Tag: events

It only took me ten years

Posted on by Mike Burrows

Let me quickly mention that last week’s post, Clearing the decks, prompted some subscribers to get in touch. Thank you, I was touched! Sincerely, all is well here – I’m just glad of some extra headspace and flexibility. If I can be nerdy about it, it’s always good to open up options – to improve one’s capacity for independent action, one might say 🙂

Anyway… It’s ten years to the month since the publication of my first book, Kanban from the Inside, which I believe can fairly be described as a Lean-Agile classic. Since then, I’ve published two editions of Agendashift, then Right to Left in both written and audiobook form, and Organizing Conversations came out just a few weeks ago. That last one prompted me finally to ask Amazon to sort out my Amazon Author page so I have everything properly in one place at last! Here it is for the UK, the US, and Germany (three of the four books are available in translation).

In celebration of that 10-year milestone, I’m doing a webinar with my friends at Businessmap (formerly Kanbanize) the week after next:

In the past few days, I reached another milestone, the first complete draft of book 5, Wholehearted: Engaging with Complexity in the Deliberately Adaptive Organisation. There’s still a long way to go on that (it won’t be published this year), but we have plenty to talk about. Join us! Bring your questions!

Amazon Author page
From my Amazon Author page – which only took me 10 years to get set up

Related:

Agendashift™: Serving the transforming organisation
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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.

Clearing the decks

Posted on by Mike Burrows

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:

  1. If you want to subscribe to the Facilitator programme, you can – the link is here
  2. 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)
  3. 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
  4. 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!

Karl and Jim’s training is being held in person in Brighton. Stay over just one night, and the next day it’s Lean Agile Brighton, on the 10th. I spoke at the inaugural event in 2018 while I was writing Right to Left (see Right to Left: a transcript of my Lean Agile Brighton talk) and it was a lot of fun.

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:

  1. Foundation module:
  2. Inside-out Strategy:
  3. Adaptive Organisation:
  4. Outside-in Strategy:

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.

Agendashift™: Serving the transforming organisation
Links: Home | Subscribe | Events | Media | Contact | Mike
Agendashift  Academy: Leading with Outcomes | Trainer and Facilitator Programmes | Store

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.

Some changes to our published schedule

Posted on by Mike Burrows

First off, we’re in that weird time when time zone offsets between Europe and the Americas are out of whack. I’ve updated this Thursday’s event to reflect that:

While we’re looking at free events, April’s webinar features a special guest, Karl Scotland, one of my most important collaborators in the development of Agendashift and Leading with Outcomes. Also, April’s experience/practice session departs from its usual pattern of cycling through the mini assessments to look instead at “organising the strategy” – mapping in other words. Reserve your places here:

There are now three Leading in a Transforming Organisation events in the calendar. Berlin has its venue confirmed (thank you Markus Hippeli and Leanovate), and very quickly it has reached its critical mass of signups. London has been brought forward from July to the last week of June, and we’ve added one for Southampton in October (thank you Steven Mackenzie and Agile South Coast):

I will announce the London venue soon. It is selling, but I do appreciate that for those who need to book travel and hotels (I’m in that same boat), it’s good to know where it will be held!

Ping me for coupon codes if any of the following apply:

  • Past attendees of Leading in a Transforming Organisation can re-attend with 60% off
  • Employees in public sector, education, and non-profit organisations get 40% off, as do authorised trainers and facilitators
  • Members of the old partner programme get 30% off
  • Last but not least, Agendashift Academy subscribers get subscription-specific discounts also

If you’d rather do something online:

Finally, not an upcoming event but from a past one, the Obstacles Fast and Slow video is up on its own page, also very prominently on the Agendashift home page. Thank you all who participated! To save you the trouble of following the links, here it is:

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:

  1. Foundation module:
  2. Inside-out Strategy:
  3. Adaptive Organisation:
  4. Outside-in Strategy:

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.

Agendashift™: Serving the transforming organisation
Links: Home | Subscribe | Events | Media | Contact | Mike
Agendashift  Academy: Leading with Outcomes | Trainer and Facilitator Programmes | Store

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.

Yesterday’s talk and tomorrow’s

Posted on by Mike Burrows

Thank you Matt Turner both for inviting me and for sharing so promptly the video of last night’s talk:

PDF, references, and other goodies here. The talk continues to iterate rapidly towards the keynote I need it to be!

