Tag: training

Agendashift roundup, November 2023

Posted on by Mike Burrows

In this edition: Adaptive Organisation; 15-minute FOTO; New podcast interview; More free sessions; Train-the-Trainer / Facilitator (TTT/F); Top posts

Adaptive Organisation

There is plenty to report here! Let’s begin with its online, self-paced version. Now that I’ve finished hand-editing the captions on all of its videos, Adaptive Organisation (II) is out of beta. That’s both parts now:

Both parts lean on Leading with Outcomes: Foundation, and we recommend that you take that first.

Also online, the latest version of my keynote:

With regard to the in-person experience, the Leading in a Transforming Organisation training (Foundation and Adaptive Organisation combined) goes from strength to strength. Thought’s on this month’s training in Manchester:

Also some tweaks to this post from October:

Each of these events generates a further flurry of activity. Trainers now have access to post-Manchester decks and handouts for Adaptive Organisation parts I & II. For Facilitators, an update to the Adaptive Organisation workshop will follow as soon as I have synced the handout with the deck – not a huge task but I begin my travels to India shortly.

I’m looking to do at least two more of these in the UK next year, and maybe a couple of in mainland Europe also. If you have thoughts on bringing it to your city, get in touch! Similarly for the 1-day workshop (only privately for the time being, introductory pricing between now and the end of January).

Adaptive Organisation, the two-part module: Engaging with complexity in the Deliberately Adaptive Organisation

15-minute FOTO

A couple of updates to our Clean Language-based coaching game 15-minute FOTO:

  1. Gaël Mareau has kindly contributed a French language cue card – merci beaucoup Gaël!
  2. During my trip to India I’ll be testing a number of usability improvements (none of them major, but they add up), so expect a new release in the next couple of weeks

New podcast interview

While in Australia last month I was interviewed for Kanban Lab by Orod Semsarzadeh and Soma Mazumder. You can listen to Exploring Kanban from Right to Left: A Thoughtful Conversation with Mike Burrows here:

More interviews, talks, etc on our media page.

More free sessions

Train-the-Trainer / Facilitator (TTT/F)

Unusually, the next TTT/F is in person, and it begins this coming Sunday:

Thank you Prachi, Noopur, and the Kanban India 2023 team – the conference begins on Friday.

The February TTT/F is now confirmed:

Top posts

  1. 15-minute FOTO’s cheat mode (October)
  2. What Lies Beneath (Spoiler: Constraints) (October, recently updated)
  3. Leading in a Transforming Organisation: Takeaways from Manchester (November)
  4. A small update to the Constraints Club exercise (November)
  5. My favourite Clean Language question (January 2019)

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.

Leading in a Transforming Organisation: Takeaways from Manchester

Posted on by Mike Burrows

What was it? How did it go? What next? Where next?

What was it?

A three-day, in-person training, Leading in a Transforming Organisation: Engaging with complexity in the Deliberately Adaptive Organisation, which brings together roughly half of the Leading with Outcomes curriculum:

The Deliberately Adaptive Organisation is my 21st century take on a 20th century model, Stafford Beer’s Viable System Model. Fittingly, a fractal model of organisation meets a fractal model of engagement, the former approached in a relational and constraints-based way, the latter replacing the engineering approach more typically employed. These two aspects combine to make something accessible, complexity-friendly, and practical.

The Deliberately Adaptive Organisation
Leading with Outcomes


For an added bonus, Leading in a Transforming Organisation has by design enough experiential content that with some additional online learning it can serve also as an alternative to Leading with Outcomes Train-the-Trainer / Facilitator (TTT/F). At least a couple of participants attended with that purpose in mind.

How did it go?

A small sample of the overwhelmingly positive feedback:

  • Relevant to anyone with leadership responsibilities
  • A helpful journey through the neglected responsibilities of leadership – with helpful tools to attend to those responsibilities
  • A full learning experience – relevant, effective, great to share with others
  • Building on a journey throughout, in a practical, visual way
  • Can clearly see how this would apply to our organisation
  • This is the Leading with Outcomes masterclass

There were things I would change – in fact on day 3 we tested an impromptu change to how we finished each “chapter”, a change that I have since made to the materials for day 2 also. Quicker, more impactful, and more clearly setting off the two “interludes”, those being the opportunities to practice classic Agendashift exercises such as Good Obstacle, Bad Obstacle, 15-minute FOTO, and various ways to (per the second slide above) “Organise the strategy”.

