A conversation with Agility by Nature
IAN GILL
Welcome to our podcast conversations with our clients, friends and associates of Agility by Nature - www.agilitybynature.com
About us
You want to solve the problems that you are experiencing, so you’ll (also naturally) be highly curious as to what we’re about: we are here to listen, advise and, act together in facilitating success.
In a nutshell we have the best, trusted network of consultants to solve your business agility problems. We believe that, as with all of our clients, you and the challenges you face are unique, requiring a unique fit with the expertise of any person coming in to help you – so we only recommend people who we have extensive experience, provenance and references.
We are an associate-driven consultancy. Our focus is not utilisation and “the bench”; instead, it is to deliver outcomes with people and always focus on value.
If you are one of our competitors, we’ll see you soon.
https://agilitybynature.com/contact-us/
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Top 10 A conversation with Agility by Nature Episodes
Goodpods has curated a list of the 10 best A conversation with Agility by Nature episodes, ranked by the number of listens and likes each episode have garnered from our listeners. If you are listening to A conversation with Agility by Nature for the first time, there's no better place to start than with one of these standout episodes. If you are a fan of the show, vote for your favorite A conversation with Agility by Nature episode by adding your comments to the episode page.
A conversation with Neighla Cain and Agility by Nature (Ian Gill)
A conversation with Agility by Nature
10/09/20 • 52 min
Neighla Cain - Trust me, I’m a trainer.
Coach, Tech Trainer, Writer, Broadcaster, Neighla is an irrepressible people person and change agent, who learnt her trade in the early days of mobile handset sales and promotion. The resilience, discipline and genuine warmth evident then, comes together to help form bespoke training across all technology, custom apps, and platforms - always focussed on users and customers with various levels of tech skills
Neighla dissects the two types of training: impart knowledge and facilitation, where the latter requires a great deal of skill. She discusses the use of NLP in both training and sales, and other ways to read the room. Focussed engagement is the fundamental key. And for employers, how do know you are getting good ROI?
Finally, Neighla makes the case for the importance of Change Managers in the business.
Neighla’s book :
The House: Is the house you live in really your home?
The house is a metaphor for the UK. It looks at the relationship between those born in the house compared to those coming to live in the house from elsewhere. It follows the journey of a curious character named Shereen who is on a quest to understand the mindset of many people and establishments we come across daily. It is a call to action to be open minded about the different things we have been taught. The House also suggests we don’t have to follow the structure and norms society expects and to not be afraid to go our own way.
Neighla is a great example of the power of doing!
https://tulsans.co.uk/shop/the-house-paperback-book/
https://www.amazon.co.uk/House-Neighla-Cain-ebook/dp/B07XZKV3YW
How to get hold of Neighla for training (esp Microsoft 365) [email protected] & https://www.linkedin.com/in/neighlacain/
#training #coaching #mentoring
https://agilitybynature.com/contact-us/
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A conversation with Erin Davis and Agility by Nature (Ian Gill)
A conversation with Agility by Nature
09/23/20 • 23 min
We talk about scaling, building trust remotely, and the size of your network and why it matters, Plus why the heck are all these Lawyers becoming coaches and oddness of Dan North (who isn’t btw!) & Liz Keogh.
The link to Erin’s remote working suggestion is here: https://www.sococo.com
#agile #coaching #product
https://agilitybynature.com/contact-us/
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A conversation with Graham Padgham and Agility by Nature (Ian Gill)
A conversation with Agility by Nature
09/13/20 • 37 min
Graham Padgham- Business Architecture and and the dynamics of maximising Value
Graham is elegant, eloquent and deeply experienced, working with IT and exploiting it to solve customer problems and adding value. We touch on Digital in the retail space drawing on 18 years of experience in www.specsavers.co.uk (which is much more than retail itself covering logistics, health care and support to name a few.)
Graham concisely outlines the roles of different Architects whether Solution, Technical and Enterprise. Business Architects look at the business as a whole (including but not solely IT) and maps business capabilities across:
People
Process
Technology
And Data
And examining how they support the strategic objectives of the company.
This fundamentally allows businesses to respond to change holistically and ensure strategy at the top is connected to execution across the company. Graham explores the use of agile and how businesses can and should focus on the delivery of value.
