That was last Thursday, and today it sits at #3 on LeanPub. Can we get it to #1 before tomorrow?
Before the third announcement, a reminder: “Office hours” / AMA (Ask Mike Anything) restarts tomorrow after a two-week break. Join me on Zoom most Thursdays at 2pm UK time, i.e. 14:00 GMT, 15:00 CST. If you’re based outside of Europe, check times carefully; here, daylight savings time hasn’t kicked in yet. Call details will be published tomorrow morning on Slack and (for subscribers) at the Agendashift Academy.
Leading with Outcomes: Foundation 3.1.2
So to that third announcement, the release at the Agendashift Academy of the latest version of our Foundation module. Already well-tested in the classroom, it runs more smoothly than its predecessors, and now it’s available in self-paced video-based form.
Engage, Invite, Celebrate, a leadership model that features prominently in Wholehearted
Ideal, Obstacles, Outcomes, aka the IdOO (“I do”) pattern, the strategy-related conversation pattern that’s at the heart of Organising Conversations (2024) and Agendashift (2nd edition 2021)
Right to Left, all about impact and learning, it’s the pattern that gave its name to my 2019 book and 2020 audiobook
This third announcement also relates to the first one. How do we squeeze 3 days of Leading in a Transforming Organisation into 14 hours of cohort-based training? We cheat, that’s how! Join Leading in the Knowledge Economy and get free access to the video-based material, Foundation included.
As you can imagine, it has been an intense few weeks. Not that it stops! Next week I have a private Train-the-Trainer / Facilitator (yes that’s a thing; the next public one is in June). And I need to get Wholehearted onto Amazon. I can’t wait to have a print copy in my hands!
A couple of weeks ago, I mentioned that there would be three things coming to fruition this month, and here’s the first. Beginning Wednesday, April 30th and running for seven 2-hour sessions, I’ve adapted the 3-day classroom training Leading in a Transforming Organisation for a cohort-based format, renaming it to Leading in the Knowledge Economy, or LIKE. If you’re wondering how three days fits into 14 hours, here’s how: as well as the Zoom sessions, we’ll be making use of the Agendashift Academy’s video-based material also for some light between-sessions study also.
What is it? Well, from the booking page:
We’ll be answering some important questions about leadership and organisation, questions that become increasingly critical as our organisations become more and more information-dependent. In a nutshell: What does it mean to be creating the conditions for business agility when the critical resources are communication capacity, decision-making capacity, and the context everyone needs to make good decisions?
This course will change two things for you: how you think about organisations, and how you engage with their challenges. Our main focus will be the digital-age (though not necessarily technology-centric) organisation, in which product development, customer-focused service delivery, and organisational improvement are becoming increasingly integrated. With that come challenges of context and scale which process-based approaches are ill-equipped to meet.
At its heart is the Deliberately Adaptive Organisation, a fresh, complexity-aware, and ground-up reconstruction of Stafford Beer’s Viable System Model. The diagnostic power of this classic model remains unrivalled, and to it we bring a truly 21st century approach. We work with rather than against the grain of two key realities: that everyone’s experience of the organisation is different, and that they see different possibilities emerging for it, possibilities they may already be motivated to help bring about. We’ll be turning the traditional change management paradigm on its head!
Training participants are typically a mixture of leaders and practitioners, all with an interest in going beyond process-centric approaches to organisation and improvement.
I’ve actually scheduled two of these; there’s one for each of the summer and autumn terms. Take your pick! And between those, the next online TTT/F:
There are some early bird tickets available, so grab those while you can.
For a 30% discount on block bookings of three or more places, ping me. For government, public health (eg NHS), and NGO employees, discounts are available from the first seat and increase to 50% for three or more.
I’m also open to doing this privately, and for organisations considering adding LIKE or other Leading with Outcomes trainings to their internal leadership development curriculum, we even provide a path to self-sufficiency via our Authorised Trainer and Facilitator programmes.
That’s it for now – watch out for announcement #2 later in the week!
What is your view on strategy and its role and importance in an organisation. Any new trends or developments?
