I’m training in the gym for 7 years now and was regularly missing a personal advisor I could always reach out to. Trainers had limited capacity, I didn’t find proper nutritionist and searching through youtube (and validating what was said) was tiresome. Then I used something different.

🤖I started playing with Claude Code agents since last year and built my own fitness advisor which is also a skill in my Claude Code. I use it regularly since few months now and it helped me survive through injury and plan leaner growth, among many.

🔎 When iterating on it I focused on:

* Science based knowledge - it uses peer reviewed papers and tells you when data is not sufficient to answer your question. It also gives you the research details and a link (if available). It skips youtube, reddit and other noise. Only proven science.
* Connecting with my app of choice (Hevy in this case but also supports others) in order not to copy-paste data I already have.
* Reading my measurements, pdf’s from Tanita, Inbody or other body scan devices to know where I am and adjusting training.
* Structure - it’s well structured in terms of folders and commands I can use.
* Always checking my background and history before giving answer so all recommendations are always tailor-made.

Check my fitness agent on GitHub

🏃🏼💨So, what can it do?

-> When I got an injury it helped me which exercises to avoid so I could keep on training muscle groups that were safe.
-> It adjusted my nutrition according to my age, weight and recent measurements.
-> It debunked lots of myths based on proven scientific knowledge.
-> It helped me recover post-illness so my body and diet could adjust slowly to training without a negative effect on my organism.

Of course, it can make mistakes. This is not a bulletproof solution and consulting a professional trainer or dietician is a solid choice. I have trained for a a couple of years with a personal trainer and this does not substitute for a professional support. That said, it helps in steering things in the right direction and on the spot assistance very well.

❓Why Claude Code and not a standalone app?

- Claude Code does not teach Anthropic models on what you use it for.
- Everything is on your local drive and in your custody in .md format - no vendor lockdown.
- Claude Code always asks you what to do so it won’t mess anything up without your permission.

I update it regularly, it’s free to use and you can find it on my GitHub. Install it, use "/fitness setup" for the first time and it will guide you through the rest. 🧘🏼‍♂️

It helped me a ton, maybe it will help you.💪 DM me with your thoughts once you tried.

Check my fitness agent on GitHub

Birds in cages next to a cafe in Hanoi, Vietnam. © Marcin Konkel . All rights reserved.

Are You Sure This Is What You Want?

In today's world increasingly dominated by AI, people delegate writing, creating images, or decisions about their future to machines, leaving for themselves activities such as doing laundry, cleaning, or chores they dislike1. Something went wrong here. Where is the creativity or playfulness in all this?

"Playfulness" is defined in Cambridge Dictionary as: ”the quality of being funny and not serious.”

“Play” on the other hand as “Spending time doing an enjoyable and/or entertaining activity.”

For the purposes of this article, we'll expand this definition. We'll understand play (or playfulness, which I will use interchangeably) as activities that bring you joy and which you don't do for any purpose other than following your own curiosity. Like when you were a child and suddenly remembered you were hungry after immersing yourself in a book, game, or bike ride, without purpose but according to what your intuition suggested.

Over time, as we emerge from childhood toward responsibility, it seems we deprive ourselves of play. The older we get, the more we look at things in terms of their usefulness and efficiency.

We use creativity or play within designated and acceptable frameworks in our environment. Like being (too) serious at work as we feel nothing else is accepted. What's worse - we consume more (Netflix, articles, emotions, other people's thoughts) than we create ourselves. So do we really need more play manifesting itself as more lightness, a state of flow uninterrupted by the external world, which we remember from childhood when something fascinated us.

If you don't carry this longing within you, stop reading and use your time elsewhere. If, on the contrary - I invite you to continue reading.

Play Doesn't Like Boundaries, But Creativity Does

In a world where all corporations talk about KPIs, goals, and productivity gurus teach the next techniques to squeeze more out of every second, we forget about play. We also forget that time management is really about energy management since it's not possible to work with full concentration for more than about 4 hours a day2. But that's a topic for another post.

Returning to play - it's essential for our creativity. It's difficult, if not impossible, to turn on creativity when you create a tight framework of expectations around it. Especially regarding desired effects or the quality. It's like going out on the street with a camera and expecting that after a 15-minute walk, you'll take a photo worthy of a Magnum agency3 photographer. Similarly, when we allocate 30 minutes or an hour to paint a picture or simply decide to do something creative. It's burdened from the start with the expectation that something must happen, something must come of it. Creativity that comes from play breaks out of these patterns.

At the same time, creativity likes constraints in certain respects. For example, time frames for creativity can work when we give ourselves a certain problem to solve. Then our mind, adapting, looks for ways that fit this criterion. We then use our brain’s capacity to find new perspectives in a given narrative.

The ideal solution seems to be combining creativity and play, which can help achieve a state of "flow". Exploring the concept of "flow", Mihály Csíkszentmihályi began with play, though it quickly went beyond this concept ending with work:

"The best moments of life are not those passive or relaxing ones – though these can be pleasant if we've worked for them. True happiness appears when the body or mind is maximally engaged in voluntary effort to achieve something difficult and valuable."

Another conclusion, particularly important in our topic, is:

"To overcome the anxieties and depression of modernity, people must become independent of social rewards and punishments. They must learn to produce satisfaction independently. Happiness is a state that must be prepared, nurtured, and protected."

Today's culture of constantly achieving more and more definitely works against this principle by creating new rules, focusing us on following consumerism, instead of directing us toward ourselves and our needs. Maybe instead of generating another image through Midjourney, try drawing it yourself, however imperfectly?

Nurturing Happiness

Today, taking care of happiness and play means for me:

• Following my intuition, instead of what everyone is shouting about.

• Allowing myself to create imperfect first drafts, instead of Instagram-like idealized creations.

• Not evaluating work before it's finished, as it takes away concentration from what's in front of us.

• Having no expectations about the effects of this work - sometimes getting rid of direction can give us much more than we could create with a goal "hanging" in front of us. It's pure exploration of what comes. Goals are useful, but they have their specific context, like in business or working towards a particular skill. Though this too can be debated if useful.

• Being more in the body than in your head - avoiding excessive complication, feeling the direction instead of inventing the direction, or creating overly logical concepts around it.

• Following what brings you joy - instead of looking for practicality or usefulness in everything you want to do.

The last point was particularly important to me. This might be learning a foreign language purely for your own pleasure, instead of one that will increase your advantage in the job market. For me that was Indonesian.

It can also be reading sci-fi books when everyone around you is constantly absorbed in professional literature. It's also taking care of your garden when everyone else is posting photos from yet another surfing trip to a popular destination or visiting yet another trendy café.

To clarify - nothing wrong with either, the key here is following yourself and not others. If your passion is discovering new dishes, you appreciate well-designed cafes that recently appeared in your neighborhood and doing it from your own motivations - great. Keep it up.

A few additional examples of play in practice:

• Take a different route to work than you always take and pay attention to something different each time - plants, animals, change your walking pace.

• Start playing music before online meetings for 1-2 minutes - I've been experimenting with this for years and it nicely engages groups in the meeting.

• Start drawing without judgment and without expectations of what should come out. Most people have resistance or claim they can't. Enter into it without expectations.

Burned-Out Richard

This reminds me of the story of Richard Feynman, who was known for his approach through play and humor to serious topics.4 After finishing work on the Manhattan Project, Feynman experienced professional burnout and lost his passion for physics. During this period, one day while sitting in the cafeteria at Cornell University, he noticed someone tossing a plate in the air. He was intrigued by the way the plate wobbled as it fell, specifically the university logo that was on it - it seemed to wobble faster than the plate itself.

