Blog
A growing collection of articles on agility, innovation, leadership, and product management. Practical insights to help you navigate change and build high-performing teams.
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...
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...
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...
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...
(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...
This entry is part 3 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 • Insi...
Let’s start with a blunt truth: Managing dependencies is a trap. (Yes, I’m looking at you, PI Planning boards with your red strings and sticky-note spiderwebs. 🔍) These boards...
Once upon a time – not that long ago – product development was a slow, stately dance. A new idea emerged every few years, maybe once a decade. Companies would then spend years p...
Story points aren’t the problem. They were created with good intent. A soft way to guide planning without the stress and politics of time estimates. Ron Jeffries, one of the or...
The Ladder That Separates the Pretenders from the Practitioners““We work in two-week sprints.” Cool. That’s not agility.” I’ve heard it a hundred times. Maybe a thousand. Teams...
This entry is part 2 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 • Insi...
The first time I heard someone talk about “per person story points,” I laughed. Surely, it was a joke. Like someone suggesting we measure teamwork by how many push-ups each pers...
This entry is part 1 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 • Insi...
Why Do Organizations Want to “Go Agile”? A Brutally Honest Look at Real and Misguided Motivations—for Coaches and Decision-Makers “Agility is not a goal. It’s a tool. A powerf...
Why respect isn’t just a soft value — but your system’s only real chance at speed.Shinjuku Station is the busiest railway station in the word. 4 million people passing through i...