What advice do you have for people on how to best engage in the topic of strategy in their organisation?
Strategy, organisation, and engagement – my kind of gig!
Then this Thursday at 14:00 UK time (that’s 13:00 CET and 9am ET) and every Thursday except for the following two Thursdays when it clashes with other things, it’s “Office hours”, aka AMA, for “Ask Mike Anything”. The Zoom link is available via the Academy, via Slack, and for mailing list subscribers, I’ll include it in today’s email.
Next week
The next online Leading with Outcomes: Train-the-Trainer / Facilitator – the first since the one I did in person in India last December – begins a week on Monday on February 24th, spanning four consecutive afternoons UK time, beginning at 13:00 GMT, 14:00 CET, 8am ET, each session lasting no more than four hours.
As the weeks have counted down I’ve blogged about it a couple of times:
I won’t repeat what I said there except to say that please use coupon code BLOG15 for 15% off any of the ticket options – Facilitator, Trainer, or TTT/F Only. Book here:
I’d love to see you there! That won’t be it for March though – there are three things coming to fruition which I’ll announce separately in due course. Watch this space!
The next online Leading with Outcomes: Train-the-Trainer / Facilitator – the first since the one I did in person in India last December – begins a week on Monday on February 24th, spanning four consecutive afternoons UK time, beginning at 13:00 GMT, 14:00 CET, 8am ET, each session lasting no more than four hours.
Since I blogged recently about what’s new content-wise this time round, I’ve made some changes to ticketing options. The default option, the Facilitator ticket, still saves you £479 (your first year’s subscription) on the Leading with Outcomes Facilitator programme. This gives you access to the assessment tools, workshop materials, and so on. For access to training materials you can upgrade that at any time to a Trainer subscription, but if you know that’s what you want from the off, a Trainer ticket will save you a further £100.
In the abovementioned blog and elsewhere, I have said that not everyone who attends TTT/F does it with the intention of becoming a Leading with Outcomes Facilitator or Trainer. If that’s you, or if you’d like to check things out first, there is now a TTT/F Only ticket that comes without the above subscriptions. I do however throw in a regular Academy subscription, giving you access to the video-based, self-paced training material for your own study. Bargain!
As a valued reader of this blog, when making your booking, please use coupon code BLOG15 for 15% off any of the above-described options – Facilitator, Trainer, or TTT/F Only. Book here:
Leading with Outcomes from the Agendashift Academy “Leadership and strategy in the transforming organisation”
Leading with Outcomes is our modular curriculum in leadership and organisation development. Each module is available as self-paced online training or as private, instructor-led training (online or in-person). Certificates of completion or participation according to format. Its modules in the recommended order:
Individual subscriptions from £24.50 £18.40 per month after a 7-day free trial, with discounts available for employees and employers in the government, healthcare, education, and non-profit sectors. For bulk subscriptions, ask for our Agendashift for Business brochure.
To deliver Leading with Outcomes training or workshops yourself, see our Authorised Trainer and Authorised Facilitator programmes. See our events calendar for Train-the-Trainer / Facilitator (TTT/F) and Leading in a Transforming Organisation trainings.
At every scope and scale, developing strategy together, pursuing strategy together, outcomes before solutions, working backwards (“right to left”) from key moments of impact and learning.
The next online Leading with Outcomes: Train-the-Trainer – the first since the one I did in person in India last December – begins on February 24th, spanning four consecutive afternoons UK time, beginning at 13:00 GMT, 14:00 CET, 8am ET, each session lasting no more than four hours.
It incorporates a number of recent improvements:
The Foundation module (session 1) is organised now into four sections (from three), making it easier to navigate – a benefit to trainer and participant alike
The two parts of the Inside-out Strategy module (sessions 2 & 3) have been switched around – the easier assessment debrief session now coming before the Discovery session, and the latter ending on a high with the recently reincorporated X-Matrix
Updated material for session 4 also, which includes highlights of the Outside-in Strategy and Adaptive Organisation modules and some relatively new material on workshop design options
TTT/F comes with a year’s free membership of the Facilitator programme, upgradeable to Trainer, both of which include access to our signature assessment tools. It also includes access to the self-paced video-based versions of the Leading with Outcomes modules for your own study (and potentially for use in other ways, but talk to me first).
