The document summarizes a webinar on three secrets of agile leadership. It begins with housekeeping details for the webinar and then introduces the speaker, Peter Stevens. The webinar will cover what it means to be agile according to Steve Denning's three laws of agile organizations, and then reveal three secrets of agile leadership based on case studies of successful leaders. Attendees are encouraged to ask questions during the webinar.

1. Three secrets of Agile Leaders:
Leading others by leading yourself
Peter Stevens
BU Agile
Innovation Lab
May 8, 2020

2. Welcome to the Webinar Series
Spring 2020
info@buagileinnovationlab.com
www.buagileinnovationlab.com

3. The Agile Innovation Lab @BU
• We advocate for authentic agile
• The lab provides educational events , community of practice,
yearly conference, research and consulting
• We have 1 more webinar in May–see
https://www.buagileinnovationlab.com/webinar-schedule
• Our CoP starts in the week of 5-26 Eventbrite id=102719045430
• More events coming in June !! (Joe Justice and others )

4. Some Housekeeping
• We have invited each of you to a specific slack channel. We will also be sharing the
slides there.
• Questions: Please send questions before and during the webinar to:
• https://tinyurl.com/ybp3g9yv
• Please do not use your video, as we have a very large audience. All will be muted
during the webinar
• We will have 45 minutes of the presentation and 10 minutes of questions
• The slack channel will remain open for participant networking after the webinar
• This is one in a three part series of webinars on agile and complex projects-the other
two will be scheduled

5. Some Housekeeping
• We have invited each of you to a specific slack channel. We will also be sharing the
slides there.
• Questions: Please send questions before and during the webinar to:
• The chat window in Zoom during the webinar/The slack channel, we will bring them up
during the webinar
• Please do not use your video, as we have a very large audience. All will be muted
during the webinar
• We will have 45 minutes of the presentation and 10 minutes of questions
• The slack channel will remain open for participant networking after the webinar
• This is one in a three part series of webinars on agile and complex projects-the other
two will be scheduled

6. Your questions?
• https://tinyurl.com/ybp3g9yv
Photo © leonardo viti - Fotolia

7. Three secrets of Agile Leaders:
Leading others by leading yourself
Peter Stevens
BU Agile
Innovation Lab
May 8, 2020

8. Who is in the room? Would you consider yourself a…
• Developer – you design, create, test or deploy a product or service
• Agilist – you subscribe to the values and principles of the Agile Manifesto
• Anti-Agile – you’re one of those people who hate “Agile”
• Agile Leadership role – you serve as Agile Coach, Scrum Master or Product Owner
• Project Manager
• Line Manager – Team or Group Manager
• C-Level Manager – You have overall responsibility for your company or business unit
• Anyone else?
• https://tinyurl.com/y89tw8cu

9. Meet Peter Stevens
“Mr. What Really Matters”

10. Ask me a question!
https://tinyurl.com/ybp3g9yv

11. What do executives ask about agility?
• What are the buzzwords about?
• How can we innovate faster?
• How can we get business and technology to talk to each other?
• How can we develop better products?
• How can we educate our clients?
• How can agile make us better at delighting the customer?
• How can I make it a success?
• What does it mean for me?

12. This introduction represents the start of a conversation
Behavior
PerspectiveMindset
Source: Barry O’Reilly, Unlearning

13. Today’s Program
What does it
mean to be
agile?
Three Secrets
(Why get
involved with
Personal
Agility?)

14. Denning’s 3 Laws
What does it mean to be agile?
“Agile Manifesto” “Fake” Agility

15. What is agility?
User Stories
SAFe
Sprint
Scrum
Planning
Poker
Story Points
Product
Backlog
Scrum Master
CI/CD
Pair
Programming
Kanban
LeSS
Product
Owner

17. IMHO the first sentence represents the Agile mindset

18. IMHO the first sentences represents the Agile mindset
Learning
Collaboration
Purpose

19. Agility is
Purpose
Learning Collaboration

20. Purpose
Learning Collaboration
Fake Agility - 1
This has nothing to do with me

21. Fake Agility - 2
User
Stories
SAFe
Sprint
Scrum
Planning
Poker
Story
Points
Product
Backlog
Scrum
Master
CI/CD
Pair
Programming
Kanban
Product
Owner
LeSSDo Scrum!

