Maritza van den Heuvel discusses her observations from companies adopting agile processes like Scrum and Kanban. She notes that while improvements often occur during active coaching, old behaviors and statis can return over time without changes to workplace learning. She advocates shifting from training pushes to continuous learning pulls through just-in-time learning and personal learning networks. To drive lasting change, she recommends applying principles of continuous improvement individually through personal Kanban and disrupting traditional education to build these skills into society. Examples provided include using personal Kanban to spark process improvement among managers and flipped classroom models that prepare students for modern self-directed workplace learning.

1. The Case for
Personal Agility
Maritza van den Heuvel

2. ... or Why I left Software
Development

3. Who?
Maritza van den Heuvel
• Digital Learning Manager
• @maritzavdh #edtech #agile #lean
• http://scrumfamily.wordpress.com
• Beyond Agile - Tales of Continuous Improvement
(Kindle | Print Coming Soon!)

4. to change the way people
work, we need to change
the way they learn
~ Maritza ~

5. Breakdown
• Observations from process adoptions
• Bringing workplace learning into it
• Skills for the modern workplace
• How to effect lasting change

6. process adoptions

7. waterfall | scrum | kanban
• Academic rigour to Corporate speed
• No Process to Structured SDLC (Waterfall)
• Kaplan:
• 2 Scrum Adoptions (2007)
• 1 Kanban Adoption
• Fundamo:
• Larger-scale Scrum & Kanban
• Use of Personal Kanban
• Observing patterns & behaviour

8. Patterns and Challenges:
• "Doing Agile" vs "Being Agile"
• Statis sets in - "we've got a new recipe, let's
stick to that".
• Anti-patterns/behaviours - "Oh we'll just keep
doing it our own way, and call it Scrum".
• Completing missing the point - "Oh Scrum is
just about tracking your work with stickies"
• Most often - great improvement while actively
driven (coach/consultant) - but over time ...

9. workplace learning

10. from training (push) ...
• Documentation Management ( 2003)
• Knowledge Management
• Class-room or f2f training
• Blended Learning = eLearning
• Training or HR Departments
• Training as "Event" or "Intervention"
Electronic Performance Support ... Gery (1991)

12. ... to learning (pull)
• Just-in-time learning
• Byte-sized learning chunks
• Blended = Program of Learning
(f2f, chat, online discussion, co-creation)
• L& D or Learning Departments
• Continuous Learning as Skill
Personal Learning Networks ... social
learning, peer content and communities, auto-
help

13. Challenges:
• New workers (graduates) and matriculants
• Study to Pass, rather than Learning Skills
• Management view of Training vs Learning
• Organizational value of Learning

14. Prevailing Culture
- Linear hierarchies
- Top-down decision-making
- Accepting a given system, not creating it

15. Culture is Everything
Organizations (Changing)
Society/Economy (Changing a Lot)
Education (Not Changing Enough)

16. effecting lasting change

17. PDCA for Individuals
"seeing the system" - lack of contextual
awareness, lack of ability to change things, waiting for
somebody to tell me the answer ~ Bob Marshall
• observing - seeing the work honestly
• questioning - interrogating the work
• applying - courage to try something new
• evaluate - interpret and adjust

18. How to do this in practise?
• Practical and Immediate:
Personal Kanban as a Tool to Teach Continuous
Improvement
• The Long Game:
Disrupting and Reinventing Education to Build
Continuous Improvement into Society

19. Personal Kanban
• Start where people do have control -
themselves
• Anybody, any level
• Application of principles locally
• Deeper organizational awareness
• Greater ability toobserve, question, apply and
evaluate

20. Case in Point
• Yuval Yeret - Using PK to ignite process
improvement among senior managers
• Easy, low-impact implementation
• Safe environment to learn, change
• lead by example
• viral spreading to teams and managers

21. Education
• Schools and Higher Education
• Technology brings new teaching & learning
• Collaborative, Mixed Use Spaces
• Prepare for workplace learning
• Practise ability to
observe, question, apply and evaluate

22. Case in Point
• Flipped Classroom model
• More time for engagement, discussion
• Many examples and experiments abroad
• Self-organized learning
• Learning through experimentation
• Sugata Mitra - Hole In The Wall (India)
• OLPC – Unboxed Tablets (Ethiopia)
• Personal Learning Paths and Spaces
• Removal of grade/age barriers
• Personal Learning Plans
• Echoes modern workplace

23. "we need to teach students
to teach themselves"
#ictinhed 18/3/2013

24. Further Reading/Viewing
• Shifting organizations to a better place
• Bob Marshall
• Starting with Managers
• Yuval Yeret, AgileSparks
• The School in the Cloud
• Sugata Mitra
• School of One
• Stop requiring College Degrees
• Harvard Business Review
• New School Manifesto - Seth Godin

25. ... I haven't left Software
Development after all

26. Thank You
Maritza van den Heuvel
• Digital Learning Manager
• @maritzavdh #edtech #agile #lean
• http://scrumfamily.wordpress.com
• Beyond Agile - Tales of Continuous Improvement