This is not just a high level, slow analysis of the business but an ongoing, ruthless focus on value streams and delivering maximum value however fast your market changes. Graham is a master of joining up these very complex relationships and moving from the “as is” to what could and should be and relaying it in a very simple, achievable way.
The books referred to by Graham are:
Great Transition: Using the Seven Disciplines of Enterprise Engineering by James Martin
Jackson structured programming (JSP) is a method for structured programming developed by British software consultant Michael A. Jackson and described in his 1975 book Principles of Program Design
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey
Graham’s email is [email protected]
Hello to James Yoxall linkedin.com/in/james-yoxall-67859a and Rob Smith.linkedin.com/in/robsmith4
#transformation #architecture #itprogrammes
https://agilitybynature.com/contact-us/
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A conversation with Helen Lisowski and Agility by Nature (Ian Gill)
A conversation with Agility by Nature
09/13/20 • 40 min
Helen Lisowski - Lending her belief in you and growing pains
Helen is a wonderful speaker and a sucker for the intriguing challenge. Her successful and varied career, “lending her belief in people”, means she has built deep expertise in nurturing teams and company performance. Helen’s sweet spot is the scale up businesses of between 50-250 people and how to step round the pitfalls that can be “quite painful”
We cover four key areas for the the business:
Culture - getting it right, making it explicit (and make it findable!)
Recruitment - how to find and win great people that engage with the business
Retention - preserving all that wonderful expertise (replacing people is even more expensive)
Results - at the end of the day, you are a business with purpose and we can hold each other accountable.
We discuss different types of founders and how they can set the right tone and culture for growing fledgling business, and also the fundamentals of good management which is lightweight and really is the very best investment you can make.
Regardless of the size of your company, this is chockfull of insights to give every manager pause for thought and the time to raise your hand and make it right.
#agility #waysofworking #coaching
https://agilitybynature.com/contact-us/
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An Agile Audience with Amanda Toussaint
A conversation with Agility by Nature
07/05/21 • 45 min
Amanda Toussaint - Successful Business change with a human heart? I’ll buy that!
Amanda is a change manager with a particular love of high street retail, a world facing intense pressure from the big internet platforms to form compelling digital responses to compliment the brick and mortar space.
As a change manager, Amanda’s role usually spans the technical teams, the user community and the stakeholder. Hitting the objectives for the Exec and keeping them informed, achieving engagement and capability in the people on the shop floor and make IT shine as a business partner. In a changing world organisations are recognising that change management is s skill set they need and becoming more proactive in getting those skills.in. But there is still those who wait the until the ‘shit hits the fan’.
Do people resist change as the accepted wisdom tells us? Amanda doesn’t accept that premise and dissects how to achieve the all important engagement (and the ROI) And if you were in any doubt about the importance of managing your stakeholders, think again...it is critical and fundamental.
And it seems that agile incremental thinking helps a great deal. Which leads us to whether change is a project or an ongoing investment and evolution of adoption and value. Amanda explains what good handover looks like using data, metrics and long term management & ownership sensibilities.
Oh and she addresses the classic COTS dilemma of too much, unsupportable customisation v vanilla installations that don’t quite fit the user community
Retail is changing in front of our very eyes and with much loved brands no longer able to cut it. With such high stakes, can you afford to not to land change really well? We discuss honesty...when the change will have good but also difficult consequences such as redundancies. Amanda’s warmth, pragmatism and experience really comes to the fore.
And finally, the change manager is changed...adopting new tech to reach the shop floor and connect with real people in new ways. The future of work is evolving very fast (probably)!
Contact Amanda:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amanda-toussaint-98840b8/
Email: [email protected]
https://agilitybynature.com/contact-us/
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A conversation with Philippe Guenet and Agility by Nature (Ian Gill)
A conversation with Agility by Nature
02/12/21 • 54 min
Philippe Guenet: Understanding Successful Digital Change Journeys - getting on the right Coach.
Companies are facing the imperative to change and adapt. Leadership is lonely and leaders need to consider their change partners very carefully before embarking on their digital and organisational transformations.