Tomorrow, courtesy Bill Dominguez and PMI Central Arkansas Chapter, I’m speaking on Right to Left:

It turns out that I haven’t spoken on Right to Left (the title of my third book) for quite some time and I have taken the opportunity to draw a new picture that shows Right to Left as one of three main patterns of Leading with Outcomes. It, the IdOO (“I do”) pattern, and Meaning, Measure, Method all feature in all four modules. Expect to see this picture or one very much like it appearing in future material!

“At every scope and scale, developing strategy together, pursuing strategy together, (agreement on) outcomes before solutions“

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:

  1. Foundation module:
  2. Inside-out Strategy:
  3. Adaptive Organisation:
  4. Outside-in Strategy:

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.

Upcoming events

February

March

*TTT/F and (where shown) LIKE events include free one-year membership of the Leading with Outcomes Authorised Facilitator programme, upgradeable to Authorised Trainer at any time. Both of those include access to the video-based Leading with Outcomes training and the full range of Agendashift assessment tools.

Agendashift™: Serving the transforming organisation
Links: Home | Subscribe | Events | Media | Contact | Mike
Agendashift  Academy: Leading with Outcomes | Trainer and Facilitator Programmes | Store

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.

Balance, constraint, and freedom

Posted on by Mike Burrows

An inspiring taster of something big clearly brewing

Ryan Behrman, organiser of the Systemic Agility meetup

Thank you Ryan! That “something big” is the Leading with Outcomes module Adaptive Organisation: Business agility at every scale and the model behind it, the Deliberately Adaptive Organisation. By happy coincidence, chapter 2 of the module’s latest iteration (beta 2) is released today.

What prompted Ryan’s comment was a talk I gave last week at the abovementioned meetup – see below for the recording. It draws from chapter 4 of beta 1, which remains available to subscribers until beta 2 gets that far, which shortly it will. Thanks in no small part to the conversations that my talk spawned, I’ll be updating both the talk and the training module – the talk iterating towards a keynote I’ll be giving later in the year, the training material benefiting in the process.

The theme of “balance, constraint, and freedom” comes up both in the video and in a short interlude that follows chapter 2 and is released with it today. The module and its underlying model draw on two perspectives on organisation, namely complexity and systems, and it’s nice to bring the two together:

  • What does it mean to have things in balance with each other – in healthy and productive relationship? (In the talk I expand both what might be meant by “things” and what gets in the way of that kind of balance)
  • What does it mean to have the right constraints – constraints of various kinds that in combination keep us away from unhealthy and unproductive states and steer us towards more desirable states, maintaining our organisation’s coherence all the while?
  • And both the flip side of constraint and the product of those healthy relationships: what does it mean when we have freedom – freedom to do the right thing, freedom to collaborate creatively, freedom to find innovative solutions, freedom to reimagine who we are, freedom to redefine ourselves?

The complexity and systems perspectives each bring their own ranges of tools, but before we get technical, what does that right balance, constraint, and freedom feel like? Already, that’s a starting point for an interesting conversation. A more detailed and theory-informed conversation might be the next step, but don’t neglect the informal opportunities either – sometimes they’re the most revealing.

To the recorded talk specifically, if you detected the hint of a health warning in my mention above of updates and iteration, it is only that in this version I risk getting into more detail than I would want in a keynote. Not that it was a problem here – in fact the feedback was very encouraging. Not for the first time, I’m being told that I’m describing something that is both needed and timely – something that others have been grasping at but didn’t quite have the words for.

Watch to the end for a special offer, and watch out for later versions. I have a good idea already of what the next one will look like.

Stop press: see Upcoming events below, 27th April.

Between spaces, scopes, and scales: What the scaling frameworks don’t tell you

Related posts

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:

  1. Foundation module:
  2. Inside-out Strategy:
  3. Adaptive Organisation:
  4. Outside-in Strategy:

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.

Upcoming events

February

March

*TTT/F and (where shown) LIKE events include free one-year membership of the Leading with Outcomes Authorised Facilitator programme, upgradeable to Authorised Trainer at any time. Both of those include access to the video-based Leading with Outcomes training and the full range of Agendashift assessment tools.

Agendashift™: Serving the transforming organisation
Links: Home | Subscribe | Events | Media | Contact | Mike
Agendashift  Academy: Leading with Outcomes | Trainer and Facilitator Programmes | Store

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.

