Mike Burrows's Blog, page 7

A taste of my own medicine: Why “Organizing Conversations” took two and a half years to write

My fourth book, Organizing Conversations: Preparing Groups to Take on Adaptive Challenges is now out, and it’s time to spill the beans on why a relatively short book took me so long. It wasn’t because I was working on book five at the time (hard as it was, I resisted that urge), but because my first conception of it was quite different to how it turned out.

My initial attempt was essentially a condensed version of the 2021 Agendashift 2nd edition. Series editor Gervase Bushe wasn’t satisfied with that, and to be honest, I shouldn’t have been either. What’s the point? Gervase insisted repeatedly that I had to be more up-front with my theory of action – i.e. the Why not only of the approach described in the book but that of each step in the process it describes and of the tools and techniques it employs. To do that justice, we re-framed and restructured it more than once, and I ended up adding a whole new chapter. To achieve that within the word count budget (30,000 words), swathes of less interesting material were cut. A couple of times I came close to giving up, but it is a much, much better book now.

I should have seen it coming! Here’s the beginning of an email conversation that I reproduce in the book’s introduction almost verbatim:

Gervase: I’d like to get a statement of your theory of action for creating generative conversations. Complete this sentence: In order to design events that produce generative conversations among a group of people you have to…

Mike: In order to design events that produce generative conversations among a group of people you have to sustain their motivation to ask and answer questions not previously considered in their context, and to which the answers may be both many and potentially surprising (including to the event’s designer, who neither mediates in every conversation nor prescribes their conclusions). The strength of that motivation comes from a combination of purpose, context, trust in the process on the day, and confidence (or at least hope) for what will follow.

Gervase: Interesting. Now, to sustain their motivation to ask and answer questions not previously considered in their context, you have to…

That conversation was how the book was born, and in the end I properly embraced the process. The irony is how slow I was to see that I was getting a taste of my own medicine! As well as the title of my third book, Right to Left is one of Agendashift’s and Leading with Outcomes’ core patterns. It means “working backwards from key moments of impact and learning”, where done is “someone’s need was met”, and really done is “we’ve accounted for the learning”. That learning is maximised by the way the work is framed and discussed, right from the beginning and all the way through the delivery process. In short, making explicit the theory of action of both the work and how it will be carried out is very much part of the approach.

In a similar vein, coincident with the book’s publication I’ve been fortunate to have done multiple runs of facilitation and training in quick succession. Between a private Adaptive Organisation workshop, two runs of Leading with Outcomes: Train-the-Trainer / Facilitator (TTT/F), and two runs of Leading in a Transforming Organisation, by the end of next week I will have done Foundation four times and different forms of the Adaptive Organisation material three times in the space of just a few weeks. What an opportunity for experimentation! Accordingly, next week’s training in London (see below) won’t just incorporate the usual round of small improvements I make before and after every training, it has been reworked quite substantially. Not just streamlining and mistake-proofing it, but repeatedly reinforcing the sense of where we are headed and why. Less “trust the process before we deconstruct it”, more a sense of engaging purposefully together.

Of course there’s always an element of risk when you make changes, but somehow I doubt that I will come to regret these. And let me say that just as I am grateful to Gervase for helping to make Organizing Conversations what it eventually became, I’m grateful also to Markus Hippeli, my host earlier this month in Berlin, whose thoughts prompted the latest rework. Markus, I shall let you know how we get on

Related:

“Organizing Conversations” is now out – includes a short video interviewJune 25-27: Leading in a Transforming Organisation (London) – just a couple of places left, 15% discount applied to that link, ping me if you think may be eligible for a bigger one. Non-agilists very welcome, you won’t be alone!

Agendashift roundup, May 2024

In this edition: Organising Conversations; Olivier’s PhD research; Leading in a Transforming Organisation; Featureban on Kanban Zone; Top posts

Organizing Conversations

As announced on Wednesday (linkedin.com), I’m thrilled to announce that my fourth book, Organizing Conversations: Preparing Groups to Take on Adaptive Challenges is now out – first on Kindle and now in print too.

This book was a commission for the Bushe-Barshak Insitute’s BMI Series in Dialogic Organization Development. Watch a short conversation with series editor Gervase Bushe recorded earlier this week:

Read the announcement in full here, and here are the links for the Kindle edition on amazon.com, amazon.co.uk, and amazon.de.

Olivier’s PhD research

Without wishing to take anything away from book 4, Olivier Bertrand’s PhD research into phylogenetic approaches to understanding organisational evolution is making use of Agendashift’s Adaptive Organisation assessment. This is the assessment tool that powers the 1-day Adaptive Organisation workshop and days two and three of Leading in a Transforming Organisation. In due course, it will feature in book 5, Wholehearted: Engaging with Complexity in the Deliberately Adaptive Organisation also.

You can help! By participating in the survey – thereby getting an early sight of the full version of the assessment tool – you’ll provide valuable input to Olivier’s research, which will, in turn, feed into the book. Exciting stuff!

To participate, visit Survey: Phylogenetic research study: Adaptive Organisation Assessment. Be assured that no personally identifying information will be shared without permission, and any subsequent communication will be on an opt-in basis. You can read a more detailed announcement here: Help our research: an “Organisational DNA test”.

