Food for Agile Thought’s issue #213—shared with 23,845 peers—delves into how Liberating Structures rescue Scrum; we borrow Swedish ideas on agile leadership beyond the so-called ‘Spotify model,’ and we learn to create an environment that is attractive to introverts.
We also consider pair coaching; we learn how to include stakeholders in product decisions while managing their expectations, and we dare to look at some math, namely Cost of Delay.
Lastly, we shed light on Mr. Amazon’s grand plan for the universe.
Did you miss last week’s Food for Agile Thought’s issue #212?
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🏆 The Essential Read: Liberating Structures Rescue Scrum
, and (via InfoQ): Liberating Structures — an Antidote to Zombie Scrum
Barry Overeem, Christiaan Verwijs, and Johannes Schartau describe cargo cult versions of Scrum, and how to prevent them from manifesting themselves using Liberating Structures.
Agile & Scrum
(via Scrum.org): The 7 Best Agile Leadership Tips After Visiting Stockholm
On tour to Sweden with 15 peers, Peter Koning visited several companies in and around Stockholm. Here is what he learned on how to create thriving environments for agile teams.
and (via Crisp): Pair Coaching
Yassal Sundman and Michael Göthe claim that there are—just like with pair programming—many benefits to pair coaching.
(via InfoQ): 📺 Agile for the Introvert
Tobias Anderberg reflects on how to foster an inclusive team environment for introverts and stresses the importance of psychological safety.
📅 Just One Seat Left: Professional Scrum Master Training PSM I — Frankfurt, October 21-22, 2019
Join your peers for this hands-on Scrum Master training, including up to two attempts at the Professional Scrum Master® I certification by Scrum.org. Learn everything about empiricism, self-organization & the ‘Definition of Done’ in two energizing days in Frankfurt, Oct 21-22, 2019.
Learn more: 📅 Professional Scrum Master Training PSM I — Frankfurt/Main, October 21-22, 2019.
Product & Lean
(via The Atlantic): Jeff Bezos’s Master Plan
Franklin Foer analyzes what the Amazon founder wants for his empire and himself, and what that means for the rest of us.
(via Mind The Product): 📺 Justify Your Product Decisions and Get Stakeholder Buy-in
In this closing keynote from #mtpcon San Francisco, Teresa Torres shares her learnings on how to create a collaborative relationship with stakeholders,
(via Medium): Is CD3 the Golden Key?
Charles Lambdin delves deep into the importance of Don Reinertsen’s concept of Cost of Delay for putting a price-tag on product decisions.
📯 Faking Agile Metrics or Cooking the Agile Books
Imagine you’re a Scrum Master and the line manager of your team believes that the best sign for a successful agile transformation is a steady increase in the Scrum Team’s velocity. Moreover, if the team fails to deliver on that metric something is wrong with the Scrum Team. Alternatively, something is wrong with you as you are the Scrum Master and hence responsible for the team’s performance. (Apparently, not faking agile metrics, or being transparent in this case, does not seem to be valued here.)
Learn more about how to coach these kinds of line managers and help them overcome their preference for the industrial past with a simple exercise on how to cook the agile books.
Read more: Faking Agile Metrics or Cooking the Agile Books.
📅 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🖥 💯 🇬🇧 February 3, 2026 | Guaranteed: Hands-on Agile #71: A3 Framework — Assist, Automate, Avoid — Let’s Build a Playbook! (English; Live Virtual Meetup) | Meetup | FREE |
| 🖥 💯 🇩🇪 February 10-11, 2026 | Guaranteed: Professional Scrum Product Owner Training (PSPO I; German; Live Virtual Class) | Live Virtual Class | €1,299 incl. 19% VAT |
| 🖥 💯 🇬🇧 February 19, 2026 | Guaranteed: Hands-on Agile #72: Become Your Organization's AI Champion: A Crowdsourced Playbook (English; Live Virtual Meetup) | Meetup | FREE |
| 🖥 🇬🇧 March 10-11, 2026 | Professional Scrum Master—Advanced Training (PSM II; English; Live Virtual Class) | Live Virtual Class | €1,299 incl. 19% VAT |
| 🖥 💯 🇬🇧 March 19 to April 16, 2026 | Guaranteed: AI4Agile BootCamp #6 (English; Live Virtual Cohort) | Live Virtual Cohort | €499 incl. 19% VAT |
| 🖥 🇩🇪 March 24-25, 2026 | Professional Scrum Product Owner Training (PSPO I; German; Live Virtual Class) | Live Virtual Class | €1,299 incl. 19% VAT |
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.
📺 Join 1,700-plus Agile Peers on Youtube
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✋ Do Not Miss Out and Learn about how Liberating Structures Rescue Scrum: Join the 6,125-plus Strong ‘Hands-on Agile’ Slack Community
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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.
🗞️ Last Week’s Food for Agile Thought Edition
Read more: Food for Agile Thought #212: Temporal Dynamics, Coach Assessment, Impact Mapping, Mind Your Competition..
