AYE 2009 Conference
Sunday, November 8 - Thursday November 12, 2009
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2009 AYE PROGRAM
Sunday Session
AYE WARMUP TUTORIAL, all day with Don Gray and Steve Smith (SesNine00) (Optional, extra tuition)
Sunday Evening
WELCOMING BUFFET DINNER
Monday Morning Sessions
Is this the Way We Really Want to do Things? Seeing Project Patterns and Changing What You Don’t Like (SesNine01)
Move Your Team Forward With Personality Differences (SesNine02)
Good Idea, But How Do We Do It? Finding and Using Your Sources of Power (SesNine03)
Managing Change: Knowing When, Knowing How (SesNine04)
Monday Afternoon Sessions
How Can You Do What Great Managers Do? (SesNine05)
More than the Sum of the Parts: Creating the Conditions for Teams to Excel (SesNine06)
Managing Yourself, Managing Meetings (SesNine07)
Saying No That Really Means No (SesNine08)
Tuesday Morning Sessions
Increase Your Capacity and Finish Projects: Manage the Project Portfolio (SesNine09)
How Do I Communicate with You? Let Me Count the Ways (SesNine010)
Make the Change You Want: Finding Organizational Levers (SesNine11)
Leading Your Personal Board of Directors (SesNine12)
Tuesday Afternoon Sessions
Profiting From Both Sides of the Coaching Relationship (SesNine13)
What Do I Do Now? How to Get Unstuck When Problem Solving (SesNine14)
What’s a Manager to do? A Manager’s Role with Self-Organizing Teams (SesNine15)
Beyond the Org Chart Illusions (SesNine16)
Wednesday Morning Sessions
Structuring Your Conversations (SesNine17)
Are You Solving the Real Problem? (SesNine18)
Looking Back, Moving Forward: Continuous Improvement With Effective Retrospectives (SesNine19)
Selling Your Ideas to Management (SesNine20)
Wednesday Afternoon Sessions
1-on-1 Consulting Opportunities with Esther or Johanna (please specify a time)
Seeing Process: Making Process Visible (SesNine21)
What do I do with all these Marbles? Turning Your Ideas into Action (SesNine22)
Don’t Let a Four-Year-Old Run Your Life (SesNine23)
Wednesday Evening
AYE CLOSING DINNER
Thursday All-day Workshops
Collaborating Tools for Leaders (Esther Derby and Johanna Rothman) (SesNine24) (Optional, extra tuition)
Becoming A More Effective Leader (Don Gray) (SesNine25) (Optional, extra tuition)
Zeroing in on the Right Problem (Steve Smith) (SesNine26) (Optional, extra tuition)
SESSION DESCRIPTIONS
The AYE Warmup Tutorial
(Steve Smith and Don Gray)
After the 2000 AYE conference, participants commented that a pre-conference tutorial would add value for new participants. They envisioned a full-day event that introduced participants to the vocabulary, such as “ENTJ” and “congruence”, shared by the people who would return to the conference. They suggested that a tutorial would not only provide value to those who had not encountered the vocabulary before, but also to those who had and wanted a review. Since then, we have offered the “Warm-Up Tutorial” to make it easier for everyone to participate from a shared understanding of the basics. It’s been a big hit.
The design of an AYE session is different than most conferences. The basic format of the typical conference session is one or two presenters talking from the front of the room to people seated in row after row of chairs. At AYE, session leaders use simulations to create shared experiences. People are often out of their chairs solving problems. When they are in chairs, they sit facing each other discussing their experiences and gaining insights from them. We believe that this approach enhances learning, and we’ll use it in this tutorial too. That means that you’ll have an opportunity to participate, determine what happens to a great extent, and have fun doing it.
We’ll introduce you to the Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) and several of the tools, techniques and concepts of Virginia Satir, such as: triads, safety, feedback, congruence, making contact, the communication stances, and the interaction model.
Join Don and Steve to warm-up before the conference starts by experiencing the shared vocabulary, models, and freedoms of the AYE Conference.
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Is this the Way We Really Want to do Things? Seeing Project Patterns and Changing What You Don’t Like
(Johanna Rothman)
If you’ve been in an organization longer than six months, you’ve seen several projects start, proceed, and, maybe, complete. Each organization has its own project patterns.
Some of your project patterns help the team start and complete the project. But some patterns do not help the project, such as gathering “all” the requirements at the beginning; waiting until the very end of the project to integrate the code; not knowing what done means, and much more. Some patterns delay the project start, some make it difficult to see progress, and some prevent the project from even finishing.
In this session, we will experience some project patterns for traditional and agile projects and explore options for change.
