Dealing with Slackers, Idiots and Subversives in Agile Teams – Lunchtime Session

Nica has had substantial experience in training, coaching, and organizational transformation consulting for the past 15 years. During the past decade she has focused primarily on Agile and Lean, and began specializing in Leadership transformation during this time as well. With a Masters degree in Organizational Leadership, Nica has walked alongside organizations and individuals in both the private and public sector on their leadership journeys, as they strengthened and grew in capacity.

Leadership Coaching/Training Highlights:

Whether engaged in a one-on-one coaching conversation, training in a boardroom over days or weeks, or engrained fully within an organization for a long-term transformation process, Nica brings skill, experience, commitment and focus. Nica’s primary objective and overall goal is to leave her clients in a position where the process of transformation that has begun can be sustainable for them to carry forward independently, and for them to thrive in their continued growth and learning.

Certifications and Accreditations:

Cultural Transformation Tools® (CTT) – Barrett Values Centre
Certified OpenAgile Catalyst – OpenAgile Centre For Learning
Certified Scrum Master® – Scrum Alliance
Certified Scrum Product Owner® – Scrum Alliance
Royal Roads University, Master’s Degree in Organizational Leadership
The University of British Columbia, BA in English Language and Literature

Testimonials:

“I would highly recommend Nica Pourfallah” – Erika Taylor, Vice President, People and Culture at BC Pension Corporation, Aug. 2015

Experience Summary

• Over 20 years practising, managing and coaching Agile Process and Development
• Over 15 years consulting experience
• Over 9 years experience applying Agile outside of technology environments

Alexei Berteig was born and raised in Saskatoon, a cold and beautiful Prairie town in the heart of Canada. After graduating from the prestigious Canadian Film Centre Writer’s Lab his documentary The Perfect Divorce (2003) was on Global TV and won Best Documentary at the New York Independent Film Festival. After moving to Beijing in 2003, his background in storytelling continued to inform his work as a cinematographer, shooting commercials for Maybelline, L’Oreal, BMW, Mercedes, Porsche, Adidas, HP, Motorola, and others. He continued working as well as a screenwriter for Asian producers based in Shanghai, Beijing and Hong Kong. As a director, Alexei’s corporate clients include Four Seasons Hotels, China National Insurance, SaskCanola, Audi, Mercedes, Lexus and various Chinese brands. International Documentary credits include work for BBC, Discovery, National Geographic as well as Leonardo DiCaprio’s Before The Flood. Alexei was pulled back to Canada to write and direct documentary projects for his own company, Berteig Imaging. He and his wife currently live in Vancouver with their two daughters.

Nica has had substantial experience in training, coaching, and organizational transformation consulting for the past 15 years. During the past decade she has focused primarily on Agile and Lean, and began specializing in Leadership transformation during this time as well. With a Masters degree in Organizational Leadership, Nica has walked alongside organizations and individuals in both the private and public sector on their leadership journeys, as they strengthened and grew in capacity.

Leadership Coaching/Training Highlights:

Whether engaged in a one-on-one coaching conversation, training in a boardroom over days or weeks, or engrained fully within an organization for a long-term transformation process, Nica brings skill, experience, commitment and focus. Nica’s primary objective and overall goal is to leave her clients in a position where the process of transformation that has begun can be sustainable for them to carry forward independently, and for them to thrive in their continued growth and learning.

Certifications and Accreditations:

Cultural Transformation Tools® (CTT) – Barrett Values Centre
Certified OpenAgile Catalyst – OpenAgile Centre For Learning
Certified Scrum Master® – Scrum Alliance
Certified Scrum Product Owner® – Scrum Alliance
Royal Roads University, Master’s Degree in Organizational Leadership
The University of British Columbia, BA in English Language and Literature

Testimonials:

“I would highly recommend Nica Pourfallah” – Erika Taylor, Vice President, People and Culture at BC Pension Corporation, Aug. 2015

Experience Summary

• Over 20 years practising, managing and coaching Agile Process and Development
• Over 15 years consulting experience
• Over 9 years experience applying Agile outside of technology environments

Mishkin Berteig has been training, coaching and consulting for organizations since 1995. Mishkin co-founded BERTEIG in 2004. Mishkin is committed to helping individuals, teams and organizations to transform their way of working and achieve Real Agility™.

