ControlPlane at the Bleeding Edge: Ending the Pain of Periods
For the first time, ControlPlane’s Agile team took to the stage at Agile on the Beach, one of the community’s flagship conferences in the UK. Alongside talks on the dangers of AI reinforcing biases and how the wisdom of beekeeping could be applied to self-management, Marion Peters and Maddie Clingan gave the debut of their talk, Building Inclusive Agile Teams: Ending the Pain of Periods.
The talk focused on breaking down awkwardness, stigma, and workplace barriers related to menstrual health. They started by equipping the audience with scientific knowledge and then shared research they had gathered on people’s experiences in the workplace today, having analysed data from over 200 participants.
A Challenge for Agile Teams
One of their key findings was that those who reported being in Agile teams and/or companies reported lower comfort levels when it came to discussing menstruation in the workplace.
The higher levels of discomfort within the Agile space are likely a symptom of the fact that 82% of those who work in Agile roles reported being part of the tech industry, which data shows is a male-dominated sector. This suggests that those who menstruate tend to be in the minority, and, therefore, the second half of the talk focused on actionable takeaways on how to better understand and accommodate for what is often the minority’s experience.
What Progress Looks Like as Companies, Teams, and Individuals
The recommendations were split into three areas: company-level, team-level, and individual-level. At the company level, over half of respondents in the Agile space already benefited from time and location flexibility and access to free period products. Therefore, the areas that most participants wanted to see more of were menstrual policies communicated by leadership, menstrual awareness training, and varied sitting options.
On the team level, the key theme was ensuring continuous improvement extends to people. Suggestions of what this could look like included introducing practices such as probabilistic forecasting that allow for variability in energy levels or otherwise, and normalising health-related conversations in teams by, for example, including them in team agreement sessions.
Finally, resources were provided on how the audience could continue their advocacy on an individual level (see the end, for some examples). whether that was bringing back a lunch and learn to their company or equipping themselves to understand their own hormones better through practices such as cycle tracking.
Marion and Maddie brought these suggestions to life through anecdotes, sharing how introducing some of these practices had helped them in their own work lives. One highlight was giving a talk on this topic at one of our ControlPlane gatherings, which was incredibly well received and started the journey of normalising workplace conversations on menstruation in our teams. But even small day-to-day actions, such as introducing status indications to show that a team member is experiencing menstrual-related symptoms can give visibility and offer support.
What the Audience Said
At the end of the session, Marion and Maddie were delighted to see that the majority of the audience felt much more at ease mentioning periods at work. The positive reception was further echoed in the survey feedback, which highlighted how motivated the attendees were to make a change in their own worlds after attending the talk:
“By far one of THE BEST talks I’ve ever watched at AOTB. Full of data, insights, and personal stories. Absolutely incredible. I came away with some very actionable things I’m going to do for myself personally, and will also be bringing them into our teams and organisation.”
The Agile on the Beach Experience
When we asked Marion and Maddie about their time at Agile on the Beach, they commented:
“Overall, we had a great experience as speakers. We were delighted by the warm reception to our talk and were really encouraged to hear how inspired people were to start this conversation within their companies. Outside of our talk, we loved the friendly atmosphere of the conference, the humorous event hosts, and the wonderful community events. We networked far and wide (maybe even a little too closely with some Cornish seagulls!) and came away feeling inspired and motivated in our Agile roles. The weather didn’t do the beautiful Cornish coastline*
Learn More
If you’d like to continue your education on this topic, here are some of the further resources shared in the talk:
Alternatively, Marion and Maddie are also presenting this session at Women in Agile Europe, hosted this September in Prague, and we’d love to see you there!
