Agile2017

Abstract:
The agile manifesto call for individuals, teams, and organizations to foster a culture of continuous learning; however, how do we measure learning to know if we are making progress towards this call? Join us at Agile2017, for a hands-on workshop where you will learn a series of team and cross-team collaboration activities to identify and share learning goals, and then measure progress towards learning goal attainment.
Using a series of collaborative activities, workshop participants will experience how to create a self-organized “Dojo” for learning. A “Dojo” is a Japanese concept for a designated place where people practice to improve. Traditionally, dojos focus on martial arts practice; however, within the agile community, dojos in various forms are becoming a pattern for teams to focus on learning. Within our “Dojo”, teams will use metaphor to share challenges they are encountering, then will identify what they need to learn to improve. These learning goals provide the basis for measurement of learning and will be captured via a “Dojo Dashboard”. This dashboard provides a central viewpoint of learning needs across teams. The dashboard enables team members to share what they know, and enables teams and team members to learn from each other to achieve learning goals.
In this workshop, participants will simulate the creation a “Dojo” to capture team learning needs and create a “Dojo Dashboard” to measure learning goals as they are attained. Participants will leave having experienced collaborative activities that support a pattern to measure learning at the individual, team or organization levels.

Learning Outcomes:

• Participants will learn what a “Dojo” is and how “Dojo” activities can support learning within agile teams and organizations.
• Participants will see how guiding Dojo learning activities through collaboration creates data by which organizational learning can be measured.
• Participants will experience a series of collaboration activities that can support a bottom-up / grass-roots Dojo initiative providing learning benefits with minimal additional investment.

Attachments:

• Agile2017-CreatingADojoDashboardWorksheet.pdf

Abstract:
Training is an important aspect of the learning process. We have Sharon Bowman's brilliant work in "Training from the Back of the Room" helping us be better … in a box. A room. A single space of time.
However, this is not sufficient to achieve your potential as either individuals or organisations. The best organisations have embraced a culture of continuous learning. It's outside the room. Learning is a mindset evident in everyday behaviours and drives the decisions people make. These companies have extended the agile concepts of continuous integration, automation, and deep customer focus beyond their software development work and into their coaching and L&D organisations' mindset.
So how do we get our companies to that point? Learning is the single largest constraint to us to achieving the agility we seek, yet learning too often remains constrained by the "day of training" mindset. This workshop introduces and helps you explore learning strategies to help you make the science of learning a part of your organisational strategy. Together, we will practice designing systemic, culturally embedded learning using topics relevant to your organisation.

Learning Outcomes:

• Discover that long-term competitiveness requires a culture of continuous learning.
• Develop a continuous learning mindset as a part of your organisational strategy.
• Explore the behaviours and habits that instil learning into your culture.
• Design learning based on Agile practices and education science to be incremental in short focused bursts that involve sharing and experimentation.

Attachments:

• Agile2017-TrainingFromOutsideRoom.pdf

Abstract:
People are unique in their ability to communicate abstract concepts using symbols and language. After all, that is where the saying “a picture is worth a thousand words” comes from. So it shouldn’t come as a surprise that expressing yourself visually (as well as verbally) improves the likelihood that others will not only understand what you are trying to say, but also retain the message. A picture has a way of showing ideas and solutions that would have remained hidden if you hadn’t picked up a pen. But a good picture doesn’t eliminate the need for words. It just reduces the number of words we use, so that the ones left behind are the most important…
So why is thinking visually so important?
When working in complex environments and trying to influence change in the workplace, it is essential that we are equipped with the knowledge and tools to tap into different styles of learning. Recent studies show that 65% of people learn and retain information more effectively by seeing words, as well as images. In contrast, only 30% of people learn through verbal communication alone. So if you aren’t one of the 65% of visual learners, someone in your team probably is!
Incorporating visual thinking into your day to day work can reduce the length of meetings by 24% - primarily by providing a shared record of the discussion, effectively stopping "turntable" discussions. A visual record makes it possible to capture the emotions of the conversation, bringing the human element to the forefront making it more likely that the team will remember what was said. Visual Thinking is particularly powerful during facilitated sessions, creative whiteboard discussions, problem solving meetings, as well as in retrospectives to help unpack challenges and serve as a reminder of the actions agreed by the team. Using graphics you can create visual metaphors for the team and help others see the “big picture”.
Luckily, you don’t need to be an artist to think visually! Join us as we co-create a visual vocabulary you can practically apply at work or in your personal capacity (during studying and learning). We will take you through the elements essential for visual thinking, as well as some ideas for visualizing concepts. No power points slides allowed!
This session is for anyone who needs to innovate, invent, analyze, come up with solutions, ideate, solve problems, retain information and build up their confidence to pick up a pen.

