Presented by Louise Penberthy

Presentation Materials (external link to Prezi)

No matter what your role is in agile development, you’ll run into people who are difficult to get along with, team members who won’t participate, and stakeholders who are demanding - in fact, you probably already have! Drawing on my experience as a mediator, I’ll give you strategies for dealing with difficult people, encouraging team participation, and surviving and thriving on self-organizing teams.

Louise Penberthy

Louise Penberthy is a Scrum Master and mediator. In her 15 years of mediating, she’s worked with many clients to help them deal with difficult people, communicate effectively, get good resolutions to disputes and conflict, create concrete, actionable plans for the future, and mend relationships. She’s experienced in communicating productively with people of many different backgrounds, professions, ethnic origins, cultures, and positions in organizational structures.

Louise was a software developer for many years, working primarily on web-based applications. She’s also a project manager, managing cross-cultural teams on a variety of projects, and working for organizations from the large to the small, from the well-established to the startup that crashed and burned.

She writes and speaks on a wide range of subjects related to agile teams and communication, including how to know that you’re being unwisely generous with your clients, how to remove your personal barriers to resolution, and how to shut down bullies. You can follow her blog at humaninterop.com/blog/. Ask her about her experiences with Personal Scrum and Personal Kanban.