23. What does it mean to be agile?
Steve Denning’s Three “Laws” of Agile Organizations
• Law of the Customer
• Focus on customer needs, both existing customers, and even more importantly, new
customers and new markets
• Law of the Network
• Information flows without friction through the organization to seize opportunities or fix
problems
• Law of Small Teams
• Get business and technology working together efficiently to create customer-centric
products

24. Agility is
Customer
Network Small Teams

25. Agility is
Customer
Network
Small Teams
Purpose
Learning
Collaboration

26. Most wishes
from executives on their organizations
map to
one of the three laws of agility.

27. Agility has become a topic for leadership
https://www.wsj.com/articles/are-you-agile-enough-for-agile-management-11565607600https://hbr.org/2016/05/embracing-agile

28. Your questions?
https://tinyurl.com/ybp3g9yv
Photo © leonardo viti - Fotolia

29. I’d like to share three examples of successful leaders and
reveal their secrets of agile leadership
Secret 3Secret 2Secret 1

30. Change is easy if you want to do it
First Secret:

31. How I lost
10kg

32. “Many solutions were suggested for this problem, but
most of these were largely concerned with the movements
of small green pieces of paper, which is odd because on
the whole it wasn’t the small green pieces of paper that
were unhappy.”
-- Douglas Adams

33. I don’t like how sugar makes me feel.
So I want to avoid sugar and carbohydrates.

34. Imagine you’re the captain of a
sailing ship…

35. What happens if you are
caught in storm?

36. Christmas represented a severe thunderstorm!
“They are good,
they are really good”
SugarPressure.com: Trader Joe's Milk Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups
https://www.sugarpressure.com/2010/12/trader-joes-milk-chocolate-peanut-butter-cups.html

37. Do I want to get back on course?

38. If you want to go there,
you’ll get back on course

39. Tip:
You are the captain of your ship!
Change is easy if you want to do it

40. Your questions?
https://tinyurl.com/ybp3g9yv
Photo © leonardo viti - Fotolia

41. Three secrets of agile leadership
Secret 2
Change is easy
if you want to
do it

42. Be Clear on
What Really Matters
Second Secret:

43. How to create alignment among 400,000 people
Every member of the Apollo
mission knew:
1. We are going to the moon
2. It’s not going to fail because of
me
3. If something goes wrong…
Apollo 11 Ready for Launch

44. How to create alignment among 400,000 people
Every member of the Apollo
mission knew:
1. We are going to the moon
2. It’s not going to fail because of
me
3. If something goes wrong,
remember item 1
Chandrayaan 2 Ready for Launch

45. Joerg Ewald
General Manager
Volirium AG
To save my
company, I first
needed to take
care of myself

46. To get the right things done,
master three basic skills
Doing Work
QuestioningSetting Priorities

47. Scrum defines a role to address each aspect
Solves the Problem – Development Team
Voice of Common Sense
Scrum Master
Voice of the Customer
Product Owner

48. For individuals, Head, Body and Heart
must cover all three Doing Work
Body
Questioning
Heart
Setting Priorities
Head

49. Joerg’s top priority was to save his company

50. One day, Joerg
changed his mind

51. Tip:
Get Clarity on What Really Matters and
Communicate it right away
People will notice the difference right away
Clarity Can Be Transformational

52. Your questions?
https://tinyurl.com/ybp3g9yv
Photo © leonardo viti - Fotolia

53. Three secrets of agile leadership
Secret 3
Create
Clarity of
Purpose
Change is easy
if you want to
do it

54. Software developers
have solved
your biggest issues!
Third Secret:

55. Walter Stulzer
Executive Director
FutureWorks.ch
We wanted to
change,
but we literally
could not.

56. SituationFutureworksemergesoutofthe
fissionofalargerpartnership
Walterwantstostepbackfrom
dailybusiness,passthetorchtoa
functionalleadership
Theydedicated10%oftheir
leadershipcapacityto
improvementand
startmanyinitiatives
Noneofthegoalshavebeen
achieved
Two years go by…
Image ©2019 Peter Stevens
Licensed CC-BY-NC-ND

57. That’s not quite true…

58. That’s not quite true… they created a new logo

59. Second try, they worked in Sprints (focused)
Waltercommittedtobeingpartof
thesolution,trainedwithhis
leadershipteamon
ScrumandPersonalAgility
Theydedicated10%oftheir
leadershipcapacityto
improvementandstartworkingon
afewinitiativesatatime
Allofthegoalshadbeenachieved
Six months go by…
Image ©2019 Peter Stevens
Licensed CC-BY-NC-ND

