Agile in Your Context

Bridging the gap between Agile ideas and your reality

Is your Scrum/Kanban implementation encountering some challenges?

Have you tried various “best practices” but the results are so-so?

Interested in focused, proven guidance for improving Agile in your context?

Most Agile implementations are well-intended and based on familiar frameworks and practices. Yet, they struggle to take off, or quickly plateau, far short of their potential. Too many companies are on their first or second Agile reboot.

It takes a lot of effort, time, and leadership to transform even a single team – let alone an organization – and results are not guaranteed. However, enough teams and organizations have done it successfully, and what’s the one thing they all have in common? Their Agile implementation is uniquely suited to their context.

Wearing various hats – coach, consultant, trainer, facilitator, manager – I have been supporting many Agile journeys since 2001. I have learned what’s critical for successful Agile adoption, and have developed useful tools for addressing these aspects.

I’ve packaged my techniques and strategies into a one-day practical workshop to help you improve your Agile implementation now. We’re not doing simulations, building with Lego, playing games, or training your whole team; you’ll be analyzing your own situation and considering improvements using the same techniques I apply in coaching/consulting and with ideas from fellow attendees.

It only takes one day. You’ll leave this workshop with a prioritized list of actions to take and conversations to start so your team can get to a better place with Agile.

This workshop is designed for people who:

Are helping a team (maybe two) succeed with Agile.
Have the basic concepts down through experience and study.
Have some influence over the implementation, whether formally (as ScrumMaster, Agile Team Leader, manager) or informally

If you have a colleague on the team who fits this description, you’ll get better results by attending together.

Workshop topics and structure

We will explore six key areas for great Agile implementations:

The choices that guide Agile work and decision-making
Launching work initiatives
Managing work intake
Engaging people and teams
Doing the work with maximum agility
The journey: what helps and hinders

Modules typically start with a short interactive presentation and proceed with a fair bit of independent work, done with my guidance and bolstered by input from the other participants and stories from the trenches.

Logistics

Location: TBD

Max attendance: 16 people.

Cancellation: If you need to cancel more than 30 days before the course, feel free to find someone to take your place. If you can’t find a substitute within this time frame, we’ll refund all but $400 to cover our administrative costs.

If you cancel within 30 days before the course, we can’t provide a refund. However, you may find a substitute.

No matter when you need to cancel, if you find a substitute, please let us know ASAP who that person is. It’s up to you to take care of payment arrangements with that person. Bonuses are not transferable between registrants.

Investment

Regular: Cdn $700 + HST
Early bird: Cdn $500 + HST

You may buy tickets on our site using a credit card or PayPal. You can also contact us for an invoice.

If you intend to buy 3 tickets, contact us for a 15% discount (on all tickets) and to arrange payment. (Our policy is to limit any one company’s attendance to 3 people. If you’d like more people to attend, ask us for an in-house session, which might be more cost-effective anyway.)

KEEP ME POSTED

WORKSHOP GOALS

Develop customizations of Agile ideas to better fit your context.
Learn simple techniques to establish what matters long-term when going Agile.
Identify conversations to start, causes to pursue, and challenges to experiment with.

WHERE AND WHEN

Fall 2018 (exact day TBD). You may get on the early-announcement list.

NOTIFY ME

Each company and environment that aims to be Agile will have its own unique conditions and challenges. Gil ties your particular challenges back to each topic wonderfully. He also allows time to self-reflect on each topic, so you can generate ideas (both internally and through discussion) that you wish to take back and implement into your environment.
- Moez NayaniDevelopment Team Lead, Economical Insurance
A fast-paced workshop where you evaluate your current Agile process and pinpoint strengths and weaknesses. Gil uses personal experience and anecdotes to highlight each segment, and audience participation gives you a chance to see how other teams operate.
- Alexandra ZwickerUX Designer, IBM Risk Analytics (formerly Algorithmics)
Provided valuable insights into building a true Agile team.
- Justin WarnerManager, Market Reference Data, CPPIB
A workshop like this, with someone as experienced as Gil, is a rare and valuable opportunity. Take advantage of it.
- Bruce RennieScrumMaster, Carbonite
Agile isn't a checklist that works the same way for all teams. This workshop opened my eyes to how different teams have different values, and Agile can help them in different ways.
- Mark BalabanFront end developer, IBM
Gave me a lot of food for thought. I liked the group discussions a lot; they gave me real examples of what is done at other companies. There are ideas we can definitely implement at my company.
- Aliza Sinyor
The workshop addresses the fundamental struggles with implementing Agile in the real world, ruled by constraints and limitations. It was energizing, initiating many discussions between participants that brought to light lots of new ideas and insights, and allowed the participants to learn from each other’s experiences. Gil's facilitation was outstanding with many good questions that make one think beyond the status quo.
- Cristina PierceRelease Solution Manager, IBM Risk Analytics
The workshop provided tremendous value in an engaging format. This unique combination of instruction, exercises, collaboration, and contextual discovery offered what few courses do -- reflection on specific aspects of one's agile implementation. Gil’s thoughtful questions reliably guide one to view matters from varying perspectives, which revealed insights that may otherwise have remained hidden.
- Kevin ThackorieDirector of Technology, Yes Lifecycle Marketing