I was pleased that after some post-London rework, certain themes came out much more strongly:

  1. The value in a bottom-up understanding of organising – not that it doesn’t also work top down, but a bottom-up understanding is essential if you want to go with the grain of emergence and self-organisation or to promote those at non-trivial scales
  2. The question of How might we increase our decision-making capacity? came up repeatedly. Important again for reasons (i) of self-organisation (ref McCulloch), (ii) because the time will come when you don’t have enough of it, and (iii) because it reframes in an interesting and positive way concepts such as reducing waste (Lean) and minimising cognitive load (Team Topologies)
  3. The importance of context – not only in the senses (i) that it is folly to impose solutions from foreign contexts unquestioningly, or (ii) that context affects relationships, but (iii) in the sense that our delivery work and our strategic decision making will both suffer for lack of it – almost inevitably if we rest more than we should on formal structure, agreed process, and established communication paths

As anticipated in previous posts, Agile coaches were very much in the minority. Our hosts were the University of Manchester (a big thank you to Andrea Place for organising), several of the participants were members of staff with leadership and/or leadership development responsibility, and on day 1 we were joined by a senior leader from another university. It was fascinating to see the models, tools, and exercises applied not to a technology organisation but to a highly respected institution that celebrates its bicentenary next year. I find it very hard to believe that a process-based approach – process meant here in the Agile or Lean sense, not the OD sense – would have been anything like as successful.

What next? Where next?

With the event still fresh in my mind I updated the materials over the weekend. There are corresponding changes to be made to the shorter Adaptive Organisation Workshop, and they include changes to the What Lies Beneath string of exercises, whose blog post I have updated for reference already.

I won’t be re-recording the two-part online Adaptive Organisation module just yet (see Leading with Outcomes from the Agendashift Academy below for links). The existing version is still quite new, none of my most recent improvements invalidate in any way what’s there, and it’s more urgent that I re-record the much older Inside-out and Outside-in modules. Not only will it be good to realign those with the newer material, it will let me retire the old learning management system and thereby improve the Academy’s onboarding experience.

I’m hoping to run the three-day in-person event at least twice publicly in the UK next year. Very likely in London, and having taken it north to Manchester, I’m also looking at doing it somewhere between Bournemouth and Brighton on the south coast. Mainland Europe would be good too – Germany and/or Scandinavia seeming the most likely destinations. If you are interested in any of these options or any other (public or private), and especially if you can help get a group together (it doesn’t have to be large), let me know.

I intend to do the abovementioned 1-day Adaptive Organisation workshop in person a few times before I offer it online, in both cases only privately. Accordingly, introductory pricing (with further discounts for public sector, non-profit, etc) remains available until the end of January, possibly for delivery at a later date if you get your order in soon enough. Unless a longer trip can be made worthwhile, I’m looking to do it in the UK or in European destinations easily reachable from Manchester or East Midlands airports. If you’re suitably located and your organisation could use an organisational strategy exercise soon, there’s an opportunity here not to be missed.

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.

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.

Agendashift roundup, October 2023

Posted on by Mike Burrows

In this edition: From Melbourne to Manchester; Adaptive Organisation workshops; Adaptive Organisation online; More free sessions; Train-the-Trainer / Facilitator (TTT/F) and alternatives; Top posts

From Melbourne to Manchester

It was a privilege to open the inaugural Kanban Australia – congratulations to Daniel Ploeg and the team there for putting on such a great event! The Leading in a Transforming Organisation training/workshop held the preceding week wasn’t as well attended as we might have liked, but it was highly productive nevertheless. Two blog posts describe some of what came out of it:

My eldest son moved to Sydney last year, so if anyone wants me back in Australia, count me in 🙂 Between training and conference we enjoyed the weekend together in Melbourne, and I joined him in Sydney afterwards.

Back in the UK, my youngest son lives in Manchester, and by pure coincidence that happens to be the location of the next Leading in a Transforming Organisation, which begins in two weeks on November 14th. Our hosts are the University of Manchester (thank you Andrea), and we have already the most diverse group of attendees signed up I have yet managed to assemble. There is still time to grab a place:

1-day, 2-day and 3-day tickets available. Use BLOG20 for 20% off, and ping me if another discount might apply. There will be NHS and university staff attending – they and other public/educational/non-profit employees get 40% off.

