Agile Complexification Inverter

David Koontz guiding a canoe I was at the Dallas Tech Fest last week (2017 actually) and was asked several times what an Agile Transition Guide was (it was a title on my name tag)... it's surprising to me how many people assume they know what an Agile Coach is, yet there is no good definition or professional organization (with a possible exception coming: Agile Coaching Institute ). So naturally, the conversation went something like this: Inquisitive person:   "Hi David, what's an Agile Transition Guide?  Is that like a coach?" David:  "Hi, glad you asked.  What does a coach do in your experience?" Inquisitive person: "They help people and teams improve their software practices." David:  "Yes, I do that also." Inquisitive person: "Oh, well then why don't you call yourself a coach?" David:  "Great question:  Let's see...  well one of the foundational principles of coaching ( ICF ) is that the coa...

A nice article on HBR - "Why Organizations Don't Learn" , by  Francesca Gino and   Bradley Staats ; take a look. They list these reasons: Fear of failure Fixed mindset Over reliance on past performance Attribution bias The authors then give some strategies for overcoming these reasons for the lack of learning.  Many of these will be familiar to the agile community. Who else has studied organization failure?  Well I've heard that many academics have studied the failure modes of organizations.  One was John Kotter's 8 Steps model  developed by studying the failure modes of organizations trying to institute large scale changes.  Other's have studied how successful large mergers have been after the fact (some would suggest it's on the order of 20% successful).  Some have studied how successful large software development project have been (Chaos Report - it is not a good report). So what does your leader do to encourage learning at the or...

Ricardo Semler discusses the broken education system and his re-imaged school and how the children are making the same old rules - but now also enforcing them. He founded The Ralston-Semler Foundation and the Lumiar School, a democratic school where children engage in projects of their own interest. There are three such schools; one in São Paulo and two in Campos do Jordão. Ricardo Semler: How to run a company with (almost) no rules TED Talk Bruce Feiler - Agile programming for your Family Agile in Education It appears that our education system is ripe for disruption and many people are using the software techniques to inject a bit of self-organization into the education system. AGILE IN EDUCATION COMPASS Together, we are discoverers of the world and ourselves. The world is no longer predictable and learning needs to be more adaptive, connected, and interdependent. Education can respond to this constantly changing landscape with agility. Through our journe...

"The 21st Century is when it all changes.  You've got to be ready."  -- Capt'n Jack Harkness What does a 21st Century company look like?  Here's some principles, some templates, some examples.  I believe the 21st century will see a movement toward companies being good social citizens (not money focused) these movements are already starting and we are only 14 years into this century.  Movements such as Conscious Capitalism, Sustainability, Triple Bottom Line, Lean/Agile, etc. I intend to work for one of these new breed of companies before the decade is done. A look at the No Manager movement at Treehouse  a learning company focused on learning... No Managers: Why We Removed Bosses at Treehouse How to set priorities, create budgets and do project management in a #NoManager company How salaries, career progression and reviews work in a #NoManager company How to communicate in a #NoManager company Kotter's 21st C Org Model Here's ...