Scrum Practitioner Masterclass

Overview

"I have been continually confused, challenged, and impressed by how Tobias Mayer sees the world, and how he sees Scrum." — Thomas Meloche, co-founder of Menlo Innovations

This is a unique opportunity to learn with Tobias Mayer, a twenty-year Scrum practitioner, and author of the highly acclaimed book, The People's Scrum. This masterclass is a deep investigation to understand how we show up for work, and what we might need to do to really initiate and maintain change in the corporate workplace. Bringing his unusual blend of confrontational and therapeutic approaches to problem solving Tobias is able to create environments where people can show up at their absolute best, learning from one another and realising their true potential.

The Problem

Many of us set out on our Scrum journey with all the best intentions. We understand the need to confront the status quo, to bring kindness, respect and trust to the often hostile corporate environment, to distribute power and foster worker autonomy, and above all to collaboratively shift the corporate culture from one of command/comply (monologue) to one of request/respond (dialogue). We understand all this, in theory, yet when we become immersed in the existing culture we find that the corporate machine is more powerful than we imagined, the resistance to change much greater, and the prevailing culture, often decades old is rusted into place. Before we know it we are sucked in to the machine, our ideals diluted, our integrity compromised, wondering why something as simple as Scrum is so difficult to implement.

The Solution

Well, not exactly the solution, but a non-conventional approach to the corporate resistance problem which may open new possibilities.

Perhaps it is we who need shifting first, before we ask others to shift. Before we ask an organisation to change its culture, perhaps our own internal culture—our habits, our ways of thinking, our assumptions—needs to be reassessed. This is not something taught in a standard Scrum training class, nor even in an advanced or professional class. Indeed, can it even be taught? Maybe not, but in the right learning environment it can be experienced, and even embodied. This is what I offer in this practitioner masterclass: a new way of showing up.

The Method

Interleaving storytelling, theatre, metaphor, language skills, personal reflection, poetry and visual art, and tapping into our instinctively given needs and resources this workshop offers a fresh approach to being a great Scrum practitioner, an agent of change, and perhaps even, as we intriguingly read in the Scrum Guide, "a true leader".

Participation

This workshop is offered to experienced scrum practitioners, whether acting as a scrum master, developer, product owner, manager or executive champion. If organisational change is your goal, and you are using Scrum as your pathway, this workshop is for you. Having at least a CSM or PSM, and one year of practical experience is recommended. You need to have experienced difficulties, resistance or conflict for this workshop to be meaningful and useful to you. And you need to be a seeker, a continuous learner, a curious sojourner.

"Scrum is built upon by the collective intelligence of the people using it." — The Scrum Guide, 2020

Continuous Learning

This is not a certification class, but on successful completion of the class, those with two years or more of practical Scrum experience will be invited to become an apprentice member of The London Scrum Academy, and encouraged to join the longer, more in depth Scrum Master Journey.

Class Size

This workshop is strictly limited to twelve people. It is an intense two days, and being able to build camaraderie and a supportive, trusting environment is vital. This is much more difficult to do when the group is large. Six to twelve people is ideal.

About the Facilitator

Discovering XP in 1998 set Tobias Mayer on a journey of discovery into all things Agile. He has been practicing Scrum since 2003, and in 2005 was among the first twenty-five people, worldwide, certified to teach Scrum by Ken Schwaber, its co-founder. Tobias was one of a handful of long-term Scrum practitioners whose ideas and opinions were sought by Ken Schwaber during the making of the 2020 version of the Scrum Guide.

Skilled as a developer, tester and engineering manager, Tobias also has a background in publishing, theatre arts, and community service work. He skilfully blends this unusual mix of experiences when facilitating these workshops, creating a lively and engaging experience.

Tobias is the author of the highly acclaimed, and somewhat controversial book, The People's Scrum, and has written extensively on leadership, citizenship and corporate transformation.

"...one of Tobias Mayer's signature moves is to pick up a stone and throw it through our glass house, smashing our old paradigms and causing us, after some pain and turmoil, to say, 'OK, my comfortable way doesn't work anymore. Now what?'" — Lyssa Adkins, author of Coaching Agile Teams

Read more about Tobias here.

Workshop Minimum

This workshop relies on effective group interaction. It will not be a meaningful learning experience with less than six people, therefore the organisers reserves the right to postpone the workshop if the required minimum of six is not reached ten days before the start date. Participants unable to attend on the new date will be offered a full refund, or the opportunity to move their registration to a future workshop.