As a business consultant, I facilitate teams of teams in international organisations as an Agile Coach. Next to that, I had an awesome experience earlier this year. Together with Anita Kalmane-Boot I had the opportunity to lead the Speaker Focus Group of the global Online Scrum Master Summit 2024! What made this experience truly special was that our Speaker Focus Group was not just any group. It was a global volunteer team, made up of passionate individuals from different continents, time zones and cultures. The experience reminded me that curating speakers is far more than simply finding experts. It is also about leveraging the unique strengths of your team, encouraging proactivity and embracing diversity. Here are some of the lessons I learned, along with actionable tips for those aspiring to lead similar teams in an inclusive, collaborative way!
1. Embrace (Global) Diversity as a Strength
With team members from across the globe, a powerful aspect of our speaker selection process was the diversity of our perspectives. We had volunteers from different countries, industries, and cultures, which brought a variety of insights into what would resonate with our global audience. This diversity allowed us to consider speakers and topics that may not have crossed our minds otherwise.
Tip: Actively seek input from team members about trends and topics from their regions. Their local insights can help you uncover speakers and themes that appeal to a broader, more global audience. Celebrate the diversity within your team and let it shape your decision-making.
2. Foster Connection Across Time Zones
Working with a global team may present logistical challenges, especially when it comes to time zones. Coordinating meetings and keeping everyone in sync requires careful planning. In my case I also wanted the team to feel truly connected despite our geographic separation. This meant fostering a sense of community where we were both colleagues and collaborators who genuinely understood and respected one another’s contributions.
Collectively we had decided on the day and timing of our weekly Zoom-meeting. With each meeting I did not jump straight into business with the team. Instead I always started with a warming up activity to get rid of any possible barriers, to get to know each other better and as such to increase our collaboration. We used Miro to further enhance our collaboration.
By the way, this went beyond our volunteer team! Before the start of the summit our team hosted a speaker kick off meeting where our talented lineup of experts came together and we fostered their connection as well!
The speaker kick off meeting
Tip: use (asynchronous) tools to keep the communication flowing within your team. Of course you may use email and for quick and easy communication you can create a group in Whatsapp. Use a collaboration tool like Miro. To store and work together on files use a service like Google Drive.
3. Encourage Proactivity and Collective Ownership
One of my lessons learned on the Online Scrum Master Summit was the importance of encouraging every member of the team to take ownership and to be proactive. It is easy to fall into the trap of a top-down approach where a leader drives every decision. That is not what fosters engagement—especially in a volunteer setting. Instead, I made a point of encouraging each person to proactively contribute ideas, take responsibility for tasks and lead discussions. I wanted everyone to feel that their voice mattered and that they had the autonomy to shape the process.
As a result we were a team that was both highly motivated and also very creative. Each member brought their own unique ideas to the table—whether it was suggesting potential speakers from different regions, refining our selection criteria or coming up with ways to keep our process inclusive and transparent.
Tip: Invite team members to take charge of specific tasks or aspects of the process. This distributed leadership fosters a greater sense of ownership and commitment to the overall success of the summit.
4. Leverage the Agile Mindset and Practices for a Distributed Team
Given my Agile background (actually of everyone on the team!), I naturally used Agile principles to guide our speaker selection process. We learned along the way and inspected and adapted our way of working wherever we deemed it fit. We also broke our work into smaller and manageable pieces. Transparency was key: as already said we used Miro and documentation in Google Drive to track the progress of speaker nominations, reviews and final decisions.
After the summit we obviously conducted a retrospective to gather feedback on how we were selecting speakers and also on how we worked together. Great input for a next summit!
Tip: if you are the lead of a speaker focus group of an Agile focused conference, practice what you preach! Enable the team to adjust swiftly to change, prioritizing feedback and collaboration.
5. Value Input from Every Corner of the World
One enriching part of this experience was hearing different perspectives from every corner of the globe, everyone’s input was valuable. These diverse insights allowed us to build a speaker roster that truly represented a global community, something that would not have been possible without the team’s collective contributions.
I made it a priority to actively ask for feedback from team members throughout the process. Instead of waiting for people to speak up, I encouraged open discussions and made it clear that their perspectives were not just welcome but necessary for our success.
Tip: During meetings, intentionally invite quieter voices to share their thoughts. Sometimes people in global teams hesitate to speak up due to cultural differences or time zone fatigue, so making space for everyone ensures you get a rich diversity of input!
Final Thoughts
Curating speakers for the Online Scrum Master Summit, especially with a global volunteer team, was an incredibly rewarding experience. It reinforced the importance of connection, collaboration, and celebrating diversity. Our success was a direct result of the team’s willingness to be proactive, bring forward their unique ideas and stay connected despite the distance.
If you are about to lead a global volunteer team, lean into the richness of your team’s diversity, foster genuine connection and encourage everyone to take ownership of the process. When you empower your team to contribute proactively, the outcome becomes not just a lineup of speakers, it becomes a truly global, inclusive, and inspiring event!
Have you worked with global volunteer teams? I’d love to hear your experiences and tips! Share them in the comments below.
