22: A New Normal - The Escalation of Climate Change
Only a radical systemic shift can delay climate catastrophe and save humanity from the collapse of ecosystems within just 9 years.
7: The Future of Work and Education - A Millennial Perspective
en-usJune 16, 2016
What was the main topic of the podcast episode?
Summarise the key points discussed in the episode?
Were there any notable quotes or insights from the speakers?
Which popular books were mentioned in this episode?
Were there any points particularly controversial or thought-provoking discussed in the episode?
Were any current events or trending topics addressed in the episode?
About this Episode
This episode is a little different. A joint experiment. A nebulous mission.
In this inspiring international discussion, I was honored to be joined by two co-hosts: Dawna Jones of Vancouver and Gert Penne of Belgium.
And three guests: Willow Bumby and Lindsey Henwood of Vancouver, and Josh Shaffer of Tampa.
With 6+ participants, spanning 3+ countries, 3 continents, and 3 generations we explored not only the future of work, but also the future of education.
Dawna Jones is the AUTHOR of DECISION-MAKING for DUMMIES. Her book appears on Steve Denning's (Forbes) list of 8 Noteworthy Books for 2014. Dawna is also the host of the “Evolutionary Provocateur” podcast.
Gert Penne, an account executive in the tech industry, is a an Empathic Problem Solver, who takes a principle-centered approach to teaming across cultures, disciplines, and generations.
At the end of a 2-continent, 3-country Skype call, Dawna, Gert, and I found ourselves talking about generational differences globally. With the goal to learn how the next generation sees the Future of Work, we decided to invite 3 Millennials to a follow-up call. This show is that call.
Millennials fall just after the Gen-Xers. They were born between 1982 and 2004.
We were fortunate to have 3 Millennials join us.
Josh Shaffer is an early Millennial, and works for Accenture in Talent Acquisition in Tampa.
Willow Bumby is an iOS Engineer, designer, and writer, as well as a teacher at Lighthouse Labs in Vancouver.
Lindsay Henwood is a User Experience Design Instructor at Red Academy, a rapidly growing Tech School startup in Vancouver.
Two other Millennials joined us virtually.
Lauren Kirmil is a Marketing and Media Specialist and a former technical recruiter in the San Francisco Bay Area. During her extensive travels throughout Southeast Asia she worked as a freelance travel writer.
Grace Liu is a former Outreach Support Officer at the British Consulate in Guangzhou, China. She recently received funding to start a venture in Shenzhen. With the assistance of her NYU professor she also plans to start an NGO incorporating ancient contemplative practices, including meditation.
In this discussion we covered a wide range of topics.
- Distributed workforces and workplace flexibility and the big American offensive to change the workplace.
- Self-responsibility, self-awareness, self-perception.
- Cultural fit: the “techie” mold and the pressure to fit in.
- The dying days of the industrial model, the irrelevant university degree and the rise of bootcamp style education.
- The need to understand the next generation, and the companies which will die.
- The rise of the robots and the growing fear of job loss.
- Capitalism and its schizophrenic booms and busts: do we want an economy based on self-interest or creativity and collaboration?
- Tribalism and the need to belong: do we become global citizens or nationalists?
- Surviving the industrial model and designing the new workplace.
- The need to shift easily into different industries and the costly risk in over-specialization.
- The silliness of our current system and people's inability to work with power.
- And the power coming from the “Millennial values”.
Recent Episodes from Agile and Beyond
21: The Benefits of Mob Programming: Team Learning and Communication
Last year Dawna Jones, host of the Evolutionary Provocateur and Insight to Action podcasts, attended Agile Games New England and the Mob Programming Conference that followed. She sat down with a group of ‘Moberators’ to learn why the team approach to coding creates faster and better quality, with the added benefit of skill development, learning, and communication.
20: Change Management, Compensation, Engagement - Part 3 - Rose Fan and Molly Dishman
In part 3 of this 3 part conversation we discussed the importance of EQ in managing change, the openness of organizations to operate in new ways, the importance of vanguards, improving compensation systems, work-life balance, parental leave policies in different cultures, measuring employment engagement, and what gets Rose and Molly excited about the future.
Agile and Beyond
en-usDecember 13, 2016
19: Journey Mapping, Startup Threats, and Building Inspiration - Part 2 - Rose Fan and Molly Dishman
Several weeks ago I interviewed Rose Fan and Molly Dishman of Thoughtworks. Thoughtworks is a global IT consultancy firm, “a community of passionate individuals whose purpose it is to revolutionize software design, creation and delivery, while advocating for positive social change”.In part 2 of this 3 part conversation we discussed Molly's biggest influence, the interview process at Thoughtworks, Lean Enterprises and post-agility, tech's fixation on labels, continuous deployment and a me-too culture, determining how to help the client, journey mapping, Conway's Law, collaboration and breaking down barriers, disruption and the threat of startups, and ways to build inspiration and excitement.