60. Six months later…
• “We accomplished everything needed
to achieve our initial goals.
• “Half of our initial ideas proved unnecessary, so we didn't do them.
• “We were able to achieve all our goals with ½ the work & ¼ of the time
• “And the the results are already visible in our finances!”
-- Walter Stultzer, Executive Director, Futureworks AG

61. How Walter and his team did it
• “I committed to making this a
success
• “I communicated WHY, then WHAT
• “We applied Scrum to improving
the company
• “Every three weeks or so, my
management and I got together…
• “Personal Agility was the most
important part of all

62. Source: © fotolia.com
Do you
have
too
much
to do
but
not
enough
time
to do it?

63. What are the top agile practices used in Development?
• Daily standup
• Sprint/iteration planning
• Retrospectives
• Sprint/iteration review
• Short iterations
Source: VersionOne, 12th Annual State of Agile Report, 2018

64. As part of their job to improve your organization,
does you manager…?
Practice
• Daily standup
• Sprint/iteration planning
• Retrospectives
• Sprint/iteration review
• Short iterations
% of development teams that use
• 90%
• 88%
• 85%
• 80%
• 69%
Source: VersionOne, 12th Annual State of Agile Report, 2018

65. Speed comparison
This is you working on one thing at time
1 week

66. 1 week
20 weeks
Speed comparison
This is you working on five things at once
1
2
3
4
5

67. There is a huge potential
to improve company performance
by eliminating excessive multitasking in management.

68. Tip: Start with Yourself
Apply Techniques from your Dev Teams
Apply Agility to Leadership

69. How to apply these three secrets of agile leadership
Apply Agility to
Leadership
Create clarity
on
what really
matters
Change is easy
if you want to
do it

70. Would you like to be the next Futureworks?
Walter Stulzer, Executive Director

71. Start with yourself
Individual
Apply Personal Agility
to your life or project

72. https://saat-network.ch/ten-ehttps://saat-network.ch/ebk

73. Thank you!
https://tinyurl.com/ybp3g9yv
Photo © leonardo viti - Fotolia

74. Would you like to be like Walter?
• Peter Stevens
• Co-Founder
Personal Agility Institute
• peter@saat-network.ch
• @peterstev
Walter Stulzer, Executive Director

75. Why would you want to do personal agility?
Because it works!
Because you can transform your life or your company

76. Case Studies
From Surviving to Thriving
Starting Your Career
Ambitious Entrepreneurs
Leading And Coaching Organizations
On to the Next Level!
Photo courtesy of Rajani

77. Leading and Coaching
Walter Stulzer
Executive Director, Futureworks | Zurich, Switzerland
Goal
• Company Turn-Around. Create value for the customer.
Each individual needs to know why they come to work
for us
Challenge
• The company was no longer profitable. I needed to
change basic things fast to save the company.
Achieved
• Disaster averted.
• Virtually eliminated employee turn-over.
Path to success
• “Personal Agility (WRM, PAS Priorities Map) was
essential to avoiding disaster. It enabled me to prioritize,
focus and learn.”
• “The PAS Stakeholder Canvas is a great analysis tool
for understand our customers. We could focus on
customer value to return to profitability.”
Photo courtesy Walter Stulzer

78. Leading and Coaching
Larry Pakieser
Operations Consultant | Denver, Colorado, USA
Goal
• Solve the kinds of operational and organizational
problems that affect engagement, satisfaction, and
sustainability.
Challenge
• Most of my projects were not finishing on time. The
day’s first customer call totally disrupts my plans for the
day.
Achieved
• Improved own on-time performance from 24% to > 75%.
Path to success
• “With PAS, I have a management system that is better
than anything I have encountered in 30 years of
searching. It’s producing completed results at an
unprecedented rate.”
• “The magic of the PAS Stakeholder Canvas is getting
people to think deeply about their challenges. I can see
interconnections that the customer is not aware of.”
Photo courtesy Larry Pakieser

79. Starting Your Career
Tuhan Sapumanage
BSc (Hons) Computing (UK) Colombo, Sri Lanka
Goal
• Finish university
Challenge
• Too many plates on my table. High workload and many
activities to keep track of
Achieved
• Allocate my time systematically. Be successful and have
time for friends & family. Compete degree and CIMA
Management level. Discovered compere as a hobby.
Now a recurring guest on national TV format.
Path to success
• Celebrate and Choose event was most important
element.
• Appreciating what I did lowered my stress and enabled
me to take breaks without feeling guilty

