Working in collaborative, self-organising teams can be challenging and it is important that all team members understand the group dynamics involved and how to effectively facilitate these sessions.    

In this highly interactive and experiential workshop, you will learn how collaborative workshops can be planned, organised and run; and how each team member can contribute to achieving maximum effectiveness - while identifying potential pitfalls and how to avoid and address them. This workshop will also help you recognise your own natural facilitation style and become more aware of where you need to adapt based on the maturity and needs of your teams.

Most of the world’s largest organisations are attempting an enterprise Agility transformation but not all are succeeding. One recent study shows that 75% of all Agile transformations fail. This makes us wonder if the Agile values and principles from the 20-year-old Agile Manifesto is still conducive to today’s new ways of working? 

We need to recognise that while new technologies bring some consolation for overcoming the challenges of new ways of working, the real secret to success is hidden in the mindset and cultural shift. Leaders who focus on providing psychological safety in a modern workforce culture are helping their employees be the best versions of themselves, both physically and mentally. 

Drawing upon more than a decade of Agile transformation experiences in multiple organisations across nine countries, Dipesh will share real-life case studies and insights in this highly interactive session to provide clear guidelines, organised around seven key areas that will be useful for leaders and organisations wanting to unleash the full potential of their Agile teams. Be inspired by knowing what serves to catalyse and nourish a modern workforce culture – and what does the opposite.

As we reflect back on our numerous struggles with making Agile Teams more efficient and operate like well-oiled machines, we are often overwhelmed with wondering how we didn’t learn the lessons faster or earlier.  Life is too short to learn from just our own mistakes – we have to learn from others’ mistakes as well.

In this session, Dipesh will be drawing upon more than a decade of Agile experiences in multiple organizations across nine countries to share stories and challenges of transitioning into an Agile Leader, while also focusing on what we in the Agile community are struggling with most.

There has been a lot written about techniques for creating great Agile teams.  Dipesh will take these theories a bit further, and look into how Leaders can build great teams, not by using a new method or management style, but rather by understanding their own Agile team dynamics and behaviour.  

You will learn about the assumptions and challenges surrounding self-organizing Agile teams and how to build a stronger team of Servant Leaders.

If you are a leader or an aspiring leader of an Agile team, this session will provide clear implications for where to focus your efforts so that you do not worry about the wrong things. You will be inspired by knowing how to establish trust within the teams that is required to embrace uncertainty and ambiguity while confidently making better decisions.

Are you interested in succeeding with Agile in large, complex distributed development projects? Being Agile in a distributed environment has been a subject of controversy over the years, which is not surprising given the importance placed on face-to-face communication in the twelve principles of the Agile Manifesto.

This workshop will address the opportunities, challenges and concerns that are commonly faced by organizations in keeping to this manifesto when their Agile teams are geographically distributed.

Agile teams need to work together very closely as cross-functional teams, instead of silos with hand-offs after long project phases. Agile teams also need to engage customers and stakeholders frequently to ensure that they are meeting customer needs, adapting to changing requirements and delivering high-quality software. The transparency inspired by Agile makes any challenges related to this level of daily communication, collaboration and teaming, painfully obvious to teams and individuals. However, many large-scale and distributed Agile teams are successfully and boldly rising to meet the challenges with great success.What makes the difference between thriving versus just merely surviving?

 In this session, we will explore how organizations can create cultures, nurture individuals, and build teams to create high performing Distributed Agile teams in a globally competitive world. Dipesh will also share some innovative ideas in addition to tricks, tips, and proven methods that have inspired and helped people and organizations to 'be Agile' rather than just 'do Agile'.  The Agile Manifesto puts more emphasis on individuals and interactions over processes and tools and we want to keep it that way no matter where they are!

Bring your greatest distributed teaming challenges and and be ready to be inspired during this active and engaging session.

One of the keys to a successful enterprise agile transformation is the support of Executive Leadership, which is more than simply providing approval. The Agile Executive enables, empowers and engages rather than controls.

