Location / Agenda:5:00 p.m. - Cocktail Hour Networking with presenters and other attendees
Americano Bar (Hotel Vitale) - 8 Mission Street, San Francisco CA 94105
6:30 p.m. - Main Event. Sandwiches available on request.
Salesforce.com offices - 1 Market Street - 7th floor Conf. Room - San Francisco. 9:00pm - Raffle & wrap up. We will be raffling: A seat at one of Mike Cohn's Certified ScrumMaster or Certified Scrum Product Owner classes in San Jose, A seat at an upcoming Agile Learning Lab, Three tickets to AgilePalooza, an Agile community event in San Francisco on May 29th, Two licenses for JetBrains products, A two-user license from AccuRev, and A number of books.
TOPIC: Ingredients for Hyper-Productive Teams: A Group Coherence Workshop. Have you ever experienced a group where everything seemed to work? Where the group effortlessly overcomes obstacles, working with both harmony and rhythm? Do you look on that experience with fondness, team bonding, and a desire to work with those same people again? If so, you've likely experienced Group Coherence.
Group Coherence is the name for the state that can accompany this breakout performance in Agile teams. Possible effects of Group Coherence on Agile teams include:
- Team bonding
- Improved teamwork
- More effective self-organization skills
- Effortless devouring of team obstacles
- More fun!
This workshop will be a hands on, facilitated workshop, led by by Joanna Zweig, PhD who conducted groundbreaking original research, and Agile Leader and Performance Catalyst, César Idrovo. In this 90 minute experiential session, you and a small group of participants will share your unique experience of Group Coherence and use it to: - Identify the key elements that contributed to Group Coherence
- Learn to see the patterns that lead to Group Coherence
- Recognize obstacles to Group Coherence so you can avoid them on your teams
- Learn how to recreate the conditions necessary for Group Coherence in the future
A participant in a preview offering of this workshop, Ed Kraay, Agile Coach, CSP said: "I attended this workshop and it was a transformative experience. I now can recognize group coherence in my past experiences, the positive effects on projects, products and teams. And I can recognize obstacles I need to remove to create the conditions for hyper-productivity. Highly recommended!" Other offerings: This workshop is a preview of the Agile2009 session on the Manifesting Agility stage: When Agile Just Works - Exploring Group Coherence. Related writing: Joanna researched Group Coherence for many years, earning a PhD in the process. If you want to read more, she and César have been writing about it in the context of Agile teams for the AgileJournal.
About the Authors:
 Joanna Zweig holds a Ph.D. in Integral Studies with an emphasis on Learning and Change in Human Systems (how groups learn and Change) from California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco, California and a Project management Institute (PMI) Project Management Professional (PMP) certification. Her research on Group Coherence was motivated by her practical experience in two collaborative professional fields where groups exceeded expectations and experienced enormous energy and success in their goals.
She is a project manager in information technology in large businesses for more than 15 years and a producer and director of theatrical productions for more than 20 years. Her passion for collaboration in creative groups helped her to formulate the idea of Group Coherence and carry out her four-year research project to find out about it. Her research on group coherence revealed a way to learn about capabilities of collective consciousness. She is currently an independent consultant and CEO of Integral System Response, Inc. http://www.groupcoherence.com
 César Idrovo created his first hyper-productive team at JPMorgan London during 2000, in response to strong demand for his own work. He recruited a highly heterogeneous group and implemented “continuous collaboration” to achieve high team cohesion and tangible results. In several instances, his team’s tactical solutions were adopted as strategic implementations and are still in use today.
From 2003 he has focused on formal Agile methodologies and adaptability to high rates of change in requirements, creating further hyper-productive teams. As a project and program manager, he has applied Scrum for managing, tracking, and delivering working software in time-boxed iterations and introduced Extreme Programming including 100% pair programming. He has worked on practical complementary techniques to Agile practices for management and executive levels such as Project Patterns and Adaptive Roadmap. He also blogs at Nonlinear Enterprise where he is starting to exploring creative ways for large companies to deal with nonlinear behavior - and at times potentially explosive behavior - without losing the required adaptability to rapidly changing market conditions. Since 2008 he has given over 50% of his time to nonprofit initiatives, focusing mainly on BayAPLN.org, chartered for community research and education. It creates, fosters and supports a learning community of Agile leaders in the Bay Area. He contributes as a Community Builder, Organizer and Connector. He holds a Masters in Engineering from Imperial College London and a Masters in Finance from London Business School. |
