A few months back, a colleague of mine and his organization were about to begin their agile journey. They had piloted Scrum with a single team, and this team was going to share their experiences at an off site with the rest of their small organization. At this same off site, he asked if I’d be willing to take an hour to introduce agile to his organization. I told him I would, and then I realized the challenge I faced.
How would I distill a decade of experiences to sixty minutes of content? Further, I was certain some of the crowd had a misunderstood version of agility imposed on them at some previous org. Others though were hearing about it for the first time. So how could I talk to both groups simultaneously? Also, how could I connect with my audience on a personal level in order to elevate their concerns and questions?
My approach? I stripped away all the silly buzzwords and labels, I spoke in terms of preferences instead of in terms of right and wrong, and I asked a ton of questions using one simple slide.
[Read more…]