John will show you how changing a team is exactly what gets in the way of a team changing.

He's focused on helping organizations create an environment that fosters safety facilitating creative collaboration.

Stories are the foundation of the human experience. They are what define us, individually and collectively. They engage us, entertain us, bring us together and drive us apart. What stories do you tell about you? Who knows your stories? Everyone? Perhaps just a select few? Maybe, just you.

In this session, we explore how our individual journeys to self-acceptance and alignment are also the heart of how we can work with and support teams. We will learn about how to truly help teams move towards agility, by helping them find and own their process and tell their own story. So they stay aligned and can continually realign when their context changes.

Stories are the foundation of human experience. They are what define us, individually and collectively. They engage us, entertain us, bring us together and drive us apart.

What stories do you tell about you? Who knows your stories? Everyone? Perhaps just a select few? Maybe, just you.

In this session, we explore how our individual journeys to self-acceptance and alignment are also the heart of how we can work with and support teams. We will learn about how to truly help teams move towards agility, by helping them find and own their process and tell their own story. So they stay aligned and can continually realign when their context changes.

Why authenticity and self-acceptance matters for both individuals and teams.
How to create lasting change in teams, without imposing process or creating learned helplessness.

How to help teams own their process and tell their own story.

Over the last 20 years, John has helped countless teams. But in the last 3 years, when his world was turned upside down, he realised that changing a team is exactly what gets in the way of a team changing.

Stories are the foundation of human experience. They are what define us, individually and collectively. They engage us, entertain us, bring us together and drive us apart.

What stories do you tell about you? Who knows your stories? Everyone? Perhaps just a select few? Maybe, just you.

In this session, we explore how our individual journeys to self-acceptance and alignment are also the heart of how we can work with and support teams. We will learn about how to truly help teams move towards agility, by helping them find and own their process and tell their own story. So they stay aligned and can continually realign when their context changes.

Why authenticity and self-acceptance matters for both individuals and teams.
How to create lasting change in teams, without imposing process or creating learned helplessness.

How to help teams own their process and tell their own story.

Over the last 20 years, John has helped countless teams. But in the last 3 years, when his world was turned upside down, he realised that changing a team is exactly what gets in the way of a team changing.

Stories are the foundation of human experience. They are what define us, individually and collectively. They engage us, entertain us, bring us together and drive us apart.

What stories do you tell about you? Who knows your stories? Everyone? Perhaps just a select few? Maybe, just you.

In this session, we explore how our individual journeys to self-acceptance and alignment are also the heart of how we can work with and support teams. We will learn about how to truly help teams move towards agility, by helping them find and own their process and tell their own story. So they stay aligned and can continually realign when their context changes.

Why authenticity and self-acceptance matters for both individuals and teams.
How to create lasting change in teams, without imposing process or creating learned helplessness.

How to help teams own their process and tell their own story.

Over the last 20 years, John has helped countless teams. But in the last 3 years, when his world was turned upside down, he realised that changing a team is exactly what gets in the way of a team changing.

Summary

Once upon a time, there was a team. And this team, no matter how hard they tried, just couldn’t do agile. They went on a quest to find the “Scroll of Agility”. Finally, stood atop mount Lean under the shade of the great old Scrum-fall tree, they opened the scroll…

Sometimes, we spend so much time as individuals and teams on a quest for transformation. But maybe, we can’t be changed? Maybe, no one can transform us. Any maybe, that’s exactly how it should be.

Full Abstract

Once upon a time, in a land not so far away, there was a team. And this team, no matter how hard they tried, just couldn’t do agile. They went on a quest to find the “Scroll of Agility”, and after many a death defying feat, stood atop mount Lean under the shade of the great old Scrum-fall tree, they opened the scroll…

Sometimes, we spend so much time as individuals and teams on a quest for change, for transformation. But maybe, we can’t be changed? Maybe, no one can change us. Any maybe, that’s exactly how it should be.

In this session we will take a journey to authenticity, and discover why it matters not only to individuals, but to truly effective teams.

• Why authenticity matters for both individuals and teams?
• How can we guide teams towards discovering what is authentic for them?

Diversity. It's the topic of the hour. Organisations are all putting 'diversity' and 'equal opportunities' on every job ad. But, for some organisations it still seems to be a struggle.

What's the goal? Do we want diverse teams because it's the "right thing to do" or is it "good for our teams and organisations"? Are we hiring minorities to keep up with quotas or our competition?

This talk will engage the audience in a frank discussion on what diversity is, why we need it and how we might achieve it. Guiding attendees through the latest research with practical exercises to demonstrate the issues and open discussion to find answers to the following questions:

• What does diversity mean? How does it relate to me?
• Why does diversity matter in effective teams?
• How can teams where everyone is different be effective?
• How can we increase diversity in our organisations?
• Is positive discrimination a feasible and ethical way to achieve diversity in our organisations?
• How can I employ a diverse group, when they are not applying?

