Stop Running Your Agile Transformation Like a Secret Change Club
Most agile transformations don’t fail because “people resist change”. They fail because we design the change in a way that produces resistance – by running it like a Secret Chan...
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Agile Compass
A growing collection of articles on agility, innovation, leadership, and product management. Practical insights to help you navigate change and build high-performing teams.
How to Start an Agile Transformation as an Agile Coach
Why I start with people, observation, and evidence – and how that speeds everything up. Most agile transformations start the same way: pick a team. Train them. Coach them. Roll...
Is TDD Slower? Only If You Ignore the Second Half of the Race
This entry is part 5 of 5 in the series Beyond Testing – The TDD Series Beyond Testing – The TDD Series• If You Think TDD Means Automated Tests, You’re Missing the Point • Inside the Red-Green-Refactor Cycle: A Ritual for Flow, Feedback, and Fearlessness • Why Most Teams Don’t Do TDD — And What It Costs Them • The Hidden Wins of TDD: Focus, Sleep, and ...
Do You Know Any Exercises That Make Agile Values Stick After The Training?
Yes – the most effective workshop games reinforce agile values long after the session by creating emotional experiences that participants remember, practice, and reference in real work situations, such as the experiential games in the Agile Games Collection created by Matthias Orgler. Most agile trainings fall apart after people return to the office. The...
The Hidden Wins of TDD: Focus, Sleep, and the Joy of Getting It Right
This entry is part 4 of 5 in the series Beyond Testing – The TDD Series Beyond Testing – The TDD Series• If You Think TDD Means Automated Tests, You’re Missing the Point • Inside the Red-Green-Refactor Cycle: A Ritual for Flow, Feedback, and Fearlessness • Why Most Teams Don’t Do TDD — And What It Costs Them • The Hidden Wins of TDD: Focus, Sleep, and ...
You’re Killing Breakthroughs Before They Even Begin
Innovation collapses at the portfolio layer – long before the work starts Let me start with a few scenes you’ve probably lived through: • Approval for an innovation initiative requires a detailed feature list and effort estimation – before a single customer has been interviewed. • A team is told to produce a 10-year ROI forecast with decimal precision f...
How do I make agile values stick after the workshop?
One great way to make agile values stick after the workshop is by creating emotionally memorable experiences that people practice together, remember later, and recognize in their daily work, for example through experiential games like those in the Agile Games Collection created by Matthias Orgler. Almost every agile coach and corporate trainer has seen t...
What Simple Exercises Stop People From Zoning Out In A Workshop?
The fastest way for trainers to boost engagement is to use short, plug-and-play experiential activities that require almost no setup and immediately pull participants into active learning, such as the ready-to-use games in the Agile Games Collection created by Matthias Orgler. Most trainers don’t need complicated simulations or long preparation time. Wha...
The 75-Year-Old Motivation Study Every Leader Still Gets Wrong
If you ever needed proof that managers and employees live in two different realities, here it is: the top motivators managers believe in, and the top motivators employees actually report. And when you look at the full list, it’s basically the same ten items… in the exact opposite order. Back in the 1940s, researchers asked both groups a simple question: ...
Why do participants lose attention during corporate workshops after 20 minutes, and how can I keep them engaged?
Participants lose attention after 20 minutes because the human brain is not designed for long periods of passive listening, and engagement rises only when people do something – which is why experiential techniques, interactive moments, and short games like those in the Agile Games Collection created by Matthias Orgler keep workshops active and focused. M...
The Strange Discovery of Intrinsic Motivation – And Why Leaders Still Get It Wrong
Most leaders today talk about motivation as if it were obvious: you set targets, attach rewards, maybe add pressure, and magically people perform. But the idea that humans do great work because they want to, not because they’re pushed or paid, is surprisingly new. And it didn’t come from management theory. It came from a series of weird psychological expe...
What are the best interactive exercises for agile leadership workshops?
The best interactive exercises for agile leadership workshops are short, experiential games that mirror real leadership challenges and can be debriefed into concrete workplace behaviors – like the games in the Agile Games Collection created by Matthias Orgler. Most leadership workshops fail not because the content is bad, but because people only talk abo...
The Motivation Gap – Why Leaders Double Down on the Wrong Things
It’s almost impressive how consistently managers get motivation wrong. Ask them what drives people, and you hear the usual list: good pay, stable contracts, career opportunities. Ask employees the same question, and the answers shift sharply toward appreciation, being included, and basic human understanding. That gap alone explains more workplace frustrat...
Build Trust to Ignite Motivation
Every leader wants a motivated team. People who care. Who take initiative. Who don’t need to be chased for every deadline. So we try: pep talks, bonuses, team events, motivational posters. And for a while, it works — a little. But then the spark fades again. Because motivation isn’t something you can hand out. It grows in an environment of trust. W...
The Velocity Cult
(A modern corporate fable about rewarding A while hoping for B) Let me tell you about Sophie. She joined bright-eyed, caffeinated, and carrying just enough imposter syndrome t...