SPaMCAST 597 - Intentional Serendipity, A Panel Discussion with Laberge, Parente, Voris, Sweeney, and Cagley

The SPaMCAST 597 features a special panel of leaders discussing working from home now and after the initial reaction to being remote has worn off. One of the important points that we discussed was the need to make space for intentional serendipity. The panel is composed of Paul Laberge, Susan Parente, John Voris, Jo Ann Sweeney, and your host.  Panelist Bios Jo Ann Sweeney FCIM FIIC MCIPR is an engagement and communication consultant. Typically, she acts as change management lead on complex programmes, facilitating development of effective engagement, training, and communication strategies and then assisting as the strategies are implemented. Clients value her deep understanding of audiences. Jo Ann is known for clarifying the complex and for persuading key stakeholders to get involved and actively support change. You are welcome to download a complimentary copy of Jo Ann’s guide How to Explain Change in 8 Easy Steps at Contact Jo Ann at jo.ann@sweeneycomms.com John Voris is the current leader of AgilePhilly, the local user group in the Philadelphia area for Scrum, Kanban, and Lean Software. ()  His day job is working on financial applications for Crown Cork & Seal, an essential company with over 100 years of manufacturing food and beverage cans.  Prior to Crown, John was an independent software consultant for 30+ years helping both small companies and Fortune 100 large companies with both applications and operating systems. Reach out on LinkedIn: With more than 30 years in the information technology industry, Paul Laberge – CGI Director Consulting-Expert, has a wide range of experience providing IT project management. He enjoys coaching leaders in deploying business technology solutions. His experience in organizational change management spans many different lifecycles including transitions to Agile frameworks (RUP, XP, Scrum, SAFe, Nexxus, LeSS) and incorporating Lean (Kanban) methodologies. Reach out on LinkedIn: Susan Parente is a Principal Consultant at S3 Technologies, LLC and a University Professor at multiple Universities. Mrs. Parente is an author, mentor and professor focused on risk management, traditional and Agile project management. Her experience is augmented by her Masters in Engineering Management with a focus in Marketing of Technology from George Washington University, DC, along with a number of professional certifications. Ms. Parente has 23+ years’ experience leading software and business development projects in the private and public sectors, including a decade of experience implementing IT projects for the DoD. Contact Susan at parente.s3@gmail.com Re-Read Saturday News  This week we tackle Chapter 9 of . The subtitle of this chapter is a fair summary of the ideas in the chapter: how to turn crucial conversations into action and results. Let’s face it if you don’t do anything with what you learn in a crucial conversation you are wasting a lot of value. Week 1 - -   Week 2 - -   Week 3 – –    Week 4 - -   Week 5 - - Week 6 - -   Week 7 - -   Week 8 - -   Week 9 - -   Week 10 - -   We are starting the poll for the next book in the re-read series. Crucial Conversations has two more chapters and an afterword left which means we have approximately three weeks to choose what we will read next. I am going to try something a little different this time by focusing on books I’ve read in late 2019 early 2020 and that I carry around with me when I am working. One exception is the inclusion of the runner up from our last poll. If you do not have a copy or have tossed it at someone during a crucial conversation, it is time to buy a copy. Please use the link (using the link helps support the blog and podcast). Next SPaMCAST SPaMCAST 598 will feature our essay titled Recognizing A Toxic Meeting Culture. Just because you are meeting remotely doesn’t mean meeting culture has been reset.   We will also return to the QA Corner with Jeremy Berriault.