Feynman began to wonder about the mathematical relationship between the plate's wobbling speed and its spinning speed. This simple, joyful observation of an everyday phenomenon rekindled his interest in physics. He began engaging with science again "for fun," not out of a sense of duty or treating it as work.

This approach of following his own curiosity without pressure led Feynman to work on quantum electrodynamics, for which he later received the Nobel Prize. Feynman himself often emphasized the importance of play in his approach to science, saying he "plays with physics" instead of working on it.

It’s important to remember that play is also important when you are starting a new business. Without deriving joy and play from the process and only seeing money as the result you will likely burn-out fast. The best products are created from fascination with the problem instead of pure focus on the outcome or money.

Notice I did not mention “passion” in creating a business but a fixation on the problem and playing with it. Let's return to photography - it's easy to lose passion for it when taking wedding photos for the umpteenth time (that's where the money usually is), if weddings aren't what originally excited you about photography. Again, it’s an easy way to start disliking your hobby. In such cases private projects that you do for your own pleasure become important so that passion doesn't die but has its outlet.

Worth Thinking About

I hope I've managed to convince you to think a little bit more about the meaning of play in your life. Before you impose more goals on yourself again and relentlessly demand their realization - ask yourself these questions:

• What things entertained and fascinated you in childhood that you miss today?

• How can you introduce elements of play into contexts where you already function? What would that mean in practice?

• How can you add a little bit of play into your daily chores? e.g. dancing when cleaning your apartment, creating a game with your own rules on how you clean

• Where and how should you create and tend to your space for play? All without purpose and for your own pure entertainment.

• What has always fascinated you, made you curious but you were always neglecting it because of impracticality or seeing as nonsensical?
  
  

I find a growing trend in the self-development space about authenticity. I see it as an important movement about returning to the roots of who we are. That said, as most information flows from simplified Instagram posts or short quotes, I think this topic is much more nuanced. 

Let’s start with what authenticity is and what it is not.

Definition(s)

Being authentic does not mean being perfect nor is it being better. It’s more about showing up “genuine” - congruent with one's beliefs and traits. It also means not sacrificing yourself for group membership. In other words: acting on your gut feeling and who you are at your core regardless of consequences. It goes without saying that self-acceptance can do wonders here to further amplify our authenticity.

How and which parts of ourselves we show is highly context-dependent. Before we go there let’s unpack the first statement.

Authenticity flows from imperfection

If you look at the art of photography, many of the most compelling pictures are imperfect in some way which makes them more relatable and alive. They have substance, character, emotion and melody about them.

The melody does not come from intentional tapering with the material or poor skills. It comes from within, from the way the photographer sees the world, composition and how the decisive moment was captured. If you see dozens of photos taken in the same place in the same way they become surreal instead of beautiful.

People loose their character when trying to be perfectionists. They strip themselves from the good stuff that makes them interesting while trying to avoid being hurt or blamed for not being their best.

Rarely is perfection sought after in relationships (whether romantic or professional) as many of us know, consciously or not, that it’s not sustainable.

Where does authenticity lie in our brain?

From neurobiology perspective, authenticity is linked to precuneus surface area, smaller left amygdala volumes and PFC leading the way.

“The neurobiology of authenticity involves a complex interplay between different brain systems, with the prefrontal cortex playing a central role in self-reflection, self-regulation, and the integration of cognitive and emotional processes.”1

It means that diseases like dementia, PTSD, chronic pain2 can all affect our sense of behaving authentically. We then tend to act out of character which means out of our regular way of being.

Authenticity is context dependent

Although being unapologetically yourself can do a lot of good for building inner trust and acting on your beliefs, I think there is place, time and context for that. Let me give you few examples.

1. Going out of character vs. being authentic.

   Can trying something new that we do be inauthentic? For instance, we are used to our voices and when we play with its melody (e.g. shaping it to be deeper) are we being inauthentic or mastering another skill? These are still our vocal cords which create the voice as well. If we develop it further it can become something people associate us with. 

   In that sense, authenticity does not mean maintaining the status quo but rather unpacking the layers of your true self and/or improving the aspects you wish to be better at.

2. Environments and social norms.

   Not everyone should receive you in full (nor are they able to). There is always context for what part of you is more pronounced than the others. Some environments give way to types of behaviours while not paying attention to others. 

   For example, in a professional setting, certain rules are in place to keep things contained. Think: not openly discussing politics by management, not mixing support with therapy, not being a family but a business etc.

   Another example can be family dinners. Every family has topics that are avoided in conversations or are uncomfortable to talk about. Many of us tend to avoid them for our own safety and energy management (“I don’t have time nor space for this again”).

3. Vulnerability and setting boundaries

   Great connections are created around vulnerability. The more we dare to be who we feel we are, the more people resonating with us will come our way. That said vulnerability is built gradually and should not be the default go-to in every context.

   Some people can use it against you, especially if what you share is not something you made peace with. Clinical narcissists can be one group that one should be careful with.

In a nutshell, authenticity is about knowing what is yours and what is not as well as setting boundaries. It’s not about being abusive to other people nor is it about not giving a fuck whatever happens. This is not how relationships are built although it might look like a good background for your phone.

Should we label or not label?

As humans, we tend to get attached to things. Not only material ones. We create superficial words and pump them with meaning, which we then pursue for the whole of our lives. Think about corporate titles, LinkedIn profile headlines, the way you present yourself while networking or the subculture you're part of. 

This narrows down your options contrary to what you may believe inside. Sounds like a contradiction? Indeed, you can earn more with a “head” or “lead” title. Yet, the market wants you to embrace being placed on predefined life paths like:

• When you work as a project manager in banking, you can expect to be directed towards the same industry for years to come.

• If you want to move from a BA role to a Scrum Master, that will be hard, although you might already have some experience and traits that would suit it.

• You had your own business? Companies will hesitate to hire you.

Yes, labels and the standardisation that comes with them can help a lot. They make it easy to grasp your surroundings. That said, they can do a lot of damage when you get attached too much. 

Let me explain.

Bike messengers and the art of detachment

Imagine a situation. Part of your life is cycling. You love it. It makes you feel great, you've already achieved some success in that field. You consider yourself an athlete. It’s part of your life. You cycle 4-5 days a week like a pro. You buy gear from brands that only your subculture could appreciate and understand. Fast and focused like a NYC bike messenger, you wrap up each day with happiness on your face.

You don’t need to experience this to see how you would react. Do a thought experiment. Your brain does not recognise imagination from the real thing if it crosses a certain threshold. Next, answer a question:

How many of these labels do you hold onto? Or, in other words, what are you overly attached to? This could be a certain level of wealth or job title. It could also be subculture fit, or the people you surround yourself with and take pride in.

You are much more than what you do, how much you make, or your experiences. Your identity combines many aspects and is much more complex than the labels you use. It is quite a bit influenced by the era you live in, as well as their conscious level.

I’m doing well why should I bother?

I won’t use the “you never know” card (although I just did). I want to focus more on the advantages you can make use of even though you feel invincible and nothing shows this could change.

Why bother:

• Career-wise, the market changes, you won't work in the same job your whole life.

• Be more resilient to anything that changes the trajectory of your life.

• Expand your thinking to other horizons, new ideas, connect the dots.

• Develop a student mindset. Be able to fail more with less emotional burden. Recover quicker.

• Harness your inner power to focus on what truly matters most.

• Build more freedom in decision making.

I hope that’s enough to convince you to make an introspection. What would be the next step?

So, what are you made of, really?

