I know after last week’s post, I probably don’t need more Agile For All love. Yet, timing just happened this go around. Agile For All puts on a learning event for a few days each year, with the last several years held in Beaver Creek, CO.
I’m going to use the Wow and What if retro approach to recap this event for me personally.
WOW
- The community that this event creates. I’m involved in so many conferences with sizes 500+ that I forget what happens when you stay under the tipping point of 150 people. Magic of relationships. Magic of connections. Magic of shared experiences. We experimented with a little “learning outside the conference room” options – horseback riding, cooking, hiking, etc. Really happy with the results!
- The way this event has worked up to this point, is that attendees are Agile For All alumni only. This year, I had several people attending that I was their link to the community. I absolutely loved watching them realize how wonderful my teammates were – while of course remaining their favorite…I think 🙂
- Angie: Seriously, every year I think – you can’t out do what the planned evening activity was from this year – and yet she does it each time. I’m always going to love the chance to dance but this another level. I will have to call foul on the scoring judges as my teams were clearly the winning teams! Thank you Angie, for all that you do.
- Family time: My family comes with me to this event. Not to the actual event but I can have dinner with them, catch them at the pool in the evenings, see their faces in the morning, etc. They get a vacation and I get to feel like I wasn’t away from them for the week.
My sessions: I did a very tool centric one with the Brain Science Principles, I co-trained a session with Jake from a snippet of our leadership course regarding the risks of the expert mindset as a leader, I helped with a session on the leadership circle assessment tool and I went raw and honest on the challenging of being a leader session. Normally, Henry is the AFA teammate known for bringing others to tears (in a good way). This session, I was in tears. Others in the room were in tears. The really amazing part was the trigger was different for everyone. For one person, its as the appreciation loop that made her realize she hadn’t received several compliments in a row. For one person, its just knowing that she wasn’t the only one feeling the weight of the accountability/judgements. For one person, it was leading while grieving a loss. We really do seem to forget that leaders are humans. I plan on continuing to create spaces for leaders to release this stress so they can lead to the edge!- Agile For All Teammates: I sent this to my teammates in private and I sort of referenced it above but I’m going to call it out directly. My AFA family embraces my families. Any time they meet someone from a former company of mine, they welcome them right in. To the point that they often feel included in my new family too. This can’t be undervalued. I carry my connections with me always and watching them grow and come together gives me so much peace.
WHAT-IF
- I did a few more sessions. I was super light on the schedule this year. Not intentionally, no meaning behind it but just light. It did make me feel like I wasn’t pulling my weight. I didn’t really help plan any of the openings/closings, etc – I just felt like I was also along for the ride. I tried to compensate for this by being super helpful to the operations team but I can do more and need to speak up sooner about wanting that.
- I were more proactive about encouraging people to attend. I am not very good about being salesperson or marketing for my own items but this is for the team and I should step up more.
- I didn’t have brand new test session this go around. I refined things, I improved topics, etc. But I didn’t have a brand new concept that I’ve been exploring. This is just a missed opportunity.
- We created a space for people to learn how to speak/train. I think some of the value for the repeat attendees is leveling them up this front (if desired).
Now I’m sure others would have more to add/changes to this list as an attendee or another AFA teammate perspective but this is my reflection. What I appreciated and what I want to do for next year.
If I have to sum up this 2019 event, proud.
