THE INTROVERT'S AGILE SURVIVAL GUIDE

According to best-selling author Susan Cain, introverts are often discriminated against in our extrovert- dominated society. Although approximately two thirds of people in the United States are considered extroverts, the majority of IT professionals are introverts. Many Agile practices, however, tend to favor the extrovert, leaving introverts with a frequent feeling of being yanked outside their comfort zone.

Attending meetings, working in an open team room, and interacting with team members throughout the day can leave the introvert feeling exhausted and yearning for a quiet environment to think and be productive. The introvert may feel it’s necessary to become an extrovert to survive Agile, but not only is this unrealistic – it’s unnecessary. Introverts and extroverts are all welcome at this session. We’ll cover strategies for introverts to increase their job satisfaction by expanding their comfort zone and how extroverts can increase empathy for the plight of their introverted team members.

Objectives/Focus:

• Understand behavioral and motivational differences between introverts and extroverts
• Assess your level of introversion/extroversion
• Learn success strategies when working on project teams mixed with intro/extroverts
• Learn ways to adapt project best practices that tend to favor extroverts

• Ken Howard

  3 Recordings

  Ken Howard is Vice President of Consulting at Improving Enterprises and has been involved in most aspects of software development for over 30 years with such languages as diverse as COBOL, Smalltalk and Java. Over the years, Ken has provided consulting, training and mentoring to companies in 12 countries around the world, helping with adoption of software development best practices. He is also on the computer science faculty at SMU’s Lyle School of Engineering. Ken’s specialty is helping companies increase productivity through efficient practices and pragmatic organizational dynamics, which was the topic of the Addison-Wesley book that he co- authored titled Individuals and Interactions: an Agile Guide.

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