Leading in a Transforming Organisation

All three events in the calendar currently are for Leading in a Transforming Organisation – Berlin, London, and Southampton (June, June, and October, respectively):

4-6 June, Berlin, Germany:
Leading in a Transforming Organisation (Berlin) – SOLD OUT 25-27 June, London, UK:
Leading in a Transforming Organisation (London) 22-24 October, Barclays Eagle Labs, Southampton, UK:
Leading in a Transforming Organisation (Southampton)

Berlin is sold out, but Silke Noll has organised something informal over food for Monday evening. If you can make it, you can sign up here. For London and Southampton, I won’t reiterate all the usual reasons for discount codes, but ping me if you think you might qualify.

Notable by their absence are Train-the-Trainer / Facilitator (TTT/F) and the monthly webinars and experience/practice sessions. I’ll add an autumn TTT/F to the calendar soonish, and I’ll think about the rest when I have a bit more headroom. June in particular will be very busy.

Featureban on Kanban Zone

One of the best ways to introduce Kanban is by running a simulation using Featureban. It’s a much more effective way to learn by doing.

So said Kanban Zone founder Dimitri Ponomareff recently in a follow-up to the the online session I ran with Allan Kelly a few weeks ago. Read his announcement: Featureban is now available inside Kanban Zone! (linkedin.com).

Allan is running another session himself. Use coupon code Agendashift20 for an 20% saving here: Featureban public online game.

As ever, you can request the original Creative Commons materials here. When I get a moment I will replace the broken video there with this one.

Top posts Help our research: an “Organisational DNA test” (May) “Organizing Conversations” is out on Kindle (May) Agile’s Great Rebalancing: My next book’s take on the Agile manifesto (April) From Flow to Business Agility (January) 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:

Leading with Outcomes: Foundation Inside-out Strategy (I): On the same page, with purpose Inside-out Strategy (II): Fit for maximum impact Adaptive Organisation (I): Business agility at every scale Adaptive Organisation (II): Between spaces, scopes, and scales Outside-in Strategy: Positioned for success

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. Our next TTT/F training takes place in May (online).

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.

“Organizing Conversations” is now out

I’m thrilled to announce that my fourth book, Organizing Conversations: Preparing Groups to Take on Adaptive Challenges is out on Kindle. Fingers crossed, the print version will be out in time for Friday’s monthly roundup. [Update: it was ]

This shortish book (at a little over 100 pages and a shade under 30,000 words, half the length of my other books) was a commission for the Bushe-Marshak Institute’s BMI Series in Dialogic Organization Development and represents something of an endorsement by the OD community for Agendashift and Leading with Outcomes. Despite the length constraint (or was it because of it?) it took me nearly two and half years to complete, but it was worth it. More than ever before I was challenged to clarify the thinking behind the practice in a way that deepened existing commitments to participatory and generative change. Neither do I regret the delay to book 5, Wholehearted: Engaging with Complexity in the Deliberately Adaptive Organisation, but that’s for another day. Except to say that organising (a verb, and with British spelling) will be central to Wholehearted, the star of the show today is Organizing Conversations.

In OD terms, what this book does is to bridge two kinds of dialogue, inquiry and generative conversations, the latter referring to conversations in which people generate ideas on which they are motivated to act. In Leading with Outcomes terms, they correspond to the left and right sides of the picture that appears on the front cover. Inside those are Ideal, Outcomes, Outcomes – the IdOO (“I do”) pattern – and Meaning, Measure, Method, two outcome-oriented conversation patterns. Bridging them are Organise the Strategy (mapping, mostly) and Right to Left (the pattern, also the title of one of my previous books).

It might be described as combining the spirit of dialogic and generative OD with some Lean-Agile rigour, and that is what I believe prompted Gervase Bushe and Bob Marshak to invite me to write it. I started out writing a condensed version of an Agendashift 3rd edition, but with Gervase’s editorial input it ended up being much better than that, and for that I am grateful.

Watch a short conversation with Gervase recorded yesterday evening:

You can buy the Kindle version today – here are links for amazon.com, amazon.co.uk, and amazon.de – and watch this space for the print version.

Upcoming events

Webinars and experience/practise sessions are taking a break now until the autumn. I will add the next Train-the-Trainer / Facilitator to the calendar shortly.

June

25-27 June, London, UK:
Leading in a Transforming Organisation *

October

22-24 October, Southampton, UK:
Leading in a Transforming Organisation *

*For TTT/F and Leading in a Transforming Organisation, ping me for coupon codes if any of the following apply:

Employees in public sector, education, and non-profit organisations get 40% off, as do authorised trainers and facilitatorsThere are subscription-specific discounts for Agendashift Academy subscribersMembers of the old partner programme get 30% offPast participants of Leading in a Transforming Organisation can re-attend with 60% off (75% if you work for a public sector, education, or non-profit organisation)Past TTT/F participants can re-attend online for free

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:

Leading with Outcomes: Foundation Inside-out Strategy (I): On the same page, with purpose Inside-out Strategy (II): Fit for maximum impact Adaptive Organisation (I): Business agility at every scale Adaptive Organisation (II): Between spaces, scopes, and scales Outside-in Strategy: Positioned for success

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. Our next TTT/F training takes place in May (online).