Find stability within.

Labels are usually connected with the outside world. Focus on the inside world. Where does your core lie? Think about: your thoughts, values, experiences, how you carry yourself, habits, rituals, the way you learn, how you take care of yourself, develop, how you treat others, your reactions etc.

You should be able to feel the above not only write them down. When do you feel them most? When was the last time you felt them? These emotions also come from the moments when you make a conscious choice or take an action based on what is important to you.

Additionally, practice the art of letting go of things like the need to be liked, accepted, valued. In each such element like, accept and value yourself more instead of seeking it. The road to letting go differs from subject to subject as well as person to person.

Detachment is about changing your reactions and relationship to labels.

Work on changing your habits:

• When networking or getting to know people, don’t use your fancy titles to make yourself stand out or be respected. Focus on the conversation.

• Be more curious about others instead of focusing what to say next and how to shine in the group.

• Do a break from LinkedIn, Instagram, and other places where you build your superficial persona.

• Drop the urge to impress or stand out.

During all the above, see how it makes you feel, what comes up and work through those emotions and thoughts. Focus on doing meaningful things for yourself instead of approval of others. The end result should be lack of or significantly mitigated feeling of inferiority when you are not using the labels. If needed consult a therapist or a coach.

I worked through detachment myself in recent years. I worked through labels like a photographer, traveler, manager, earner of X amount of dollars annually etc. It felt great, like really great. It consumed a lot of my energy trying to hold to those, especially in adverse times.

We all use labels in our life and will continue to do so. This article is not about dropping them, it’s about changing your relationship so, when things change, your internal equilibrium is left intact. Now.. What’s the label you are too tied to and would benefit from detaching?

—

Further reading:

• “To Have or To Be?” by Erich Fromm

• “Contemporary views on personal identity formation” - by Dominika Karaś, Ewa Topolewska-Sledzik, Oana Neguru-Subtirica

• “Body of work. Finding the thread that ties your story together.” by Pamela Slim

This question comes back to me now and then when I don’t feel fulfilled with what I do. It’s this emotion of inadequacy of what you give to the world and your own (conscious or not) standards below which you don’t feel comfortable settling.

How do you know you are doing great work?

One thing people primarily look for is feedback. A long time ago, that was the only place I looked for knowledge on the quality of my work. That is why we hold company feedback sessions or ask friends for feedback before releasing something to the crowds. To some extent, that makes sense, but it fails in the long run if that is your single source of truth.

Wait, but why? The short answer is that it’s a bunch of foreign standards from people who don’t have your way of thinking, values, or sense of what you want to accomplish. We’re talking here about creative work instead of strictly defined things to be done.

Yes, it can help you grow. Yes, it can be tremendously valuable but it’s overrated. More on that you can read in an article below 👇

To me great work does not come from a feeling of “I did my best”. You can do your best but it might not be enough to get something done. When doing great work what it involved for me was often:

• achieving a certain level of depth and creativity,

• working with complexity (even if these were my thoughts),

• sharing a piece of myself, my experience,

• loosing track of time, entering a state of flow,

• moving through fear, rejection or anxiety,

• involving a subject that is dear to me,

• keeping up with my own standards1 especially when I didn’t have to.

It’s the work that makes you go beyond what you thought was possible to you. Even if only slightly. Often, doing great work involves searching for great environments which appreciate you or creating those yourself. 

I believe that if we do the work we are destined to do by using our talents, wisdom and experience we tend to have much higher standards than we encounter. Also, slowly but steadily, we get to know the people who resonate with the work in effect.

This was my journey of discovery. Let me explain. 👇

In my writing career, my style changed every few years. I started writing in the late 90s and set up my first blog in the very early 00s. It was simple. It was bad. Yet it had some audience. I iterated, not sure where I was going, yet what directed me was an inner urge to express myself. The quality of my writing increased and subjects of interest evolved. My audience changed every few years.

Fast forward to today, in this newsletter as well as my blog, field notes or instagram, people came and went the more I became true to myself. It’s an uncomfortable feeling yet it also ties in to being unapologetically yourself.

I used to think that I let down those who left. Nowadays, I see it more as we both align better with each such decision. They know a little bit more about what they are looking for. Myself, I’m doing work that is more aligned with the way I look at the world. 

What others are saying about doing great work?

🎧Rick Rubin

“I’m not making it for them. I’m making it for me and it turns out when you make something truly for yourself, you are doing the best what you can for the audience. If we are making art, it’s almost like a diary entry. Could I be concerned that someone else might not like my diary entry?”

📺Seth Godin

“It’s possible to be a barista and have a significant job. It’s possible to work for an important non-profit and have an insignificant job. Did you stare to the face of change today and bring humanity to work? Did you do something that might not work? Did you do something that could not easily be done by a form or an AI. When we show up as human to connect with an interesting problem we feel alive. This is what we seek to do with our days. (…) We had enough of Netflix and chill, what we need is meaning.”

🍏Steve Jobs

“Your work is going to fill a large part of your life and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet keep looking and don’t settle." (…) Your time is limited, so do not waste it living someone else’s life. Do not let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition.”

—

Let me know in the comments how this translates to you and what was your path to doing great work.

Throughout my 10+ year career as a Scrum Master and Agile Coach I had my fair share of learnings. Some were pretty, others not so much. What connected many of them was that they happened in structured micro-moments or, should I say, opportunities.

What are micro-moments? ⏱️

They are structured opportunities to learn, shorten or improve feedback loops. I call them “micro” because they generate those “aha!” moments. They will definitely give you things to think about if used wisely. Why structured? Instead of waiting for serendipity you take charge and make your own luck.

Structured micro-moments you can use to grow 🪄

1. Daily debrief - together with other change agents, at the end of the day, meet to recap successes, share learnings and any emotions flying around so you can go home a little bit lighter, closing the day’s work.1 This can help you in getting a new perspective or some ad hoc guidance.

2. Shadowing - following and observing each other during work. This usually happens in meetings but can also extend to the “in between”. You can observe how others approach the same aspects of work. Don’t forget sharing feedback on a debrief sessions afterwards.2

3. Team tourism - changing for another team for a sprint or two. This changes the dynamic and gets you out of the daily grind.3 I’ve seen developers do that in the same department with great success of being able to contribute more in their team, transfer practices or improve their quality of PR comments.

4. Facilitate an event - instead of coming for the whole sprint, lead one of the events. Retrospectives might be tricky as people don’t know you that well. If you frame it correctly at the beginning it might do wonders.4 Focus on providing the team value instead of creating more noise.

5. Observe and share your feedback - this is a variation of shadowing for teams without a SM. It’s more of a consulting work upon team’s request. You come, make notes, share them and make recommendations if asked.

6. Switch teams entirely - it’s healthy to change teams every now and then.5 It adds to your experience. Best done when your team is doing good enough in terms of self-organisation and there is a more pressing need somewhere else.

7. Working in pairs - on a specific broader change in the organisation. When I was working in a team of 24 SMs we collaborated in duos or trios on topics serving several teams whether in a department or on topics such as, for instance, more stable testing environments.

8. SM Reviews - work in your own sprint or just hold reviews each two weeks or a month showcasing to the organisation the improvements you made as a team, gather feedback and ask what is important right now to solve.

9. Gather feedback about your team - in a survey or set of interviews to shed a light on how others find collaborating with them. This can show shortcomings which you can talk through with the team as well as appreciate what the they have already achieved. Potential sources: other teams in the setup, stakeholders, clients.

10. Mentoring - the easiest and the hardest. A great mentor focuses on you achieving your results. They invest in you becoming the best version of yourself and growing in the trenches. Read more here and here.

