Want true agility? Give employees a voice
We are facing an engagement crisis. There is a strong correlation between agile practices and employee engagement, and it's clear that one cannot work without the other. Employee voice is one of the key enablers for engagement. However, it is one of the least understood – and perhaps less practiced – aspects of engagement. Employees see problems. They have ideas, potential solutions, and experiments they'd like to run. But they feel powerless to effect the change they know is necessary. Over time, the cycle of active disengagement continues.
But it doesn't have to be this way! In fact, agile organizations already have the foundation in place to help individuals raise their voice and be heard - agile retrospectives. Unfortunately, most retrospectives currently do not have the positive ROI we would hope for or expect. Action items, learnings, hypotheses, goals, and other artifacts that come out of retrospectives are not shared with the rest of the organization in a systematic and impactful way.
This session is about the surprising connection between employee engagement, employee voice, and agile retrospectives. By providing teams with the solutions and support needed to run effective retrospectives, and by following through on the actions that come out of the discussion, you can empower individuals to become more engaged, productive and effective.
Turns out that effective retrospectives are more critical to business agility then you might have ever imagined.
Outline/structure of the Session
Introduction [5 minutes] - I will open by going over the two core concepts that underpin this talk. 1) why the retrospective is truly the core of agility (because it's a catalyst of improvement, not an "end" in and of itself), and 2) what is employee voice and why is it so critical to organizational agility.
Retrospectives as the Enabler of Employee Voice [5 minutes] - Now that there is a common understanding of the two core concepts, I'll draw some surprising connections between retrospectives and employee voice. Why are retrospectives the perfect opportunity for employees to provide actionable feedback "up and out" of their team? Why isn't this done more? What is the true impact of retrospectives that don't catalyze continuous improvement? (Hint: a lot more than an inability to increase team productivity or happiness).
Practical Next Steps to Enable Employee Voice Via The Retrospective [10 minutes] - I will go over 5 steps individuals, teams, managers, executives, and ultimately organizations can take to give their employees a voice, increase engagement, and catalyze organizational-level continuous improvement. Some of these tips junior practitioners can implement on their own. Others require buy-in from senior execs. All are possible.
Learning Outcome
Participants will walk away with a new understanding of the critical role retrospectives play in enabling business agility. It's not just that retrospectives help teams continuously improve; it's that retrospectives give employees an opportunity to have their voice heard at an organizational level.
Participants will also learn 5 practical next steps that they can take home with them and implement in an effort to increase voice and engagement in their organizations.
Target Audience
Everyone from the practitioner up to senior executives
Prerequisite
The ideal participant works in a large organization and has at least some exposure to agile retrospectives. Other than that, a curious mind open to new ideas always helps :)
Links
Blog - blog.retrium.com
Past Public Talks -
Big Apple Scrum Day 2015 - “Distributed Scrum - The Dark Ages or Enlightenment?”
Distributed Agile Teams Flock Berlin 2015 - “Let’s Build Something - A Simulation”
Agile for Humans Podcast - http://ryanripley.com/remote-teams-with-mark-kilby-and-david-horowitz/
CES 2016 Panel Discussion “How Technology Shapes the Remote Working Environment” - https://vimeo.com/151339115
Agile Indy 2016 - http://agileindy.org/conference/
Agile 2016 - https://www.agilealliance.org/agile2016/ or https://agile2016.sched.org/event/6efK/communicating-and-collaborating-how-distributed-agile-teams-can-thrive-david-horowitz-mark-kilby
Agile DC 2016 - http://agiledc.org/2016-schedule/
DevNexus 2017 - https://devnexus.com/s/devnexus2017/presentations/17201
Heart of Agile 2017 - http://heartofagile.com/Session/7-secrets-of-highly-effective-retrospectives/
schedule Submitted 3 weeks ago
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