Traditional definitions of leadership emphasize position, formal authority and power, vision, heroics. Those definitions might have been sufficient in another time. Organizations that need to respond to a fast-changing environment and desire continuous improvement require a different kind of leadership and a different kind of leader.
In this talk, we'll explore a different definition of leadership, one from Jerry Weinberg: “The ability to enhance the environment, so that everyone is empowered to contribute creatively to solving the problem(s)”
In this talk I'll briefly review traditional definitions and assumptions about leadership. Then, we'll explore what is possible when Weinberg's definition is applied. We'll look at what is necessary to empower leadership though out the organization, and how you can move that direction in your organization.
Every organization—whether it is 50, or 50,000 people—faces three broad sets of concerns. How it fits in the market, how it serves customers, how it makes money, what sort of place it wants to be. Leaders in the organization have to figure out what initiatives to invest in, and how to sequence and order work that flows into teams. They have to support teams, so they can do good work. And teams need to figure out the details of their work and how best to collaborate.
Traditionally, organizations have answered these concerns by setting direction at the top, decomposing responsibilities, and cascading objectives down through the hierarchy.The results is often fragmented effort, diminishing initiative, and important work that falls through the cracks.
I'll share a model that provides a way to address these concerns that maximizes the possibility of healthy self-organization, and adaptability.
The SEEM model distinguishes concerns from hierarchy, and allows managers and executives to think about their roles in a way that is more both more responsible and less reliant on narrow job descriptions.
I'll share the model, work through the domains, and then participant will have a chance to work with some scenarios to explore how concerns are met or not met, and the impact that might have on teams.
Even if you don’t have change management in your job description, your job involves change.
Change is a given in modern organizations as they respond to market and technology changes, make improvements, evolve new practices to meet new challenges. These are not simple changes on the organizational, group, or even team level. Often, there is no indisputable right answer, and responding will require learning and unlearning, trial and error. Whatever you do, it will interact with existing policies and structures, with unpredictable results. The answer is not more rigorous planning, more pushing, or more persuading. Instead, attraction works, taking an approach that is adaptive, responsive and engages people in learning and owning the new way.
This session presents seven heuristics to guide complex change.
It may seem paradoxical that something small leads to something big. Yet this is the case. Big changes can feel like an existential threat and cause major disruption. Tiny changes, working obliquely, evolving towards a more desirable pattern may lack drama, but get you where you need to go.
So how does this work? The same way agile does, iteratively, incrementally, with learning as you go. I’ll share some small ideas that will add up to a big change in how you go about changing your team or organization.
What is the cost (emotional and financially) of your mindset, and that of others, on your organization?
This session will dive deep into the way that our mindset affects our peers, direct reports, supervisors, and customers. We'll talk about the “collusions” we collectively create in our organization that demolish communication, progress, relationships and results. We'll also discuss a proven strategy to rebuild these relationships while simultaneously breaking down our corporate silos.
Is allegiance to the status quo paralyzing your organization? Are you tired of settling for compliance? Do you crave committed and needed change?
This session will illuminate the hidden human drivers of resistance and how to neutralize them in order to mobilize people. In this session, attendees will learn about proven, practical tools to influence change in individuals and across organizations. Participants will come to fully understand that to effectively influence others to change we must let ourselves be changed…and that one of the best ways to change ourselves is to truly focus on others’ needs, challenges, and objectives. By the end of this session, participants will have been introduced to tools that will help them change their own perspectives and then invite others to change in ways that reduce resistance and inspire commitment rather than compliance.
Software architecture can be defined as the internal structure of a software system. As such it influences many critical aspects of software systems like maintainability, comprehensibility, changeability and security. One would think that given the importance of a good architecture most systems would be well structured and not suffer from large amounts of structural or architectural erosion. Just the opposite is true. Most non-trivial systems with more than 100,000 lines of code are in bad shape and require enormous efforts to keep them alive. Developers spend most of their time with figuring out complex interdependencies in the code base.
After analyzing the reasons why so many systems end up in bad shape we will focus on strategies to improve the situation.(Spoiler: Micro Services are usually NOT the solution for this problem)
Software metrics can be used effectively to judge the maintainability and architectural quality of a code base. Even more importantly they can be used as “canaries in a coal mine” to warn early about dangerous accumulations of architectural and technical debt. Therefore using the right metrics can improve project governance and outcomes.
The session will introduce some key metrics that every tech leader should understand.
Engineering Leaders across industries and timezones are struggling to retain technical talent even after offering the shiniest of benefits and perks. Why is that?
This one hour session will uncover key factors that lead to highly engaged teams followed by 5 common reasons Engineers choose to leave an organization and changes we can make to proactively avoid these departures.
Are you trying to assess project progress with story points or velocity? That data might help the team—it doesn't help managers assess progress. Instead, in addition to demos, you can use feature charts, the product backlog burnup chart, what’s working and not released, cycle time and the effects of delays, and cumulative flow. Gain insight to your teams outcomes, not their daily work.