I tried all of the above, learned a ton and there are some❗️Safety measures to take into account:

• Before entering a team - always ask them if they want you there and are okay with whatever you are proposing.

• Don’t come unannounced or surprise people. This shows lack of respect.

• Always share the intention with which you come and what will you do with the observations, information or knowledge gained.

• Vegas rule should be always in place.

The above is basically a quick contract you make with a team before doing anything in their space.

—

🎈Share this post if you think it can help Scrum Masters or Agile Coaches learn more and get better quality feedback.

How to meet the void? 🌫️

Imagine a situation where your work-weeks look like this - you jump from one meeting to the next, struggling to finish work within one day. Feeling (sort of) satisfied and exhausted at the same time.

Now, after this long ‘crunch’ you find yourself with an empty schedule. Feels foreign and anxious righ? No wonder. You might be craving to, again, fill it with meetings or busyness just to feel safe and reduce anxiety.

Don’t. You just met the void, cherish the moment 🫶

What is the void? 🌚

The void, in this context, is an empty mental space that can be uncomfortable to be with. It’s the space that can create tension, makes you wanting to escape to work, social media etc. It also carries answers and ideas you didn’t even think about.

It’s a vacuum that craves being filled yet it’s best to fill it after some time. Not in the very moment when emotions arise. Only after settling-in it gives the most ripe fruits.

Befriending the void to excel and stay creative

Wait, but why should I do that? Well, when you’re in a grind you default to what you know. You thread on autopilot using what is easily accessible to your brain - patterns, habits and known solutions. Only when the brain has the time to slow down instead of being busy with foreign content it can connect the dots. Then the magic happens.

Befriending the void means:

1. Not reaching for solutions right away if the situation does not demand it - many don’t yet people push towards it due to anxiety or fictional pressure coming from hustle culture. 👉Ask for more time, give things a second or third thought.

   It’s easy to copy solutions for other places but they are taken from another context different from the one you’re in.

2. Use the time you have to full extent - contrary to the popular opinion to make decisions promptly 👉 use the time-frame you have to the fullest. This helps in sorting through the data and gaining new. It’s not about making a perfect decision but an informed one.

Let’s give some space to Miss Lauryn Hill for a second (18:16 through to 21:55):

"I'm not in the studio right now and everyone thinks I'm crazy. [They say] you need another album out, the time is running out. (...) For a little while I listened to that. I was in the studio working real hard, trying to get it done. And music was created. (...) but it wasn't my best. It wasn't my best because there was no substance, because there was no experience.

I went to the studio, then to the stage and back into the studio again. The only reason why the Miseducation was the album it was because a myriad of experiences before the production part, before the creation.

I realised, I can't create and not live."

This brings us to..

3. Let yourself experience the moment without judgement - this point builds on two previous ones. 👉 Being in the situation and actually experiencing it without the need to preconceive an answer will help you be more precise in your response. It will also deepen your understanding of what you are dealing with.

—

🎈Share this post if you think it can help people get in touch more with their experiences.

Again and again I see companies, leaders think that communicating this great vision will make people follow it. It never works.

They are still surprised that something clearly communicated on a Town Hall makes people ask questions afterwards or was totally misunderstood. They forget that each word carries a personal story behind it.

Moreover, they delegate those ideas without getting their hands dirty in the process to provide guidence, find nuances and work through them. They underestimate the effort and overestimate the results.

I sometimes was guilty of that too. Historically, I underestimated how much work is needed to make an idea flourish or just get it out. How much brain power it takes to make trade offs, to perservere, pivot, work through self-doubts etc. How much time it takes people to understand what are you actually offering them. Whether that was building a product, a service or a community.

Already in my life I heard so many ideas and stories that never even touched paper or a sketch app (mine included) that I couldn’t even count them all.

It’s reassuring to know there are no good ideas, especially in the beginning. Similarly as with writing, we just need to get it out from our heads onto a canvas. Without initial judgement and with compassion towards ourselves, starting to polish, paint over it, tweak, rest, revisit, repeat 🖼️

You can find the Steve Jobs talk to which Marc is referring below:

“After I left John Scully got a very serious disease, and this disease other people get it too. It’s thinking that a really good idea is 90% of the work. And if you just tell all these other people ‘here’s this great idea’ (…) - the problem with it is the tremendous amount of craftmanship in between a great idea and great product. When you evolve this idea it changes and grows. It never comes out lik it starts because you learn a lot more when you get into subtleties of it.”

🐘First, let’s name two elephants in the room:

• The market in Europe (and probably in other parts of the world) is really bad for junior candidates or changing professions right now.

• Nowadays, there are proportionately more people wanting to move to IT due to high salaries than for their passion for the work it entails. 

There is nothing wrong with wanting to earn more, yet if this is your only reason to be a Scrum Master or an Agile Coach, stop reading here. This strategy is not for you.

1. Answer the question - what draws you to this role? 🧲

What aspects of the role allure you? Why these? Don’t skip the second question. Your answers will keep you going when things get tough. It will connect you to your value system, beliefs and your purpose. In other words, the essence that is important to you right now.

2. Experiment without labels 🧪

It’s easier to get people on board without using foreign language or informing a team that you plan to introduce new frameworks. Try to do small, measurable experiments that tackle real problems people have. Use knowledge that is freely available. Don't use labels or technique names at the beginning. Show they make a difference first. This approach is a great training ground to build real skills instead of titles.

This was also my story. 👇

At the beginning of my career I was working in an international (20+ nationalities!) environment in the financial department in Reuters. One day I got an assignment of creating a global forum for Data Enhancement projects.

At the time I was passionately exploring agility and I saw the role of a Scrum Master as one that combines my skills and pursuits. I didn’t have any mentor or support in that topic at the time.

The idea of the forum was to remove impediments and push forward projects that got stuck. It consisted of all Heads of Content for particular regions, their superior from New York office and analysts that were to report to me with data from their regions. 

🧩 I suggested to do it the following way using elements of Scrum:

• meeting with my analysts to see what data is needed and talking through it,

• meeting every two weeks to show where we are,

• meeting once a month with my analysts to see what can we do better.

I did not use the event names from Scrum Guide, nor did I follow it rigorously. I proposed why we should meet and paid attention to keep conversations within the initially defined purpose.

🌊 The effects of this experiment surprised me: 

• we managed to close 25% more projects when compared to the previous year, 

• NY office recommended me for leading larger scale projects,

• few months later I got a job in Allegro as a Scrum Master. 

Most importantly, the journey gave me immense joy and a playfield where I could train and utilize my skills, creativity and combine worlds I was interested in (project management, psychology and creativity).

I am aware you might not have such opportunity right now. That said, there are things in your control when you can involve play, experimentation and removing impediments. Some inspiration:

• learn how to run measurable experiments and transparently show data,

• try out Liberating Structures, Sociocracy 3.0 patterns in your team,

• fix a low hanging problem that others are neglecting,

• visualize the value stream or elements of your team’s work,

• convince others to an idea by showing its value instead of using your position.

3. Be so good they cannot ignore you 😎

You might think: 

„Oh, ok. Why should I do all of that if they won’t pay me a dime more? There is also no chance for advancement in my current role. I’m also tired being stuck.”

Fair enough. Pay and career advancement you can influence indirectly, and investment in your skills pays over time. Whether in your current company or not. 

The goal is to be so good they cannot ignore you (learn more here), having fun while at it and taking pleasure in your own self development. Focus on the above, and you will be in a much better place. 

If you have the resources, you can also invest in outside mentoring. 

