We all know trust in a team is important, but how can we build it?

Teams that get out of their comfort zones together increase what Jonathan Haidt refers to as their “group’ishness”. That is, they come together as a group and build up their trust for one another.

In this session we will play a series of improv exercises that you can use with your teams to get to know each other more. In addition you’ll also learn how these exercises work towards building up the trust and group’ishness of your teams.

Agile is dead.

There. I said it.

In fact, I’ve been running sessions for the past year at open spaces titled, “Agile is Dead: Change my view” and I have yet to find a convincing counter argument.

Let’s be clear. All successful movements die, it’s inevitable. This is neither a bad thing nor a good thing, it just is.

In this session, we’ll be looking at where the Agile movement is in its life cycle, how it compares to other movements that have come and gone, and why we need to look back at the conditions that allowed Agile to grow and thrive in order to keep our eyes open for where we might be going next.

Anyone who doesn't agree with me is wrong and not just wrong, but morally repugnant and evil.

What do you think? Is it really likely that everyone that disagrees with you is somehow a monster? Or perhaps it's something else...

Over the last few years we've seen a lot of viewpoint polarization. But why does this happen? And what does this tell us about our approaches to Agile?

In this session we'll look at Moral Foundations Theory and how what we value and hold dear can influence our views on an issue.

We'll also play a game developed at the Agile Games conference based on this framework that will challenge you to take yourself out of your normal comfort zone and see the world from another perspective.

Anyone who doesn't agree with me is wrong and not just wrong, but morally repugnant and evil.

What do you think? Is it really likely that everyone that disagrees with you is somehow a monster? Or perhaps it's something else...

Over the last few years we've seen a lot of viewpoint polarization. But why does this happen? And what does this tell us about our approaches to Agile?

In this session we'll look at Moral Foundations Theory and how what we value and hold dear can influence our views on an issue.

We'll also play a game developed at the Agile Games conference based on this framework that will challenge you to take yourself out of your normal comfort zone and see the world from another perspective.

What stops you from doing the things you’ve always wanted to do? What stops teams from being truly great? What hinders most Agile transformations?

Fear.

That feeling in your gut when deep down you know what you need to do, but you're not sure if you can do it.

We'll examine how Improvisers and artists handle fear and how you can apply these techniques to yourself and to your Agile teams. How you, as a coach, can create safe environments so that your teams can be fearless.

In addition, we'll work hands on with the Fear Follower Canvas to help you move those things you've always wanted to do from the someday pile to done.

What happens if we build it and they don’t come?

Building features no one cares about is not only bad because the feature isn’t getting used, but is also a wasted opportunity that could have been used to build something truly valuable for your customers.

But how would we know?

In many companies, features get prioritized by the HiPPO principle (Highest Paid Person’s Opinion). As it turns out, this is often not the most effective way to prioritize your backlog.

But if not this, then what?

In this workshop we explore what value is, how to talk about it, and how we might measure the value we have achieved.

Are you as powerful as you need to be? Do you over power the room and rub people the wrong way?

Why is that? What if there was something you could do about it?

In improvisation, in order to create realistic and compelling characters we study status. That is, how does how we carry ourselves impact our relationship status with other people and how does it change in relation to others?

In this session, we'll explore status, and play with making ourselves more or less powerful. We'll then examine how this plays out in our work environments and how we need to adjust our status depending on which groups or individuals we're interacting with.

You'll also learn the one status trick that will dramatically increase your chances of getting hired in your next interview.

What stops you from doing the things you’ve always wanted to do? What stops teams from being truly great? What hinders most Agile transformations?

Fear.

That feeling in your gut when deep down you know what you need to do, but you're not sure if you can do it.

Check out any of the “x things most successful people do” posts online. Every single one of them will mention fear. Why? Because fear can either energize you to success or paralyze you into inaction.

I’ll show you how to move from paralysis to action and how you can apply these techniques to yourself and to your Agile teams. How you, as a coach, can create safe environments so that your teams can be fearless.

In addition, we'll work hands on with the Fear Follower Canvas to help you move those things you want to do from the someday pile to done!

Your Agile Transformation is doomed.

You might be working on all sorts of great things. You’ve got training, coaching, cross functional teams, continuous delivery, you’re scaling Agile, etc.

You’re still doomed.

Why?

 Because Agile is just one part of a much larger picture. A picture that requires people not only to change their processes and software, but how they see themselves and their place in your organization.

This change requires more than transformational thinking. It requires revolutionary thinking.

 It can be done, but it won’t happen by accident.

Come find out what you need to have a successful revolution.

Are you as powerful as you need to be? Do you over power the room and rub people the wrong way?

Why is that? What if there was something you could do about it?

In improvisation, in order to create realistic and compelling characters we study status. That is, how does how we carry ourselves impact our relationship status with other people and how does it change in relation to others?

In this session, we'll explore status, and play with making ourselves more or less powerful. We'll then examine how this plays out in our work environments and how we need to adjust our status depending on which groups or individuals we're interacting with.

