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Friday, November 13, 2015 - 10:30am - 12:00pm
Summit Keynote
SMT2

Benefiting from Conflict: Building Antifragile Relationships and Teams

Successful organizations are based on relationships that work. We must be free to collaborate and interact with others on our teams and throughout our organizations. We should be moving beyond strong relationships to antifragile relationships, which actually benefit from healthy conflict. For example, we frequently hear from leaders that they have an open door policy, but when we talk to others in the organization, they say they have no way to raise issues or new ideas. This stems from not having clear agreements in place that everyone trusts. Like agile, creating antifragile relationships is a journey and mindset. To truly “be agile,” we need to continuously improve our relationships. Join Jake Calabrese to explore this concept by learning about and practicing a number of tools you can use individually and with teams—from delivery to leadership teams—to help your organization move toward a space where they can thrive. We will first focus on ourselves, looking at what we can bring to the table, and what we can do and be. Then we’ll begin to practice building an advanced team alliance, plan for potential conflicts in advance, and dive into a number of common issues contributing to toxic organizational situations.

Jake Calabrese
Jake Calabrese, Agile For All

An enterprise agile systems coach and agile trainer with Agile For All, Jake Calabrese has more than twenty years of IT experience in a variety of roles and industries. Jake believes that agile must be more than simply ceremonies and practices. We must dig into the more difficult challenges of strengthening people’s relationships and teams, their ability to work together, and their culture. Valuing people is the key to organizations thriving in an increasingly complex, fast, and social world. And beyond that, we need to value relationships!

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