Southern Fried Agile 2016

Many change leaders approach Agile adoption with naïve expectations. They don’t understand that training and coaching teams alone won’t be enough to ensure that their Agile initiative succeeds. Agile transformation entails change that will be broadly felt throughout the organization in policies, processes, mindset and culture. The key to successfully leading change that runs this deep is organizational change management. Organizational change management helps change leaders usher in extensive operational and structural changes. Even more important, it helps leaders facilitate the human aspects of change that occur during Agile transformations. In this webinar, we discuss what an Agile transformation is, how to successfully engage stakeholders, the critical role of change management and how to lead Agile change successfully.

Learning Objectives

1. Learn proven practices and approaches to organizational change management in the context of an Agile transformation
2. Understand why the transition from a traditional enterprise model to business agility requires a full-scale transformation
3. Understand the role of change management in a successful Agile transformation
4. Understand how change leadership, executives, management and all stakeholders across the enterprise must champion the change through continuous collaboration and communication

Simple techniques for making decisions around risk and opportunity

You know "collaboration over contract negotiation', right? However, metrics often drive a wedge between management and the team, none more so than forecasting metrics. However, when you give a probability distribution as the answer to the question, "When will we get it?" instead of a single date, an amazing transformation happens. Suddenly, the team and management start working together to manage tradeoffs and risk. 

You need two things to take advantage of this paradigm shift: 1) How do you start to think probabilistically?; and 2) How do you generate a probabilistic forecast or analysis? This talk provides mindset shifts necessary for #1 and lots of worked out practical examples for #2.

The GROWS Methodology is a new agile approach created by Andy Hunt and Jared Richardson. In this session, you'll hear an overview of the GROWS Methodology and how you can apply it in your shop.

Agile makes middle managers very uncomfortable. Why does the team not need me anymore? Do they secretly hate me? Will I have a job in the year?

While some of this anxiety is justified, a lot of it is not. Middle managers need to accept a different role in an Agile organization, but it can be an extremely important one. Be warned, the new job is not for everyone. For managers who embrace this new role, the job can be far more fulfilling than what they were doing before.

During this talk, we will take a Lean perspective on the role of managers. The discussion will center on the tasks and responsibility in the new role, as well as the type of mindset, experiences, and personalities needed to thrive in it. We'll be honest about what challenges middle managers face. We'll talk about managers in the context of scaled Agile frameworks -- not just how to conform to these guidelines, but how managers are needed to decide when they need to be tweaked or replaced.

As an Agile trainer, coach, and researcher, I've had a lot of experience with the middle management layer. I'm currently a senior consultant at Net Objectives. Prior to that, I was practice director for Agile at Cutter Consortium, and a senior analyst at Forrester Research.

Improve performance and results for yourself and your organization with a Purposeful Leadership process that will help you deliver the best results every time.  Attendees will learn the Rapid Process for Excellence in Leadership, which will focus on the following topics:

• Emotional Intelligence
• Mindfulness
• Overcoming Self-induced Obstacles
• Managing Perceptions
• Building Influence with Others
• Inspiring High-Performance Teams 

Delivered by DeAlva Wilson, President and CEO of the D. Wilson Agency, a consulting and leadership development firm focused on helping leaders and organizations improve performance, results and profit. 

Today the D. Wilson Agency provides motivated individuals and organizations with strategies for personal transformation, professional excellence and organizational growth through Purposeful Leadership‘©, a skillfully designed and comprehensive approach to getting what you want.

A short client list includes Bank of America, Wells Fargo, TIAA-CREF, Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools, Federal Highway Administration, Wake Forest University, Target Corporation, Carolina Panthers, Atlanta Falcons, Novant Healthcare, Jack and Jill Foundation of America, and SC Vocational Rehabilitation.

DeAlva's professional career spans over 20 years with a range of executive and senior leadership roles within Fortune 500 companies.   Her experience includes an extensive background in the financial services sector where her roles focused on creating strategy, process design, operations and technology.

DeAlva is a graduate of the Harvard Management Development Program.  She has an MBA and a Bachelor's Degree in Accounting from Winthrop University.  She received her Executive Coach certification from both the University of Georgia.  In addition, she is a Six Sigma Green Belt indicating her knowledge of sustainable process design, and a Certified Bridges Out of Poverty Trainer.

A company is a garden and as leaders we're tasked with cultivating the most important asset any successful company has: a healthy culture. The business community is waking up to the fact that companies with positive cultures have the best talent, which innovate and create industry leading products, which impact the bottom line. But how did they do it? How can I do it?

Understanding where we want to take our company, first we must look to those who have already walked the path with great success. We will present detailed examples of companies with positive cultures, how those cultures developed and what impact it had on of the individual employee and the company image as a whole. Then we start to tackle the big question: As A Leader, what is my role in the culture of my company and how can I work towards having people engaged, enabled and energized?

During this session, open two-way dialogue is encouraged as we explore the topic of company culture and how it impacts all aspects of a company, from acquiring new talent to the bottom dollar. We'll examine several examples of positive culture from different industries and take away from them action plans that anyone can begin implementing at their own company, no matter their level of leadership. By the end of this session, participants will have a clear understanding of their role in cultivating a positive company culture, the steps to start making positive, impactful changes at your own company (no matter toxicity of the culture) and know how to communicate the value of these changes to skeptics.