Personal Development

PSM1

PSM1 My First Certification Since University

At 5:30 AM December 13th, 2017 I decided to take the PSM1 exam. I passed with 95% corrected answers. Such a big moment! Thái Anh Đức at Scrum.org. And there is a story behind my decision.

The Story

I was introduced to Agile/Scrum back in 2009. And I hated it, especially the Daily Scrum (sometimes called Daily Standup Meeting) with the 3 questions being asked every day. I even called them the three stupid questions. I still hold that opinion to now. Since then I read from here and there about Scrum. There are some notion of Scrum-Like in the organizations I’ve worked with. I also attended some Agile events. I still have not felt better about Scrum. I thought Scrum is just a theory and it does not work. I hold that bias for years and that bias blocks me from learning.

Recently, I realized that I had not studied enough into the subject. I was not serious about it. There are good reasons for Scrum to be popular as it is today. Why don’t I figure it out? Why do I block myself from that? Once I made that decision, the next challenge was how. How do I hold that idea seriously? I know the normal trap that people have when they need to do something. Usually, we tend to make a big promise to ourselves. However, just a few days later we come up with excuses for not doing it. That was when I decided to take the exam.

Taking exam is a way to ensure that I am not joking with myself, that I am serious.

 

Before taking the exam, I heard people saying that those exams have no value. They are just a matter of remembering questions, practicing the answers, … and you get the certification. Really? “Is that simple?” I thought. By now, I confirm that it is not easy. Here is my journey.

The Journey

I started with downloading the official Scrum Guide. I printed it and carefully studied it 3 times. I did not just read over it. I studied it with my pencil at hand, took notes, picked out the important information. Do not fall in the trap of skimming it and think you understand it. Some might be able to do that. Many of us do not. Be realistic! After studying the Scrum Guide, I read some books suggested by the Scrum Org. At the same time, I checked out some courses on the Pluralsight. Once I felt a bit confident with my knowledge, I went to the next step.

Then I have to find a way to test my knowledge and get feedbacks. I found these links

http://mlapshin.com/index.php/psm-quiz/learning-mode/

https://www.thescrummaster.co.uk/professional-scrum-master-i-psm-i-practice-assessment

https://www.scrum.org/open-assessments/scrum-open

I took one and did the test. I failed miserably 🙁 That was the moment of truth. The test result put you exactly where you should be. Embrace it. I came back to the Scrum Guide and continued my study.

The nice thing about those tests are they give you answers with an explanation. Mostly they pick out the part in the Scrum Guide to backup the answer.

If you take the tests from all the above links, you will notice that they have different formats. Which means that you cannot remember the questions and answers. And the fact that there are too many to put into our short term brain memory.

After a few days of studying and practicing, I started to understand the Scrum. My testing scores were improving. And soon I completed 100% with half of the time. I kept studying and practicing for another week. I do not just want the certification. I want knowledge. And I was afraid of failing the test.

The Day

The day has come. I had to make a decision – Take the exam. PSM1 is about the basic knowledge of Scrum. I cannot keep learning the basic forever. The only way to verify my knowledge and get feedback is taking the exam. Either pass or fail, I will know where I am standing. Took a deep breath, I did 2 important steps

  1. Order the exam from Scrum.org.
  2. Create an item in my TODO list to take the exam tomorrow at 5:30 AM.

They are very important. Otherwise, I will find a good excuse to delay. As planned, with a bit of nervous, a bit of thrill, I checked the network connection to make sure I had a good stable one, I started doing my test. Once I click the button, there is no way back. The clock starts counting.

Even I did well in my open tests, the real test was a challenge.

  1. Most of the questions are not the same as you did in the open tests. Some might have the same idea with different expressions. That requires you to read and understand the questions and answers carefully.
  2. Time moves so fast. Make sure to keep a good balance between the time left and the questions. You should soon hit the speed of 1 question per minute. When I finished all 80 questions, there was 7 minutes left. I had very little time to
  3. Review all bookmarked questions. If you are unsure about a question, you can bookmark it.
  4. The test takes 60 minutes. Focus is also a challenge. That’s why I chose to start at 5:30 AM.

Mission Accomplished! I finally got it done!

Oh Congratulations! where am I standing in the Agile/Scrum buzzword? Basic, sirs! I know the basic of Scrum and have a good starting point for the next level.

That’s it!

Small Victory But Important

I cannot remember when. But recently I often say “You can do it does not mean you should do it.” Yet it is much easier to say than do. And life has its unique way to challenge your principles.