Mishkin has assisted organizations of all sizes to make the transformation from traditional methods to Agile methods (Extreme Programming, Scrum, Lean, Kanban, OpenAgile). Mishkin has helped with culture change, change management, executive management coaching, Agile management, Agile product, project and operations management, Agile teamwork and Agile engineering practices. Mishkin is a co-author of the Real Agility™Program, BERTEIG’s solution for organizations to achieve higher levels of organizational agility.

Mishkin has developed and delivered Agile training both in public and in-house seminars for over 10000 people in Canada and abroad. Courses have been as short as three hour intro-style and as long as five day boot-camp-style, and audiences have ranged from junior team members to senior executives. Mishkin has been a Certified Scrum Trainer since 2005 and is the longest-standing CST in Canada.

Mishkin writes regularly for the BERTEIG blog (formerly Agile Advice) with hundreds of articles about agile methods. Mishkin is also the author of two books “Agile Advice” and “I Am Not a Great Leader”.

Leadership Coaching/Training Highlights:

• 2001: Advised the CIO of Charles Schwab, Geoff Penny, on Extreme Programming and Agile in the IT department as to how it may improve their existing Rational Unified Process implementation.
• 2003: Workshop for CTO Rich Freyberg and direct reports of Schwab Capital Markets on Agile methods, focus on XP. The highlight of this experience was telling Rich to “shut up” because he was constantly interrupting the proceedings. (We had a long pre-existing relationship before that event – I didn’t get fired.)
• 2004-2005: Consultant, coach and trainer at Capital One in Richmond Virgina. Worked closely with another consultant on a major assessment/report for the CTO Gregor Bailar and then worked with numerous senior managers as a coach and consultant. Also worked closely with a number of well-known agilists including Mary Poppendieck, Michael Hamman, Michael Spayd, and others.
• 2005-2006: Certified Scrum Master class for the Director and Senior Managers at Siemens, Trango division, co-trained with Jeff Sutherland. Followed up with them for the next 18 months as their Agile coach and trainer, working directly with their senior managers.
• 2006: Coach at RWDI working with the team on a Scrum adoption. A team-level crisis escalated to working with one of the VPs on a financial model to show the value of focus and rapid delivery.
• 2007: Custom training for Dan Lesage, Software Development Director at Adobe and his senior managers. Focus on solving change management problems.
• 2008: Lots of work with leaders and managers at Research in Motion (RIM) – BERTEIG got fired, eventually. Leadership didn’t enjoy looking at cultural issues in the organization. No names here, but it was a great learning experience for us to see how deeply culture matters in attempting to do a transformation.
• 2009: Another bad experience: delivered a private training for OpenText to the CIO Nicholas Oddson and his senior leadership team. We totally bombed it and were not invited back. Lots of learning here too.
• 2009-2011: Strategic consulting, executive presentations, Agile Coach Training for RBC and the newly-formed Agile Centre of Excellence.
• 2010: Training, coaching and consulting at Suncor in Fort McMurray. First major engagement in a non-software Agile Transformation. Worked with Darin Zandee, Superintendent responsible for 200 people on the mine site, and his senior managers. Included one-on-one leadership coaching for Darin.
• 2010-2011: Group leadership coaching and workshops for Cam Crosbie, AVP then CIO of Equitable Life, and his business peers. Focus on helping Cam and his peers function effectively as a leadership team in the context of an Agile Transformation.
• 2011-2014: Training, coaching and consulting at Schlumberger Beijing Geosciences Centre working with Pearl Chu, Technology Centre Manager, in Beijing. Included leadership coaching for Pearl, Agile Coach Training for senior and mid-level managers reporting to Pearl.
• 2012-2013: Leadership coaching and consulting over 18 months for Frank Leong, VP Business Technology and his colleagues including Michael O’Sullivan, President. Included a systematic leadership development program of our own design which has evolved over time to become the “Real Agility Leadership Track” and the “Real Agility Management Track”.
• 2013: Executive presentation on Agile Transformation for FreshBooks leadership team.
• 2014-2015: Multiple leadership presentations and workshops with Simon Palmer, CIO and his senior leadership team at LoyaltyOne. Focus on leading with integrity during their Agile Transformation.
• 2016: MAJOR HIGHLIGHT: Attended and received Leadership Circle Profile Certification™. The Leadership Circle system has informed our work with leaders ever since.
• 2016-2017: Focus on internal organizational development at BERTEIG and personal leadership development. Did no significant work with leaders in client organizations this year in order to focus on cleaning up our own house, so to speak.
• 2018-2020: Design and deliver a custom leadership program for Scotiabank over 18 months covering mindset, Agile methods, leadership development, lean thinking, community development, technical excellence, and organizational change. Roughly equivalent to an MBA focused on leadership and organizational agility. Delivered to a cohort of 21 senior and mid-level managers.
• 2019: Work with my own coaches to develop their leadership coaching ability, primarily focused on our engagement with Trader working with Steve Maidment, Chief Delivery Officer.

