Agile2015

Abstract:
Collaboration is considered a fundamental part of "being agile" but how can you help your team understand HOW to collaborate? "Improvising" is not really about being funny, or panicking when things go wrong. It's a simple process that groups of actors follow in order to create interesting stories and scenes without the aid of a script. This session will show how the five 'secrets' of improvisational theatre can support an agile team's growth and also give you some practical guidance on how to get your team's collaborative and creative juices flowing from the very start!
Learning Outcomes:

• Attendees have learned some basic agile principles around collaboration and listening
• Attendees have learned how to run some basic improv games in their own teams
• Attendees have a five principles to summarise the ethos of improvisational theatre
• Attendees have realised how collaboration and creativity come hand-in-hand
• Attendees have had some fun and made some new friends

Attachments:

• Improvisssssing_With_Agile.pdf

Abstract:
Spreading Agile to the rest of your organization requires the wisdom of your teams. You can reveal this wisdom through servant leaders and neutral facilitators. In this session, participants move through several aspects of collaborative meetings by practicing in small teams as well as with the entire group. You will leave with 25 simple tools and techniques that you can take back to your organizations to support truly collaborative cultures.

Learning Outcomes:

• Learning Outcomes:
• - 25 facilitation tools and techniques to prepare and run collaborative meetings
• - tips for balancing the input of introverts and extroverts
• - subtle ways that keep a room “safe” for new ideas
• - why it’s critical to gather the wisdom of the room before converging on a decision

Abstract:
It has always been a good practice to engage team members in the estimation process; then agile methods taught us how teams should do the local planning and decision making too. So it should come as no surprise that the best people to undertake effective risk management are team members. They possess the best technical insight and are closer to any execution issues than team leads or project managers.
However, risk management as tackled by many organizations, is academic, boring, seemly removed from real-work and it often ignores the maximization of positive risks (opportunities). This workshop demonstrates how to turn teams into risk-consuming, opportunity-chasing beasts that have measurably different project outcomes!
At the Agile 2012 Conference I presented a session called “Collaborative Games for Agile Risk Management” that introduced fun, team based games to engage the team in risk and opportunity management. In the intervening years many teams have adopted these techniques and become much more effective at Risk Management. However it turns out I was focussing on the wrong end of the lever, the big news are the results teams are getting through Opportunity Management.
Teams using these approaches are not only driving out risks, but more surprisingly, building great inter-organization alliances, being given free passes on bureaucratic process and generally having an easier go of things. At first I was surprised at all the “good luck” these teams encountered but then I saw how small adjustments in team behaviour were being made towards freshly identified opportunities.
A little like the 18th Century discovery linking germs to infections that gave rise to the introduction of hand washing in hospitals increasing survival rate dramatically. Putting teams in charge of opportunity management leads to changes in day to day behaviour that dramatically increased the execution effectiveness and success rates of their projects.
Good leaders know the value of a powerful vision; it “Reveals a beckoning summit for others to chart their own course”. In other words once we know what our true goal is we can make our own micro adjustments. Getting teams to own opportunity exploitation makes them behave differently and benefits start occurring all over the project.
This session outlines the practices and reviews some case studies to so you can equip your team to be risk-consuming, opportunity-chasing beasts that leave a trail of business value and delighted stakeholders. Or, in the words of one team, they “Eat Risks for Breakfast and Poop Nuggets of Awesomeness All Day”.
Learning Outcomes:

• • See why project managers are the least equipped to effectively identify and manage project risks.
• • Learn engaging ways to educate team members about risk management including indentifying threats to avoid and opportunities to exploit
• • Preview 5 collaborative games for effective threat and opportunity management from planning and identification, through management, to reporting and closure
• • Understand the untapped potential of an increased emphasises on opportunity management
• • Review case studies of projects teams that have been using these practices for three years and are achieving measurably better results than teams that do not

Attachments:

• Eat_Risks_for_Breakfast_-_Mike_Griffiths.pdf
• Collaborative_Games_for_Agile_Risk_Management.pdf

Abstract:
Are you a woman working in software development, or are you a man who cares whether women can fully contribute at work? Have you experienced or heard about situations at work that were complicated by issues about women and men working together? If you answered “yes” to the first question, more than likely you also answered “yes” to the second. Difficult working relationship are endemic when gender expectations clash. We can do better.
Join Sharon and Diana in this session that will explore practical solutions to this tough problem through lively conversations. We will turn actual real life experiences into opportunities to learn from each other's situations, to establish working agreements for acceptable and mutually beneficial professionalism, and to diminish the impact of harassing behavior on individual targets by exploring a greater sense of personal power.
Learning Outcomes:

• Participants will take away:
• Better understanding of the obstacles to and enablers of healthy collaboration between women and men at work
• A list of strategies to apply back on the job, including avenues for taking action
• Stories/examples of “good practices” that work well in other organizations and might work for you
• A perspective on the scope of the problem and an awareness of the benefit of making situations visible