It is not its primary purpose, but I should mention that as described on the event page and below, it offers a path to Authorised Leading with Outcomes Facilitator and Trainer also.

Adaptive Organisation workshops

This new 1-day workshop takes the two-part Adaptive Organisation training module (two days of training when done in person, three days when taken with Foundation) and dials down the training dimension to make it all about the conversations your organisation needs to have with itself. Read more in the recent announcement:

For myself, I am offering this workshop only privately, initially with introductory pricing. The materials are available already to authorised Facilitators and Trainers, and if the latter want to experiment with offering it publicly, I won’t stand in their way.

Adaptive Organisation online

Quick updates on the online version of the two-part Adaptive Organisation module:

There is still some work to be done, but were you to start Foundation now, there’s a good chance that the beta tags will gone by the time you get to the above. Don’t wait for part 1 to get re-recorded as version 2.1 or later – that won’t happen until after the Inside-out and Outside-in strategy modules are re-recorded and I can retire the old learning management system, early 2024.

While we’re here, my Adaptive Organisation-related keynote gets an online airing on the 9th, courtesy Blackmetric’s BA community meetup (thank you Adrian Reed):

A busy day, as you’ll see in a moment!

More free sessions

The first free experience/practice session took place last week. A lot to fit in the hour but we did it, just! The next of those and the existing webinar/AMA sessions, one of each per month:

Train-the-Trainer / Facilitator (TTT/F) and alternatives

Unusually, the next TTT/F is in person:

That is thanks to another conference (thank you Prachi, Noopur, and team):

Really glad to be revisiting India – I’ve been several times, thoroughly enjoyed it every time, and after Australia, it will be only my second trip abroad since covid!

I have pencilled in the next online TTT/F for February:

  • 6-14 February, online, Tuesday & Wednesday afternoons (UK time):
    Train-the-Trainer / Facilitator (TTT/F) – to be confirmed

I’ll announce that separately when the booking page is up.

Together with some extra online study and an onboarding call, your alternative to TTT/F is the in-person Leading in a Transforming Organisation. If you would like me to hold one of those somewhere near you in 2024, please get in touch. I’m thinking a couple in the UK (London and perhaps the south coast) and in mainland Europe too (Germany and/or Sweden perhaps). I’m open to travelling further (ie North America and Asia) if numbers or other opportunities make the longer trip worthwhile.

Top posts

  1. What Lies Beneath (Spoiler: Constraints)
  2. 15-minute FOTO’s cheat mode
  3. My favourite Clean Language question (January 2019)
  4. Announcing a new Adaptive Organisation workshop (and more)
  5. On values, meaningfulness, and change – parallels with Bateson and Mead (May 2022)

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.

Announcing a new Adaptive Organisation workshop (and more)

Posted on by Mike Burrows

Announcing:

  1. The immediate availability of the Leading with Outcomes Adaptive Organisation workshop

And closely related to that:

  1. Adaptive Organisation (II): Between spaces, scopes and scales, v2.1 beta
  2. Updates on Leading in a Transforming Organisation, Manchester
  3. New experience/practice sessions begin next week

1. Announcing the immediate availability of the Leading with Outcomes Adaptive Organisation Workshop

This new 1-day workshop takes the two-part Adaptive Organisation training module (two days of training when done in person, three days when taken with Foundation) and dials down the training dimension to make it all about the conversations your organisation needs to have with itself.

It follows much the same structure as the training:

  1. Introduction
  2. Delivery-Discovery-Renewal – value-creating work and how it is coordinated and organised
  3. Adaptive Strategising – keeping us in the game, strategising and self-governing
  4. Mutual Trust Building – addressing the formal organisation’s deficit in information and decision-making capacity
  5. Between and Across Scales – examining the relationships between scales of organisation
  6. Organising at Human Scale – promoting adaptation, innovation, and learning at all scales
  7. What Lies Beneath – dealing with organisational constraints

Points 1-5 above each correspond to a section of the Deliberately Adaptive Organisation assessment, and we’ll be working with that, making this a thorough health-check for your organisation. Per this recent blog post, the final part of the workshop takes it all forward into action, via some very interesting new tools for identifying and visualising organisational constraints.