Not everyone joins TTT/F with the aim of becoming a Facilitator or Trainer. Some come for the challenge to existing ways of doing things that Leading with Outcomes brings. Some come for the conversation. Some come to hone their coaching skills, to add a strategy dimension to those, or, conversely perhaps, to bring a coaching dimension to their work as manager or consultant. Whatever your role, if you’re looking for participatory, outcome-oriented, and generative alternatives to managed change and the solution-driven rollout, you’ll be in the right place. Book now:
Again, that’s four weeks away. This week, it’s roundup day on Friday, and via a conversation on Slack, Silke Noll got me thinking about a blog post with the provisional title “Verbing the nouns of business agility”. There – I’m committed now! Watch out for that midweek, either this week or next.
Leading with Outcomes from the Agendashift Academy “Leadership and strategy in the transforming organisation”
Leading with Outcomes is our modular curriculum in leadership and organisation development. Each module is available as self-paced online training or as private, instructor-led training (online or in-person). Certificates of completion or participation according to format. Its modules in the recommended order:
Individual subscriptions from £24.50 £18.40 per month after a 7-day free trial, with discounts available for employees and employers in the government, healthcare, education, and non-profit sectors. For bulk subscriptions, ask for our Agendashift for Business brochure.
To deliver Leading with Outcomes training or workshops yourself, see our Authorised Trainer and Authorised Facilitator programmes. See our events calendar for Train-the-Trainer / Facilitator (TTT/F) and Leading in a Transforming Organisation trainings.
At every scope and scale, developing strategy together, pursuing strategy together, outcomes before solutions, working backwards (“right to left”) from key moments of impact and learning.
With grateful thanks to Olivier Bertrand, Marika Gartelius, Philippe Guenet, Ivaylo (Ivo) Gueorguiev, Andrew Kidd, and Craig Lucia, I’m pleased to confirm that the Adaptive Organisation Assessment has completed its recently-announced refresh. This assessment has multiple applications:
As you may have guessed from my opening thanks to our review team, native English speakers were in the minority. That’s great! You may know from the Agendashift Delivery Assessment already that we take very seriously the accessibility of our assessments and seek to eliminate any language that gets in the way of engagement. That includes jargon and prescription; its goal is not to teach, preach, sell, or judge but to get people thinking and talking, not worrying about how it’s worded or what plans those facilitating it may have in store for them.
You can try it now (or revisit your previous input) at agendashift.com/assessments/wholehearted. Get in touch if you see a use for it at your organisation; as hinted at above, there are plenty of options we can discuss.
Quickly while we’re here…
For the most feeble of excuses (my 60th birthday), this week’s office hours moves from Thursday to Friday, 14:00 GMT, 15:00 CET, 9am ET as usual. If you’re an Agendashift Academy subscriber or supporter, you’ll find this week’s event in the Events calendar. Non-subscribers are welcome; you can find the Zoom link on Slack also.
Other upcoming events (the first one a new addition – thank you Morten Elvang for the invitation):
There is also the possibility of doing some or all of Leading in a Transforming Organisation in Malmö in November. I know that’s months away, but if that could be of interest, do please let me know.
Leading with Outcomes from the Agendashift Academy “Leadership and strategy in the transforming organisation”
Leading with Outcomes is our modular curriculum in leadership and organisation development. Each module is available as self-paced online training or as private, instructor-led training (online or in-person). Certificates of completion or participation according to format. Its modules in the recommended order:
Individual subscriptions from £24.50 £18.40 per month after a 7-day free trial, with discounts available for employees and employers in the government, healthcare, education, and non-profit sectors. For bulk subscriptions, ask for our Agendashift for Business brochure.
