Elevator Pitch

Sometimes teams need more than just questions. They need scrum masters and coaches who are courageous enough to have the hard conversations, challenge their decisions, push them to the next level. During this session we will introduce participants to some anti-patterns that have arisen in the scrum master and agile coaching communities and discuss ways to break free!

Description:

Coaching Agile Teams is all about asking questions and allowing them to self organize, right? Well, that's just part of the mission. During this session we will introduce participants to some anti-patterns that have arisen in the scrum master and agile coaching communities and discuss ways to break free!

Sometimes teams need more than just questions. They need scrum masters and coaches who are courageous enough to have the hard conversations, challenge their decisions, push them to the next level. However, sometimes we push our teams a bit too hard and create negative conflict. It's times like this when we need to demonstrate how to reach out and make the first move to repair the relationship. We will introduce the concept of repair bids to help in this area.

Lastly, we learn a model to put into practice to create a coaching alliance with teams so you can be in agreement on how you will work together for their best interest and improvement over a period of time.

The reason we chose to create this session is that over the past few years we have noticed that as people are learning more about coaching they are getting out of balance and believing that the only thing that coaches are allowed to do is ask questions. We've noticed that scrum masters lean so far in the direction of self organization that they no longer believe they can challenge teams to grow or to move beyond where the team decides to be. We believe that the root of the problem rests in the fact that people are learning a bit about coaching but not actually learning how to be a coach. We would like to introduce to the attendees the more direct coaching methods that are available for use such as 1) direct communication, 2) challenging, 3) courageous questions that push the edge of the comfort zone, etc.

Session is collaborative and includes interaction with the participants throughout. Also has collaborative exercises.

Are you “going Agile” but your executives are still asking you for Gantt charts and delivery dates? Here’s an exercise to do with them instead. Usually, they just want to know when to check back on “the project”, and whether or not their money is being well invested.

To answer the last question, many teams have discovered the “Weighted, Shortest Job First (WSJF)” method of project prioritization. Basically, if you have two items of equal effort, but one has twice the return on investment (ROI) of the other, do the one with greater ROI. And if you have two items of equal ROI, but one can be done in half the time, do the shortest job first. But that’s not enough. We all know of projects that had great promise, but customers wouldn’t pay for it.

Lean Startup has discovered that emotions are one of the best leading indicators (predictors) of future product success. Emotional-WSJF (eWSJF) balances customer demand with Minimum Viable Products (MVPs), i.e. "this only has true business value if we can deliver within 2-3 sprints."

I use eWSJF within my teams to prioritize Epics, and I’ll show you how to use it to keep your executives happy! It replaces the conversations about “Show me a Gantt chart,” and “When will this be delivered?” My executives instead ask, “Have you talked to any customers?” or “Can you build it faster?” To which my teams respond, “Yes we have talked to customers, and they’re even helping us beta test it!” and, “The next version will be delivered in two weeks, and here’s what it contains.”

“The single biggest failure of leadership is to treat adaptive challenges like technical problems.” -Ron Heifetz

We live and work in an increasingly interconnected and rapidly changing world. New business models are shifting duties to teams instead of individuals, which means people are now working more closely together. It also means leaders at all levels have to begin to adapt their leadership style to guide the intricacies of human dynamics and channel the collective knowledge of the groups they interact with.

In this workshop we will explore how leaders create environments that navigate the complexity of interpersonal relationships, overcome the human element of barriers to change, and support the growth and engagement of their employees. Attendees will walk out of the room with a clearer idea of their own leadership style and a list of action items they can use (tomorrow!) to move their teams one step closer to higher performance.

Agility is about adaptation, challenging the status quo, experimentation and learning. HR has historically hewed closer to compliance, but that has been changing rapidly.

Today's nimble teams and workers will no longer tolerate stifling, staid environments and management practices. The newly popular label "people operations" implies an emphasis on human engagement over bureaucracy and regulation, and indeed many organizations have been moving this way.

Be inspired by some of the most daring advances in human resources while also learning some practical approaches and techniques that can be applied to start leading your business down this path. We'll discuss new approaches in hiring, performance management, learning and development, and even the structure of HR groups and roles. Participants will also enjoy a few exercises that will illustrate some interesting techniques.

Prepare yourself for HR in the next generation.

A well-defined Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) is a requirement for many government institutions. However, the typical SDLC process is very "Waterfallish" by nature of it's phase gates and documentation requirements. This talk will explain how the SDLC at Fannie Mae has evolved as the company has transformed from a Waterfall to a lean Agile organization in alignment with Agile best practices.

(this session was withdrawn)