Agile2017

Abstract:
Your goals might suck.
So many statements we call "goals" feel like burdens pushed on us, or that we push on ourselves, and less like something we are pulled toward. What if you knew how to determine whether a stated goal was a good goal or a sucky goal—before you committed to it? What if you could help peers, teams, and others assess their current goals and re-craft them into good goals (or drop them, or renegotiate them)?
The 4 characteristics of good goals—clarify intention, focus attention, remove obligation, generate energy— comes from a rigorous application of The Responsibility Proces to goal-setting. In this study, we asked Why do we take ownership of some goals and achieve them, but not others?
This will be an application workshop. Bring your goals—your annual performance goals, your S.M.A.R.T. goals, or any other kind of goals. We'll see how good they are and how they can be improved. Or discarded.

Learning Outcomes:

• Learn the 4 characteristics of good goals
• Rate at least one of your own goals against the 4 characteristics
• Relate the characteristics of good goals to why you are making progress on some goals and not others
• Refactor sucky goals that you want to be good goals, and release sucky goals that you don't want any more
• Consider peer, team, and other leadership applications to assess and improve goals.

Attachments:

• 4-Characteristics-of-Good-Goals.pdf
• Avery-4-Characteristics-worksheets.pdf

Abstract:
If you want Agile to thrive in your organization, your top leaders have to not only support the shift, they must co-lead it. Agile is not simply a methodology that is implemented. It is a different way of thinking about running an organization to thrive in complexity. So what if leaders don't value Agile? This was my quandary for years until I discovered a leadership development model called The Leadership Circle. It is the most powerful tool that I've ever seen in helping individual leaders and teams of leaders make huge shifts in the way they see their purpose and possibility as leaders.
The Leadership Circle reveals a leader's Operating System: Internal assumptions (beliefs) that run behavior. It measures the two primary leadership domains– Creative Competencies and Reactive Tendencies–well-researched dimensions that directly impact a leader's capability to lead an Agile organization. In this session, you'll learn about these two domains, how they relate to success in creating Agile teams and organizations, and practice taking the two approaches to various challenges faced by session participants. Expect to walk away with concrete new ideas for how to help create more Agile teams and organizations!

Learning Outcomes:

• * Understand the link between leadership development and successful Agile organizations
• * Understand the two primary leadership stances: Reactive and Creative
• * Gain insight into your own particular leadership tendencies
• * New ideas about how to approach a specific challenge related to Agile adoption/transformation

Attachments:

• The Leadership Circle Agile 2017 Handout.pdf
• Leadership Circle Slides Agile 2017.pdf

Abstract:
Are important words often left unsaid at your place of work? Do you feel like you're navigating a complex maze in conversations? Does your message tend to miss the mark with co-workers, who increasingly seem to be impediments to reaching your goals? Are these unspeakable truths in your workplace that you wish someone would resolve for you?
Trust and communication issues within the workplace can hollow out an organization. Invisible lines get drawn. Alternate forms of communication open up to subvert perceived rivals. Allies are recruited, reinforcing an us vs. them behavior cycle. Organizations are suffering from a lack of trust, and it's costing them speed, productivity, and collaboration. What can YOU do about it?
Regardless of your title, you can be a leader in your organization, and a leader's first job is to inspire trust. In this session, Allison and Marcus will share models to evaluate your own behaviors and facilitate activities to help you find your voice for speaking the truth in a way that builds trust. Softening the truth can feel comfortable in low trust environments--it's simpler, nicer, and can make you look like a team player. It can also lead to miscommunication, undelivered news, and blame shifting. On the other hand, saying the truth in all of its ugliness is risky and potentially career-limiting. Finding the sweet spot of communication to become a trusted leader takes self-awareness and practice. Attend this workshop and learn to recognize how your behavior is building trust--or not--and practice speaking hard truths so that others can hear it.

Learning Outcomes:

• Recognize your current state, self, and patterns of communication that might indicate a low trust environment
• A model to identify the communication cycles that hamper your organization from achieving its full potential
• Pattern to practice better forms of direct communication and build trust, which can also be used to get feedback from others

Attachments:

• Getting real.pdf

Abstract:
As leaders, we often talk about how we wished people or teams would step-up. We dream of teams taking the initiative. We spend our time wondering “why empowered people won’t act?” Instead of wondering, we need to start by taking a hard look at ourselves – our blind spots may be the impediment to our people’s, team’s, and organization’s success! Of course, the funny thing about blind spots is, people hear about them and say, “whew, I’m sure glad I don’t have any!” Should you feel that you don’t have any blind spots, you are welcome to attend for a “friend.”
Jake will introduce a straightforward model you can utilize when you find yourself questioning someone’s motives or applying blame. While questioning and blaming are normal human reactions, we can’t afford to be stuck in that head-space. We must lead by example, improving ourselves, and then helping the people we lead improve! Attendees will have the opportunity to work through scenarios that are relevant to them, unraveling blind spots, adapting the model, questioning assumptions, and learning countermeasures to turn blind spots into Bling Spots – so everyone can shine!

