XPDay 2007 London: A Retrospective

I've been surrounded by a lot of grey for the past couple of months. It may be the dreary autumnal London weather. Or perhaps it's the sea of sombre suits reflected in glassy buildings in Canary Wharf. Fortunately, going to JAOO for the first time back in September helped cheer me up. Going to XPDay London last week gave me hope.

What worked well: The Highlights
It's the attendees who make the conference: I met some very cool, contemplative and collaborative people. By cool, I mean friendly, modest and fun. When combined with cool, contemplative and collaborative best describe what people who really get Agile mean to me. Instead of meeting resistance, things just flow.

In an opposing context, the 3 Cs can mean: colluding, corroborative and complicit. Apparently that's how some people behave when things get tough. Unfortunately, it's also when how you behave matters most in determining the outcome. Over time, I've come to recognise Agile as a mindset and it's really easy to spot the bona fide ‘Agilistas’ (supporters of Agile) from those who play pretend. It's a bit like watching bullies prance about in tutus. They’re usually those who don’t quite ‘fit’.

Creative sessions such as the Conversation Café by Simon Baker and Gus Power asking the difficult question - ‘Have you compromised your agility?’: I especially liked the scene setting with paper table cloths, funky electric tea lights and piles of lollipops. It seemed to me a well-crafted social experiment in which participants were lulled into a comfortable state of mind before being electric-jolted into discussions that challenged their fundamental beliefs in what being Agile means. The combination of this polemic session with Steve Freeman’s panel discussion on ‘Have we lost our mojo?’ helped reunite a crowd that had become fractured by difficult conversations (I described it as invoking a tribal reaction much like football does – understandably, of course).

For me, the best sessions were those that encouraged us to fight against organisational inertia and question conventional wisdom. Simon and Gus did an excellent job of reminding us to challenge mediocrity. It may be the norm in your organisation, but it doesn't have to be that way.

My three wishes for XPDay London 2008

1. For David Stoughton to do the first keynote
2. For Chris Matts to do the second keynote
3. For David Stoughton to do the closing speech (we should have one because I share Seth Godin’s view that ‘Goodbyes’ are important).

Chris Matts will undoubtedly make a technicolour splash as one of the organisers of next year’s conference along with Keith Braithwaite with his calm and collective takt. I hope to see you there.

As for my joint session on 'The Yellow Brick Road'

Special thanks to Tamas Jano and Tom Geary for test-driving the Wizard of Oz kanban cards. Many thanks to Duncan Pierce for mucking in with what he described as 'the most unusual session' he's ever worked on. And a big T-H-A-N-K Y-O-U to Jim for making shadowy figments of imagination real. If you want to know how the session went, you can read Pascal Van Cauwenberghe's account of it here. Thanks for the coverage, Pascal!