I have read some programming books for the past 10 years. None of them were paid. It is so easy to get a free download of them on the internet. If you need any book, you can search for a free downloadable PDF version. Boom! you have it. I do not judge it is right or wrong. However, I know it was wrong. I should have ordered them properly.

I have started my personal development journey for the past 3 years. I have been reading books on that subject. I have made some a progress overall. I ordered services instead of finding hacked versions. Until recently, I want to read the book Microservices Sam Newman. The old habit kicked off. In less than 5 minutes, I found a free downloadable version. And I downloaded. I started to read it. I have the book.

But! Hey, something was wrong. I should buy the book and enjoy the reading. Hmm, I already had it. And no-one knows that I got it for free. The internal fight began. I kept reading some more pages. The more I read the worse I felt.

Damn it! It was wrong Đức. Respect your own principles. And with the courage, I did what I was supposed to do. I went to Amazon and ordered it immediately. I won the fight.

This small victory is essential. It makes me smile and pride.

“You can do it does not mean you should do it.” Check again with your integrity, your principles.

6 Thinking Hats

Last week, I shared my 6 Thinking Hats understanding with my team. Initially, I had no clear idea of what I will talk. I just got started knowing it for a while. I love sharing my thoughts, my understanding even I have not had a strong knowledge about them. I just, well, do it. It turns out the presentation went well. The team loved the idea, loved the way I shared with them. I can feel it. At the same time, the 6 Thinking Hats idea is more visible in my mind.

Here comes the story. My wife usually mentions about the tool. She loves the idea, the principles. She has trained the tool to his co-workers. She told me to check it out. At the same time, I have read other tools, such as Mind Map, Visual Thinker, … I, well, did not check the 6 Thinking Hats. One day while driving to work, I viewed it on youtube from the author de Bono. I highly recommend you view it. And you should view it many times, at least twice. The video fits well with my driving time. By the time I got to the company, the video ended. I got the idea. I loved it.

I will write what I understand about the tool. Warning: I do not claim what I understood is correct. Each has their own understanding, own translation of the tool. If you are reading this post, please use it as a reference. If you think I misunderstood something, please write in comments. I highly appreciate. Thank you! Let’s get started.

Agenda

  1. Why? Solve problems?
  2. What?
  3. How to remember?

Why?

Why do we need 6 Thinking Hats? What kind of problems does it solve? I consider those are crucial questions.

The meeting

What were your last recent meetings? How were they going? More important, How did they end? When there is a problem, a team holds a meeting to discuss, to find a solution. They think that more heads are better than one. In terms of mathematics number, it is correct. The reality? Not so much as expected. There are many good meetings with good outcomes. I am aware of that. However, at the same time, there are many meetings with

  • Not many people involved. They are there but not there.
  • Everyone speaks their own way, their own language.
  • When an idea comes up, one person agrees, the other disagrees, … and so on.
  • People keep talking.

I wish you have good meetings

The personal thinking process

We learn many things technologies, culture, art, … How about how to think? Have we ever considered learning how to think? We often heard about *logical thinking*, *system thinking*, or *critical thinking*. Those are wonderful terms and techniques. However, looking back to the daily problem that people face, what are they? Does anything below ring any bell?

  • I do not know where to start.
  • I got stuck.
  • How do I know if I miss something?
  • ….

People, I meant many not all, are trapped in their thinking in a circle.

What is 6 Thinking Hats (6-T-H)?

Wikipedia has a full definition. For things like this, I usually have had a hard time to digest those definitions. I created my own version of understanding. At least, I can understand them in my way, thus, I can remember and use them.

6-T-H is a TOOL. It is crucial that you must see it as a TOOL. They are not some kind of magic hats that when you put on you get smarter immediately. No, it does not work that way. Just like any tool, you have to PRACTICE. Keywords are TOOL – PRACTICE.

6-T-H is NOT a labeling system. There is no such a thing like: you are a black hat person, I am a white hat person or vice versa. The hats are not used to label people.

In a meeting or discussion, everyone must wear the same hat at a time.

Each hat with its color is a metaphor. The chosen color allows the metaphor to intercept the brain-default-thinking habit. The color plays the trigger role. When a color is named, a right thinking process is triggered.

Blue Hat: Managing, Controlling. When you start using 6-T-H tool, you wear it by default. Whenever you say to yourself “hey let’s try 6-T-H” you already wear the Blue Hat. Congratulations.

White Hat: Information. Just like a paper or a whiteboard. Collect the information.

Red Hat: Emotion. Express your emotion without judgment.

Black Hat: Danger, Risk, Alert. Such an important hat. You might want to ask yourself this question when wearing this hat: What can go wrong here? What am I missing here?

