Who is Annalinde Singh?

What is something people usually don’t know about you but has influenced you in who you are?

My career has come through a variety of industries and roles, including restaurants, music, retail, insurance, call centres, mining, supply chain, banking, non-profit, and consulting. I get my energy from range in my activities, so this variety truly is the spice of my life. The people and roles I’ve gained exposure to over the years gave me a deeper level of empathy for humans, and a breadth of life experience (perhaps beyond my years). These have both served me well.

What would have become of you, if you were not doing the job you do today?

I would probably be a Rapid Results Facilitator working alongside one of my previous mentors, Alrien van der Walt, the person who kickstarted my exploration into the world of facilitation. There could easily be parallels drawn between the work we did and the Scrum Master role, we just didn’t know about “this agile thing” and the industry-specific jargon. Rapid Results is a methodology widely used for non-profit work. I enjoyed it as I could sharpen my facilitation skills while experiencing large variety in the people we worked with and the types of (not-software-related) problems they were solving. This is where I first specifically saw and felt the immense value of a multi-disciplinary group of people coming together in a room to solve serious and costly problems.

What is your biggest challenge and why is it a good thing for you?

I can be impatient. I have learnt to be more aware of it over the years and become more comfortable with allowing people space and time to think and do things without me hovering over them. I’m at home in an agile environment as the frequent feedback loops help me regularly gain new information and experience progress – this supports my journey to a more patient self.

What do you currently do and how did you end up in your current role?

I am an Agile consultant at IQbusiness. I absolutely adore the people in the Agility team, and I’ve experienced major growth through the different people and products I’ve worked with in the last 5 years. My days are filled with some exceptional people, facilitation, talking, listening, coaching, training, doodling, bouncing ideas around with others, and an astounding number of GIFs and emojis. I came to IQbusiness from the mining industry (Supply Chain and Technical) with a brief stopover at a software development start-up. It was an odd situation; one day we were essentially told to pack up and not come back. They closed up shop and started operating 5km away from the old office like nothing had happened. This was one of the strangest situations I’ve been in!

What is the last thing you read, watched or listened to that inspired you?

I don’t know if this can be classified as inspiration: I’m only a bit late to the party and have only recently started watching the almost-sickeningly cheesy musical series Glee. The never-ending supply of teenage drama mixed with well-timed and beautifully harmonic vocal pieces have helped me re-energise especially on tough lockdown days. On a more serious note, recently I attended, “People, people! What do you see? Reflection Journey”, a session expertly facilitated by April Jefferson and Mark Kilby. They lightly and kindly held a space where I could admit certain things to myself that have been slowing down my progress in sculpting some new productive mental health habits. That session has stayed with me, vividly, crossing my thoughts daily. Through it, I have been able to start some positive (and tiny, and sustainable) habits, and for that, I will remain extremely grateful.

What do you think is the one thing we can do to improve diversity in the Agile community?

Those of us with a head-start in our education and career need to go out of our way actively to find, reach out to, help, mentor, include, support, make space for, acknowledge, and amplify the Persons of Colour around us. These are the acts we will look back on later in our lives as the moments that made a difference, and made life meaningful.

What additional question do you think we should ask and what is the answer to that question?

Tell us about your favourite stationery!

Right now, mine is the fabulous Faber-Castell Multimark 1525 permanent marker, and probably my all-time favourite would be SUPER STICKIES! They really are SUPER – my grid of daily scribbles from March 2020 when I’d just arrived home from Mauritius has been repositioned multiple times and I’m pleased to report that not a single drop of unicorn vomit has been seen!

Who do you think we should feature next (in South Africa)?

I’d like to recommend Talia Lancaster (sketchingscrummaste) and Preasan Naidoo as well.

Johannesburg, March 2021

How to connect with Annalinde

Twitter: @aLfriendo Linked In: za.linkedin.com/in/annalindesingh