Here's a copy of a presentation I did at the Agile Day Chicago 2018 conference! The goal of the presentation was to get people to think differently about the changes we're trying to put in place at our organizations, and if we are trying to move a brick wall with our hands. 

From past experience, I learned (not quickly enough) that I was trying to bring behavioral changes based on the climate of the area I was working with and not taking a look at if the change was viable based on the organizational culture. Many coaches I know think that introducing the agile values and principles will change the culture, and I used to think this way also. It seems to work for a bit, except that we are changing the climate and the culture does not budge a bit. Thus, we not only hit the brick wall, but fall flat on our backs (see slide 2 imagery of me hitting a "culture wall"). 
Culture is more than what we see on the surface and this presentation tackled just that. Attendees went through their own identification of climate and the pieces that make up their organizational culture. We started to think about how the changes will be effective or not based on the organizational culture, and if the culture is something that can even be changed based on the organization and leaders in place.

For more information, feel free to contact me through the "Contact Us" page and I'd love to speak to you more on how we can understand the collision of change, climate, and culture so that it becomes a collaboration.

- Ebony N Brown, Principal Owner of Kaiovate
#adc18

As people become more familiar with agility, we're seeing it in many different places and industries that is outside the software realm. I have had the pleasure of working with high school teachers to help them understand how agility can benefit the way their students complete class projects. 2015 was the first time that I was able to step  into a classroom and work with the teacher and students to use Scrum, Kanban, and Lean techniques to deliver their team biology projects. 

Teachers can utilize agility in the classroom to better organize how teams work and deliver. Students get the benefit of learning a technique that is taking over how we work and delivering higher quality team projects.
​
All in all, the benefits include Collaboration, Communication, and Transparency which are pieces that are currently missing from the way high school students operate today. Below is my presentation I gave at the Scrum Gathering in Shanghai 2015 on what it looked and felt like to work with a class of high schoolers in Chicago as they learned and implemented this new way of delivering school projects.

For more details or to have me come in to your high school class (at no cost), Contact Me.

It's not easy to admit your flaws, but I'll do it right here. I am biased.
I have positive biases.
I have negative biases.
I have biases I don't know.

It's up to me, and all of us, to be aware of the biases we have and to understand how they impact and affect our interactions. These biases color our decisions based on many factors including where someone went to school, clothing, tattoos, jewelry, speech patterns, and so on.

It's also important to understand that unconscious bias does not equal bigotry, which is when you intentionally have an intolerance towards those you do not agree with or who are different from you. 

If you'd like an interactive workshop for your employees or leaders on recognizing our unconscious biases and how to overcome them when interviewing, posting for jobs, promoting, rewarding, etc. contact me for more details: www.kaiovate.com/contact-me.html