people management

Conference Presentations

STAREAST 8 Ways to Ruin Your One-on-Ones
Slideshow

As managers, it's easy to fall into the trap of focusing on what we need out of our employees' one-on-one meetings, all the while forgetting that one-on-ones are for them! 

Jason Wick
STAREAST How Do I Work with These Millennials? Attracting and Retaining the Next Generation
Slideshow

Leaders and managers are facing many struggles attracting, retaining, and working effectively with the millennial workforce. 

Nikki Henry
Agile DevOps East Agile Leadership Conversations in the Fishbowl
Slideshow

It can be lonely at the top. Trying to find other leaders who are having the same problem and issues you have and are willing to take a few minutes and help solve problems is really hard. One solution that Bob Galen has found works well is the "fishbowl" conversation. The fishbowl activity is also great for keeping a focused conversation while in a large group of people. At any time, only a few people have a conversation—the fish in the fishbowl. The remaining people are listeners—the ones watching the fishbowl. The caveat is that the listeners can join the discussion at any moment. In this session, Bob will facilitate this technique while you and the other attendees bring real leadership problems for all participants to learn from each other.

Bob Galen
Agile DevOps East Agile Distributed Teams: Oxymoron or Viable Option?
Slideshow

Many surveys indicate that more teams work in distributed environments. But agile approaches work best when people collocate, huddle around a problem, and closely collaborate on the best solutions that will deliver value. Is collocation the only option these days? Does distributed always imply “dysfunctional”? Does technology help or hinder? Maybe the problem is how we think about the working environment. Mark Kilby will share key principles of successful distributed agile teams that help define better working environments. Understand how the principles apply to different types of distributed teams, and discover how agile practices change in distributed teams and how they may vary from team to team. You'll take back ways to assess your current distributed team environment and generate ideas for improvement.

Mark Kilby
Agile DevOps East The Introvert's Survival Guide to Agile
Slideshow

Open work areas, a focus on collaboration and conversations, and group events that seem to require verbal fluency ... It may feel like the agile ecosystem is designed with extroverts in mind. But science tells us that introverts make up almost half of the workforce, and they may struggle to be productive in an agile environments. In fact, introverts might even shy away from agile opportunities because of the radical collaboration it requires. In this interactive session, Julee Everett will teach you to recognize the traits of an extrovert and an introvert through self-identification. Building on that discussion, you will identify common prejudices and personal biases, then move into busting myths about introverts. Explore how introverts can thrive as leaders by studying lessons from modern, well-known introverted leaders.

Julee Bellomo Everett
Agile DevOps East Self-Selection Gamified: Leave Your Fears Behind
Slideshow

Self-selection is a facilitated process that allows people to exercise autonomy by choosing their preferred initiatives and joining new teams. As exciting as it may sound to some, the idea of self-selection may cause others to experience all sorts of fear: fear of missing out, fear of not being selected, or fear of picking a wrong team. Let Dana Pylayeva alleviate those fears by taking you through effective preparation steps and a round of self-selection simulation. Hands-on activities such as drawing, making participants cards in a Team Ingredients Assessment, and playing the Not2Spooky4Me card game will keep everyone engaged and maximize learning. The game-like format creates a safe space for you to ask questions and overcome fears. By the end of this session, you will be able to explain five steps to prepare for self-selection and three steps to run the process, so you can go back to your teams with confidence.

Dana Pylayeva
Agile DevOps East What’s Really Going On with Your Team? An Observational Skills Workshop
Slideshow

When it comes to our day-to-day work interactions, there are many factors that pass us by simply because we’re not used to paying attention to them. The best way to become more observant is through deliberate practice, so join Julie Wyman for a brief introduction to themes and different aspects of interactions to start observing, followed by small group exercises to practice observing and to help understand what it feels like to be observed. The exercises will be followed by a debrief and full group discussion about how to observe thoughtfully and share feedback in a neutral, nonjudgmental way. You will leave with an understanding of the critical importance of being able to observe interactions at the individual, team, and organizational levels, and with ideas for how to observe using multiple senses. You'll go home with your coaching and support skills more aligned to your team’s full situation and needs.

Julie Wyman
STARCANADA Why Military Veterans Make Exceptional Testers
Slideshow

Hiring trained talent has been a challenge for IT organizations for several years now. How do you find a steady source of qualified candidates for entry-level QA and QE positions, especially considering colleges and universities don't include a software quality assurance curriculum?...

Brenda Hall
Agile DevOps East Empathy-Driven Development
Slideshow

Empathy is a technical skill. Don’t worry; you read that correctly. While empathy is often cited as a critical “soft skill,” it doesn’t stop there. Empathy is also an incredibly technical topic that is more accessible to analytical engineers—and more vital to building software—than you might think. Andrea Goulet, a noted expert on communication in the software industry, will debunk several myths around empathy, including that empathy is just a feeling, that technical folks can’t access empathy, and that empathy is just a high-level, touchy-feely fad. Andrea will demonstrate how empathy is a crucial skill for all developers of software, and she will give you practical and immediately actionable advice for making empathy a central focus of your daily software development communication practices. She'll also explore the place for empathy while you’re coding and testing.

Andrea Goulet
Agile DevOps East Leadership Journeys Start from Within
Slideshow

Becoming an amazing leader means achieving high-performing results. However, this journey of growth and learning has plenty of ups and downs, twists turns, and results and surprises. After years of leadership coaching and practice, Tricia Broderick has noticed several key patterns that have prevented people from taking the next step toward growing their leadership skills. Some of the common questions are, "What if we risk failure?" "Why won't my team step up?" and “Am I still adding value?" Tricia says that to achieve high-performing teams, leaders must challenge these patterns through learning, reflection, and discovery. She also asserts that this challenge starts from within each one of us. Too often we focus on what the team is or is not doing, when instead we should start with what we are doing to influence the team dynamic.

Tricia Broderick

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