Yellow Hat: Value sensitive. The color reminds me of gold. Find the value, as many as possible. For everything, every situation, no matter how bad they are, there is always a good value out of it. Find it and you will see.

Green Hat: Opportunities, Possibilities. Explore all the possibilities. Sometimes, we are so focused on one thing. We are missing the many of others.

The common questions are

  1. How do I know when to wear what?
  2. What are the orders? Is there any specific order to follow?

Because there is no simple, single answer for them. They are holding people back. I would suggest that you should go with White Hat first, btw you have a Blue Hat for free when you decide to use 6-T-H. Next, you might want to use either Black, Yellow, or Green. Most of the time, I do not think that we need to use all of them.

The most important part is not about what/where/how to use them. The most important part is getting started, is to practice it. As you practice, you will define and build your own version of 6-T-H. The more you practice, the more natural it becomes to you. With time and dedicated practice, it becomes a part of your brain, of your thinking. And that is how you are thinking, that is how you are solving problems.

“It is not going to work“, some might say. No, it does not. Unless you actually do it. If you are looking for ways to improve yourself, I highly suggest you try. If you think it is not going to work, or just a bullshit method, look up on the internet. You will see what people are saying about it. Still in doubt? Maybe you should try another method, maybe 6-T-H does not suit you.

How about using 6-T-H to decide if you should practice 6-T-H? That might be a cool idea.

How To Remember?

To practice anything, you have to remember them first. It must be a deep understanding, not a high school lecture. Back in the school, I was taught to learn by heart with sentences and bullet points. It works. I can do that. I can cite when someone asks. But

Back in the school, I was taught to learn by heart with sentences and bullet points. It works. I can do that. I can cite when someone asks. Problem? Think about it for a second. You are about to apply 6-T-H. Then your brain is interrupted by recalling those memories. By the time you remember them, you have lost your moment. The focus has been shifted. This remembering method is used for schools only where you learn knowledge, not skill.

Then I have had a chance to meet Mind Map. It is such a powerful tool. However, I do not feel it fits my need to remember 6-T-H. I find Mind Map is wonderful for creativity, exploring ideas, and taking notes.

Finally, I come to Visualization Thinking. I am not sure that term exists or there is a method for it. What I meant by Visualization Thinking is that I build an image of 6-T-H in my mind. The fastest way the brain can access information is by images. So instead of remembering sentences, remembering definitions, I remember images.

I built my own unique image of 6 Thinking Hats in my mind

Take an example of Yellow Hat. One might want to remember the definition in text. Or remember the keywords such as *value sensitive*. How about an image of a 9999 Golden Ring? When using an image, it allows you to explore the meanings. It is more powerful in that way.

That is just one hat. The problem is that I have to remember all hats in a connected way. Each hat is a dot. You have to connect the dot.

Here is how I built that image. I hope it can help you in some ways.

When I was listening to the video, when came to the Green Hat, the golf field came to my mind. Well, because there is a golf field in front of my condo (of course the golf field is not mine 😛 ). I took that scene, encoded, and visualized in an image.

White: A big empty paper. Imagine that I was about to paint a picture. Let’s put some information in.

Black: Draw a curly line in the middle of the paper. Black is the hell underneath. It means watch out, there is something underneath that you have not known yet.

Green: The grass on the field. Because the grass is green. There are plenty of them. They represent for opportunities, for possibilities.

Red: There is an in-love couple standing on the field. Thinking of a red face of an in-love girl. We are talking about emotion.

Yellow: Oh the man is proposing with a big golden ring. That is a good thing. Gold is value.

Blue: The sky. The sky is covering the whole picture, over the golf field. If the weather is good, the couple is still there, the grass is growing, looking good. Otherwise, things might tear apart and the picture must be re-drawn.

The image looks funny. Sometimes, it does not make sense at all. But that is the whole point. I created my own, unique image connecting everything I need to remember. I created that image weeks ago. I can access it anytime without losing a single small detail. The beautiful part of this approach is that when retrieving the image I can add more detail. It allows me to explore more.

The approach can be used in many areas of our life when we want to remember something when we are learning something. Imagination is a powerful tool. It helps us to connect the dots and put them into our long-term memory.

Final Thoughts

This is my first attempt with 6 Thinking Hats. The more I think about it, the more I like the approach. It is so simple that I can practice. The most important thing to remember is that it is a tool and has to be practiced a lot.

