This month the roundtable was made up of about 8 people. Mostly old timers, with a few newer faces.

We spent quite a bit of time deconstructing Alistair Cockburn’s questioning style. Alistair, the founder of the SL-Agile group and Agile icon, was not at the meeting, so we talked about his behind his back. Alistair has a way of asking probing questions that is quite fascinating to watch. He allows people to come to their own conclusions by structuring the conversation in a clever way. My main take-away is that we should try to discover (or guess at) the other persons world view. In trying to learn enough to understand their world view we are able to look at the world from their point-of-view. Do this can be illuminating.

Andrew mentioned that he really enjoys Israel Gat’s blog The Agile Executive. I’ll have to check it out.

Somewhere along the way, I wrote in my notes “reflect first”. This is a great rule of thumb for anyone trying to affect change in there organization. Sit down with those involved and figure out what is working, what is not, and what the action plan is for making changes. Then rinse and repeat often.

There was mention again this month of the Cargo Cult effect. In Agile teams this seems to show up a lot in the form of team members grabbing onto a few practices, such as pair programming and iterations, and thinking that they will reap the same benefits as those who truly have an Agile culture.

All good stuff, and I always take something away from the meeting.