Want true agility? Give employees a voice

We are facing an engagement crisis. There is a strong correlation between agile practices and employee engagement, and it’s clear that one cannot work without the other. Employee voice is one of the key enablers for engagement. However, it is one of the least understood – and perhaps less practiced – aspects of engagement. Employees see problems. They have ideas, potential solutions, and experiments they’d like to run. But they feel powerless to effect the change they know is necessary. Over time, the cycle of active disengagement continues.

But it doesn’t have to be this way! In fact, agile organizations already have the foundation in place to help individuals raise their voice and be heard – agile retrospectives. Unfortunately, most retrospectives currently do not have the positive ROI we would hope for or expect. Action items, learnings, hypotheses, goals, and other artifacts that come out of retrospectives are not shared with the rest of the organization in a systematic and impactful way.

This session is about the surprising connection between employee engagement, employee voice, and agile retrospectives. By providing teams with the solutions and support needed to run effective retrospectives, and by following through on the actions that come out of the discussion, you can empower individuals to become more engaged, productive and effective.

Turns out that effective retrospectives are more critical to business agility then you might have ever imagined.

Learning Objectives

• Participants will walk away with a new understanding of the critical role retrospectives play in enabling business agility. It's not just that retrospectives help teams continuously improve; it's that retrospectives give employees an opportunity to have their voice heard at an organizational level.
• Participants will also learn 5 practical next steps that they can take home with them and implement in an effort to increase voice and engagement in their organizations.

David Horowitz

CEO @ Retrium

David Horowitz is co-founder and CEO of Retrium. Retrium is the world’s first and only enterprise-ready platform for Agile retrospectives. Prior to co-founding Retrium, David spent nearly a decade between The World Bank and International Finance Corporation as a software developer turned Agile coach. While there, he experienced firsthand the importance and difficulty of effective retrospectives at scale.

In addition to Bachelor’s degrees in Computer Science and Economics from The University of Maryland, David has a Master’s degree in Technology Management from The University of Pennsylvania and The Wharton School of Business. In 2013, he successfully founded and exited a movie search engine business.

David is married to his college sweetheart and is the father of three little ones.

Matias Nino

Agile Project Manager @ REI Systems

Leading and coaching technical teams to deliver valuable enterprise solutions for the US Federal Government using agile approaches and methodologies. Working group chair for REI’s Agile Center of Excellence. Organizer of the Agile-Professionals Northern Virginia meet-up user group.

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