Talks
Keynote Speakers
Between Spaces, Scopes, and Scales: What the Scaling Frameworks Don't Tell You
In an adaptive organisation, how do the relationships between different organisational scales work? Or the same question, but for the networked organisation? And what does that mean for me? Drawing on systems, complexity, and flow thinking – models such as the viable system model, the Cynefin framework, and Flight Levels – we'll explore how to look beyond process and recognise the deeper organisational imbalances that explain many scale-related challenges. Whether or not you use a branded framework, these are important skills to develop!
The 3 Futures of Work
Work keeps changing before our eyes. From recent rapid changes of global remote work and working from anywhere, to leaders challenged by the complexity of hybrid work… it’s in constant flux. Add in other trends like returning to the office and demands for workplace flexibility and the workplace isn’t what it was even 3 or 6 months ago. What’s next? How do we cope and adapt to what’s happening now and prepare ourselves for the immediate and next future of work? In this ever-evolving and up-to-date keynote, Lynne Cazaly shares the latest insights, trends, experiences and developments in the workplace to equip you for the future of work that is tomorrow, the next quarter, the next year … and beyond.
Sessional Speakers
Measuring Impact, Outcome and Output in Flow Based Systems
In an Organisation that has visualised the Operational Value Stream, it becomes imperative that measurements happen on all aspects of Output, Outcome and Impact. Organisations just need to define the Why and What; How needs to be decided by the Teams or People working on the ground. Setting the Vision and removng the bottlenecks, while keeping a constant check with right metrics allows for flow to be optimised for value delivery.
Kanban for startups: Combining Kanban and Product Management to accelerate a startup
Startups need to be agile, customer-focused, and able to respond quickly to market changes. To achieve this, startups require an effective product management approach that can align business goals with customer needs. Kanban, a lean and agile project management methodology, can be a valuable tool for startups looking to implement an effective product management framework.
In this talk, I will share my experience as Head of Product for InDebted, and how I used Kanban to identify bottlenecks and improve the product development lifecycle. I will discuss the key principles of Kanban and product management, and demonstrate how they can be used together to create a streamlined and effective process for managing product development.
I will explain how I used Kanban to manage product backlogs, prioritize tasks, and ensure that product development was aligned with business goals. I will also share how I used Kanban to track product development progress and measure the success of the product. I will provide examples of how I used data from Kanban to identify bottlenecks in the product development lifecycle, and how I used this data to improve the process from right to left.
Through my experience and case studies, attendees will learn how startups can leverage the combination of Kanban and product management to accelerate their growth. I will cover topics such as creating a Kanban board for product management, identifying and managing workflow bottlenecks, and establishing a culture of continuous improvement.
By the end of this talk, attendees will have a clear understanding of how to use Kanban and product management to accelerate their startup’s growth. They will leave with practical tips and strategies that they can implement right away, regardless of their team size or industry.
Getting Rid of the Expedite Lane
Perhaps through no one’s fault but my own, the “expedite swim lane” on my teams’ Kanban boards have been the first solid thing to appear, and the last to disappear. In seemingly breaking the laws of physics-I-mean-kanban, the swimlame then proceeds to wreak havoc on everything from flow, WIP limits, priorities to ultimately team sanity-I-mean-culture. In this talk I’m going to share various experiments I’ve run to get rid of the “expedite” swim lane, some with greater success than others – and my hope is you’ll come along and share some ideas back with me too!
Getting Real with Kanban: Lessons Learned from an Augmented Reality Simulator
Ever wished you could dive straight into a Kanban system, explore its intricacies, and learn its nuances? Join us for a deep dive into the world of Agile as we journey through the making and testing of an augmented reality Kanban simulator.
First off, we’ll explore Little’s Law in a way you’ve never seen before. It’s easy to see a software development team as a chaotic mess, but what if we’re just looking from the wrong angle? Our simulator will show you that sometimes, you just need to take a step back to find the hidden rhythm within the chaos.
Then, we’ll take on the common wisdom that reducing work in progress (WIP) means increasing throughput. Sounds logical, right? Well, our simulator’s findings might just surprise you. We’ll delve into the hidden complexities and discuss how real-world overheads can paint a different picture.
But wait, there’s more! We won’t just be talking about doing things faster; we’ll also discuss doing the right things. We’ll make the case for why focusing on value, not just speed, is essential for true Kanban success. We’ll show you how breaking work into smaller items and applying the 80/20 rule can take your team’s productivity to the next level, without just ‘fiddling the numbers’.
Best of all, this won’t just be a talk. Get ready to dive into the AR simulator right from your seat! The session will include a live demo where you’ll be able to experience the simulator in real-time on your own device. We believe there’s no better way to learn than by doing, and our simulator offers a unique opportunity to get your hands dirty (digitally, of course!) and explore Kanban in a whole new light.
Join us to challenge your preconceptions, broaden your perspectives, and supercharge your Agile toolkit with an unforgettable, immersive Kanban experience.
The Trojan War and Kanban: Understand different team contexts and achieve better flow
What if the Trojans lost the war because of bad flow management?
An introduction to the benefits of Lean Thinking and Flow to any team, this talk will inspect flow (or lack thereof) during the Trojan war, and help you reflect on opportunities to improve the flow of value delivery in your own context.
We will build a parallel with this mythical story to explore 3 kinds of team contexts (and their associated level of emerging complexity) a provide you with killer tips to boost their performance:
- Product teams (Athenians) – Backlog of work is reasonably stable but we are unsure how to get it done
- BAU or Service teams (Spartans) – New work emerges often but we know how to get it done
- Hybrid teams (Trojans) – We have a reasonably stable backlog AND new work emerges often, also we may know how to get some work done but there are still unknowns
Now, in Aurelien’s experience, most teams struggling with work management may simply lack an understanding of which kind of complexity they are dealing with, and how they could benefit from adopting a couple basic Lean tools.
