food – Chris Gagné

Introducing the Agile Potluck

Many of you may be familiar with Lean Coffee™, a “structured, but agenda-less meeting” that happens world-wide as a way of discussing Lean techniques in knowledge work environments.

I’d like to introduce the Agile Potluck™. It differs from Lean Coffee in a few key ways: They’re smaller, less formal, and require more participation to attend. While Lean Coffee is great for talking through the challenges we face in the office, the Agile Potluck adds a personal touch that forges deeper, more meaningful connections. When the barrier to entry is higher, the quality of conversations improve (just ask anyone who has gone to Burning Man!).

I’ve hosted five of these potlucks so far and we’ve found them to be very successful. Here are some of the reviews that we’ve received:

“Wow, this was a terrific event. Loved meeting everybody, talking Agile (including learning about Nummi!), and enjoying great Paleo food! … This was a great networking event as it turned out also – thanks everybody for any networking assistance you can help me with here as a transplant to Silicon Valley!” Brian M. Wills, Agile Coach

“Thanks for hosting this event Chris! I personally had a great time learning, dinning, and feeling honored to be part of a very refreshing and honest exchange ce soir!” — Alvin Du, Staff Engineer

“Lovely! What a wonderful evening. Truly one of my favorite experiences since moving to the city.” Brittany Fritsch, Project Manager

“We explored on how to best serve our clients/organizations :)” — Latha Swamy, Lean | Agile Transformation Leader and Executive Coach

“Great conversation, insightful discussion, and lots of insights.” — George Lawton, Technology Journalist

“We wined, we dined, we talked Agile, and had a great time!” — Lydia Sugarman, CEO/Founder of Venntive.com

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On Food: The Five Contemplations

In 2008, I spent a few days at the Deer Park Monastery in Escondido, CA. One of the things I came away with was five contemplations about food. I enjoyed them very much and hope you will also find them interesting and/or useful.

This food is a gift of the whole universe, the Earth, the sky, numerous living beings, and much hard work.
May we eat in mindfulness and gratitude, so as to be worthy to receive it.
May we transform our unskilled states of mind—especially our greed—and learn to eat with moderation.
May we eat in such a way as to keep our compassion alive, reduce the suffering of human beings, preserve our planet, and reverse the process of global warming.
We accept this food so that we may nourish our brother- and sisterhood, strengthen our Sangha, and realize our ideal of serving living beings.