How to measure Business Value - a pragmatic approach to metrics in a complex environment

With Agile the focus is always on Value, but how to measure it? Simple metrics like lead time and the like are easy to measure but unreliable approximations, so instead we turn to more and more complex metrics like NPS, but are these truly more effective?

In this talk we will discuss the huge caveat when using empiricism that nobody seems to notice. We will explore the consequences it has and how being aware of it makes us better at measuring stuff, the right way.
I will show how, by applying an Agile approach, we can radically reconsider the way we measure things, something which presents a huge opportunity for your organisation.

Takeaways:
- why empiricism is not the superpower it is made out to be.
- why grand metrics are a terrible idea in a complex system.
- a new approach to measuring value effectively.

A Systemic Approach to Organisation Design and Change Management

130 years since Taylor took the first steps in our quest to figure out how to design organisations and we are still struggling. It is time for us all to take the lead - no more excuses! The world is waiting.

In this talk, I will describe how we need to stop talking about frameworks, manifestos and the newest fad. Together we will explore the basic principles that are the foundation of all those frameworks and methodologies we are so much in awe of.

We will discover how to use them and how to start developing our own frameworks and methodologies rooted in our own particular context.

Join me in discovering what Agile was always supposed to be: an extremely effective approach that is liberating and lots of fun!

Takeaways:
- getting back to basics - what are the essential principles of Agile.
- how to use these principles effectively, at both the team and organisation level.
- how understanding these principles allows you to break out of frameworks and create your own.
- how Agile is not about of-the-shelve solutions but about learning!

The Mental State of Flow - Our Evolutionary Superskill To Deal With Complexity

Have you ever done something where you felt like you were in a higher state of awareness, your focus sharp like a knife, and time seemed to stand still? Imagine you could harness that same feeling in your work, working with your Scrum Team? Even cooler, imagine you could measure that feeling, and use it to guide you in just about all the organisational choices you make at work?

That feeling is the Mental State of Flow. Using insights from my work as an ecologist I will show you how over millions of years we humans have evolved an instinctive feeling for Flow, as a way to deal with complexity.

In this talk we will discuss how this makes Flow the perfect alternative for our struggles with dashboards, assessments, metrics and the like. And how Flow is an example of the new kind of tools we need to make sense of complexity and find our way as change agents.

Using examples from my experience as a change agent, I will show you how to use Flow at all levels of the organisation, providing you with a step-by-step approach to start using Flow in your work, and a sense-making matrix to help you make choices using Flow.

I hope to inspire you to join me in finding other patterns in nature to help us deal with complexity!

I've done this talk at Agile Cambridge, Agile Tour Vilnius and Scrum Day Europe. Every iteration is different as I integrate feedback and learnings.

Unlocking our Human Potential: Hacking Your Brain to Become a Superstar Developer

What makes a superstar developer? Can anyone become a superstar developer?

In this talk we will discuss the characteristics that make a superstar developer. Drawing ideas from psychology, change management, ecology and agile, we will explore how our complex brains have evolved over millions of years to deal with complexity.
We will explore how we all have a huge potential and unrecognised skills just waiting to be unleashed. And I will show you how to cultivate these skills, allowing you to make creative leaps in our linear, logic-driven world.

Join me in discovering how to unlock your true potential and transform the way you work.

Takeaways:
- Learn techniques to enhance focus and productivity by understanding and leveraging the brain's natural capabilities.
- Explore practical methods to achieve and maintain states of deep focus and creativity.
- Gain strategies to revolutionize your work approach, maximizing your potential as a developer.

The Metrics Fallacy: Why Our Best Intentions Fail in a Complex World

From the catastrophic quality issues at Boeing to the spread of misinformation on social media, we are witnessing a powerful and dangerous pattern: initiatives designed to improve complex systems are being derailed by an over-reliance on metrics.

This talk exposes the fundamental flaw in our approach, revealing how we apply tools from a "complicated" world to problems that are inherently "complex." We'll explore why metrics only give us a limited glimpse of reality and can lead to unintended, and often catastrophic, consequences.

Drawing on frameworks like the Stacey Matrix, this session will challenge the notion that "if you can't measure it, you can't manage it" and propose a new path forward: one that prioritizes intuitive "sense-making," human collaboration, and adaptive learning, embracing innovative concepts such as flow and trust over the tyranny of numbers.

The AI Paradox: The Cost and Opportunity of Delegated Thinking

Artificial intelligence presents humanity with a two-sided coin: a profound challenge and an unprecedented opportunity.

The challenge is a modern extension of Taylorism: turning people into efficient, unthinking cogs in a machine. AI accelerates this pattern, making it frighteningly easy for us to delegate the need to think.

The opportunity, however, is the antithesis of the challenge: AI can automate the mundane, bureaucratic, and repetitive tasks that consume our days, freeing us for deep thought, allowing us to reclaim time for creativity, problem-solving, and meaningful innovation.

This talk explores this critical dichotomy, asking where the balance lies and where this path will ultimately lead. It's an investigation into how we can navigate this new landscape, using AI not as a tool to replace human thought, but as a catalyst to unlock our full cognitive potential.