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INTERVIEW

Thomas Moreau SK 2011, agile coach and “geek 1.0”!

29 March 2019 INTERVIEW

Thomas facilitated the “Lego Agile Scrum” workshop run by the Project Management Club on 25 April 2019 in Lille!


Thomas, could you briefly introduce yourself?

I’m Thomas Moreau, a “geek 1.0” (i.e. since before it became fashionable). I worked for several years as Project Manager Organisation for Groupe Vauban (now Malakoff-Médéric/Humanis), then I enrolled in the 2009-2011 Grande Ecole programme with the goal of starting my own business. Since 2011, I’ve been working as an independent consultant and I’ve had the chance to collaborate with several companies in the region. Today, I am Programme Manager for the "Digitalisation of the Boat market" at CGI Finance (a subsidiary of Société Générale) and Agile Coach for Leroy Merlin France and Adeo.

Like all self-respecting geeks, I’m a fan of Lego, of role-playing games, board games and video games. I bring all these passions to my professional life and you saw proof of that when you discovered SCRUM using Lego during the Project Management Club workshop held on 25 April 2019!


What did your variety of “project/organisation/tools” experiences in large companies bring you?

First, I’d say that this variety is something I chose: You can’t inspire people to want to change if you don’t change yourself! These multiple experience enable me to bring a “fresh” perspective to my clients, to talk to people and to discover “what is being done elsewhere” and to stay relevant in my business.

What is your definition of an Agile Coach?

An Agile Coach is someone who is attentive to the team, its members and the surrounding context. The idea is to suggest tools and rituals that “work” and get rid of anything superfluous! Once the team has appropriated the Agility values and practices, the Coach should gradually step back but remain available to the team.

As an Agile Coach, I’m called in to train teams that are being introduced to Agility, to teach them the Principles and Values of the Agile Manifesto, have them learn the practices and choose the ones that are a good fit for their context. The idea is not to drop a ready-made method in front of them, but rather to listen to them, advise them and make them want to continue. For the more experienced teams, I run discovery/advanced workshops and “Extreme Value Delivery” sessions where the team draw on their resources and strengths to go further by “stressing” their own practices.

 

What happens during a “Lego Agile Scrum” workshop? Is there a growing demand from companies looking to train in/use this method? What are its advantages and limitations…?

First of all, you need a lot of Lego blocks! The players form a team that will build a toy out of Lego blocks. I play the Product Owner role, responsible for the product vision. I express my requirements and I expect the team to do their best to fulfil them, but I’m unsure of my expectations... And sometimes I communicate my needs poorly... And sometimes my strategy changes completely... You’ve probably figured out that the situations I’m describing are frequently encountered “in real life” by project teams, which are constantly faced with uncertainty and have to produce something of value to the client as quickly as possible. 

This type of training is very much in demand because it allows people to experience the Agility values first-hand and put them into practice during a “fun” workshop: focus on what has value, collaborate in person rather than sending each other emails, embrace change as something that is beneficial, trust instead of draftings hundreds of pages of specifications, delegate... These workshops often raise very powerful questions at all levels of the company “Are we making the right products? Are we still in touch with what our customers value? Do we give the people working with us the possibility to speak up?” Implementing Agility is a real challenge, but companies are convinced that this adaptability will enable them to remain competitive in markets that are increasingly cutthroat and unpredictable. I’m proud to be helping some of them with their transformation.


Did our alumni enjoy the “scrum method”? Tell us about the experience.

The whole atmosphere while running the workshop was very convivial! The thirty or so participants, separated into 5 teams, really got into it, with lots of enthusiasm and engagement.
The goal was to make a bird out of Lego blocks over 4 timed game rounds. Throughout the different stages of the game (scope, planning, development/execution, review, retrospective), the players had to take into account the precise and changing constraints set out by the facilitator in his role as Product Owner.
The participants were able to discover and apply this Agility-based method in a fun way to build the requested “birdie” while meeting the requirements of the different stakeholders (customer, marketing dept., etc.).
See the winning “birdie” here! PHOTO

Thomas, our agile coach, ended the workshop with a debriefing session to go over each stage and give the teams some useful advice for their next project using the Agile method in their respective workplaces!

See you in October for the next meetup and, until then, keep in touch with us through the club’s dedicated LinkedIn group!

 

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