Learn ways to detect your value so that you can believe it, convey it to others, and help improve the measuring sticks for us all. When done well, Agile Coaching, or any 21st century leadership role, is impossible to see from a distance and can even be invisible to those who you work with up close. How do you react when you hear this at performance management time: “Yes, I know the team is doing well, better than we could have imagined, and that’s great. But, what did you do? What was your specific contribution to their success?” If you’re like many Scrum Masters and Agile Coaches, you are hard pressed to answer this challenge. In this session, we will take a deep dive into the Coaching Agile Teams book to uncover the practices that help you become specific and solid in recognizing your contribution. We will also work through the ways common measuring sticks need to change so that we can start valuing the value of 21st century leadership skills, such as coaching and team capacity building.
Bruce Lee said: "Empty your mind, be formless. Shapeless, like water. If you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle and it becomes the bottle. You put it in a teapot, it becomes the teapot." Masterful facilitators have a way of making the hard work of holding space for their teams look simple. When they are doing their job well, they often appear formless, enabling their team to discover their own direction without getting in the way. In this session, we'll explore 3 frameworks you can use back at work to help your team find their own brilliant solutions to whatever they're currently struggling with.
Agile Anti-Pattern Deathmatch! In the twenty years since the signing of the Agile Manifesto, countless teams have used Agile frameworks to deliver awesome things. We’ve also seen many, many ways that Agility can be derailed into chaos, misery, boredom, and other unfortunate outcomes. So let’s fight it out to discover what the absolute worst of the worst Agile Anti-Patterns are! Bring your anecdotes and prepare to argue for your (least) favorites in a March Madness style Single Elimination Death Match!
Tips for Facilitating Team Decisions Is your team struggling to make decisions collaboratively? As a leader, observing this pain over and over may lead to a desire to just make the decision on behalf of the team. Sure, this might get some short-term results and relief but this will also absolutely impede achieving long-term high-performing results. Instead, let's level up our leadership capabilities to facilitate team decision-making. In this session, expect to explore several practical facilitation techniques that support all voices being actively engaged.
The Mindset & Culture of Business Agility The world is changing more rapidly than ever before. Organizations of every size are overwhelmed by the pace of change and are being constantly challenged to understand & react to the major disruptions in the marketplace and in their organizations. High-performing and adaptable organizations that leverage, lead, and thrive in this ambiguous and unpredictable market will be in the best position to win with their customers. We call this business agility; the ability of the organization and its leaders to respond in an effective, sustainable, and disciplined manner to the constant change & disruptions. Business Agility is not something an organization has or doesn't, it more like fitness or athletic performance, your organization can increase its agility with intentional, deliberate, and disciplined effort. Using the Domains of Business Agility (published by the Business Agility Institute) we will explore the different "muscle groups" that an organization needs to "exercise" in order to increase its agility. Most importantly, we will discuss the Mindset and culture necessary to endure the journey and grind of improving your Business Agility.
Mastering your art, shape by shape When you attend a conference and see a visual artist whip up a masterpiece during a keynote or session that captures everything in one engaging snapshot - have you ever thought “I could never draw like that!” or wondered “how did they do that?” Well, until recently that was me. But, over time, I’ve learned that it comes down to a few basic elements, lots of practice and letting go! There’s also proven science behind why we find visualization like this so appealing. It’s a great way to turn complex ideas into a quick, universal and simple communication method. Attend this session to learn key elements of building a visual library. Bring your favorite writing utensils and something to follow along on (pencil, paper, iPad etc.) as we run through tips and techniques so you too can create visual components with confidence!
Bringing Human Connection to Remote Spaces Do you miss the spontaneous moments of connection at the coffee machine? Have you ever been in a remote meeting that maybe feels just a little awkward? Perhaps it feels more difficult to get to know the people you work with, or you feel a little more lonely working from home. Join us in exploring how to bring more human connection to remote spaces. We’ll share 3 levels from which to design connection experiences, as well as lots of practical tips you can put to use straight away.
Leading change in complexity: how to take advantage of resistance to design good change experiments. Most well-known approaches to change management treat change like a process that is rolled out. But change in human systems involves uncertainty, different preferences, and doing things for the first time. It is ripe for an Agile approach! As we've worked with senior leaders at dozens of companies to help them adopt a more agile approach to work, we've started to see a clear, agile approach to change emerge. Adopting ideas from Theory of Constraints, Lean Startup, and Agile, we'll share an overview of the approach that is getting great results for our clients.
Women in Agile The Women in Agile community drives toward equality and inclusion of diverse representation, expertise, and involvement in the agile community. We value the representation of diverse ideas and perspectives within the agile community, and believe everyone is better off when more ideas are openly shared.
Dependency Myth Busting – Avoiding the Widely Held Beliefs That Can Kill Your Agility at Scale Dependencies are killing your agility and you want to fight back. A common belief is that if we just re-organize ourselves “correctly” (for example, organize 100% into feature teams) we can eliminate dependencies. This is a myth. Certainly re-organizing can help, but eliminating all dependencies when trying to do agile at scale is not practical. There are many other beliefs that cloud our minds when dealing with dependencies. For example, if we could just identify all of the dependencies upfront, we could manage them. Or if we just had a more detailed dependency-management process with awesome tool support, we could tame our dependencies. Yeah, no. In this session Ken will bust many of the common myths surrounding how to best deal with dependencies. He will provide critical insight drawn from his years of experience working with many different clients and their dependency issues. At the end of the session, you will be in a better position to evaluate your organization’s approach to dependency management and begin utilizing reality-based rather than myth-based approaches that will actually help lessen the impact of dependencies.