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.

“Organizing Conversations” is out on Kindle

I’m thrilled to announce that my fourth book, Organizing Conversations: Preparing Groups to Take on Adaptive Challenges is out on Kindle. Fingers crossed, the print version will be out in time for Friday’s monthly roundup.

This shortish book (at a little over 100 pages and a shade under 30,000 words, half the length of my other books) was a commission for the Bushe-Marshak Institute’s BMI Series in Dialogic Organization Development and represents something of an endorsement by the OD community for Agendashift and Leading with Outcomes. Despite the length constraint (or was it because of it?) it took me nearly two and half years to complete, but it was worth it. More than ever before I was challenged to clarify the thinking behind the practice in a way that deepened existing commitments to participatory and generative change. Neither do I regret the delay to book 5, Wholehearted: Engaging with Complexity in the Deliberately Adaptive Organisation, but that’s for another day. Except to say that organising (a verb, and with British spelling) will be central to Wholehearted, the star of the show today is Organizing Conversations.

In OD terms, what this book does is to bridge two kinds of dialogue, inquiry and generative conversations, the latter referring to conversations in which people generate ideas on which they are motivated to act. In Leading with Outcomes terms, they correspond to the left and right sides of the picture that appears on the front cover. Inside those are Ideal, Outcomes, Outcomes – the IdOO (“I do”) pattern – and Meaning, Measure, Method, two outcome-oriented conversation patterns. Bridging them are Organise the Strategy (mapping, mostly) and Right to Left (the pattern, also the title of one of my previous books).

It might be described as combining the spirit of dialogic and generative OD with some Lean-Agile rigour, and that is what I believe prompted Gervase Bushe and Bob Marshak to invite me to write it. I started out writing a condensed version of an Agendashift 3rd edition, but with Gervase’s editorial input it ended up being much better than that, and for that I am grateful.

Watch a short conversation with Gervase recorded yesterday evening:

You can buy the Kindle version today – here are links for amazon.com, amazon.co.uk, and amazon.de – and watch this space for the print version.

Upcoming events

Webinars and experience/practise sessions are taking a break now until the autumn.

June

4-6 June, Berlin, Germany
Leading in a Transforming Organisation (Berlin) *25-27 June, London, UK:
Leading in a Transforming Organisation *

October

22-24 October, Southampton, UK:
Leading in a Transforming Organisation *

*For TTT/F and Leading in a Transforming Organisation, ping me for coupon codes if any of the following apply:

Employees in public sector, education, and non-profit organisations get 40% off, as do authorised trainers and facilitatorsThere are subscription-specific discounts for Agendashift Academy subscribersMembers of the old partner programme get 30% offPast participants of Leading in a Transforming Organisation can re-attend with 60% off (75% if you work for a public sector, education, or non-profit organisation)Past TTT/F participants can re-attend online for free

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:

Leading with Outcomes: Foundation Inside-out Strategy (I): On the same page, with purpose Inside-out Strategy (II): Fit for maximum impact Adaptive Organisation (I): Business agility at every scale Adaptive Organisation (II): Between spaces, scopes, and scales Outside-in Strategy: Positioned for success

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. Our next TTT/F training takes place in May (online).

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.

Help our research: an “Organisational DNA test”

I spoke a few months ago with Olivier Bertrand and a couple of his colleagues who were looking into using phylogenetic techniques to analyse the results of organisational assessments. It seemed that Agendashift’s assessments were ideal for the purpose, and when we met for a second time, the team’s analysis of data captured via the classic Agendashift Delivery Assessment looked very, very promising (I exaggerate not – it was very exciting).

The timing could not be better. I’m now working hard on book 5, Wholehearted: Engaging with Complexity in the Deliberately Adaptive Organisation, and Olivier has been accepted as a PhD researcher at Université Paris-Saclay to conduct study in the field of Organisational Phylogenetics (PhylOrg). Together, we would like to focus on the new book’s assessment tool (also the assessment tool of the Adaptive Organisation workshop and the Leading in a Transforming Organisation Training). And we need your input!

As explained in Olivier’s two blog posts (here and here), we propose to analyse the population of organisations the way a biologist would analyse organisms, using phylogenetic analysis. Just as biologists look at the evolutionary history of species, we aim to map the evolutionary journey of organisations, uncovering the key traits that determine their success or failure, and the order in which they appear. Our hope is that we can map an evolutionary tree of organisations, identifying both ancestral traits and more derived innovative adaptations that drive organisational resilience and agility. To do this, we need a lot of data – input ideally on a few hundred organisations.

By filling in our survey, you will be contributing to a deeper understanding of organisational dynamics and helping us uncover patterns and trends that shape the evolutionary trajectory of organisations. Of course, once the results are in, and digested by Olivier’s algorithms, we will share the results with the community.

In accordance with our longstanding privacy policies, the research team will receive no identifying information. A new metadata page does however ask for basic information on country, industry, etc, and gives you the option (on an entirely opt-in basis) to be kept in contact with this work.

