InsideOutAgile

Tag: business

  • Why GOAT 2.0 is Changing the Conversation

    a real conversation
    free from projection
    and ego-flexing
    is a special gift
    most do not talk to listen;
    they talk to be heard
    – yung pueblo

    It has been six years since the last Gatineau Ottawa Agile Tour (GOAT) conference.

    Six years is a long time in the world of technology, but it is an absolute lifetime when it comes to agile people, systems, and organizations. Last Saturday, over pizza and board games, I reflected with fellow agile coaches (and dear friends) on how our local practitioner community has evolved since 2019. One thing became abundantly clear: we have grown up.

    The conversations we need to have today as an agile community are fundamentally different from the ones we were having a decade ago. When the GOAT organizing team sat down to envision what a return would look like for November 2026, we realized that simply dusting off the old playbook—inviting practitioners into a room to watch slides about the latest facilitation approaches and frameworks—was no longer going to serve this diverse community.

    Here is what I see, and why GOAT 2.0 is intentionally breaking from its own tradition…

    1. The Agile Community Has Grown Up

    When Agile Ottawa began hosting meetups back in 2009, much of the content was focused on advocacy and baseline education. We were teaching the world how to step away from waterfall (remember when waterfall was the big baddy…?). Today, most foundational concepts are easily accessible via an AI prompt. Let’s be honest, our community doesn’t need another session explaining the mechanics of a daily stand-up.

    Beyond this, many of us who were Product Owners or Scrum Masters have moved into leadership positions. As we became Managers, Directors, and Executives, we continued to lean on agile values and principles while grappling with something much deeper than the ongoing debates over agile frameworks:

    • How does our agility help us navigate radical uncertainty?
    • How do our values and principles inform us when making complex decisions and trade-offs?
    • How do our practices and work systems (as they currently stand) nurture resilience?

    As a community, we moved on from “how do we do agile?” to “how do we continue to deliver value in an increasingly complex, uncertain, and volatile world?”

    2. We Are No Longer an Island

    Many agilists have naturally integrated other disciplines into their work. Over the last six years, the lines between Agile, Lean, Product Management, Organizational Design, Change Management, and Project Delivery have beautifully (and sometimes messily) blurred. Even the Project Management Institute has integrated agile values, principles, and practices into its mandate.

    Regardless of how you feel about that, we are a much bigger community now. The people driving product, delivery, and organizational decisions are blending agility into their existing practices. A conference that favors a single view of what it means to “be agile” dismisses the reality of how cross-functional leadership actually happens on the ground.

    3. Radical Uncertainty Needs the Agile Community

    The agile leaders in our Ottawa-Gatineau community are facing intense geopolitical shifts, macroeconomic and market pressures, and the dizzying acceleration of AI-driven change.

    Nostalgic presentations won’t help us. Nostalgia, as we know, is not a strategy. 

    What we need right now is a mutually authentic and honest exchange about how agility, elevated, informs us as we navigate these choppy waters. We need a space where we can skip the theory, leave our egos at the door, and talk candidly about what is happening in our organizations.

    That is why GOAT 2.0 is capped at 250 participants. It is intentionally designed as a peer exchange rather than a traditional broadcast conference. The morning will frame the complex disruptions we face—Geopolitics, the Future of Work, and AI—and the afternoon will be dedicated entirely to facilitated, candid breakout discussions among peers who are navigating the exact same operational realities you are.

    It’s about relevance over scale. Depth over breadth. Participation over presentation.

    If you are a decision-maker, an influencer, or someone leading delivery through this radical uncertainty, our community needs your voice in the room. I hope you will join us on November 26th to engage in the kind of real conversation that is, as yung pueblo notes, a special gift.

    You can find the details and reserve your ticket at goagiletour.ca.

    Image from “Coaches Corner” at GOAT 2016… hard to believe this was 10 years ago.

  • Why I coach Climate Tech.

    First and foremost, I have always worked in tech. I started my career as a software developer way back in the late 90s. I was lucky at that time to join a team that was practicing something that was considered cutting-edge at the time – Extreme Programming, the grand-daddy of Agile Software Development.

    Working on an agile software team delivering products to users and customers taught me so many valuable lessons. In particular, I learned how important it is that the people who make decisions about work priority and scope be trusted and collaborative with the people who actually do the work. I also learned that it is deeply painful (dare I say heartbreaking?) to learn that the work you do hinders or holds back the people that you intend to help. To me, the connection between customer, product/program/project management, and delivery is a “win for all” relationship that is always worth developing.

    After 10 years of writing code, I came to realize that I was happier and frankly better at navigating complex people systems than software systems. I transitioned my career to coaching and consulting on digital transformations. This involved being parachuted (I mean this, I worked at a startup) into client environments along with a small team of really smart software developers, aiming to initiate a change in both technology and ways of working. In this deeply empowering environment, I grew to become a senior leader and people manager – all while being one of the top billing consultants at the company. It’s hard to reduce that experience into a handful of lessons, but I will say this… this is where I learned to fully accept responsibility for my words, feelings, and actions. Where I learned hard lessons of what can happen when power is held unconsciously. It’s also where I came to another clear realization, that “coaching” is a profession and that I needed to learn and claim that craft for myself. I’ve learned so much from Integral Coaching Canada, Strozzi Institute, as well as the amazing coach trainers of ICAgile.

    Throughout it all, the importance of teamwork in the truest sense of the word became clear. When working on uncertain and complex problems, having a team that you can depend on and that you trust – this is where magic happens. Whether at the leadership table or working together on a complex piece of software or connecting with some of my favourite coaches – gather smart, motivated, trustworthy people together around a goal or a problem… and then, get the hell out of their way.

    Three years ago, now a Professional Coach and having launched my own business (InsideOutAgile) five years prior -coaching and consulting with private and public sectors on digital transformations – I came to another very clear realization: if we do not come together to address the impacts of climate change, nothing else we do will really matter within a few generations. At that moment, I decided that I would work exclusively with the mission-driven companies that are addressing humanity’s most pressing problem. I haven’t looked back.

    So – finally – why do I coach Climate Tech?

    • Because I know what it takes to make a shift from scientist/technologist into leadership/management. I’ve done it. I’ve helped others to do this more than once.
    • Because I know that the complexity of tackling climate change means leaders of Climate Tech must be able tap into a high level of trust and collaboration (inside and outside their organization) to get the job done. That’s work. Especially as you scale up.
    • Because I know that we are asking Climate Tech to operate with a level of accepted responsibility that is above and beyond what we experience in most organizations. This doesn’t happen by accident. It starts at the top and is designed into the organization’s way of being and working – both inside the org and outside the org.
    • Because I know Climate Tech leaders sometimes need a steady hand to work with them through tough times by leaning into their mission and values. In such moments, a little coaching can go a long way…