Lakshmi Ramaseshan - Achieving Aligned Autonomy with Inceptions

What is the value of Collaboration in your Organization?

Are your teams aligned with the overall purpose & targeted outcomes of an initiative they are working on?

How might you facilitate alignment & increase their chance of success?

This talk is targeted at Scrummasters, Agile Coaches, and Agile Leaders who are faced with the challenge of successfully kicking off new initiatives within an organization.

Facilitating true Collaboration is often understated. Complex collaborative work requires “shared understanding”, high-quality discussions, psychological safety & inclusion.

As leaders in organizations, we oftentimes miss that it takes intention & design to foster good Collaboration.

Kicking off initiatives is always a challenge in organizations I’ve worked within the past – it is either too loosely defined or too prescriptive.

Inceptions are here to the rescue!! They are an invigorating & meaningful way to bring a team, dependent team(s), product, and business stakeholders together to align on the Strategy (Why), The Work (What), and the Team (How). The intentional activities, design, and flow of inception enable a shared understanding which lays a foundation for inclusive collaboration.

When done well it can take teams from Good to Great and set them up for success.

In this talk, the audience will gain exposure to the origin of inceptions & our organization’s journey with inceptions so far. We will peek into the inception process & some of the critical activities performed by the team.

Lastly, we will reflect on what it takes to build fluency in this practice.

Learning Outcomes: 1. Understand the importance of creating a platform for true Collaboration 2. Utilize the Inception process to kick off new initiatives in a meaningful way 3. Identify the Activities your Team can perform to build a Shared Understanding 4. Apply key Principles to take teams from Good to Great