What's Your [Agile] Faith? A Walk Through the 7 Stages of Agile Thought

By Sarah Harper

Elevator Pitch

The journey from “What’s Agile?” To “It Depends” closely parallels the spiritual path humans take as we grow into mature adults. The seven distinct stages go from trust to rebellion and then to the true meaning of agile. Understanding where one is on this journey can help you coach more effectively.

Description

Faith is more than religion. While we do find faith in our spiritual practices, I would bet you also have faith in gravity, and in your circle of family and friends. Faith is a generic feature of the human struggle to find shared meaning. And as coaches, faith can be found in our agile practices and how we coach teams to be better.

In this talk, participants will learn about 7 stages that individuals and teams move through along their agile faith journey and how to coach for those stages. Coaching to the stage will ensure that you meet the needs of the team at that time.

For each stage, we will * Define the stage using psychosocial and faith stages * Discuss the characteristics of people who are in the stage * Understand how to coach at this stage for optimal support * Know the signs that someone is ready to transition to the next stage

We will also discuss Agile Evolutions vs. Agile Transformations and how this view of Agile as Faith can impact an agile implementation.

You will leave with a better understanding of where you are on your journey (and how you got there) and where your teams may be on theirs.

Notes

This talk will be a keynote at LeanAgileKC in November 2019. It can easily be an interactive session by adding table talk in the discussion sections.