Speaker: Jardena London
Track: Keynote

Description:
Have you ever had a soul-crushing moment at work? It’s not a great feeling, and as it’s also bad for business. Which is why businesses thrive when they use a Soulful Lens.  

Jardena London’s keynote will explore the conditions necessary for a Soulful Organization. We’ll start by defining Soul, Soulful Lens and Soulful Organization.

We’ll delve into shifting into language that fills and expands our souls. We’ll lay out the framework for The Soulful Organization, including The Soulful Leader and The Soulful Team. Then we’ll turn the mirror inwards and discuss the Agilist’s role in cultivating the Soulful Organization.

Speaker: George Champlin-Scharff
Track: Practitioner

Description:
As we step into an era where Artificial Intelligence (AI) and automation are becoming integral parts of our workflow, it’s essential to understand how these advancements can be harnessed to enhance Agile methodologies. The session “Accelerating Agile in the Age of AI & Automation” is designed to explore the intersection of AI, specifically ChatGPT, with Agile practices. We will delve into how AI can aid in crafting superior user stories and acceptance criteria, efficiently summarize customer calls, and identify trends across companies. This session will particularly focus on the three pivotal roles in any Scrum team: the Product Owner, the Scrum Master, and the Team Member, examining how each can leverage AI to streamline processes and boost productivity. From using AI to generate concise, clear user stories to employing its analytical prowess for trend analysis and customer interaction summaries, the session will cover a range of practical applications. Attendees will leave with a thorough understanding of AI’s potential in Agile environments and strategies to effectively integrate these technologies into their current practices.

Learning Outcomes:

1. AI-Enhanced User Stories and Criteria: Learn how to use ChatGPT for writing more effective user stories and acceptance criteria, enhancing clarity and precision.

2. Summarizing Customer Interactions: Discover how AI can be utilized to summarize customer calls efficiently, ensuring key points are captured and communicated.

3. Trend Analysis Across Companies: Understand how to employ AI for identifying and analyzing trends across different companies, aiding in strategic decision-making.

4. Role-Specific Applications:

– For Product Owners*: Strategies to utilize AI for better backlog management and requirement gathering.

– For Scrum Masters*: Insights into leveraging AI for facilitating meetings and improving team dynamics.

– For Team Members*: Techniques to use AI tools for task estimation, sprint planning, and technical problem-solving.

5. Integrating AI into Agile Workflows: Explore how to seamlessly integrate AI tools into existing Agile workflows without disrupting current processes.

6. Navigating AI Tools and Technologies: Gain an understanding of the available AI tools and technologies and how to choose the right ones for your team’s needs.

Speakers: Stephanie Riccardino & Christine Dorfman
Track: Foundational
Let’s talk about how to taste, touch, and see yourself on a path to career success, avoiding those “Sunday Scaries.” Learn how to read indicators around you, the good and the bad, and use those to make decisions in your career journey. In this interactive experience, we will share tools to help you to be intentional, get feedback and set plans into action. In the end, you’ll find how you show value to your employer and more importantly to yourself.

We will walk you through an experiment of how to treat your career as a product by applying product management techniques; giving your career direction and not letting you get too comfortable in your current role:

Define – Take time to focus on what you want, where your passion lies, and where you want to be. We will create a career vision statement together.

Discover– During discovery, we consider a wide range of opportunities and solutions to accomplish your intended outcome. Only those most likely to succeed become candidates for your intended outcome. You will walk away with techniques on how to expand your network internally and in the market, see your future self and identify how you find yourself in the broader company culture.

Deliver – Deliver is about taking the validated approaches and ideas for solutions and bringing them to life. Create a personal backlog to work on and prioritize. You will write professional user stories for yourself, prioritize them and work on 1 or 2 a month.

Reflect – Continuous learning through inspection and adaption is critical to the success of any product. It is necessary to take time to reflect on successes and failures using measures and insights to course correct often and maximize value in your career outcomes. You will learn how to commit to mini self-retrospectives and identify who is on your team, an accountability buddy.

