Open Tech Calendar

This month we are delighted to welcome Michael Spayd who is in town from the US. Michael’s life mission is transformation, his and yours. He has been writing a book on transformation for the past 7 years, and will finish it this year, with co-author Michele Madore: Agile Transformation: Using the Integral Agile Framework to Think & Lead Differently. He co-founded the Agile Coaching Institute with Lyssa Adkins in 2010, and Trans4mation with Michele in 2016. @mspayd

Agenda
6pm – arrivals/networking
6:30pm – Welcome
Talk - Michael Spayd
8pm’ish-9pm - networking

Livesteam - youtu.be

Bio/Talk Description
In 2001, I joined the Piranha Team. Our charge: implement XP (eXtreme Programming) across a 50,000 person telco. In 2003, I gave an experience report about that adventure at my first Agile conference.

In 2005, I came on as senior coach at a financial services company in Virginia, and organized the first Executive Forum at Agile 2005.
By 2010, I had presented at 4 of 5 Agile 20XX conferences on culture, org change, leadership and other topics still popular today. In 2008, Lyssa Adkins, Deb Hartmann (now Preuss) and I wanted to bring a course in professional coaching to the Agile world. It didn't fly then. By 2010, Lyssa and I co-founded the Agile Coaching Institute to do just that. It worked this time. ACI became the preferred training platform for Agile Coaches and Scrum Masters around the world. Lyssa and I eventually sold ACI to Accenture, after our "founders' contribution" reached its peak.

Meanwhile, back in 2014, I had a vision for a consulting company based on the principles taught by ACI, and the foundations of the Integral model from my book excerpt published that year. But the company, Transfourmation, wasn’t ready to be born.

In 2015, I had a happy reunion with Michele Madore, who I had met back in 2005 in Virginia. In 2016, we co-founded Trans4mation to implement that vision. Later that year, I had what can only be described as a ‘spiritual meltdown’, becoming quite ill. It was the darkest time of my life.

Following a long absence, I re-joined Michele in Trans4mation in mid-2017.

In 2018, I began making the transition to systemic healer — a calling I had first heard back as a teenager, but never knew quite how to fulfill. I re-started The Collective Edge. The trials of starting a company about "transformation" ended up fully transforming me, ironically (or fittingly) enough. At least I could say it worked for me.

In this “talk” I hope to add a little color, tell a few stories, and reveal some of the insights I’ve come to along this path. And to let you know why, for me, it has been a path with heart. I aim to show you where and how I was moved, when I was wrong, and how in the end, I was saved.