The material has already been made available to authorised Leading with Outcomes facilitators and trainers. For myself, I am pleased to offer it in the form of a private, 1-day, in-person workshop. I charge a fixed rate for anywhere in mainland UK, and I make things as easy as I can for European destinations easily reachable from Manchester or East Midlands airport also. Outside those parameters – further afield, online, or spread over multiple days – let’s see what we can work out.

2. Adaptive Organisation (II): Between spaces, scopes and scales, v2.1 beta

I have already mentioned the two-part Adaptive Organisation training module on which the new workshop is based. This second announcement relates to its presentation in the form of online, video-based, self-paced training at the Agendashift Academy.

Following on from Adaptive Organisation (I): Business agility at every scale (v2.0 beta), I have released the first chapter of Adaptive Organisation (II): Between spaces, scopes and scales (v2.1 beta). Still to come in part II: two more chapters and an “interlude”, one of two windows into the in-person Leading in a Transforming Organisation. The beta tag will disappear when I’ve released all the videos and done their captions (still in progress for part I) and student workbook. Part I will at some point be re-recorded at version 2.1 or later but there is no great rush to do so – the two parts remain compatible.

Part I develops the Deliberately Adaptive Organisation, a model to describe any organisational scope at any scale (or many/all such scopes all at once!). Part II pays attention to issues of scale:

  1. Relationships between scopes at different scales – between team and team-of-teams for example
  2. The difficulty with which organisations adapt as scale increases
  3. Identifying and managing organisational constraints

3. Updates on Leading in a Transforming Organisation: Manchester, 14-16 November

This will be my most diverse group yet at a public training. Thanks to staff from the NHS and two universities (three if you count former staff), it’s quite possible that consultants, coaches, and trainers won’t be in the majority. An experience to savour I think!

New this time: with some additional study, this event allows prospective trainers (not only facilitators) to bypass Train-the-Trainer / Facilitator (TTT/F); further information about that on the event page.

The material (shared with Adaptive Organisation parts I & II) can be considered well-tested now, even a joy to teach! Between London, Melbourne, and my preparations for Manchester, each of the two parts fits comfortably in a day, and they take things more consistently in an emergence and complexity-friendly way, which is to say bottom-up. Not that it was ever top-down, but making it more consistent has definitely added to its impact.

While still in Melbourne I wrote up two changes:

And the Manchester event itself:

4. New experience/practice sessions begin next week

Next week, the first of what will become a monthly fixture:

A different assessment tool each month, and we’re starting with the Deliberately Adaptive Organisation assessment (mini edition), a version of the one used in all the Adaptive Organisation workshop and training products mentioned in this post. A great way to get a firsthand impression of what it’s all about!

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.

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.

Agendashift roundup, September 2023

Posted on by Mike Burrows

In this edition: Experience/practice sessions; Leading in a Transforming Organisation; Looking ahead to December; Top posts

(New! Free!) Experience/Practice sessions

I have added two more dates to the calendar, the first experience/practice sessions of what should become a monthly fixture (series link):

They’re a chance to try one of our famously inclusive, non-prescriptive, and framework-agnostic assessments (a different template each month) and to experience with others some post-assessment conversations, Agendashift-style.

Post-debrief conversations will follow the IdOO (“I do”) pattern – Ideal, Obstacles, Outcomes, for which materials based on Leading with Outcomes: Foundation will be provided. If, within that structure, you would like to take the brief opportunity to practice our Clean Language coaching game 15-minute FOTO (Academy version here), this should be possible, numbers permitting.

These are in addition to the free monthly webinars that continue to cycle through the three “questions that drive us” (series link). The next two of those:

Leading in a Transforming Organisation: Engaging with complexity in the Deliberately Adaptive Organisation

I’m both counting down the days to Australia and looking ahead to Manchester!

This is where it’s happening in Agendashift-land right now. If you’re tired of approaches to organisational challenges that can’t see beyond process (and trust me, it’s liberating to get past that) and have little of consequence to say about complexity, get yourself to one of these if you possibly can.

I should mention that my trip to Australia – my first trip abroad since COVID – is thanks to Kanban Australia 2023. Thank you Daniel and the rest of the organising team!