You'll also learn the one status trick that will dramatically increase your chances of getting hired in your next interview.

Are you going through an existential crisis? Unsure why you're doing what you're doing?

Does your team, program, department, or even company seem to have forgotten why they do the things they do?

Many organizations these days are asking questions like, "How can we go Agile?", or "How do we scale Agile?". Those who are moderately self aware might ask themselves the question, "Why do we want to go Agile?", but most are missing the answer to two even more basic questions,

"Who are we?" and "What problem are we trying to solve?"

Knowing the answers to these questions can dramatically change the energy, focus and effectiveness of your group.  It can enable you to go from a group that sometimes gets some things done to a group that is truly making a significant difference.

In this session, we'll explore techniques for understanding who we are and what our purpose is. We'll look at how this affects each level in the organization as well as what we need to do as leaders in an organization to enable us to scale without losing our identity.

* This session is a further exploration on my talk last year, "Agile is not Enough: Revolution Over Transformation"

Are you as powerful as you need to be? Do you over power the room and rub people the wrong way?

Why is that? What if there was something you could do about it?

In improvisation, in order to create realistic and compelling characters we study status. That is, how does how we carry ourselves impact our relationship status with other people and how does it change in relation to others?

In this session, we'll explore status, and play with making ourselves more or less powerful. We'll then examine how this plays out in our work environments and how we need to adjust our status depending on which groups or individuals we're interacting with.

You'll also learn the one status trick that will dramatically increase your chances of getting hired in your next interview.

Your Agile Stand-up Meeting Sucks!

Most Agile and Scrum stand-up meetings I see are boring, lifeless, status meetings that don't provide any real value.

In this session you'll learn:

The REAL purpose of the daily stand-up

The most common bad habits and how to correct them

The habits good stand-up meetings have

How you can use Improv to invigorate your daily stand-up

A whole bunch of Improv exercises you can start using with your team right now!

PLUS You'll also learn how you can use Improv to start forming REAL teams. That is, teams that are greater than the sum of their parts!

What stops you from doing the things you’ve always wanted to do? What stops teams from being truly great? What hinders most Agile transformations?

Fear.

That feeling in your gut when deep down you know what you need to do, but you're not sure if you can do it.

Check out any of the “x things most successful people do” posts online. Every single one of them will mention fear. Why? Because fear can either energize you to success or paralyze you into inaction.

I’ll show you how to move from paralysis to action and how you can apply these techniques to yourself and to your Agile teams. How you, as a coach, can create safe environments so that your teams can be fearless.

In addition, we'll work hands on with the Fear Follower Canvas to help you move those things you want to do from the someday pile to done!

Your Agile Stand-up Meeting Sucks!

Most Agile and Scrum stand-up meetings I see are boring, lifeless, status meetings that don't provide any real value.

In this session you'll learn:

The REAL purpose of the daily stand-up

The most common bad habits and how to correct them

The habits good stand-up meetings have

How you can use Improv to invigorate your daily stand-up

A whole bunch of Improv exercises you can start using with your team right now!

Your Agile Transformation is doomed.

You might be working on all sorts of great things. You’ve got training, coaching, cross functional teams, continuous delivery, you’re scaling Agile, etc.

You’re still doomed.

Why?

Because Agile is just one part of a much larger picture. A picture that requires people not only to change their processes and software, but how they see themselves and their place in your organization.

This change requires more than transformational thinking. It requires revolutionary thinking.

It can be done, but it won’t happen by accident.

Come find out what you need to have a successful revolution.

“How do you stay so calm? It’s like you’re a ROBOT!”

That’s what the Program Manager said to me after we came out of a particularly heated meeting.

Early on in my Agile career, I used to do battle with the best of them, but you can only fight so long before you burn out.

So instead, I changed myself.

The stoics believed that one of the things we can control is how we respond to situations.

In this session, we will examine coaching and change from the perspective of the stoics. We’ll learn to apply those ideas and techniques to the problems you are currently facing in changing your organization.

Remember, “We don’t control the barriers or the people who put them there. But we control ourselves-and that is sufficient” - Ryan Holiday

While many people have a copy of Eric Ries’s book, The Lean Startup, very few seem to be fully applying the ideas.

This hands on workshop is based on learnings from mentoring and hosting all five Lean Startup Machine events in Toronto (a weekend conference to bootstrap Lean Startup into participants).

We've discovered that most people who implement Lean Startup principles don't go lean enough. Come to the workshop and get a taste of what you’re missing. You'll learn what it really means to get lean.

This session is an intense session. Participants will be very active and involved the entire time. They will also be getting out of the building (conference room) and talking to potential customers to learn as much as they can in as short a period of time as possible.

We'll be using a stripped down board that walks people through the validation process quickly and easily. There will be about a 10-15 minute set up and then teams will form and get to work using our prepared starting point and validating using our diet lean startup validation board.