From two women passionate about taking control of their career, mentoring, and helping others live their best career lives, join us for a little bit of learning, a little bit of sharing and a whole lot of fun.

Learning Outcomes:
People will feel like they have more ownership over the direction of their own career path, with an easy and familiar framework to guide them.

Speaker: Bob Galen
Track: Practitioner
Description:
Some of the biggest questions facing agile coaches today, whether external consultants/contractors or

internal employees; Coaches, ScrumMasters, or leaders are—

• What do you actually do as a coach?

• What difference are you making? What is your value?

• How do I measure your impact?

• Why do I need you as my coach?

• Do I really need your role in my organization?

Challenging questions to answer, right?
The premise of this talk is that most coaches are fundamentally unprepared to answer them. That is, many of us struggle to communicate our value, while not appearing self-centered or braggadocios.

In this workshop we will explore how to effectively navigate these value-based questions. We’ll begin in the client entry process and discuss keys for setting up win-win coaching agreements and managing expectations. Next, we’ll explore a wide-variety of approaches for measuring agile coaches, their value and their impact. While there is no singular metric, you’ll be exposed to many successful approaches.

And finally, we’ll talk about the importance of brand building and not be shy or reticent in talking about you, which is a problem for so many coaches.
We’ll wrap things up with a Dojo session where we practice strategies for common, value-based situations, so you can leave with new ideas and skills and increased confidence.

Speaker: Ti Minouge
Track: Practitioner
Description:
The rapidly evolving and complex nature of today’s world demands a new breed of agility, one that is rooted in deep personal change and advanced sensemaking capabilities. 

Centered on the idea that the external challenges of unpredictable environments are best met by cultivating a strong internal foundation, Ti Mougne will take participants beyond surface-level adjustments, inviting them to embark on a profound journey of inner transformation. 

The session is structured around three key pillars of deep personal change:

1. Inner Exploration and Self-Awareness: Participants will engage in introspective activities designed to uncover core values, beliefs, and behaviors. Through guided reflection and mindfulness practices, leaders will begin to recognize their cognitive patterns and emotional triggers, setting the stage for meaningful personal evolution.
2. Emotional Agility and Resilience: Participants will learn about the role of emotional agility in sensemaking and how it can be cultivated to respond to change with composure and insight. The workshop will provide tools for enhancing emotional resilience, enabling attendees to maintain equilibrium in the face of uncertainty.
3. Reflective Learning and Integration: The final phase of the workshop focuses on integrating personal insights with professional practice. Participants will map out how their deep personal changes can influence their leadership style, team dynamics, and organizational culture, ensuring that their sensemaking abilities are effectively applied within their work environments.

By participating in this workshop, participants will not only understand the importance of deep personal change but will also be better equipped to achieve agility with enhanced sensemaking skills and a strengthened internal compass.

Speaker: Catherine Louis
Track: Practitioner
Description:

Agile and DevOps methodologies are designed to foster collaboration, but siloed behavior in upper management can undermine their effectiveness. In this talk, we’ll explore how to overcome siloed behavior in upper management and create a culture of collaboration that supports Agile and DevOps success.

We’ll discuss the common siloed behaviors exhibited by upper management, including lack of communication, limited transparency, and resistance to change. We’ll also provide strategies for breaking down these silos and fostering collaboration, including building trust, promoting cross-functional teams, and aligning incentives.

Speaker: Rita Emmons

Track: Practitioner

Description:
 In the dynamic realm of product management, traditional agile delivery often falls short of meeting organizational goals and customer needs. This session challenges the status quo by asserting that “getting it wrong” is a crucial steppingstone toward unlocking innovative ideas that drive product success.

 Explore with us as we unravel the common pitfalls in agile organizations where economic outcomes elude even the most well-executed plans. Journey through the System of Adaptable Discovery, pivoting left of the backlog, and acquiring new tools and tricks to navigate the complexities of product development.

 This insightful session is your gateway to a paradigm shift—from a narrow focus on agile delivery to a comprehensive approach. Learn how to identify problems worth solving and solutions worth building before diving into development work. “Don’t Worry, Be Crappy” encourages a fearless exploration, recognizing it as an integral part of the pathway to product excellence.

