Interviews with Keynotes from Agile 2016

At Agile 2016, Adam Asch, Devin Hedge and I got to spend the week doing video podcasts with speakers and though leaders for LeadingAgile. The keynote presentations will eventually be posted to the Agile Alliance website and will be available to members, but while you are waiting... here are the interviews we did with them last week in Atlanta.

Jurgen Appelo, the CEO of HappyMelly, kicked the week off with his keynote on Managing Happiness. During the interview I got the chance to dig a little deeper on some of the specific tools (like personal maps) that he discussed during his session. If you don't want to wait for the Agile Alliance, you can also check out a previous version of Jurgen's talk here: TedX, or pick up his book here.

LeadingAgile Live - Jurgen Apello from LeadingAgile on Vimeo.

Devin Hedge got a chance to sit down with Industrial Logic CEO and Wednesday keynote Joshua Kerievsky to ask him questions about his keynote on Modern Agile and what changes he believes are necessary for the next step in Agile evolution. You can learn more about Modern Agile here.

Our last interview of the week was with closing keynote Carrie Kish. Unfortunately we missed her talk Leadership for Genius Tribes because we were still in the Hyatt basement doing interviews, but this conversation was one of the most fun and inspiring of the week for me. Carrie is the CEO of CultureSync and has a podcast called LeadershipUnleashed.

LeadingAgile Live - Carrie Kish from LeadingAgile on Vimeo.

Live Video Podcast Interviews from Agile 2016!

I'm doing live podcast interviews from Agile 2016 all week long for LeadingAgile.

The live interviews will be showing up on LeadingAgile's Facebook site here.

And you can watch HD versions on Vimeo here.

The Agilistocrats on Agile 2016

The Agilistocrats on Agile 2016! If you are attending for the first time or aren't sure what sessions to attend, we've got you covered. Maria Matarelli, Richard Cheng, Dhaval Panchal and Dave Prior share their pics for which sessions to check out and how to survive the week in Atlanta at Agile 2016.

Agile Governance at eVestment - a more Agile approach to PMO with Liana Dore

In this episode of SoundNotes, Liana Dore, the Agile Governance Lead for eVestment explains why eVestment chose to establish a group focused on Agile Governance instead of a traditional PMO. Liana explains how Agile Governance works at eVestment, what she does day to day and the positive impact it has had on the Agile teams.


Show Notes:

Intro and background on eVestment 1:48
What is an Agile Governance Lead 3:30
Making the choice to establish Agile Governance instead of a traditional PMO 3:56
What does an Agile Governance Lead do all day 5:02
How Agile Governance works differently than a traditional PMO 7:40
The benefits of training the team all at once 13:30
Understanding Team Health in an Agile organization 16:05
Creating a space for the teams to thrive 18:44
Establishing an entrepreneurial culture that can scale 20:43
Agile Governance is not about control. It has to be light touch 23:32
How to get in touch with Liana 24:35

If you’d like to get in touch with Liana, you can reach her via LinkedIn at
www.linkedin.com/in/lianadore

Getting Ready for Agile 2016 with Devin Hedge

In this iteration of SoundNotes, Devin Hedge and Dave Prior talk about how to get prepare for Agile 2016. If you’ll be heading to the conference for the first time, the Agile Conference is a big, awesome, exhausting week. You need to prepare, you need to pace yourself and you need to know what you want to get out of the conference.

In this podcast you’ll get some tips from seasoned conference veterans on how to make the best of your week in Atlanta.

The podcast is only 18 minutes long, so we’re not providing show notes this week. Instead, here is a list of the LeadingAgile events taking place at Agile 2016.

Mike Cottmeyer "The Executives Step-by-Step Guide to Leading Large-Scale Agile Transformation" Monday at 10:45

Jann Thomas "2020: The State of Agility" Tuesday at 10:45 AM

Jeff Howey "Practicing Agility in Human Resources" Wednesday at 11:30

Collective Soul June 27 at 7 PM.

