Product or Service?

Posted by on Mar 22, 2018 in Agile with a Purpose, Leadership | One Comment
Product or Service?

This week, I had an interesting conversation about strategy and organisational design. The key question was: “Are we a product or a service company?” Which led me to think about the difference between a product and a service. In my experience, both perspectives have been helpful, so I thought it’s just a “yes, and…” thing. […]

Meet Olaf in London

Over the next five months, I’ll be in London quite regularly. I was invited to give two trainings and speak at two conferences! That provides opportunities to meet, to work … If you’re in London or the UK and want to meet, these are your options: April 27/28: Clean Language for Agile Coaches with Judy […]

Self-Facilitation Cards

Posted by on Mar 4, 2017 in Agile with a Purpose, Coaching | 8 Comments
Self-Facilitation Cards

For some years, I’ve used a simple trick to greatly increase effectiveness in meetings: Let everyone draw a “1” on a sticky note, then give them this instruction: One Minute Card “Raise this card whenever you feel the current conversation or speaker should come to an end within one minute.”   When first introduced, this […]

Time Boxes end with a Premiere

Posted by on Feb 22, 2017 in Agile with a Purpose | No Comments

I ran a first-in-a-long-time Scrum training the past two days, and some cool ideas came up … which I’ll share here with a few focused posts. This one is about a time box. Time Box In trainings, lots of exercises are run with time boxes. In Scrum, we have lots of time boxes as well – most […]

Clean Language and Agile Coaching

Clean Language and Agile Coaching

I’m excited Judy Rees and I are hosting our next training Clean Language for Agile Adventurers in London on November 20/21, 2017. What’s exciting about this? Clean Language helps Understanding Clean Language is a technique to pay exquisite attention to another human being developing their thoughts. It helps them understand their own thinking just as well […]

Surprisability …continued

This topic is becoming more interesting as it develops, and I’m discovering it’s a lot more practical and actionable than I initially thought 🙂 Gil Zilberfeld invited me to close Agile Practitioners Israel 2016 with a keynote and I suggested Surprisability as a topic. This encouraged me to think more deeply: “In the past we’ve […]

Surprisability

In the past we’ve built businesses and organisations to last. We were afraid. We needed predictability to feel safe. Now we have the confidence to grow businesses that offer less safety yet more creativity, serendipity and fun. We foster the surprisability of organisations: Our ability to grow from surprises, to rise strong from falling. This […]

State of Agile Retrospective

Posted by on Sep 18, 2015 in Agile with a Purpose | One Comment
State of Agile Retrospective

Within a longer process of change, maybe an agile transformation, you  might at some point want to reflect where you are, and what to do next. A side-effect of boosting engagement, creating a sense of movement and purpose, might be beneficial. This is an example of a retrospective I’ve done in such a situation. Make Sense […]

Pair Programming Economics

I’m at OOP this week and had the pleasure yesterday to meet James Grenning for the first time. We had an inspiring conversation last night exchanging tips and strategies on how we inspire developers to try XP practices like TDD and pair programming. I really like his approach for TDD. James asks devs at the […]

Agile: a Courageous Choice (pecha kucha)

Agile: a Courageous Choice (pecha kucha)

My submission to ScrumGathering Phoenix SGPHX next year. Today is the last day to submit sessions for #SGPHX!! Submit your session today and share your #scrum knowledge! http://t.co/QCqupQtN6c — Scrum Alliance (@ScrumAlliance) November 30, 2014 Agile—A Courageous Choice Agile is a courageous choice. To leave the comfort zone of the known and explore the boundaries […]