Have you ever attended numerous managerial trainings only to come across an obvious tip that makes no real difference? Let’s take the next 15 minutes to disregard all that you’ve learned thus far. Instead, join me as I share the most effective tips I’ve gathered from my relatively short career in management, as well as the unexpected outcomes I’ve encountered through trial and error.

• What stops and triggers people’s behavior?
• Where specific ones come from and how to change them if it’s needed?
• What to do to induce desirable behaviors, extinguish undesirable ones, and replace one with another?

We’re going to look at solid neuropsychology insights to explain all this. Get ready for a story about dopamine, motivational loops, amygdala, serotonin and oxytocin. More than just theories, this is about comprehending how our brains work in straightforward, relatable terms. We’ll talk about things like why we feel motivated, what causes stress, and how our emotions play into our work life. Ever wonder why it’s hard for some people to start new tasks? We’ll cover that. Plus, we’ll give you practical tips on keeping your team working well together, and how to give feedback that actually helps.

Moving to remote work has completely changed how leaders operate, forcing them to rethink how they lead when physical distance isn’t a barrier to working together. “Leading from a distance: Building High-Performing Remote Teams” dives into the practical tips and strategies needed to be a great leader in this new remote landscape.

In this talk, we’ll explore the art of creating a culture that boosts productivity, teamwork, and innovation even when your team is spread out. We’ll look at the important parts of remote team dynamics like how you communicate, build trust, set clear goals, and use technology to work together smoothly.

Using real-life examples, this session will give leaders the tools they need to make remote teams work at their best. You’ll walk away understanding different leadership styles that fit this flexible environment, why emotions matter when your team isn’t in the same place, and how to solve the usual problems that come up when people work apart.

Come join me as we uncover the secrets of leading remote teams and learn the powerful strategies that’ll help you lead amazing teams no matter where they are.

We’ll dive into some ideas that have been recently trending in top management circles, that actually hinder organizational agility.

We’ll explore in a thought provoking way why those ideas might not be as great as they seem and how to challange them with solid arguments.

Let’s explore topics like:
-Conway’s Law
-Cognitive Load
-Code ownership
-”Having to fix someone else’s shitty code at 2am!”

Have you noticed how many leaders we have in organisations nowadays? The more modern the company, the more often “manager” is relabeled to “leader”. But is there anything behind this change? After all, there are still companies in which, as a matter of fact, there is not a single leader in the senior leadership team.

On the other hand, the axis of the increasingly popular Agile methods is self-organised or even self-managed teams. Following this path, it will soon turn out that we have ended up in a company where everyone is a leader, but we lack leadership.

Agile ways of working encourage acts of leadership at all levels. During my talk, I’d like to explain what it actually means. What does build a leader? How does it relate to the autonomy of teams? Using several examples and anecdotes from my practice, we will discover what it means to be a leader when everyone is one.

“Scrum Master ponosi odpowiedzialność za efektywność Scrum Teamu”. Ale co to w ogóle znaczy “efektywny zespół”?

Taki, który dostarcza dwa razy więcej, dwa razy szybciej? Taki, gdzie “współpraca” oznacza dzielenie się memami, a spotkania to wspólne narzekanie na otaczającą rzeczywistość? Czy może taki, który dowozi zawsz, niezależnie od tego jak bardzo nierealne były oczekiwania?

W oparciu o model efektywności grupy wg. Rogera Schwarza przybliżę kryteria i czynniki, które determinują skuteczność pracy zespołowej. Pokażę również, jak Scrum Master na co dzień może wspierać Scrum Team w stwarzaniu odpowiednich warunków, by zespół nie tylko realizował cele, ale był również zdolny do ciągłego rozwoju i adaptacji w dynamicznym środowisku pracy.

Which philosopher first mentioned leading by example? Why is empiricism better, and than what exactly? When life is soup, why do we sometimes feel like a fork?

In this short lecture, I will try to answer some of these questions and more with… some extra questions!
With the quote “The unexamined life is not worth living” in heart, I would like to inspire you to dig deep and tirelessly into topics that seem simple (like in 5 Whys method), occasionally sharing stories about strange places of logic where people have dug into.

