Event:              Agile Austin Distinguished Speaker Series Presentation

Speaker:         Sue McKinney – VP Development Transformation and Integration, IBM
Presenting:      The Dancing Agile Elephant

 Sponsor:          

 Description

Two for one!

Pollyanna Pixton: Collaborative Leadership: A Secret to Agile Success

When members of a development project are asked to become a self-directed agile team, some claim that leadership and leaders are obsolete. Or, is a different type of leadership exactly what agile teams need to truly flourish? Pollyanna Pixton describes a new, collaborative leadership style that does not attempt to control or micro-manage. It’s one that asks the right questions at the right time to generate new ideas and develop creative products that customers need and want. Pollyanna explains the four areas of collaborative leadership—creating an open environment where the best people can work, learning from stakeholders throughout the enterprise, prioritizing innovative solutions based on business value, and standing back to allow the team to succeed. She shares her battle-tested tips for leading collaboratively—fix processes, not people; take the fun out of being dysfunctional; eliminate constructive criticism, because it never is; and more. Whether you are a senior manager, product owner, customer, ScrumMaster, or an individual contributor, Pollyanna’s collaborative principles will empower you and everyone on your team to become better leaders and deliver the business value that stakeholders deserve.

Sue McKinney:"The Dancing Agile Elephant: IBM Software Group's Transition to Agile and lean Development"

Twenty-five thousand developers transitioning to Agile? How does that happen? Faced with a results-driving organization, moving to agile had to deliver on the company's investment into a new methodology. In this session, Sue McKinney talks about the approach and challenges to transforming a multi-thousand person globally-distributed division, to adopt and deliver using agile methods. Learn how to inspire and motivate change in large organizations steeped in tradition, identify change agents, and discover the tools needed to enable the masses. Sue discusses how she navigates senior leadership expectations, and re-thinks the leadership model to determine what new leadership skills must be developed in teams to make a successful adoption of agile - and to maintain effective use of agile. What Sue and other IBMers did to overcome the barriers and issues will be included, especially around resistance to change in large organizations.

Speaker Bios

Pollyanna Pixton

An international collaborative leadership expert, Pollyanna Pixton developed the models for collaboration and collaborative leadership through her thirty-five years of working in and consulting with corporations and organizations. She helps companies create workplaces where talent and innovation are unleashed—making them more productive, efficient, and profitable. Pollyanna is a founding partner of Accelinnova, president of Evolutionary Systems, director of the Institute for Collaborative Leadership, and co-author of the forthcoming book, Stand Back and Deliver: Tools For Leading Agility due out in early 2009. She co-founded the Agile Project Leadership Network (APLN) and chaired APLN Leadership Summits in London, Minneapolis, and Orlando. Contact her at ppixton@accelinnova.com. 

Sue McKinney

Currently responsible for development transformational activities with IBM's software development group, her major emphasis is driving adoption of Agile and Lean principles into the mainstream of software development. Prior to this assignment, Sue was a Vice President of Development for the Lotus Division where she led world wide development for Lotus Domino, IBM Sametime and WebSphere Portal. In addition to driving transformational activities within IBM, Sue works with large clients to share IBM's experience and help them scope opportunities for their own transformational activities.

 Additional Information

 More Info:       www.agileaustin.org or info@AgileAustin.org

 Agenda:         Networking                         6:00 - 6:30 PM

                       Presentations                     6:30 – 8:30 PM

Proof of Attendance forms will be provided for PMI (PDU), ASQ (RU) and PDMA (PDH) re-certifications.