“How am I supposed to make decisions in the presence of uncertainty?” exclaimed the manager. “Tell me when the project will be done!”

It’s a very reasonable desire to want to know when something will be done. After all, it would be irresponsible to make decisions without considering the trade-off of time and money. However, the urge to ask, “When will it be done?” is causing software projects to fail. To improve decision making, we need to stop asking the wrong questions when estimating time.

If you find yourself in these conversations, you might be wondering what the “right” questions are. In this interactive presentation for managers and team members alike, you’ll learn two simple ways to reframe estimation conversations which greatly improve decision making and forecasting. Further, you’ll see how reframing with the right questions improves relationships, leading to increased trust, safety, and collaboration. Best of all, reframing the conversation takes no permission, budget, or technology; you can start today! Come learn how!

Ashok Singh said, "When people are not able to solve organizational problems, they come down to tweaking the framework to accommodate the dysfunctions." In fact, Tim Ottinger coined this behavior "Singh's Inevitable Avoidance Principle."

How do we know when we’re avoiding tough problems of transformation? Quite literally, we need to see a picture of where behavior isn’t changing.

In this session, discover how to make transformation visible with a simple tool any organization can begin using immediately. Using the power of visual management, learn how simple "sliders" help foster rich, open-ended dialogue and alignment for change. During this informational talk, we’ll use Scrum as the perfect example of how effective this technique can be, while learning how to use the method with any organizational change effort. By creating a visual "picture" of transformation, everyone in the organization can see where attention is needed the most!

Imagine yourself sitting down in a director’s office with a nervous feeling. “So, about those agile metrics I asked from you…”, she says. Your stomach churns and pulse quickens.

How will you show progress of transformation with agile? How will you measure improvement in teams and people? And how will you avoid the threat of harm from popular metrics like “say:do ratios” and “velocity”?

Whether you’ve worked as a manager, coach, or consultant, you’ve likely experienced conflict and confusion over metrics with agile. Traditional metrics which emphasize personal productivity drive negative behaviors, encouraging us to stay busy over working together to achieve goals. Meanwhile, leaders feel dissatisfied with popular “agile metrics,” such as velocity and burn-down charts, when they fail to provide the insights desired.

Join what's sure to be a lively discussion as we explore scenarios we often struggle to measure. Through an innovative combination of quantitative and qualitative methods, discover outcome-oriented metrics which solve organizational needs for performance, quality, and change. Clarity and prosperity between agile and metrics is not out of reach. Come find out how!

Have you found new team members take months getting up to speed with the rest of the team? Do you wonder about their engagement and happiness in a new place of work?

Many agile organizations struggle with these questions. Perhaps we’re still getting people off on the wrong foot with some details of our hiring and onboarding practices. These often overlooked, easily forgotten practices have a big impact on engagement and culture. Your hiring process can catalyze excitement for the company mission. Agile-appropriate onboarding quickly harmonizes the team and quickly returns them to productivity.

This talk for team members, managers, and change agents examines the positive impact hiring and onboarding practices can have on agile transformation. Using real world examples from successful agile companies, the session shares a mixture of new principles and practices audience members can experiment with. Additionally, the content is wrapped in systems thinking to increase knowledge for organizational change.