Three days in sunny June, London (updated)

Posted on by Mike Burrows

[Updated 2022-03-20 – dates changed to accommodate block bookings!]

London SW1, UK. Three days, each available separately, each certified. Buy two consecutive days and save 20%. Buy all three together and save 30%:

  • Day 1. Tuesday, June 20th: Leading with Outcomes: Foundation
  • Day 2. Wednesday, June 21st: Adaptive Organisation (I): Business agility at every scale
  • Day 3. Thursday, June 22nd: Adaptive Organisation (II): Between spaces, scopes, and scales

Save a further 10-40% with the discount code shown on your Agendashift Academy subscription – see the What’s included page of your Welcome course in your Academy library.

Book your 1, 2, or 3 days here:

Just in the last few days, I’ve had some capacity free up in April; please get in touch if interested in hosting any of the above privately. I will throw in a free 3-month Agendashift for Business subscription for up to 25 people, and as mentioned in last month’s roundup, while the self-paced version of Adaptive Organisation remains in beta (see below) I will be glad to discount the in-person version substantially. Please note that my ability to travel outside the UK remains somewhat limited.

Happening this week:

Agendashift™: Serving the transforming organisation
Links: Home | Subscribe | Events | Media | Contact | Mike
Agendashift  Academy: Leading with Outcomes | Trainer and Facilitator Programmes | Store

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 roundup, February 2023

Posted on by Mike Burrows

I have had covid for most of the past week, and though I don’t feel seriously ill, coupled with the facts 1) that with my wife I’m part of a 24*7 care team for a vulnerable family member, and 2) that I’ve been called to jury service next month, I’ve had to make some changes.

So, in calendar order:

  • Next week’s Foundation is unfortunately cancelled
  • Next week’s webinar (with guests) and meetup are still going ahead – and I’m greatly looking forward to both
  • If you’re in India next month, don’t miss Karl Scotland’s Foundation
  • My next public workshop is in April, by the kind invitation of Gervase Bushe and hosted by the Cape Code Institute, details here
  • The May Train-the-Trainer / Facilitator (TTT/F) is now open for bookings – UK mornings, relatively APAC-friendly timings (less convenient for the Americas this time round)
  • The June Foundation has moved from mornings to afternoons

If you’re wondering meanwhile how this month’s TTT/F went, check this out.

Adaptive Organisation: Business agility at every scale

There has been some impact on the not-quite-finished Adaptive Organisation module too, but I’m seeing it very much as a blessing in disguise. As agreed at a Zoom call yesterday with trainers participating in its beta programme, I will:

  1. Release the existing videos to Academy subscribers as-is as “Beta 1” – without captions, workbook, or the final chapter
  2. Release a greatly improved Beta 2 chapter by chapter

I gave a preview of Beta 2 at this month’s TTT/F, where one participant described it as “all I hoped it would be”. Yesterday’s Zoom was similarly encouraging, and I’m confident that it will be worth the wait.

From April onwards I will have capacity for private training. While Adaptive Organisation remains in beta it will be available in multiple formats at preferential pricing – so shout now if it could be of interest.

Top posts

  1. Start where you are (February)
  2. Sell the pain, not the solution, the theory, or the blame (December)
  3. Your organisation in 5 networks (November)
  4. Between spaces, scopes, and scales (February)
  5. Leaders as keepers of context (September)

Agendashift™: Serving the transforming organisation
Links: Home | Subscribe | Events | Media | Contact | Mike
Agendashift  Academy: Leading with Outcomes | Trainer and Facilitator Programmes | Store

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.

Upcoming events

February

March

*TTT/F and (where shown) LIKE events include free one-year membership of the Leading with Outcomes Authorised Facilitator programme, upgradeable to Authorised Trainer at any time. Both of those include access to the video-based Leading with Outcomes training and the full range of Agendashift assessment tools.

Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can. ~Arthur Ashe

Between spaces, scopes, and scales

Posted on by Mike Burrows

Perhaps you’ve been wondering where I’ve been going with posts like Your organisation in 5 networks and Start where you are. Well, just in the last few days the Systemic Agility community have given me the perfect opportunity for the big reveal. I’ll be speaking at their meetup at 17:30 GMT on Thursday, March 9th:

To set some expectations: Networks will of course play a role, but it’s not only about those. No, I won’t be ranting against any particular framework or against frameworks in general. Much more constructively, it’s about accessing some of the deep magic of organisation. Or should I say organising?