To join, follow the link below. Feel free to share this post – not so much with close colleagues, but with those you know in other organisations. Thank you! This could make a difference!

Survey: Phylogenetic research study: Adaptive Organisation Assessment Upcoming events

Webinars and experience/practise sessions are taking a break now until the autumn.

May

14 May to 22 February, online, Tuesday & Wednesday afternoons (UK time):
Leading with Outcomes: Train-the-Trainer / Facilitator (TTT/F) *

June

4-6 June, Berlin, Germany
Leading in a Transforming Organisation (Berlin) *25-27 June, London, UK:
Leading in a Transforming Organisation *

October

22-24 October, Southampton, UK:
Leading in a Transforming Organisation *

*For TTT/F and Leading in a Transforming Organisation, ping me for coupon codes if any of the following apply:

Employees in public sector, education, and non-profit organisations get 40% off, as do authorised trainers and facilitatorsThere are subscription-specific discounts for Agendashift Academy subscribersMembers of the old partner programme get 30% offPast participants of Leading in a Transforming Organisation can re-attend with 60% off (75% if you work for a public sector, education, or non-profit organisation)Past TTT/F participants can re-attend online for free

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:

Leading with Outcomes: Foundation Inside-out Strategy (I): On the same page, with purpose Inside-out Strategy (II): Fit for maximum impact Adaptive Organisation (I): Business agility at every scale Adaptive Organisation (II): Between spaces, scopes, and scales Outside-in Strategy: Positioned for success

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. Our next TTT/F training takes place in May (online).

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.

The May TTT/F begins in a week’s time

A quick reminder that the May Train-the-Trainer / Facilitator begins in a week’s time. It’s not too late to book your place:

14-22 May, online, Tuesday & Wednesday afternoons (UK time):
Leading with Outcomes: Train-the-Trainer / Facilitator (TTT/F)

It covers:

Leading with Outcomes: Foundation – patterns for strategy conversations in the language of needs, obstacles, and outcomesThe 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 MappingIn 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:

4-6 June, Berlin, Germany:
Leading in a Transforming Organisation (Berlin) – SOLD OUT25-27 June, London, UK:
Leading in a Transforming Organisation (London) 8-10 October, Barclays Eagle Labs, Southampton, UK:
Leading in a Transforming Organisation (Southampton)

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:

The day before, my friend Silke Noll is in Berlin leading Intercultural awareness training – your start into intercultural agility (Silke will be joining us for Leading in a Transforming Organisation also)There is always 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:

Leading with Outcomes: Foundation Inside-out Strategy (I): On the same page, with purpose Inside-out Strategy (II): Fit for maximum impact Part I: Business agility at every scale Part II: Between spaces, scopes, and scales Outside-in Strategy: Positioned for success

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. Our next TTT/F training takes place in May (online).

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 2024

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):

Agile’s Great Rebalancing: My next book’s take on the Agile manifesto

Hot on the heels of January’s From Flow to Business Agility it looks set to feature high up in the top 10 for 2024. Like that post, organised on LinkedIn there was some community review of the post prior to publication, and the feedback has benefited the Wholehearted manuscript also. Thank you again Chris Combe, Sarah Whiteley, Kert D. Peterson, CST, AKT, Elle Anderson, FRSA, FBCS, Karen Beck, Daniel Walters, Ricardo Alvarez, Simon JAILLAIS, and Matthew White.

Two new videos

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:

Karl Scotland: Agendashift – Outcome-oriented change and continuous transformation

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:

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

14-22 May, online, Tuesday & Wednesday afternoons (UK time):
Leading with Outcomes: Train-the-Trainer / Facilitator (TTT/F) 4-6 June, Berlin, Germany:
Leading in a Transforming Organisation (Berlin) – SOLD OUT25-27 June, London, UK:
Leading in a Transforming Organisation (London) 8-10 October, Barclays Eagle Labs, Southampton, UK:
Leading in a Transforming Organisation (Southampton)

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.

Top posts Agile’s Great Rebalancing: My next book’s take on the Agile manifesto (April) From Flow to Business Agility (January) My favourite Clean Language question (January 2019) What Lies Beneath (Spoiler: Constraints) (October) Venue confirmed for Leading in a Transforming Organisation (London) (April)

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:

Leading with Outcomes: Foundation Inside-out Strategy (I): On the same page, with purpose Inside-out Strategy (II): Fit for maximum impact Part I: Business agility at every scale Part II: Between spaces, scopes, and scales Outside-in Strategy: Positioned for success

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. Our next TTT/F training takes place in May (online).

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.

Agile’s Great Rebalancing: My next book’s take on the Agile manifesto

Some context: Measured in chapters (not time, alas) I’ve reached the halfway mark in the writing of my fifth book, Wholehearted: Engaging with Complexity in the Deliberately Adaptive Organisation, completing the first three of six chapters and with those, part I (Business agility at every scale) of two parts. I’ve adapted the article below from a passage in Chapter 1 in which we’re exploring a space I call Delivery-Discovery-Renewal (Figure 1). That space encompasses the productive activity of a team or other organisational scope at any scale of organisation – everything that’s done in the “here and now”, as opposed to, say, planning or retrospecting.