 Takeaways will include an understanding of the problem to solve with traditional agile delivery, the pivot toward Product Agility, and an introduction to the System of Adaptable Discovery. Participants will be able to take a simple product discovery roadmap with them.

Learning Outcomes:
The problem to solve with traditional agile delivery and the pivot toward Product Agility
Introduction to the System of Adaptable Discovery
A simple Product Discovery Roadmap for participants to take with them

Speaker: Michael Lloyd

Track: Practitioner

Description:
Dysfunction Mapping is a tool built from a decade of experience, that provides a repeatable structure to find and theme the problems in your team or organization. By following it’s steps, you’ll create a solution hypothesis that can be tested in the real world, with empirical measures to confirm if things are changing.

Learning Outcomes:

Attendees will learn the basic structure of Dysfunction mapping including;

• Lay of the land; How to form a ‘funnel’ of potential problems to be solved
• Themes; How to connect Symptoms to Dysfunctions, identifying a root cause to resolve
• Purpose; How to coach people to understand, instead of beating a rule book
• Hypothesis; How to come up with an actionable solution hypothesis, aimed at solving a dysfunction
• Empiricism; How to create empirical measures to test your hypothesis.

Speaker: Matt Phillips

Track: Practitioner

Description:
To effectively coach people, teams, or organizations, it is important to design how we enter and withdraw from the relationship system with intentionality. We cannot expect to be highly- effective by simply showing up one day and beginning to coach the system. Good coaches spend a lot of time “sharpening the axe” in regards to their coaching skills and stances, but sometimes we may under-appreciate the art of starting and stopping the partnership.

In this session we will explore the intentionality around the questions “How will I (as a coach) enter this coaching engagement” and “How will I (as a coach) withdraw from this coaching engagement?” Topics to cover include assessment, coaching agreements, establishing relationships, agreeing on outcomes, useful metrics, setting milestones, post-engagement support, and the various tools and resources to use with these concepts. We will look at these aspects through the lens of working with individuals as well as teams.

Learning Outcomes:

• People – How to amplify Emotional Intelligence and take a people-first stance when entering and exiting a system
• Process – Create a playbook that will guarantee the engagement starts with a solid foundation and ends with value-realization.
• Tools – Assemble a toolset to reveal what is important in the system and to align teams for success

Speaker: Yvonne Delaney
Track: Practitioner
Description:
In a dynamic business landscape where agility is paramount, understanding and optimizing workflow is the cornerstone of success. Join me for an enlightening talk on Flow Metrics and their transformative potential in aligning with Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) to drive unparalleled business outcomes.

Flow Metrics offer a nuanced understanding of how work progresses through a system, enabling organizations to identify bottlenecks, streamline processes, and enhance overall efficiency. In this session, I’ll delve into the intricacies of Flow Metrics, exploring how they provide actionable insights into the health of workflows and delivery predictability.

Attendees will gain invaluable insights into:

• The fundamentals of Flow Metrics and their significance in modern business operations.
• Strategies for implementing Flow Metrics to drive continuous improvement and innovation.
• Practical approaches for aligning Flow Metrics with OKRs to foster a culture of accountability and achievement.
• The tangible impact of Flow Metrics on driving business outcomes and fostering sustainable growth.

Speaker: Kim Andrikaitis
Track: Practitioner
Description:
The Scrum Master role is being threatened and is in danger of becoming extinct.

In my years of experience as an Agile Coach, Consultant, Product Owner and yes, Scrum Master – I’ve encountered a variation of the following phrases more than I would like to admit: 

•    “Scrum Masters only schedule meetings. We can have <insert role> do it instead.”

•    “Scrum Masters slow down the process; we’re not going to fill that role.”

•    “I don’t see any value to having a Scrum Master on the team.”

After getting past my initial disappointment/heartbreak during these conversations, I would attempt to understand their stance and educate them on the Scrum Master role and its value. But as time went on, I began observing that even Scrum Masters struggle with conveying their value, with either concrete proof or confident articulation. I’ll admit to having struggled too, back when I was a fresh SM. And yep, I was embarrassed by that. 

