A real story of project rescue... where shifting stance unlocked leadership clarity, peer trust, and true team autonomy.
Every Agile coach or team lead has faced it: a team that resists, a framework that doesn’t land, and a delivery environment teetering on chaos. In this talk, I’ll share the true story of a project like that. One that forced me to confront the most important question I’ve learned to ask:
What does this team really need from me right now?
You’ll discover how becoming aware of your stance, and learning to shift it with intention, can be the difference between continued resistance and true transformation.
Through this story, we’ll explore three challenge areas:
- Leadership: What truly matters when speaking to execs and how mastering articulation of risk, progress, and need creates alignment
- Peer resistance: A powerful tool to uncover what resistance is really telling you (hint: it’s not just sabotage)
- Team enablement: The unexpected approach I had to take to build real autonomy and why letting go was harder than I thought
This isn’t a story about doing Agile better. It’s a call to lead with presence, awareness, and courage, and to build teams that can thrive even when everything feels stuck.