Be prepared for a marathon, not a sprint (see point 1).

4. Drop the name and work towards a set of skills and the right mindset ⚙️

Don’t focus on becoming a Scrum Master. It may be your North Star, yet it should not be a goal in itself.

Focus on building a proper mindset. It will be what sets you apart from others when sh*t hits the fan, things get tough, and people’s reflexes take charge. Learn how to out-regulate others in the sense that you can remain calm with your emotions. Think like a change agent, learn to experiment and measure value, think about the end user, develop assertiveness and the ability to talk with different people and positions.

Don’t look at labels (names of roles) - these tend to change. Look at skills and the impact you want to make, and your purpose will arise. The work of a servant leader you can perform in various roles.

One of those roles is a team member. By the way, Scrum Master is not a role, its a hat to wear. Yours is probably somewhere in your wardrobe. Why not put it on? 🧢

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💸Let me emphasize again. The above won’t work if you do it only for the money. You won’t be able to sustain the momentum and adversities. Do it because it aligns with your values, beliefs, draws your curiosity and makes you loose track of time. The money will follow.

Last time I wrote, I was in need of some time off to rethink where I was going with this newsletter. Taking time without fixed length or constraints was something I much needed after a whole year of regular writing. I learned that:

• Writing each week is not for me.

• I want to move beyond agility.

Let me explain. 

“Hard work trumps luck”

I started this newsletter on Nov 3rd, 2022. At that time, I was already writing for 15 days streight every day. I got to 30 days in a row (missing only two days) and then switched to doing it once a week (with few exceptions) for a year. That streak ended on Nov 21st, 2023. I never thought I could make this happen.

That said, I don’t want to fight algorithms or push myself to create something just for the sake of consistency. I noticed this decreases quality of my work. Some of you emphasised that quality of writing is what you value in this space. I want to uphold and further evolve that. Henrik Karlsson described well some of my feelings in that regard.

I don’t know what the new cadence will look like. I want to hit the sweet spot of feeling confident vs. good enough before hitting “send”. I’m also thinking about writing shorter pieces that will help the free-flow of ideas in my head.

There is no such thing as the unknown

I’m not sure as well on what exactly it will mean moving beyond agility. I surely don’t want to throw out my experience out the door. You can expect some case studies, discoveries, maybe some techniques yet without overly focusing on keeping it within the confines of agility. I will know where this goes through experimentation, noticing what draws my attention and what gives me pleasure. It is not an easy route, yet I believe it will be rewarding for myself and you dear reader. As some say:

“There is no such thing as the unknown, only things temporarily hidden.” - James T. Kirk

The secret of the people of Trunyan

I visited the remote village of Trunyan in Indonesia in 2022. This place is said to be the birthplace of Balinese culture. It existed long before hinduism came to the island. One of the most renown rituals is the burial. You can read more on it in my short reportage. Long story short, the bodies are left on a special cementary and never visited again. The people believe that once a person dies they are immediately reincarnated into another being. In that scenario, the body is just a vessel that has reached its point of expiration.

Using this as a metaphor, I leave the initial idea of this newsletter and trust the energy to pass to something new and fresh. Yet, instead of thinking and working on it for weeks or months on end, I want to do it one post at a time. Iteratively. Same as with reincarnation, I do not know what is the new place that awaits me. What I know is that I already started the journey towards it.

In this episode we talk about:

• how to look confident when entering a room? (4:22)

• the importance of handling disappointment as an adult (8:56)

• the need to always be closing (12:40)

• how to build resilience (21:41)

• the importance of being unapologetically yourself by Keanu Reeves (24:34)

• why is it important to change your state before you create strategies for change? (30:48)

and some tips for better sleep and close loops in your head.

At the same time, I feel something is missing and I need to take a break, get a grasp of fresh air and, afterwards, rethink the direction for this publication.

I very much appreciate each and every one of you dear subscribers for your time and trust. I would also like to share my gratitude to those who decided to support me with paid subscriptions.1

In order to deliver value to you in the future I need to get some fresh perspective.

Stay tuned!

I’ve recently published another story from my travels in Indonesia. 💀 “The Journey of the Soul” tells the story of elaborate Torayan death rituals. It’s an immersive journey into death and resurrection. It’s one of the most researched topics I’ve done so far. As this was a solo trip, it took me months of diligent planning and logistics (including nine flights within 14 days). The images and practices described can be unsettling for some viewers. Please consider subscribing to the stories list to be notified about my future reportage work. 

Now, back to the regular programming 📺

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It’s a knee-jerk reaction and human empathy to feel for another being when they are sad. It’s a good way for people to support one another and benefit our race. So what’s wrong with that? Nothing. Yet the way we approach empathy could be more healthy.

Let’s dig into sadness. As Paul Ekman1 describes it:

“Sadness describes the range, or family, of emotional states we can experience containing everything from mild disappointment to extreme despair and anguish.”

So what is this 'family of emotional states’?

According to Ekman: “Sadness is a response to loss, and feeling sad allows us to take a timeout and show others that we need support.”

Something I touched upon in one of my previous articles about anger is that there are no wrong or good emotions - just information. What we feel may be pleasant or not, yet that’s another thing. Sadness can mix with other feelings, such as the aforementioned, anger. 

As a rule, adults can cope with unpleasant emotions. It does not mean they feel nothing. It means they don’t die from them (contrary to what a toddler might feel and fear) and can manage and go through them. 

In practice, most of us did not leave childhood with such skills and are learning them in adulthood through experimentation or therapy. That said, mature and healthy behaviour is respecting other people’s internal processes and paths without trying to fix things for them.

In other words, treat others as adults who can cope, as your responsibility is to convey what you want to say with respect and mindfulness, and it’s out of your control how others will react to it.

How to embrace the above and respect where people are without feeling guilty:

1. Ask how you can support them in this situation.

Don't give advice. Ask what the person needs right now. When they respond, check with yourself if you agree with providing that. It's okay to say 'no' if you consider the request too much or don't feel like doing it. It's not harsh. It's being authentic and respectful to yourself and the other person. 

When you try to fix it for them, you strip them of their process and taking ownership.

2. Get curious yet not invasive. Some questions to think about:

• How can I (or our team) support you in this situation?

• What do you need from me (or our team) now?

• Do you want to share what you are going through right now to an extent that is comfortable for you?

The goal is to set expectations - not be a therapist or advisor unless you have a relationship with this person outside work or your boundaries (from both sides) allow this.

3. Let it be and see how it reflects on you

Know that sadness is a valuable feeling, and it’s healthy to be sad. If you feel uncomfortable with other’s sadness - introspect. What are you not comfortable with in particular? What does it tell you about yourself? What should you lean into and inspect?

BONUS

How to deal with a situation when somebody is going through hardship and does not contribute to a team as expected?

1. Invite them to share with the team.

2. Ask what do they need from you or the team right now and how much time they would need to sort things out. Don’t skip the latter as it cannot go indefinitely.

3. Discuss with the team what do they feel comfortable with and if they can handle this.

4. Follow up mid-way and see if things are changing.

—

🎈Share this post if you think it can help to build healthy relationships.

The “servant” part of “servant leader” is tricky, if not to say, just troublesome. Historically, the term meant (according to Oxford dictionary): 

“a person who works in another person’s house, and cooks, cleans, etc. for them.”

Current meanings go in different directions, yet the connotation with slavery won’t go anywhere soon. Yes, I know the intention is to support people on their journeys in an organisation instead of pointing fingers (unless it concerns something they should realise). 

