Get Agile
- Get Agile #16
Fearless Change
How do we change organizations? How do we change ourselves? Tomasz Wykowski from ProCognita and Linda Rising, author, lecturer and independent consultant discuss why change is hard, how companies can introduce it by running small experiments and why they can’t create a schedule for transformation. Listen to their conversation to understand why running around with checklists won’t help you much, what to do instead and what are critical factors for successful change.
Additional resources:
- Linda Rising website: https://lindarising.org/
- Fearless Change patterns and book: https://fearlesschangepatterns.com/
- Change or Die book by Alan Deutschman: https://www.amazon.com/Change-Die-Three-Keys-Work/dp/0061373672
- Slack book by Tom DeMarco: https://www.amazon.com/Slack-Getting-Burnout-Busywork-Efficiency-ebook/dp/B004SOVC2Y
- Get Agile #15
Changing Company Culture
Tomasz Wykowski from ProCognita and Scott Dunn, Certified Scrum Trainer discuss company culture and why it often leads to failure of Agile adoption. Learn what you need to know about the culture as a leader, how to understand where you currently are using Competing Values Framework, how to create a vision of where you want to be, and finally, how to design the experiments that will help in the change. As the company culture changes, so does the leader’s role, moving from ‘expert’ to ‘coach and facilitator’.
Learn more about Scott at https://procognita.com/company/team/trainers/scott-dunn
Mentioned resources:
- Patrick Lencioni “The Advantage” book: https://www.amazon.com/Advantage-Organizational-Health-Everything-Business/dp/1491510803
- Jim Collins “Good to Great” book: https://www.amazon.com/Good-Great-Some-Companies-Others/dp/0066620996
- Competing Values Framework https://rocketninesolutions.com/2019/10/competing-values-framework/
- V2MOM method from Salesforce described by Scott here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmTc8R0m4vM&t=0s and there’s a free tool from Salesforce https://trailhead.salesforce.com/en/content/learn/modules/manage_the_sfdc_organizational_alignment_v2mom
- Path to Agility overview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_PSsW39JC8 and website: https://pathtoagility.com/
- Version One surveys: https://stateofagile.com/
- Get Agile #14
Building the versatile organization
In this episode Tomasz Wykowski from ProCognita interviews Jurgen Appelo, creator of the Management 3.0 movement. Join them to hear ideas behind the versatile organization and how organizations can thrive in the post-covid world. Learn why companies should abandon the product approach and focus on designing a consistent experience for their users, how to ensure collaboration between organizational departments, what are the challenges of tools such as OKRs, and how to avoid them. You’ll also find out why Jurgen thinks that stable teams are no longer optimal solution for companies and what’s the alternative.
Learn more about Jurgen at https://procognita.com/company/team/trainers/jurgen-appelo. and https://jurgenappelo.com/. You can also read about Shiftup at https://shiftup.work/ Mentioned books: Team Topologies: https://teamtopologies.com/book Dynamic Reteaming: https://www.amazon.com/Dynamic-Reteaming-Wisdom-Changing-Teams/dp/1733567216 Interview with Jurgen in Agile to agility podcast by Miljan Bajic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWGt_2mfyD0&t=0s
- Get Agile #13
Why is Scrum Minimally Prescriptive?
Join Tomasz Wykowski from ProCognita and Angela Johnson, Certified Scrum Trainer from Collaborative Leadership Team. Find out why Scrum is missing many Agile practices like User Stories, Velocity or Definition of Ready, why Scrum courses are more about unlearning than learning, and why starting using Scrum can be Scary. Finally, learn what A-word and Project Management Hangover are.
- Get Agile #12
Working in Remote Environment
Join Tomasz Wykowski and Lisette Sutherland, Director of Collaboration Superpowers. Learn do and don’ts of working efficiently in a remote environment. Find out why the future is becoming a hybrid working environment and how to prepare for it.
Useful resources:
- Remote Work Success Kit - https://www.collaborationsuperpowers.com/superkit/
- Workshops - https://www.collaborationsuperpowers.com/workshops/
- Podcast - https://www.collaborationsuperpowers.com/podcasts/
- Book - https://lisettesutherland.com/book/
- Get Agile #11
Training from the Back of the Room
Join Tomasz Wykowski and Nicole Fleming, Training From the Back of the Room Certified Trainer and Certifier. Learn about brain-based learning and how to make your training more effective and engaging. Find out how to move from the stage to be a guide for your participants. Discover principles behind the Training from the Back of the Room approach and how to move your physical courses into the virtual world.
Learn more about Nicole at https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicole-fleming-b6726a10/ and about her courses at https://flemingservices.biz/
More resources on Training from the Back of the Room:
- Get Agile #10
Professional Coaching in Agile
In this episode, Tomasz Wykowski interviews Lucia Baldelli, ICF Certified Professional Coach and Scrum Alliance Certified Enterprise Coach about bringing professional coaching into the Agile world. Listen to their conversation to learn how Lucia works with both teams and management, how she creates contracts and builds trust and when it's the right moment to provide knowledge, options or questions.
