Follow-up from August's Roundtable

[Sebastian Hermida]

First of all, thanks to Keith for hosting!

It was a great discussion. We will definitely have more of this events in the future...

Nobody from our group took minutes (I know, I know,.. this is the first time).

So these are the highlights I remember that we agreed on sharing (please add more in the comments):

• Refactoring videos from Mike Hill showing how to refactor and write tests for an "ugly" open source project: http://anarchycreek.com/doubledawgdare-series/ These videos are awesome to watch in your team room. Mike shows the tips and techniques of the pros.
• Leadership lessons from a dancing guy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fW8amMCVAJQ
• The surprising truth about what motivate us: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6XAPnuFjJc
• The new lean startup philly email list: http://groups.google.com/group/leanstartupphilly
• The lean startup introduction video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1p3vcRhsYGo
• Cory Foy getting lost on his way to the meeting: http://twitter.com/cory_foy/status/21440151128 :)

We talked about grass root efforts, starting book clubs, test cinema sessions, pairing without asking, practice sessions, teams acting like startups, pair exchanges, motivation, management, progress tracking, when we got into XP, conferences, ...

Next time, over beers?

[Ravindar Gujral]

Man the lone man dancing leadership lecture is better than what one can learn at any reputed school.

[Ravindar Gujral]

Thanks Keith for hosting the meeting. It is always great to have support.

[Audrey R. Troutt]

I sort of took minutes, but it was more like "these are all the things I have to go read/watch later" You got them all, Sebastian. Thanks!

[Audrey R. Troutt]

My favorite thing that I learned last night was "WTF (we test first) Wednesdays" as a technique for test infecting your colleagues --thanks Sebastian!

[Aaron Kuehler]

This was a very informative session. Thanks to all who attended and participated. I left the meeting with some ideas and confidence to try to influence a process change in my team. I am appreciative of the advice and feedback of the group and apologize as I did not intend to turn the meeting into a support group. :P

The topic of motivation and incentives for change came up as part of the discussion and I mentioned the talk I saw from Dan Pink on the "Science of Motivation".

Here is the full lecture:
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/dan_pink_on_motivation.html

Here is the abbreviated, entertainment version:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6XAPnuFjJc

[Sebastian Hermida]

I also mentioned the book switch. I wrote a little summary about it here: http://sebastianlab.com/post/954428303/switch