Learning Outcomes:

• Assess common leadership thoughts and statements that slow or prevent success.
• Learn a straightforward Leadership Assumption-Decision Model to help discover blind spots.
• Discover some of your own blind spots in leading people to success.
• Consider the challenge of maintaining a leadership mindset and how your blind spots limit you.
• Create action(s) to address your blind spots and turn them into Bling Spots.
• Fun.

Attachments:

• Shift Your Blind Spots v1.2.pdf
• Leader Reality-Dreaming Decision Model.pdf

Abstract:
"Give them the environment and support they need, and trust them to get the job done." Easy to say, but how is it done?
Do people in your organization feel permission to bring their best?
Do they trust the organization?
How much energy do people spend protecting themselves from each other?
Who or what stops you and your team from doing your best work?
As coaches, we find that most people live well beneath opportunities available to them. They feel limited, over-managed, and afraid to ask for the things they need. They "play it safe" and "cover their butts" to avoid accusation, blame, or reprisal.
Join us and explore how leaders and managers can help establish an environment where people can accomplish great things.

Learning Outcomes:

• This is an exploration of the topics of safety, trust, and permission: “It’s not a workshop if you know how it will end.”
• Safety and trust as prerequisites to being agile.
• Situations where self-organization breaks down.
• Three levels of permission, and how to grant and acquire permission.
• How to intentionally create trust and safety.

Attachments:

• Safety Permission and Trust.pdf

Abstract:
The deeper roots that enable Agile organizations to flourish has been lost by many. Teams that struggle do so for many reasons… leaving people frustrated, complacent, and content to exist in mediocrity. There's a little secret, one that propels teams, and entire organizations, to be really successful. It’s a matter of leadership. Not just executives, managers, or those with leader titles get to lead - everyone does!
In this interactive workshop, we explore the value and purpose of specific agile practices. Next we investigate specific leadership behaviours that make a big impact in any team, by any team member. We then examine what these behaviours look like within the agile practices to understand how to lead from within a team. Participants leave with practical insights and actions to instantly improve their team and performance.
The truth is that full benefits of Agile emerge when every person embraces their personal leadership. By embracing our inner leader, we are able to engage our team, improve value and quality delivery, and gain the competitive edge Agile methods intended.

Learning Outcomes:

• The new paradigm of individual and team leadership
• How specific Agile practices are failing and why
• Specific approaches to take practices from lacklustre to purposeful
• What leadership behaviours look like for different Agile practices
• How to lead from within an Agile team to improve team satisfaction, success, and gain a competitive edge

Attachments:

• Agile2017-Leading From Within an Agile Team.pdf

Abstract:
Losing good people during your transformation? Getting more resistance than you expected? You may be producing unwanted reactions in the way you are leading your people through change.
If you want your Agile transformation firing on all cylinders without the harmful side-effects, managers at all levels should focus on becoming Catalysts. Much like a chemical catalyst, your job is to help boost organizational performance by creating a healthy environment and providing the needed support. We’ll explore how you can do that through– –

• Inviting people to co-create an aspirational goal – Telling stories to aid people through the transition – Using some simple guides that can help create safety during change

Along the way, we’ll touch upon organizational culture and how this affects your approach.

Learning Outcomes:

• Understand leadership actions (catalysts) that can be taken to improve the environment, support others, and increase trust
• Understand the concepts for leading change

Attachments:

• catalyticleadership-agile2017-170821104803.pdf

Abstract:
Did you know that creating the right positive environment could increase productivity by up to 31%? Research tells us that this is possible so come and join the discussion on positivity’s impact in the workplace.
We will investigate the factors that influence positivity, discuss the things in our workplace that reduce it and experience some effects of a positive experiment.
Let’s discuss where we begin and how to influence our environments to create a positively productive Agile workplace.

Learning Outcomes:

• The impact of positivity/negativity
• Unintentional negative signals we send/receive every day
• Choosing to be positive
• Different types of positivity
• Taking first steps

Attachments:

• JMC Positivity.pdf

Abstract:
More asking, less telling. As an agile leader, adopt the approach of humble enquiry to build relationships, increase trust and collaboration, and deal with the challenges of organizational transformations.
"Humble enquiry is the fine art of drawing someone out, of asking questions to which you do not already know the answer, of building a relationship based on curiosity and interest in the other person." - Edgar H. Schein
Working in an agile way asks us to rethink how we relate to each other as we tackle complex problems and challenge the traditional structures of our organizations. Humble enquiry - the art of asking instead of telling - is a critical skill for agilists who seek to improve collaboration and address difficult problems head on. Inspired by Edgar H. Schein's book 'Humble Enquiry, this workshop will teach you the fundamentals of how to do more asking and less telling. Through mini-lectures and interactive exercises, we'll discuss the different types of questioning, consider the forces around and within us that inhibit our ability to ask instead of tell, and examine how this powerful technique can improve collaboration within agile teams as well as help to address some of the challenges of agile transformations.

