What does karaoke have to do with being agile?
Last week I attended XP 2015 in Helsinki, Finland. This is my second time there...I hope to go next year, too. It is a unique blend of researchers and students along with people working in big and small companies doing all kinds and flavors of agile development from all over the world. 37 countries were represented. We had 11 experience reports (Ken Power and I were track co-chairs of experience reports. More about them in another post).
Lots of learning. We had fun, too.
One of the highlights of the conference banquet was Presentation Karaoke. 6 brave souls gave 3 minute impromptu speeches. Every 30 seconds a new, unknown slide appeared.
Llewellyn Falco’s PowerPoint karaoke at XP 2015
Here’s video of parts of a presentation by Llewellyn Falco.
Avraham Poupko won the competition by popular vote. Pardon the shaky camera...I was laughing and not holding my cell phone very steady ....
So what’s connection between PowerPoint karaoke and agile development? Each speaker ostensibly spoke on a conference theme. Mostly, they had fun. High performing agile teams, like these speakers, know how to roll with the punches. Sure there’s a theme, a plan, a backlog of work items. But sometimes requirements change and you need to adapt on the spot. Rather than throw up your hands or panic, you need to make things work. It is impossible to go with the flow if you are in a panic. Like improv, agility demands that you accept change. Unanticipated things happen. You accept them and you adjust.
Some speakers made connections between slides. Avraham spotted what he thought were mangoes on the head of someone on one slide and incorporated them throughout his talk. Giovanni summarized all the key points at the end (it is a wonder he remembered them...but again, he wasn’t in a panic). Llewellyn was master at dramatic pauses before finding something to say. Their presentations were great.
Next time you are faced with unexpected change, take some cues from these improvisers: pause, gather yourself, take stock of the situation and then figure out what you need to do. Don’t panic. You’ll get through it. And maybe with a more relaxed attitude you’ll even have some fun.
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