Yet, I’ve heard too many times (in the early days, I thought this myself):

“It comes with the job.”

“They did not mean it.” 

“It’s just a phase in team’s development.”

“I just ignore that. It will go around.”

“When you work with change this is bound to happen.”

“It’s ok, I don’t want anybody to see me as an imposter.” 

All the above when people acted up, and were forgiven without setting boundaries. Scrum Masters, formal or informal leaders, team members abused by others:

• jokes that, in reality, are character assassination,

• criticism without professional framing,

• lack of support and tools to do the job,

• negligence in various forms.

Nobody wants to be a victim, and thus, we go around not acknowledging what happened with the intention that, by doing so, it won’t touch us. Yet, it already did. Naming things the way they are is the first thing to taking ownership of yourself and confronting the situation. 

When a person chooses the path of a servant leader (never mind the formal role), it does not mean you come with a clean slate. You bring your:

• character (with it’s flaws),

• set of values,

• set of boundaries,

• non-negotiables,

• things you believe.

You come in as a beautiful painting, not an empty canvas on which everyone can smear anything they wish and go about their business. Support people while maintaining integrity and lose the “servant” part.

—

🎈Share this post if you think it can make somebody start setting boundaries in their work.

In almost anything we say, there are two truths: the one we share verbally and the intention behind it. Let me give you an example:

When somebody says they appreciated what you said on the meeting they might mean that somebody has finally said something on the topic rather than what was said.

It’s not about lying but rather more about being precise. The same goes for agile transformations. The added complexity comes with the games people play and the personal gains they pursue.

Regarding transformations, on the surface, the declarative version is usually:

“We want to be agile because we want to respond to market needs faster and be more accurate in responding to client needs.”

There are also less sexy intentions behind such a statement that remain unspoken. Below, you can read six real truths that people rarely hear or even manage to notice regarding why agile is gaining momentum in a company:

1. A badge for cashing out - a VC fund invests in a company and wants to cash out after 3-5 years. They know that the ‘agility’ label increases valuation, so they pursue it, usually in cargo cult form, having sprint events but not changing much.

2. LTI’s - an LTI is a Long Term Incentive that usually higher management is offered, promising high premiums after reaching a particular (set of) goals or when the company goes for an IPO. This optimises decisions usually for mid-term gain (3-5 years) instead of long-term, which includes their successors. LTIs are only transparent for those who have them contracted. 

3. Not wanting to take ownership - C-suite using services from the big four regarding agile transformations and pre-defined models (sold to every company they work with) that promise the stars. Consultants come for a few months and leave everyone soon after. If things fail, the blame can go towards the the consultancy.

4. Fighting for own existence - decision makers need, or want, to prove their worth to their superiors or advance in the company, thus working towards quick effects rather than those that would give the most leverage for the whole company.

5. Show off to investors - the company is fighting for another round of funding, and they need to show things are working well, so they tend to gather, usually a lot of useless and not connected, datasets to convince them that things are progressing great.

6. Doing twice the work in half the time - similar to the infamous title of Jeff Sutherland’s book about Scrum, the executives can view agility as a means to doing things cheaper and faster, although what they say is different. 

You can notice some of the above through hectic movements, unclear goals, lack of transparency, people not listening to each other or things happening without prior notice. I’ve seen all of them in different shapes or forms. 

Are all of the above bad? Not necessarily. How they are implemented matters. If a consultancy works long-term and does a custom (instead out of the box) setup or increases shareholder value through better products, it can work. The thing is that companies don’t always succeed and take shortcuts.

Is there any solution to that?

1. Get to know the game people are playing. Asking directly often won’t cut it; notice what people prioritise and who gains from it. 

2. Play their game but propose a different outcome. Show them that their goal can be achieved in better ways that make more sense, and their mission will flourish.

The above is hard if not impossible in some cases. Why try, then? To make an impact, to not burn out, to educate and show new perspectives. There is no way to avoid those dynamics because, well.. People will always have their own agendas. Similar to your and mine hidden agendas when working in our roles.

What are your thoughts on the real reasons companies go agile? Did I miss anything in the above list? Share your thoughts in the comments.

—

🎈Share this post if you think it can give someone the tools to navigate their companies landscape better.

Recently, I attended the AgileByExample 2023 conference and below, I share four of my subjective highlights from the event with links, quotes and my thoughts. I will add all the mentioned speeches here once they are available on YouTube.

#1 Flying cars from Tesla 🚘

Joe Justice mentioned that engineers from Tesla have seen the work from SpaceX and asked themselves a crazy question - what if we could use some of this technology in cars? What if cars could fly? And they started working on just that. It’s also not the first time some of the technology in Musk’s companies is reused.

This connects (loosely) with a thesis I have that bringing people from different fields to one place can disrupt things nobody thought about. For instance, bringing a sewist to a factory or a language teacher to IT. 

It also reminds me of the importance of exchanging knowledge between companies - even from different industries, which I described in an article some time ago.

#2 Have your resignation letter ready 📄

Paul Klipp reminded me of something I tried a few times - having a resignation letter ready and filled from day one of work. It can help you feel in control, know you have options and be bolder in speaking up.

Of course, to have options, you have to do the work. If you can’t quit because of low savings or high interest rates on your mortgage, than that's the first thing to solve for the resignation letter to have a real impact.

#3 How can you reduce the cost by one penny? 📉

Joe shared yet another bit from working at Elon’s companies. No managers exist, and everyone, regardless of role, is working on the production line. There is a plethora of screens showing live (and automatically harvested) data from the production line. Everyone has access to the same information (see image below).

Depending on the business, they ask themselves a question: what needs to happen for us to reduce

• the weight by 1 gramme (SpaceX)

• power consumption by 1 mW (Tesla)

• the cost of production by 1 penny (both)

All of the above are questions for today. Not how can we cut 1000 USD in half a year? Those improvements are so small that they feel inviting instead of overwhelming. 

Think about: 

• How can you save 1 minute of the meeting you just had by better working on the shape of the meeting? 

• How can you improve the satisfaction from your workshop when it’s still happening instead of waiting for another one to happen? 

• How can you improve the product by 1% of X?

#4 You need privacy to take risks 🔐

In her talk, Patrycja Obara commented on open offices, which make people act more conservatively. She quotes research stating that to take risks, you need privacy. The same goes for creativity. 

“To do creative work, most people need periods of solitude when they are gestating their ideas, then they need periods of sociability when they are testing their ideas, and then they need more periods of solitude when they are refining their ideas.” - New York Times

I disliked working in open spaces since day one and cannot understand why companies tend to go this way when there is plentiful research stating this is just a lousy idea.1

If you work in an open space office, you likely book rooms or private booths to do the work. A great idea might be going to a coffee shop or doing some of your 1-2-1 or smaller group meetings as walks in a nearby park. I did that with my 1-2-1’s; they brought fresh insights and boosted creativity. The key is choosing a route that won’t distract you along the way.

Have you attended the conference? What are your take aways? Do share them in the comments!

—

🎈Share this post if you think it can inspire others to take new action.

Okay, let’s get something out of the way. There are no good or bad emotions. What we feel is an indicator from our body that something needs our attention.

Over the years, more and more companies have accepted that people have emotions (however absurd that sounds). With that comes acknowledgement that they can affect our behaviour and effectiveness. Some countries have sick leaves that can last half a year or more just for getting back on your feet mentally. These are all steps in the right direction, but something’s missing.

“I’m pissed” 😤

Different cultures and nationalities vary in their approach to anger. Most people are afraid of anger because they associate it with aggression. Rightfully so in many cases, yet there is so much more to explore here.

