Day four was the big day for me – Talk Day! My talk on coaching remote, non-agile teams was a load of fun. What was super cool was that I went to the guy before me, a gentleman named Steve Adolph, who was speaking about remote work and “The sun never sets on the problem-solving workshop”. It supported many of the items that I was suggesting in my talk.
My talk was super fun, and I’m pleased that it was a full session. The demand for help and tips for remote coaching is huge. As you can see on the front page, I got 28 great tips on doing remote work. Yet, remote work is complex and, like Agile, there is no silver bullet. Nothing that will “fix it” especially when considering lower levels of overlap time, etc. I’m pleased to say that Mark Kilby, an author on the topic of remote work, was in attendance. I hope to collaborate with him and Joanna Rothman in the future.
The folks at @AgileAlliance were practiced and professional, and I left there feeling like the talk went really well. The point of my talk, and many others is that remote work isn’t solved by practices or tools, but in mindset. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it? 🙂 There’s a recording of my session coming up, but for now, if you’re a member you can see the whitepaper here.
I’m super pleased to have given away the hottest item of the conference, the SolutionsIQ water bottle. Those things went like wildfire! But the big winner was the Rosalie R., who won a timeular device! Thanks to the folks at Timeular for providing that give away. I’ll be holding a second give away here in the near future, so stay tuned!
The rest of the day was a blur.
In the afternoon block, I attended the interesting Adapting TBR for remote learning, by Shane Hastie and Shannon Ewan. Training from the Back of the Room is a book that I have only heard of and gotten some of their lessons through others. I was pleased to see the four C’s so well explained. However without being there, it’d be tough to explain the session, which was very workshoppy, so check out this link to find out more about the 4 Cs and 6 trumps.
After that, I went to my final session, Liberating Structures, by the entertaining Alex Sloley. We did the 4-6-2-1 exercise, a structure to share information verbally. I liked that he said don’t tell people you’re doing this thing, just do them, and notice how it works. It’ll be your little secret with yourself.
I was able to meet with a colleague from Accenture training, Carey, which was super fun. We spoke of VR-based training, my latest obsession.
Before I knew it, Agile 2019 was over and I was on the Accella train to NY to see my family for a mini-family reunion. It was a great week, and I’ll be distilling those lessons for some time to come. This is the fam – loved that I could connect work and play!
