Lean: not just a hype word for efficiency Yah sure, we do “lean” here and we operate a tight ship … Read More

Stuck with a customer challenge? No problem, let’s visualize it. Sharing my Rapid Design Thinking Template that I frequently use … Read More

Classic Scrum’s Achilles’ heel One of the weak areas of classic Scrum, in my opinion, is the relative simplicity of … Read More

Glossary: Lean, Agile, Scrum, Sprint, Kanban Consider Lean & Agile as pretty much the same thing, they are basically really … Read More

Watch on YouTube Learn How To Do Design Thinking + Scrum Transcript In doing so, first, I’d like to take … Read More

Confucius’ 7 spaces of learning Knowing to stop – is a simple notion but difficult to practice skill. In “Great … Read More

Why brainstorming doesn’t work That was fun, but… Why do we get that slight, lingering feeling of doubt and dissatisfaction … Read More

Pilot objective Within the Scrum community, there is abundant writing suggesting that the two main factors of Scrum implementation failure … Read More

Watch on YouTube References Transcript Why is it so hard to have an authentic conversation? The type of conversation that … Read More

What is agile? Why agile? How do we do agile? What’s the difference between Agile, Scrum, Lean, Design Thinking? Tell … Read More

Self-Transcendence – Beyond Self-Actualization and Theory X & Y Maslow’s Original Hierarchy of Needs Model In 1943, Abraham H. Maslow … Read More

I use four mental models to describe my pedagogy (theory and practice of education): Why They Matter Structured learning provides … Read More

You can’t just flip a switch for delegation and empowerment. It’s more like turning a dial — a spectrum you … Read More

Receiving critical feedback is dreadful. Our defensive routines get triggered and however we might understand that the feedback giver is … Read More

There’s science and philosophy behind Design Thinking’s divergent and convergent double diamond. It’s the logic of deductive and inductive reasoning. … Read More

We get used to the multiple data entries, the copy this from email and paste into the spreadsheet tool-hopping routines, … Read More

What makes UOB’s Finlab not just yet another bank accelerator unit, is its unique focus in helping SMEs with its … Read More

What stresses you at work? For our Mental Model Dōjō session on March 20, 2024, we tackled the topic of … Read More

310. Wow. This is how many people I coached in 2020. Now of course, I didn’t do this alone: I … Read More

This visual on “Think like a farmer” has been going around on LinkedIn for a while. It’s good advice and … Read More

日本一奥深い、アジャイルの説明ビデオを作ってみました。 基礎編30分、付録のアジャイルスクラム入門編15分、計45分の構成です。 講義スライドダウンロード: PDF 講義録

INSEAD is big on “Fair Process”, a leadership mental model formulated by the creators of Blue Ocean Strategy W. Chan … Read More

Sharing your Vision Leaders, why is it all so often that when you “share” your vision to your people, you … Read More

True – We are so accustomed to communication that seeks to influence us, often making us skeptical of others’ intentions. … Read More

I actually think planning and designing are pretty similar. It’s just that designing is much more colorful, multi-faceted, free form. … Read More

Kaizen, Kanban, Gemba, Muda and other Lean lingo we always hear, what do they actually mean? Coach Takeshi explains. Download … Read More

We use “logos” (rational) too much. It’s “pathos” (empathy), “ethos” (credibility, presence), and “kairos” (right time, right place), in balance. … Read More

I’m glad we all agree. (Really?)

My executive coaching client was being completely overwhelmed. After a download of a long list of things on his plate, … Read More

Sound familiar? Let’s talk about product market fit. Your angel investor invested in your idea. Your VC and series A … Read More

Liberating Structures is a collection of powerful team exercises curated by Henri Lipmanowicz and Keith McCandless (www.liberatingstructures.com). The following slides … Read More

#1 Cause of Startup Death? Premature Scaling This is what INSEAD professor Nathan Furr said in a 2011 Forbes article. … Read More

Your Kanban is a living, breathing artifact. Use it daily and update it frequently. Keep it live and fresh. Why … Read More

Goal intentions describe what you hope to achieve. But they leave the moment of action undecided, and that is is … Read More