Anger, a common example, can often be a cover for an array of painful feelings—a sense of dejection, failure, abandonment, sadness, depression, to name a few, and hurt which is perhaps the most common. - Joan Cusack Handler Ph.D.1

I think getting your anger out is exploring what’s underneath instead of tucking it in a place you never want to see again. Internalised anger significantly foster depression.2

Sometimes, it can be as easy as saying in a meeting: “I’m angry right now and need to take a break to understand what is happening. Let’s take ten.”

We are inclusive to other emotions like sadness or fear, so why shouldn’t we be more inclusive towards managed anger?

How to respect your anger and express it in a healthy way?

Managed means that we don’t blow up in other people’s faces but learn to self-regulate our emotions. This means:

• learning new ways to know what is happening, understanding what is underneath anger,

• widening the gap between how we choose to react to them,

• exploring our tools to self-soothe,

• respectfully setting healthy boundaries,

• learning to cope with other people’s anger in a way we feel safe.

So, let’s dig into five tools. What can you do individually and in a group setting to put those into practice:

1. Name it and frame it.

   “I’m feeling flooded with emotions/anger right now and can’t think straight. I need to sit with it. Let’s do a recess and meet in 10.” (in a group setting)

   “I’m feeling anger right now. If its intention was to inform me about something important, what would that be? What is the underlying emotion? What do I feel when I feel anger?” (when alone)

   An important distinction here is that you feel anger instead of ‘being angry’. This emphasises that you are not your emotions and their temporary character.

2. Self-soothe by action, meditation or breathwork.

Self-soothing means bringing awareness to what is happening instead of trying to escape the feeling. It might not mean dealing with it in the moment, yet seeing it for what it is and reflecting soon after. You can take a walk, work with your breath or focus on being here and now.

3. Express yourself with FFCE.

Facts - express what happened, not your opinion.

Feelings - what did you feel in the moment and at the same time, not blaming how others made you feel.

Consequences - what were the consequences of the event from your standpoint?

Expectations - what do you expect from the other to change, and how can your relationship benefit from that? 

👉🏼 Example: On the last retrospective, you stood up and left the room in the middle of the conversation without a word. I felt anxious and puzzled, not knowing what happened. We needed to pause the whole meeting. I would appreciate it if you asked for a break and voiced what was happening so we could respond.

4. Set boundaries.

After researching inward what’s going on, we sometimes might need to set a boundary. We can't control others, yet we can respond to how they react. 

👉🏼 Example: If the person to whom we addressed feedback from point 3 said: “I hear you but don’t care” and was not open to discussion - this poses a different question. What boundaries do I need to set in place to be able to function with that person in a healthy way for both of us? This can be:

• Communicating only formally without personal chit-chat that makes us feel as if we have a relation,

• How will you act if a scenario repeats itself? What might be the consequences for the other person?

• Clearly communicate your own expectations with the other person, how this can work forward and if it does not, what would be the next step (changing team, working with somebody else, etc.).

Doing the above can make you feel uncomfortable and vulnerable because you sit with emotion instead of trying to eliminate it. Making yourself heard can change a team or a meeting dynamic because so few people dare to speak up and elaborate.

That said, there is always space and context for everything, and you might not be in a safe place to speak up, yet you can always tend to yourself.

How do you tackle anger in a professional setting? Let me know in the comments!

PS. Some additional wisdom from dr Niole LePera on anger in relationship setting:

the.holistic.psychologist

A post shared by @the.holistic.psychologist

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This article was originally published on Medium.com on Oct 4, 2016 and was slightly re-edited for better expierence and voiceover for this Substack publication.

—

As an Agile Coach (AC) or a Scrum Master (SM), there are times where you go around in circles working in the same context. Trainings or conferences you attend might not give you the edge you need to achieve the extraordinary or “boldly go were no man has gone before”. Moving to another company is not always the solution either.

There is something else that gives you a safe net and experience that no other popular form will — an exchange. I call it “Agile Coaches exchange programme” which I revitalised at Allegro Group in 2016. It will let you push things to another level. Let me explain how.

Warsaw, Stockholm, Paris

Developers have hackatons and AC / SM have coach camps. Yet the latter are still theoretical discussions or case studies filtered by the speaker. You get one story and don’t see the context behind it. It’s valuable to a certain extent — same as this article.

The idea of visiting each other’s companies is probably not new yet it’s mostly done in a way where people go round the corridors seeing the working environment asking few questions on the go. It takes around 2–3 hours at maximum.

What I am describing here is an immersion programme where you can dive in to the situations and problems that a company faces. It’s done by spending a minimum of 1–2 days (or more if you prefer) together.

That includes internal meetings, team events, guild meetings, solving problems together. With such an intention, together with my colleagues, we visited Spotify in Stockholm and BlaBlaCar in Paris. We also hosted BlaBlaCar in our offices. Earlier on, we arranged similar meetings with few other companies in Poland. Below you can find things that I and some of us learned.

How to prepare to avoid the superficial

The exchange involves travelling (doh!). Depending on how you want to arrange things — you can first host and then be hosted or do an exchange in one place with some space for both parties to share. Personally, I would say that the former option is the most fruitful one. You first share your context and then get to know the other company’s (I will call them “partner”) environment when they host you. You can shadow them at work or even run some of the meetings.

The preparations can take months and begin with reaching out to each other as well as being patient and consequent in your actions. Here’s how I do it:

1. Understanding the intention

It’s crucial that both sides understand the intention behind the idea.

It is sharing knowledge, practices, experience and failures as well as just helping each other to better as people, servant leaders, teams and companies in a world where change is inevitable.

It is not a new way of recruiting to your company, using others knowledge to build advantage against them, sharing (without consent) those information outside of your agreement, providing free training for your staff, free holidays, only taking without giving etc. When you host you don’t cover your partners hotel or travel expenses. It’s rather obvious but I wanted to make it clear.

2. Reaching out

The start is always similar — reaching out to each other. It can be spontaneous or planned.

Spontaneous can happen on a conference, workshop or any other place where you can meet, establish a rapport and talk. I go with my gut feeling in this scenerio. When I meet someone, the rapport is good, I can learn and have something to offer, I then suggest we exchange.

Planned happens when you have a company that you would like to visit but not sure where to start. It may involve reaching out to your network of in friends, colleagues, LinkedIn and looking for people that know someone in the desired organisation to make an introduction. This really works if you have a clear vision of what you want to achieve and don’t give up easily.

3. Meeting expectations

You will often see that the expectations you have and things you want to learn will differ between both parties at least a bit. That’s why I gather a list of things that, together with the exchange team, we would like to get to know and ask for a similar list from the partner. I do it prior to setting dates and other points to know if we can meet all or just some of the expectations. A sample list you can find below:

• Working in remote teams — seeing an event when a team communicates remotely, tools you use to ease the communication looking at few teams while they work remotely, sharing challenges that arise.

• Product & process — how do your teams choose how they work? What tools & techniques do you use? What is your workflow? How do PO, AC and management work together? If possible, seeing some of the meetings with people involved that help to answer these questions.

• Openspace / Lean coffee — dedicated time for discussing problems, raising questions and other topics up for a discussion.

• How do you manage dependencies and priorities within your products / projects? How do you measure and iterate on them?

• How do you foster innovation and with what effect? How do you understand it? How do you measure and choose the measures?

• Fuckups — around the world there are meetings called “fuckup nights” where people share their failures and lessons learnt. It’s hard but opens people and discussion to new, unchartered waters. Nothing breaks the ice better.. Just joking.

