Becoming a fearless leader of change (to agile or any new idea) in your organization
, MaryLynn Manns 
Those of us who attend conferences or read articles see new ideas we want to take back to our organizations, but then we struggle to make something happen. This struggle has become especially apparent as enthusiastic agile development proponents want to encourage their teams to apply these approaches. We will provide successful change management strategies to help agile proponents and anyone who wants to influence others to adopt a new idea. Hear how to encourage people to become so involved and interested in new ideas that they want to change. Bring your frustrations! We will uncover solutions to the roadblocks that allow “powerless leaders” to fearlessly make ideas happen in their organizations.
Intended Audience
Anyone who is trying to introduce new ideas into an organization
Benefits of Participating
This tutorial will help participants understand what successful change agents have learned while attempting to introduce new ideas into their organizations. These lessons have been documented in a pattern language that has been published in the book: Fearless Change: Patterns for introducing new ideas–a top seller at past agile conferences. Participants will learn about the change strategies documented in this language and will explore how they can use these strategies to solve their specific problems in leading the transition to agile. The goal is to help them become fearless agents of change in their organizations.
Process/Mechanics
This tutorial is a combination of a play, presentation and a “first-aid clinic” exercise. It is a highly interactive session.
Timetable
Introductions (leaders and participants): Description of the session and the materials.
Presentation, play, and discussion: Introduction to the Fearless Change project and the patterns, lessons learned, and case studies. The lecture supports a “play” in which participants act out roles involved in the introduction of Agile into an organization.
Exercise: First-Aid Clinic. The group will be divided into small teams and will use the patterns to address their own problems in leading change. Participants and tutorial leaders will discuss their plans, assumptions, and reasons.
Wrap-up: Summary, retrospective and de-brief.