Philippe Guenet is an Executive Coach and Leadership development expert who focuses on the work system organisation, practices, people & leadership development associated with Digital and Agile transformation. His work in many substantial companies gives him a deep well of direct experience to draw from when advising his clients, coupled with his formal coaching training.
Philippe explains the differences between coaches and consultants and gives a wonderful and detailed tour of the role of the coach in organisations - from helping teams at the coal face and especially at the exec level.
His insight into authentic coaching, agility, and organisational change is thoughtful, well considered and compelling
For Execs thinking about transformation in their organisation, Philippe provides a primer for the key areas, cadence and importantly, the people to consider in the journey to come. A change that starts with you being involved. In the journey into change and uncertainty, Philippe is challenging but ultimately, reassuring too. He is the trustworthy voice by your side, assisting the journey of change through coaching.
Contact Philippe:
www.linkedin.com/in/philippeguenet/
www.meetup.com/DigitalLeadership/
References:
Simon Wardley - “recovering consultant” blog.gardeviance.org
The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement by Eli Goldratt
agilitybynature.com/contact-us/
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A conversation with Johanna Rothman and Agility by Nature (Ian Gill)
A conversation with Agility by Nature
01/29/21 • 50 min
Johanna Rothman - Management is Easy: Myth busting for thoroughly modern managers.
Actually, management is not easy and managers are real people trying to do a good job.
Fortunately, Johanna Rothman, self confessed Queen of the Career Limiting Conversations, has poured a great deal of direct, practical experience in managing yourself , others and the innovative organisation with three new books:
Practical Ways to Manage Yourself
Practical Ways to Lead & Serve (Manage) Others
Practical Ways to Lead an Innovative Organisation
Johanna outlines the common principles shared in the books and we discuss some guilty behaviours such as”inflicting help”, whether technical managers can be the manager but also keep their hand in the tech and why we need to “decriminalise” making mistakes.
Johanna really helps us to reframe our understanding of management today and to create an innovative organisation that can flourish in today’s world. She disects the meaning of servant leader, the costs you really need to think about in making decisions, and the fundamental importance of purpose, value-based integrity and experimentation.
Johanna brings solutions to HELP you with the problems we face in modern management. Although she is direct, there is great warmth and wisdom which make this new series irresistible. Johanna Rothman is great: I’m a fan and hope you will be too. Its time to find the sweet spot
Contact Johanna
https://www.jrothman.com
https://twitter.com/johannarothman
https://www.linkedin.com/in/johannarothman/
References:
https://www.jrothman.com/modern-management-made-easy-a-three-volume-set/
This is Lean: Resolving the Efficiency Paradox (Niklas Model & Par Ahlstrom)
Donald-G-Reinertsen The Principles of Product Development flow and other books
For further information: https://agilitybynature.com/contact-us/
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An Agile Conversation with Ramz Shaft
A conversation with Agility by Nature
01/14/22 • 49 min
We've been off the air for a few months focussing on our new website and working with our client’s projects. But we are back with today’s guest Ramz Shaft who shares his journey to become a scrum master.
Ramz did not start his career in the IT project management space, but rather as a gamer, entrepreneur and salesman. He has a big personality who has learned how to manage his enthusiasm to be a rather more selfless facilitator, where empathy is critical. He talks about his career, the persistence and networking needed to get where he is and the reasons behind such a significant career change.
His career mirrored the arrival of the now all pervasive web and digital world we see today. He reflects on the tools we use old and new, and the many techniques and strategies he has learnt over the years. And especially how he has tailored his approach when dealing with small to large companies . Hierarchies anyone?
For any fledgling Scrum Masters, fresh from their CSM, can get insight into the challenges Ramz has overcome, his thinking on complexity and those difficult conversations we all bump into. Welcome to his chaos!
Find Ramz: linkedin.com/in/ramzshaft
Ramz Book Reference: Difficult Conversations by Douglas Stone, Bruce Patton and Sheila Heen (www.wob.com/en-gb/books/bruce-p...ations/978067092134)
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An Agile Audience with Michael Short and Agility by Nature (Ian Gill)
A conversation with Agility by Nature
04/29/21 • 79 min
Michael Short - Stop turning the handle of the sausage machine. Working with social animals!
Michael Short, Founder of Culture Works Consulting, uses Executive Coaching with his business experience to support others achieve leadership and cultural change, he is also an extremely experienced Agile Coach and certified GCIndex practitioner.
