time want to lead your employees to a more efficient way of working, then Scrum is probably just right for you. What is scrum It belongs like Kanban to agile methods and describes a way to better manage projects. With the help of Scrum, developments within a project can be promoted better. The self-organization of the cross-functional teams as a whole and their individual members is promoted in the course of this. This means that although the goal and direction of a goal are specified, the design of the way to get…

Agile organization 21. March 2021

Agile Transformation – too busy to improve?

You know it: You have a suggestion for improvement and you approach specialist teams or managers and nobody listens to you. That can be frustrating and as a manager you probably know the problem: You want to make your company more agile, but nobody has time. I would like to explain in more detail what happens to individual employees when you approach them with a decision or suggestion. To do this, we imagine that our receptivity and stress level is a glass that only has a certain capacity. I illustrate this using the example of the decision: “We are now doing agile!”. Look at the picture. Our employee (project manager) is currently slightly stressed. He has a lot to do in the project and is a little sick (therefore two stress bars). Now the management announces it: from next week you will do Scrum and will be the Scrum Master…

Careers in IT 21. March 2021

When employees voluntarily become topic ambassadors – what are the benefits?

In practice you will find numerous freelancers who influence the business world through blogs, specialist articles or lectures with slogans and a wide range. One speaks of influencers or topic ambassadors. Today I want to blog something about a very special subgroup of influencers / topic ambassadors. It is about topic ambassadors who are employed in their own company and who represent a topic externally on a completely voluntary basis (e.g. do not earn any money with it). Imagine: an influencer would work for you in your company. What is a topic ambassador? The tasks of a theme ambassador are primarily in the area of sales and marketing. The ambassador has a topic such as agility or leadership and represents this externally through books, lectures, specialist articles or other actions. He is considered an expert on this subject in the scene. A topic ambassador is the mouthpiece of a self-selected…

Digital leadership 21. March 2021

Leadership without supervisor function: professional leadership between euphoria and frustration

Lately, many professional executives and consultants have been calling me because of my blog articles, which are often close to termination. I hear sentences like: “I have high goals but I am not allowed to move anything or decide anything” or simply “I am frustrated and demotivated.” According to studies, these positions have the highest frustration factor (see Medical journal ) but it is also a fact that each of us wants to go further. There are two ways to do this: a) You run this Flagship project in the companyb) You master a professional leadership 2-5 years. What is professional leadership? ” The management of employees without disciplinary authority differs from a management task with a disciplinary management function only in terms of labor law issues .” (Source: Heap ). Tasks are often the planning / overview as well as the conflict management and task creation to ensure without…

Bachelor thesis / master thesis 21. March 2021

Results of a thesis – theses, recommendations for action and frameworks

You are currently writing your thesis or are just in the initial phase and ask yourself: ” What is actually my result? “You have a specific research question but you don’t know exactly what a result might look like? I would like to explain three possible ways of finding the results of a thesis in more detail. Hypotheses Theses are not subject to any specific set of rules and are therefore vaguely defined. In science, however, one uses the hypothesis which is more specifically defined and creates a connection between at least two variables. Examples are: Agile companies generate more sales than traditional companies.With Scrum, work results can be achieved faster than with Kanban.Employees in agile teams require less salary than employees in traditional teams. You will notice that I always put 2 variables in context. You have the following options for deriving hypotheses in your thesis: Formulate hypotheses at…

Digital change 21. March 2021

Mindfulness in the age of digitization

For some time now I have been seeing more and more seminars on the subject of mindfulness in the age of digitization. But what does that mean and do we need such seminars? The seminars deal with stress in the context of digitization and mention words such as overstimulation, technostress and resilience. It’s about leading a healthy working life under the influence of digitization. Overstimulation ” Overstimulation is a colloquial metaphor for an assumed state of the body in which it absorbs so many stimuli at the same time through the senses that they can no longer be processed and lead to mental overload in the person concerned. ” (Source Wikipedia ). One example of digitization is the high number of notifications through apps, emails and the various digital channels. For example, some employees receive emails, calls, Skype messages and much more at the same time. This can lead to…

Bachelor thesis / master thesis 21. March 2021

Thesis: Tips for introduction and expose

Every big project starts with the first step and your work starts with a good introduction. This should take the reader with it and give an overview of the thesis. An introduction is not only good for the reader, but also for your supervisor. The introduction can serve as an expose to make a topic palatable to the supervisor. An expose is according to the Dudens a written and explanatory summary of the facts. An introduction or an expose consists of the following building blocks: introduction to the topicMotivation on the subjectDefinition and explanationCurrent figures and reference to the topicExisting knowledge on the topicCriticism and Research GapApproach of the work and expected results Download tip: Example of a good introduction introduction to the topic With the first sentence you pick up the reader. Imagine that the reader has just cleaned their apartment and is now reading your work. So mentally…

Agile organization 21. March 2021

What is kanban

Kanban is now often used in IT for agile software management. The method helps teams to communicate and manage information transparently. In addition, the associated teams are organized autonomously in their work, which means that Kanban often makes agile project management more efficient. For these reasons in particular, it has long since become a popular method in change management. origin However, Kanban originally comes from the automotive industry, but it can also be easily transferred to other industries. The term translates as “visual map / board” (“kan” stands for “visualize” and “ban” for map or board). It comes from the Japanese and was developed by Toyota. They recognized the power of visualizing tasks for a more effective way of working a long time ago. Maps with project steps show the need for tasks to be carried out at any time. This enables the teams themselves, but also across departments, to…

digitalization 21. March 2021

What does digitization mean in the public service?

Digitization can now be found everywhere and is spreading like wildfire. I am therefore now writing a whole series of articles on the subject of digitization. My motivation behind this is that digitization means something different for every industry and type of company and I want to work out these differences. An illustration of the differences in different industries can be found in the following figure. In this section I would now like to go into the real essence of this article and illustrate digitization in the public service. Industry characteristics The administration of data and information is clearly characteristic of the public service. Based on this, important decisions are made, such as notifications of applications or the issuing of important documents. The public service is also in constant exchange and direct communication with the citizen himself. Recently, however, the industry has been developing more and more in the technological…

Agile organization 21. March 2021

Escalations in the company – escalate, but right ?!

Who does not know it? Escalations in everyday work, projects and companies. Escalation means “calling up a higher hierarchy level to bring about a decision when the situation cannot be dealt with with one’s own authority. Escalation is the counterpart to delegation. ”(Source Project magazine ) Escalation in colloquial language In common parlance, escalation has a negative connotation and means that a conflict or problem has to be resolved by management and this leads to unrest and stress in the project. I also had a difficult project myself in my time as a consultant. I experienced 2-4 escalations every day. It was a difficult time and not only the sickness rate of my employees was very high, but also very low motivation and work progress. Escalation as a formal process Overall, escalation can also be a formal process be. Classic organizations dictate that every level has everyone Should make decisions…