More and more I find myself attending sessions around the fringe. Don’t get me wrong I love a unique take on an old story but what really fascinates me are topics way outside my comfort zone, and Agile 2016 didn’t disappoint. We rolled in with a packed crew, which allowed us to surf presentations, network, and man the booth.
One of the first mind-altering presentation I went to that rattled my democratic bones (and I mean that in the American governance sense) was Jutta Eckstein and John Buck’s Presentation on With Sociocracy, Hierarchy becomes Agile. LitheSpeed has been passionately pursuing a self-managed culture focused more on purpose over profit for some time now, so this piqued my interest.
Always love hearing about different organizational models. #Agile2016 #sociocracy @lithespeed pic.twitter.com/XtzEDKiwSQ
— Jason Hall (@JasonHallc) July 26, 2016
Sociocracy, which originated in the Netherlands, of course, creates emergent teams and structures and decision making in the face of unshakable hierarchy. Completely fascinating and it was the only talk I attended where people were visibly agitated.
Laura Powers Body Talk, It’s Not Just What You Say that Counts linked fascinatingly with the Agile principle of favoring face to face communication (especially since the majority of communication is non-verbal).
So far @LauraPowers & J Eckstein’s talks are sticking w/ me. I’ll be mindful of placating while setting up sociocractic circles. #agile2016
— Jason Hall (@JasonHallc) July 27, 2016
Michael Spayd and Michael Hamman left that entirely and presented a fascinating mashup of Frederick Laloux’s organizational model (grounded in Integral Theory) with Agile mindsets, behaviors, organizational systems, and cultures and why we often fail out our transformation efforts. Check It. I take my previous comment back, this got people’s juices flowing too, and in my book that’s the sign of a good presentation.
Lastly our very own Bob Payne and close friend and colleague Manoj Vaddakan delivered a call to action in Agile for Social Good (more to come on how you can get involved later).
#Agile2016 agile for social good @agiletoolkit @manojvp pic.twitter.com/v8VkPCEoHD
— Bob Payne (@agiletoolkit) July 27, 2016
Oh, and of course there were glorious…um…networking events. Big kudos to my friend Tim Kwan who came to the Aquarium party in full shark regalia.
No comment needed #Agile2016 pic.twitter.com/PyPhi0Wkgs
— Jason Hall (@JasonHallc) July 29, 2016
Until next year, so long and thanks for all the fish!
-Jason
