On March 18th, the body of a curvier beaked whale was retrieved from Davao Bay in the Philippines . The cause of death - starvation and dehydration as a result of ingesting ninety pounds of nylon rope, plastic bags, and other plastic objects found stuffed in the animal’s stomach! A month later and a half a world away, a pregnant sperm whale was found dead off the coast of Sardinia . In this poor animal, marine biologist retrieved nearly fifty pounds of routine plastic products - fishing nets, fishing lines, flip flops and plastic bag, pipes, plates and drinking cups! "These tragic stories are not isolated or freak occurrences but a series of troubling statistics that point towards growing global problem - our oceans are becoming clogged with plastic detritus and debris." said Carlton Nettleton , Chief Product Owner at Applied Frameworks . "Something needs to be done about this complex global problem because the status quo is untenable. If we do nothing, and continue along our current (mis)use of plastic, the oceans are going to become a plastic soup ." Since 1997, when the Great Pacific Garbage Patch was first discovered in the North Pacific gyre, our awareness of the amount of plastic clogging our oceans, and its impact to marine life, has grown. Here are some data points meant to shock you about the severity of the problem: 8,000,000 metric tons of plastic is dumped into the ocean every year, that is the equivalent of one dump truck stuffed full of plastic being dropped into the ocean every minute. Today, the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is nearly three times the size of Texas. In the last twenty years, four other garbage gyres have been discovered increasing the amount of the ocean’s surface covered with plastic trash equivalent to the land area of the continental United States. Over 700 species of marine animals have been documented to consume ocean plastic - 90% of all sea birds, 50% of sea turtles and approximately 10% of whales and dolphins have all ingested plastic. If you have eaten seafood recently, chances are you ate plastic. More then 50% of the plastic junk in the ocean today has been deposited there within the last twenty years. Yet, our efforts to recycle this garbage remains less than 10%. It is estimated that by 2050, there will be more plastic in the ocean than fish! "When Carlton shared the impact of this problem with me, I knew we had a unique opportunity to help others see what we were seeing." said Jason Tanner , CEO of Applied Frameworks . "Over the course of the next three days at Scrum Gathering Austin , we are going to use our expertise with frameworks to help raise awareness of this problem, explore why we do not do more to resolve this challenge and inspire action. Based on the the guidance provided by the conference attendees, Applied Frameworks is going to make a charitable donation to a non-profit dedicated to helping clean-up the oceans." Come visit us at Booth #600 to learn more about this problem, share your perspective, commit to making a change in your use of plastic and inspire others to change their behaviors. Each day, we will be exploring a different elements related to the problem of an ocean of plastic to gain deeper understanding of why this challenge is so hard to resolve. May 20th - What Lies Beneath: in order to understand any complex problem, it is important to explore the issue from a variety of perspectives. Help us go below the surface to identify the various factors which contribute to the accumulation of plastic trash in the ocean. May 21st - Pains-Gains Map : to devise a lasting fix to a complex problem requires a deep understanding of the aspirations and fears of the human actors. Take time to explore the lives of plastic consumers, i.e. ourselves, by identifying what benefits and pains we could experience if we use less single-use plastic. May 22nd - Buy A Feature : there are number of interesting proposals that address the plastic contamination of the oceans from the mundane, banning straws, to the high-tech, deploying autonomous garbage drones. Help us identify which of these solutions are most appealing to you, and we will make a charitable donation to help rescue the oceans. If you cannot make it to Scrum Gathering Austin, we will be scheduling a few on-line forums to allow you the chance to participate in this project and help understand why this problem is not getting resolved. In the meantime, learn more about this problem, recycle the existing plastic found in your home, think of ways to reduce your use of plastic and share your direct action.

