Food for Agile Thought #231: Liberating Structures, Tyranny of the Measurable, Beautiful Mess of Change, #NoOKRs Team Objectives

TL; DR: Liberating Structures, Beautiful Mess—Food for Agile Thought #231

Welcome to the 231st edition of the Food for Agile Thought newsletter, shared with 25,467 peers. This week, we learn about Liberating Structures and change for everyone; we point at the perils of measuring a complex reality, and we get a better understanding of where business agility is heading.

We also enjoy John Cutler’s excursion into embracing change successfully; we gain insight into three ways of making decisions in complex situations, and we listen to why OKRs may not provide the right objectives for a product team.

Lastly, we look back at the evolution of Haier’s organizational model and how self-organization and refrigerators go hand-in-hand.

Did you miss last week’s Food for Agile Thought’s issue #230?

Food for Agile Thought #231: Liberating Structures, Tyranny of the Measurable, Beautiful Mess of Change, #NoOKRs Team Objectives

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Scrum Guide 2020 — Download the new edition of the Scrum Guide Reordered — Age-of-Product.com

🏆 The Tip of the Week

Keith McCandless (via Medium): Liberating Structures: Change Methods for Everybody Every Day

Henri Lipmanowicz and Keith McCandless provide a comprehensive introduction to Liberating Structures.

Agile & Scrum

Itamar Goldminz (via The Ready): Ending the Tyranny of the Measurable

Itamar Goldminz points at the perils of measuring a complex reality.

Diana Larsen and Shane Hastie (via InfoQ): 🎙 Diana Larsen on the Origins of Agility and Agile Fluency

Shane Hastie interviews Diana Larsen about the origins of what became agile development, where business agility is heading, and the agile fluency project.

(via Corporate Rebels): Evolve Or Die

Bram van der Lecq looks back at the evolution of Haier's organizational model in the light of intrapreneurship and self-organization.

📅 Professional Scrum Master Training PSM I — Berlin, April 7-8, 2020

This guaranteed Professional Scrum Master training is an official Scrum.org class that leads to and includes the industry-recognized PSM I certification. This PSM training class will be offered in English. You can book your seat directly:

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Looking for a different date? Back to the training schedule for the Professional Scrum Master Training (PSM I).

Learn more: 📅 Professional Scrum Master Training PSM I — Berlin, April 7-8, 2020.

Product & Lean

John Cutler (via Mind The Product): 📺 The Beautiful Mess

In this talk, John Cutler explains how we must all embrace ‘the beautiful mess’ and learn to navigate change to be more successful.

Rushabh Doshi (via The Startup): 3 Frameworks For Making Complex Decisions

Rushabh Doshi introduces three decision-making approaches beyond the usual suspects.

Marty Cagan: Team Objectives — Overview

Marty Cagan decided to recommend OKRs no longer.

📯 27 Sprint Anti-Patterns Holding Back Scrum Teams

Welcome to the Sprint anti-patterns article from our series on Scrum anti-patterns, covering not just the three Scrum roles, but also the stakeholders as well as the IT management.

Sprint Anti-Patterns — Age-of-Product.com

Read more: 27 Sprint Anti-Patterns Holding Back Scrum Teams.

📅 Scrum Training & Event Schedule

You can secure your seat for Scrum training classes, workshops, and meetups directly by following the corresponding link in the table below:

Date Class and Language City Price
🖥 🇩🇪 January 28-31, 2025 Professional Scrum Product Owner Training (PSPO I; German; Live Virtual Class) Live Virtual Class €1,299 incl. 19% VAT
🖥 💯 🇬🇧 Feburary 4-6, 2025 GUARANTEED: Hands-on Agile 2025: From Concept-Based to Context-Based Agility (English) Live Virtual Conference FREE
🖥 🇬🇧 February 12-13, 2025 Professional Scrum Master Advanced Training (PSM II; English; Live Virtual Class) Live Virtual Class €1,299 incl. 19% VAT
🖥 💯 🇬🇧 February 27, 2025 GUARANTEED: Professional Scrum Facilitation Skills Class (PSFS; English; Live Virtual Class) Live Virtual Class €749 incl. 19% VAT
🖥 💯 🇬🇧 March 6-April3, 2025 GUARANTEED: Align, Discover, Deliver: The Product Backlog Management Cohort Class (English; Live Virtual Class) Live Virtual Cohort €499 incl. 19% VAT
🖥 🇩🇪 March 11-12, 2025 Professional Scrum Product Owner Training (PSPO I; German; Live Virtual Class) Live Virtual Class €1,299 incl. 19% VAT
🖥 🇬🇧 March 26-27, 2025 Professional Scrum Master Advanced Training (PSM II; English; Live Virtual Class) Live Virtual Class €1,299 incl. 19% VAT
🖥 🇩🇪 April 10, 2025 Professional Product Discovery and Validation Class (PPDV; German; Live Virtual Class) Live Virtual Class €749 incl. 19% VAT

See all upcoming classes here. Professional Scrum Training by PST Stefan Wolpers, Berlin  Product People

You can book your seat for the training directly by following the corresponding links to the ticket shop. If the procurement process of your organization requires a different purchasing process, please contact Berlin Product People GmbH directly.


Download the ’Scrum Anti-Patterns Guide’ for Free — Age-of-Product.com

📺 Join 1,950-plus Agile Peers on Youtube

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✋ Do Not Miss Out and Learn about Liberating Structures: Join the 6,950-plus Strong ‘Hands-on Agile’ Slack Community

I invite you to join the “Hands-on Agile” Slack Community and enjoy the benefits of a fast-growing, vibrant community of agile practitioners from around the world.

Large scale agile: Join the Hands-on Agile Slack Group

If you like to join all you have to do now is provide your credentials via this Google form, and I will sign you up. By the way, it’s free.

Scrum Master Interview Question: free download of the most popular ebook on Scrum Master job interviews — by Age-of-Product

🗞️ Last Week’s Food for Agile Thought Edition

Read more: Food for Agile Thought #230: XP w/ Kent Beck, Psychological Safety, Product Backlog Organization, Deliverables of Product Managers.

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