Let’s face it, organizational leaders don’t necessarily want Scrum or Kanban (or any other framework for that matter). They also don’t actually understand what having an “Agile mindset” means. What they do want is to deliver faster, attract more revenue or customers, improve how they manage changing priorities, and to outperform their competitors. 

Speaker: Eithan Ackerman
Track: Foundational
Description:
Ever wondered where history and agile meet? It turns out that practices similar to that of the modern day ‘agile’ are found all the way back in ancient Greece and Rome. Today we can point to a living legacy of the agile tradition via the classical education system. Practices like focusing on the individual rather than the bureaucracy, responding to change in order to adapt, and creating a collaborative environment are among the many similarities found in agile and the classical approach to education.
 
During this talk and socratic style forum we will seek an understanding of the philosophical concepts which reside in agile in order to better understand the nature of agility and scrum. We will merge the past with the present, and by the end of it, come out with a new understanding of what agile can look like in the world. Through this interactive lecture as a group we will philosophically find the nature of agility, and by using the very techniques of classical education itself, come to a conclusion about education, history, and agile. 

By the end you will gain an understanding of

• The different forms agile can take in the world outside of software development. 
• The importance and impact of agile amongst youth and in the education sector. 
• The nature of agility and the essence of what it means to be agile. 
• The history of agile in practice, and real world historical examples of its effectiveness.

Speaker: Stacey Ackerman
Track: Organizational Transformation
Description:
Are you getting your desired business outcomes with Agile? Too many organizations approach agile as a check-the-box process process, but it’s about transforming how to a new culture.

During this highly interactive workshop, you’ll learn to focus your agile transformation on what matters using the 4 Pillars of Agile Success
.By incorporating these 4 Pillars into your agile transformation, you can focus on the proper outcomes for lasting culture change that expands beyond software departments into business functions such as Marketing, Human Resources, Finance, and more
.You’ll learn:

• How to avoid leading a check-the-box agile transformation and focus on outcomes that make a difference to your business
• The right questions to ask to gauge your teams’ maturity and actionable ways to improve
• Ways to show your value as an agile transformation leader by focusing your efforts on incremental improvements

Speaker: Matt DiBerardino

Track: Practitioner

Description:
Which person has not experienced the following situation: being on a new team, in a new environment, or where there is no trust, and wondered what they can do to help? Leading a team is hard, whether in sports or business. It’s about your relationships with people. And how you approach them will set the tone of how the team will work.

In this session we will take a look at some attributes of leadership, using the wit and wisdom of Ted Lasso, from the award-winning Apple TV show, “Ted Lasso”. With examples from the show, we’ll learn how these skills and ideas can help guide us on our leadership journey.

NOTE: Prior viewing or knowledge of the show is not needed to benefit from this session

Learning Outcomes:
The attendees will learn about their ability to impact a team through:

• The power of Believing in yourself and those you work with

• Showing Empathy to your teammates

• Understanding your Limits within your team

• Learning how to Include people

• The importance of Enabling your team members

• Allowing yourself to be Vulnerable

• Benching the Ego – either your own or within your team

This session will be beneficial for Scrum Masters, Agile Coaches, or team managers, who are looking to have a positive impact on their relationships with their peers.

Speaker: Jason Tanner

Track: Practitioner

Description:
Recent reports and observations of dozens of teams and hundreds of people indicate a current lack of sustainability in the Agile community and beyond. Teams and people are stretched to the limit and, in many cases, losing the essence of Agile by delivering a lot of work with uncertain value.

This interactive workshop focuses on the characteristics of a sustainable business – one that focuses on meeting the needs of the present without compromising the future. We will explore the connections between software business models, sustainability and profitable products.

We’ll use the Profit Streams Canvas to explore:
*Customer Benefit Analysis
*Solution Value Mapping
*Aligning Value Exchange Models
*Pricing and Licensing Considerations

You will leave the session equipped with tools and resources for you and your organization to achieve higher sustainability and profit.

