Ever get the feeling youâre the âagile personâ in the roomâbrought in to run ceremonies, fix Jira boards, or play Scrum cop, but never actually invited to shape real strategy? If that hits close to home, youâll want to listen in on my latest conversation with Michael Gerharz. Michaelâs a computer scientist by training, but these days heâs known for helping leaders and teams find the right words so their ideas land, rather than getting tossed in the trash. We dug into why so many agilists get stuck in what I call Process Theater: going through the motions, checking the boxes, but never really influencing the game. Michael sees the same patternâagile as theater, not progressâand heâs got some hard-won insights about why itâs so damn hard to speak uncomfortable truths in organizations that just want to âdo agileâ rather than be agile. We riffed on three big themes: Michael introduced his PATH framework (Plain, Actionable, Transformative, Heartfelt) as a practical way for agile leaders to bridge the gapâditch the jargon, speak the language of the business, and connect with what actually matters to stakeholders. If youâve ever felt like your agile expertise is being wasted on the wrong conversations, this episode will give you new ways to break the cycle. Get the latest episode of the Scaling w/ Agility Podcast on your favorite Podcast player, or watch on YouTube: â â PS: What do you think about the podcast? I'd love your feedback! Or even a quick word of encouragement to keep going... â Yours, |
Are You Struggling to Scale Your Organization ? Need agility but dubious of process BS/dogma? I share reflective, pragmatic, principled takes on how to approach scaling your organization leveraging the essence (rather than theater) of product operating models, agile practices and frameworks, and business operating systems such as EOS and OKRs.
Reader, I just wrapped up a great conversation with Clemens Adolphs, co-founder of AIce Labs, for the Scaling With Agility podcast. We dug into a question we both see more and more leaders wrestling with: Why do so many AI proof-of-concept projects look promising on paper, but never scale past the pilot? Clemens and I discussed some emerging practices for dealing with the pace and uncertainty of developing internal AI capabilities. Here are a few of the ideas we unpacked: â How to avoid the...
"Instead of Portfolio Management - Just Create Product Teams" - Have you heard that before, Reader? While I understand the angst against Portfolio Management Theater as a solution to Agile Theater... And while I agree wholeheartedly that the north star is to descale by reorganizing around value I find reality a bit more nuanced....Most leaders I encounter can't "just create product teams" their way out of decades of complex products and systems. None of them are Jeff Bezos - they don't have...
Product development concepts come in handy every time you're developing something. Whether that thing is software, product, or even a point of view. The first sentence in this email is a point of view (POV). I want this point of view to be effective - I want people to understand what I mean, be intrigued by it, take action, and hopefully see me as a thought leader / expert in this space that they'll want to follow / listen to more. It took me a while to develop this point of view. To carve a...