Let the good times roll
Last month, Janel traveled to New Orleans to attend the Global Scrum Gathering with roughly 700 other attendees. Over three days, she networked and learned with other agile practitioners.
What is a Scrum Gathering?
It is a conference of Agile/Scrum practitioners who gather to share their learnings of applying this methodology both in software and non-software environments. This conference had global participants - not just those from North America. The Agile Methodology focuses on people over processes and tools, working solutions over comprehensive documentation, customer collaboration over contract negotiation and responding to change over following a plan.
Agile/Scrum Background
While getting my undergraduate degree and in my first job, I learned and built software using the waterfall methodology - each step in the process happening after each other. In my post-library school job, I was introduced to the Agile/Scrum methodology which focuses on doing all the steps in the process within a set time period. I was fortunate to be trained and officially certified in this methodology 10 years ago. I have used these principles and practices in my solopreneur projects even if we weren’t building software or implementing a new tool.
Future of Work
Since the pandemic, the future of work has been a hot topic. We heard from futurist Heather McGowan regarding balancing higher performance and well being. As AI and other technologies continue to be part of our work life, most high value work will be collaborative exploration. Success will depend on diversity of inputs, problem framing and adapting. We’ll look for our teams to build capacity by finding the questions and answers at the same time. Performance is driven by employees being seen and heard at work. We need to be asking less “Why do you think that?” and more “How did you come to think/believe that?” We need to move from individual intelligence to collective intelligence. We have to make shifts in mindset, focus, behavior, culture and approach.
How to Make Quick Progress
On the last day of the conference, we got to hear from author and entrepreneur Dan Heath. He challenged us to find leverage points and restack resources to keep momentum moving. Dan’s talk was full of storytelling to demonstrate his points. I appreciated this quote from Paul Batalden - “Every system is perfectly designed to get the results it gets.” We should go and see the work to make sure we are not mistaking the functional understanding for a systemic understanding. Consider what the goal of the goal is as we set them and strive to achieve them. When making updates to the process, target the constraint. This targeting might need to happen multiple times until we get the results we are looking for. Restacking resources means looking for activities that don’t add value. In our workplaces, the most common kind of waste is underutilizing people. We need to tap motivation without manufacturing it. Pay attention to what people want and go where the energy is.
And So Much More
I attended many more sessions and will share more about those topics in the upcoming weeks. Overall it was a good experience even though it was the largest conference I have gone to in a while and I didn’t know any of the attendees. Sometimes putting yourself in an uncomfortable position is the best way to learn, grow and expand your network.