Select Client List:

• Banking: Scotiabank, RBC, BMO, TD Canada Trust, CIBC, HomeTrust, Capital One, Charles Schwab, Key Bank
• Energy/Resources: Schlumberger, Bruce Power, Suncor Energy, Geosoft
• Insurance: Great West Life, Liberty Mutual, Equitable Ins., Empire Life, Economical Ins. Grp.
• Telecom: Ericsson, Blackberry, Siemens, Telus, Rogers, Bell, Nortel
• Media: Globe and Mail, Shaw Media, ZU, Canoe.ca, CBC, Glacier Media, Post Media, TV Ontario, Comcast
• Loyalty: LoyaltyOne, AIMIA, Points.com, Empathica
• Technology: Adobe, Blueprint, Freshbooks, Intuit, Irdeto, Kijiji, MyPlanet Digital, OpenText
• Education: Xello/Career Cruising, Desire2Learn, Queens University, University of Guelph
• Government: Goverment of Canada, Government of Ontario, City of Fort McMurray,
• Other: App Annie, Modernizing Medicine, Trader.ca, D+H, Workopolis, 407ETR, British Counsel, PHH, Ganz, RWDI

Certifications and Accreditations:

Certified Scrum Trainer^®, Path to CSP Educator^®, CSP-PO, CSP-SM, SAFe Program Consultant

ICAgile Authorized Instructor, ICAgile Certified Professional (ICP)

Leadership Circle Profile Certified, Master of OpenAgile, Team Kanban Practitioner

BSc, Computational Science

Testimonials:

An engaging, thorough look at best practices behind true product ownership and working within Scrum. Expert instruction that was never boring and full of insightful learnings. It goes without saying that Mishkin knows his stuff, and is eager to teach Real Agility and Scrum to the world. – Matthew Parkinson, Director of Digital Product Management, Investors Group/ IGM Financial 2019

Mr. Berteig is a wonderful trainer and presenter of the materials covered. His experience in leading discussions around the various concepts and facilitating exercises used to feel the effect of Scrum were appropriate in relation to the audience’ prior experience and knowledge of the topic. – Simonne Cormier, Training Development and Coordinator, Veterans Affairs Canada, 2019

Experience Summary

• Over 23 years practising, managing and coaching Agile Process and Development
• Over 14 years experience teaching Scrum (and Agile) in a classroom
• Over 11 years experience applying Agile outside of technology environments

Publications

2018

…or from the iBookStore!

2014

…or from the iBookStore!
…or from Amazon!

Presentations

“Leadership Agility – Luck, Love and Truthfulness” – 20181011 – Agile North Meetup

“Agile Architecture Master Class” – 20180515 – Private Client

“Scrum vs. Kanban vs. ADKAR vs. Kotter – Which Is Best For You?” – 20171031 – Global Scrum Gathering Dublin

“Real Agility for Everyone” – 20170921 – Private Client

“Doubling Productivity with Real Agility” – 20170613 – Project Management Institute SWO Chapter

“Launching Agile Teams – The Skills Matrix” – 20161114 – Toronto Agile Conference

David Vicentin has delivered Operational Excellence and Agile implementation for the past 15 years as a management consultant.  His clients come from diverse industries in North America, South America and Europe.

Working at different organizational levels from operatives to senior management, his focus is to achieve sustainably higher results.  David has trained, mentored and coached thousands of people for many businesses, with a focus on increasing personal performance for coaches and improving their business environment, overall.  David is a consultant, coach, facilitator, and trainer at all organizational levels.

