ALE’23 Unconference Day 3 Walkthrough

The alesome experience continues after Day 1 and Day 2!

Having a blast Day 2 and knowing that this was the last day had me thinking it would be "slower", but believe me it wasn't! The alesome people just kicked in a higher gear and the lovely Nancy Beers ♟ Serious Game Expert , who was "on low energy" (yeah, right 😁) had the room full of people on their feet, searching for sole mates. Yes, by sole I mean shoe sole 😁. We did a "brain shock" where we had groups of 4 people, 1 in the middle, two on the sides and one in front. The person on the right was asking mathematical questions, as it is your left side of the brain that deals with those. The person on the left was asking personal/descriptive questions that your right side of the brain is responsible for. And just to make it not that easy, the person in front was doing all sorts of crazy body moves which the person in the middle was to repeat. We did it for 1 minute but the feeling was "when it will stop??" Try this out for yourself and you will realize multitasking is fake, but you could definitely feel the "shock" 😁.

Of course, Nancy doing "Nancy things" is fun, but besides that we learned the importance of differences in human body. The hormones play dances for women, while for men it is generally stable. Talking about that (sometimes "daring" to talk) and incorporating it into the way a team operates is super important to have an inclusive and safe atmosphere.

Some conversations followed and then I went to a session about (Agile) coaching by Andris Aispurs . Again, no bullshit, it was straight to the point, framing the context, setting differences from teaching, mentoring and other stances and leading to the coaching peculiarities. "A coach cannot "lead" the coachee anywhere. It is even forbidden by the ICF and made me want to learn more! The room was pretty fast packed with interested people a lot of whom just sat on the ground. And just to put the icing on the cake, Agata Kabat also shared the SCARF coaching model. So in 45 mins it was coaching 101 delivered. Thank you very much, Andris, Agata and all the participants!

Next up, was a session on "New role as an Agile coach and how to know is it a fit for you?" by Stefanie Zoechmann . It felt like an "academy" where people who were just starting their Agile journey could share any thoughts they had and learn from the people who had been on their Agile journeys longer. "How we can help you?" by Ivo Pekšēns was the question that summarized the entire essence of Agile Lean Europe (ALE) . The majority of people here, especially those who already knew what ALE is about came here to share. To give back to the community. And this was what happened all the time. Thank you to my partners Natalja Tabore and Teo for the discussion on the topic.

The next session about building networks in the organization by Jakub Perlak showed me the importance of interest based networks. How can you share your thoughts on a random topic with a CEO or top level executive? Maybe you have the same interest and your organization supports different interest communities? Runners club, volleyball fans, etc. are not a new thing but I have not thought that much before that it actually helps to build relationships too, and later you can have much smoother working relationship. Thank you, Jakub!

The talk about LinkedIn by 🤖 Dov Zavadskis 🤖 was an absolute hit of the whole 3 day long unconference as the room was packed with people who wanted to learn about the way LinkedIn works in terms of finding yourself on top of search results if you are looking for a new job or just how to maintain your profile. This once more proved that ALE is for everyone: you can share whatever skills or knowledge you have: from LinkedIn to dancing or singing in the Powerpoint karaoke. In Dov's session I learned that I need to do a LOT of cleanup on LinkedIn, interact more, shape my posts so they would be inviting to contribute and much more. The hour went so fast that and we still wanted to learn more! I guess Dov had many more talks about this in the corridors 😀. Thank you, Dov, for joining the ALE community and sharing your knowledge!

The day was coming to an end, and the end of ALE'23 was remarkable and magical! First of all, we thanked the amazing organizers: Ornela Vasiliauskaite - Violeta Valantinavičienė - Gabriele Adomonyte - Denis Vanpoucke - Dominykas Punis - Remigijus Pielikis and all the volunteers ( Gintautas Maziliauskas - you too! 😉) with a standing ovation!

As ALE was thorough till the very last second, we had a "representative" from the "kids club", the daughter of Doaa Adel ElEraqy . It was so beautiful to feel that everything that was shared was taken with so much respect and attention.

And then we had a closure like no other: 3 parts, each better than the previous one, starting with sharing our "main takeaway" on a sheet of paper and then sharing it with a person by giving away your "takeaway" and getting someone else's without looking. After the signal we read what we had been given and put on points 1 to 5 based on how much we would agree to the statement. It took 5 "iterations" and to no surprise we had quite a few unanimous statements about the amazing people, the power of knowledge sharing and this amazing community. But that was just the start: next up we were asked to form groups of 10 people, forming a circle and each sharing their best experiences. It was so emotional, but it hit the next level, when 🤖 Dov Zavadskis 🤖 asked us to close our eyes and we had a "chant" of “Your song” by Elton John. It was magical, it felt like the other +140 people vanished and it was just our little company in complete focus. This moment had burned to my brain (in a positive way) as one of the dearest memories ever.

The last activity was to have a massive "1 by 1" high✋activity, where each and every one of these alesome people stood in a line and then passed each person giving a high 5. Some were soft, some were hard and loud and we really felt connected, as you gave a high 5 to everyone, even if you had not had a chance to talk much during the 3 days.

After "it was over" it was over as one of the "rules" of Open Space tells. And so it was. The magic in the air started slowly started fading away.

I take away so many dear memories and would like to thank each and every person I had a chance to talk to.

And for the final word: as Vidmantas Malakauskas wisely said all that happened in these 3 days "upgraded" our mental batteries. Such an environment energizes and adds so much motivation so that when we as facilitators, coaches, leaders are "in action", helping individuals and organizations dealing with various situations (not problems) we are at our best - guns blazing and making impact enabling people to experience their own "wow" moments.

I wish everyone to keep being alesome and hope to see you all in Budapest next year!