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Move Your Team Forward With Personality Differences
(Don Gray)
Have you ever sat in a meeting wishing the blowhard would shut up? What did you think when the twit asked for data supporting the database upgrade you just proposed? Why does Steve keep worrying about how Joe feels? Aren’t we here to get a job done? How about the time no one else on the team could come to the obvious decision?
If you’ve had these or similar experiences, you’ve been exposed to different personality types. With improperly handled differences, the team slowly grinds to a halt just prior to imploding. Handled constructively, agile coaches and team leads can use these differences create the bed rock for positive collaboration.
We’ll explore the personality types Extravert/Introvert, Sensing/iNtuitive, Thinking/Feeling, Judging/Perceiving. We’ll experience their strengths and limits. We’ll examine how to use them for better team performance. Perhaps we’ll find there isn’t anything wrong with the other person, they’re just different, and the difference creates a better team.
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Good Idea, But How Do We Do It? Finding and Using Your Sources of Power
(Esther Derby)
People often focus on generating excellent ideas and making sound decisions. But if you can’t implement, neither matters much. Most of us aren’t in a position to say “Make it so;” we need to convince, sell, and enlist the support of others. In this session, we’ll explore your sources of power to help get things done.
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Managing Change: Knowing When, Knowing How
(Steve Smith)
Kurt Lewin said, “There is nothing so practical as a good theory.” A gift from pioneering family therapist Virginia Satir is a good theory about how people process change
The Satir Change Model describes the: five major stages of a change; transition between stages; effects each stage has on feelings, thinking, performance, and physiology; and interventions that are helpful during each stage as well as interventions that are harmful during each stage
We will go beyond an intellectual understanding of Satir’s model. You will climb inside the model and experience how people feel, think, and perform during each of the stages Satir. You will examine factors that impact the orderliness and predictability of the model. You will explore constructive interventions to nurture the change process.
Satir believed that improvement is always possible, but change is difficult. Our goal is to help you take the next step to effectively applying the Satir Change Model for transforming the way change takes place for you, your team, and your organization.
This session will be valuable to managers or individual contributors, especially to those who are leaders of change efforts.
How Can You Do What Great Managers Do?
(Johanna Rothman)
Great managers create environments in which people can do great work. They have trusting relationships with their groups. They get work done and have a good time doing so.
So, how do you become a great manager? In this session, we’ll experiment with some approaches to creating a great environment, to finishing work, and to build trusting relationships with staff members.
More than the Sum of the Parts: Creating the Conditions for Teams to Excel
(Esther Derby)
Some teams wallow, bicker, and slog their way to uncertain results. It doesn’t have to be that way. How can you help your team avoid the slog, and soar instead?
In this session, we’ll explore the essential ingredients of successful teams and what you can do to your team be greater than the sum of it’s parts.
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Managing Yourself, Managing Meetings
(Steve Smith)
Is your time being wasted in meetings?
For example, you join a problem solving meeting attended by the right six people. But the discussion wonders aimlessly and contributes little to the solution. You feel your time was squandered and wish you would have invested your time doing something that would have made a difference.
Discussions tend to stray. Without shepherding they will diverge rather than converge. Groups that have consistently effective discussions have a common characteristic — members step up when needed to help lead the discussion. It?s not a single participant, such as the facilitator, who is the “leader” but rather many leaders who participate in shepherding the discussion to success.
The same kind of thing happen in meetings both small and large. I’ve seen discussions go awry on trivial issues, such as what picture will hang in the lunch room and who will receive the largest amount of a minuscule bonus pool. Without meeting leadership, wasteful discussion abound.
Join this session, to learn about solutions to these examples and more. Whether you are a manager or an individual contributor, learn how to lead from the front or the back of the meeting room.
Saying No That Really Means No
(Jerry Weinberg)
If you can’t say NO, your YES has no meaning. In this session, we’ll work on participants’ problems of saying YES and NO where appropriate, how to say it so it sticks, and how to feel good about saying it and sticking with it.
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Increase Your Capacity and Finish Projects: Manage the Project Portfolio
(Johanna Rothman)
Have you ever been told to multitask–working on so many projects simultaneously you don’t know where to start or what to do next? On the other hand, have you ever felt so pressured by your organization that you asked your staff to multitask?
Multitasking happens when leaders don’t set direction for themselves and other people. A major decision leaders make are about which projects people work on in what order–the project portfolio. These decisions determine your results–how effective and productive you and your group are. In this session, we will discuss what a portfolio is, what it looks like, what it doesn’t look like, and we’ll explore how to make successful collaborative decisions about it.