To deliver Leading with Outcomes training or workshops yourself, see our Authorised Trainer and Authorised Facilitator programmes. See our events calendar for Train-the-Trainer / Facilitator (TTT/F) and Leading in a Transforming Organisation trainings.
At every scope and scale, developing strategy together, pursuing strategy together, outcomes before solutions, working backwards (“right to left”) from key moments of impact and learning.
Office hours – weekly Zoom on Thursdays, beginning this week
Adaptive Organisation assessment – beginning Friday, taking the opportunity to review it before book 5 comes out
The next online Train-the-Trainer / Facilitator (TTT/F) – February 24-27, UK afternoons
Office hours
Getting things started right away, regular weekly “office hours” begin this week, Thursdays at 14:00 GMT, 15:00 CET, 9am ET. A quick update from me, then it’s over to you for informal Lean Coffee-style discussions on topics or questions in any way related to Leading with Outcomes. Not just outcome-orientation specifically, but leadership, organisation, strategy, Lean, Agile, systems, complexity, organisation development, and so on – really any topic relevant to the Agendashift and Leading with Outcomes communities.
If you’re an Agendashift Academy subscriber or supporter, you’ll find this week’s event in the Events calendar, and I’ll publish a new one early each week. I’ll post the Zoom link to Slack also.
There will be no meeting on February 27th as it clashes with Train-the-Trainer / Facilitator; more on that below.
If you’re familiar with the Adaptive Organisation Assessment in particular already and would like to join us, shout.
Trainer-the-Trainer / Facilitator
In February, I’ll be holding not only the first TTT/F of the year, but the first online one since making some changes to the Foundation and Inside-out Strategy modules (we had a lot of fun with them in person in India last month). Also, signing up gives you a year’s free access to Facilitator (worth £479), which you can upgrade to Trainer at any time.
Academy subscribers will find their own booking page in the Academy’s Events calendar. Alternatively, you can sign up here:
Monday 24th February – Leading with Outcomes: Foundation – a trainer’s eye view on the this core module of the Leading with Outcomes curriculum, introducing the IdOO (“I do”) pattern – Ideal, Obstacles, Outcomes
Tuesday 25th February – Inside-out Strategy (I): Fit for maximum impact* – building on the Leading with Outcomes Assessment Debrief Workshop, this session’s exercises include the first of two experiences of our Clean Language coaching game 15-minute FOTO, Option Relationship Mapping, and of course the assessment tools
Wednesday 26th February – Inside-out Strategy (II): On the same page, with purpose* – featuring classic exercises including Celebration-5W, Obstacles Fast and Slow, and the second experience of 15-minute FOTO
Thursday 27th February – Beyond Inside-out – checking out the Adaptive Organisation and Inside-out Strategy modules, and looking behind the scenes at assessment and certificate administration
*Compared to previous runs of this training, the two Inside-out Strategy sessions are reversed, the assessment-related session coming first.
All sessions begin 13:00 GMT, 14:00 CET, 8am ET and finish by 17:00 GMT, 18:00 CET, 12noon ET.
Leading with Outcomes from the Agendashift Academy “Leadership and strategy in the transforming organisation”
Leading with Outcomes is our modular curriculum in leadership and organisation development. Each module is available as self-paced online training or as private, instructor-led training (online or in-person). Certificates of completion or participation according to format. Its modules in the recommended order:
Individual subscriptions from £24.50 £18.40 per month after a 7-day free trial, with discounts available for employees and employers in the government, healthcare, education, and non-profit sectors. For bulk subscriptions, ask for our Agendashift for Business brochure.
To deliver Leading with Outcomes training or workshops yourself, see our Authorised Trainer and Authorised Facilitator programmes. See our events calendar for Train-the-Trainer / Facilitator (TTT/F) and Leading in a Transforming Organisation trainings.
At every scope and scale, developing strategy together, pursuing strategy together, outcomes before solutions, working backwards (“right to left”) from key moments of impact and learning.
For reasons I can’t yet go into (don’t worry, nothing bad), I find myself needing to clear the decks for the next few weeks. In particular, the in-person training in Southampton in October and the online TTT/F in November need to go.