Learning Outcomes:
> Describe how the business model of a software-enabled solution is a system of interrelated decisions.
> Use a canvas to design a business model for a software-enabled solution.
> Discuss the tradeoffs required to delight customers, ensure a sustainable solution and generate a financially viable business model.

Speaker: Bryan Miles

Track: Practitioner

Description:
If the 90s taught us anything, it’s that “Maybe she’s born with it…maybe it’s Maybelline.” Some people just have “it”…and others don’t. Some were born great musicians, athletes, artists, writers, and leaders…and for the rest of us, well, I guess we should give up while we’re ahead.

As much as we know this isn’t true, people fumble when asked how they can become a better leader. It seems clear with music, sports, and other disciplines (“How do you make it to Carnegie Hall…practice!”), but how can we “practice” leadership? What magical Maybelline makeup can we apply if we don’t have “it”?

In this talk, we will demystify leadership. We will explore how we learn and grow, dig into theories of adult development, and investigate how to develop our leadership muscle. By the end, you will have a new perspective on what it takes to be a better leader and walk away with a plan to improve your leadership skills- no Maybelline makeup required!

Learning Outcomes:
By the end of this session, attendees will be able to:

1. Investigate how learning is intertwined with adult development.

2. Understand dynamic skill theory and how it applies to leadership development.

3. Explore what gets in the way of leadership development at work.

4. Experiment with the Virtuous Cycles of Learning (VCoL) model, learn how to learn, and understand how to level up your own leadership game

Speaker: Sybil Stewart

Track: Organizational Transformation

Description:
In this forward-looking session, participants will be guided by a former Globaal Sr. Director of Diversity through what she calls the 5 pillars for the future of work. This session will cover the 5 areas that each organization should consider while creating sustainable and diverse cultures. Session attendees will learn why diversity conversations are no longer providing an opt-out option. For the workplace to flourish, we must begin acknowledging our active and passive participation in shaping sustainable and innovative company cultures. 

Sybil Stewart has spent over 10 years educating national and global organizations on pay equity and gender equality. Today, she is a consultant and business strategist for companies that desire to have DEI embedded in their core operations.

Speakers: Leslie Hobbs & Art Pittman
Track: Practitioner
Description:
Organizational Empathy is, “The feeling that individuals within an organization can experience that same feeling of clients and coworkers” as defined by Tia DeMaria.
During this session, we’ll identify your area of influence over organizational empathy. 
Our goals are for you to:

• Think: Where do you have influence and where you don’t and learn something: 
• Feel: Empowered
• Learn: Give you some information about how empathy can be built within an organization
• Do: Grow your ability to show/encourage organizational empathy

This is an interactive session. Come prepared to collaborate and add to the discussion.

Speakers: Adam Mattis
Track: Practitioner
Description:
Over the past year, we’ve seen an emphatic underscore on the relevance of agility: the need to pivot in the face of rapidly evolving business landscapes. The widespread adoption of AI has revolutionized our approach to work, planning, and delivering value. Yet, it prompts a critical reflection: How do we deploy AI technologies with integrity and responsibility?

In our pursuit to Work Differently. Build the Future. Scaled Agile is dedicated to guiding enterprises toward meaningful answers to this question. At the heart of the Scaled Agile Framework, SAFe®, lies a steadfast commitment to customers and an engaging workplace. As AI becomes an integral component of our operational toolkit, Scaled Agile aims to help enterprises amplify the human dimension of work, leveraging AI to boost efficiency without compromising our core values.

Join us as we recalibrate our understanding of SAFe, integrating responsible AI to thrive in product delivery. Our aim is, and has always been, to empower teams, align more closely with customer needs, and achieve outstanding results — establishing a new benchmark for agility with AI in a tech-enabled world.

Learning Outcomes:
The Heart of SAFe is Agility: Together, we will address common SAFe criticisms and re-anchor the Lean and Agile principles at the heart of SAFe, ensuring agility in large and complex environments. With a better understanding of the purpose of SAFe, participants will be better positioned to help their organizations thrive with SAFe, leading with an Agile heart.

