Lead without Blame: Building Resilient Learning Teams

by Diana Larsen, Tricia Broderick

Overview

A detailed framework for leaders to move past outdated workplace blame and shame strategies to cultivate resilient teams capable of facing adversity and setbacks confidently.

Workplace finger-pointing stifles creativity, reduces productivity, and limits psychological safety. Although no one sets out to be judgmental, learning new habits is hard. Two experienced leadership and agilists coaches share a road-tested leadership model that continuously embraces humility and failure as part of the growth process to deliver results.

By facilitating blame-free retrospective meetings, leaders chart a productive path forward. They amplify three essential motivators of purpose, autonomy, and co-intelligence within their team. Layered on with four resilience factors: inclusive collaboration, transparent power dynamics, collaborative learning, and embracing conflict. After applying these strategies, learning leaders will help their teams and themselves become more resilient and better equipped to handle any unexpected and challenging tasks that comes their way.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781523000548
Publisher:	Berrett-Koehler Publishers
Publication date:	09/27/2022
Pages:	280
Sales rank:	1,062,255
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

DIANA LARSEN is co-founder and a mentor at the Agile Fluency® Project. Diana co-authored the books Agile Retrospectives: Making Good Teams Great; Liftoff: Start and Sustain Successful Agile Teams; and Five Rules for Accelerated Learning. For over twenty years she has worked with leaders to design work systems, improve project performance, and support leadership and enterprise agility.

TRICIA BRODERICK is a leader, motivational speaker, and organizational advisor. With over twenty years of application experience, Tricia began this journey as a software engineer and evolved into roles such as project manager, executive, and coach. She founded Ignite Insight & Innovation to help ignite leaders and teams towards truly achieving high performance outcomes.

Table of Contents

List of Figures and Tables ix

Foreword Van Williams xi

Foreword Esther Derby xv

Preface xix

Chapter 1 Break Free from Blame 1

Part 1 The Essential Motivators

Chapter 2 The Shift toward Leading Resilient Learning Teams 19

Chapter 3 The Benefits of Alignment 39

Chapter 4 The Strategy of Continuous Learning 52

Chapter 5 Accelerating the Essential Motivators with Retrospectives 69

Part 2 The Resilience Factors

Chapter 6 The Collaborative Connection Resilience Factor 99

Chapter 7 The Conflict Resilience Factor 124

Chapter 8 The inclusive Collaboration Resilience Factor 153

Chapter 9 The Power Dynamics Resilience Factor 184

Conclusion: Where Do You Go from Here? 215

Notes 223

Bibliography 233

Appreciations 235

Index 239

About the Authors 251

Editorial Reviews

Diana Larsen and Tricia Broderick bring a wealth of experience, deep knowledge, and practical ideas to courageous leaders everywhere trying to break free of the baddest actors in the positive culture game: fear and blame.”
—Richard Sheridan, CEO and Chief Storyteller, Menlo Innovations, and author of Joy, Inc. and Chief Joy Officer

“The Leadership through Learning framework is simple and powerful. I will definitely be providing this book to my leadership teams.”
—Ted Ohr, Director, Global Customer Success, Google Cloud

“A practical guide to help build powerful autonomous teams while taking an insightful look at leadership fallacies that can cripple teams.”
—Tamani George, Vice President of Operations, Fit For Life

“Lead without Blame provides insight for leaders who desire to shift from efficiency to effectiveness and from coercion to collaboration.”
—Leah Breen, Director, Office of Educator Excellence, Michigan Department of Education
 
“Larsen and Broderick provide thought-provoking, practical ideas that empower leaders to co-create resilient environments of learning.”
—Heidi Hefland, Vice President of Engineering, Kin Insurance, and author of Dynamic Reteaming
 
“Diana Larsen and Tricia Broderick have created a pathway to high performance that is non–command and control, is absent the pressures for leaders to blame, and results in resilient learning teams. In other words, it leads to team integration and collaboration that drives continuous performance.”
—Stu Winby, CEO, SPRING Network
 
“The authors understand that as leaders, it is always our priority to develop great people. They share a passion for healthy workplaces that support engaged, productive teams and value collaborative relationships.”
—Heidi J. Musser, board member, board advisor, and former Vice President and CIO, USAA
 
“Developing a culture of learning that removes shame and invites curiosity unlocks the fullest potential of your teams.”
—Mark Franz, Director of Production, Vela Games

“Full of insights and practical tools, this book is a mind opener for receptive leaders who are looking for a more impactful, lasting, inspirational, and humane leadership style that allows them to build resilient learning teams as the foundation of healthier organizations.”
—Juan Banda, Community Developer, Latam
 
“This book is like having a coach on call. It will help all leaders who want to help their teams grow, and I’m looking forward to sharing it!”
—Nadya Duke Boone, Chief Product Officer, DAT Freight & Analytics
 
“Lead without Blame is generous in offering prescribed leadership tools and insights and will remain open on my desk for ongoing reference.”
—Stephanie Norton, National Director of Sales, UKG, Inc.
 
“In helping leaders move from shame and blame to learning and growing, Larsen and Broderick not only increase the impact and joyfulness in the leader’s work, they help the organization get more of what it wants to create.”
—Lyssa Adkins, Agile and leadership coach and author of Coaching Agile Teams
 
“This is a book I’m excited about! As an instructor of graduate Agile management classes, I’ve now found an unexpected variety of learning approaches for leaders and appreciate the addition of ‘Reflections for Your Learnings’ and ‘But What Ifs’ in the book.”
—Ainsley Nies, coauthor of Liftoff and former instructor at Golden Gate University

From the Publisher