80. From Surviving to Thriving
Sharon Guerin
“The Culinary Queen” | St Petersburg, Florida USA
Goal
• Wanted to start a business and a YouTube channel
Challenge
• Life gets in the way
Achieved
• Thriving business, In control of her life. Now taking
herself and her business to the next level.
Path to success
• Personal Agility (WRM, PAS Priorities Map)
• Coaching
• Microcredits
Potential
• 100 Million people in a similar situation
Photo courtesy Sharon Guerin

81. Personal Agility
Why become a PARP?

82. Legal Stuff
The Personal Agility System and the PAI Logo are Trademarks of the Personal Agility Institute.
© 2020 Personal Agility Institute LLC. All Rights Reserved

83. Why become a
Certified
PARE or PARP
How to
become a
Certified
PARE or PARP?
What is The
Personal Agility
System?

84. What is The
Personal Agility
System?

85. Most of us have too much to do and not enough time to
do it
Capacity
Demand
“to do’s”

86. If you don’t where you are,

87. If you don’t where you are,
how can you know where you are going

88. Six questions and one recurring event help you
navigate and focus
Celebrate & Choose
What could
I do this
week?
What can I
expect to
get done?
What really
matters?
Do
What is
important,
urgent or
happy?
Who can
help?
What did I
do last
week?
🎉
Choose photo credit: Stockfresh.com

89. Six questions and one recurring event help you
feel good about yourself
Celebrate & Choose
Stuff done,
Closer to who
you want to be
Who you are,
What you did
What could
I do this
week?
What can I
expect to
get done?
What really
matters?
Do
What is
important,
urgent or
happy?
Who can
help?
What did I
do last
week?
🎉
Choose photo credit: Stockfresh.com

90. Image courtesy of Peter Stevens
Visualize your progress on your
PAS Priorities Map and PAS Breadcrumb Trail

91. The Personal Agility System is:
• A Simple Coaching Framework
• to help you (or others) become who
you want to be
• A Navigation Metaphor
• “Life is an ocean – it’s your boat!”
• Six Powerful Questions
• So know where you are and where
you are going
• One Weekly Event
• Helps you stay on course
• A collection of tools and
techniques to understand
yourself and others
• PAS Priorities Map
• PAS Breadcrumb Trail
• PAS Alignment Compass
• PAS Forces Map
• PAS Stakeholder Canvas

92. The Personal Agility System is a GPS Navigator
for your life, project or company

93. How to
become a
Certified
PARE or PARP?
What is The
Personal Agility
System?

95. What is the certification path in Personal Agility?
• Read PA Guide or Book
• Take an approved class
8 contact hours or more
• Apply Personal Agility
for 1 month or more
• Apply for Recognition
• Pass a coaching call
• Be a PARP
• Have a recognized coaching
or training certification
• Speak and write about the
Personal Agility System
• Apply Agree to work with PAI
• Read PA Guide or Book
• Apply Personal Agility
for 1 month or more
• Apply for Recognition
• Pass a coaching call

96. Why become a
Certified
PARE or PARP
How to
become a
Certified
PARE or PARP?
What is The
Personal Agility
System?

97. Why would an employer want a Certified
Personal Agility Recognized Practitioner?
• You can use all the tools & techniques
• You use coaching and powerful
questions to achieve optimal outcomes
• You can focus on business goals
• You can overcome fears and obstacles
to achieve long-term goals
• You can apply servant leadership to
build alignment & influence
• You are skilled at working with people
to solve problems
• You are authorized to train and certify
Personal Agility System practitioners
• You are a recognized expert and
member of your community
• You have an international network and
body of knowledge at your disposal
• You are good at getting things done
• You can focus on the right things
• Scrum other Agile frameworks will be
natural for you

98. Who benefits from PARE certification?
Students
Self-Teachers
Image courtesy of Gsagri04 at 1001FreeDownloads

99. Who benefits from PARP certification?
• Executives and Other Leaders in
an Agile Transition
• Team Leaders and Managers
• Scrum Masters & Agile Coaches
• Product Owners, Project
Managers and Business Analysts
• Job Hunters
Image courtesy of Palomaironique at 1001FreeDownloads

100. Questions?
Photo © leonardo viti - Fotolia

101. Contact
• Information
• https://PersonalAgilityInstitute.org
• Courses, Workshops and Other Events
• https://PersonalAgilityInstitute.org/events/