Agile2013

There has been a ton written about management techniques for creating great teams. Let’s go a bit further, and look into how managers can build great teams not by using a new method or management style, but rather understanding team dynamics and behavioral science and patterns.

At Agile 2011 I gave a talk about the Agile Mindset. That talk was surprisingly very well received and I have given it many times since. I have continued to keep up with the research on mindset and have incorporated that new research into the evolving presentation. Some years ago I gave another talk at Agile on Who do you trust, which has also proved a popular topic. Now I'm learning that the two talks are related, so I have combined them. To summarize the Agile Mindset Talk: Researchers have identified that we hold one of two mindsets toward ability: (1) that we have a fixed amount of talent or intelligence, what we are born with and there’s nothing we can do about it; (2) that we are born with a certain amount of talent or intelligence, but we can all improve by working hard. These two mindsets: “fixed” and “agile” not only determine how we feel about our own success or failure but also how we feel about others. To summarize the Who do you trust Talk: Researchers tell us that we are hardwired to stereotype others based on a very small amount of information. Now they say there is a connection between our mindset and how quickly we judge others and how open we are to seeing how others can improve. If we can do a better job of holding an agile mindset, imagine how much more creative, innovative, and cooperative our workplaces and homes could be. Having an agile mindset means more openness means better collaboration means better agile team work. There is now research that shows mindset can even affect our ability to bring peace in areas of long-standing conflict. It's a very hopeful topic.

Organizations today want to be more responsive to their marketplace opportunities, more productive and more efficient; they want to be agile. Many have implemented agile practices for improving software development. But if you want to move out of traffic and into the fast lane it requires leadership that emphasizes creating, satisfying and delighting customers every day.

This session focuses on leadership techniques for delighting your customers that you can take back and put to use. You will learn how a culture of delighting customers is built around a work force characterized by high levels of productivity, continuous innovation, and elevated levels of sustained motivation and job satisfaction.

Your customers are your lifeblood; it’s not enough just to satisfy them. You need them sharing their delight with others, sharing opportunities with you, and coming back again and again.

Move into the fast lane! Focus your organization on delighting your customers on a continuous long-term basis. It’s hard work but immensely rewarding.

Five years after scrum was introduced to Red Gate development teams, we’re still seeing value in continued investment in our agile & lean efforts. In fact, we’re now adopting these practices at the board level.

In this engaging session, Simon Galbraith, CEO of Red Gate Software, will share his agile & lean journey so far, describing the pains, the leaps of faith, the successes and the failures of Red Gate's adoption of agile practices, as well as the direction in which he's taking his team and where they're heading next.

Don’t worry - he’s not here to sell or market. This is about sharing the amazing experience of creating and sustaining an agile culture from start-up to mature organization.

If there’s sufficient interest, he’ll also offer an unique opportunity to engage with participants on the challenges and benefits of agile which he faces as CEO of a multinational organization.

(This part was written by Simon Cromarty, our Head of Project Management, after discussing it extensively with Simon)

Many companies think the way to transform to Agile is to bring in an Agile training company, train all their employees, then set the teams loose, sit back, and do business as usual. These companies can’t understand why, after a year or so, they still aren’t “Agile” and why projects continue to flounder. One of the keys is to understand that Agile transformations require managers to do more leading and less managing. For managers, Agile is about paving the way, then getting out of the way. Brian Lawrence talks about Gateway EDI’s Agile transformation and the role of both IT and business leaders in this transformation. He presents 7 key essentials that managers need to learn and follow in order for an Agile transformation to succeed. These essentials include dealing with non-Agile business thinking, IT management style changes, how roles such as project managers must transform, and how to measure success without fostering negative behavior.

We all experience situations where certain realizations seem obvious after the fact, yet, difficult to acknowledge in the moment. As I reflect back on my numerous struggles with successfully empowering teams, I am overwhelmed with wondering how I didn’t learn the lessons faster. As a result, I’ve committed to helping others be exposed by sharing my personal challenge of transitioning into a leader. Learn about assumptions and expectations surrounding self-managing teams, misunderstandings of the work required to successfully empower, and reasons why this trap is so easy. Leave with altered views on embracing a change in perspective that is required in order to avoid sending mixed messages to your teams. All while, gaining an understanding of the exciting new contributions and challenges you will master as a leader.

Language shapes thought, and thought shapes action. People talk about installing change, driving change, making change happen. When change doesn't happen as fast as they'd like, the people who want change talk about resistance, and try to kindle a sense of urgency.

What if the language we use makes it harder to bring about the differences we want to see?

I was educated to be logical, objective, “stick to the facts” and rely on reason. But that’s not the only way our brains work. Metaphors pervade our lives and thinking–so much so that we often don’t notice them. Metaphors “shape what we think,” what we see, and therefore affect our choices and options.

Consider the title “Agile Evangelist.” Evangelists are people who are imbued with The Truth–and want to convince everyone else of it. Sometimes evangelists succeed–through persuasion or harsher means. Would you welcome an evangel, come to tell you how wrong you’ve been?

In this talk I'll explore the words we use when we talk about change--and how they may get in our way. I'll look at the nature of change in a complex environment. And we'll try on some different words that might open different possibilities.