Figure 1. The Delivery-Discovery-Renewal Space

The Delivery-Discovery-Renewal Space comprises the following:

The value-creating work – delivery-related work (obviously), discovery-related work (making sure that we will be delivering the right things, scouting for new opportunities), and renewal-related work (working on the organisation itself, building and improving the capabilities needed)How that work is coordinated – understood very broadly as all the constraints on that work that have any kind of coordinating effectHow that work is organised – organising around commitments and managing towards goals, another set of constraints on the work

…and their relationships:

Mutual relationships between systems 1, 2, and 3 above, i.e. between the value-creating work, how its is coordinated, and how it is organised – how they constrain each other, how they inform each other, the effects they have on each other, and so onThe relationship with the external environment – for the purposes of this article, relationships with customers and users most especially Relationships inside system 1 above (the value-creating work) – collaborations, process-defined interactions, structures, and so on

You may recognise there a good chunk of Stafford Beer’s Viable System Model (VSM), and with the mention of constraints, hints of something complexity-related also. The Deliberately Adaptive Organisation model and the forthcoming book cover three such spaces (Delivery-Discovery-Renewal, Adaptive Strategising, and Mutual Trust Building), the relationships between them, relationships internal to them, and the much-neglected relationships between different scales of organisation.

It is very much a relational model, i.e. not a process model but complementary to those, providing them with some sorely-needed theory, particularly on matters of scale. It is easy to engage with, it provides a fresh perspective on familiar things, it translates straightforwardly to a complexity-based perspective, and it can be the basis of a participatory strategy process – all very different from the more analytical ways in which such models are typically used.

In the lightly-adapted excerpt below, we are mid-chapter. You might find it worth giving the above introduction a second read therefore (I’ll refer to Figure 1 more than once). Somewhat in the vein of my January post From Flow to Business Agility (by a huge margin my most-read post of the year so far), we are exploring a key question for the Delivery-Discovery-Renewal space and for the other two spaces:

How might we increase our decision-making capacity?

The Great Rebalancing

One important way to increase decision-making capacity in this Delivery-Discovery-Renewal space is to move away from people serving the process and toward the process serving those who do the work. Some clear signs of success:

Routine work can be done with negligible overheadCoordination problems – contention, overburdening, starvation, and the rest – are seen not as facts of life that people must simply endure, but as symptoms of something systemic that can and should be addressedIn non-routine situations, appropriate courses of action are made no harder than necessary by, for example, bureaucracy or overly restrictive policiesThose doing the work have appropriate control over their working environments, and that agency is seen as a potential source of innovation

Each of those reflects some change in the balance between the elements I identified in the introduction to this article, most especially between the value-creating work and how it is coordinated (systems 1 and 2 respectively in Figure 1 above). Taken together, they remind me of the Agile manifesto [1] and, in particular, the first and most famous of its four “this over that” declarations: “Individuals and interactions over processes and tools”. The remaining three declarations can be understood in a similar way, i.e. as representing a sometimes radical rebalancing of relationships inside the Delivery-Discovery-Renewal space.

“Working software over comprehensive documentation”: If we’re staying strictly within the Delivery-Discovery-Renewal space and focusing on the work rather than the thinking behind it, this declaration impacts mostly the balance between upstream and downstream activities. This idea has consequences in many spheres outside of technology development and the book will develop it further. Here though, let’s understand it in manifesto terms.

The 1990s, the context in which Agile arose, saw the peak of the linear project model. Technology projects proceeded in a sequence of phases (see Figure 2 below for an example), and because activities were separated in time, those upstream-downstream relationships barely existed. And at such a cost! As projects moved from one documentation-heavy phase to the next, the emphasis was on demonstrating that the latest work conformed to expectations set in preceding stages, not on establishing whether those expectations were based on accurate assumptions. When those assumptions were about the behaviours of users and people-based systems, they would often prove unsafe, but by the time they were invalidated it was already too late.

Figure 2. A linear project model

The remedy: upstream and downstream activities no longer in separate phases but tightly integrated in an iterative or continuous process. With people from different disciplines working closely together, feedback could come in days or less, not the weeks, months, or longer that it took previously. In support of those collaborations, documentation would become much more granular, produced no earlier or later than needed (i.e. just in time), taking perhaps the minimalistic form of user stories [2] or job stories [3], describing not whole projects but very thin slices of functionality – specific usages of individual features. Given an appropriate sequencing of these small but still individually useful deliverables, an incomplete but still meaningfully useful product could emerge quickly. With more time, and perhaps over an indefinite period (funded not as a project but as a product line), it could evolve into something fitting.

The genuine documentation needs of developers, customers, and end-users never completely went away, and there remains the responsibility of the Delivery-Discovery-Renewal space towards its future self. Pity the poor person who, a year from now, has to understand the design decision you made today or debug the code that you’re writing. Perhaps you owe it to them to leave at least some clues, not to mention that this poor person might turn out to be you! Working in the here and now, when the creation of those usually very small pieces of documentation is an integral part of the development process, a more maintainable system results. There remains a need, however, to keep that effort proportionate to its value, an issue outside the “here and now” and the province of the Adaptive Strategising space.