Learning Outcomes:

• • Improve your leadership skills by learning the basics of humble enquiry
• • Recognize the constraints (cultural and psychological) that make it difficult to ask instead of tell
• • Activities that you can use yourself and with their teams/organizations to practice this skill.

Attachments:

• AskingOverTellingAgile2017sm.pdf
• AskingOverTellingHandout.pdf

Abstract:
What would your team say about your leadership legacy. Did you lead with a legacy of power and fear or did you influence your team to do their best and grow. This session will look at the transition in leadership style that needs to happen so we have effective Agile Leadership for Self-Managing Teams.
Will your team happily jump through hoops for you? Do you have enough influence to encourage them to succeed, without telling them what to do?
This hands-on workshop session will use different exercises to explore the differences between these two styles of leadership. The session will also have you review your current leadership style and identify any areas you would like to work on.

Learning Outcomes:

• Review your current leadership style and identify if you are more on the power or influence side?
• Understand the difference between Power & Influence Based Leadership
• How do you transition from “Power Based Leadership” to “Influence Based Leadership”?
• What are the characteristics of a self-managing, self-organizing team?
• What are the characteristics of a great Agile Leader?

Abstract:
Humanity has centuries of experience leading laborers and clerks, but what do we know about leading people who think for a living?

• How can we help people have innovative new ideas?
• Are we keeping our people too busy to think?
• How can we encourage a voracious appetite for learning?
• How do we help the team stay mentally fresh and energetic all day long?
• Can we really learn to "work smarter"?

In this session, you will learn ways to lead your thinking people by helping them to learn more actively, manage their mental energy, and find ways to consistently produce better results.
We will use simulations, facts, games, and questions to explore getting the best outcomes for our organizations and our customers, instead of getting the most work out of each individual.
We will discover changes that we can make in our work environment which will begin to pay back immediately (with compound interest).
Come and learn a few ways to "give them the environment and support they need" (agile manifesto).

Learning Outcomes:

• We will learn to appreciate and cultivate mindset and skill for leading people whose work is primarily intellectual.
• We will change the metaphors used to describe the work of teams.
• You will learn how to help people around you think more clearly, longer, and more often.
• We will consider how to change our system of work so that we can "provide the environment and support they need, and trust them to get the work done" (Agile Manifesto).

Attachments:

• Leading Knowledge Workers - Agile2017.pdf

Abstract:
Assume you have no authority, no control over anyone or anything, and you need to inspire members to perform as never before. Who are you? “Oh, you must be the drummer, set your kit up next to the piano dude.”
When searching for helpful techniques to improve our leadership skills, sometimes the best place to look is to a completely unrelated field. Did you know the techniques used by a big band drummer parallel those of a successful team leader?
On the surface the big band drummer is just another “side-man” without any authority or control. Once the music starts the drummer can invoke confidence and inspire individual members and the entire band to play like never before.
This session will include live demonstrations of the techniques drummers use to support the band in their goal to sound great. An actual big band chart will be played then broken down one section at a time. As the drumming techniques are revealed, so are opportunities to realize new perspectives on team leadership, that’s where you come in.

Learning Outcomes:

• Specific leadership techniques and lessons learned from an unrelated field
• Self-discovered insights into leadership without power
• Inspiration and renewed energy to get back and lead
• Identify conference attendees with whom to discuss further thoughts on leadership without power

Attachments:

• Team Leadership like BB Drumming upload.pdf

Abstract:
An Appreciative Inquiry mindset reduces stress, enabling us to build on our strengths, which is more generative than eliminating weaknesses.
When one focuses on what is broken, they will invariably find problems. Traditional change methods focus on problem-finding, which can quickly overwhelm and cause us to focus on producing lower value solutions. 
Positive change can increase efficiency and sustain individuals and teams. Cultivating an appreciative approach within Agile teams helps members take different perspectives, ask powerful questions, and increase trust. The simple act of asking questions of a group using positive language creates the environment for trust and authentic change. Taking an appreciative mindset is generative and allows a team and organization to focus on the highest value and what it does well.
An appreciative mindset depends on assumptions, language, and questions. Our assumptions become our reality. The language we use supports our focus and reality. By being present to our language and perspective, a shift can occur in a team’s level of trust and value-focus. 
Participants will have the opportunity to practice individually and in groups to explore an appreciative mindset in community with their peers. These practices support positive, perspective taking, and trust building; standing in service to clients and team members, and building productive teams. 
Focusing on approaches to positive change, participants will learn practices that they can apply in their organizations or use with their agile teams.

Learning Outcomes:

• Learn basic assumptions that form the foundation of an Appreciative mindset
• Improve the ability to think differently and take away practice to support an appreciative approach to agile teams.
• Grow the capacity to use language that enhances work
• Increase the value a team produces

Attachments:

• Agile 2017 - An Appreciative Agile Mindset-compressed.pdf