Outline:
Have you ever thought, “If I could just avoid all this bureaucracy, I could get things done?” You’re right. Too many organizations think they’re helping the teams when those very practices make work more difficult to accomplish. Sometimes, all you need to do is stop demotivating people from doing the work. Innovative organizations don’t just innovate their products—they innovate their processes.
You might not be able to influence all of these ideas, but you can start the conversation:
Do you ever feel caught between what your manager wants and what your team needs? Too much of what passes for management or leadership pushes people away instead of creating an engaging environment.
You can create an environment that frees people to do their best work with your leadership:
Modern work practices demand management excellence. And, you might never have seen management excellence—certainly not applied to you. If you can’t manage yourself, you can manage or lead others.
Learn to see how you manage and to manage yourself:
Agile approaches have downplayed the role of management. Too many people say, “We don’t need no stinkin’ managers.” On the contrary. We need managers to create and refine the agile culture and create leadership capability across the organization. Without modern management, any agile transformation dies a quick and ugly death. Instead, it’s time to invite managers to change their behaviors to transform to an agile culture.
Learn to see and create management excellence for your agile culture;
Everyone wishes something was different—CEOs, managers, ScrumMasters, team members.
Often, people try to achieve the difference by rolling out new processes Or, they try to persuade people to try their ideas. Both approaches sometimes work—for some definition of work
But, if you want people to own the change and shape the change, you need to go about things in a different way. I call this change by attraction. In this interactive talk, I want to engage you, as I share strategies to activate curiosity, build credibility, and engage people change.
Let's face it: there is no shortage of good ideas in our field. But getting people to listen to your ideas isn't always easy. But let's face another thing: most people don't like to be told what to do. Nor do they like to be argued into submission.
The attraction principle takes the opposite approach. Rather than telling or arguing, build influence and curiosity.
In this session I'll share how to gain influence and credibility, create reciprocity, and get your ideas put to use (or at least tried!).
By now, we been zooming since March— at work, at home, and in these sessions.
So, how are your online meetings going? For me, some are productive, while others are downright painful. People have.a hard time getting a word in, They talk over each other. Some people talk a lot. Other voices are not heard at all. Everyone feels “on,” all the time. It is exhausting!
Part of the problem is our brains. We’re wired to move towards safety and away from threat. Unfortunately, remote space can feel vulnerable and evaluative. That puts people on the defensive—not the best place for creativity and collaboration.
I’ll share a model based on neuroscience that describes the ways we can create more safety. As we work through the model, we’ll use practical techniques that put that model into action.
I'll outline David Rock's SCARF model, which brings attention to the factors that can reduce threat responses. Then put it into practice. We'll analyze some of your past meetings to see how they attended to these factors. Did they lower threat or heighten it? Then we'll look at the methods I'll use in the session–examining our experience within the experience.
You’ll leave with methods you can use in your next meeting.
Do you feel inspired by conference talks but overwhelmed by all of the take aways to remember when you get back to work? This session will provide an opportunity to identify and practice key leadership skills immediately!
Leading a team requires a certain level of self-awareness and is often an overlooked requirement of the role. Therefore, understanding your own personal motivations is important to effectively lead and influence your team.
This one hour session will lead you through a few powerful activities to discover your own motivational style and understand how it drives your daily actions and decisions.
Developer First leadership does not depend on accumulating power within a team or company. Instead, it focuses on the needs of the developers, their technical and career growth, and building positive team cultures.
This session will cover 7 different tactics to practice Developer First leadership. These include empowering others, the importance of diversity & inclusion on our dev teams, establishing a positive developer onboarding experience, and how to become an authentic and respected leader.
Participants of this talk will learn how to successfully navigate the complexities of Engineering Leadership; regardless of your title!
Time management + prioritization - everyone needs it! We all seem to face a never-ending list of demands coupled with a finite amount of time to get it all done.
You will leave this 60 minute session armed with new tips and tools to effectively balance your time between meetings, writing code, putting out fires, and clarifying your role to ensure you are spending time on the things that actually matter!
Self-deception affects everyone. It’s like being stuck in a box–despite our best intentions. Often, we have a biased view of problems, are blind to their underlying causes and our roles in them. This blindness erodes our effectiveness and happiness levels in work and life, and can spread like a virus to infect everyone around us.
In this session, we’ll explain “the boxes” in which we get stuck and how we carry them with us into situations, and how to free ourselves to see new possibilities and solutions. Come ready to think about how you think!
Everyone wants to be successful in life. Many have found the SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant & time boxed) goal setting framework to be a powerful tool to help clarify and validate their goals. Unfortunately having well defined goals is not enough to obtain them. This is where WINS (write, incentivize, network & share) comes in.
In this session, you will learn how to become more successful by putting goals into action with SMART WINS.
Inevitably, talented engineers find themselves in a leadership position (whether it's explicitly part of their title or not). Making that transition from a contributor role to a leadership or management role can be tough.
There are a handful of skills and qualities that make a great leader. This keynote explores those qualities, how to develop and strengthen them, and exercises to continue your personal growth long after the session ends.
Two and a half days of insightful sessions, inspiring ideas, and meeting your peers. Learn the skills and methods that will take your organization to the next level.
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