The Truth about "Agile" Chances are, if you’ve been in the software development industry for any amount of time, you’ve heard the word “Agile” thrown around a time or two. Perhaps you’ve been part of an “Agile Transformation” or you have attended a certification course for Scrum or Kanban. In the 20 years since the Manifesto for Agile Software Development was drafted, “Agile” has taken on a life of its own. But what is “Agile” really, and what does it mean for you? Is it story points and two week deadlines? Is it kumbaya and “soft skills”? In this talk, we’ll get into some real truths and real talk about what it means to be agile in today’s changing world.
Emergency, Stress Alarm Ever felt like you have no control over anything that’s happening around you? We’ve all experienced this especially when it comes to stressful situations within the workplace. As you continue on your professional journey, you’ll run into situations where you have very limited ability to influence. Fun fact, you have more options than pulling your hair out. Join this session to understand what makes these kinds of situations stressful, why it’s hard but necessary to manage stress, and techniques for practicing good self-care. Expect to assess and manage a stressful situation using the CHART Method adapted from the public safety industry.
Netflix and ______ - a knockout approach towards decisions and prioritization If staying at home for most of 2020 taught us anything, it's that making a choice between things can be difficult: what to eat, what to watch, and what to clean. In this workshop, you will get to experience a fun and interactive approach towards prioritization and decision making that can be applied to your personal and professional life.
Agile In Color The overall goal of this initiative is to provide targeted career and professional development opportunities for global POC members of the Agile Alliance community. These learning opportunities will be primarily focused on mentoring and coaching. Through this initiative our mission is to create spaces for and spotlight global POC coaches, trainers, and thought leaders in the Agile community. We also hope to inspire the next generation of global POC Agile leaders.
A Good Retrospective is Hard to Find - or is it? Anti-Patterns are like patterns, only more informative. With anti-patterns, you will first see what patterns recur in “bad” retrospectives and then you will see how to avoid, or remedy, the situation. Based on her experience with facilitating retrospectives, join Aino for an entertaining and informative presentation on the anti-patterns she has seen and how to overcome the problems. This talk will be interesting for everyone facilitating meetings in general, and retrospectives in particular
Context is kING: TransformING the World of Work I have spent over a decade trying to articulate a philosophy on Agile and Scrum and how organisations change - Or more precisely - don't change. Even when they claim they are undergoing an "Agile Transformation". Unlike everyone else, I have failed to find that philosophy to drive my own certifications and books sales I mean help people. However, I have uncovered some interesting tools that may or may not deepen your understanding. I will add jokes to make it less terrifyingly dry.
Why DEI (Diversity, Equity & Inclusion) Matters Organizations frequently use the terms diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) as if they are synonymous, which they are not. Truly embedding DEI principals requires deep organizational commitment and skill. Agile principles, employed consistently, offer guideposts for building and maintaining diverse and inclusive teams. This session will help participants understand what DEI really means and explore the mission critical nature of equity and inclusion work. National racial equity trainer Michelle Johnson will talk about how patterns of historical inequity, and individual, institutional and cultural bias show up on teams today. Building diverse and inclusive teams is essential for organizational growth, health and, ultimately, success. She will offer support in how teams can build skills to address issues of race and gender.
Gender & Negotiation: It's Not Your Fault, and You Still Have to Fix It Do you work with women? Are you a woman? If the answer to either of these questions is yes, you need to learn how gender impacts our attempts at influencing and persuading one another. (If the answer is no...we really need to talk.) This interactive workshop gives women the tools they need to navigate prejudice at the negotiation table and gives everyone the tools we need to create a more even playing field.
Come ask your AVS 2021 speakers questions during this free-form jazz odyssey panel EXTRAVAGANZA!.
Starting August 17th, Lyssa & Adam will be hosting their new LIVE program and community. This paid program will lead you and your cohort through a deep-dive into Mastering Yourself, Coaching, and Facilitation sections of Lyssa's book, Coaching Agile Teams. Watch this Q&A about the program.
Unexpected Agility: Why the Key to High Performance Marketing Lies with People Not Projects Total organizational agility is the future of business, yet only a tiny fraction of organizations have successfully managed a complete Agile transformation. With its litany of benefits and decades of application history, why does Agile struggle to make the jump to the rest of the organization? What if the very experiences that drive Agile change agents to evangelize it outside of IT are standing in the way of total Agile transformation? Join Certified Professional in Agile Coaching and 15-year digital marketer Andrea Fryrear as she uses Agile marketing departments as a case study for understanding and eliminating the cognitive biases that hold back business agility efforts. By the end of this hands-on session, you’ll be able to: Overcome the translation problems that arise when introducing Agile ways of working to groups that have never used them before Identify and mitigate the two most detrimental cognitive biases that plague Agile trainers, coaches, and change agents Help marketers (and other non-Agile groups) start exploring Agile by taking a people-first approach, instead of a process-first approach.
6 Ideas For Advanced Story Mapping User Story Mapping is a powerful approach to creating shared understanding and effective plans. Kevin has been facilitating story mapping sessions since 2014. In that time he has developed and discovered techniques that consistently create breakthrough mapping sessions. In this session he will break down some of his favorite tips and techniques.
Individuals Work In Teams to Provide Value Agile focuses on teams. Lean focuses on value. It's time to recognize that people actually do the work and provide their products to other people. The communications, relationships, respect, flow, and improvement of our work relies on professionals, individuals who must collaborate to make work rewarding, effective, and humane. Jim Benson will talk about creating humane, visual, and culture-driven teams that truly perform, rather than conform to the rules of others.