To learn more, please visit: collectivesoul.leadingagile.com

If you'd like to contact Devin on Twitter -> twitter.com/agiledevin

If you'd like to contact Dave on Twitter -> twitter.com/mrsungo

Personal Accountability Partnerships Part 2: Olga Krayova

“If you compare yourself with your surroundings and you only see that you are the best you gotta leave this place because you want to develop and be better”

A few weeks ago I posted an interview with Katrina Coker on having an accountability partner and how transformative that can be. The post got a great response on the LeadingAgile site and so in this episode of SoundNotes Katrina’s actual accountability partner, Olga Kraynova shares her thoughts on accountability partnerships, how they work, and why they are valuable. In the interview Olga shares how she coped with the challenges she faced in moving to Moscow, becoming a PM and then moving to Dallas and how she makes sure she is always surrounded by people she is motivated by and able to learn from.

If you’d like to get in touch with Olga to learn more about her story and her approach to being an accountability partner, you can reach her via LinkedIn at:
www.linkedin.com/in/kraynova/en

And if you’d like to check out the initial interview with Katrina Coker, you can find that here: Leadingagile – The-power-of-accountability-partnerships
 

Show Notes:

Interview Start 1:47
Olga’s Background in Startups and Project Management 2:25
Why Olga liked working at Startups and how it prepared her for PM work 4:15
How Olga got started with Personal Accountability 5:53
How Olga defines Personal Accountability Partner 7:09
How Olga and Katrina communicate on a daily basis 7:33
How Olga approaches Goal Setting 8:16
Staying motivated 10:03
Experimenting until you get the result you are looking for 11:17
How Olga and Katrina work the Accountability Partnership 11:43
The very essential thing 13:47
Tracking the plans you make for yourself and making daily updates 14:36
Olga’s journey to Moscow, becoming a PM and then moving to Dallas 17:27
Managing stress and coping challenges and not giving up 20:51
Prioritizing your needs and finding the opportunities to get them addressed 22:51
When you can’t see the whole path, taking on one challenge at a time and saying “Yes” 23:04
Having the courage to take just one step and letting the next thing arise 24:37
The benefit of not having the luxury of just shutting down and giving up 26:06
Being driven for the things you have to fix and finding people to help keep you motivated 27:57
“If you compare yourself with your surroundings and you only see that you are the best you gotta leave this place because you want to develop and be better” 28:42
Olga’s explains why you should find an accountability partner 29:17
If you don’t trust you will not be able to be open 31:56
How you can reach Olga if you have any follow up questions 32:02

Agile Transformation and Craftsmanship of the Self

In this SoundNotes interview, LeadingAgile’s Tom Churchwell explains what it’s like to stick with an Agile transformation all the way through, the Agile and Beyond conference, and the fundamental questions that lead to craftsmanship of the self.



Tom Churchwell Notes 

Interview Begins 1:48
Background on Tom 2:14
Tom’s path to Agile 3:23
The long haul of transformation 4:20
I lost my cube, but I got this shirt 5:05
The long haul 6:05
I trust you implicitly from right out of the gate 7:16
Creating a safe space to make it work 8:00
Change is slow 8:30
Agile Beyond 9:55
Reorienting around excellence 10:45
Ae we still pushing the boundaries? 13:35
Creating the Safe Space 14:15
Increased focus on the human side of Agile 16:00
What do you do when excellence fails? 17:45
I don’t believe that there are dark places 18:38
If your team is in the doldrums, it is the fault of leadership 19:24
Enroll and Inspire, nor command and control 19:40
Craftsmanship and art are a part of what high technology people do 21:00
Bob Hoover - an amazing scary story about trust 23:00
We need a safe space where people can make mistakes 24:25
On volunteering and how it can inspire you 26:30
The fundamental questions of the self 32:30
Tom’s mission and craftsmanship of the self 33:18
Volunteering for Agile and Beyond 35:30
Getting in touch with Tom 37:15

Tom can be reached at tchurchwell@twitter.com