As an Industrial Engineer, Master in Economics and Finance and Master Black Belt in Lean Six Sigma, his ability to evolve people results in service delivery which increases value, reduces cost and improves both quality and productivity for his clients.

Facilitator of more than 250 projects using DMAIC, DMADV, RCA, Kaizen, FMEA and SCRUM, he focuses on cost reduction, quality and productivity improvements, cash flow improvement and customer satisfaction.

David has lead projects and workshops in materials/logistics, manufacturing, purchases, finance, sales, R&D and information technology areas.  David specializes in Productivity Techniques, Management Systems and, Finance focused to increase business results.

David coordinates and leads projects in many countries as he is fluent in English, Portuguese and Spanish.

David joined BERTEIG in July 2017.

Select Client List:

• Financial Services: HSBC, Mastercard, Scotiabank, Great West Life
• Automotive: Rolls Royce, Trader.ca, Alberta Motor Association (AMA)
• Healthcare: Sick Kids Foundation, Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI)
• Other: Coca-Cola, LoyaltyOne, SITA

Certifications and Accreditations:

• Team Kanban Practitioner (TKP), Kanban Management Professional (KMP)
• Certified Scrum Professional (CSP-SM), Advanced Certified Scrum Product Owner (A-CSPO)
• Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt (LSSMBB), Design Thinking Trainer (DTT)
• Leadership Circle Profile (LCP), Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP)
• BSc. Production Engineering (POLI-USP), Master in Finance and Economics (Fundacao Getulio Vargas – FGV)

Experience Summary:

Over 15 years’ experience in design and delivery training Lean Six Sigma and Agile Methods.

Testimonials:

“Derived from the fact that our organization has approximately 100,000 employees, it is an organization with a lot of structure, processes, protocols, therefore the projects carried out have long and bureaucratic project flows, however, due to needs and priorities we challenge ourselves to be able to perform a disruptive technological tool, with the objective that thousands of our employees are empowered and have a virtual library of contents and information that will help them to fulfill their roles.
With this Agile accompaniment we have broken paradigms, in this specific project, Agile techniques (Scrum) has given us the necessary support to convince employees that change of mentality, mainly with a collaboration approach, incremental deliveries, better way in the form of negotiation with internal clients, external (suppliers) and the most important thing as we do from day 1 more tangible results.
Thanks to Coach David we have found the right paths in the way that intervenes and guides us promptly in the project.” (translated from Spanish) – Andrés L Nava, Talent Development Leader, Coca-Cola

Jerry’s Story

Teaching has always been a passion for me. I remember several of my primary school teachers saying I should consider being a teacher one day because I seemed to have an inclination for it. In high school I partnered a small start-up company where we taught computers and programming languages to youth on evenings and weekends. Much later during mid 1990’s I taught several University night school classes. I loved all of it, but at the time I never thought I’d actually end up working the front of a classroom.

My first exposure to Scrum was in 2008 as a Project Manager at MapInfo Corporation. There was considerable animosity between business and IT because of project issues so we decided to try Scrum in the hope of bringing business and IT together. Eighteen months later we had transformed most of the global organization (North America, Europe and Asia) by building a scaled system of interconnected Agile services and teams. In essence we were operating as Enterprise Agile Coaches and educators but we didn’t call it that – it’s just what we did.

In 2010 I became an Agile Practice Lead in the Royal Bank of Canada’s Agile Centre of Excellence where I spent about 1/2 of my time building and delivering training classes. This was where I realized I would be happy spending the rest of my career teaching Agility. While at RBC I taught Scrum and Agile classes to over 800 people globally which solidified my desire to teach Scrum and Agile for the rest of my career.

Over the next few years I taught and coached Scrum, Kanban, Lean and Agile at organizations like Telus, Canadian Tire, LoyaltyOne, and
Sick Kids Foundation. It was rewarding but I wanted more. Then in 2016 I had the fortune of becoming an instructor and coach at BERTEIG. It’s been a fantastic experience. I’ve delivered hundreds of classes to thousands of people and it’s been very rewarding working alongside many world-class Scrum instructors and learning from them.

This past January I added new height and breadth to my career when I became an Accredited Kanban Trainer (AKT) with Lean Kanban University. Since then it has been an honour to teach and certify people in Kanban as their eyes light up when they realize it is an alternate path to Agility.