It is also super easy to get started. Here is how I do it. Notice that I do not apply it in every thinking or problem-solving. When I have a problem to solve, I will self-talk/self-ask:

  1. Ok, let’s apply 6 Thinking Hats to see what I can do. At that moment, I got the blue hat by default. I have started the thinking process
  2. Put on White Hat: What information do I have at hand? I write them down on paper. This is very important. If you do not write them out on a paper, you will have a problem with processing that information. Most of the time, you will be trapped in your thinking. Well, unless you are an expert.
  3. Put on Black Hat: What am I missing here? what is the real problem? Again, I write down on paper everything I can think of.
  4. Put on Green Hat: Ok Good. I have information. Let’s connect them. And find some possible outcomes – the possibilities. Sometimes, I use the Green Hat to answer the question “what is the real problem?”.
  5. Yellow Hat: What have I learn from this? This is where I extract the value from problems I have solved.

I have been working on improving my thinking pattern. Practice makes perfect.

I hope the post gives you another perspective when looking at 6 Thinking Hats. If you give it a try, I would love to hear your feedbacks on your progress. Otherwise, thank you for your time. I am very appreciated your reading time.

Tips to Improve English

No matter what your native language is you know how important English language is. I am a Vietnamese. I have had so many difficulties with learning English. I have studied English since I was grade 8. However, to be honest, I did not do any good before I got my first job, after my first year at the job. Even at that time, I was not that good either. I was not bad.

I can spend a whole day to give a long list of reasons why I did not do good. But just like any finding good excuses process, most of the reasons for not doing good are from outside. It is so easy to blame someone or something. Fortunately, 2 years ago, I discovered that the most important reason for not doing good was ME. In particular, here are some

  1. I did not actively learn English.
  2. I did not practice much (not mentioned that NONE)
  3. I did not look for ways to learn English.
  4. I was lazy to pronounce words.
  5. ….

Oh! they are common reasons. And they are vague and general. Which also means that they are useless. Because I cannot go anywhere with them. How do I know where to start with that list?

Fortunately, from Mr. Jim Rohn, I knew that I must start from the Fundamentals. I trust that principle. I applied it. And It works for me.

Here are some small tips that have helped me better at English every day.

Stupid Driver

I have spent lots of time on travel, either motorbike or car, from home to work and back. I decided to take advantage of those wasted hours. Instead of complaining about the road, the traffic, I practiced speaking English on my own.

The process is simple. I do not need to learn any new word. Therefore, I do not lose focus on driving. I knew that I usually forget the final sound, such as pronouncing “is”, “wish”, … Those are words I have known for years. But I have ever never got it right in speaking 🙁 While driving, I will pronounce them in the best way I can. Of course, I know how to pronounce them. The problem is not about knowing, it is about practicing. And I want to kill my laziness of moving my mouth while speaking.

The key point here is that you must speak. Do not whisper in your head. I repeat “Do not whisper in your head.” By speaking out loud, I can overcome the fear of *someone else judgment* To make it more fun, I made sentences. Many bad, careless drivers on the street, when I saw them, I spoke: “he is a stupid driver“. Well, It was not nice to say that. But who cares. I speak for myself, not in a public or pointing fingers to someone.

I have become a stupid driver since then. I have spoken to myself as a way of practicing the pronunciation. Oh yes. It works pretty well for me.

Passive Youtube

Most of my time is in front of a computer. I am a software developer. I do not have the time nor interested in taking English classes at night. Instead, I decided to take advantage of Youtube, passively.

There are a number of Authors that I want to learn, Mr. Jim Rohn is the best one. While working, instead of listening music, I listened to them. I did not pay much attention to what they were saying. I did pay attention to when I viewed the first time. Which means I already knew the content (I do not understand everything I listen to of course). But I have had an idea of what the talks are about.

For each talk that I like, I listened to them many times passively. Amazingly, I could capture their voice, their tongue, their words. Just keep listening and the brain will take care of the rest.

Active Reader

To grow in life, I need to read more books. I decided to read English books. There are many benefits of using English books. However, here is the tip that I use to improve my English. For the first 20 – 30 minutes (usually in the morning), I will read the books out loud. Usually, we read by eyes or whispering in the head.

I read the books with voice and rhythm. After 30 minutes, I feel tired, then I read as normal. One stone, two birds!

Write and Write

One of the reasons for this Blog is to practice writing. Which improves my English tremendously. Whenever possible, write in English. I have built a habit of writing everything in English, of course, as far as I can 😛

The biggest issue with writing is this: Oh man, my English is terrible. I do not know how to write. People will laugh at me. They will make fun of me …

Stupid! Everyone has their own share of mistakes. No one is perfect. So who cares! I took a deep breath and moved on.

Final Thoughts

There are so many ways to learn English. But if you wait for having a right class, to have a right teacher, to have someone teach you, you will miss the train of life. Those people, those movements will not come.

