Emilia Breton-Lake

Author and speaker Felipe Castro is joined by Elsevier Portfolio Director Ian Harvey to discuss how the Dutch publishing and analytics multinational used OKR to bring agility into their goal-setting and strategy alignment.

One major obstacle in setting goals and measuring progress, Castro argues, that when you encounter a problem, you go into problem-solving mode: “Having ideas makes you feel good… and often we don’t go back to measure if that brilliant idea is working.” People get… Show more

Author and speaker Felipe Castro is joined by Elsevier Portfolio Director Ian Harvey to discuss how the Dutch publishing and analytics multinational used OKR to bring agility into their goal-setting and strategy alignment.

One major obstacle in setting goals and measuring progress, Castro argues, that when you encounter a problem, you go into problem-solving mode: “Having ideas makes you feel good… and often we don’t go back to measure if that brilliant idea is working.” People get attached to solving problems, rather than achieving outcomes – something OKRs help to address.

Another problem is siloes. “What OKRs help you to do,” Harvey says, “is break through silos by sharing objectives and key results amongst teams… If they share OKRs between them, that’s when you can start to see dramatic results.”

Accenture | SolutionsIQ’s Emilia Breton hosts. Show less

Melissa Boggs and Howard Sublett, the Chief Scrum Master and Chief Product Owner respectively at the Scrum Alliance, return to tell us about their own organizational transformation. Throughout 2019, the pair completely restructured the organization into cross-functional and community-centric teams that are empowered to deliver on the needs of their specific community.

Hear practical examples of how these changes were implemented, as well as success stories that are emerging as a result… Show more

Melissa Boggs and Howard Sublett, the Chief Scrum Master and Chief Product Owner respectively at the Scrum Alliance, return to tell us about their own organizational transformation. Throughout 2019, the pair completely restructured the organization into cross-functional and community-centric teams that are empowered to deliver on the needs of their specific community.

Hear practical examples of how these changes were implemented, as well as success stories that are emerging as a result of the ongoing transformation.

Accenture | SolutionsIQ’s Emilia Breton hosts. Show less

A working agreement is a common set of expectations that a team creates to capture how they will work together and engage with each other. For many collocated teams, this is a valuable asset. However, the team working agreement becomes even more critical when team members are working remotely. Depending on the team or phase of work, working agreements can vary and should be modified to account for changes in the type of work or work environment. It should also be reviewed regularly and updated… Show more

A working agreement is a common set of expectations that a team creates to capture how they will work together and engage with each other. For many collocated teams, this is a valuable asset. However, the team working agreement becomes even more critical when team members are working remotely. Depending on the team or phase of work, working agreements can vary and should be modified to account for changes in the type of work or work environment. It should also be reviewed regularly and updated based on learning. Show less

Megan Windle is an Agile coach and the president of the Agile 757 Meetup in Hampton Roads, Virginia. She specializes in the people side of change and wholeheartedly believes that happy teams sparkle with creativity and productivity.

Windle recounts her journey from local talks to the national level at Agile2019. She tells all from the intense preparation and top-of-the-mountain highs, to overcoming critical adversity and how she copes with it all with intentional self-care.

Words… Show more

Megan Windle is an Agile coach and the president of the Agile 757 Meetup in Hampton Roads, Virginia. She specializes in the people side of change and wholeheartedly believes that happy teams sparkle with creativity and productivity.

Windle recounts her journey from local talks to the national level at Agile2019. She tells all from the intense preparation and top-of-the-mountain highs, to overcoming critical adversity and how she copes with it all with intentional self-care.

Words of Wisdom: “If you want to try speaking, you should go for it. The key is find someone who is there in your corner to support you.”

Accenture | SolutionsIQ’s Emilia Breton hosts. Show less

“The presence of women – or lack thereof – led to a huge difference in the direction the organization or the leadership were heading to.” For Padmini Nidumolu, this was the catalyst for founding Lean In Agile, “a movement for, by, and of women designed to amplify the voices, talents, and experiences of women in the Lean and Agile communities across the globe.”

Nidumolu says, “When there are fewer women on decision-making tables or creative sessions… there is an energy shift.” Lean In… Show more

“The presence of women – or lack thereof – led to a huge difference in the direction the organization or the leadership were heading to.” For Padmini Nidumolu, this was the catalyst for founding Lean In Agile, “a movement for, by, and of women designed to amplify the voices, talents, and experiences of women in the Lean and Agile communities across the globe.”

Nidumolu says, “When there are fewer women on decision-making tables or creative sessions… there is an energy shift.” Lean In Agile has facilitated the formation of groups of women called “spirals” in Nepal, India, and the US, and they have launched two new programs – LIA 100 and LIA Next Generation – which our guest shares her passion and dreams for in this episode.

Accenture | SolutionsIQ’s Emilia Breton hosts. Show less

In order to realize the true power of agility we found that we needed to start with transforming leadership and bringing together people, from across different business and IT silos and groups. We started out looking to launch a train and discovered a diverse and powerful group with the ability to change the face of healthcare now and in the future. Over the course of 6 months we built a new group that cut across traditional functional towers, divisions and specialties to launch a new truly… Show more

In order to realize the true power of agility we found that we needed to start with transforming leadership and bringing together people, from across different business and IT silos and groups. We started out looking to launch a train and discovered a diverse and powerful group with the ability to change the face of healthcare now and in the future. Over the course of 6 months we built a new group that cut across traditional functional towers, divisions and specialties to launch a new truly cross functional virtual organization with one focus, removing barriers for doctors and make their experience with the organization easy. Show less

The cost of healthcare administration is crushing Americans. According to the National Institutes of Health, it was projected to be $315 billion in 2018. One of the invisible and indirect ways that average people are paying for more than just medical care is the onerous processes that healthcare providers have to go through just to do their jobs.