That would seem to create a problem for those looking to gain access to the assessment tools and the Leading with Outcomes workshop and training materials, so here’s the deal. For the time being:
If you want to subscribe to the Facilitator programme, you can – the link is here
That subscription is upgradeable to the Trainer programme, but you’ll need to complete the self-paced training first (it’s included in Facilitator, or you can subscribe to just that part on a monthly or yearly basis and upgrade when you’re ready)
Past attendees of Leading in a Transforming Organisation or TTT/F can get their first year of Facilitator free – ping me for a discount code
That applies also to December’s TTT/F in India. Effectively your first year of Facilitator – already significantly discounted for India – is included in the cost of your training, and you can put that discount towards Trainer, where India-specific pricing applies also
I haven’t yet updated the Store page; that remains the place to go for further information on these programmes.
Coming up very soon
This section looks a little different from the usual events calendar, not only because of the above news, but because I’m mentioning some events put on by friends of ours.
Most urgently, my friend Russ Lewis tells me that in conjunction with BAI UK, the Open University hosts the Business Agility Conference UK 2024: Leading through Complexity at their Milton Keynes campus on September 25th, i.e. next week. Two pre-conference workshops are available on the 24th, one led by Dave Snowden (Cynefin) the other by Simon Dodds (Health Care Systems Engineering). The purchase of one of these workshop places includes complementary admission to the OU conference track. If you wish to make a block booking (5 or more places), I can put you in touch with the organisers.
Slightly less urgently but still soon, I’m a featured speaker at the Project to Product Summit, a free online conference that will take place on October 8-9 (I’m speaking on the 8th). It’s the first of its kind I think and it looks to be an interesting event.
Overlapping with that, my friends Karl Scotland and Jim Benson are teaming up on October 9th for Make Strategy Visible – The X Matrix and Obeya. I can’t be there, but some of this stuff is already being integrated into Leading with Outcomes (more on that in due course), and I look forward to hearing all about it. Interesting that all three of us were in our different ways Kanban pioneers, and look where it took us!
Having cleared the decks for November, that takes us to December. I have literally lost count of how many times I have visited India, and I keep coming back:
Can’t wait! There’s the possibility of doing TTT/F in Pune also, and if you’re thinking of joining me for that in either location, don’t forget the deals mentioned earlier.
Leading with Outcomes from the Agendashift Academy “Leadership and strategy in the transforming organisation”
Leading with Outcomes is our modular curriculum in leadership and organisation development. Each module is available as self-paced online training or as private, instructor-led training (online or in-person). Certificates of completion or participation according to format. Its modules in the recommended order:
Individual subscriptions from £24.50 £18.40 per month after a 7-day free trial, with discounts available for employees and employers in the government, healthcare, education, and non-profit sectors. For bulk subscriptions, ask for our Agendashift for Business brochure.
To deliver Leading with Outcomes training or workshops yourself, see our Authorised Trainer and Authorised Facilitator programmes. See our events calendar for Train-the-Trainer / Facilitator (TTT/F) and Leading in a Transforming Organisation trainings.
At every scope and scale, developing strategy together, pursuing strategy together, outcomes before solutions, working backwards (“right to left”) from key moments of impact and learning.
Leading with Outcomes: Foundation – patterns for strategy conversations in the language of needs, obstacles, and outcomes
The Discovery and assessment-related parts of the Inside-out Strategy workshops and training – classic Agendashift with a leadership development twist, featuring favourite exercises including Celebration-5W, Obstacles Fast and Slow, 15-minute FOTO, and Option Relationship Mapping
In overview, of the remainder of the Leading with Outcomes curriculum
TTT/F is one of two routes into becoming an authorised Leading with Outcomes facilitator or trainer (subscriptions required), through which you can get access to the full range of Agendashift assessments, materials for all of the Leading with Outcomes workshops, and for trainers, training materials also.
