Posts

All over the world, there are classes that teach people how to flirt. A German university even requires their IT engineers take a flirting class—not to attract a partner, but to learn how to interact more effectively in the workplace. While it may[…]

How do we get things done faster? Simple tools can make the biggest impact on our work environment. Use this impediment busting tool to get over the hurdles in the workplace that keep your team from doing their best work. Watch this simple hack to[…]

There is a common misperception in many organizations transforming to Agile ways of working that Agile is yet one more way to do project management.And to make it worse, there are many funny sounding names for the frameworks: Scrum, Kanban and SAF[…]

Are your Agile teams and programs succeeding because of or in spite of your governance structures? In most governance setups I have experienced (traditional or “so-called Agile”), artifacts/documents seem to play a major role: RACI matrices, one-p[…]

Stop following the fixed plan. Delivering value to your customers requires pausing to evaluate along the way. In this short video, Jenni shares a back-of-the-napkin explanation for: Why we should stop relying on fixed, long-term plans. How to work[…]

In scaling Agile ways of working, frameworks suggest that we “organize around value” and that we foster “organizational Agility.” Of course! This is common sense. So how do we make it common practice? Change the way we work with organizational cha[…]

In an out-of-your-control, irritating situation, you can choose to stay irritated, or…try another response. In this video, Jenni shares: That we are in control of our responses. Choosing to see the positive side of an irritating situation keeps yo[…]

I’ll let you in on a secret: I don’t care what letter you put in front of ”DD.” I don’t care so much about how code is written or the ins-and-outs of software development. It’s not because I don’t realize how incredibly important it is – it’s beca[…]

Feel like a broken record? You might, however your audience doesn’t hear it that way. In this video, Jenni shares: Why consistently repeating your message bring clarity. Advice on how to think of how your audience hears it, rather than on how you […]

Anne Carøe Hald from Lunar bank in Copenhagen shares what TOGETHER means to her and how it impacts how she leads. It's about doing what matters. She asks: what is it that you really want? As a leader, you need to have these conversations in order […]

Meet Ida, the head of ReDI School in Copenhagen, a non-profit technical school. ReDi School provides women with refugee and migrant backgrounds valuable digital skills, as well as a strong network of fellow students, volunteers and alumni to gain […]

Learn what being together with the right people means from the perspective of a racing boat skipper, and lessons to take into leading at every level in your organization.

Anders Vognsen, Head of the Lean Agile Center of Excellence in Novo Nordisk, works together with his team and colleagues to focus on delivering value for the global healthcare company headquartered in Copenhagen, Denmark. Novo Nordisk’s purpose is[…]

One of the characteristics of great leaders is vulnerability. Nordea’s Jørn Overgaard Christiansen shares lessons learned about the importance of empathy in working together.

Meet Mads Jæger. Partner KPMG, the fastest growing professional services firm in Denmark. Across their service lines, KPMG works with more than 75% of companies in C20 and 15 of the largest companies in Denmark. In our latest Conversations with Le[…]

Build trust to breakdown silos by: being curious, seeing others’ perspectives & experimenting to do things differently TOGETHER.

Keeping close connections with employees in the time of COVID. How Tommy and his team at Codan Forsikring in Copenhagen create greater understanding TOGETHER.

Solving stressful challenges together. How CitizenM Copenhagen’s staff uses feedback to learn and move forward TOGETHER.

Though it may seem counterintuitive, slowing down when all you want to do is speed up may be the smartest thing to do. In this short video, Jenni shares: The importance of pausing to make space for the next step. How speed bumps serve as “calming […]

Look familiar? End this meeting hell by involving & engaging, and understanding together to create ownership.

More consequences of command & control behavior blocking the ability to get great things done. You can end meeting hell TOGETHER!

Not taking time to Understand Together leads to confusion, frustration, and lots of wasted time. You can end meeting hell TOGETHER.