Diversity is no longer just a moral imperative, it's critical to effective organisations.

Over 3 months John recorded over 75 hours of interviews and spoke to some of the most respected people in the industry to produce an audio documentary that attempts to answer the question “What is safety? And why is it important anyway?”

This highly interactive talk will present the findings and guide and challenge you through a journey to understanding safety. Including short interactive sessions and role play exercises to cover the following topics:

• What is safety?
• What are the elements that make a team effective?
• Is psychological safety the foundation to team performance?
• What can we all do to help foster psychological safety in our teams?
• What is the relationship between safety, stress and engagement?
• What is the profound impact of a lack of safety and engagement on society?

This talk has grown as John created the new podcast The Agile Path. The first season on this podcast is about safety in teams. John has interviewed world renowned specialists in the field; Christopher Avery, David Marquet, Jerry Weinberg, Esther Derby, Johanna Rothman, Woody Zuill and many more in over 75 hours of audio. This has been a fascinating deep dive learning experience for John and he hopes to explore these insights with the audience.

Diversity. It's the topic of the hour. Organisations are all putting 'diversity' and 'equal opportunities' on every job ad. But, for some organisations it still seems to be a struggle.

What's the goal? Do we want diverse teams because it's the "right thing to do" or is it "good for our teams and organisations"? Are we hiring minorities to keep up with quotas or our competition?

This talk will engage the audience in a frank discussion on what diversity is, why we need it and how we might achieve it. Guiding attendees through the latest research with practical exercises to demonstrate the issues and open discussion to find answers to the following questions:

• What does diversity mean? How does it relate to me? 
• Why does diversity matter in effective teams? 
• How can teams where everyone is different be effective? 
• How can we increase diversity in our organisations? 
• Is positive discrimination a feasible and ethical way to achieve diversity in our organisations? 
• How can I employ a diverse group, when they are not applying?

Diversity is no longer just a moral imperative, it's critical to effective organisations.

Diversity. It's the topic of the hour. Organisations are all putting 'diversity' and 'equal opportunities' on every job ad. But, for some organisations it still seems to be a struggle.

What's the goal? Do we want diverse teams because it's the "right thing to do" or is it "good for our teams and organisations"? Are we hiring minorities to keep up with quotas or our competition?

This talk will engage the audience in a frank discussion on what diversity is, why we need it and how we might achieve it. Guiding attendees through the latest research with practical exercises to demonstrate the issues and open discussion to find answers to the following questions:

• What does diversity mean? How does it relate to me? 
• Why does diversity matter in effective teams? 
• How can teams where everyone is different be effective? 
• How can we increase diversity in our organisations? 
• Is positive discrimination a feasible and ethical way to achieve diversity in our organisations? 
• How can I employ a diverse group, when they are not applying?

Diversity is no longer just a moral imperative, it's critical to effective organisations.

Over 3 months John recorded over 75 hours of interviews and spoke to some of the most respected people in the industry to produce an audio documentary that attempts to answer the question “What is safety? And why is it important anyway?”

This highly interactive talk will present the findings and guide and challenge you through a journey to understanding safety. Including short interactive sessions and role play exercises to cover the following topics:

• What is safety?
• What are the elements that make a team effective?
• Is psychological safety the foundation to team performance?
• What can we all do to help foster psychological safety in our teams?
• What is the relationship between safety, stress and engagement?
• What is the profound impact of a lack of safety and engagement on society?

This talk has grown as John created the new podcast The Agile Path. The first season on this podcast is about safety in teams. John has interviewed world renowned specialists in the field; Christopher Avery, David Marquet, Jerry Weinberg, Esther Derby, Johanna Rothman, Woody Zuill and many more in over 75 hours of audio. This has been a fascinating deep dive learning experience for John and he hopes to explore these insights with the audience.

Over 3 months John recorded over 75 hours of interviews and spoke to some of the most respected people in the industry to produce an audio documentary that attempts to answer the question “What is safety? And why is it important anyway?”

This highly interactive talk will present the findings and guide and challenge you through a journey to understanding safety. Including short interactive sessions and role play exercises to cover the following topics:

• What is safety?
• What are the elements that make a team effective?
• Is psychological safety the foundation to team performance?
• What can we all do to help foster psychological safety in our teams?
• What is the relationship between safety, stress and engagement?
• What is the profound impact of a lack of safety and engagement on society?

This talk has grown as John created the new podcast The Agile Path. The first season on this podcast is about safety in teams. John has interviewed world renowned specialists in the field; Christopher Avery, David Marquet, Jerry Weinberg, Esther Derby, Johanna Rothman, Woody Zuill and many more in over 75 hours of audio. This has been a fascinating deep dive learning experience for John and he hopes to explore these insights with the audience.

Here is a short preview video I made for the session:

Over 3 months I recorded over 30 hours of interviews and spoke to some of the most respected people in the industry to produce an audio documentary that attempts to answer the question “What is safety? And why is it important anyway?”