And he knows that the productivity in most companies is simply not good enough! But, instead of looking for silver bullets in ways of working frameworks, managers should really be working with people and teams to harness strengths, passions and energy.
When you give people things to do that they want actually want to do, where their energy and passion truly lives, they can become incredibly productive. And this is also the path to the holy grail of business: innovation.
We explore the five state model in the GC Index with roles of:
Game Changers,
Strategists,
Implementors
Polishers
and Play Makers.
How do they map to performance in different scenarios and phases of a project or work generally?
Importantly, Michael helps us understand how psychological safety is not just pop-psychology babble, but really works and is truly necessary to get the very best of teams, out of people.
If you are serious about delivering value, engaging with your people, and getting real productivity this is for you. Get the right mix of happy.
Write To Michael:
Talk to Michael:
Tel: 07711875909
Read:
The 4 Stages of Psychological Safety (Defining the path to Inclusion and Innovation) - Timothy R. Clark
Visit and Interact:
More about the GC Index:
Contact us:
agilitybynature.com/contact-us/
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A conversation with Judy Rees and Agility by Nature (Ian Gill)
A conversation with Agility by Nature
01/19/21 • 46 min
Judy Rees: How to achieve Transforming Conversations (Remotely)
2020 was the year that challenged managers and leaders to rethink and relearn how to communicate. And at the heart of that are questions. And it turns out we don’t ask enough ...in the right way.
Judy Rees began her journey understanding the the power of questions as a Reporter and over many years has become deeply interested in our leap to a preferred sense when we make sense of the world and communication.
Judy gives wonderful examples of Clean Language, a precision inquiry technique - a way of finding out what’s happening inside someone’s inner world - using questions they are neutral to any one sense.
Judy shows how anyone with the right practice can create safe environments for teams, bring a clearer and sophisticated understanding of people’s views from high level strategy down to more close the the ground execution.
You do need to practice this stuff to get good at it, and Judy tells us the two best questions to start with: "What kind of X?" and "Is there anything else about X?
And then to Zoom and similar technology: how to have powerful connections and meaningful conversations via zoom just a good as the “real world” ? And what is the optimal size of a group to establish high trust conversations. And how to master what is essential in technology rather than having to learn everything instead retain your focus on people. Sometimes the simplest things make the biggest difference. Powerpoint users take note and screen sharers take note.
Judy is an incredible communicator and gives wonderful insights everyone can learn. No wonder the World Heath Organisation and UNICEF asked for her help as the pandemic took hold of our world.
Contact Judy:
Reesmcann.com
Sign up for the link letter and ‘how to” guide
https://twitter.com/judyrees
https://www.linkedin.com/in/judyrees/
More of Judy’s work with Clean Language:
www.Learncleanlanguage.com
In addition, Judy has an enormous body of work on You Tube.
References:
Wendy Sullivan and Judy Rees: Clean Language: Revealing Metaphors and Opening Minds
Pierre Neis: What Kind of Agile https://www.slideshare.net/PierreNeis/what-kind-of-agile-is-your-agile
Roland Hill case study: http://www.cleanchange.co.uk/cleanlanguage/2009/01/27/analyst’s-clean-questions-save-34-million-euro-project/
#cleanlanguage #judyrees #agilitybynature
For further information: https://agilitybynature.com/contact-us/
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FAQ
How many episodes does A conversation with Agility by Nature have?
A conversation with Agility by Nature currently has 39 episodes available.
What topics does A conversation with Agility by Nature cover?
The podcast is about Devops, Transformation, Agile, Podcasts, Technology, Business, Coaching and Engineering.
What is the most popular episode on A conversation with Agility by Nature?
The episode title 'An Agile Audience with Amanda Toussaint' is the most popular.
What is the average episode length on A conversation with Agility by Nature?
The average episode length on A conversation with Agility by Nature is 47 minutes.
How often are episodes of A conversation with Agility by Nature released?
Episodes of A conversation with Agility by Nature are typically released every 3 days, 22 hours.
When was the first episode of A conversation with Agility by Nature?
The first episode of A conversation with Agility by Nature was released on Sep 10, 2020.
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