“If they don’t have an amazing Taco for less than two dollars,” Kyle exclaimed enthusiastically, “It is not an authentic Taqueria.”
We’re continuing a tradition we started five years ago at Blue Cross. Every Wednesday evening any contractors who want to attend are invited to a group dinner. In theory, Greg is supposed to be brewing beer at this dinner too, but for some reason we remain dry. Geri & I started the tradition again in March, just the two of us at first. Now we are joined by Greg, Mike, Andy, Raje, Kyle & Dee and their very cute family. This week Kyle chose the restaurant.
“If you are in Southwest Texas,” Kyle continued, “there are really only two types of high-quality food you should expect to find, Mexican and Barbecue, and the best Mexican is frequently found in the humble Taqueria.”
“This is the best Mexican I could find within a reasonable distance of work.” he added. “There are better tacos I have found in San Antonio, but you have to eat them out of a truck.”
Kyle never sleeps. Instead he spends nights crawling the web reading obscure blogs and searching for well-reviewed, highly-quality, low-profile dining experiences. His favorite way to order, I have come to appreciate, is to ask his server to bring him what he or she likes most.
“Mind you,” Kyle instructed us all, “I don’t think anyone here actually speaks English.” He pauses to ensure we all heard him, “So I suggest you just point to something that looks good on the menu, nod, and smile.”
I find something called #17, point at it, nod, smile, and say “Gratzi.” I think I just ordered, and in the process, accidentally spoke Italian.
I am sitting across from Geri, away from the office and stress, so what do I do? I pull a notebook with feedback loops in it and immediate start talking shop. Geri and I almost always talk shop: agile, Scrum, marketing, design, architecture, business analysis, grammars, or whatever. It is almost impossible to stop. Wednesday evenings with the coaches is usually about 50% shop talk.
“Look at these,” I exclaim, passing the notebook to Geri. “I’ve itemized 3 feedback loops around why people should stand up in stand up meetings. I’ve listed over 50 more other loops. I think this may be a really good way to talk about Agile.”
Geri looked down at the cryptic notes I had written on the page and said “I have no idea what these notes mean.”
Kyle peered over Geri’s sholder. “Why don’t you write them as stories?” he suggested. “We teach everyone to write stories, so write the loops as stories.”
I peer at him over the top of my reading glasses. My immediate desire is to say “Just read the damn loops as I wrote them.” However, an inner bunny (more about bunnies later) keeps me quite. I grab the notebook back and start writing.
As a Scrum Team Member I want to stand when the Scrum is about to begin to make it clear to other team members I am waiting, so they realize I am waiting and quickly stand and join the meeting in order to not waste my time.
I look at it, read it a few times. Not bad for a first draft and a lot clearer than the loop I had scrawled earlier. I write another:
As a Scrum Team we want to stand during the Scrum so it is clear to anyone walking near us we are doing a formal ceremony and they should not interrupt us and decrease the effectiveness of our meeting.
I pass the notebook over to Kyle, “Better” he says, matter-of-factly. He smiles, not rubbing it in too badly that he was clearly right again, and he passes it over to Geri.
“I can understand this,” Geri says delightfully. She passes it on to the other coaches telling them about the idea of writing loops as user stories.
I realize I have totally forgotten what I ordered, again. But it is Mexican, so I figure it doesn’t really matter.