The Core Protocols, Jim McCarthy, Agile Boston

Jim McCarthy began his career as a software guy 30 years ago. Over the years, he has synthesized what he learned from his software and corporate experience and applied it to solving the riddles of team dynamics.

He has had responsibilities in development, testing, marketing, program management, user education and general management. Leading software development teams at Bell Labs, The Whitewater Group, and Microsoft Corporation.

Since 1996, Jim has devoted himself to researching groups and how they create products and companies. Jim uses a teamwork lab (McCarthy BootCamp, a product development simulation) and in situ research at corporations large and small, worldwide. Jim wrote “Dynamics of Software Development” in 1995.

With his wife and collaborator, Michele McCarthy, Jim has created the Core Protocols (now available in version 3.0), a collection of interpersonal protocols, evolved in actual use across hundreds of teams and thousands of individuals, protocols that support results-oriented behavior, the efficient aggregation of individual qualities into a greater whole, and the development and realization of shared visions.

Together, they authored “Software for Your Head,” 2002, Addison-Wesley. He can be reached at jim@mccarthy.net, or encountered via their website, www.mccarthyshow.com.

Jim in Russia

NOTE: Jim is running a 1/2 workshop the next day, on 9/9, in Waltham. LEARN MORE...

Presentation: NEW TOOLS FOR THE AGILE QUIVER

Great software comes from getting your team’s best ideas into the product.

Jim McCarthy, who led the legendary turnaround of the Visual C++ group at Microsoft, left Microsoft in 1996 to create a team dynamics laboratory to figure out how to always create a create a high performance team. His lab has focused extensively on this challenge, and has produced 11 rich, precise protocols (called the Core) for making unanimous decisions, supporting quality thinking, strengthening design iterations, and incorporating feedback, emotions, nobility, and passion into products.

Learn about these protocols in this motivating, challenging talk. In just a few minutes, you can pick up the fundamentals of an entirely new class of tool.

• Do you notice too much discussion and arguing and would prefer the best ideas would just get implemented now? –Learn about the Decider Protocol which guarantees unanimous team decisions with accountability and moves the team forward with a bias toward action.

• Do you accept that it is vitally important that you get the opinions of others about the quality of work products but notice that it is consistently painful to give and receive feedback? – Learn about the Perfection Protocol which solves all the problems associated with criticism.

• Do you notice that dumb things consistently happen on your team and everyone seems to lack self-awareness to some degree, including you? – Learn about the Core Commitments which provide a team constitution about commitment and accountability to the team. And learn about the Personal Alignment Protocol which allows each team member to address self-awareness around courage, integrity, passion and other virtuous behaviors.

Jim McCarthy’s keynotes at dozens of conferences all over the world are repeatedly considered the “Best of Show.” He wrote the classic 57 rules-of-thumb in, “The Dynamics of Software Development,” as well as the book, “Software For Your Head: Core Protocols for Creating and Maintaining Shared Vision.” www.mccarthyshow.com

NOTE: Jim is running a 1/2 workshop the next day, on 9/9, in Waltham. LEARN MORE...

DAN MEZICK SAYS:

The Core Protocols are a set of working agreements that allow a typical team to become great. The Core is a set of communication protocols for creating a shared vision. These working agreements enable a team to get aligned, develop a shared vision, and stay in the state of being where work becomes play. The agile community is trending towards a focus on human dynamics. Jim McCarthy is the preeminent authority on this topic, having studied hundreds of teams composed of thousands of individuals. You do not want to miss this speaker-- or his topic. This is where the Agile community is going. Be there

09-08-2010 MEETING AGENDA:

6:30 PM: DAN MEZICK on SCRUM EXPLAINED: Team Authorization in Focus

7:00 PM: Food & socializing & networking time

7:25 PM: JIM MCCARTHY on: NEW TOOLS FOR THE AGILE QUIVER

8:25 PM: SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION OF MEETING

NOTE: Jim is running a 1/2 workshop the next day, on 9/9, in Waltham. LEARN MORE...

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