The one thing that has always eluded me is to become a Scrum trainer for a globally recognized certification agency. Now that I’ve been awarded the Scrum Trainer designation with Scrum Inc. I feel I can finally provide a meaningful certification option and a balanced view of Agility by combining my own knowledge and teaching with the wealth of globally recognized experience at Scrum Inc. and BERTEIG. I’m really looking forward to where this new path may take me and how I may leverage it to help others achieve their own personal and professional learning goals and outcomes.

After decades working in the Software and IT industry I have finally found the sweet spot where I hope to finish my career – as an Agile trainer with the credentials to certify people with globally recognized agencies in Scrum and Kanban. Becoming a Scrum Trainer for Scrum Inc. has finally allowed me to achieve a goal I set almost 10 years ago and I am humbled by this opportunity to represent Jeff Sutherland and his team. Combining that status with my credential from Lean Kanban University as an Accredited Kanban Trainer (AKT) as well as my hands-on experience working in the industry for over 26 years should hopefully provide a balanced and well-rounded experience for any student that chooses to join me in a classroom or learning event.

Jerry Doucett is an Agile transformation advisor with over 25 years of hands-on experience in software and process development initiatives. Jerry has proudly served on numerous enterprise transformations by focusing support on four key success pillars: cultivating in-house expertise on Lean and Agile practices, defining enterprise transformation strategies, building and delivering coaching and training programs, and developing effective relationships between business and IT.

For over a decade Jerry has been supporting Agile transformation strategies. On numerous occasions he has served as an integral coach, mentor, advisor and team member on several enterprise transformation leadership teams including several companies with over 50,000 employees.

Jerry has developed and delivered Agile training for over 2,500 people in Canada and abroad. He has been teaching private Scrum classes under license for Jeff Sutherland and Scrum Inc. since 2016. His tailored materials include everything from introductions to advanced role-focused topics, and target audiences from junior team members to senior executives at multinational corporations. He has contributed many blog and online articles over the last few years, and his latest book (published October 2018) is “The Scrum Master Guide to Choosing Retrospective Techniques”.

Select Client List:

• RBC Royal Bank of Canada, TD Bank, Royal Trust, Scotiabank, BMO
• GFSA, London Life Insurance, Great West Life Insurance, Canada Life
• Carbonite (EVault), Deloitte, TELUS, Canadian Tire, Pitney Bowes
• LoyaltyOne (AirMiles Corporation), Sick Kids Foundation
• MapInfo Corporation, ESI Canada, DigiMap, ExtenSys, General Motors
• Hydro One, Toronto Hydro, North York Hydro, SPL Worldgroup

Certifications and Accreditations:

Accredited Kanban Trainer, Scrum Inc. Scrum Trainer, Kanban Management Professional

Scrum Alliance® Registered Education Provider, Certified Scrum Professional

Certified Scrum Master, Certified Scrum Product Owner, Certified Scrum Developer, Professional Scrum Master I

SAFe® Program Consultant, Project Management Professional

Prosci ADKAR® Change Management Professional

B.A.A, HONS, Applied Geography, Economics Minor, Ryerson University

Experience Summary

• Over 25 years in software and process development initiatives
• Over 15 years of applying project management practices
• Over 9 years assisting organizations to leverage Agile and Lean approaches
• Over 7 years assisting enterprise Agile transformations

Testimonials:

“I wanted to acknowledge Jerry for his support and mentorship as he was pivotal as I on boarded to a new role within a new department and new Scrum team; a team newly formed and new to Agile. Jerry supported the team through training including User Story Writing and Agile estimation workshops among many. During team lift off Jerry identified that both road map and product backlog were missing from ‘delivering value’ stream and as a result we saw a team with constantly changing focus, a large number of product responsibilities and a lack of clarity on priorities. The Scrum process does facilitate changing priorities, but it doesn’t help the team adapt. This was an extremely challenging experience but a tremendous learning opportunity for me as I had guidance and gained key insights from this experienced Agile Enterprise Coach. I am fortunate to have been able to rely on Jerry’s leadership, experience and coaching. Thank you!” – Angeline Lim, Program Implementation Manager at Loyalty One

Publications

2018 – The Scrum Master Guide to Choosing Retrospective Techniques

(Currently only available on Lulu.com in ePub format.  Click the image for more information.)

Presentations

“Kanban Case Study” – 20190121 – Private Event