Craig Strong

Following another briefing from Nigel and Carol, we reflected on the previous day and the structure to the day ahead. There was some very minor changes to the schedule and all was in order. Onto day 2…

Day 2 – Keynote : Making the Entire Organisation Agile

Speaker : Steve Denning @stevedenning

10 Year Growth/DeclineChange or Die

I was really looking forward to this presentation more than most. Having read some of Steve Denning’s work, I am an enthusiastic and very keen to hear his next word.  He was quite a big name to have at the conference and his depth of knowledge is very well respected world over to say the least. Well he didn’t disappoint. I’m sure that he is a very accomplished and experienced presenter, but what I most of all enjoy is the hard facts and direct approach of the presentation. Quite simply, the world has changed and those who are not on board will die out faster than you think. He touched on the story of “Why Amazon can’t make a Kindle in the USA”, focused on the message that the “customer is the new boss”,  and presented concerning hard facts about the rise and decline of some of the worlds biggest companies. Steve presented an alarming, but reenforced statement that by 2020 more than half the fortune companies will be new companies.

Finishing the presentation early gave room for some interesting questions from the floor. Some interesting and fun discussions enlightened the listeners and gave lots of food for thought. One thing in particular that stood out for me was the ability of change. Reenforced with references to the text “Change or Die”, most people chose to die over change. With a few discussions emerging around this fact, it was disturbing and at the same time reassuring to know that some people cannot be changed. In fact even faced with certain death whether it be personal or business, research indicated that the majority would choose their own demise. Therefore sometimes for companies to survive, sometimes its required that the very people at the top need to be removed or replaced. An interesting fact which I’m sure takes a lot of peoples energy and effort when trying to help protect businesses.

Overall a great presentation as expected, from another truly inspirational leader. It may also be worth mentioning that all attendees received a complimentary of Steve Denning’s book “The Leaders Guide to Radical Management”, which was previously on my wish list.

Day 2 – Session 2 : Don’t Start With Kanban!

Speaker : Marcin Czenko and Josef Bacher

Don't Start With KanBan

With quite a controversial title I thought this would be an interesting session to attend. Often when you have sessions with controversial headlines such as these, they can be quite informative as they tackle problems with strong arguments and fact. Having previously attended a session “Using Kanban to Prepare a Scrum Project”, this could have provided a counter balance.

The presentation was well introduced and we were quickly split into teams with the task of making paper aeroplanes. Regardless of your age or background, making paper aeroplanes is always fun. The exercise clearly demonstrated some of the problems with Kanban being applied from direct waterfall environments and most people enjoyed it.

After the exercise was complete, unlike some of the other sessions there was quite controversial and to some degree heated debates. I personally think some information was lost in translation as some people were arguing the same points. The message which I think was trying to be stated was that Kanban applied incorrectly can counter some of the benefits of Agile. In some cases it could be used as a mini waterfall and miss the Agile benefits completely, whilst on the contrary when fitted on top of or with Scrum it could be mislead or misrepresented.Nonetheless the discussion was interesting and demonstrated some of the pitfalls when jumping into methodologies such as Kanban. It certainly wasn’t the smoothest session at the conference, but I enjoyed it all the same.

Day 2 – Session 3 : Using Scrum,Kanban and Open Space to Transform The World Of Instructional Design

Speaker : Jasmina Nikolic @jazilla

My experience with Instructional Design was limited so I thought this session was going to provide me with a good overview. This was a difficult session to choose as there were so many other interesting topics going on at the same time. With that being the case only about half a dozen people turned up, but this meant on the upside we had a very engaging and intimate session.

Although I didn’t really gain much knowledge on Instructional Design, the success story of applying Agile by Jasmina was a very enlightening. The challenge that she faced and the accomplishments made using Agile through leading academic institutions across the EU amazed me to say the least. It was also interesting to hear what was used, what worked and what didn’t work as well as some of the tools in place. This was very much an Agile war story with a light at the end of the tunnel. Not only was it interesting to see the actual working Kanban boards, on leankitkanban.com but it was exciting to see how Open Space become part of and integral to what I would call product design. Considering the barriers in place, the size of the task and other limitations, this was quite a story and I was glad to have heard it so passionately from the person on the front line.

Day 2 – Session 4 : Kaizen or Kaikaku – two approaches to improvement

Speaker : Arne Ahlander @ArneAhl

Kaizen, Kaikaku & Hansei

Continuous improvement is an expectation and at the same time a challenge for organisations and teams. Often in Lean environments Kaizen and Kaikaku are heard. I wanted to attend this session to find out more about these methods of change.

On entering the room Arne made a point of introducing himself personally to those in the session which was a great way to settle everyone. He then went onto a very well presented slide show with interactive discussions on Kaizen, Kaikaku and Hansei. Originating from Japanese cultures these were well described. For instance the emphasis on Hansei one should regret mistakes and promise not to make the mistake again.

Being an interactive session, lots of other elements emerged such as “Double Loop Learning” as well as some of the ways and approaches companies should and shouldn’t manage change. We discussed and were presented with the need to value making mistakes in order to learn and build as well as other facets such as why diversity is essential.

Following this Arne got us moving around the room and introduced us to some very motivating and thought provoking games demonstrating some of the issues discussed. I thoroughly enjoyed this session and was pleased I chose it.

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