Attachments:

• Agile_DC_2015_for_Sharon___Diana.key.pdf

Abstract:
One of the key aspects of high performing Agile teams is trust. Trust is hard to define, and sometimes hard to earn and to give.
In this session, as a group we explore common team dysfunctions, such as lack of trust and alignment. You will learn a number of techniques for coaching teams such as journeylines, personal maps and constellation. After exploring and learning, you will conduct two exercises in groups: Moving Motivators, and a Team Values Exercise. These tools help teams work through conflict and change, and are valuable tools in your toolbox. These exercises also empower you to create and commit to an action plan that strengthens your team through trust and alignment.
Learning Outcomes:

• List three or more common team dysfunctions
• Identify five techniques for building team trust
• Feel comfortable facilitating a “team trust and alignment” exercise

Attachments:

• Agile_Velocity_-_Building_Strong_Teams_thru_Trust.pdf

Abstract:
Scrum is excellent at helping surface team and organizational dysfunction, but dealing with dysfunction can be uncomfortable. As an agilist, how do you help your team work through these newly voiced challenges?
Court jesters have a long history of helping give voice to uncomfortable truths, often speaking words that would have others killed. In the 1300's when the French fleet was destroyed by the English at the Battle of Sluys, the French king's jester told him that the English sailors "don't even have the guts to jump into the water like our brave French". This session will help you become an agile jester - speaking difficult truths through humor.
During this workshop you'll get hands-on experience using practical tools drawn from improvisational comedy, the art of magic, and clowning. Every agilist should have these tools in their bag of tricks.

Learning Outcomes:

• Discover improvisational comedy techniques and games to help elevate the mood of your team, discover hidden strengths, and find solutions to challenges your team is facing
• Learn new retrospective techniques that will give your team an enjoyable, fulfilling, and powerful way to solve their current challenges
• Experience how sudden juxtapositions, like those found in jokes, can help your team discover solutions to problems that seemed unsolvable

Abstract:
More and more agile efforts involve development teams and stakeholder groups dispersed throughout the world. Distributed projects are more difficult to execute for obvious reasons, including time differences and language barriers, but cultural differences, and the lack of understanding them, create problems that no video conference, wiki, or international flight can solve.
You need to crack the culture code. By cracking the culture code for agile teams, you can establish credibility, overcome communication barriers, create an environment of trust and get things done.
Come to this interactive session that has been honed by over a decade of delivery and learn how to work with international teams and execute successful projects across geographical and culture divides.

Learning Outcomes:

• Develop both cultural and self awareness
• Learn ways to address cultural differences
• Learn ways to build trust across cultures
• Learn how to view cultural differences in a new light
• Learn how cultural differences impact everyday interactions

Abstract:
Don't you just hate it when a collaboration conversation stalls out and the only sound you hear is crickets? Awk-waard. Or, when a conversation becomes a battle of wills between two strong people, each advocating for their idea as if it's life or death? Here we are, agilists, and we're supposed to know how to do collaboration, yet the reality of team collaboration is often not as rosy as the buzzword. We still largely rely on talking as a primary means of collaboration, but that is not always the highest bandwidth form of communication, surprisingly enough. In fact, methods that have people collaborate silently FIRST can be a better way to go.
In this session, you will experience one such method known as informal constellations -- they unstick conversations when they stall, unknot excessive advocacy and, generally, get the team's creative juices flowing again. They are incredibly powerful for helping a team see what's really happening so that they can make wiser decisions of all kinds, including how to better self-organize!
This is a workshop. First, you will experience the power of informal constellations as we do a few together. Then, you will be led, step-by-step, through the process of crafting constellations for your teams back home. In addition, the key aspects of successfully facilitating constellations will be revealed so that you can determine if you, or someone else, should step into the role of facilitator. This is a hands-on practical session, and includes a handout you can take home so you can better integrate what you learned. Constellations are fun and amazingly effective! Come play and learn.
Learning Outcomes:

• people experience one method for juicing up collaborative conversations when they stall (informal constellations)
• people see what is required to facilitate something like this successfully, and may begin to see the gap for themselves
• people walk away with something ultra practical: an approach for conducting informal constellations with their teams

Attachments:

• 2015-08_Agile_2015_Informal_Constellations.pdf
• Adkins_-_print_120_double_sided_-_Step-by-Step_Informal_Constellations_-_Agile_2015.pdf

Abstract:
What is the single most-important skill needed by every member an Agile team? Here are some hints. It builds a culture of trust. It facilitates collaboration. It is critical in conflict resolution. It is a foundation for being able to deliver the right software. And it is something everyone can learn.
It is (drum roll please)… Active Listening.
Yup, active listening. That’s it. Sound simple? Maybe…. Think you already know how to do it? Perhaps…. And yet, in my experience, it is one of the most underused skills in today’s workplace. It is a skill that takes a short time to learn in concept and a lifetime to master in practice.
In this session we will examine active listening as a skill that can be learned, practiced and mastered.
The session will cover:

