The creation of Convergenc.es happened quite naturally. Oana and I would run into each other at agile events and we had understood that our points of view were similar. We might as well take advantage of this to create something bigger than ourselves, and set aside what might divide us.

And here is a first milestone, Christopher Avery does us the honor of agreeing to deliver a training on accountability and commitment, the leadership gift, under our banner, on April 26, 2013, in Paris. Needless to say, we are proud, we are thrilled.

The article describing the training on Convergenc.es

The announcement on Convergenc.es

Why Christopher Avery?

Christopher Avery’s words are particularly cited these days. His message hits home. I was able to discover him at ALE 2013, with a session by Sergeï Dmitriev and Jurgen de Smet. They participated in Christopher Avery’s training and came back from it clearly delighted, so they replayed a short session (45min) to highlight Christopher’s message.

It was one of the best sessions at ALE 2013. Alexis (Monville), at my side during this session, told me the same thing (we had even discussed running this session ourselves, but it hasn’t happened to this day).

But I loved the concept developed by Christopher so much that I made it a trial in the agile hero, the Soothsayer trial. And I now introduce this little exercise in my trainings. So I’m eager to learn from the source.

Oana was able to participate in Christopher’s session in Austria last year.

Who should be interested in this event?

Coaches, leaders, managers, anyone for whom questions of accountability and commitment are important. Warning, some people, too quick in their judgments or full of a priori assumptions about Americans, imagine that this is a very coercive approach. It is nothing of the sort.

And it is not at all necessary to know agile to appreciate his message. Like the marshmallow challenge, this is not an agile training, but agile greatly recognizes itself in it.

How can you help us?

This is the first major event for Convergenc.es (not the last, we are preparing our second wave). Like any first event, we are opening a door to the unknown. If you wish to help us, here are several ways to do so:

• register.
• naturally pass along the information to anyone who might be interested.
• give us feedback: this way. The price, the venue, the subject, the date, the payment method—everything interests us.
• encourage us.