On the recurring, practical question of what to do when there are missing skills and expertise in the cross-functional Scrum … Read More

I use four mental models to describe my pedagogy (theory and practice of education): Structured + Unstructured Learning Lecturing, teaching, … Read More

Transcript

It’s mastery, so don’t expect it to be easy. As both a serial entrepreneur and agile coach to teams of … Read More

Confucius once said, “At fifteen my heart was set on learning, at thirty I stood firm, at forty I had … Read More

Dr. W.E. Deming, the father of TQM (Total Quality Management) and the whole Lean movement, once said: Without data, you’re … Read More

Kanban is deep… Combine that with Jeff Patton’s User Story Mapping (USM), it becomes a powerful visualization tool in Scrum.

This image is from Roland Smart’s “Agile Markerter” (https://amzn.to/2O7W2EA). It’s the cadence difference between feedabck (spot the typo? :-)) that … Read More

A tribute post to Professor Clayton Christensen, author of “The Innovator’s Dilemma” (1997), who passed away after a long illness. … Read More

“I don’t delegate, I empower.” The mantra of the modern enabling manager. I don’t disagree. Though caveat emptor. The delegation, … Read More

Our need to be right is pervasive. Suspend your assumptions, create a conversational space and have a dialogue, less a … Read More

Because when we’re overwhelmed, we make simple and complicated situations, complex and chaotic. Complexity & uncertainty handling is starting to … Read More

3 years ago today, French philosopher and psychoanalyst Anne Dufourmantelle, best known for her work on risk-taking (“In Praise of … Read More

Link to case study video: https://youtu.be/EW_PX50NAps Transcript What is an ambidextrous organization? In a nutshell, an ambidextrous organization takes care … Read More

Strategizer has a great product market fit development tool called the Value Proposition Canvas. Let’s take a look! Template: Value … Read More

Social and digital is accelerating the service economy transformation in our world. In the service economy, the competitive advantage is … Read More

Emotional contagion is the phenomenon in which we unconsciously mirror the emotions of those around us and begin to feel … Read More

Either it’s the artist in us or the perfectionist taking control, but many of us have a tendency to start … Read More

Dear Eli, Frankie and team, thanks for the follow-up questions to our group coaching session on “Aristotle’s Influence Model”. What … Read More

“If you hear a voice within you say you cannot paint, then by all means paint and that voice will … Read More

At Agile Organization Development we regularly design and deliver High Performance Leadership Development Programmes for MNCs. The set up by … Read More

Mental Model Dōjō pre-session video Transcript First, let’s take a step back and look at “command & control”. In modern … Read More

My stance is that, change and transformation is a result. We don’t change for the sake of changing. Rather, I … Read More

Chunking is a critical cognitive meta-skill. 🧊 It helps you organize information, enhances memory, and makes it easier to communicate … Read More

Sharing to fellow coaches this useful visual from Peter Senge’s Fifth Discipline book. Bringing awareness to limiting beliefs, while shifting … Read More

Four Areas of Focus We focus on the following four areas to help startups build strong foundations for marketing and … Read More

Honest disagreement is often a good sign of progress. – Mahatma Gandhi Nodding one’s head in agreement when reading an … Read More

(This is an excerpt post from Coach Takeshi’s Agile 101 with edits.) Question: would you agree with me, along with … Read More

Emotional regulation, stress management, and new habit formation are regular topics in my coaching sessions. When these topics come up, … Read More

The importance is to experiment and iterate. What approach you take is of secondary importance. Chose whatever approach that best … Read More

Defaults are everywhere Once you start looking, you notice defaults everywhere. At work, recurring meetings continue unless someone cancels them, … Read More

How do we speak with people who avoid conversations? This is a universal challenge for leaders, alongside leading through resistance … Read More

Does Agile work? To answer that question, I am starting a new video series of curating Agile success stories. The … Read More

Addressing the “Always On” Fatigue of Remote and Hybrid Working with Asynchronous Communication “I miss working in the office, at … Read More

The Irony of Delivering Agile Transformation with Waterfall Agile and digital transformation projects are abundant today. The irony is that … Read More

