Events

In many difficult conversations, there's something about you that you're afraid the other person will bring up. Worse, they might be thinking about it and never mention it. In this first session in a series about tough conversations, we will explore how to make these situations more productive by doing an accountability audit, taking responsibility for your contribution to the problem, and naming the issue in a way that helps everyone move forward.

Describing an organization that operates with agility is simple. A few key elements encapsulate what it means to work this way. (Although people often make it more complicated than it needs to be!) We will review the core elements and align on those. Of course, actually working this way is hard. This session explores some of the challenges that persist even after an organization decides it wants to incorporate these core elements, particularly around establishing an environment where people voice their opinions, point out problems, and discuss mistakes.

Difficult conversations become more difficult when you are vague about your perspective and when you aren't curious about the other person's. You want to express your views clearly and without being rigid – while at the same time staying connected to the other person. In this session, we'll explore the idea of approaching tough conversations as opportunities for mutual learning by focusing on two questions: "What do I need them to learn from me?" and "What do I need to learn from them?"

People are using agile throughout the organization. They have been for a long time. Agile has not been "only software" or "only IT" for a long time. While people have been using it for years there is still a ton of confusion around how to do it well and what might have to change (even by folks who have been doing it). Mistakes are made all the time when attempting to use agile throughout the organization, and we don't think they have to be. This session will cover a revised version of the agile manifesto (not official), what agile is really about, and a few core aspects of agile in practice and how they may be even more challenging outside of software.

In any discussion, both your words and how you say them matter. In a difficult conversation, paying attention to your mood and tone is even more critical. In this session, we'll explore how to be intentional about how you show up in a challenging exchange. We'll use two tools to help you prepare for a hard conversation.

Gratitude is a powerful habit, even when it seems like there isn't much to be grateful for. In this combination Learning Lab/Happy Hour, we'll explore tools for appreciating and harnessing what has gone well in the last year. This freeform session is two hours long, and you can drop in and out whenever works for you.

Making plans is often useful when we need to have a challenging conversation. And, as Mike Tyson famously remarked, "Everybody has plans until they get hit for the first time." In this session, we'll explore how to plan for navigating a challenging dialogue. We'll also look at the emotional preparation you'll need when you get hit (metaphorically).

This session is going to focus on the ongoing and persistent nonsense surrounding kanban and scrum (this IS the softer version). We will start by defining a few core aspects of kanban and scrum to clarify where these ideas are from. We then begin dismantling all the confusing, incorrect, sad, frustrating, and impediment creating comparison charts surrounding scrum vs kanban. We will show you a Scrum vs Kanban comparison that does not make me sad. And hopefully you either!

This session will dig into any and all issues, challenges, or concerns you have with Scrum. Scrum events, jobs within scrum, the 'new' commitments, artifacts, or backlog refinement. We will have some common issues to get started, if we need them, however, it would be ideal (and perhaps more useful) if you brought your issues and challenges.