Exhaustion. Numbness. Emptiness. As coaches, as scrum masters, our work is about serving others, oftentimes at the expense of ourselves. This talk is about learning to act graciously, to act kindly, to do unto ourselves as we do for our teams. We will discuss the urgency of slowing down, of leaving room to contemplate our inner world, and of "bringing calm into the motion and commotion of the world." I discuss the urgency of slowing down, the neurobiology of graciousness and compassion, and how to use practices within the contemplative-practice tree. I will also cover how to use these practices to show when self-care is falling to the wayside and how to build a foundation of compassionate graciousness. Research for this session draws upon primary sources such as Pico Iyer, Dr. Rachel Remen, Mirabai Bush, and Dr. James Doty, philosophers and contemplative thinkers such as Thomas Merton and Henry David Thoreau, and poets such as Emily Dickinson and Mary Oliver. The Dalai Lama says that the one thing without which we cannot live is kindness, and I posit that we must also show that kindness, that graciousness, to ourselves.

This talk targets Agile practitioners of all skill levels, but particularly Agile coaches and scrum masters. So many of us help others to move forward, to self-organize, but service can be exhausting. This talk is for you, to help you find practices to show that kindness, that graciousness, to yourself.

This session is not intended to offer an exhaustible list of metrics or instructions on how to improve all systems. Rather, the intent is to provide a framework on how to ensure the quantitative and qualitative metrics you use are measuring the right things and how to apply them to a system of continuous improvement. Attendees will have a repeatable framework they can apply after leaving the session.

The session is broken into two main parts.

• Part 1: Identify the right (quantitative and qualitative) metrics that will help people and teams meet outcomes or goals.
• Part 2: Create a cycle of learning and improvement that aligns people and teams to the outcomes or goals.

The Agile Manifesto doesn't explicitly talk about what changes in management should happen and neither do the approaches. In fact, sometimes we hear the exact opposite from teams - "What do we need managers for..?" or perhaps "Can't they just get rid of all the impediments we have?"

As a former manager and now as a coach, I find the words Servant Leadership sometimes doesn't resonate. It actually only paints part of the picture anyway. What we want are ways to enrich management so that they can do more for the organization and its teams. Let's discover what some of this enrichment might be.

Presentation Overview: (What is the “message”? What key points will you make?)

Change is hard – Staying motivated during change is even harder! But you can help your teams identify what things about the change are working for them and what they need to do to make small shifts that can keep them motivated.

Is your team or team member facing a big change decision? Moving Motivators can help you identify the best choice by looking at how the factors in the change impact your long term motivation.

Learn to discover and prioritize your motivators so you will understand how change today might impact you in the long run. See which choice is better when there are multiple options. Make conscious trade off decisions in a logical way with long term thinking in mind.

One common mistake by new Agilists is to think that the product backlog is a linear list with the highest priority item on the top. As it's often the case, the reality is different. Prioritization is neither binary nor linear. Your team will be asked to work on several competing priorities, like meeting the new regulation while working on the next product milestone (the product is the company lifeline) - and your product owner will insist these are both top priority!!

In this workshop we are going to explore different tools, to ensure that our teams are working on the highest value backlog items: from Eisenhower Method to Cost of Delay, CD3 and modified Weighted Shortest Job First (WSJF).

Within the Agile and technology communities, it can be easy to assume that the language we use every day is common knowledge and shared throughout our professional spaces. Certainly when we interact with other professionals and hear them using the same terms, this just reinforces our assumptions. Especially when we leave the boundaries of technically specific language and enter the realm of jargon or “buzzwords” it can be easy to find validation through other people’s language preferences.

However, using this type of language can not only create divisions within our teams, it can obfuscate meaning, delay action, and create misunderstandings that can inhibit a team's ability to deliver. By examining the differences between jargon and technical language, we will look at how this use of language can create in- and out- groups and break down trust within an organization.

By committing to using broadly understood language and being direct in the way we interact with each other, we can improve our ability to perform at a high level in the fast paced technology space.

As Agile coaches engage in enterprise transformations, there is a common theme among the organizational barriers and impediments seen across most clients. Oftentimes going into new account, organization, or team, it seems like a bit of déjà vu with the type of issues seen, despite how unique each company describes themselves. Usually through some sort of an assessment or an inspect and adapt, the clients all seem to have similar cultural, organizational, environmental, or personnel issues impacting their transformation. While every account does have a unique piece to it and our approach to these common issues can be somewhat standardized, coaches really show value by providing the best solution to their situation.

Some common areas encountered include:

• Annual project and funding approval process
• Lack of visibility into work going on at the enterprise level
• A disconnect between strategy and the actual work being executed
• Culture of fear causing lack of transparency

This lightning talk will review a couple of these impediments, define them, and show how a coach can address and move through them. It’s incumbent upon coaches to help the client understand that these impediments aren’t insurmountable, they just need to be tackled piece by piece. Value can be added in both small and big chunks, but coaches need to ensure they're doing that continuously and pragmatically.

It’s no news that we are in an ever-changing world. Heard of VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous - VUCA)? And to be successful in this environment, organizations and teams need to learn how to work with seemingly contradictory perspectives and views. This workshop will give participants a practical tool to do just that. It's no longer right or wrong, it's no longer black or white, it now depends.