Day 2 of Hamburg Flow Days was the opportunity to run another Agendashift Facilitator Day, my third. As now seems traditional,  some thoughts on updates to the material prompted by the experience.

Before that, some thanks are in in order: Susanne and Andreas for being such excellent hosts, and Patrick for day 1, centered around his Flowlab, a very flexible Kanban simulation tool. On the morning of day 1 we spent the morning having fun with scenarios not much more complicated than is typical with my own Featureban. In the afternoon we experienced the delights of Customer Kanban, CONWIP systems, and the like. Awesome, both in its own right and for setting the scene!

Day 2 takeaways and updates (already made)

• The overall shape is solid. I don’t see the 5 main sections (Discovery, Exploration, Mapping, Elaboration, and Operation) changing anytime soon.
• Clean Language got a lot of love in the post-event retrospective. We know how to facilitate the several exercises that use it now, a whole lot easier since creating the Clean Language cards (pic below; PDF on request).
• Based on feedback, the deck now has much clearer signposting – no-one should ever again feel at all disoriented. If that was your experience, sorry!
• The idea of experimentation should seem less technical and more valuable if there is a tough choice to be made between alternative ideas. Should make for a more interesting transition from Mapping to Elaboration (I’ve been guilty of rushing this).

Interestingly, people are still taking the trouble to give feedback on the December workshop. That material seems a little ancient already, but nevertheless it’s gratifying that participants are still finding that it is speaking to them. Why the delay? There is definitely something radical about it (particularly its commitment to conversations and outcomes before solutions), and perhaps it needs time to sink in. Let’s make sure that its radical edge isn’t lost as it becomes more polished in delivery.

Here’s a comment received less than a week ago, two months after the Leeds workshop:

When I originally signed up for the Agendashift workshop I was drawn in by the promise of blending techniques like Clean Language, Cynefin and A3 thinking in an applied sense.  After the workshop what stood out for me most was how the participants started to develop a shared ownership of organisational change through shared outcomes and values.  Ramble over – what I’m trying to say is it even managed to align a bunch of completely random strangers on the day.

Thank you Tony!

Interested? Upcoming Agendashift facilitator days:

• 23 March, Manchester (UK)
• 06 April, Edinburgh (UK)
• 24th April, Oslo (Norway) – Note: a change from the 21st after the original semi-public day sold out to internal takers
• 27 April, Bristol (UK)

Three recent events have sold out and some of the upcoming events have early bird pricing available, so hurry, book your place now!

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