Psychological Safety – sharing experiences – ABD19 – Fabio e Giulia Armani

Psychological Safety – sharing experiences
In this talk we intend to explore the theme of “Psychological Safety” in Lean Agile contexts.

Referring to the first value of the Agile Manifesto, we note that the nature of the relationships between the members of the organization (and of the teams, of course) influences learning behaviors as well as value production. In fact, work is increasingly interdependent and complex.

Psychological Safety is a key construct that promotes the dissemination of knowledge and collaboration.

The concept of learning organization itself is fundamental when we talk about Business Agility and resilient organizations.

Learning in an organization depends on the dissemination of knowledge, from sharing among its members. Deep learning is possible only real psychological safe environment.

Since Psychological Safety is the perception of being at ease in being able to be oneself, feeling able to show ideas, emotions, thoughts … without fear of consequences for one’s image, one’s status or one’s career, it is possible to team up that self-organize and create value.

AULA 4A ven 12:05 — 35 min

Shifting the Paradigm – the Operating System of Sustainable Development is called “Agile” – ABD19 – Boris Gloger

Shifting the Paradigm – the Operating System of Sustainable Development is called “Agile”
The old system is at its end. It doesn’t deliver anymore. On the contrary: it destroys, it exploits and leaves a trail of dead bodies. The newest generation of consumers does not like this. They take to the streets and push back against what we are doing to their future. They punish politicians and companies that take no responsibility.

While we in Europe are still clinging to our old paradigms and trying to drag ourselves and them into the future, the most valuable companies in the world have two immediate advantages. They are leaders in profitability because they make themselves responsible for the well-being of their employees and for society in general. Companies focused on sustainability attract the best minds of the younger generation because their attitude, rather than money, make them more desirable. These companies have greater earnings and increase their value, even though they forego quick revenue in order to do what is ethically right. They create liveable working environments and integrate responsibility for society and the environment into their business models. The operating system of these companies is called Agile.

Real agile companies see implementing agile methods as just a first step. With this new culture, they also help determine how our society will evolve, because Agile is more than just a method of working. It delivers the values, attitudes and tools with which we can transform our digital, knowledge-based network society into a more humane society. Into a society where the abilities of the individual are allowed to be developed, in which work is inspiring, in which productivity and quality of life are simultaneously possible, and more people are able to profit from this progress.

AULA MAGNA sab 15:10 — 45 min

Deliver great products across the 5 Dimensions of product innovation – ABD19 – Valerio Zanini

Deliver great products across the 5 Dimensions of product innovation
Great products come from great product teams. In this session we’ll talk about how to assess, develop, and foster the skills of an Agile team to sustain a culture of innovation. The 5 Dimensions of great products can help identify gaps in skill-set and expertise so that the product and Agile teams can improve. We will review specific activities and frameworks that teams can use to plan a product across the 5 Dimensions and increase the likelihood of success. Participants learn how to plan for and avoid the “Delivery Gap”, that is delivering a product to market but failing to meet customer needs. The team assesses its expertise in each of the 5 Dimensions: Discover, Design, Develop, Deploy, and Deliver. It then identifies the areas in the product plan that need improvement. This helps the team grow its expertise and develop a more robust development plan for its product.

AULA MAGNA sab 14:35 — 35 min

Who’s to blame if you can’t achieve agility? Moi?! – ABD19 – Gaetano Mazzanti

Who’s to blame if you can’t achieve agility? Moi?!
On April 2019, a high-profile consultancy firm was sued by a leading car rental company to the tune of $32M. The reason? A failed website and apps redesign project.

Available information points to obvious mistakes made by the supplier. However, looking at the customer’s approach and logic it’s just as obvious that all the signs were pointing to a failure in the making. In other words they were asking for trouble.

This news created quite a stir in the business world, but it’s just one example of many similar and often repeated failures in technology and methodology change initiatives. Failures of this kind usually have three things in common:
1. changes are applied from predefined recipes (other’s success stories)
2. changes are limited to just a part of the organisation (i.e. R&D or IT)
3. change strategy and execution is delegated to external ‘partners’.


There are alternative ways to approach change that don’t rely on magical recipes. Successful change happens by taking people on an evolutionary journey. Small steps are validated through natural selection. This journey needs to be aligned and coherent with the organisation strategy and vision. It is also one that is bound to be unique and specific to each organisation.

AULA MAGNA sab 12:45 — 35 min

“That’s not Agile”, “I know better” & other signs you may be wasting your time… – ABD19 – Tony O’Halloran

“That’s not Agile”, “I know better” & other signs you may be wasting your time…
Being an Agile change agent can often feel like you’re fighting an uphill battle. Have you ever felt like you’re pushing, instead of having your knowledge and support pulled from you? Have you ever felt that the ‘Agile’ you’re championing is completely different from the ‘Agile’ your organisation is pushing for?