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How Do I Communicate with You? Let Me Count the Ways
(Don Gray)
Have you listened to someone and gotten lost in their words? Maybe you zoned out long before they finished speaking. Have you noticed peoples’ eyes glazing over when you were speaking? These events occur when communication styles mismatch. I often see communication mismatches when I coach agile teams.
In this session we will explore how personality influences our preferred communication style. We’ll practice adding techniques to our communication tool set to make it easier for the other communication styles to follow our meanings.
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Make the Change You Want: Finding Organizational Levers
(Esther Derby)
Levers are simple devices that shift the amount of fource required on one end to move an object on the other end. In this session, we’ll explore how to apply this principle in organizational change by noticing how categories, communication, and structures drive behavior.
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SesNine12
Leading Your Personal Board of Directors
(Steve Smith)
Each person has their own board of directors that is available for consultation. The board members are the parts of ourselves that are constantly interacting inside our head.
Virginia Satir used a method, called a Parts Party, for helping the parts of ourselves work together. We will use a Parts Party to convene a Board of Directors Meeting for a participant.
Join this session to learn how to enjoy the wisdom of your Board of Directors working together rather than working separately.
Profiting From Both Sides of the Coaching Relationship
(Johanna Rothman)
Many of us have experienced sports coaches, where they helped us stretch for the crawl, turn in dance, or catch a ball. But sports coaching tends to be just one kind of coaching-and not necessarily the kinds of coaching you need to provide or hear at work.
Coaching is one of the most important–and most difficult–responsibilities of leaders. Too often, people struggle and fail when it comes to coaching others. Coaches may try to impose their style on someone else for whom it doesn’t fit. Some coaches try to transfer “best practices” regardless of how well they fit the organization. Other coaches talk too much.
Coaching is a two-way relationship between a coach and the coachee. But not all the learning is on the coachee’s side. If a coach is not learning as he or she proceeds with the coaching, the coach shortchanges the coachee.
We will explore how to recognize when you are the right coach–and when you’re not. We will explore multiple coaching techniques so you can select the ones that most fit you, the other person, and the context. We will practice coaching in several ways and see which ones you prefer, and which ones you might need to practice more.
What Do I Do Now? How to Get Unstuck When Problem Solving
(Don Gray)
Have you experienced “mental grid lock” when problem solving? That “deer in the head lights feeling.” How do you get unstuck?
Problem solving involves know what to do when you know you don’t know what to do. It this session we’ll find, discuss and practice ways to change so we can get unstuck and back on track solving problems.
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What’s a Manager to do? A Manager’s Role with Self-Organizing Teams
(Esther Derby)
When your organization decides it’s time for self-organizing teams, teams take over some management tasks. What does that mean for the manager’s role? In this session we’ll look at how to navigate the transfer of responsibilities, when a manager should step back and when a manager still needs to step in.
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Beyond the Org Chart Illusions
(Jerry Weinberg)
Organizational mapping and sculpting are visual/tactile tools for helping organizations of all kinds better see themselves and understand themselves.
For example, sculpting helped:
* a management team unravel it’s own intergroup dynamics
* the consultant working with a standards working group appreciate how the members’ different company cultures were clashing
* a agile development team to improve the dynamics of its relationship with its sponsors and users
The techniques of mapping and sculpting are an adaptation of Virginia Satir’s approach to working with family systems.
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Structuring Your Conversations
(Johanna Rothman)
If you want to gather data in the organization, if you want to influence people, or if you want to collaborate, you need to interview people. When you’re interviewing people, what’s the most important thing you need to get quality information? A relationship.
But relationship quality depends on conversation quality.
In this session, we’ll discuss how to build rapport, gain familiarity with the other person, gain knowledge of capabilities and limitations, learn common language, and find common ground.
Are You Solving the Real Problem?
(Don Gray)
Like onions, problems come in different sizes, shapes, and have multiple layers. Working with either of them can bring tears to our eyes. Using the proper tools reduces the amount of crying.
In this session we’re going to practice finding the real problem. No crying.
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Looking Back, Moving Forward: Continuous Improvement With Effective Retrospectives
(Esther Derby)
If they are done well, retrospectives can be a powerful force for continuous improvement. Come to this session to learn a flexible framework for effective retrospectives. We’ll also look at how teams can be more successful implementing changes they’ve identified in a retrospective.
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Selling Your Ideas to Management
(Steve Smith)
Do you have a problem selling your ideas to management?
Employees do their best to sell their ideas to busy managers. But a typical outcome of the conversation is “No.” or “Let me think about it.” Employees seldom ask and management seldom offers feedback about elements of the selling that worked and those that didn’t.
If you could hear managers talking with each other, you would hear them complain about employees who whine; who don’t define the problem; who don’t state the impact of the problem in business terms; who don’t provide an action plan; and who don’t explain why fixing a problem is more important than fixing other problems.