In this interactive deep dive into real success and war stories, Aurelien inspires you to learn from the significant impact of flow on all aspects of our daily work, and shares pragmatic ways for any team (“Agile” or “Traditional”) to improve their flow embracing Lean Thinking and keeping Trojan Horses out of their walls.
Walking away from this talk you will wonder, if only Lean Thinking and Kanban principles were known by the ancient Greeks, perhaps history would tell a very different story…
Personal Kanban — How to create up to 60 days of increased productivity per year!
Personal Kanban is simple in nature. It has only two rules. But do you really follow those two rules and take advantage of this amazing personal time management process?
I want to share how I’ve used Personal Kanban over the last 7 years as the Group Manager – Queensland for Elabor8. I have grown this office from myself to a team of 40 people in 2023. Personal Kanban has been integral in how I manage my day, supporting this business growth and it has created up to 60 days of increased productivity per year!
This talk will share how this is possible to create that amount of increase productivity, as well as sharing 3 different forms of how I’ve used Personal Kanban over the years. You’ll leave with practical tips of how you too can increase your productivity dramatically.
Using Kanban to Kanban
Introducing new Ways of Working is complex and challenging knowledge work.
It requires a principled approach to Change and Service, the use of: visualisation, a need to focus and reduce overburdening, knowledge of what’s happening up and downstream in the organisation, a set of rules or policies to guide the work being done, some feedback loops to learn and improve, engaging the right people to evolve change progressively – that all sounds very familiar……
In the following talk, I’ll discuss how I have used Kanban Principles and Practices to introduce and improve ways of working in 2 different organisations a Queensland University and an Insurance Company.
It may seem an obvious premise but there is true power using the approach, method or tool you are implementing to implement it. This goes for Jira to Implement Jira too – that’s a small part of this story too.
Scaling Kanban: scale agility when you are ready, not because you're large
Raising a big rock indicates you have no intention of tossing it.
It’s not uncommon for organisations to undergo significant change and transformation by adopting a pre-determined solution, which is often ineffective because it oversimplifies the complexity of human behaviour and organisational maturity. As a result, it’s possible for the system’s performance to decline, leading to high turnover rates and, ultimately, a return to the status quo.
In this case study, we’ll explore the underlying causes of this problem and examine how to determine when organisations are prepared to scale agility and implement a sustainable solution.
Whether you are a small startup poised for growth or an established enterprise seeking to enhance your competitive edge, this topic will provide you with the insights and tools to unlock your potential.
Steering Through Market Shifts: 12 Ways to Amplify Your Impact as a Delivery Leader
As we transition from the 4th to the 5th industrial revolution at unprecedented speed, delivery leaders face a daunting challenge: maintaining fitness amidst rapidly accelerating change.
The task of supporting Value Streams in becoming resilient and more humane – ones that are capable of enduring, adapting, and thriving, irrespective of how swiftly the landscape shifts – is a demanding feat.
This talk distils 12 pragmatic guiding principles that delivery leaders can leverage to significantly amplify their impact, helping Value Streams to navigate confidently through market shifts.
The Kanban Practices – One Ring to Rule them All
Join us in Middle Earth where wizards and knights battle the forces of evil using the power of the Six Great Rings of the Kanban Practices! Discover the power and the curses of the Great Rings. And then learn about the One Ring, the practice that rules them all, and that every victorious Kanban team must master.
A Ring for the AKCs in their towers of ivory,
A Ring for the AKTs in the halls of hotels,
A Ring for the KMPs working with their teams,
Two Rings for the Service Managers doomed to cry,
One for the Kanban coach under the sky,
In the Land of Evolution where Improvements lie.
One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them,
One Ring to bring them all and in the lightness bind them
In the Land of Evolution where Improvements lie.
Value Stream Mapping: Act React Evolve
Even when teams work on the from the same backlog, how they work can be very different. Having an understanding of their system gives people a clear picture of what they do and how they do it. Using this information they can collaborate on a continuous improvement plan for their team. In this session participants are going to work through a quick scenario that will show the importance of value stream mapping. After that I’ll share my preferred approach to running sessions with clients. I’ll show you how to set one up and will share stories from sessions that I’ve run over the years. When you leave you’ll have enough to get started with your clients.
The strange absence of Kanban in Australia and what we can do about it!
After working with Kanban for seven years, I relocated to Australia to assist with Agile transformations. To my surprise, Kanban was nearly absent in these transformations. At that time, there was only a single documented case, and a handful of trainings led by the only two trainers in the entire country. I became the first female Kanban trainer in both Australia and Brazil.
In 2017, Australia experienced an explosion of SAFe and Spotify implementations. As I had suspected, six years on, these implementations fell short of delivering the anticipated outcomes proportional to the investments poured into them. In 2023 Kanban remains a hidden treasure in Australia, and companies continue to struggle with efficient delivery.
If you’re curious about implementing Kanban amidst apparent disinterest or skepticism, I invite you to join my talk. I will share insights drawn from my 14 years of experience implementing Kanban stealthily across companies of diverse sizes, cultures, and industries. I hope you leave the session with some good insights about how to start benefiting from the superpowers of Kanban
Lean Coffee
A lean coffee session focused on helping promote deeper knowledge and usage of Kanban throughout Australia and it’s neighbours.
Reviewers
Sally Sloley
KCP / AKT
Silke Noll
KCP / AKT
