This year was already my third time at OOP ‘software meets business’ conference in Munich. I loved the mixture of “being back”, meeting a lot of “known faces” and also a couple of close friends as well as getting to know new people and establishing some new connections that might grow in the future.
So after OOP 2017 and OOP 2018 I once again did a (small) personal write-up of “my OOP 2019”. I hope you’ll get also take something out of it – and I am always happy to hear your thoughts.
Besides being a reviewer in the Social Integration track, I delivered three sessions this time:
1. My Leadership Development talk
Once again I was very happy to spread information and share experience on sustainable Leadership development in my ‘Multiple Selves?! Growing Leaders applied’ talk. (see slides)
It was already the 6th delivery of this topic in a conference setting and I am still amazed how much valuable I feedback I get every single time.
Feedback that shows me:
- that mindfulness, leadership and personal (identity) development are essential
- that it is necessary and rewarding at the same time working on bringing & spreading those three topics altogether
- that I can learn every single time from people who attend my sessions, from people who hear about it afterwards (and I love this exchange of knowledge, experience and perspectives)
2. Our Gratitude in business session
… got a separate blogpost. 🙂
3. Taking care for the future…
My third “official contribution” was a Pecha Kucha talk on Courage, Curiosity & Connection. In fact it was my very first Pecha Kucha talk – and the different steps to delivering the 6 minutes and 40 seconds was a journey on its own. So watch out, there might be a separate blogpost coming!
Once again, some drawing practise…
Again I found a lot of occasions to hone my Sketchnoting skills in selected sessions of the conference. Some of my 2019 sketchnotes are shared here. One thing that struck me again: how quick skills like drawing improve once you “just” practise regularly (i.e. daily).
What else?
Like in the previous years I am providing an overview of all most of (*) the ‘things’ I found valuable during workshops and sessions I attended to. Again this serves mainly as a look-it-up list for me which might as well be of use for anyone out there as well. Because, you know: Sharing is caring!
(*) I say “most of” because I realised I just couldn’t digest all the things and process all my notes up to today. So now you might be finding some talks/sessions which are only mentioned having no further (sketch)notes; that doesn’t mean that it wasn’t a good session or such… it’s just that I now really want to ship my blogpost and I might be adding more stuff later on.
Monday
Introduction to The Responsibility Process (with Henning Wolf & Nadine Wolf)
Tuesday
A German session on Saying “no” for Product Owners and other leadership roles by Urs Reupke & Stefan Roock.
This informative and at the same time funny interactive session included (again) The Responsibility Process and another model called Leadership Circle.
Here are my sketchnotes and here’s a funny outtake of one of the session’s exercises (see Tim’s tweet —>)
Product Owner work hacks: Make User Centered Product Development become Reality in our Daily Work by Katrin Grothues. I drew again some sketchnotes and loved the actionable things Katrin provided to start improving as a PO right at the next work day.
In favor of seeing Katrin’s PO session I missed out on Bettina Ruggeri’s session on Living Feedback which was at the same time. Although I know about the topic of Living Feedback I would have loved to experience Bettina’s energetic speaking style. Her feedbacks on twitter afterwards spoke on their own. Thomas Rinke, one participant, even created a sketchnote and skipped the following keynote.
‘What would YOU call this workshop?’ and other powerful questions (by Tim Bourguignon)
Wednesday
Lean Code (by Kevlin Henney)
‘Beauty & Beast’ – Emotional Programming by Michael Sperber & Johannes Mainusch. The session itself as well as a very good conversation right afterwards with the speakers, Nicole Rauch and Michael Mahlberg taught me some insights about functional programming which I just didn’t expect it. This was awesome, especially for my software engineering heart. 🙂 And again, I was able to do some sketchnotes.
The Acceptance-Tolerance-Model – How much diversity can your team stand? (by Alexander Kylburg)
Thursday
A German session on how using our language creates realities (called “Sprache schafft Wirklichkeiten”).
Yes, the plural in realitIES is very intentional and again I loved the session by Veronika Kotrba & Ralph Miarka (see my sketchnotes) .
With Veronika and Ralph I always learn new, tiny yet powerful things and I (re)gain awareness for other stuff I already heard of.
End the software crisis by Nicole Rauch & Michael Sperber:
I loved Nicole and Michael’s style of creating the talk! It was almost like a role-play and it was so entertaining that I just couldn’t draw sketchnotes.
The talk on 7+/-2 ways your brain screws you up by Jasmine Zahno & Joseph Pelrine I already attended at Craft Conf 2018. I knew good humor as well as valuable input awaited me and I took the chance to hone my sketchnote skills once again. And I am very proud that my OOP 2019 sketchnotes contain much more small images and less text than my 2018 version.
Portfolio Kanban with examples from Otto by Johannes Mainusch & Lars Lentfer. This was the session directly preceding the Pecha Kucha Night and so I was already really nervous (who could’ve expected this ;)). So now sketchnotes here either but take-away: it takes time, it requires patience and it needs passionate, open-minded people. One step at a time.
No surprise yet good to be reminded every now and then.
Pecha Kucha Night
Besides my own Pecha Kucha talk we did a first-timer in history: doing a Pecha Kucha with 20 speakers, each speaker one slide. Thomas Ronzon initiated and organised this just about a day before (because one speaker couldn’t come). It was amazing to see what can be created when people are happy to contribute.
Friday
On the last OOP day, I attended a half-day of the full-day workshop on Agile Leadership facilitated by a couple of inspiring people. There’s nothing to add to my tweet back then:
Final Thoughts
Compared to OOP 2017 and OOP 2018 I attended a lot less sessions this year in order to keep a sustainable pace over the week – so that I could deliver my own talks, have meaningful conversations and digest all the things I learned. Looking back after the week that worked out quite well.
How did I do this? In fact, I set this intention deliberately upfront. And I created a little post-it note which I placed visibly in my hotel room just upon arrival. That note reminded me that I intended to keep a sustainable pace – every time when I heard my FOMO voice. In fact that little paper did a great job e.g. in the mornings when planning the day after journaling or when coming back to the room “early” in the evening to get proper amounts of sleep.
Take care,
Cosima