In the context of the Agile approach, modern psychology and incomparable COMMON SENSE, I will talk about the philosophy of leaders who motivated people to do great things, not always ethical ones.

Have you ever asked a question or had someone from your Scrum Team ask a Scrum Master “what do you really do?”. I was in such a situation and unfortunately it wasn’t just a one-time event.
I encountered several reactions, but most often the Scrum Master answered this question enigmatically, without providing hard evidence of his/her influence on the team’s operation. It’s sad…
As an Agile Coach, I often talk to Team Managers about how they evaluate the work of their Scrum Masters, and here’s another surprise – the evaluation is not simple and is often not based on outcomes but outputs.
At the same time, the same Scrum Masters taught Scrum Teams how to use user stories. But none of them have ever used user stories to present the value they plan to deliver to the Team.
During the lecture, I want to show how user stories can help Scrum Masters define, share and verify the impact of their goals on the Team. How a Scrum Master can strengthen his/her leadership and become an everyday hero thanks to this simple tool.

Hey, what’s up? Do you want to be a mentor who helps people rock their careers? Then please join me, because I’ve got a story to tell. A story of how I became a mentor, the screw-ups I made, and the wisdom I gained from them. You’ll also find out how being a mentee myself made me a better person and a better professional. Join me for this fun and informative talk, where you’ll learn how to be a career superhero for yourself and others. Or at least, how to look like one.

Some people say that a manager need to be devoid of emotions in order to be successful. Is that really so? Let’s do a little deep dive into a subject of empathy & emotions in a role of a leader. Are they helpful or not? What are the benefits and costs related to them? How to work with them consciously? All based on real life, personal examples – because that is how I like it

PS. In a way it is a follow up to my speech during agile by example 2023 – so feel free to check it out before you join 😉

Join me not for a lecture, but for a journey. I’ll show you how mentorship can help in shaping our careers and enriching our personal lives. Let’s uncover together the impact of having the right mentors at our side, offering not just advice but the inspiration and tools to excel beyond our goals. This story is about us – real people showing up to work just as we are in life, open and true. It shows how having a mentor can spark the bravery and boldness inside us all.

Zero BS Management has surveyed more than 600 managers, asking them about their challenges while trying to deliver their projects. You will learn:

• What gives people in different leadership positions (scrum masters, project managers, team leaders, top management) the most headache? Is it the same thing, or do these groups differ?
• What are their most and least favorite management tools?
• The most interesting (and juicy) comments from the open-ended questions.
• Our take on what we’ve read, suggestions, and advice to people with similar challenges.

It will be educational but also fun.

Quantum mechanics principles forbid us from predicting the future, and even as we scale up from elemental particles to projects and products, we remain bound by these principles. However, like the brightest minds of the previous century, we can model our reality to make it more manageable. In this talk, I will draw on the DISC personality model to demonstrate how awareness of different personalities can support leaders at various product stages. Additionally, I will explore how fine-tuning and strategically focusing on particular elements of the Scrum framework can help us thrive amidst the challenges of managing more demanding teams.

When a crisis occurs, bosses respond by increasing control. When the problem is money, they start looking at every penny they spend. Therefore, leaders, managers, and sometimes also Product Owners or Scrum Masters are often faced with the task of checking the effectiveness of individual employees to see if they are working efficiently.

Then the search begins for what and how to extract from the jira, what and how to track, where to look to find those responsible for inefficiencies. We are looking for the best methods to control individuals.

For every leader, a simple and obvious remedy for the above crazy ideas in a world where creativity, teamwork and the value we provide to users are important is to manage the system, waste, downtime, etc., not people. “Manage the system, not the people”, right?

But how do you get the green light to change your approach? Where to redirect the bosses’ attention and in what steps? How to support building awareness of the consequences of different approaches? How not to demotivate people, not hurt them, and at the same time support the management’s needs?

And it is the answers to the above questions, based on last year’s experiences, that I would like to share in my talk.