•  The Need for Responsible AI: Understand how SAFe applies the principles of Responsible AI to aid in ethical, large-scale product delivery. Attendees will be able to lead conversations with their organization and clients better to begin embracing AI with confidence.

•  Navigating SAFe and AI Ethics: Identify common misconceptions about SAFe and how to alleviate them, leveraging AI tools to foster empathy for those adapting and exploring new ways of working. Learn how to leverage AI to test assumptions and overcome common SAFe objections.

•  Strategies for SAFe and Responsible AI: Discover best practices for SAFe adoption and the integration of responsible AI, focusing on transparent communication leadership patterns and common pitfalls.

•  Leveraging AI to Assist in your SAFe Environment: In this live demonstration, see how the Scaled Agile AI tools can help you guide conversations about ART structure while keeping an eye on the SAFe Lean-Agile principles and core values.

•  Feedback and Continuous Improvement: Understand the crucial role of feedback loops and continuous improvement within the SAFe framework and learn to leverage AI-improved dynamics and outcomes.

Speaker: Dean Peters
Track: Practitioner
Description:
Dive into the world of Agile and AI with a twist! In this dynamic 45-minute workshop, we reinterpret Chapman’s “5 Love Languages” to unlock the full potential of generative AI tools such as Gemini, Claude, and ChatGPT in shaping your team’s product goal and strategy. We blend humor, engaging narratives, and hands-on wisdom to show you how to craft a winning approach with:

1. **Word of Clarity**: Master the art of clear, precise instructions to set your AI tools on the path to success.
2. **Time of Learning**: Develop deep, nuanced AI understanding through innovative chain-of-thought prompting techniques.
3. **Gifts of Insight**: Learn to craft few-shot prompts that yield rich, insightful outputs, turning AI into a goldmine of ideas.
4. **Acts of Refinement**: Engage in Reinforcement Learning from Human Feedback (RLHF), providing the essential feedback loop your AI needs to evolve and optimize.
5. **Touches of Creativity**: Unleash your AI’s creative potential by exploring diverse personas, leading to engaging and effective conversation starters.

Join us to move beyond the trap of over-focusing on tactics and task-level details. Discover how to seamlessly integrate generative AI into your Agile framework, creating a strategy-first approach that resonates across your entire team. This workshop isn’t just about learning; it’s about transforming the way you think about and use AI in Agile product management.

Learning Outcomes:
1. Help their teams articulate clear goals using generative AI tools.
2. Jump-start great team collaborations around value rather than velocity.
3. See how to shape stories and estimations around quantitative & qualitative data.
3. Spend less time learning how to prompt, and more time scaffolding successful strategies.
4. Learn how to stand-up personas, canvases, journey maps & demos using Gemini, Claude, or ChatGPT.

Speakers: David Frink & Frank Forte
Track: Practitioner
Description:
If you’re a Product Owner or Scrum Master you’ve got a tough, and sometimes thankless job.

You are responsible for helping your team deliver value while managing competing and conflicting demands. And while your organization has embarked on an agile ‘transformation’, it still doesn’t fully understand your role.

Because of this, you find that there is a wide gap between what the scrum guide says your role is, and what your organization actually allows you to do.

You want to fully live into your role, but aren’t sure how to make that happen.

Using their experience as leaders and coaches, join Frank and David in an interactive conversation to help you become the leader your team and your organization need you to be.

During this interactive session you will:

• Expand your perception of your role beyond what your manager and organization think it is
• Discover ways to articulate to your organization and stakeholders the value that is created when Product Owners and Scrum Masters become the empowered leaders they are meant to be
• Learn and practice influence techniques to help you overcome the resistance you experience that prevents you being a more bold, impactful leader
• Come away with specific actions you can put into place the moment you’re back at work

Speaker: David Horowitz
Track: Foundation
Description:
Good retrospectives (you know, the ones that actually lead to real change?) rest on three pillars:
* people,
* process, and
* follow-through
What makes retrospectives so difficult is that if any of these three pillars starts to crack, it’s very difficult for the retrospective to be a success.