18: Team Building and Diverse Perspectives - Part 1 - Rose Fan and Molly Dishman
Several weeks ago I interviewed Rose Fan and Molly Dishman of Thoughtworks. Thoughtworks is a global IT consultancy firm, “a community of passionate individuals whose purpose it is to revolutionize software design, creation and delivery, while advocating for positive social change”.In part 1 of this 3 part conversation we discussed team-building and the airing of diverse perspectives, the importance of autonomy and clear goals, and the celebration of wins.
17: Lean Enterprise Transformation - Rose Fan and Molly Dishman
Several weeks ago I interviewed Rose Fan and Molly Dishman of Thoughtworks. What started as a pre-call in order to get a better understanding of their work resulted in this episode.Thoughtworks is a global IT consultancy firm, “a community of passionate individuals whose purpose it is to revolutionize software design, creation and delivery, while advocating for positive social change”. In this conversation we cover some of the challenges and successes in transforming large Fortune 100 firms into Agile and Lean Enterprises.
Agile and Beyond
en-usNovember 01, 2016
16: Attractive Workplace Cultures - The Millennials
The 2nd Millennial call was not only engaging but also quite unpredictable. With 4 Millennials, including one in India, and my co-host Gert Penne in Belgium, we explored what the next generation seeks in Workplace Cultures and Organizations.
15: Making the Very Complex... Awesomely Simple – John Spence
I was very fortunate to have spoken with John Spence.
John is one of the top 100 business thought leaders and one of the top 500 leadership development experts in the world.
He is an international keynote speaker and management consultant, and has written seven books on business and life success.
Along with Sergey Brin, Larry Page and Jeff Bezos, John was listed as one of American Management Association’s Leaders to Watch in 2015.
In a free-form conversation, we covered a myriad of topics, including the following: the biggest problem that companies face, the components of great cultures, the evolution of leadership in business, and potential responses to the massive technological disruption which we are now undergoing.
We had a blast. John's infectious laughter made the interview an absolute joy.
The Agile and Beyond website, agileandbeyond.co, is now live. To see the show notes for this interview, please visit the site.
And without further ado please welcome to my conversation with John Spence.
14: Experimentation, Innovation, Managing Risk - Part 3 - Chuck Durfee
In the final episode of a 3 part conversation with Chuck Durfee, Scrum Master, and Agile Denver Board Member Emeritus, recent MBA graduate, recovering developer, and friend of neon tapirs everywhere, we discuss the following.
- Why he got his MBA.
- How he moved from a fascination with computers and software to process and people.
- Leadership Styles.
- Agile, ethics and the making of morally just decisions.
- Power distribution in Agile organizations.
- Incurring technical debt ethically.
- Political correctness, and the stunting of healthy conversations with the other.
- Lowering thresholds of pain and sensitivity.
- How the Political Correctness movement went to far.
- Avoiding Cargo Cult Agile, and why the process needs the mindset.
- The failure to teach Millennials good skills for handling conflict.
- The creative process, and the need to explore failure.
- The way Agile is transforming the world of work.
- The problems with matrix management.
- Allowing Agile to flourish, by eliminating constraints around teams.
- Chuck's workplace Nirvana, the kind of organization Chuck would like to build, his Dream Team, and his role.
- How diverse ideas and even conflict help a team to make a better product or service.
- NANO WRIMO (National Novel Writing Month), and his often humorous experiences in writing fiction... including a romantic drama.
- How early design choices shape the final product.
And now welcome to the final episode of a 3 part conversation with Chuck Durfee.
If you wish to learn more about Agile Denver. You can connect with the organization on LinkedIn, and follow Agile Denver on Twitter at @agiledenver. To learn about future meetings, search for Agile Denver on meetup.com at Meetup.com/AgileDenver.
13: Starting From Where the Learner Sits - Part 4 - Erika Lenz
In the final episode of a 4 part conversation with Erika Lenz, Scrum Master, former poet, evolutionary biologist, and tutor, we discuss what makes Erika unique, comfort with the creative process, the prevalence of mental illness in the arts, grounding others in difficult situations, the power of divergent thinking, building bridges, social dancing, choreography, and floorcraft, helping others to pivot in order to change the behavior of a team, the benefits of adding emotional content in tech environments, the benefits in valuing everyone, and kinesthetic intelligence.
Agile and Beyond
en-usAugust 30, 2016