There are three types of empathy: cognitive, emotional and compassionate empathy; each respectively the desire to understand, to feel and … Read More

Practicing Empiricism in Learning Interventions As learning professionals, we coach, train, consult and facilitate our client teams to measure their … Read More

The New Leader’s Playbook for Leading with Learning In a world where AI is taking disruption to a whole new … Read More

Spoon theory is a simple way of describing energy as a finite daily resource, where each “spoon” stands for one … Read More

(This is an excerpt post from Coach Takeshi’s Agile 101 with edits.) One VERY helpful framing we use when we … Read More

Radical Candor: Care Personally, Challenge Directly Scott’s idea is that guidance is praise and criticism. And the best way to … Read More

Download the PDF

In coaching enabling conversation skills, I find Karpman’s Drama Triangle (1968) very useful. (1) Blaming, shaming and guilt tripping, (2) … Read More

It bewilders me. Sitting by a calm sea, single line and hook. No catch for today. That’s okay and probably … Read More

Two versions of Design Thinking POV (Point of View) Statement templates. Download PDF version with editable text boxes here: DT … Read More

Caught in an argument, tough negotiation or even a full-blown office battle? Try this simple two step conflict resolution approach. … Read More

We are highly functioning professionals. When we see a pattern, we know what to do. So, Know-Do. The challenge of … Read More

We fool ourselves in planning. Stop that. Plan smarter. We spend a lot of energy on planning. But, as the … Read More

Synopsis: Thanks to the popular “VUCA” acronym, the ability to manage enterprises and lead teams in volatile, uncertain, complex and … Read More

Our coachees affectionately call it the avocado. We use this to describe the required boundary conditions and effective organizational support … Read More

Relentless pursuit of product market fit is customer obsession. Reality is, so many distractions in the office… It would be … Read More

(Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/TCvI0szvJaQ) This is Session 1 of a 4 session journey exploring 16 behavioral science concepts that take … Read More

Join us at: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/13940775 Dear members of the Agile Organization Development Practitioner’s Community, thank you for joining and welcome to … Read More

This matters far beyond personal situations like late-night snacking or impulse shopping. The same gap shows up at work and … Read More

Behavioral Science for Emotional Intelligence, Part 3 of 4 Pre-reads About the Series 16 Behavioral Science Concepts Most Leaders Were … Read More

Knowledge is for consumption. This is my street philosophy, but I really abide to this. I really, really like to … Read More

Loss aversion: The psychological pain of losing is twice as powerful as the pleasure of gaining the exact same amount. … Read More

(This is an excerpt post from Coach Takeshi’s Agile 101) Agile is about relentlessly pursuing customer value. We accept uncertainty … Read More

David Marquet’s “Blue & Red Work” Red Work: Doing Time We continue to be haunted by the ghosts of Taylorism … Read More

Charlie Munger, Warren Buffet’s 95 years old “right hand man,” on “lattice work of mental models”: “You’ve got to have … Read More

Aristotle’s Influence Model is so fundamental and powerful that it’s a mental model I share at one point or another … Read More

What do you do? The dreaded elevator pitch question. I fumble on it every time. Some days I will say … Read More

“It’s not that they don’t get it. It’s that they’re resisting.” “I don’t get it. This plan makes so much … Read More

Integral emotions serve a functional, strategic purpose. Combined with the affect heuristic, which reminds you of your urge to make … Read More

Innovation as a Holistic, System-Wide Journey Over the years, I’ve partnered with large organizations grappling with the complexities of innovation. … Read More

日本一凝縮されたスクラム研修ビデオを作ってみました。スクラムの全てをカバーしつつ、なんと2時間切りです。2020年版スクラムガイド準拠。 講義スライドダウンロード: PDF 修了クイズ: 30問 講義録

As boss, how do we ask our team members “can you see to it?” without sounding hard-pressing and controlling? Getting … Read More

There’s one HBR article that I share but never hear back about. It’s Chris Argyris’ “Teaching Smart People How to … Read More