Past participants can re-attend for free, a popular perk. Alternatively, if you have attended a past Leading in a Transforming Organisation event or are signed up to one of the upcoming events (see below), you can get 60% off. And for all of our paid events and subscriptions, there is a 40% discount for employees of public sector, healthcare, and non-profit organisations. Ping me for coupon codes if any of these apply.
Together with a modest amount of additional self-study, the second route is via Leading in a Transforming Organisation:
Most people attend Leading in a Transforming Organisation for its own sake rather than as a TTT/F alternative, but the option is there. Again, ping me for coupon codes if any of the usual discount reasons apply, including past participation at either kind of event.
And sorry, yes, Berlin really is sold out! But check these out:
Leading with Outcomes from the Agendashift Academy “Leadership and strategy in the transforming organisation”
Leading with Outcomes is our modular curriculum in leadership and organisation development. Each module is available as self-paced online training or as private, instructor-led training (online or in-person). Certificates of completion or participation according to format. Its modules in the recommended order:
Individual subscriptions from £24.50 £18.40 per month after a 7-day free trial, with discounts available for employees and employers in the government, healthcare, education, and non-profit sectors. For bulk subscriptions, ask for our Agendashift for Business brochure.
To deliver Leading with Outcomes training or workshops yourself, see our Authorised Trainer and Authorised Facilitator programmes. See our events calendar for Train-the-Trainer / Facilitator (TTT/F) and Leading in a Transforming Organisation trainings.
At every scope and scale, developing strategy together, pursuing strategy together, outcomes before solutions, working backwards (“right to left”) from key moments of impact and learning.
In this edition: Books in progress: 2; Two new videos; Upcoming: online, Berlin (SOLD OUT), London, and Southampton; Top posts
Books in progress: 2
I’m putting the final touches on Organising Conversations: Patterns of Dialog for the Transforming Organization and have a decent first draft of the first part (of two) of Wholehearted: Engaging with Complexity in the Deliberately Adaptive Organisation. Needless to say, they’re keeping me busy!
With that workload in mind and the summer approaching, I’m pausing the monthly webinars and experience/practise sessions until the autumn.
Encouragingly, an excerpt from Wholehearted is by a big margin the most-read blog post of the month (shared on LinkedIn here):
In the last (until the autumn) of our monthly webinars, we were joined this month by Karl Scotland. Here’s the recording of his excellent session, also the PDF of his slides, links, etc:
Related to the still-to-be-written Part II of Wholehearted and with a fun Q&A session (always a good sign) here’s the latest version of one of my ever-evolving keynotes:
Upcoming: online, Berlin (SOLD OUT), London, and Southampton
Yes, Berlin has sold out, but there’s still the online TTT/F and then Leading in a Transforming Organisation (London) at the end of June and another in Southampton in October:
Past (or booked) attendees of TTT/F can re-attend for free and/or attend Leading in a Transforming Organisation for less than half price. There are big discounts in the opposite direction also – ping me for coupon codes. Also significant discounts for government, healthcare, education (a number of university staff have attended in recent months), non-profits, etc. As was the case in Manchester last year, I know that London for one will have participants from outside of technology, which always makes for a more interesting experience.
If you really can’t get to any of those, don’t forget the online self-paced option: Leading with Outcomes.
Leading with Outcomes from the Agendashift Academy “Leadership and strategy in the transforming organisation”
Leading with Outcomes is our modular curriculum in leadership and organisation development. Each module is available as self-paced online training or as private, instructor-led training (online or in-person). Certificates of completion or participation according to format. Its modules in the recommended order:
Individual subscriptions from £24.50 £18.40 per month after a 7-day free trial, with discounts available for employees and employers in the government, healthcare, education, and non-profit sectors. For bulk subscriptions, ask for our Agendashift for Business brochure.
To deliver Leading with Outcomes training or workshops yourself, see our Authorised Trainer and Authorised Facilitator programmes. See our events calendar for Train-the-Trainer / Facilitator (TTT/F) and Leading in a Transforming Organisation trainings.
At every scope and scale, developing strategy together, pursuing strategy together, outcomes before solutions, working backwards (“right to left”) from key moments of impact and learning.
Agendashift 