Ultimately, getting the right people in the room, utilizing a good process to facilitate the conversation, and following-through on the learning outcomes depend on having an organizational culture that encourages learning, transparency, feedback loops, and continuous improvement.

If this sounds like your company already, then great! This talk is not for you.

For everyone else, join me to explore how effective retrospectives can break a downward cycle of disillusionment and malcontent and transform you and your team into engines of learning and growth.

Learning Outcomes:
– How to create a safe environment for brainstorming, collaboration, and retrospectives
– How to balance personalities within the group
– When anonymous feedback is necessary… and when it’s not
– The role of ongoing feedback in continuous improvement
– How breaking the mindset around retrospectives can positively impact the ongoing employee engagement crisis
– You will also gain an understanding of the pitfalls of traditional employee engagement tactics and how to overcome challenges associated with these efforts by deploying agile retrospectives to create a safe, honest and productive environment for teams to deliver their best work.

Speakers: Marsha Acker, Kari McLeod

Description:

When we think about change, we often think about the tools and processes we can implement to bring it about. But the #1 thing that makes change difficult is that it involves humans — and human behavior. 

We are complex, unique, and unpredictable. It’s what makes us invaluable and also so difficult. While most of us can tell you WHAT we do, very few of us can say WHY we do it or what we expect from it. And yet, as leaders, it is this kind of self-awareness around our own behaviors — and the behaviors of others — that we need if we’re going to lead sustainable change in our teams and organizations.

This workshop is designed to help you get started creating your own model for leading change — a framework that guides how you think and feel about change, make sense of, and take action as a leader. This is the single most important model you can develop in order to bring about the change you are seeking and get un-stuck. 

Learning Outcomes:

Identify the four components of building your model for leading change

Identify what you believe about how change happens

Develop a roadmap for continuing to define your own model for change

Speaker: Carrie Driscoll and Carol McEwan

Track: Organizational Transformation

Description:
Navigating an ever-evolving business landscape, the bridge between strategic intent and effective execution is often elusive, yet it is the key to unlocking true business agility. “The Missing Link to Achieving Business Agility” is an interactive workshop that focuses on this critical aspect, spotlighting Visual Management as the pivotal element in integrating Lean and Agile practices at scale.

This workshop addresses a common challenge faced by many organizations: the disconnect between strategy and execution. It suggests that the solution lies in ensuring that the right people have access to the right information at the right time to deliver the right value. By infusing Visual Management into Lean and Agile frameworks, we create a transparent, accessible, and real-time visual map connecting strategy and execution.

Learning Outcomes:
Participants will engage in hands-on activities and discussions to:

• Understand how Visual Management serves as a communication and alignment tool, bridging the gap between strategy and execution.

• Explore practical techniques to incorporate visual tools into Agile practices, enhancing clarity, focus, and cross-functional team collaboration.

• Learn to create visual systems that resonate with both executives and team members, facilitating a shared understanding of goals and progress.

This workshop is designed for Agile practitioners and leaders eager to enhance their business agility. Participants will gain not only theoretical insights but also practical skills and actionable strategies to effectively implement Visual Management, establishing it as the crucial link that revolutionizes their Agile journey. Join us to learn how to synchronize the heart (Operational Execution) with the brain (Strategic Vision) of your organization, equipping you to thrive in an ever-evolving business landscape.

Speaker: Jennifer Fields
Track: Practitioner
Description:
Have you heard of the “Frozen Middle?” It’s a commonly used euphemism for middle management or leadership in organizations. They operate between senior leadership and their team and are often present the greatest challenge in changing an organization.

In this presentation we will investigate two key things. First, what are the common anti-patterns that contributed to the FM (avoidance, marginalization, demonization, and separation) and secondly and crucially, we will explore how to unfreeze the middle as a change agent. Key things in this regard are respect, relationship building, empathy, and partnership. You see, while investigating we may discover that it isn’t the people that are frozen, it’s the organizational culture that’s the problem. So, to unfreeze the middle, we must explore organizational and cultural root causes.