Carlton Nettleton, Author at Applied Frameworks

About Carlton Nettleton

Carlton Nettleton is the Chief Product Owner at Applied Frameworks, a management consulting firm, and co-creator of Online Education at Applied Frameworks. Carlton has over eighteen years of industry experience working with clients to improve quality, increase productivity, build great teams and launch new products using Agile software development practices and techniques. Today, Carlton’s focus is directed at mentoring and supporting Scrum and Agile practitioners who work in less than ideal conditions. He shares his energy and enthusiasm with our learners so they can achieve their personal and professional goals. Carlton is fluent in both English and Spanish, has written a short book on Scrum and has been Certified Scrum Trainer® since 2012. Read Full Bio

CSM Practice Exam: Update for 2020

By Carlton Nettleton|2020-02-17T06:21:43-05:00February 17th, 2020|Training|

Frequently, learners in our Certified ScrumMaster (CSM) courses have questions about the CSM exam: How do I prepare? So, we set out to create a practice test, written by actual Certified Scrum Trainers (CSTs), with current content, which helps you gauge your readiness for the exam.

Two Fast Retrospective Techniques

By Carlton Nettleton|2020-01-07T04:55:46-05:00January 7th, 2020|Frameworks|

Ever in need of a quick framework to facilitate a fast Retrospective? Here are my two favorites Retrospective frameworks that you can use in any Sprint Retrospective or at the end of any meeting - so that your next meeting will be more perfect, of course - that will provide ...
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Why Product Managers are Still Important in the Age of Agile

By Carlton Nettleton|2019-12-12T08:45:50-05:00December 11th, 2019|Product|

To answer that question, we first need to have an operational definition of product management. Steven Haines, the author of the definitive guide on product management, The Product Manager's Desk Reference, defines product management as the “holistic business management of the product from the time it is conceived to the ...
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Product vs. Service – Who Cares?

By Carlton Nettleton|2019-12-12T08:47:40-05:00December 3rd, 2019|Product|

That is actually a legitimate question from the perspective of a consumer. As long as the consumer gets what they want, do they really care if the value was delivered via a product or a service? As a consumer in an open market, as long as I can choose how ...
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Applied Frameworks @ Scrum Gathering Austin

By Carlton Nettleton|2019-12-24T05:21:32-05:00May 31st, 2019|News|

At Scrum Gathering Austin, our team engaged with the conference attendees to raise awareness around the issue of Oceans of Plastic and demonstrated the power of using frameworks to solve social problems. Each day we used a different framework to guide the conference attendees along a journey that began with ...
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An Ocean of Plastic

By Carlton Nettleton|2019-12-11T21:25:53-05:00May 19th, 2019|News|

On March 18th, the body of a curvier beaked whale was retrieved from Davao Bay in the Philippines. The cause of death - starvation and dehydration as a result of ingesting ninety pounds of nylon rope, plastic bags, and other plastic objects found stuffed in the animal’s stomach! A month ...
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How to Make a Product Playbook

By Carlton Nettleton|2019-12-23T03:31:56-05:00March 6th, 2019|Product|

"A well-designed system filled with ordinary—but well-trained—people can consistently achieve stunning performance levels."—Robert I. Sutton What’s the status of your product management team? It’s likely some team members have formal training; others don’t. Some have years of experience; some have just started. They’ve probably got some tools they’ve used in ...
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Collaboration Frameworks for Product Owners & Agile Coaches

By Carlton Nettleton|2020-01-11T14:09:44-05:00February 11th, 2019|Frameworks|

Looking to change up your Retrospective so that it is not so boring? Need a way to engage with your stakeholders so that the HiPPOs don't always dominate? Well...today you are in luck because I am sharing my four favorite sites that offer Product Owners and ScrumMasters a plethora of ...
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How to Host a Lean Coffee

By Carlton Nettleton|2019-11-11T04:56:44-05:00January 4th, 2019|Frameworks|

In our Coaching Circles, we often use the Lean Coffee format to structure our discussions and keep the dialogue lively and engaging. For the most part, this format works well for our Coaching Circle calls. For those that are unfamiliar with Lean Coffee, Lean Coffee is a structured, but agenda-less meeting ...
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Types of Scrum Product Owners

By Carlton Nettleton|2019-11-11T05:00:00-05:00November 29th, 2018|Process, Product|

There are many different types of Product Owners in the world, so let us examine the common ways I have seen Product Ownership implemented in the wild from the most powerful to the least powerful. God (or Goddess) of the Product: this is the most powerful of all the Product ...
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