This talk is conducted in a fast paced, highly-interactive style to keep the audience engaged throughout.

• What is so different for Executives in the Agile ways of working?

First up, light-hearted humour is used to highlight the difference in Leadership styles required in traditional environments and that in Agile environments. This interactive exercise with the audience sets the scene and the themes that rest of the talk builds up on. (Exercise outline can be provided upon request.)

• What are the secret ingredients for Organisational Agility?

When it comes to broader organisational changes, telling others what to do doesn’t work. In fact, the more we try to convince people of something, the more they push back. As leaders, we must be patient and know that achieving a mindset shift in our people requires clearing the path and creating a safe environment that allows a shift to take place.

On the basis of more than a decade of Agile Enterprise Transformation experiences across multiple project teams and companies all across the globe, I will share with the audience the key ingredients that are crucial for any organisation to achieve Organisational Agility.

• What Executive Leaders should do differently?

Enterprise Agility is most successful when Executives lead the way and embrace the transformation. I will share real-life case studies and insights to illustrate the following key things that Agile Executives need to do differently to be more effective:

1. Stop Starting, Start Finishing

2. Slow Down to Go Faster

3. One Team, One Dream

4. Foster Fully Capable Teams

5. Fail Early & Fail Small

6. Deliver Business Value, not just Projects

7. Servant Leadership

The above will be the basis of this talk where I will be sharing how I have worked with executives of many organisations to incorporate these guiding principles to help them gain a competitive edge. I will also share how I have assisted leaders to achieve success by changing their Leadership styles to be more conducive to these principles. This includes stories and learnings from one of the largest Agile transformations ever – the Agile@IBM journey.

• Introduce ‘The Agile Leader’s Checklist’

Awareness of the above seven key elements is important, however turning the awareness of these elements into the inner workings of our daily routine takes discipline. With that in mind, we gradually introduce 'The Agile Leader’s Checklist' that will assist the Leaders and Executives in making such behaviours habitual.

'The Agile Leader’s Checklist' was inspired by the work done by Amabile and Kramer, and I have designed this version of the checklist specifically for Agile Executive Leaders.

• Conclusion

Call to action for all Agile Executive Leaders to start using the ‘The Agile Leader’s Checklist’ – this will at least make them aware of all the key elements that need addressing to help them unleash the full potential of their Agile transformation efforts.

• Q & O (Questions and Opinions – I may not have all the answers but I have a lot of opinions to share!)

In addition to the key learning outcomes mentioned in my submission, all participants will also get to hear a lot of little 'gems' (exciting new tips and techniques they need as Agile Executive Leaders) that are based on my hands-on experience with working with people in these roles. These novel ‘gems’ peppered throughout this talk ensures that participants of all experience levels are inspired!