“Customer collaboration over contract negotiation”: The obvious rebalancing here is away from an adversarial relationship that makes change difficult and increasingly costly as it is delayed, and towards a partnership relationship in which risks and benefits are shared equitably and managed cooperatively. The benefits in terms of decision-making capacity alone are enormous, and I have first-hand experience of it working wonderfully in surprising settings.

Before the launch of the UK’s Government Digital Service in 2011, who would have thought that working on a government project as part of a mixed team of staff and consultants could be a truly special experience? As the interim delivery manager on two of GDS’s ‘exemplar’ projects, I experienced exactly that. There were two customer relationships there: the supplier/government relationship and the government/citizen relationship. By far the more important relationship there was the second, and the abiding principle was “Start with needs: user needs not government needs”. That was more than a slogan. We lived by it, and projects that couldn’t demonstrate it would find themselves in trouble.

Of course, beyond the neglect of user needs there are other ways in which the customer relationship can become dysfunctional. The rapid growth of the attention economy, the asymmetries involved in the handling of personal data, and the rise of AI have combined to create a new issue: the technology/user relationship becoming exploitative to the extent of causing real harm. Unlike the Agile revolution, I don’t see the technology industry solving this issue itself; it has become a matter for governments.

One cause of these problems is that the customer and the user are often not the same person. A sponsor paying for a system they will never use isn’t as troubling as an advertiser paying for access to data the user regards as private, but their product teams ignore the user at their peril. Users have untapped expertise, and how they interact with the product has a lot to teach the product team. Even the bad guys know that they need to make their products usable! Again: software cannot be said to be “working” if it fails to meet user needs, and if that needs to be expressed contractually, so be it. Better still, get users as close to the team as you can manage, even part of the team where that’s possible.

“Responding to change over following a plan”: This is the last of the Agile manifesto’s four “this over that” declarations. For the most part this one belongs with the Adaptive Strategising space, but – spoiler alert – the relationship between that space and Delivery-Discovery-Renewal works through what the two spaces share, the scope’s ability to organise (labelled 3 in Figure 1 above). In the “here and now” of this chapter, the relevant capacity-sapping dysfunction is over-commitment.

Overcommitment is closely related to overburdening and one may contribute to the other, but they should not be confused. Overburdening, a coordination dysfunction (system 2 in Figure 1), leaves a team, activity, process, or other organisational scope in an unhealthy and poorly performing condition because it is trying to work on too many things at once. This multi-tasking incurs costs in context switching, quality issues, delays, and frustration. Compounding all of that, additional work in the form of rework. Overcommitment, a dysfunction in organising (system 3 in Figure 1), means that new commitments can’t be made without breaking commitments previously made. Whether that’s the result of taking on too much work, working to a planning horizon that’s too long, working in chunks too large, or working to plans that leave insufficient room for manoeuvre, that’s a different but similarly serious problem. The scope’s capacity for independent action – John Boyd’s definition of viability – is compromised.

Taking those last three “this over that” declarations together, an Agile process matches its commitments to the short length of time it takes to generate useful information. Progress is made hypothesis by hypothesis, goal by goal. Out of an Agile process, products aren’t built fully formed to a design fixed in advance; they emerge.

When I use ‘Agile’ capitalised like that, I’m describing things that can be traced back to the Agile manifesto. In that sense, the forthcoming book is an Agile book per se; its roots are elsewhere. You can see in the above discussion, however, both what’s at stake and what’s possible. This is not to say that all is rosy in the Agile world: my previous books all address the issue of the Agile industry imposing process and practice on people, to the extent that “Individuals and interactions over processes and tools” can seem cruelly ironic at times. Nevertheless, I make the bold suggestion that Agile has been more successful – unreasonably successful – than perhaps its own community realises.

Consider the effect of this Great Rebalancing (or if you prefer, a great shift in organisational constraints) not only on the decision-making and communication capacities of the teams involved but also on those around it. Capacity that previously was consumed by the need to manage teams from the outside has been relieved of much of that burden. Capacity thus freed can be applied to more interesting things. That improves the experience of leadership, increases the quality of leadership, and greatly increases the chances that self-organised innovation will occur not only within teams but at larger scales too. That is what the book will be about: identifying and dealing with dysfunctions at every scale, enabling other great rebalancings, and unleashing thereby other kinds of “unreasonable effectiveness”.

Ping me if interested in tracking progress on the book; some have early access to the manuscript already, and with a view to getting multiple perspectives on it I will be setting up multiple review circles in the coming weeks covering tech, healthcare, education (i.e. universities), faith communities and other voluntary or not-for-profit organisations, and the systems and complexity communities.

See also Leading in a Transforming Organisation in Berlin, London, and Southampton in the list below of upcoming events. Highly relevant! Days 2 and 3 have much the same structure as the book. Likewise, under the heading of Leading with Outcomes, the self-paced Adaptive Organisation parts I & II further down the page below.

