Agile Mentors Podcast from Mountain Goat Software

#177: The 5 Habits of High Learning Teams with Lance Dacy

Mar 25, 2026

Lance Dacy, a Certified Scrum trainer and coach who helps teams build practical habits for continuous improvement, joins to explore what separates teams that learn from those that stall. He discusses psychological safety and truth-telling. He explains short learning cycles, limiting work in progress, and structuring reviews to change systems. Leadership choices that help or hinder learning are highlighted.

Ask episode

AI Snips

Chapters

Transcript

Episode notes

INSIGHT

Psychological Safety Determines Truth Telling

Psychological safety is the linchpin for teams to surface real problems instead of rehearsed good-news messaging.
Lance Dacy and Brian Milner point to Google's Aristotle Project and call out the recurring truth tax when teams hide bad news early.

ANECDOTE

Improvement Is Like Planting An Avocado Tree

Brian and Lance compare continuous improvement to planting an avocado tree that takes years to fruit when leaders ignore long-term learning.
They warn businesses lack patience and often treat retrospectives as theater rather than ongoing reflexive work.

INSIGHT

Silence Is Not Alignment

Silence is often misread as alignment but usually signals fear or belief that speaking up is futile.
Brian Milner recounts leaders assuming dashboards equal health while delivery remains chaotic because truth is hidden.

Get the Snipd Podcast app to discover more snips from this episode

Get the app

Most teams say they want to improve. Few actually build the habits that make it happen. In this episode, Brian and Lance break down what separates teams that learn from teams that stall—and what leaders do that quietly gets in the way.

Overview

What does it really take to become a learning team?

In this episode, Brian Milner and Lance Dacy walk through five habits that show up in teams that continuously improve—and the leadership behaviors that either support or shut them down. From psychological safety and truth-telling to short learning cycles and focusing on the right problems, they unpack what actually drives improvement inside real organizations.

Along the way, they challenge common assumptions about silence, metrics, and “heroic” problem-solving, and offer practical ways leaders can shift their approach starting immediately. If your team feels stuck, busy but not improving, or hesitant to speak up, this conversation gets to the root of why—and what to do about it.

References and resources mentioned in the show:

Lance Dacy
Blog: Why Teams Matter More Than Ever for Innovation by Mike Cohn

#143: What Still Makes Teams Work (and Win) with Jim York

#171: Why Agile Teams Succeed—or Don’t with Colin Fisher

Subscribe to the Agile Mentors Podcast

Want to get involved?

This show is designed for you, and we’d love your input.

Enjoyed what you heard today? Please leave a rating and a review. It really helps, and we read every single one.
Got an Agile subject you’d like us to discuss or a question that needs an answer? Share your thoughts with us at podcast@mountaingoatsoftware.com

This episode’s presenters are:

Brian Milner is a Certified Scrum Trainer®, Certified Scrum Professional®, Certified ScrumMaster®, and Certified Scrum Product Owner®, and host of the Agile Mentors Podcast training at Mountain Goat Software. He's passionate about making a difference in people's day-to-day work, influenced by his own experience of transitioning to Scrum and seeing improvements in work/life balance, honesty, respect, and the quality of work.

Lance Dacy is a Certified Scrum Trainer®, Certified Scrum Professional®, Certified ScrumMaster®, and Certified Scrum Product Owner®. Lance brings a great personality and servant's heart to his workshops. He loves seeing people walk away with tangible and practical things they can do with their teams straight away.