Ivo Peksens | Ivopeksens.com

ABOUT

Ivo Peksens

+371 26593248

ivo.peksens at gmail.com

CONTACT

Facilitator / Trainer / Agile Coach

The 1st Certified Agile Coach

(Certified Team Coach - CTC)

from Scrum Alliance in Baltics.

25+ years working experience in IT field.

20 years experience facilitating meetings.

12 years experience Scrum, Agile & Team coaching.

I am reliable, open-minded, transparent, curious

person who helps finding better ways

of doing what we are doing!

experience

My work experience dates back to 1997 when I was teaching school teachers how to use Ms Office and installing Personal Computers. Step by step through engineering and few people leadership roles, ended up being a hands on Scrum Master in 2013. As dedicated Agile Coach from 2017.

I have spent most of my career in international, English speaking business environments mostly in EU and also in US based organizations.

More detailed information in my LinkedIn.

Link to the latest CV of mine.

Link to Feedback.

my STORY

Somewhere around mid 90s of the last century, I felt an attraction to computers. It continued at university where I found myself consciously studying not how to program, but how computers work. As knowledge emerged, I soon realized that always a combined (computer hardware and software) performance is what impacts the end user experience.

Related jobs followed and when I moved into a domain where it was about software development using computers rather than supporting computer users, I soon realized that success is not only determined by how good one is at programming, but also what interaction is like with the other people. It’s always both – technology and psychology.

After years, I got a book called “Finding Your Element” by K.Robinson after I had seen some of Ken's TED talks. It’s a practical book. While reading it and doing exercises, I soon realized that I am ‘in my element’ when I, put simply, facilitate other people. I suddenly was able to give a common denominator to the most of my professional past. But mainly it gave me clarity about what I want to do further.

Since all the time I was around computers that’s where I went on. I started a steep journey towards becoming better at facilitating others, learning and practicing coaching. I started to pay attention to working together, I started to value how rewarding it is to see others succeed in what they are doing together and how important that actually is to the everybody involved. Believe it or not, but soon I became a Scrum Master as that was the perfect fit to what I wanted to do. And it was a new turning point!

Below is a video answer from Lyssa Adkins to my question (2014)

as a starting Scrum Master:

November 2024 my Agile Coaching engagement ended sooner than expected. And I think it was for good. Because it made me return to the roots. And those roots are love for facilitation. In many contexts: work meetings, trainings, conferences, discussions, etc.

2feetmeetings.com is the newest name of my website ivopeksens.com. To maintain traffic, there's simple redirect for now.

So what is the story of 2feetmeetings ?

In 2015 I discovered an Open Space unconference in Sophia, Bulgaria, namely Agile Lean Europe 2015 that I visited. I was literally blown away by the format. For three days pressure free, deeply democratic, engaging and humane interactions. I came back home elevated. Was more than sure we have to do it in Riga as well. Unfortunately, hype faded out, but not fully. Two years later in 2017, we tried Open Space in Agile Days Riga and it worked :).

The magic of Open Space is in its simplicity. And only one law guides everybody. It is a low of 2 feet. Meaning, you can go where you find you can contribute or if you cannot or do not like to, walk away without asking permission. This sounds unreal, but it is real and very powerful. And it is sabotage minimizing/eliminating as well :)

2feetmeetings is to foster this idea of free will joining and withdrawing beyond Open Space into many other kinds of meetings. However, there is something else besides this. And it is the starting point which is even simpler than many things mentioned so far. It is inclusion of others into discussing and deciding about stuff that's impacting us. As a result combo of free movement and inclusion creates a strong foundation of psychologically safe ways of meeting & working together.

So, 2feetmeetings is about including everyone into the action and establishing one law - the law to 2 feet. The time has come to emphasize the importance of inclusion and reliance on collective intelligence.

my VISION

My vision has evolved over the years.

Below is the latest formulation of it:

I want to live & work in a world where people

include each other into different kinds of actions

in themes that impact them and the organization

they're part of. That starts with family and ends up

with community.

My mission is to help the inclusion happen

safely so that the collective intelligence

can be accessed and used well!

While on this mission, I value

trust, openness, transparency

curiosity, courage, respect.

MY QualificAtions

Formally, I have obtained two Master degrees from Riga Technical University (2003; 2013). Although 'Technical' the 2nd degree is with emphasis on business side of things, namely Business Informatics program.

As from my story, 2013 was a turning point for me where my learning journey obtained a new speed. I started learning and practicing Scrum, Facilitation, then Coaching. Along the way obtained some certifications as well.

Since 2018, I was actively learning according to the Certified Agile Coach resources from Scrum Alliance. In 2019 I started attending an international mentoring group for Agile Coaches. In December 2020 became a CTC Candidate. In January 2020 I joined CTC Candidates international mentoring group. And became the 1st Certified Agile Coach (Certified Team Coach - CTC) from Scrum Alliance in Latvia and Baltics (Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia) and the 3rd in the Eastern part of Europe on June 21st, 2021.

This whole journey from 2018 till 2021 was like obtaining another Master's degree and was very deep, real-world experience validation and inclusive reflective learning experience compared to the more formal university type of Master's degrees.