"OKRs S&%k": Scaling Founder Mode by Fixing OKRs
When scaleup leaders say OKRs are broken but can't find anything better, the problem is usually misapplication. Fixing OKRs is how founder mode scales.
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Fixing Your Agility
Agile rituals are not agile outcomes. Shift from process compliance to evidence-based organizational flow.
Agile transformations frequently stall or backslide because organizations copy-paste framework mechanics instead of solving core systemic constraints. Below, I explore how to rescue stalled agile systems.
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Business Agility Without Transformation Theater
Agile transformations stall, backslide, or produce compliance without outcomes. Diagnosing and recovering from agile that never actually landed.
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All Fixing Your Agility Articles
Browse the complete archive of articles and case studies related to fixing your agility.
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The Fixing OKRs Live Stream Series
A live stream series on diagnosing and fixing broken OKRs: goal-setting pitfalls, cascade traps, and reconnecting OKRs to real strategic outcomes.
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The Future of Agile Roles != The Future of Agility
Layoffs of Scrum Masters and Agile Coaches don't signal agile nirvana: they signal a reckoning. What's actually happening, and what to do about it.
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· AgilityFix Your OKRs - Back to First Principles
OKRs have become theater in most organizations: another alignment tax. Why they work when they work, how to diagnose what's broken, and how to reset.
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Fixing OKR Theater Using Scrum
OKR theater is when OKRs become tasks, key results become outputs, and the whole thing turns into admin. How Scrum's inspect-and-adapt loop fixes it.
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The Agile Theater
What Agile Theater looks like in practice: shallow adoption that delivers compliance without capability. Signs you're performing agility, not practicing it.
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Keep Calm and Scrum (With Kanban) On!
I decided to pause my membership in the PST program. I still believe in the heart of Scrum and Flow.
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· AgileUncomfortable Truths: Agile's Vanity vs Outcomes
The agile industry teaches outcomes over outputs, then measures itself in certifications and butts on seats. Why that is economics, not character.
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Business Agility Without Transformation Theater
Business agility is not Scrum for your sales team. Jesper Boeg and I dig into why leadership standups miss it, and the two signals that show it is real.
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Transformation or Bling? My Apple Watch and OKRs
A fancy watch tells time. An Apple Watch changed behavior. Same with Agile, OKRs, and SAFe: they either transform how you work or become theater.
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Cut Coordination Tax: Organize Around Outcomes
The real cost of cross-functional initiatives is coordination tax. How Gillette cut it by organizing focused virtual teams around outcomes, and how you can.
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The Value Of The Feature Factory
Feature factories are a milestone, not a destination. Why organizations get stuck shipping features, and what it takes to get to outcomes.
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Expensive Problems >> Principles >> Practices
Expensive problems in product development (large batches, handoffs, queue buildup, and coordination overhead) and the principles that address each.
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Is it Time for Our Agility Work To Go Underground?
When the language of agile transformation creates resistance, the most effective change work is invisible. How to embed agility without the label.
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What Happened to Agile? Where Do We Go From Here
Agile demand outstripped supply and the movement lost its soul. What went wrong, and a pragmatic path forward: through principles, not theater.
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The Two-Word Check-in: A Minimal Daily Meeting
Before status, accountability, and conflict resolution, the daily meeting has to warm up the social fabric. That is what a two-word check-in is for.
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To Async or Not to Async
Sometimes people just don't want more synchronous meetings. Improving the daily standup isn't always the answer: evolve the ceremony to fit the people in it.
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"Transformed". Yet still the same. An Agile Story
They formed agile teams. They track stories in JIRA. They do three questions daily. And nothing meaningful changed. Agile theater, not product work.
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Time to close the curtain on the Agile Theater
Agile Theater (going through the motions without the substance) is everywhere. Time to demand real agility instead of agile-flavored project management.