日本一わかりやすい、デザイン思考の説明ビデオを作ってみました。 スライドダウンロード PDF Transcript

Transcript

Design Thinking is process driven. It is a process to help us activate our creativity. Meanwhile, our brains don’t necessarily … Read More

Learn Scrum the right way! This is a one hour fifty minute condensed version of my otherwise one day Scrum … Read More

Here’s a rapid Design Thinking practice exercise that I do in my training sessions. It’s really simple. You pair up … Read More

Frustrations about others, are (not surprisingly) frequent topics of my coaching conversations. The clarifying question “So, what are you frustrated … Read More

One of the objectives of the Mental Model Dōjō community sessions is to create space for people to discuss hard-to-put-a-finger-on … Read More

(Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/tg7YJ3H9vcw) This is Session 2 of a 4 session journey exploring 16 behavioral science concepts that take … Read More

(This post is an excerpt from our earlier article A Pretty Good Summary of Lean, Agile, Scrum.) ‣ The Spiritless … Read More

Directional Talk, or Dialogue? Previously I shared CALM for receiving critical feedback. You can also have a Curious Active Listening … Read More

waterfall agile [ˈwɔːtəfɔːl aj-ahyl]: the paradoxical phenomenon observed in large organizations where agile transformation is attempted to be delivered with … Read More

Transcript

I chose this equestrian quote because today I wanted to talk about the time-boxed nature of Scrum, also known as … Read More

KISS, an acronym for “keep it simple, stupid” or “keep it stupid simple”, is a design principle noted by the … Read More

We tend to confront complex, dynamic realities with a language designed for simple, static problems: normal verbal language extracts simple, … Read More

Download the deck in PDF | Watch on YouTube Transcript

“Shared understanding” is an everyday word in my team coaching. It’s so easy to get into positional talk and convincing … Read More

My name is Takeshi. I am the founder of Lifecycle. We help startups succeed with better product development, and marketing. … Read More

Gong Xi Fa Cai! Wishing all those who celebrate the Lunar New Year a wonderful 2023 ahead! After another fruitful … Read More

The situation is volatile, uncertain, complex, ambiguous, overwhelming (VUCA”O”). We have an immediate, mission critical challenge to tackle. We need … Read More

The map is not the territory. – Alfred Korzybski, 1931 Semantic scientist and philosopher Korzybski coined this term to distinguish … Read More

Watch on YouTube References Transcript How do we lead with inspiration and purpose? It’s a good question and every leader’s … Read More

Our need to be right is persistant and we learning professionals are no exception. The key to be an effective … Read More

There are two parts to being a good active listener: doing active listening well, and being an active listener consistently, … Read More

The late Dr. Marshall Rosenberg’s Nonviolent Communication, made famous by Microsoft’s CEO Satya Nadella as required reading for his board, … Read More

We know the sound of two hands clapping. But what is the sound of one hand clapping? – Zen Master … Read More

Hi Coach Takeshi, I am working towards ICF PCC through ACTP ROUTE. I am not clear about what activities as … Read More

Again, it’s all in the balance. If it’s just all vision and empowerment, the team won’t move. Even as an … Read More

The Lean Startup, Eric Ries, 2011 Scrum, Jeff Sutherland, 2014 The Startup Owner’s Manual, Steve Blank and Bob Dorf, 2012 … Read More

When we think of feedbacking, we tend to just do “corrective feedbacking”; i.e. feedbacking on things to improve. Don’t do … Read More

(Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/55eGLyl2fSQ) Synopsis In my ongoing conversations with client organizations undergoing agile transformation, I’m observing a subtle yet … Read More

Once the desired end state is sufficiently clear, you begin working backwards. What decisions, capabilities, behaviors, or conditions would need … Read More

0. Acknowledge The very first step even before the first step of handling overwhelmingness, is to acknowledge it. We often … Read More

In academia, Organization Development (OD) is defined as “a system-wide application and transfer of behavioral science knowledge to the planned … Read More

There’s this thing called failure porn. As Agile professionals, as educators, as parents, we say it’s okay to fail. Go … Read More

Here are eight mind and heart hacks for immediate deployment in emotionally charged situations. I use Rhythm Section and Observe, … Read More