Instead, look deep into your current circumstances, find a way to tweak around, and start with smallest possible actions. I am sure you will realize that you can do lots of things, that you are not in a bad situation as you thought.

Those tips work for me. They might also work for you. Who know until you give it a try.

2 Minutes and 5 Seconds Rules

In the internet age, productivity becomes a key factor to our success. One of a big problem we face is the flood of information. There is, just, too much to consume every single second. People do not have much problem accessing knowledge. Knowledge is free. Within some minutes asking google, one can find almost anything they wish to know. Even the word Productivity, you can search for its definition, for how to improve productivity, …

The problem? People ask for advice improving productivity. However, that is it. We do not know how to start.

For some, every day we spend time on

  • Facebook: they feel to have a need to know how the world is going, what their friends are doing, … people all have good reason to explain for that they are doing.
  • Online game: Oh yes, we need to relax.
  • Watch TV: Hey cannot miss that exciting football matches. Oh, there is a romantic movie about love.
  • Yeah, read some local newspapers. Need to keep up to date with some famous stars. Btw, there is a famous couple just broke up.
  • Hang on. There are promotions on these sale websites.
  • …..

And we come to their boss asking for increasing salary. And then we complain how limited time they have, that there is not enough time to read job-related materials, that there is not enough time to finish the work. Finally, we look for ways to improve productivity.

People know that

  • To improve health: at least we must start doing exercise
  • To improve salary: at least we must finish their tasks and deliver more than requested
  • To improve skill: at least we must read materials about that skill, or take classes.
  • To gain more time: at least we must stop doing other things – the stupid things.
  • ….

Productivity is, at its basic, the ability to focus to get things done. There might be other definitions. But I decide to choose the one that I can work with.

Some years ago, I had many of them. I started to change by reading as many books as possible. Some told me that reading books will not help anything. They might be right.

However, reading books give me ideas. Many ideas are so obvious. And because they are so obvious. Not many people care about them. I have applied many of those ideas into my daily life. It works. Because I believe in them. If I was wrong, I lost nothing by the way.

Once again, I have not found enough. I procrastinate. Sometimes when a task comes in, my immediate thought was a denial. My brain finds reasons to not doing it.

I give you some

When I want to write a blog post, my brain gives me

  • No one gonna read your post
  • Hey, it is too easy. Everyone knows.
  • They will make laugh at you – idiot.

When I have to do paper work in government offices, my brain gives me

  • It will cost you lot of time
  • Too crowded
  • Those officers are unprofessional.
  • Hey, today is not the right time.

And I happened to know that that is the way our brain works.

 

I thought what if I combine these ideas and give them a try: 2 Minutes rule from David Allen and 5 Seconds rule from Mel Robbins.

2 Minutes rule

If a task takes less than 2 minutes to complete. You should do it.

5 Seconds rule

Count down 5-4-3-2-1 DO IT

Note: They are not exactly as the original. I made them as I understood them my own way.

My framework: 5-2-DO Rule

Given a task,

If it takes less than 2 minutes

Then count down 5-4-3-2-1 DO IT.

It reads “Fine To Do” rule. (I am a programmer)

The main idea is to act, to get things done.

By now, we might wonder “How do I know it takes 2 minutes?” We don’t. It does not really matter the time. The 2-minute window is a concept. It makes we think that those tasks are easy and that we can do it quickly.

How long does 2-minute take? To get a feeling, I suggest you go on a treadmill, set for 60 minutes running, at the 58th minute, you will feel how long a 2-minute take. Or should I suggest you wait for the 2-minute red light in traffic? Feel it?

Writing this post takes me hours. How do I apply the “Fine To Do” rule? I break it down into 4 tasks

  1. Task 1: Decide to write and topic.
  2. Task 2: Open the laptop and go to my blog, click on the New Post button.
  3. Task 3: Write your first sentence.
  4. Task 4: Finish the post

Except the task 4, the first 3 tasks do not take much time, maybe less than 2 minutes. By separating them into a small chunk of easy tasks, it helps me get started, which is the most important thing in Productivity. To do something, you must start first.

By applying that rule, I do not have time for unwanted thoughts. My brain does not have a chance to interrupt with strong reasons to stop me. I know it is going to stop me, therefore, I make a step ahead.

 

Now comes to a final obstacle of the post: The moment, the courage to press the Publish button. Everything so far is my private. I feel safe when writing. But the moment I think of publishing, all the fear jumps in.

Take 2 seconds to press the publish button. 5-4-3-2-1 DO.

Welcome to my rule: 5-2-DO. AKA: Fine To Do.