Learnings from Global Scrum Gathering Dublin 2017

Last year I attended the Global Scrum Gathering from Dublin #SGDUB17 (30 Nov - 1 Dec 2017).
I would like to share with you my learnings as this was my first attendance to a Global Scrum Gathering and I was fully impressed.

#SGDUB17 Fun Facts

For the start, to image how impressive it was, below you can find some facts which were sent as a closing newsletter by Scrum Alliance the gathering's organizer:

• 649 Scrum and Agile practitioners attended SGDUB17
• 40 different countries were represented 
• Over 100 members of the community attended the first-ever Trainers Clinic
• Over 250 members of the community attended the Coaches Clinic 
• Scrum Alliance welcomed 13 new CSTs
• Scrum Alliance approved 9 Path to CSP^® Educators who were already in the community, but had their designation approved during SGDUB17
• Scrum Alliance added 2 new CEC

#SGDUB17  Structure & Theme

The theme of the gathering was "Individuals and interactions, A Return to the Essence of Agility" a very simple but in the same time deep topic. 

As an overview of how the gathering was structured, every day there was a keynote opening and after that you could attend different sessions. During the days, you could attend also the Coaches Clinic or Open Space sessions.  
In the picture below you can see how the schedule looked like for the first day of the gathering:

Next I will share with you more details related to the sessions I took notes of or that inspired me greatly. The keynotes were very interesting and for each and i will leave my impressions below.

Interacting Individuals by Tobias Mayer

This was the opening keynote which was an interactive session about values.
In this keynote Tobias asked us to:
- Define a set of value for us to shape the conference
- Make at least one human interaction and discuss about our values
- Formulate a statement of intent for the gathering and reflect on it in the following days
Mine contained: Respect, Courage and Positivity.
Respect as you should listen first, Courage as you need to be courageous to ask questions, Positivity as I do believe in an optimistic attitude
It is very interesting how by a simple exercise Tobias get to the theme - interacting individuals.

I left the session by thinking of:
- Which are the values that represents me?
- How am I living the values when interacting with others?
- Where am I failing in living the values and how often do I retrospect?

Me:Agile. You:Agile. We:Agile... Aren't We? by Tom Mellor

During this session Tom shared with us his Agile journey.

He examined what Agile is and he shared his believes with us regarding the fact that it is possible and sometimes useful to do Agile and be Agile in the same time.

He closed the keynote by exemplifying on the Scent of a Women scene the fact that if a blind can learn someone Tango each Scrum Master can learn someone Scrum.

I liked the fact that Tom added a personal touch to the keynote by giving a lot of examples from his Agile journey in parallel with being Agile meaning

I left the session thinking about my Agile journey and how can I improve it.
The above scene I already included it in my Agile presentation as a very good sample related to the Scrum Values

Wave 2 of Agile: Agile Leadership Redefined by Michael Sahota

Michael's keynote had a major impact on me.
He started his keynote with the Be bold choice movement  video which reminds about being bold when taking decisions.
He made a distinction between Wave 1 of Agile which started in 2001 and relates to teaching people about Agile - Doing and Wave 2 of Agile, now, which relates to Living Agile - Being to foster success.
From Michael's perspective Living Agile starts with looking of ourselves and the choices we make and see how the choices lead to the outcome that we get around us.
The keynote was very inspiring as he pointed out the differences between the Traps and behaving Agile when approaching change especially in organizations like:

We cannot ask other persons to do things that we don't do for ourselves so we need to build our character first.

As a personal reflection I left the session by reflecting on the following questions:
- How am I showing up, which are my intentions and how do I approach change?
- How do I need to behave differently so that I can inspire people?
- How willing am I to look at my behavior and the results that I want?

We are the Leaders We Have Been Waiting For by Lyssa Adkins

As a closing keynote Lyssa brought empowerment by saying that We are the Leaders We Have Been Waiting for and this is our time, we don't need to wait for someone we are the change.

She started the keynote with a very good question "If individuals and interactions are so important why processes and tools so often run the show? ". 

Following this, she mentioned about Integral Theory applied to an Agile Team and the Power of the Third Entity. 

Lyssa Adkins closed the Gathering in a positive manner by encouraging that everyone has the potential to change the world for the better.
I liked the session a lot also by seeing how she presents her ideas and how she engages the audience.

Besides the keynotes, another interesting aspect for me was the Coaches Clinic sessions.

Coaches Clinic

The Coaches Clinic idea is to discuss your issues/problems with a coach.
It is like going to a clinic - making an appointment and discussing issues with your doctor.
The Coaches Clinic Facilitator was Daniel Gullo.

In the below picture, you can see the board on which you could add on post it notes with the topics that you want to discuss with a coach and the chosen time interval.
After the discussion, you could have a picture with the coach and you could add an appraisal leaf on the tree - you can see this below in the picture from right.

 

I like the sessions as I realized that Coaching is more about powerful questions than advising and convincing people.
For example, the first time I went with a sample of how to address the issue of changing sprint scope often to Executives, the Coach asked me to play roles like being me and addressing the questions and being in Executives shoes and answering them.

It was very impressed for me as I never thought about putting myself in other's shoes.
And by this simple game, having a perspective switch I understood better how should I address the topic, which can be the reactions of the other person and how this makes me feel.

Besides the Keynotes and the Coaches Clinic sessions, I attended other sessions too but what impressed me more was the Keynotes and the Coaches Clinic sessions

My Learnings

During this Global Scrum Gathering I learned more about myself and it made me think about how am I showing up, which are the values in which I believe and how am I trying to inspire people.

I learned that Coaching is about powerful questions, about how good are you as an active listener, about trying perspective switch and putting you in the other's shoes.

I learned that the Agile mindset starts with us and the way the show up when approaching change in organizations.

I learned that interacting with people is the essence of Agility being by far more important than any processes established.

I learned that Agile Leadership starts with building your character first and then to see how you can inspire others.

It made me realize that I should stop and reflect from time to time on the following quote:

The next Global Scrum Gathering will be in London. Here you can find more details about it.

Be Bold!