Michael is available for Signature keynote Talks, Workshops and Training

Signature Keynote Talks

My Quest for Business Agility – the good bad and ugly of lean agile and DevOps transformations

Why do lean agile transformations fail more often than succeed?

Teams argue about user stories, pointing systems and tickets.
Mangers measure and compare teams based on velocity.
Scrum masters going through the motions chasing the South Star.
No one is validating customer hypothesis for fast feedback.

In the turning point of the software digital age where organizations face a Cambrian extinction – the scientific application of agile, lean, design thinking, lean start up, lean UX, OKRs and DevOps together with high performing teams is crucial to business survival.

Let’s Explore together the essentials of successful lean agile and DevOps change initiatives – we’ll find surprising truths about what makes and breaks agile changes in organizations.

• Learn how to keep the approach simple – Digital transformation must be simple – Team agility without organizational cadence, flow and continuous focus on DevOps and technical excellence is a wasted effort;
• Identify the scaling patterns for your organization – Scaling agility can be SAFe but often isn’t because we’re not solving for the right business problem – scaling is about emergence of failures;
• Explain #Soakability for leading change – A Culture of change lead outside-in, fails to deliver results; Success hinges on soak-ability, daily improvement that’s truly continuous

Allow me to share Anchors of Simplicity, Mainstays of Scalability, Tell-tale Signs of Soakability,  a journey across continents, numerous clients and many industries on a quest for business agility.

How to Thrive in the Gig Economy ?

What do an Uber driver, a freelance writer and a contract project manager / scrum master have in common? The answer is that they are all part of the gig economy.

One of the fastest growing trends in employment is a move away from full-time contracts. Instead, both employers and workers are pursuing alternative arrangements, including temporary or project-based contracts.

It wasn’t that long ago that people graduating from college or university would go searching for a permanent position with regular pay periods, consistent hours and employee benefits. However, the proportion of such jobs is shrinking.

The emergence of new digital technologies has meant a shift in companies employment strategies. They are looking to reduce their costs by hiring less full-time staff in favour of short-term support based on immediate needs.

On the flip side, peoples’ preferences regarding job structures are also changing. Workers have realized that contracting out their services to a mix of companies allows them flexibility in determining the amount of time they spend working and the types of work they do.

Where the two sides meet is where we find the gig economy.

Those participating in the gig economy call themselves freelancers, independent professionals, contract workers and independent contractors. It’s easy to think of this group as a bunch of millennials looking to escape the traditional 9 to 5, but among those participating in the gig economy are experienced nurses, project managers, engineers and marketing consultants.

Talk learning objectives – be BOLDER – based on Michael : Marketing the impossible https://amzn.to/2SpekER

• What are the fundamental pre-requisites for branding yourself for gig economy employment?
• What does it take to thrive in the gig economy?
• How can you as a project manager prepare for gig economy employment?

Persuading the Bear: Build Engaged Communities through Horizontal Influence Without Authority

It was 9 pm on a Friday and I was at work, my spouse called asking when I’d be home, my boss was all over me.
I had been working on a proposal for 5 months and couldn’t get  team, vendor and client’s buy in!
I became insufferable, even Ron, my best friend, declined our traditional Wednesday beer date.
I changed jobs frequently, feeling disengaged (my ‘record’ was 4 hours) until I became physically ill.
After a third round of antibiotics,
I decided to quit another position and start working for myself.

Remarkably, my feeling of disengagement was not unique. According to the Gallup engagement study – nearly 70% of employees suffer from work place disengagement- a true epidemic! Disengagement hits the bottom line, it inflicts pain and unhappiness, reduces profit per share, and leads to high turnover!

For over 20 years, my personal transformation journey as a consultant and later as a leadership agile coach taught me to look for patterns in organizations.  I have recognized recurring behaviours that plague unsuccessful disengaged organizations. The overarching problem is the traditional approach to organizational power/influence which I named vertical influencing. Unsuccessful organizations suffer from high employee disengagement since they adopt vertical influence patterns. This is true in for profit, government and non-profit organizations as well

Vertical influencing originates from viewing power/influence as a zero-sum game – a win lose proposition. Where one idea is a winner and the other a loser, one side is right and the other is wrong; In unsuccessful organizations everyone competes to be the influencer, the winner, breaking support communities & leading to disengagement.

On the other hand, I discovered that successful organizations adopt a fresh paradigm of horizontal influencing. Presently, these horizontal influencing structures manifest themselves in lean agile approaches. Horizontal influencing radically changes the way people interact creating engaged communities.

The know how to horizontal influencing includes a set of skills fundamental to building Dyad and Triad relationships; creating a true win-win environment at the individual, team and organizational level. Through this prism, Influence is communication at a deep level, where we relate to each other compassionately and look actively for commonalities and shared goals.

Experience how to create engaged communities together, through building Horizontal influencing.
We’ll discover:

• Influencing patterns by exploring relevant best practice protocols
• Collaborative community engagement building approaches through recreating and re-running real interpersonal situations
• Specific behavioural patterns relate to them and learn how to influence without authority.

Michael’s model of the 4 components to Influence without Authority:(Based on OODA loop framework, developed by John Boyd)

Situation (Observe)
Perception (Orient)
Decision (Decide)
Strategy (Act)

Each component is presented, discussed and synthesized through a hands-on pair or team activity.