
Takeshi Yoshida
Chief Coach & Founder, Agile Organization Development
CEO, Lifecycle Pte. Ltd. (Singapore)
Summary
I am a coach, consultant, facilitator, trainer that develops organizations for change, transformation and innovation. I lead a growing tribe of currently twenty plus coaches that are all hybrid behavioral + process coaches; typically ICF (International Coaching Federation) certified coaches with expertise in Agile, Design Thinking and Lean.
I am concurrently a serial startup entrepreneur and a former banker with a combined quarter of a century experience as a front-line business professional. I practice what I preach – from theory to action, everything that I coach is tried, tested and validated through my own learning by doing. Therefore my coaching is not teaching; it is more about sharing of experience and trying together.
Expertise
- Behavioral Coaching: My coaching focus is on conversations. I help clients develop stronger conversation and communication skills with habit formation training using many mental models (https://agile-od.com/mental-model-dojo). I am a Certified Positive Psychology Coach (CPPC II) and International Coaching Federation Associate Certified Coach (ICF ACC). In addition to individual coaching with executives and entrepreneurs, I am particularly proficient in group and team coaching.
- Process Coaching: I practice Design Thinking, Agile Scrum and Lean everyday. I am a Scrum.org Professional Scrum Master (PSM II) and Professional Product Owner (PSPO). I use Liberating Structures for my facilitation work, and am also a certified Lego® Serious Play® facilitator.
- Organization Development (OD): I see organizations from five view points: people, process, structure, product & client. Most organizations are well resourced (although efficacy is another question) for the latter two commercial focuses (product & client), therefor I bring the spotlight to the first three areas for Organizational Capability building (people, process, structure).
- Industry Expertise: Prior to becoming a learning professional, I was a career banker between 1994~2011, with significant fixed income transaction experience across Japan, Asia and global Emerging Markets. Since 2011 I have been a serial startup entrepreneur, particularly in the fintech space as I maintain close relationship with the banking and insurance industry.
Further, I work with organizations on bringing drive to the operational and delivery aspects of organizational change, digital transformation and innovation programs. My take is that there’s enough planning and thinking in these programs, but not enough effort in the execution, hence the focus.
Coaching Focus
Performing teams have processes that work, and people that talk to each other. It’s that simple but organizational reality shows otherwise. I help leaders and teams learn complexity handling and enabling conversation skills to make this simple thing work.
- Complexity Handling: Among the simple-complicated-complex-chaotic spectrum, we often confuse the difference between complicated and complex, and make the common error of using tools and processes meant for complicated tasks, to complex work. Further, we often become overwhelmed and make simple and complicated things complex (and even out of hand – chaotic). Agile Scrum, Design Thinking, Lean Startup are all frameworks and approaches developed for handling complex work, and I make good use of the learnings from the field to coach complexity handling.
- Enabling Conversations: Despite the decades of advances in behavioral and cognitive science, we are still trapped in the use of controlling language. Often, catalyst moments in coaching sessions come when coachees discover the true power of inquiry and dialogue. The challenge is how to sustain that revelation – we are creature of habits, and habits are hard to change. The focus is on the practicing, and I make many references to old and new literature on human sciences for coaching enabling conversation skills.
Meanwhile, I am an ardent advocate of learning organizations, and central to this is the practice of self-organization.
- Self-Organization: Without activating the collective intelligence of the team, developing complex products in today’s evolving technological landscape is an impossibility. And self-organization is a consistent trait observed in high performing teams. Yet again as we are so ingrained in command and control culture, self-organization does not come naturally to most teams. It takes some good coaching and organizational alignment to de-learn the many old habits that we hold, yet with a lot of optimism (it doesn’t hurt to be a Positive Psychology coach!) and respect to our intrinsic drive for autonomy, purpose and mastery, I am confident that change for self-organization can happen with every team.