The previous day but in the UK morning for the sake of our Australia-based guests, it’s the next in our monthly webinar/AMA series The questions that drive us:

Note that 09:30 GMT is not 10am ET as previously advertised. Apologies to our friends in the US if you were misled – 4:30am is early indeed!

It will be a busy week – there’s more! The next interactive Leading with Outcomes: Foundation begins on the Tuesday. Three sessions of two and a half hours each on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday afternoons (UK time) 7th-9th March, 14:00-16:30 GMT:

  • Session 1. (Tuesday 7th) Leading in a transforming organisation – introducing outcome-oriented change
  • Session 2. (Wednesday 8th) Meaningfulness, significance, and direction – two kinds of strategy and a virtuous circle
  • Session 3. (Thursday 9th) Moving into action – ideas, experiments, feedback, and learning

We’re having a lot of fun with Foundation right now in the February Train-the-Trainer/Facilitator and I’m already looking forward to doing it again. Join us! And don’t hesitate to ping me for a discount code – public or non-profit sectors, un/under-employed, participants in previous events, yada, yada, they all count, and that goes for the self-paced version of Foundation too.

Agendashift™: Serving the transforming organisation
Links: Home | Subscribe | Events | Media | Contact | Mike
Agendashift  Academy: Leading with Outcomes | Trainer and Facilitator Programmes | Store

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.

Upcoming events

February

March

*TTT/F and (where shown) LIKE events include free one-year membership of the Leading with Outcomes Authorised Facilitator programme, upgradeable to Authorised Trainer at any time. Both of those include access to the video-based Leading with Outcomes training and the full range of Agendashift assessment tools.

Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can. ~Arthur Ashe

A couple of changes for February

Posted on by Mike Burrows

Quick one…. For reasons beyond my control, the February Train-the-Trainer / Facilitator (TTT/F) has moved a day or two. It is still four sessions over two consecutive weeks, but no longer the same two days each week. Now it’s Wednesday, Thursday, Monday, and Tuesday afternoons (UK time), 15th-21st of February.

Programme information and booking pages:

Sessions begin at 13:00GMT, 14:00CST, 8am ET, will be a maximum of four hours each, and include multiple breaks.

Before that I’m in Berlin on the 7th and 8th for a two-day in-person workshop focussed on leaders and leadership in transforming organisations:

This was first mooted as an in-person TTT/F so be aware of that change too.

Questions about those or anything else? The next free webinar/AMA is on February 2nd:

As for what’s happening in March, see the events calendar below. Hope to see you soon!

Agendashift™: Serving the transforming organisation
Links: Home | Subscribe | Events | Media | Contact | Mike
Agendashift  Academy: Leading with Outcomes | Trainer and Facilitator Programmes | Store

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.

Upcoming events

February

March

*TTT/F and (where shown) LIKE events include free one-year membership of the Leading with Outcomes Authorised Facilitator programme, upgradeable to Authorised Trainer at any time. Both of those include access to the video-based Leading with Outcomes training and the full range of Agendashift assessment tools.

Open AMA (Ask Mike Anything) sessions

Posted on by Mike Burrows

Just for the months of August and September I’m opening up the Academy’s AMA sessions to all. If you have any questions at all about Leading with Outcomes, the new Trainer & Facilitator programmes (see Upcoming events below for the first TTT/F training), or anything else for that matter, join us!

If you knew about these already, please note that this week’s is pushed back to next week due to an ongoing medical thing family-wise which means that I can’t be sure to be able to make it. I am however contactable and would be glad of a catch-up if you don’t mind the possibility of life intruding a bit!

Open AMA sessions

For the Zoom link, check the email version of this post if you’re on the mailing list, the #community channel on Slack, or Public events in Circle, or ping me.

  • Wednesday, August 17th, 10:00 BST, 11:00 CEST (not the 10th as previously advertised)
  • Wednesday, August 24th 16:00 BST, 17:00 CEST, 11am EDT, 8am PDT
  • Wednesday, September 7th, 10:00 BST, 11:00 CEST
  • Wednesday, September 14th, 16:00 BST, 17:00 CEST, 11am EDT, 8am PDT

Upcoming events

Agendashift™: Serving the transforming organisation
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