Attend this session if you’re curious about how to inspire a “Great Thawing” in your change contexts.

Learning Outcomes:
1. We will better define and understand what the “Frozen Middle” is.
2. We will investigate potential causes of the Freeze allowing attendees to leave with a better understanding of the “Frozen Middle” they are working with.
3. Create and share strategies for thawing the “Frozen Middle.”

Speakers: Sonja Pemberton
Track: Organizational Transformation
Description:
In the current business climate of uncertainty, organizations face complex situations requiring decisions that impact the employee experience and the organization’s fiscal health. From prioritizing business objectives to reimagining work environments, the cognitive endurance needed to complete daily responsibilities can cause mental fatigue for employees at all levels, affecting peak performance. Many believe the culprit is change, but it’s not. It’s how our brain processes it. While we acknowledge that change is life’s only constant, regrettably, our brains inherently resist it. The good news is that we can mitigate this instinctual response.

In The Neuroscience of Workplace Change: Future-Proofing Your Organization to Thrive in a Climate of Uncertainty, Sonja Pemberton, a NeuroConscious™ Strategist, certified in brain-based methodologies and trusted by C-suite leaders from startups to Fortune 100 companies, shares a brain-friendly framework for mitigating the impact of uncertainty. You’ll learn the essential elements needed for sustainable change initiatives to curate an environment where everyone can thrive.

Learning Outcomes:
1. Grasp the pivotal components for an engaged, committed workforce.
2. Understand the psychological needs for navigating day-to-day interactions where everyone feels respected and valued.
3. Apply the NeuroConscious™ Framework to cultivate a collaborative work environment that nurtures well-being while fostering productivity and synergy.

Speaker: Diane O’Connoll

Track: Organizational Transformation

Description:
How do we bridge the gap between individuality and productivity? In this captivating keynote, audiences will discover that, by creating a benefits program that supports individuality and prioritizes mental wellness, they can negotiate and reinvent their culture of well being to satisfy the social prong of ESG, and increase productivity, while also decreasing risk for the organization. Participants will be energized with a new perspective from an expert negotiator on how a culture of wellbeing can be accomplished resulting in a more inclusive, sustainable, and socially responsible work environment where everyone succeeds.

Learning Outcomes:
1) The importance of tailoring workplace benefits to the unique needs of employees.

2) The benefits of incorporating the social prong of ESG to promote social responsibility.

3) Negotiating employee wellbeing to increase productivity, engagement, and overall success

Speaker: Alistair Cockburn

Track: Keynote

Description:

User stories, use cases and story maps are all based on verbs. This means you will make a mess of any or all of them unless you learn how to make your verbs work. Once you learn that, you can make any of them work, and move between them with ease.

In this keynote, Alistair Cockburn extracts the common concepts you need to make good use of any of them, starting with “Verbs imply durations; Decompose verbs into verbs with shorter durations,” and moving to “Manage precision; Decompose everything, not just the verbs, Write from the user’s perspective” and “Sacrifice perfection for readability.” With the common concepts in place, he gives examples of each one and how to move between them.

Panel: Manish Jignasa, Adam Lenader, Ben Lithgow-Smith, and Noel Stadtham

Track: Transformation

Description:

Innovation in a digital transformation is outpacing the financial controls and reporting systems in most companies. These finical controls are critical to funding priority develop and applying course controls to strategic investments in a rapidly changing competitive marketplace. How do we achieve competitive advantage of rapid adaptation in product development provide the firm when the financial process might prevent that adaption through funding and budget management controls? At the same time, is cost accounting a corporate function where you really want to explore and try unproven financial controls? Against the dynamic demands of a changing marketplace, firms need to abide by regulator controls, external audits, and earnings expectations. If that weren’t enough, organizational culture has evolved over time to work with the existing financial functions of the firm, where changing financial functions challenges the tried and true tricks of individual advancement, navigating budgeting, and operational reporting.

Join a panel of leading agile professional in the international banking sector to help us expose these challenges and identify some of the potential inroads to shifting the financial functions of the firm to support agile product development.