Looking ahead to December

In early December I’m off to India for Kanban India and the last TTT/F of the year:

And a thank you to Noopur, Prachi, and the rest of the organising team there too!

Top posts

  1. An invitation to a more thoughtful assessment (September)
  2. My favourite Clean Language question (January 2019)
  3. What I really think about Scrum (August 2020)
  4. Your organisation in 5 networks (November 2022)
  5. From Reverse STATIK to a ‘Pathway’ for continuous transformation (October 2019)

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.

Agendashift roundup, August 2023

Posted on by Mike Burrows

In this late summer edition: Responding to “Scrum is cancer”; Foundation 2.8, Adaptive Organisation 2.0; Looking ahead to the autumn season; Top posts

Responding to “Scrum is cancer”

Doing the rounds on LinkedIn and X / Twitter is the abovementioned. My response here (linkedin.com).

Related:

Foundation 2.8, Adaptive Organisation 2.0

Leading with Outcomes: Foundation version 2.8 beta is now out of beta. As mentioned last month it is to be found not on the Agendashift Academy’s old learning management system (LMS) but on what until recently served only as the community platform for Academy subscribers. The latter is itself developing as an LMS and it presents therefore a consolidation opportunity.

Again as mentioned last month, of the several iterations of Foundation so far, this is the one most influenced by the experience of other authorised trainers (ie not only me) delivering it in person. It is definitely a smoother experience – 12 minutes shorter for no loss of content!

Next up for the same treatment is the two-part Adaptive Organisation module. Recording has started for the first part, Adaptive Organisation (I): Business agility at every scale. It will include some exciting new content (we’re turning up the dial on the complexity-related matters already integral to it), but not at the cost of any significant increase in length. At least that’s the plan; what I can promise is that for Academy students authorised trainers alike it will be a smoother experience.

The previous version (1.6) of Adaptive Organisation is still available meanwhile, and I dare say it remains the most refreshing treatment of its subject matter you will find anywhere. And don’t forget the Agendashift classics, Inside-out Strategy: Fit for maximum impact and Outside-in Strategy: Positioned for success.

With more about what to expect, some related posts:

If you’re not already a subscriber, sign up here.

Looking ahead to the autumn season

It being the summer here (though not where I am next headed)…

September and December bring different opportunities to do Train-the-Trainer / Facilitator (TTT/F):

Those are, respectively, the last chance to do TTT/F online this year, and the first to be held in person. Between those two, I’m doing Leading in a Transforming Organisation on opposite sides of the world:

These events are driving forward the Foundation and Adaptive Organisation modules as mentioned above (one day of the former, two days of the latter), and it has been a delight to see how well they go together – hence the abovementioned resequencing. If you have any interest in what it means to lead in an organisation that is transforming (and what organisation isn’t?), join us!

I should mention that my trips to Australia and India – my first trips abroad since COVID – are thanks to these conferences:

I’m grateful to the organisers of both. And yes, there will be some kanban content in my keynotes – I haven’t forgotten my roots!

Finally, with the end of summer approaching, there are only days to wait until the monthly webinar/AMA sessions restart:

Top posts

  1. Explaining the “unreasonable effectiveness” of Agile (July)
  2. When not to do Celebration-5W (August)
  3. My favourite Clean Language question (January 2019)
  4. Leaders as keepers of context (September 2022)
  5. Picturing Foundation (May)

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.

Agendashift roundup, July 2023

Posted on by Mike Burrows

In this edition: Foundation re-recorded and re-platformed; Looking ahead to the autumn season; Top posts

Foundation re-recorded and re-platformed

Leading with Outcomes: Foundation version 2.8 beta is now out on a different platform to the previously-recorded version, 2.1. As an experiment, the newer one is to be found not on the current learning management system (LMS), but on the community site for Agendashift Academy subscribers. The latter’s underlying platform is itself developing as an LMS and it presents therefore a consolidation opportunity.

Of the several iterations of Foundation so far, this is the one most influenced by the experience of trainers delivering it in person. It is definitely a smoother experience – 12 minutes shorter for no loss of content!

I’ll remove the beta tag when I have finished adding captions, which I’ll release one video at a time. AI does a decent first approximation but I still take the trouble to edit them manually.