Selling ideas is a problem solving activity. Join this session to learn about three top characteristics of proposals that sell; apply these characteristics to an idea of yours; experience a conversation with management where a proposal is made; and experience the same conversation after hearing feedback and receiving coaching.
Managers are busy. You may only have only one shot to sell your idea. Propose your ideas skillfully so management sees how the idea will benefit the business and, just as importantly, sees you as a leader.
This session will benefit both managers and individual contributors, anyone who wants to sell an idea.
Seeing Process: Making Process Visible
(Steve Smith)
Have you ever seen a map of a process worth a second glance? Perhaps the map didn’t contain anything resembling the process as you know it. Perhaps a second glance wasn’t a consideration because there was no map.
Learn a method for creating process maps that are worth a second glance as well as stimulating discussion about how to improve a process.
During the session, you will play a role in a simulation of a company. You will be engaged in the process that produces products to satisfy the requirements of the company’s customers.
Experience working in a process with other participants; creating pictures of the process from your perspective; seeing other participants’ process perspective; integrating individual process perspectives to create a map from a group’s perspective; and doing process improvement.
This session will be valuable to managers, project managers, and anyone interested in practical tools for improving process.
What do I do with all these Marbles? Turning Your Ideas into Action
(Don Gray)
By the end of the AYE Conference, you will be bursting with new ideas and insights. What will you do with these ideas and insights? How will you incorporate them into your work life and home life?
We’ll do guided introspection - a personal retrospective on your experiences at the AYE Conference. You’ll capture your ideas and insights and build a high level action plan. From that plan, you’ll pick one or two items and consider the following:
- How you will know you’ve accomplished the goal.
- What you’ll see, hear, and feel when you achieve the goal.
- Is the change congruent with your overall values?
- What resources you have that will help you?
- What resources will you need, and how will you get them?
- What and whose support will you have?
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Don’t Let a Four-Year-Old Run Your Life
(Jerry Weinberg)
Our survival rules and rules about commenting are central to the way we participate in interactions. Rules are not to be thought of as bad; on the contrary, we should honor our rules for helping us to survive this long in a difficult world. Then we can acknowledge that our rules may need to be updated to fit the changing world–what was good for us at age four may not fit perfectly at age forty.
By transforming a rule into a guide, we keep the old possibility and add a few new ones. For instance, take the common rule, I must always do a perfect job. Analytically, we can see that this is impossible, but emotionally we may keep trying to be perfect all the time. When the rule is transformed, we can try to be perfect some of the time, when it is appropriate, and be free to settle for good enough when that is more fitting.
In this session, we’ll demonstrate the technique for transforming a rule into a guide, while giving each participant a chance to surface some rules to be transformed.
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Collaboration Tools for Leaders
(Esther Derby and Johanna Rothman)
Do you need to lead or facilitate group work? Are there decisions need to make that require input and buy-in from others? Does your group leave meetings without action items–or walk away with action items that are never completed?
If you need to work with others to accomplish your goals, this session is for you. In this tutorial, we will explore a framework for decision-making that includes setting the boundaries around the decision, approaches for making a good decision, and closing on the decision. We’ll share some facilitation techniques that will improve the quality of your meetings. Finally, we’ll explore a collaborative approach to problem definition, including how to jointly arrive at a problem statement.
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Becoming a More Effective Leader
(Don Gray)
We don’t usually think about our personality. It’s part of who we are, and easy to overlook in the dynamics of daily life. But our personality impacts our leadership style and by understanding personality, we can use it to become more effective.
During this workshop, we’ll take a deeper look at the four global preferences (E/I, S/N, T/F, J/P) and how they interact creating “Personality Type”. When we have our best fit types, we’ll spend the rest of the day working on how our type affects our leadership style, and what we can do to become more effective.
Workshop participants who haven’t taken a validated psychometric instrument such as the MBTI Form M or the GPTP should contact Don at least a month prior to the conference to make arrangements to do so.
Zeroing in on the Right Problem
(Steve Smith)
If a project team is working on the wrong problem, the best solution in the world will not satisfy their customer. How can you help a project team zero on the right problem? You cannot do it by yourself. You will need help. You will need to gather the right people. In addition, you will need to help them work together effectively.
This workshop will introduce participants to a three-step method for facilitating stakeholders to zero in on the right problems. Learn how you can help groups distinguish between problems that must be solved and those that could be solved. Practice facilitating during the workshop so that when you return to your organization, you can put these methods to use.
This workshop will be valuable to managers, project managers, software testers, and anyone interested in product development and process improvement.
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