Wow! What a venue! This was my first impression when I arrived at the Agile France event on June the 13th 2019.
It was located at the Chalet de la Porte Jaune in the Bois de Vincennes and this venue inspires serenity. Seeing that I already feel like everything is set for a good time. I’ll let you be the judge of that.

The audience is quite eclectic: men, women, dressed in suit-and-tie or casual… This is definitely an IT event!

The day begins and the speakers get to introduce their subjects. My choices were based on the theme, but also on the speakers charisma:

“Make the right decision as a team, yes, but how?”

• Presented by Gaelle ABAUTRET and Frantz DEGRIGNY
• We all want to be part of a cool and successful team! But in reality, it doesn’t happen by magic: you can use simple and effective tips.

I will take every good idea on the subject. This is not an easy process but it is so fruitful that every tip that I can collect would be very interesting.

“Black magic or how do All Blacks build their team outside of the field?”

• by Nils Lesieur and Stéphane Bachelet
• Overview of methods used outside of rugby and gym rooms: those that allow the team and teammates to grow as one.

As a sports guy, this conference was obvious to me, plus the analogy between a rugby team and an IT project was very striking!

“Enough of agile methods, let’s move on to strict methods!”

• by Mickael Andre
• We can all agree on the fact that agility does not work. Let’s move on to strict methods: the “strict manifest”, the “SCRAFe” framework, the silos, the tunnel vision, the top-down and strict management, the retrospectives to settle the records and look for people to blame, so many attracting tools to aim one and only goal: control!

Feel the irony yet? Great! A must-see!

“If Darwin was right, agility happens randomly”

• By François Zaninotto
• Agility causes numerous evolution in IT, which pushes tech teams to quickly get accustomed to the changing environment in their companies. There is a sort of a company natural selection that allows the most agile to emerge. But IT hypertrophy in the economic leadership hides a huge weakness: agility fails to go beyond the IT department, and other departments also have to change more often. Because of my entrepreneurial experience and the ironic parallel with the theory of evolution, this conference is, to me, a way to call for a revolution in the management practices.

Another entertaining conference but also very interesting on business transformation and agility!

“Hack your meeting with the Liberating Structures”

• by Anne Gabrillagues
• Have you ever been to one of those dreadfully boring meetings? Managers questions about people mutism and lack of implication? Alienation of people who are considered slacking off? Disappointment that improvements are never implemented? How “Liberating Structures” allows free speech, inclusion of all participants in discussions, decision-making and active participation in groups of all sizes.

Meetings punctuate my days and are not always very efficient, thus the relevance of this conference.

So how to make effective team decisions?

Agility allows us to maximize the value we deliver by capitalizing on collective intelligence. The team is expected to self-organize and make decisions collectively. Yes, but how do we do it in practice?
First of all, what a success for this session, the room was packed and I found myself standing at the back. It doesn’t matter, it must be really interesting, right?

So, I am sure you will recognize some of your team members’ attitudes in the following situations:

• spending hours going in circles to decide on a wording
• discussing everything together, all the time
• wanting to participate in all groups
• systematic questioning of previous choices
• never speaking or very little
• always agreeing with the leader or the majority

Well I do! So let’s start by laying the groundwork and share the meeting’s purpose with our team: vision, mission and objectives. Then, define very clearly the roles and expectations for everyone.
The actors are then aligned, the work rhythm is set and the roles are well defined. Now what?
Well, we try to make decisions by consent because we assume that a decision can only be implemented if no one is against it anymore.
We ask the team to take a stand via a non verbal reaction: for, against or neutral. Then we ask people against the group to justify their opposition by raising a reasoned objection and in relation to the group’s mission. The final purpose is that either the decision should be rejected or no one should be against it.
Objections help to make the proposal better and are not only welcome but sought after!

A diagram is worth more than lengthy speeches:

Black magic or how do All Blacks build their team outside of the field?

Let’s start with some figures:

• 82% victory rate between 2000 and 2009 (100 games won)
• 92,13% victory rate since 2010

Special mention for 2016: 18 matches, 18 victories, 104 tries, 41.7 average points
All that at international level, which is the highest level possible!

“Watermelon indicator”
Is the victory rate the ultimate performance indicator? The most authentic one?
It is revealing, it is partly authentic but not entirely so. In the 2000s, New Zealand had an impressive 82% win rate but never won the World Championship title.
Is it better to be match test champion, never win or lose a little more often but end up crowned?

From “I” to “Us”
So how does it go from 82% victory rate and zero champion titles, to 92% victory rate and 2 world champion titles in the bag?
The 2004 Tri-Nations, a competition that brings together New Zealand, Australia and South Africa, 3 of the best teams in the world, was a major fail: New Zealand ended last! An insanity in this country where being an All Black is a consecration. To forget about it, players switched from beer to liquor… The night of August 14–15, 2004 will be a milestone: Springboks sharing the same hotel were first aid, All Blacks are at their lowest. But the players did not dare to express themselves and admitted under cover of anonymity their fear of playing for the All Blacks. How can this be possible with players who are technically superior?
To get back on the right path, a massive choc was needed, so a new coach came in: Graham Henry who nominates the youngest captain in history: Richie McCaw, 23 years old.
But what will make a difference is the crisis meeting initiated by the new staff. Everyone from the All Blacks is here. The meeting lasted… three days and led to the constitution of the Blacks with strict rules, established together with the players and the staff with a single objective: The team first”.
This constitution will respond to the different levels of the DILTS pyramid:

In the All Blacks “constitution”, participants in this meeting answered questions such as “What does it mean to be an All Black? “What does it mean to be a New Zealander? “ …
Why did they have to answer these kinds of questions? Why did they waste time thinking about these questions? J. Kerr replied, “Asking these questions is not a waste of time. We can have all the techniques in the world but the root is the Human because he is the one making the decisions”.
Thus 3 key values are derived from it: humility, excellence and respect. All of them must be implemented through concrete actions. Thus, for example, the blackbook is set up. It lists every player who has worn the black jersey and is given during the first selection of a new international with a blank page to remind him of the weight of the story but also that the next step is to be written and that he is an actor!
No task is too tedious, so, for example, All Blacks systematically clean the cloakroom after their shift.
They also implemented techniques to better manage pressure and key moments in a game and reviewed the traditional Haka so that everyone can join in regardless of their ethnic origin.

All these elements can be applied to all teams. A team is a sum of individuality but they must advance towards the same goal, share the same values to strive for excellence. This is how the All Blacks went from a team that almost never lost but did not win a world cup to a team that won the last 2 of the last 3 world cups…

In conclusion, if you’ve read me up so far, thank you! I decided to give you the content of these 2 conferences but don’t be shy to ask me if you want us to talk about the others!

In any case these 2 days were rich in learning for me, I was able to recover some ideas and good practices that I have already had the opportunity to apply on my projects!