Our brains make us focus on errors. What if we could focus more on successes? In this video, Jenni shares: That our brains are trained to focus on errors. Why a move-toward-reward mindset makes more sense than an avoid-errors mindset. Spending mor[…]

Chunking work into shorter complete cycles by scheduling a pause gives us a chance to reflect on the completed work and decide on the next step. The added benefit of many completes within the scope of a project allows for improvements to take plac[…]

If giving up control is hard, start by giving just a little bit of control. In this short video, Jenni shares: How to help your inner “control freak” let go of control. Feel safer giving up control. Start small and build the give-control habit. Th[…]

A case history on the importance of understanding together and how it leads to getting great things done from best-selling author of Turn the Ship Around!, L. David Marquet. Living in the era of the Covid-19 pandemic taught us the importance of do[…]

Did you know that research shows that giving unsolicited feedback doesn’t work? People go on the defensive and improvements don’t happen. Watch & learn what to do instead.

To help people get through the pain of change, be available for your team members, and transparent in how you share information. Watch Jenni's Leadership Nudge on why leaders must support and encourage people through change.

Many of the leaders we work with are frustrated that their people don’t speak up and share their ideas or issues that they see. “Why do I always find out later?” and “Why are our team members so passive in meetings and workshops?” are questions we[…]

Don’t let people fend for themselves in a change, remove the frustration by supporting and encouraging people through the change instead. In this video nudge, Jenni shares: The importance of supporting people through change. That by recognising th[…]

Getting better at what we do not only makes our daily life easier, it increases our motivation. Simply put, we feel a rush when we improve. The Intent-Based Leadership principle: Don’t be good, get better brings our focus, as leaders, to improving[…]

Online meetings and workshops are here to stay. However, so many of them are boring and fail to involve and engage participants. If we don’t involve and engage people, we will never create ownership for the results from the workshop.

The impact of our words on our thinking is clear. When we talk about the great people working with us in our organizations as “resources,” it turns people into objects. Objects that can be moved around or discarded at will. Over the long term, our[…]

When was the last time you caught someone in the act of doing something right? Sometimes in this busy world we live in, we forget to acknowledge when people are doing things right. In this video, Jenni shares how: Immediate recognition reinforces […]

Jenni's introduction to Intent-based Leadership from the Agile Breakfast is now available to watch in full with subtitles.

In this video in our Conversations with Leaders series, L. David Marquet shares an early mistake he made as a U.S. Navy submarine captain. It’s the story that inspired his best-selling book, Turn the Ship Around! The captain and his crew were gett[…]

In our latest “Conversations with Leaders,” we interview Michael Poulsen, Vice President, Head of Business Technology at Tryg. Tryg is one of the largest insurance companies in Scandinavia with nearly 7,000 employees. “Conversations with Leaders” […]

Our old ideas of good leadership is where the leader knows all, tells all and is always in control. It’s difficult for us to change because those old habits are hardwired in our brains! Intent-Based Leadership® offers a way for us to rewire – to g[…]

Why is it that figuring out what to focus on in the PI/Big Room Planning sessions is always difficult? In this video, we explain what it takes to make SAFe work with Slicing and Master Planning. This is how to make SAFe work – with Scaled Planning[…]

There’s a lot we’ve learned in all the years we’ve been working with organizations looking to deliver value to their customers faster, and have happier employees. Discovering Agile methodologies: XP, Scrum and SAFe changed our lives. But the real […]

Rename your “sprint review” or “iteration review” to demo & feedback, to emphasize that the purpose is to get feedback. Without feedback, we’re blindfolded in our attempt to follow the value and build something that will delight our customers. Dem[…]

Optimal thinking depends on the right levels of stress. How does stress affect productivity? What can leaders do to help their team be more effective? In this video, Jenni shares: Why we need to have the right amount of stress to get to high perfo[…]

Organizational challenges in the 21st century require more than pure fact in order to get to successful strategies. We no longer live in a world where analysis alone provides the best solutions. But the bias still exists to solve problems with ana[…]