[1] More properly the Manifesto for Agile Software Development (2001), agilemanifesto.org

[2] See my favourite Agile book: Jeff Patton and Peter Economy, User Story Mapping: Discover the Whole Story, Build the Right Product (2014, O’Reilly Media)

[3] Another book that I recommend frequently: If interested in job stories and the jobs-to-be-done (JTBD) framework, start here: Bob Moesta & Greg Engle, Demand-Side Sales 101: Stop Selling and Help Your Customers Make Progress (2020, Lioncrest Publishing)

Upcoming events

Recent changes:

Leading in a Transforming Organisation (London) is brought forward a week to 25-27 JuneAdded Leading in Transforming Organisation (Southampton), October 8-10Webinars and experience/practise sessions taking a break now until the autumn

May

14 May to 22 February, online, Tuesday & Wednesday afternoons (UK time):
Leading with Outcomes: Train-the-Trainer / Facilitator (TTT/F) *

June

4-6 June, Berlin, Germany
Leading in a Transforming Organisation (Berlin) *25-27 June, London, UK:
Leading in a Transforming Organisation *

October

8-10 October, Southampton, UK:
Leading in a Transforming Organisation *

*For TTT/F and Leading in a Transforming Organisation, ping me for coupon codes if any of the following apply:

Employees in public sector, education, and non-profit organisations get 40% off, as do authorised trainers and facilitatorsThere are subscription-specific discounts for Agendashift Academy subscribersMembers of the old partner programme get 30% offPast participants of Leading in a Transforming Organisation can re-attend with 60% off (75% if you work for a public sector, education, or non-profit organisation)Past TTT/F participants can re-attend online for free

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:

Leading with Outcomes: Foundation Inside-out Strategy (I): On the same page, with purpose Inside-out Strategy (II): Fit for maximum impact Part I: Business agility at every scale Part II: Between spaces, scopes, and scales Outside-in Strategy: Positioned for success

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. Our next TTT/F training takes place in May (online).

Agendashift: Serving the transforming organisation
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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.

Venue confirmed for Leading in a Transforming Organisation (London)

I am pleased to confirm the venue for the London 2024 edition of Leading in a Transforming Organisation. I am grateful to PA Consulting for hosting us again, this time at their Farringdon office, a short walk from Farringdon tube station.

You can book your place now:

25-27 June, London, UK:
Leading in a Transforming Organisation (London)

Alternatively, there’s Berlin and Southampton also:

4-6 June, Berlin, Germany
Leading in a Transforming Organisation (Berlin) 8-10 October, Southampton, UK:
Leading in a Transforming Organisation

Online, the closest thing is TTT/F, just five weeks away:

14 May to 22 February, online, Tuesday & Wednesday afternoons (UK time):
Leading with Outcomes: Train-the-Trainer / Facilitator (TTT/F)

For both kinds of events, ping me for coupon codes if any of the following apply:

Employees in public sector, education, and non-profit organisations get 40% off, as do authorised trainers and facilitatorsThere are subscription-specific discounts for Agendashift Academy subscribersMembers of the old partner programme get 30% offPast participants of Leading in a Transforming Organisation can re-attend with 60% off (75% if you work for a public sector, education, or non-profit organisation)Past TTT/F participants can re-attend online for freeAbout Leading in a Transforming Organisation

What they said:

“I wish I’d had this training years ago!”

“A language for exploring and discussing organisational issues – issues that aren’t only process-related”

“Found the ideas of context and awareness tied well into managing different relationships”

“This rounds out organisational change aspects any serious practitioner should know”

“Really related to Organising at Human Scale; Energised by the mapping exercises before and after it”

Three modules of Leading with Outcomes as an integrated, workshop-style training experience:

Day 1. Leading with Outcomes: Foundation

Day 2. Adaptive Organisation (I): Business agility at every scale

Day 3. Adaptive Organisation (II): Between spaces, scopes, and scales

We’ll be exploring what it means to lead in an organisation where change is happening wherever it’s needed, at the pace it’s needed, and engaging the people who are needed – everyone whose energy, insights, and innovations you’ll need.

On day 1 (Foundation) we look at how to develop and pursue strategy in the language of outcomes, introducing some key conversational and organisational patterns and tools. You’ll be developing skills you can not only bring to set-piece strategy events such as reviews and workshops but apply in everyday settings too.

On days 2 and 3 (Adaptive Organisation parts I and II), we will be exercising those skills further as we get to grips with a classic and powerful model of organisation that we’ve made accessible and brought up to date, applicable to organisations of all shapes and sizes.

For any given organisational scale (day 2), what are the preconditions for business agility, and what gets in the way of that? Similarly, in what practical ways can we help the relationships between organisational scales (day 3) to be more healthy and productive? You’ll be learning some of the “deep magic” of organising – how to understand it in terms of relationships and constraints – and you won’t look at organisations in quite the same way again!

Audience

You can approach Leading in a Transforming Organisation in complementary ways:

As a workshop, an opportunity to explore how your organisation (or your client organisation) works and how you might influence thatAs leadership development, participants invited for their growth potentialAs technical training, participants attending out of interest in the models coveredPer the final section below, as a near-alternative to Leading with Outcomes: Train-the-Trainer / Facilitator

If any of those speak to you, you’re invited!