Join Denis as he shares the results of his deep reflections on nine years of supporting Leaders navigating organizational changes. Drawing on real-world experiences, he will delve into the evolving role of leaders and leadership traits that play a crucial role in the success or failure of both the business and the change. With his presentation, weaved of practical examples, theoretical tools and even philosophical concepts, Denis aims to empower participants with actionable insights for enhancing leadership styles in Agile and beyond.

Are you ready to unlock your full potential as a tech leader?

Join me for a talk where I share my journey from a graduate software engineer in a team of 15 to VP Engineering at one of Europe’s most successful startups. In this talk, I will unveil the transformative power of a winning mindset, revealing how mastering the art of failing well in leadership can be our ultimate superpower.

Through a series of personal anecdotes and hard-earned lessons, I will guide you on how to transform trials into triumphs, showcasing the unparalleled significance of embracing failure as a steppingstone toward leadership success. Whether you are a seasoned industry veteran or an aspiring leader eager to embark on your professional odyssey, I understand the moments of self-doubt that can plague even the most accomplished individuals.
During our time together, I will empower you to embrace your failures as catalysts for growth and innovation, and I will equip you with the tools to cultivate a unique leadership style tailored to your individual journey. Your path to success may not mirror those of others, but isn’t that what makes your story truly remarkable?

So, seize this opportunity to script your own narrative and become the visionary leader you were destined to be. By charting your distinct course, you will not only redefine your own trajectory but also inspire and uplift others to embark on their own transformative journeys.

Roles, role descriptions, and responsibilities are a permanent element of the company’s structure. Roles create a structure and give a sense of certainty and stability. However, in today’s changing business environment, traditionally rigid roles can be a significant constraint and negatively affect the innovation and flexibility of the organisation. In complex systems, the quality of interaction between roles is far more important than the roles themselves. This is especially important in an agile environment that promotes teamwork. I’ll present some ideas that go beyond traditional role definitions to create a flexible and adaptable ecosystem of roles and responsibilities.

Superbohaterowie umarli. I nie stało się to za sprawą pstryknięcia Thanosa. Lider superbohater odszedł do lamusa. I na szczęście. Lider jako część zmieniającego się świata nie tyle że musi, ale chce i powinien odpowiadać na nieustanne wyzwania. Odkryj, dlaczego liderzy transformacyjni są dzisiejszymi rzeczywistymi bohaterami, przewodzącym organizacjom przez burzliwe fale zmian. Przekrocz granice współczesnego przywództwa, analizując zarówno historię, jak i nowoczesność, w świetle MCU.

Poznaj sekrety empatycznego słuchania w naszym nowoczesnym, szybkim świecie, gdzie non-stop bombardują nas powiadomienia z mediów społecznościowych, e-maili i telefonów. Ten warsztat to połączenie moich doświadczeń jako lidera i coach’a, a jego temat jest mi szczególnie bliski. Odkryłam na własnej skórze, jak kluczową rolę odgrywa słuchanie w byciu efektywnym liderem.
Empatyczne słuchanie to nie tylko narzędzie komunikacji, ale fundamentalna umiejętność dla liderów. W trakcie warsztatu zajrzymy do psychologicznych i neurobiologicznych podstaw słuchania, podkreślając jego znaczenie dla skutecznego bycia liderem oraz roli coachingu. Zbadamy, jak słuchanie wpływa na odpowiedzi naszego mózgu, rozwija empatię i prowadzi do lepszego podejmowania decyzji.

In a struggle to make more weighed and inclusive decisions, leaders often face the challenge of hearing all the voices and having them not overpowered by our own unconscious bias; of making the choices that are based on facts and are not influenced by the ways our subconsciousness tampers with the reality.

This workshop aims at raising awareness of cognitive biases existence & self awareness that we are all influenced by them.

At the end of the workshop participants will be acquainted with the cognitive biases and their influence on people’s decisions, choices and perceptions. And will have an understanding of the strategies on how to work with the biases both personally and with their teams/organisations. The activities we are going to have at the workshop will also increase leadership empathy in understanding how people think and act.

• Try to build leaders’ Tower of Power,
• Discover what it means to be a leader in a complex domain,
• Discuss what it means to manage the system, not the people,
• Explore different leadership styles and their applications,
• Identify which leadership style to apply in different situations,
• Explore how to be a modern-day superhero leader,
• Have the opportunity to reflect and discover what kind of superhero leader you want to become!