You’re not alone, I know I certainly have and it sucks! You’ll also find that the answer of many of your fellow coaches, Scrum Masters and agile leaders is also a resounding “YES” which leads to many of us feeling isolated and frustrated. Shouldn’t there be a better way?

This will be an exploration of WHY we see some of these symptoms, how we’ve arrived where we are and what we can do to avoid them, all told through stories about how I’ve messed up!

AULA MAGNA sab 12:05 — 35 min

Lean Start-Up for Refugees or How we introduced Agile to the Non-Profit Sector – ABD19 – Stephanie Gasche

Lean Start-Up for Refugees or How we introduced Agile to the Non-Profit Sector
Between 2015 and 2016, over 130,000 asylum seekers requested asylum in Austria – taking the country of 8.7 million people by surprise. As politicians were reluctant to act, civil society jumped in and founded hundreds of grassroots initiatives intended to alleviate the integration process into Austrian society. However, seeing as there was no central coordination, high language barriers and little marketing budget, there was a missing link between the thousands of refugees and the surplus of offers by civil society. This is where radical innovation was needed and “I am Refugee” stepped in – our non-political, online platform that holistically depicts the user journey of a refugee on his path to integration in Austrian society.

This talk will show you how we used elements of the Lean Start-Up to go from domain name to wireframes to a registered society and an up-and-running website within just 4 months. How we built a story map around the integration journey of a refugee. How we gained and integrated our users’ feedback to pivot and grow our product portfolio. How the agile elements of a strong vision, transparency, team work, iterations and pull principle are the best mechanisms for managing and leading an intercultural team of volunteers. How we dealt with our diverse variety of impediments ranging from governmental funding to right-wing trolls. And you will hear about how our culturally-adapted and yet solution-focused coaching approach makes our product range more than unique.

This talk will not only show you how Agile methods are great for starting an innovative initiative in a low-to zero-budget sector, it will also show you how you can use Agile to make a difference in this world.

AULA MAGNA sab 11:15 — 45 min

Enabling Business Agility through Finance and HR – ABD19 – Pia-Maria Thorén

Enabling Business Agility through Finance and HR
The level of VUCA; volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity in our business environments is at a record high. People also expect more from work than just a paycheck. How can we enable performance in these new business and people realities? How can we create more VUCA-robust management models, which also works with and not against human nature? How can we create a more engaging work environment, where people perform at their best because they want to, not because they are told to, and where learning faster than others is key?

This speech will inspire you to try new ways of working, where people and interactions are more valued than processes and tools, and where responding to change is more important than following a plan.

Learn from the fringes! Understand how management innovation can provide just as much competitive advantage as technology– and product innovation!

AULA MAGNA sab 10:00 — 45 min

Building Trust In Distributed Teams – ABD19 – Judy Rees


Building Trust In Distributed Teams
When you and your team members aren’t in the same place, what happens to trust?

Many distributed team members – especially Agile coaches and Scrum Masters – find themselves with doubts and fears.

They may wonder:
– Can you trust remote colleagues to get the job done?
– Will they really grasp what’s wanted, and why?
– How will they find out that things are going wrong, soon enough to help to fix them?
– Could remote team members be less loyal than you would hope, and how might that manifest?

When you’re a distributed team, you *really* need an Agile approach! But because of their doubts and fears, distributed teams often find themselves falling back to “command and control” styles. That undermines the very trust they want to build, and can block performance improvements.

In this short, highly-interactive online session, you’ll learn three specific ways to enhance trust remotely, so that you and your team can develop a richer, more collaborative way of working.

AULA MAGNA ven 16:30 — 45 min

Accelerated Learning: How Can Agile Help You? – ABD19 – Artur Margonari

Accelerated Learning: How Can Agile Help You?
Have you ever thought about applying your Agile knowledge to learn something you want? Want to learn how to play an instrument? Want to learn a new language? Or how to juggle balls? Whatever is the new skill, believe me: Agile can help you with it.

In our life, we often face the need of learning something new. It can be to use in our jobs, to impress the person we love, to simply for fun or as a new hobby. Whatever is the reason, we know it can be challenging to acquire this skill and it cannot be (yet) downloaded straight into our brain like in some nice movies. We still need to read books, follow classes, research, practice and be patient. Because the learning curve might be very slow… or not!

I’ll share with the audience a technique to learn anything new very fast! It’s basically 5 simple steps. The reason why this method caught my attention: it’s incredibly similar to Agile values, principles and practices! Thus, if you know what Agile is about, you are half way to use it in your favour to learn anything you want, fast.

AULA MAGNA ven 15:10 — 45 min

Enter the ZOUD – ABD19 – Tony Richards

Enter the ZOUD
As coaches we have learnt the skills of comfortable debate and we have learnt to prize rapport highly in our everyday relationships. The world is running out of easy answers, so what happens when our conversations become more edgy and how does the individual and team respond? In this session we’ll explore challenging coaching and how breaking rapport is necessary for breakthrough to really happen.

AULA MAGNA ven 14:35 — 35 min