With more about what to expect, some related posts:

And to sign up:

Looking ahead to the autumn season

September, October, November, December. Ok, December isn’t really autumn, and neither are the preceding months if you’re in the southern hemisphere (to which I am headed), but it will do!

September and December bring different opportunities to do Train-the-Trainer / Facilitator (TTT/F):

Those are, respectively, the last chance to do TTT/F online this year, and the first to be held in person. Between those two, I’m doing Leading in a Transforming Organisation on opposite sides of the world:

These events are driving forward the Foundation and Adaptive Organisation modules (one day of the former, two days of the latter), and it has been a delight to see how well they go together – hence the abovementioned resequencing. If you have any interest in what it means to lead in an organisation that is transforming (and what organisation isn’t?), join us!

While we’re here, there is no August webinar/AMA session. Not too long to wait though:

Top posts

  1. Explaining the “unreasonable effectiveness” of Agile (July)
  2. Three ways to understand the Leading with Outcomes universe (June)
  3. The wholeheartedness equation (June)
  4. My favourite Clean Language question (January 2019)
  5. Avoiding the disaster that is ‘solution-driven’ (June)

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.

Agendashift roundup, June 2023

Posted on by Mike Burrows

In this edition: Leading in a Transforming Organisation; Between spaces, scopes, and scales; Webinar/AMA series; Train-the-Trainer / Facilitator (TTT/F); Top posts

Leading in a Transforming Organisation

Last week’s Leading in a Transforming Organisation in London was a special and productive time. Here are some of the participants sharing afterwards on LinkedIn:

As well as plenty of encouragement, I’ve had feedback of the actionable and throught-provoking kind too, and the material will continue to evolve. A sincere thank you to Philippe Guenet in that regard (I should add that he’s doing interesting things with the Foundation module himself). And thank you to our hosts, Craig Lucia, Stan Wade, and Adrian Potter of PA Consulting.

Next up (the Manchester event added today):

Meanwhile, two of this month’s blog posts flow from preparing for London or reflecting back on it afterwards:

Between spaces, scopes, and scales

Spurred on by Leading in a Transforming Organisation (from which it borrows), my talk “Between spaces, scopes, and scales” continues to develop. I gave a version to the BCS Agile Specialist Group this week (ie after London), and the recording should be available soon.

Next week I give it in-person in Nottingham:

And online in November:

Webinar/AMA series

I’ve added a couple more dates to the “Questions that drive us” webinar series (note that there won’t be one in August):

Train-the-Trainer / Facilitator (TTT/F)

A reminder that there will be only one more online TTT/F this year (September), the other taking place in Bengaluru, India (December).

See also:

Top posts

  1. Avoiding the disaster that is ‘solution-driven’ (June)
  2. What the (Lean-)Agile scaling frameworks don’t give you (December 2020)
  3. Three ways to understand the Leading with Outcomes universe (June)
  4. Picturing Foundation (May)
  5. From Reverse STATIK to a ‘Pathway’ for continuous transformation (October 2019)

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.

Agendashift roundup, May 2023

Posted on by Mike Burrows

In this edition: Leading in a Transforming Organisation; Train-the-Trainer / Facilitator (TTT/F); Keynote, webinar, and media pages; Agendashift Academy update; Top posts

Leading in a Transforming Organisation

The “London Event” (June) now has a proper name, a confirmed venue, and already a strong list of delegates signed up. In October it transfers to Melbourne, Australia, ahead of Kanban Australia, where I’m giving a keynote. In both cases, you can choose to do one, two, or three days, covering Leading with Outcomes: Foundation and Adaptive Organisation: Business agility at every scale (parts I & II). Also, as outlined here, there is an upgrade path to Authorised Facilitator that bypasses TTT/F (more on that in a moment). Information on both events:

Train-the-Trainer / Facilitator (TTT/F)

The latest online TTT/F concluded last week and there were a couple of nice updates on LinkedIn from Stan Wade and Zvonko Podbojec afterwards. The next TTT/F is now in the calendar for September, this time in the UK afternoons – a lot more convenient for timezones west of here! In December, I’ll be doing one in person in Bengaluru, India, (and yes, giving a keynote at Kanban India beforehand).

See also:

Keynote, webinar, and media pages

My talk “Between spaces, scopes, and scales” continues to iterate! The latest recording is now available on a new keynotes page. Related to that talk, a new webinars page has the recording of Flight Levels creator Klaus Leopold’s guest appearance at our monthly webinar.

