How do you create an agile network?

Thoughts on the benefits of agile conferences

After a long break, there was a Global Scrum Gathering on site. In Lisbon in October - wow! Two of us were there and two other colleagues were there virtually at the Gathering in the process. It is fair to ask what benefit is returned for the time and money spent.

Here is my short answer:

• We did not directly acquire a consulting contract there, the contribution margin of which finances the trip. However, the conference is not designed in this way.
• We organized the "Coaching Clinic" and coached people in it ourselves. We have given this form of personal support a framework and space. It is instructive for both sides.
• We helped organize an international meeting of people who spent three days focusing on good cooperation. It is good to remember that good cooperation is the rule and not the exception.
• We presented ourselves as individuals and with the company wibas as a member of the Scrum Alliance and cultivated contacts.

But then the benefit has mainly accrued to others, hasn't it?

Well, it only looks like that at first glance. Here is the longer answer:

The absence of sales pressure facilitates creativity

It is pleasant to meet people at a conference and to be able to talk shop about technical issues without wanting or having to turn it into business. In the more relaxed atmosphere of a non-sales discussion, creative - sometimes silly or daring - approaches and solutions are more likely to emerge that can help both sides.

And while I am discussing a task with someone and suggesting an approach, I may generate an idea that can also help elsewhere. My idea has a point of reference with the person and with Lisbon. This enables associations and makes it easier to remember. Although I don't know in advance what the idea will actually trigger when and where, it is more than just a dry thought at my desk at home.

You can't practise coaching too much

In the coaching clinic, experienced coaches make their time available to help other participants spontaneously and in a low-threshold manner. Coaching offer. It's free at the Gathering, and it doesn't take much more than a person with a question and a free coach for a coaching session.

Offering these sessions is a great exercise and is worthwhile for the coach for this reason alone. Similar topics come up again and again and it's good to realize that in all corners of the world "people are only cooking with water".

At the same time, every case is individual, comes packaged differently and is not amenable to a prescriptive solution. As a coach, I am therefore confronted with the fact that things are repeated on a certain level of abstraction, e.g. who all is involved in a case. Team coached around. On the other hand, the questions are so different in detail that I need to have my attention well focused in order to be able to respond appropriately to the other person. The same thing always appears anew. Which is why every coaching scheme, as useful as it may be as a guardrail at the beginning, becomes more and more difficult as the coaching process progresses. Coachings and makes way for a freer and more focused conversation. This sometimes works better and sometimes really well and a coaching clinic is a training ground for this ...

Scrum Alliance is also a company

My view of the Scrum Alliance has so far been characterized by the fact that it issues certificates in exchange for money. Opinions can be divided about the sense and usefulness of certificates. However, anyone associated with the Scrum Alliance is certainly more likely to belong to the group that recognizes certificates as proof of qualification and market differentiation.

Before the Gathering, I hadn't thought about the fact that the Scrum Alliance is a service company. It is supported by employees and even more so by certified trainers and coaches. They work for a target group that is not so easy to define, and in a business model that is not so easy to grasp. Now with a new Boss discussions about alignment come up. I find that exciting because it brings the Scrum Alliance to life and makes it more tangible. For us at wibas, the discussion about the business model is also exciting because it has an interface with our own business model. And at the turn of the year Strategy discussions for 2023.

Conclusion

I end with a paradox: I am convinced that participation in the Gathering builds networks, strengthens brands, shares knowledge, tests tools and presents service providers. But all of this is only possible without overdoing it. No participant likes to see themselves as a pure target of marketing, sales and self-promotion.

So we have to go to the Gathering as if we had nothing planned except to have good conversations. To show the others our points of contact from which common ground can emerge. This may then create a network that is sustainable.