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2023 Virtual campfire

Recording of some of the stories

Discussions between the stories were not recorded.




Moderator:  Mary Lynn Manns, co-author of Fearless Change & More Fearless Change

10:00 - 10:20am

We will begin at 10:00 on the dot.


  • Welcome & Opening:  What is Fearless Change and what are you going to do today at the Campfire?


  • Demo of the upcoming Fearless Change App!    Come find out how you can become a beta tester.  Dave Best is a professional software developer and amateur community developer.  www.scrimmage.us.

And then, the Campfire begins!

10:20 - 10:30am

Linda Rising, Learning Means Change 

The Campfire will kick-off with a provocative story. Can Linda do it? What if she learned something that could up-end some long-cherished ideas about influencing others? "Facts don't always convince" has been a watchword of both Fearless Change books, including something called the "backfire" effect. Now, Linda has learned that both of these maxims may not hold up all the time. Tune in to see how this story turns out! 


Linda is the co-author of Fearless Change & More Fearless Change. She is an independent consultant, trainer, speaker, writer with a focus on agile development, patterns, retrospectives, the change process, and the connection between the latest neuroscience and software development. 

10:30 - 10:40am

Steve Berczuk.  Life Lessons from the Classroom 

We’re taught that rules can bring order, and we are sometimes taught that rules shouldn’t be followed blindly. Steve shares a somewhat banal experience he had in high school that made a big impression about how he thought about context and when to Question Authority. 


Steve Berczuk is a software developer who is fascinated by the role of people systems in software development.  www.berczuk.com

10:40 - 10:50am

Steffani Brasil.  How to just create connections at work - a Just Do It story  

There is power in the "Just Do It" Fearless Change pattern for creating human connections as a remote worker.  This story is told with the hope that we will one day hear more about this change being part of remote work.   


Stefanni is the co-founder of hexdevs, a Senior Developer at Thoughtbot, and a core maintainer of faker-ruby.  

10:50 - 11:00am

Eric Willeke. Growing the Dandelion

The impact of change is seen and felt in many ways. Sometimes it's about the landscape we create, and sometimes it's about the seeds that get away.


Eric is a long-time agile transformation leader focusing on growing the capabilities of agile change leaders and the coaches that support them. 

11:00 - 11:10am

Tsvetelina Plummer. Cultural integration - is there such a thing?

Can cultures blend or does one always come on top? When going through a merger/acquisition, every employee has at least one question - "what will change for me?"  How can we be evangelists and at the same time be fearless in getting things done in a new way? These are some questions (& answers?) from a very hot merger kitchen! 

 

Tsvetelina is a senior agile coach at the market research company GfK which has recently merged with Nielsen IQ. She is focusing on unleashing the potential of continuous learning to conquer scale and enable rapid innovation.

11:10 - 11:20am

Johanna Rothman, How I Lost My Balance and Gained New Insights on Agility

We see so many examples of faux-agile that I worry that real agility is no longer. But then I realize most of us practice agility in real life: set a goal, take a small step, and get some feedback. How have you seen real agility in your life or work? 


Johanna, known as the “Pragmatic Manager,” offers frank advice about all aspects of managing product development. See her writing and books at jrothman.com and createadaptablelife.com.

11:20 - 11:30am

BREAK

11:30 - 11:40am

Chris Swisher, Low Hanging Fruit is Unexpectedly Bitter

Discovering organizational culture, the hard way.  Years later, they still talk about what I did…but not in a good way. How simple acts can expose deeper unspoken boundaries and clues about change readiness. 


Chris is a Leadership Coach and Principal Consultant for Evans Consulting, Inc., dedicated to resolving leadership challenges and addressing the people side of change. https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrisswisher/

11:40 - 11:50am

Patty Payette, PhD, Confessions of a Change Agent

Patty will talk about how she harnessed the patterns of Fearless Change to put her relationships with colleagues at the center of her organizational change conversations and the "good, bad and the ugly" lessons learned on the journey.


Patty has been collaborating with faculty, staff and students to introduce and sustain innovative teaching methods in higher education since 2007.  She is a scholar practitioner who coaches other academic leaders to make their change agendas happen on campus, and publishes about her strategies.

11:50am - 12:00pm

Diana Larsen, Stepping into Speaking the Uncomfortable (for me and others)

One time a colleague startled me with the description “Diana, is the person who will say what everyone in the room is thinking but won’t say.” While it can be uncomfortable, I will share how I’ve learned the value that impulse can bring to my community, to my clients, and to me. 


Diana, also known as a Visionary Pragmatic,  Retrospective Goddess, and Leadership Agility Advisor, engages with challenges that emerge at the intersection of team improvement, learning, and leadership. Discover more about her contributions at dianalarsen.com. 

12:00 - 12:10pm

Richard P. Gabriel, Dangerous Waterhole

In nature, a waterhole in an otherwise dry countryside provides essential water to all animals within travel distance. It is a commons, but a commons to predator and prey alike. In Kenya, for example, elephants, hippos, giraffes, Grevy’s zebras, gazelles, crocodiles, leopards, and many other species gather at waterholes to take a drink or have a quick dip. Predators know prey must visit; prey know predators must visit. It is dangerous. The most intriguing change to make in the world is to create a dangerous waterhole.


Richard has many years of experience as a researcher at IBM and Sun Microsystems. He is now a poet, writer, and computer scientist living in California—see his writings at https://dreamsongs.com. 

12:10- 12:23pm

Zorina Alliata & Hara Gavriliadi. Embracing Innovation Together

This is a story about the partnership between humans and machines, where automation paved the way for more meaningful human interactions. In the near future, we will witness how this collaboration becomes more common. Can we ensure that humanity remains the driving force at the heart of innovation? 


Zorina and Hara work in AI and Customer Experience at Amazon. They work with global companies to help them design strategies and implement data, ML and AI-powered products and services. 

12:23 - 1:00pm

As we think about what we learned during the Campfire, we will wrap-up with an important discussion

How can we make change when we can't talk with each other?


Rachel Keith & Mary Lynn Manns


Rachel is a producer in One Small Step and Mary Lynn was one of the participants. Rachel will discuss this nationwide initiative that is helping to bridge political divides, one conversation at a time. Mary Lynn will tell a story about how the experience affected her. 


Rachel is a reporter and host for WHQR Public Media in Wilmington, North Carolina. Mary Lynn Manns is the co-author of Fearless Change.


More about One Small Step

2022 Campfire
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