I also had a lot of fun bringing up to date my “Right to Left” talk. You’ll find that and (from a few months ago) my short SEACOM keynote on the keynotes page too. In short, the latest versions of some of my favourite talks, together with slides, references, and links to related resources. Past recordings remain on the media page too if you want to see how things have evolved.

The next webinar:

I’m due to give “Between spaces, scopes, and scales” again on June 8th online and on July 6th in Nottingham. Unfortunately, at the time of writing, booking pages for those aren’t yet available. It’s looking tight for the 8th, so watch the events page for updates.

Agendashift Academy update

Now that all four modules of Leading with Outcomes are available online, I promised that after spending the month of May away from the camera I would give an update on future plans for the Agendashift Academy. Not necessarily in release order, I’m planning the following:

  • “Right to Left Bitesize” – a long series of bite-sized (ie short) episodes based on the assessment prompts that go with the Right to Left book, brought up to date (the book was published in 2019, the audiobook in 2020 with minimal changes). There are 60 prompts and I expect to use most if not all of them, so that will keep me going for some time!
  • “Right to Left: The Agendashift Academy podcast” featuring selected (ie a minority) of the above episodes, together with other material I’m happy to release publicly
  • As an experiment, hosting the above in the Academy’s community platform, with a view to migrating content to there from the training platform
  • Adding a “supporter” tier for access to material outside of the core Leading with Outcomes curriculum

Top posts

To see #1 and #3 on this list brought up to date, see also (under “Keynotes” above) the updated Right to Left talk.

  1. #2MBM: Meaning before Metric, Measure before Method (July 2020)
  2. Leaders as keepers of context (September 2022)
  3. I’m really enjoying Challenge Mapping (June 2020)
  4. My favourite Clean Language question (January 2021)
  5. Your organisation in 5 networks (November 2022)

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.

Agendashift roundup, April 2023

Posted on by Mike Burrows

In this edition: Adaptive Organisation (II) is complete; Events in May; Events in June; Latest additions to the media page; Top posts

Adaptive Organisation (II) is complete

Never say finished, but the last chapter of the last part of the last module of our leadership and organisation development programme Leading with Outcomes was released this week. Already the first certificates of completion have been issued! Read more and watch a short video (11:39):

As mentioned there, I’ll be taking a break from recording during May, not least because we have the builders in. No later than next month’s roundup I’ll outline what’s coming next content-wise.

Events in May

First up:

Related to that (my talk references his work), on May 15th at 15:00 BST, 16:00 CEST, 10am EDT we are joined for our monthly webinar/AMA by a very special guest, Flight Levels creator Klaus Leopold:

Last but not least, on Tuesday and Wednesday mornings (UK time), May 16th, 16th, 23rd, and 24th is our next Leading with Outcomes: Train-the-Trainer / Facilitator (TTT/F). This is likely the only time this year that we will run TTT/F in this time slot. If you are based east of the UK, this may be your best option!

Programme information:

Booking page:

Also worth bearing in mind may be these two TTT/F alternatives that aren’t in the calendar yet: In Melbourne, Australia in October I’ll be doing a 3-day event similar to the June event in London that will be upgradeable to Facilitator, though not to Trainer. And in December there will be a full TTT/F in Bengaluru, India, in person. Thank you to the Kanban Australia and Kanban India conferences for their kind invitations. About that upgrade option:

Events in June

I haven’t scheduled the June webinar/AMA yet, so just these two events in the calendar so far:

That second event is really two or three events in one, and although all sales so far have been for all three days, there are other options. The equivalent self-paced modules:

More: Events

Latest additions to the media page

In addition to the Adaptive Organisation “closing thoughts” video (see above), this podcast review of the Agendashift book:

  • 05 April, audio, podcast:
    Ep. 83: Agendashift
    Definitely, Maybe Agile – Peter Maddison and Dave Sharrock

More: Media

Top posts

  1. On one slide, a five-way mashup (April)
  2. A new pathway to Leading with Outcomes Facilitator (April)
  3. Start where you are (February)
  4. Your organisation in 5 networks (November)
  5. Sell the pain, not the solution, the theory, or the blame (December)

More: Blog

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.