At the initiative of our small association: convergenc.es, Oana and I took advantage of Dan Mezick’s visit to the Scrum Gathering Paris to propose two additional sessions in Paris and Montpellier in the form of half-day workshops. This was only possible thanks to the help and kindness of Dan Mezick, who graciously adapted to all our constraints. His presence was mandatory for the smooth running of the workshops, as he would say himself, while ours remained optional. :)

The workshops

I was delighted by the workshops, their content seemed quality to me, Dan’s manner thrilled me (as much humor as inspiration). I particularly liked having fairly small circles (8 to 10 people) that allowed true communication, a real sense of belonging as well. I was also thrilled by the small aperitifs organized immediately after, and the friendly meals. I’m currently struggling with the sad formalism of most events.

A few rules for my upcoming events (the ones I’ll try to set up):

  • Limitation of the number of people: around 10 or 50.
  • Unusual places (the room at la mutinerie although too noisy was very good for that) which adds depth to the meeting.
  • We break bread together at one point or another (the meals were an opportunity to continue discussions, to approach subjects differently). At minimum an aperitif, a different moment to talk.

I’m envisioning a “mobile” event: meet somewhere then we go to a hotel to spend an evening together, the next day we move (walk? hike?), in the evening we’re elsewhere, we continue the debates. Etc.

The main ideas

According to my point of view…

Agile is conceived as a culture and a set of practices. The practices are in fact the emanation of tools, methods, Scrum, Kanban, etc. Dan proposes an intermediate set between culture and practices, agnostic of the method employed: visual management, being punctual, declaring your intentions, etc. This is welcome. I was trying to do this for some time: for example here or in here too without materializing it as clearly. You should therefore read his Culture Game.

Claude Emond suggested to me during our meeting: “you’ll never take a company where it doesn’t want to go”, this struck me, it was an idea that was swarming but that I couldn’t formalize, and therefore manipulate. Dan came to add a new stone to this edifice: forcing, obligating people is futile, everything should be based on invitation. There is NO benefit to acting differently. But we’re not naive idealists: if people never want to do anything you must recognize that change is necessary: think about the cores protocols and core commitments by Jim McCarthy.

Dan recalls key elements (here too his spirit of synthesis amazes me) that enable engagement. Where I stopped my discourse at: you must empower people to deal with complexity and potentially motivate them. He adds a container to help with this empowerment, with this engagement:

This page on Dan’s blog seems essential to me. I translate the key passages:

Game framework

  • a clear goal
  • clear rules
  • an ability to receive feedback
  • no obligation (being invited) and able to disengage

To feel good

  • need for a sense of control
  • need for a sense of progress.
  • need for a sense of belonging to a group.
  • need to have a clearly defined goal (…see above)

OpenSpace as an engine for transformation

Great idea that, I had observed their benefits in the different openspaces I was able to conduct on assignments. Dan again consolidates this, and puts his finger on very important aspects (which were key in my successful openspaces, and key also in my failed openspaces):

  • Involvement of the “boss(es)”, particularly during the opening
  • Immediate or very rapid consolidation of the openspace results (distributed pdfs for example)

During the presentation Dan doesn’t burden himself with a monolithic support he flutters from support to support (twitter, wikipedia, slides, certain pages of a book, etc.). It’s impressive and I adopt on the spot this way of doing things (which I was already using, but not yet enough).

Session consolidation

The document: Dan Mezick 2013 which consolidates our two sessions with notably the on-the-fly notes by Marie-Laure Vie.

Two friends

But above all, above all, the most important thing that was revealed during these 5 days (meeting Dan & Roberta Thursday, departure Monday morning), is that I received a speaker and his wife (Roberta), and I let two friends leave. I assure you that this experience really marked me. And that Dan and Roberta were truly magnificent. No fear of everything I tried to make them discover: oysters, ultra dry and black cheeses, exotic salamis, etc. I believe that the first thing now in Dan’s mind concerning France is… Chartreuse :) Finally we spent many meals together, at the restaurant, with family by the wood fire, at the market in the morning, with the participants. We visited Arles, Les Saintes Maries de la Mer, Aigues Mortes, Sommières, etc. Roberta & Dan were housed in the family home. We pursued spirited discussions on strong subjects (sometimes very far from our usual conversations) throughout these 5 days. It was truly a magnificent encounter (and I think this feeling is shared).

I don’t care about doing business again with Dan (even if it will happen, and I’m delighted about it, see below), I don’t care about benefiting from Dan’s teaching compared to the pleasure I would have meeting them again, just because they are friends and I loved spending time with them (fortunately indeed the period is tough: work resumes in hurricane mode, and I became a dad a month ago, without this pleasure I would have cracked).

Open Agile Adoption

This continues. In the calendars: on December 7th a presentation of Open Agile Adoption is mentioned for Agile Tour Tunisia. Dan invites us (Oana & me) to an event in March between New York & Boston. Who would refuse?

not me.