Transforming a Team of Agile Skeptics into Agilists

Teams can hesitate to adopt agile practices, even when there’s a clear desire for transformation at the executive level. But there are strategies for coaching agile-skeptical teams into an agile mindset. Scott Weiner will detail an approach in depth, including working with leadership to create transparency and space for the team to experiment and learn, adopting a retrospective process and using it as an engine for change, educating the team on agile’s value while focusing on a small set of goals, and building trust and shared understanding by problem-solving collaboratively. We’ll discuss how to align the team on metrics, clear goals, and expectations of what “good” means; develop management support; and build a culture of trust, respect, risk-taking, and continuous improvement, even in the most skeptical of teams. And we’ll provide specific examples of the strategy in action within a variety of teams. You'll learn the foundational elements of a coaching plan for agile-skeptical teams and how to align it to each team’s unique characteristics. Instead of imposing an agile transformation, come get techniques for winning teams over and getting them to realize agile’s benefits.