• What active listening is
• Why it is so important
• Why it is so difficult to put into practice
• Specific active listening techniques
• Intentional practice with feedback

Join us for a fun, interactive session and leave with new techniques and a whole new appreciation for this important skill that is foundational for team collaboration and success.
Learning Outcomes:

• Awareness of the value of active listening to team success
• Awareness that it a skill that can be learned and practiced
• How to use a variety of active listening techniques
• How to observe active listening in others
• Practice employing active listening techniques and getting feedback

Attachments:

• Single_Most_Important_Skill.pdf

Abstract:
Discover the essential elements for building a truly collaborative environment and how leveraging Agile through this approach can lead to more profit and sustainability. Join us on the journey of creating Chicago’s first creative incubator and hear the story of the rise and fall of this creative collaborative community. Sometimes just providing the environment for collaboration is not enough. After iterating upon the failures and embracing the lessons exposed, we’ll uncover the elements for a truly sustainable collaborative environment.
Learning Outcomes:

• Hear a case study of the development of a truly creative collaborative community
• Explore opportunities made possible through collaboration
• Discover two blockers to sustainable growth and collaboration
• Learn the importance of Agile and specifically how small dedicated teams can be positioned for successful collaboration

Abstract:
"The best architectures, requirements, and designs emerge from self-organizing teams." Most people read this and focus on the self-organization element of the principle. But what about the concept of emergence? How do requirements "emerge" exactly? And how do self-organizing teams enable emergence?
In this highly interactive workshop, we'll get a hands-on lesson on emergence and self-organization using an unlikely source of inspiration: The theater. During the 75 minute session, attendees will envision, write, rehearse, and perform one-minute episodes of "Waterfall Theater". Throughout the process, we'll discover the difference between emergence and specification, the benefits of iterative and incremental delivery, and the power of a self-organized team with a shared goal.

Learning Outcomes:

• At the end of this session, attendees will
• * have a hands-on understanding of emerging requirements and design
• * understand the relationship between emergence and vision
• * be a part of a self-organizing team
• * understand the role that trust plays in self-organization
• * build something iteratively and incrementally

Abstract:
Antifragile relationships provide the foundation & freedom for teams to benefit from conflict and be more successful!
Teams and organizations, at least successful ones, are based on relationships that "work." People need to be free to collaborate and interact with others on their teams and in their organizations. We should be moving beyond strong relationships to antifragile relationships, which benefit from adversity! We will explore this concept by learning about and practicing a number of tools you can use with teams you are on or working with (scrum teams to leadership teams).
Help your team(s) move towards a space where they can thrive. Tap into practices to continue moving your relationships to a more antifragile position to improve your results and success. We will practice building a team alliance and plan for potential conflicts in advance. We will also explore a number of common issues contributing to toxic team situations as well as antidotes. Like agile, antifragile relationships is a journey and mindset. The ideas we will explore will first focus on ourselves, looking at what we can bring to the table and what we can do and be. Expect to work individually and with others in this interactive workshop.
Learning Outcomes:

• - Learn what it means to have an antifragile relationship and it's impact on team and organizational success.
• - Learn and practice a number of tools to continue moving your relationships to a more antifragile position to improve your results and success.
• - Go beyond simplistic behavior based team charters and learn to create your own Team Alliance (scrum teams, leadership teams, product teams, etc.) that focuses on what each individual will bring to the team.
• - Build on your Alliance and learn how to create a Conflict Protocol provides a framework for dealing with conflict before it arises.
• - Understand team toxins, the value of them, and how antidotes create ways to benefit from conflict.

Attachments:

• Building_Antifragile_Relationships_and_Teams_v1.5_sd.pdf

Abstract:
When you think of hiring for your team, does the paperwork overwhelm you? Are you concerned about the number of interviews you seem to need to make a great decision? Do you ever have trouble making a decision, to know if this candidate is right for you--the team, the project, and the organization? You know the cost of hiring people is high, and the cost of not getting the right person is even higher.
You can apply agile to your hiring, iterating on everything and learning about your hiring with feedback. Learn how to involve the entire team, including the sourcing. Collaborate with your recruiters when they use a kanban board to track candidates and where they are in the process. Iterate on the job description (and job ad) based on what you see in candidates. When you involve the entire team, you can create questions and auditions that work. Learn how to identify candidates who fit your culture and those who don't.
This session is a timeboxed interactive workshop. Let's make your hiring more agile.
Learning Outcomes:

• - How to organize the hiring process to take advantage of iterating and feedback
• - How to collaborate with the entire team
• - How to help the recruiters be agile and lean with boards
• - What to look for in a candidate
• - How to ask questions that get at the essence of what you need in a candidate
• - How to create auditions that reflect your culture
• - How to hire for cultural fit

Attachments:

• Agile_HIring.TeamSport.key.pdf