Learning Outcomes:

• Improve your facilitation skills by incorporating visual thinking elements (typography, bullets, color, sequence, faces and people, containers, shading and basic shapes)
• Learn how to incorporate visual elements into your note taking (otherwise known as sketchnoting or infodoodling)
• Gain the confidence to overcome your fear to pick up a pen and draw in front of others

Attachments:

• Visual_Thinking_Scrum_Gathering_2016.pdf

Abstract:
Professionals who make time for learning perform better than those who don't. And deliberate practice plays a key role in building advanced skills. Agile retrospectives help teams reflect on past performance to identify areas for improvement. But improving at the team level also requires shared practice.
Discover new ways to enable team learning in this fun workshop featuring the co-author of Agile Retrospectives and The Five Rules of Accelerated Learning. By engaging managers and sponsors to set a long-term capability goal and then setting short short-term practice goals at the team's fluent edge you can give retrospectives new life, deliver better outcomes, and sustain continuous improvement over time.

Learning Outcomes:

• Understand an Agile team's journey through the four capability zones of the Agile Fluency™ Model
• Work with managers and sponsors to identify a long-term capability goal for your team
• Identify and describe a team's fluent edge with the aid of provided diagnostic questions
• Incorporate new ideas and techniques to design a goal-directed retrospective

Attachments:

• Deliberate Practice at the Fluent Edge - Agile2017 Orlando - 2017-08-08 .pdf
• New AF Poster - A0.pdf

Abstract:
In the late 1980s and early 90s, Peter Senge taught the world about 'organizational learning', and of the great benefits it can bring to organizations across all industries. At no time is the capacity for genuine organizational learning more critical than it is in the face of the complexity, rapid change and unpredictability businesses and other organizations currently face. But in order to truly leverage organizational learning as an adaptive capability, we must distinguish learning that merely helps human systems (individuals, teams, organizations) get better at what they are already doing, from learning that helps human systems transform the very beliefs and assumptions that fundamentally determine how they perform in the first place.
Action Learning is an oldie but goody from the world of organization development. It helps organizational players learn through action. In this session, I will teach you how I have used action learning as a key tool to help agile strategists (leaders, managers, agile coaches) create conditions that enable emergent adaptive agile capability across an organization.

Learning Outcomes:

• Learn the difference between single-loop and double-loop learning, and why the latter is such an important organizational skill to develop, if what you are going for is deep, agile transformation
• Learn how Integral thinking can enhance our ability to see the behaviors and effects of an organization more holistically and systemically
• Learn the basic technique of action learning
• Learn how you might deploy action learning in your organization as a way to emergently leverage, and grow upon, innate organizational wisdom and intelligence

Abstract:
Come and join us: we will explore new ideas with holistic learning methods to inspire organizational learning with recent findings from neurobiological research.
When humans want to improve their well-being and health, we exercise, meditate, choose a good diet … Why don’t we improve organizations in similar ways? And what would that look like?
New organizational development methods see organizations as living beings, organisms. Organizations show patterns of stress, trauma, addiction like human beings. We know from neurobiological research how integration helps the brain to heal - what would mental integration look like in organizations?
Learning requires integration too: insights and models from different domains, diverse knowledge and experience from different minds at the table. In this session you’ll experience how this integration can happen effectively, and with a lot of fun. We will facilitate deep exchange and produce inspiring results - all of us will learn in this session!

Learning Outcomes:

• Practice Awareness Maps: a group learning method that highlights diversity, stimulates insights and is broadly applicable at work
• Determine ways to apply Dan Siegel’s integration model to inspire learning in your organization
• Increase your awareness around similarities between organizational approaches and the organizing principles of organisms
• Share your inspirations of new ideas and tools you can take back into your organization

Attachments:

• Organisational Neurobiology.pdf

Abstract:
How can you inspire people to think outside of the box when we resort to death by PowerPoint? To get people to think and learn differently you need to teach them differently. To foster a culture of innovation and learning we need to show people that we are innovating in our teaching as well. This requires finding new, fun, and engaging ways to teach. But this isn’t magic. There are patterns and formulas that can be taught and applied quickly.
In this session we will quickly walk through brain based learning techniques highlighting engagement methods common in music, movies, and TV. We will breakdown aspects of Training from the Back of the Room, hooks and even the formulas behind writing a good joke. We will also demo a quick game we created using these methods titled “Epic Rap Battle of Agility” to show how we use these concepts to teach agile principles and concepts. Finally, you will work as a team with other attendees to create an engaging short video to post on social media and/or bring back to your organization. 
In the end you will leave with the tools you need to bring the fun back to learning in your organizations. When you return to work and start using these skills you will demonstrate the fun, courage, and openness that your organization needs to truly become a learning organization. You will pass this on to your students, and by applying it to their work they will aid you in creating a true learning organization.