In this article, I want to share my experiences helping a major healthcare provider see the value of transforming to a business agility… Show more

The cost of healthcare administration is crushing Americans. According to the National Institutes of Health, it was projected to be $315 billion in 2018. One of the invisible and indirect ways that average people are paying for more than just medical care is the onerous processes that healthcare providers have to go through just to do their jobs.

In this article, I want to share my experiences helping a major healthcare provider see the value of transforming to a business agility mindset so that they could achieve their desired outcome of making it easier and less painful for doctors to process claims and get paid. Show less

The cost of healthcare administration is crushing Americans. According to National Institute of Health, it was projected to be $315 billion in 2018. This is we (a major healthcare payer) recognized an opportunity to improve the lives of thousands of healthcare providers and people like you and me by streamlining the provider experience. We originally thought launching a single Agile Release Train would help release software faster, making it easier for doctors and administrators to work with… Show more

The cost of healthcare administration is crushing Americans. According to National Institute of Health, it was projected to be $315 billion in 2018. This is we (a major healthcare payer) recognized an opportunity to improve the lives of thousands of healthcare providers and people like you and me by streamlining the provider experience. We originally thought launching a single Agile Release Train would help release software faster, making it easier for doctors and administrators to work with the organization. Turns out, it would take far more than that. In this talk, Dan Scalfaro - Director of Digital IT at a national healthcare payer - and Emilia Breton – Agile coach at Accenture | SolutionsIQ - will share their experience working together over the course of 6 months to establish a powerful communication platform that would ultimately break down barriers that had existed between various business and IT organizations for decades. As a result of our partnership, the organization stands to drastically simplify antiquated processes in healthcare, which all of us benefit from in the form of happier, less stressed healthcare providers.
So often coaches are brought into a group to implement a framework and the group never realizes the results promised by agile evangelists. In order to realize the true power of agility we found that we needed to start with transforming leadership and bringing together people, from across different business and IT silos and groups. We started out looking to launch a train and discovered a diverse and powerful group with the ability to change the face of healthcare now and in the future. Over the course of 6 months we built a new group that cut across traditional functional towers, divisions and specialties to launch a new truly cross functional virtual organization with one focus, removing barriers for doctors and make their experience with the organization easy.
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Agilists strive to help teams work together on small slices, experiment and constantly learn. Learn 5 games in 5 minutes that help your teams to do just that.

Play them with your teams and let the fun and learning take flight!

Sprint retrospectives are an amazing tool for teams. They foster a culture of continuous improvement and hold the team accountable for making improvements. However, when you look at Scrum beyond a single team, the power of sprint retrospectives becomes diluted.

Emilia uses retrospectives and specific questions to help the team discover the system conditions that affect their performance. She also shares how she knows, and has learned to ask the right questions at the right time.

How do you measure your success as a Scrum Master? Emilia shares her definition of success, and her main tasks in the search for that successful outcome. The tool that she uses the most is 1-on-1 conversations that help her focus on the right topics and discover possible blockers. As she puts it: “whenever you have a question: ask the team!”.

A very common pattern in the software industry is to give the role of Scrum Master to Project Managers. This has many possible dangers, and Emilia knows that. That’s why she has developed a specific approach to hiring Scrum Masters, a people-centric approach.

Sometimes we face situations where it feels like the Scrum adoption is failing. Emilia tells us one such story where the stakeholders were not cooperating, where there was confusion and fear of failure. How she, with the help from an executive, reacted is a great way to get back to the basics and help the team overcome the challenges in the transformation.
In this episode we also talk about #NoNumbers, an approach that Emilia uses to help her teams focus on the value to be delivered. The… Show more

Sometimes we face situations where it feels like the Scrum adoption is failing. Emilia tells us one such story where the stakeholders were not cooperating, where there was confusion and fear of failure. How she, with the help from an executive, reacted is a great way to get back to the basics and help the team overcome the challenges in the transformation.
In this episode we also talk about #NoNumbers, an approach that Emilia uses to help her teams focus on the value to be delivered. The discussion also touches on #NoEstimates, about which you can read more at NoEstimatesBook.com Show less

In an organization with a long history it is hard to introduce new ideas that are not in line with that history. Emilia went through that and learned how to help teams that have been working in a certain way to explore, and ultimately adopt a new way of working: Agile Software Development. In this episode we refer to The 5 Dysfunctions of a Team by Lencioni, a book that helped Emilia solve the main blockers to change in the teams she worked with.

Today Agile frameworks are being implemented by a wide variety of organizations. They often begin applying frameworks such as Scrum without fully integrating the principles behind the Agile Manifesto into their culture. Without a culture that embraces Agile, the application of any framework will not reach its full potential. The first step in building an Agile culture is understanding the Agile Manifesto.

In Episode 8 of the Agile Games Podcast with sit down with Emilia Breton Lake and discuss the game she presented at Agile Games West 2016, The Change Game w/ Fluxx. Emilia also tells us about her new website, the Agile Toybox, which will be a collection of Agile games for the community.