Learn how the impediment buster board helps make it easier to remove blockers in your organization. In this video, Jenni shares: How one simple tool makes it easy to make obstacles transparent in the organization. How you can remove those obstacle[…]

Scaled planning, including slicing and master planning, is a pragmatic approach to help you with your scaled planning challenges. Scaled planning uses the organization’s overall Strategic objectives (the target in the middle of the illustration) a[…]

The only right way to start a new development effort is to get slicing and a common understanding in place – and it is very difficult to do. Perhaps you might think you have it in place, and then you start planning and developing, and find out tha[…]

Scaled Planning, including slicing and master planning, is a pragmatic approach to help you with your scaled planning challenges. Scaled planning uses the organization’s overall strategic objectives (the target in the middle of the illustration) a[…]

Scaled planning, including slicing and master planning, is a pragmatic approach to help you with your scaled planning challenges. Scaled planning uses the organization’s overall strategic objectives (the target in the middle of the illustration) a[…]

Research shows giving feedback doesn’t work. For feedback to work, we need to want it. Asking for feedback enables us to improve. In this video, Jenni shares: Why asking for feedback is the secret to making feedback work. Why feedback feels threat[…]

Help your people reduce stress & increase performance. Leaders who support and encourage their people, especially in times of stress, have higher performing organizations. Learn more about how stress impacts our performance — and what we can do ab[…]

Hard time focusing on a task at hand? Take a break. In this video, Jenni shares: Why taking a break is good for our thinking. Why continuing a cognitive task when you’re out of energy doesn’t make sense. The focused, rational thinking part of our […]

Trying to control what others do or what we cannot control is not only frustrating, it’s bad for your health & happiness. In this video, Jenni shares: Why trying to control what you cannot control is bad for your health. How you can choose to let […]

Did you know that Amazon can deliver your package in 30 minutes? In contrast, most banks take weeks to deliver a simple loan or service. Why? Because Amazon is organized around customer journeys. Banks typically need to involve several departments[…]

We know from experience that Agile works to increase people’s motivation, joy of work, and effectiveness. But why, from a brain perspective, do things like having the overview, influence, autonomy and certainty work to make us feel more rewarded[…]

Our brains have evolved over thousands of years to see the danger around us. Hardwiring these negative connections has allowed us to survive as a species. And it has also made it easy for us to say, “I can’t” or “we can’t.” In this video, Jenni sh[…]

Think out loud to share ideas, observations, worries, and questions in any kind of change. Learn how one company is “thinking out loud” as a way to implement their new operating model. In this short video, Jenni shares the story of an organization[…]

The job of Product Owner is incredibly complex – it involves understanding the value that needs to be delivered (from your users’ or customers’ perspective) and figuring out how to work with all the product’s stakeholders to get that value deliver[…]

There’s a lot of togetherness in today’s agile organizations. Working together does bring results. Did you know, though, that seeking social connections are things we humans do naturally? Our brains are wired to connect. Take advantage of this[…]

You know the drill. We get a lot of requirements from stakeholders, ideas from people all around us and suddenly our backlog is so large there is no way we can keep the overview let alone get everything done. Why do we always seem to add things to[…]

People working in Agile organizations say this frequently – and of course, they’re right. Agile only brings us more business value when: Everyone has clarity about what business value looks and feels like. We have sliced our desirements/objectives[…]

If you’re working in an organization that requires planning across multiple teams across multiple countries, you’re probably part of hybrid Big Room Planning sessions (also known as PI Planning & 90-day planning). Yet…so often we hear people say […]

The next time somebody is telling you about their situation and you want to comment, think before you speak: is what you are about to say helpful? In this video, Jenni shares: Why sometimes we don’t need to voice our opinion. That providing a posi[…]

There are so many KPIs that talk about “empowerment.” Empowering people means that you have the power! Watch our talk about how leaders can create an environment where people feel empowered, rather than depending on you to empower them.