Learning Outcomes:

• Explain the art and science behind creating engaging learning using the 6 Trumps.
• Demonstrate the basic techniques behind comedy writing and gamification to make your learning fun.
• State the difference between an ordinary lecture based training session and brain based training.

Attachments:

• Epic Rap Battle of Agility.pdf

Abstract:
One of the 4 main points of the Agile Manifesto is individuals and interactions over processes and tools. But over time many organizations have begun implementing Agile “standards” and a prescriptive way of implementing Agile across their teams. And while some boundaries may be necessary, often this leads to the processes taking precedence over what is best for the team and stifles organizational learning.
This workshop will discuss how to use experimentation to break out of your Agile rut and spark a culture of curiosity and learning across your organization. Using real-life examples and opportunities for brainstorming you will see how you can apply the use of experiments to help safely solve problems while minimizing the risk of an experiment gone wrong. Yes, you can learn even from failed experiments. No beakers, test tubes or lab coats required.

Learning Outcomes:

• Challenging people to evaluate prescriptive practices they may have in place
• Generating ideas for how to help your teams learn what works best for them
• Understanding how to structure experiments to be measurable and minimize risk
• Learning from the experiences of a larger group

Attachments:

• ExperimentalAgile2017.pdf

Abstract:
A culture of learning and continuous improvement is central to an agile mindset. Yet, when it comes to transferring knowledge, skills and behaviors for new solutions to employees, partners and customers, organizations often address the needs after development is complete. High-performing organizations, in contrast, are not “developing training using agile methods” after delivery. They are reconsidering what enterprise training means and recasting it in the light of “enablement.” Their focus is on more transparently enabling the acquisition and adoption of desired knowledge, skills and behaviors.
“Dark Learning” is an agile approach to enterprise learning or--more accurately--enterprise enablement. It provides a unified view of key disruptions taking place in the field of enterprise learning--micro-learning, social, mobile, personalization, contextualization, video, and analytics-driven decision-making--as a strategy for increasing enterprise agility towards a continuous delivery model.
This session introduces the current state of enterprise learning, provides an overview of the disruptions taking place in the field of enterprise learning and introduces Dark Learning as a shift in mindset that enables high-performers to get to market more quickly, reduce costs associated with traditional learning and increase the quality of overall solutions delivered by the enterprise.

Learning Outcomes:

• Recognize ways in which traditional learning approaches are out of alignment with Agile principles and approaches, and hinder enterprise agility as a result.
• Describe how disruptors in the field of enterprise learning are a reflection Agile, Lean, Continuous Delivery, DevOps and other shifts in software development
• Identify the key "brain shifts" of Dark Learning and how they can help improve enterprise agility.
• Identify practical actions that you can take to more transparently transfer knowledge, skills and behaviors to colleagues, partners and customers.

Attachments:

• Agile2017_DarkLearning_20170301e.pdf

Abstract:
Maybe you’ve heard a little about Kanban and want to learn more. Maybe you’ve started using Kanban and want some pointers on what pitfalls to avoid. Maybe your current Agile methodology is failing and you’re looking for a different approach. Whatever your reasons for desiring more exposure to Kanban, this talk is for you. This session will walk attendees through the fundamentals of Kanban using real world examples as the basis for the discussion. With the help of an engaging exercise, we will explain what Kanban is and what Kanban isn’t and give you the knowledge you need to get started. As a bonus, we'll offer some insight on how Kanban can help you answer that pesky little question, "When will it be done?" If nothing else, you’ll walk away with some ideas for improving the overall efficiency and predictability of your current process using flow principles. Come and join us to learn more about Kanban—you might just be surprised by what you hear.

Learning Outcomes:

• An understanding of flow and what it means to manage flow
• How Kanban facilitates the management of flow (including explaining what Kanban is and isn’t)
• An introduction on how to use the principles of flow for better process predictability
• Some ideas on how to get started with Kanban
• Some things to watch out for during an initial roll out
• Ideas on where your implementation can go next

Attachments:

• Agile2017.pdf