Additional links:
- International Coaching Federation (ICF): https://coachingfederation.org/
- Scrum Alliance Agile Coaching Program: https://www.scrumalliance.org/agile-coaching
- Get Agile #9
Stakeholders Value
In this episode, Tomasz Wykowski interviews Tom Gilb about defining Customer Value. Learn about Tom’s EVO method and why one goal is not enough for your product.
Tom’s talk at TedxTrondheim “Quantify the un-quantifiable” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOfK6rSLVTA
You can find Tom’s Value Requirements book in ProCognita Free Agile Handouts.
- Get Agile #8
Mob Programming
In this episode, Tomasz Wykowski interviews Woody Zuill about Mob Programming. Join them to learn where the name comes from, how to start, what to expect during mobbing sessions, and common pitfalls to avoid.
Mentioned resources:
- Mob Programming book: https://leanpub.com/mobprogramming
- Mob Programming website: https://mobprogramming.org/
- Where to practice online: https://exercism.io/ https://www.codewars.com/ https://codingdojo.org/
- Coding Dojo: https://codingdojo.org/
- A day of Mob Programming Videos https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_pvslS4gEI and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dVqUcNKVbYg
- Get Agile #7
Scrum Patterns
In this episode, Tomasz Wykowski interviews Arne Ahlander, a Certified Scrum Trainer from Sweden about Scrum Patterns.
Scrum Patterns links:
- A Scrum Book: The Spirit of the Game https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1680506714
- Collection of patterns from the book https://www.scrumbook.org/
- Patterns community - http://www.scrumplop.org/
- Get Agile #6
Kaizen - making employee life easier
In this episode Tomasz Wykowski interviews Kiro Harada, Agile Practitioner from Japan, who was involved in development of the supply chain system for Toyota. Listen to their conversation about how Toyota Production System was initially misunderstood and how to transfer Lean Principles into the software development world.
Learn more about Kiro and his company at https://www.attractor.co.jp/english/
The Scrum Patterns can be found at http://scrumbook.org/
Books mentioned during the conversation:
- James P. Womack, Daniel T. Jones, Daniel Ross “The Machine That Changed the World” https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001D1SRRS
- James P. Womack, Daniel T. Jones “Lean Thinking” https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0048WQDIO
- James M. Morgan, Jeffrey K. Liker “The Toyota Product Development System” https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1563272822
- Allen Ward, Durward Sobek “Lean Product and Process Development” https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00IPNN1Z0
- Get Agile #5
Agile Engineering Practices
In this episode, Tomasz Wykowski interviews Ron Jeffries and Chet Hendrickson - people who were involved in the creation of: Extreme Programming, Agile Manifesto (Ron is one of the authors, Chet is the first signatory), and Certified Scrum Developer Program by Scrum Alliance. Plus a few other things. Listen to their discussion about how Extreme Programming impacted the way software is being developed now, the benefits of agile engineering practices, and why so many Scrum teams are still not using them.
Visit their websites:
https://www.hendricksonxp.com/
https://ronjeffries.com/ - Get Agile #4
Agile Hardware Development
Tomasz Wykowski interviews Joe Justice, Certified Scrum Trainer, TEDx speaker, founder of WIKISPEED, and creator of the Extreme Manufacturing and Scrum@Hardware methods. Hear how companies are increasing agility in their hardware product development and what Tesla is doing differently from all other car manufacturers.
Resources mentioned during the interview:
- Get Agile #3
It’s not about the software
Tomasz Wykowski interviews Mary and Tom Poppendieck - authors and speakers who’d translated Lean principles and practices into the software development world. Listen to the origins of Lean and XP in Toyota and Chrysler, and learn how successful companies develop their services.
Find Mary and Tom's books at Amazon.
- Get Agile #2
Descaling Organization
Tomasz Wykowski interviews Jurgen De Smet, Certified LeSS Trainer on why it’s hard to increase agility of large organization, how to start the transformation and what are the key principles of successful transformation.
Books mentioned during the interview:
- “Specification by Example” by Gojko Adzic
- “Impact Mapping” by Gojko Adzic
- "Your code is a crime scene” by Adam Tornhill
- Get Agile #1
What are the Product Owner Key Skills?
Tomasz Wykowski interviews Gojko Adzic, author, trainer and consultant on the key skills of successful Product Owners.
Books mentioned during the interview:
- “The Four Steps to the Epiphany” by Steve Blank
- “Practices for Scaling Lean and Agile” by Craig Larman and Bas Vodde,
- "Four Disciplines of Execution” by Chris McChesney, Sean Covey and Jim Huling
- “Inspired” by Marty Cagan
- “What Customers Want” by Anthony Ulwick
- “Problem Frames” by Michael Jackson
Articles mentioned during the interview:
- Christmas prioritization by Gojko Adzic https://gojko.net/2017/12/11/christmas-prioritisation.html
- Ten ways of 5 whys by Chris Matts https://theitriskmanager.com/2013/12/30/ten-ways-of-five-whys/

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