At organizations, we are sometimes too busy to think or we feel helpless. Changes in larger multi-team setups seem to be slow and we are observing that not bringing much value yet we believe the next attempt will be different. It doesn’t have to be dismal as described here. Organizations can be perceived as systems. Sometimes despite our efforts system pushes back our attempts or bounces back after a while to the status quo. In this highly interactive workshop, we are going to address the systemic changes. Collaboratively, we can experience improvements that will change the system.
Warning! The game is designed to simulate a specific artificial environment any similarity to actual persons, projects, products, living or dead, is purely coincidental

Takeaways

•  Experience the highly engaging simulation of the delivery process
• Get a systemic perspective on the change
• Get familiar with tools for understanding the system
• Practice the change in a collaborative way
•  Transfer the experience to your organizational context
  

Design Thinking and Design Sprint; both are not really about design but both have “design” in name.
Both are really for product people but these people do not appreciate these methods.
One is the way of working or rather “philosophy” of work. The other is a framework.
Philosophy is complete freedom. The framework is strictly organised.
Both give you great insights and benefits.

Let’s reinvent Design Thinking and Design Sprint again.
Let’s compare these methods, find cons and pros.
Let’s organise The Ultimate Design Sparing 🙂

Nie zawsze jesteśmy w stanie wszystko zaplanować. Improwizacja, to coś więcej niż wymyślanie rozwiązań ad hoc. Improwizacja, to cały wachlarz umiejętności miękkich, takich jak:

• szybkie reagowanie na zmianę
• lepsza komunikacja poprzez lepsze słuchanie i uważność
• kreatywne podchodzenie do problemów
• większa pewność siebie i dawanie sobie prawa do popełniania błędów

Podczas warsztatów podzielę się z Wami technikami, które wykorzystywane są przez improwizatorów scenicznych do tworzenia występów bez scenariusza, a które spokojnie można wykorzystać w pracy, a nawet życiu

Historie są z nami od tysiącleci. Jeśli jesteśmy zaprogramowani do ich opowiadania i słuchania… dlaczego nie wykorzystujemy ich w naszych miejscach pracy i w zespołach? Być może nikt nas tego nie nauczył, albo boimy się opowiadać własne historie w świecie Hollywodzkich hitów i influencerów. Na szczęście – jest na to proste rozwiązanie.

Podczas tych krótkich warsztatów będziemy pracować nad umiejętnościami opowiadania historii – jak znaleźć pomysł na historię, która spełni konkretne cele biznesowe, jak stworzyć historię przy użyciu sprawdzonych składników i przepisów i wreszcie – jak przedstawić dobrą historię.

To idealny warsztat dla osób pracujących z ludźmi, chcących skuteczniej edukować i inspirować swoje zespoły oraz prezentować swoje pomysły i produkty publiczności.

Many organizations can increase the return of their investments in going agile by articulating and removing their agile pains (i.e., misunderstandings, conflicts and antipatterns), as well as becoming aware of the consequences of having them. Agile antipatterns are sub-par solutions to challenges, and they occur when the intentions of working agile meet the limitations of the organizational reality. When the changes required to go agile are too big or difficult, organizations might take “pragmatic” shortcuts that, on the surface, seem appropriate and sensible, but in the long run can decrease the benefits of the investment—thus, the organization creates agile antipatterns (or “agile debt”). 

This workshop teaches the participants to identify, describe, communicate and remove  these agile pains by using the humorous format of Comic Agilé strips.

Read more about this workshop

Data Driven project management is a new approach to delivering more comprehensive hybrid projects. In this workshop we will immerse ourselves in the fascinating world of project data and discover the treasures hidden in their analysis. Together, we will delve into the topic of Data-Informed Decision-Making, exploring the specific project data that is worth delving into to make informed decisions in both the business and technical realms.

Without unnecessary numerical complexity, we will focus on practical aspects that will make the data-driven approach natural for you. Get ready for case studies, concrete examples from project life, and a bit of data-driven fun.