Agile Lessons from Antarctica: Responding to Change Over Following a Plan

Join us in person as Julie Wyman tells us about Agile Lessons from Antarctica: Responding to Change Over Following a Plan.

Agenda:

• 5:30 pm: Networking, food and beverages, welcome from our sponsor- Steampunk
• 6:15 pm: Julie Wyman- Agile Lessons from Antarctica: Responding to Change Over Following a Plan
• 7:00 pm: Q&A, general discussion

Agile Lessons from Antarctica: Responding to Change Over Following a Plan
In many ways Antarctica is completely unique - a place unlike any other I'd traveled to before! And yet, during my time there, my mind kept drifting back to how well that environment and traveling there exemplified one specific value of the Agile Manifesto: "Responding to change over following a plan." In this session, I'll share how I returned from my Antarctic trip with six key takeaways about change and planning useful for anyone leading teams or initiatives, whether as a Product Owner, Scrum Master, or Agile Coach. I'll explain how Antarctica drove home for me why we need both planning and, more importantly, the ability to respond to change -- and not just to prevent negative outcomes, but to capitalize on positive ones as well! We'll discuss in small groups how real-life, non-software examples of responding to change, such as this trip, can serve as great reminders to bring back to more typical work environments. We'll explore what expectation setting and communication lessons we can leverage from the experiences of the crews that run Antarctic expeditions, since change is constant everywhere these days. And after getting stuck in Antarctica, I'll share why my biggest takeaway of them all was increased empathy for team members struggling with dynamic situations -- a lesson that's only continued to serve me well in a 2020-2022 environment!

About Julie Wyman:
Julie Wyman is the Director, Business Agility at Appian. For over a decade, she's coached globally distributed development and business teams across commercial and public sector environments to enable continuous improvement and help teams and organizations accomplish their goals. Julie currently supports Appian's Customer Success department in its efforts to quickly deliver business value to customers. She enjoys engaging with her local DC-area Agile community and is always looking for good book and podcast recommendations!