According to one recent survey, more than one in three organisations claim that the lack of Executive Leadership engagement within their businesses is plaguing current journey towards sustainable organisational Agility.

With a special focus on Executive teams, Dipesh will be drawing upon more than a decade of Agile transformation experiences across multiple organisations, and share real-life case studies and insights to illustrate the following key things that Agile Executives need to do differently:

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

Awareness of the above principles is important and may sound simple; however turning the awareness of these elements into the inner workings of our daily routine takes discipline. With that in mind, all attendees will also be given ‘The Agile Leaders Checklist' that will assist them in making such behaviours habitual.

If you are an Executive or a Leader of an Agile team, this session will provide clear implications for where to focus your efforts in order to unleash the full potential of Agile methods to gain a competitive edge. You will be inspired by knowing what serves to catalyze and nourish progress – and what does the opposite.

What could be more important for leaders than increasing their teams’ productivity? Conventional thinking would rank “increased motivation” as one of the most important tools for increasing productivity of teams.

   Motivation --> increases Progress --> increases Productivity

This interactive session will disrupt and challenge the above notion, and will provide an alternative view:

   Progress --> increases Motivation --> increases Productivity

Dipesh will be drawing upon more than a decade of research including 26 project teams, 7 companies and a deep analysis of nearly 12,000 daily diaries kept by team members, and use real case studies and examples to illustrate the following key elements:

   Catalysts – events and actions that help a team move forward

   Inhibitors – events and actions that can induce setbacks

   Nourishers – interpersonal interactions that lift team’s spirits

   Toxins – interpersonal interactions that undermine team’s spirits

Awareness of the above principle is important and may sound simple; however turning the awareness of these elements into the inner workings of our daily routine takes discipline. With that in mind, all attendees will be given 'The Progress Enablement Checklist' that will assist them in making such behaviours habitual.

If you are a leader or an aspiring leader of an Agile team, this session will provide clear implications for where to focus your efforts so that you do not worry about the wrong things. You will be inspired by knowing what serves to catalyse and nourish progress – and what does the opposite.

Once upon a time, Martians and Venusians met, had happy relationships together and accepted their differences to work towards delivering a project. Then came Agile and amnesia set in! ScrumMasters and Product Owners forgot they were from different planets. All of a sudden, Product Owners, ScrumMasters and the team members found themselves sitting around a table discussing user stories and potential solutions.

This unprecedented access and communication created a whole new set of challenges… Sometimes it feels like our team members are from different planets, as if one is from Mars and the other is from Venus. You may have heard of Mars and Venus in the bedroom but this presentation will be talking about Mars and Venus in the team room.

Based on my many years of experience in coaching and working with people in these roles, this presentation will describe why and how ScrumMasters and Product Owners react differently to various situations in a team room. The key is in understanding how ScrumMasters and Product Owners think and operate.

And if ScrumMasters and Product Owners are from different planets, does it make sense for the two roles to be performed by the same person? Or does every Agile team even need both of these roles? Attend this talk to find out!

This talk will further explore how we can counteract the differences in the communication, the emotional and the business needs of the two roles, and tips and techniques to promote a greater understanding between these two of the most important roles in any Agile team.

Breaking up User Stories can sometimes be as painful as a relationship break up - but it does not have to be like that!

Our experience has shown us that the key to getting full benefit from introducing Agile is in how the project work is broken up. When it gets difficult to see how to write small enough user stories, teams often resort to technical story cards. While this can give the team visibility of the work that is being done, the business is not seeing potentially implementable product, or early delivery of business value.

This talk will dig a lot deeper to expose the real reasons for splitting up user stories and not just talk about doing it as a good practice - we must BE Agile not just DO Agile!

Using real-world examples, this talk will also offer a set of guidelines and some unconventional ways for breaking up larger chunks of work into valuable user stories that can help Agile teams become more successful.