Rob Aston

How Zoom-Out began.

Back in 2015, I was working in and around London as a “Happy Work Coach”, offering one-to-one coaching, in-house workshops and community sessions. At the same time, as an Agile Coach with software development teams, I created a workshop and began writing a book called Developing Happiness, partly motivated by evidence showing a strong correlation between happy teams and high-performing teams.

The idea was simple. Participants imagined they were an elite, cross-functional software team hired to build a new product: “Human 1.0”. This product had just one requirement:

As a human
I want to be happy

During the workshop, participants were shown “pull requests” written in Java: snippets of code that could potentially be added to the Human 1.0 system. Their job was to decide whether to accept that logic into the codebase, symbolically, into the mind of Human 1.0. The underlying message? If we wouldn’t allow this logic into the mind of Human 1.0, why on earth do we allow it into our own?

Some of the example metaphors:

One metaphor in particular stood out: Zooming Out. The idea of stepping back to see the bigger picture when we’re stuck or overwhelmed.

To my surprise, this Zoom-Out idea resonated more than anything else in the workshops. People would email or tell me, unprompted, how zooming out helped them deal with work challenges, relationship issues, or everyday life challenges.

That feedback nudged me to pause the Happy Work Coaching path, put Developing Happiness on the back burner, and pivot fully into creating and exploring Zoom-Out. The Zoom-Out Mindset is one of the outcomes of that journey.

Why I wrote the book.

I’m not immune to getting unhelpfully zoomed in on things, to my own detriment and sometimes to the detriment of the people around me. I wrote the book as much for myself as for anyone else. I also wrote it for my sons, in the hope that they will find value in it as they navigate their own unfolding journeys through life.

The Zoom-Outs in it are ones I’ve personally used and found helpful. Some come from ancient philosophies or modern sciences. Some from coaching, workshops and conversations. Others are entirely my own creation.

I’m not a professional psychologist, neuroscientist, philosopher, anthropologist, Buddhist, Taoist, or Stoic. But I am someone with a deep curiosity and passion for all of those fields. Professionally, my journey has encompassed software engineering, music, art, writing, business analysis, systems thinking, management and leadership, professional coaching, training, agile coaching, mindfulness, CBT, and wellbeing. Many Zoom-Outs are influenced by these areas too.

I hope the Zoom-Out approach helps you, makes you think, and makes you smile along the way.

About the book →

From software engineering to agile transformation.

An experienced and certified Agile Coach, Kanban Management Professional, trainer and agile delivery lead. An in-depth understanding of software product development at the team level and at scale and the craft of software engineering. Passionate about helping organisations deliver maximum value for customers and the business. Equally passionate about helping individuals and teams maximise their agility, impact and resilience.

More detail available on request. Message Rob on LinkedIn.

Qualified, certified and still learning.

Away from work

My interests are varied and include personal and team productivity, wellbeing and resilience, drawing and visualisation, happiness at work, music (writing and performing), writing and technology.