Retrospectives: The Art of Moving Forward by Looking Back

The presentation will be: “Retrospectives: The Art of Moving Forward by Looking Back”.
Speaker: Jim Bennett Manager, GSCS

1 hour workshop following this format:
• Presentation/discussion/workshop blend
• Presentation components to guide discussions
• Workshop exercise(s) to foster discussion, generate take-away ideas
• Quick Hansei at the very end

Takeaways for participants:
• Give an understanding of the true value retrospectives bring to teams and organizations
• Beyond Agile: even though retro’s come from the Agile world, you can use them even if you haven’t moved to Agile yet
• Give participants some tools and skills to conduct successful retro’s

Speaker Bio:
Jim Bennett, Manager of Technology Services for the Greater Saskatoon Catholic Schools, has over 30 years of experience managing cross-functional teams deploying enterprise-scale projects, both domestically and internationally. Jim is a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt (just finishing his Master Black Belt requirements), and is a Certified Scrum Master, Certified Scrum Product Owner and a certified Kanban Management Professional. Since joining the GSCS nine years ago, Jim has been bringing his knowledge of IT best practices, along with Agile and Lean Six Sigma frameworks and methodologies to the Division to improve operations and efficiencies in all departments.

Through his time with the GSCS, Jim has been active provincially, working with various groups to improve the use and effectiveness of technology in K-12 education, as well as evangelizing the use of Agile and Lean Six Sigma to create efficiencies. He has sat as chair, co-chair or member of various provincial working advisory groups. Along with his role at the school division, Jim is currently the Director of the Information Technology Working Group in the Saskatchewan Association of School Board Officials (SASBO), an active member of the Saskatchewan Education Technology Association (SETA), is the Lead for the K-12 Education Network within the American Society for Quality (ASQ) and provides Agile and Lean Six Sigma mentorship to individuals and organizations.

In his free time, Jim loves spending his time playing with his 4 grandchildren and exploring his hobbies of woodworking, music and cooking