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.

Summary

In this session, you’ll learn about one team’s struggle to improve collaboration and how they sought to shorten cycle time by carefully crafting an experiment with an Andon Cord. The Andon Cord is a Toyota innovation designed to empower front-line employees to recognize issues, initiate a stoppage of work, and work together as a team to quickly identify a path forward. The emergency cable strung above assembly lines became a symbol of the Toyota Way, and has widely been copied throughout the auto industry and beyond.

You’ll be introduced to metrics that show a surprising correlation between collaboration through Andon Cord pulls and Cycle Time!

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.

Exhaustion. Numbness. Emptiness. As Agilists, all too often we are seeing teams, organizations, and people that have been transforming for a very long time, and many feel like they have no end in site. Where they were first excited about transformation and trying something new, they are now wanting to be left alone for a hot minute. Transformation isn't something to be completed but rather endured.

In this session, Erin and Yogita will help you to understand what transformation exhaustion is and how to recognize it. We'll also help you to develop--and practice!--ways to show teams their transformation progress as well as how to connect and reconnect with teams. You may have entered the session tired and footsore, but you will leave with new ideas and insight on how to transform your agile transformation.