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:

Leading with Outcomes: Foundation Inside-out Strategy (I): On the same page, with purpose Inside-out Strategy (II): Fit for maximum impact Part I: Business agility at every scale Part II: Between spaces, scopes, and scales Outside-in Strategy: Positioned for success

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. Our next TTT/F training takes place in May (online).

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.

Two things: Yesterday’s webinar recording, and a big update to the assessment debrief workshop

Thing 1: Yesterday’s webinar recording

For this month’s webinar we were joined yesterday by Karl Scotland, who over the years has made a number of significant contributions to the development of Agendashift and Leading with Outcomes. You can access the recording and related bits & pieces here. Enjoy!

While we’re on free events, there are two more this month, both on the 18th:

18 April, online meetup, 18:00 NZST, 07:00 BST, 08:00 CEST:
Between Spaces, Scopes, and Scales: What the scaling frameworks don’t tell you 18 April, online, 15:00 BST, 16:00 CEST, 10am EDT:
Experience/practice session: Organise the strategy

The first is ostensibly a rerun of my Kanban Australia 2023 keynote for folks from New Zealand who couldn’t make it across, but no doubt you would be welcome to join. The second departs from the usual assessment-related exercises and moves to the “organise the strategy” step, ie mapping.

Thing 2: A big update to the assessment debrief workshop

Hot on the heels of the much-improved Inside-out Strategy (II): Fit for maximum impact, I have released the latest materials for the Leading with Outcomes Assessment Debrief Workshop, essentially chapter 2 of the Agendashift book and the workshop design around which the rest of Agendashift and later Leading with Outcomes were built. This is a big update, perhaps the biggest since the 2nd edition of the Agendashift book was published. Some of the more noteworthy changes:

The Ideal reflection on the assessment prompts moves from the Areas of Opportunity exercise (now 100% focused on prioritising prompts) to the Fast part of a debrief-specific version of Obstacles Fast and Slow . Both of the affected exercises are improved by this change, so why didn’t I think of that before?!?!It has the new integrated 15-minute FOTO deck . Facilitators might like (as I do) to introduce both Lite and Classic formats; however you choose to do it, the key issues worth discussing at that point are getting started quickly and not getting stuck in a rut for too long. Experiment A3 (optional) is positioned such that participants may choose whether to use it on a big (mapping-inspired) or small (solution-related) hypothesisA new Right to Left -inspired exercise, Anticipating the Insights, uses the A3 as an excuse to look ahead to the next feedback opportunity – with some hints to make that not too far awayI have restored the Full Circle exercise. In a nutshell, you compose your own assessment prompts according to our style guide. Optional, but it can be really positive way to finish, and in other workshop designs this exercise has become quite central.

As of this morning, authorised trainers and facilitators have access to the latest materials. For them (or for you to check it out), Inside-out Strategy (II): Fit for maximum impact is their guide. If you’re interested in becoming a trainer or facilitator, check out the following:

The Agendashift Academy Store Train-the-Trainer / Facilitator (TTT/F) – four half-day sessions online, UK afternoons, MayLeading in a Transforming Organisation* – Berlin and London in June, Southampton in October

*Some extra self-study required to qualify from this to trainer or facilitator, by which time you will be super-qualified (ie you’ll have covered more than TTT/F does).

A smaller commitment is to study Leading with Outcomes in your own time online – for its own sake as leadership development for leaders in transforming organisations, or for its insights into coaching, consulting, and facilitation, particularly in the areas of organisation and strategy. Again, I refer you to the store page.

Upcoming events

Recent changes:

Leading in a Transforming Organisation (London) is brought forward a week to 25-27 JuneAdded Leading in Transforming Organisation (Southampton), October 8-10

Series links:

Monthly webinar/AMA sessions Monthly experience/practice sessions

April

18 April, online meetup, 18:00 NZST, 07:00 BST, 08:00 CEST:
Between Spaces, Scopes, and Scales: What the scaling frameworks don’t tell you 18 April, online, 15:00 BST, 16:00 CEST, 10am EDT:
Experience/practice session: Organise the strategy

May

14 May to 22 February, online, Tuesday & Wednesday afternoons (UK time):
Leading with Outcomes: Train-the-Trainer / Facilitator (TTT/F) *

June

4-6 June, Berlin, Germany
Leading in a Transforming Organisation (Berlin) *25-27 June, London, UK (venue TBC):
Leading in a Transforming Organisation (London) *

October

8-10 October, Southampton, UK:
Leading in a Transforming Organisation *

*For TTT/F and Leading in a Transforming Organisation, ping me for coupon codes if any of the following apply:

Past TTT/F participants can join the online TTT/F again for free (a popular perk)Past participants of Leading in a Transforming Organisation can re-attend with 60% offEmployees in public sector, education, and non-profit organisations get 40% offMembers of the old partner programme get 30% offLast but not least, Agendashift Academy subscribers get subscription-specific discounts also

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:

Leading with Outcomes: Foundation Inside-out Strategy (I): On the same page, with purpose Inside-out Strategy (II): Fit for maximum impact Part I: Business agility at every scale Part II: Between spaces, scopes, and scales Outside-in Strategy: Positioned for success

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. Our next TTT/F training takes place in May (online).

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.