Clients
Current Engagements
- INSEAD: Corporate Executive Programme lecturer and workshop trainer
- Major European FMCG: Agile transformation advisor and agile coach for CIO/CTO board
- Global consulting company: Organization wide leadership development programme director
- Singapore Government agency: Executive leadership team coach, organizational transformation programme with Service Design
- Global insurance company: Agile cultural transformation programme lead coach and trainer
- Executive coaching engagements with global financial institutions, MNCs, GAFA
-
2011 – Present: Lifecycle Pte. Ltd., Founder (Singapore)
-
2018 – Present: Organization Development, coaching, training, facilitation, consulting
-
2019 – Present: INSEAD Executive Education, Lecturer & Workshop Trainer, Facilitator
-
2011 – Present: Various start-up projects
-
2015 – 2018: Canopy Pte. Ltd., Chief Commercial Officer (Singapore, fintech)
-
2009 – 2011: Barclays Bank, Director (Singapore & Tokyo, Global Markets)
-
2004 – 2009: Deutsche Bank, Director (Singapore & Tokyo, Global Markets)
-
2002 – 2004: Bank of America, VP (Tokyo, Global Markets)
-
1994 – 2001: Morgan Stanley (Tokyo, Investment Banking, Asset Management)
-
2001 – 2002: INSEAD, MBA, Freshfields Scholarship (France)
-
1990 – 1994: International Christian University, BA, Liberal Arts (Tokyo)
-
Certified LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® Facilitator, Association of Master Trainers in the LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® Method (credential)
-
CPPC (International Association of Positive Psychology Coaches, Certified Positive Psychology Coach, credential)
-
ICF ACC (International Coach Federation, Associate Certified Coach, credential)
-
Professional Scrum Master, Product Owner (PSM II, PSPO), Scrum.org (credential)
-
Hogan Assessment, Level I & II (Advanced Interpretation: HPI, HDS, MVPI, Team Report) Certified (credential)
Career, Education & Qualifications
Testimonials
Contact
Publications
Try Design Thinking + Scrum: A Powerful Hybrid Agile Approach
Classic Scrum’s Achilles’ heel One of the weak areas of classic Scrum, in my opinion, is the relative simplicity of … Read More
Remote and Hybrid Teamwork Success: “Asynchronous” Communication is the Key
Addressing the “Always On” Fatigue of Remote and Hybrid Working with Asynchronous Communication “I miss working in the office, at … Read More
Radical Candor: My Go To Feedback Routine
Radical Candor: Care Personally, Challenge Directly Scott’s idea is that guidance is praise and criticism. And the best way to … Read More
Ambidextrous Organizations Explained
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
A Pretty Good Summary of Lean, Agile Scrum
Glossary: Lean, Agile, Scrum, Sprint, Kanban Consider Lean & Agile as pretty much the same thing, they are basically really … Read More
Structured + Unstructured Learning, Vertical + Horizontal Learning, Shu-Ha-Ri (守破離), Spirit of Kizuki (気付きの精神)
I use four mental models to describe my pedagogy (theory and practice of education): Structured + Unstructured Learning Lecturing, teaching, … Read More
Liberating Structures
Liberating Structures is a collection of powerful team exercises curated by Henri Lipmanowicz and Keith McCandless (www.liberatingstructures.com). The following slides … Read More
Coach Takeshi’s Scrum Crash Course
Learn Scrum the right way! This is a one hour fifty minute condensed version of my otherwise one day Scrum … Read More
Scrum Sprint Pilot
Pilot objective Within the Scrum community, there is abundant writing suggesting that the two main factors of Scrum implementation failure … Read More
Strategy Session Facilitation with Design Thinking & Liberating Structures
Why brainstorming doesn’t work That was fun, but… Why do we get that slight, lingering feeling of doubt and dissatisfaction … Read More
Maslow’s Final Theory Z
Self-Transcendence – Beyond Self-Actualization and Theory X & Y Maslow’s Original Hierarchy of Needs Model In 1943, Abraham H. Maslow … Read More
Latest Posts
Authentic Conversations and the Art of Feedbacking
Watch on YouTube References Transcript Why is it so hard to have an authentic conversation? The type of conversation that … Read More
Why Design Thinking + Scrum Makes a lot of Sense
Watch on YouTube Learn How To Do Design Thinking + Scrum Transcript In doing so, first, I’d like to take … Read More
Rapid Design Thinking template: Ideate customer solutions in less than 30 minutes
Stuck with a customer challenge? No problem, let’s visualize it. Sharing my Rapid Design Thinking Template that I frequently use … Read More
Maslow’s Final Theory Z
Self-Transcendence – Beyond Self-Actualization and Theory X & Y Maslow’s Original Hierarchy of Needs Model In 1943, Abraham H. Maslow … Read More
Knowing to Stop – a Confucius Teaching
We practice the art of stopping – meditation, mindfulness, reflection, introspection, zen. Confucius says to stop, we first need to … Read More
Strategy Session Facilitation with Design Thinking & Liberating Structures
Why brainstorming doesn’t work That was fun, but… Why do we get that slight, lingering feeling of doubt and dissatisfaction … Read More
Scrum Sprint Pilot
Pilot objective Within the Scrum community, there is abundant writing suggesting that the two main factors of Scrum implementation failure … Read More
Try Design Thinking + Scrum: A Powerful Hybrid Agile Approach
Classic Scrum’s Achilles’ heel One of the weak areas of classic Scrum, in my opinion, is the relative simplicity of … Read More
Knowing to Stop – A Confucius Teaching
Confucius’ 7 spaces of learning Knowing to stop – is a simple notion but difficult to practice skill. In “Great … Read More
Lean, Lean Manufacturing, Lean Startup: Clarified
Lean: not just a hype word for efficiency Yah sure, we do “lean” here and we operate a tight ship … Read More
A Pretty Good Summary of Lean, Agile Scrum
Glossary: Lean, Agile, Scrum, Sprint, Kanban Consider Lean & Agile as pretty much the same thing, they are basically really … Read More
The Many Faces of a Learning Professional
Our need to be right is persistant and we learning professionals are no exception. The key to be an effective … Read More
Gong Xi Fa Cai 2023!
Gong Xi Fa Cai! Wishing all those who celebrate the Lunar New Year a wonderful 2023 ahead! After another fruitful … Read More
What is a High Performing Leader?
At Agile Organization Development we regularly design and deliver High Performance Leadership Development Programmes for MNCs. The set up by … Read More
It’s seductive to assume that data is really knowledge.
Dr. W.E. Deming, the father of TQM (Total Quality Management) and the whole Lean movement, once said: Without data, you’re … Read More
Can agile coaching hours count towards ICF credentialling?
Hi Coach Takeshi, I am working towards ICF PCC through ACTP ROUTE. I am not clear about what activities as … Read More
Lean Lingo
Kaizen, Kanban, Gemba, Muda and other Lean lingo we always hear, what do they actually mean? Coach Takeshi explains. Download … Read More