This point also answers the question: what can we share as a company and what we won’t share? There can always be some things that you just won’t share because you can’t. It’s a hush hush matter or something not yet ready for the outside world. It’s worth checking the legal stuff twice with different people before you decide. It also answers the question if your partner is going to shadow you, be involved in the meetings or even run some of them. These need not to be only team or group meetings but also 1–2–1 meetings with a PO or coaching (if you Client for the session agrees on that).

4. Arranging things

This is probably the most demanding part of the whole exchange as it can take a lot of time depending on how much support you have and how long is the exchange. It can involve:

• Preparing the schedule — who, what, when? Do the teams, people agree to have visitors? How many people can participate in a meeting for it to be effective and not overwhelming? Can they participate in the discussion or just listen?

• Presentations / stories — preparing some materials for discussion, presentations, stories, cases. Those that you want to share as well as some that you will have up your sleeve when the schedule dynamically changes.

  This involves certain preparations (sometimes hours and hours), inviting other speakers, subject matter experts so it’s of value to your partner company.

• NDA — some companies require people to sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement to protect in their intellectual property in a more formal way. Depending on your legal departments efficiency as well as previous practices this can be easy or a pain in the.. neck.

• Who can we invite? This involves the maximum number of people you can host at a time on an event, language of meetings you are going to use, technical proficiency and more. Basically, think about who your guests are. In terms of language, it won’t be a problem for truly international companies.

  As for the number of people you can host, for instance, if you invite 4 Agile Coaches and one of your meetings is a daily for a team of 5 people then having 4 additional people in a the room might be overwhelming for the team and (probably) not practical. Maybe two daily’s happening at the same time would solve this? Food for thought.

• Gifts — when visiting or hosting I always go with a small company gift for the partner. Best to keep it practical and ask beforehand if people are going to use that in order not to create more trash on the planet. Inviting people to a nice restaurant can be an alternative.

  To my mind, what matters is the gesture you make not the size of it. Of course, just hosting is okay as well. Go with what you feel is right at the moment.

5. Meeting & sharing

When you go through all the preparations — congrats! The best is yet to come! Things and agenda may change. Bloopers happen not only on television. Be open and non-judgemental when you hear what others share. You might think this is not the right way or you could do it better. Instead concentrate on the context and ask follow up questions to better understand. You may surprise yourself. Being mindful is about being here and now which might be challenging when you’re hosting. Take notes! Ask when you want to take a photograph of something. Smile!

Outcome & lessons learnt

When an exchange is a success? For me it’s when the vibes are good, you can feel that energy flowing. It’s also when the knowledge that both sides share and gain is of value for them, when we learn something and solve something. If all of the above happen together — it’s perfect.

Those meetings can take various forms because it’s always a different mix of people, cultures and views. If you embark on the journey don’t compare your visits between each other. It does not make sense. What makes sense is looking at which formula works for you best. My takeaways from the exchanges I participated in helped me in (among others):

• preparing a concept of innovation for the whole company as a mix of my ideas and those that I learned about,

• testing new video conferencing system — seeing if it works better then our or not,

• appreciating my journey in agile — what I’ve learned and place I’m currently in; that it’s always not that a rosy picture you in your company or the partner company.

• fostering collaboration between various roles in my company — like more tight cooperation with Product Owners and Developers,

• implementing few concepts of ways to organise one of the departments — like health check model and some new management 3.0. concepts,

• getting to know myself better — what are my thoughts in new context, feedback from the guests on teams I work with or the company I currently work for.

• gaining another perspective— answering various questions makes you think about the relevancy of the actions you take and if it all still makes sense, your positively thought provoked.

I think that the most important thing is that you should not look at your company through the lens of other companies. It’s great to get to know their practices but your environment is unique and so should be most of your solutions — tailored to what you really need. First answer the question — what problem are we trying to solve and then choose the options best suited or conduct an experiment.

As for lessons learnt and best practices:

• don’t rush your guests — be prepared to adjust to changing schedule yet balace it with good time keeping,

• adjust breaks between meetings — some prefer a tight schedule while others appreciate 5–10 min breaks, adjust to the needs of your partner,

• leave at least 1–2h for discussion — a day packed with events and presentations might not leave time for ad hoc

• reserve 1-1,5h for lunch — many discussions arise during the breaks and they can be cut short if there is too little time,

• prepare well — maybe obvious but it will be appreciated,

• make some time for short recap sessions — hosting guests is a great opportunity for the team that they are visiting and local Agile Coach to get some feedback from the guests about what they saw and what could be improved,

• go for a beer — socialising in a more informal way after the exchange is a great team building time,

• share with local community —if you’re travelling why not find a local meet-up group and suggest you could give a speech? That can let you meet great people and share the knowledge even further.

• be open to the lenght — in Allegro we’ve done exchanges that lasted from 1 day to a week. Both have their pros and cons as well as have a different form.

• ask for expectations of you when you’re visiting — should you feedback the team? take part in the conversations? note things that you see and share afterwards?

My thanks go to all our hosts from the companies we visited. Guys, thank you for your effort and making it such a wonderful experience!

What’s next?

My intention for creating this article is to spread the word around the world to, hopefully, inspire others to go beyond the normal grind. I would like to create a community where companies share, exchange and are not afraid to open themselves to others as well as their own failures. This is already happening in some places but I believe, collectively, we can still do better. This need not to concern Agile Coaches but other roles as well. I strongly believe this is the future of work. What’s your view on the idea? What did you like and what would you add or change?

Ideas for the future:

• company to company roles mentorship where people pair on a mentor-student or partner-partner basis,

• exchanging as a series of meetings throughout quarter or a longer period,

• exchanging with companies not necessarily related to e-commerce or IT but also production companies etc.

• open knowledge sharing sessions normally held internally e.g. Deep Work, agility practices in Machine Learning projects,

I will share some insights once I have tested the above.

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I’m back from my travels through different Indonesian islands while working on my reportage projects (see the first one about exploring Bali’s illegal cock fights). I’ve seen a lot of death in various forms during this time. Some of the coming writings (including this piece) and podcasts with Jarek will source (in)directly from my discoveries on the road. 

Meanwhile, I moved the said “Let’s behave” podcast to Substack for easy access. With all my key initiatives in one place, I hope I will be able to offer you more value and better shape the offer of this newsletter in the future.

Now, back to the regular programming 📺

You are very brave

I get in an elevator holding my motorbike helmet in one of the Balinese hotels. An American couple quickly jumps in after me on the same floor. After few seconds, a conversation starts:

- You are very brave - says the man.

- What do you mean? - I respond.

- Well, you drive here, right? In all this crazy chaos, I cannot imagine it. I wouldn’t have the courage.

We both laugh, the door opens, and we go about our business.

Though many would disagree, I honestly believe that driving in Bali and some other parts of Indonesia is safer than in Europe.

I touched on this subject briefly in one of my previous articles, yet I wanted to explore it as a metaphor from a different angle here.

Nimble autonomy

I borrowed this heading from Kevin Goldsmith as it very well describes how I see the Balinese move on the road. They:

• Pay attention to what is happening around them.

• Drive slower and predict situations in advance to be able to react quicker.

• Have limited trust in the system and other drivers.

• Use the horn often to inform others of a coming manoeuvre.

• Don’t show any road rage and are kind to each other.

• They break the rules to keep safe - this is a direct quote from a local.

The significant difference between the West and East I see is:

People in very codified countries tend to trust the system and think less, focusing on following specific processes. In countries like Indonesia, people don’t take things for granted, make their own decisions, and are more mindful of the traffic and surroundings. Depending on the region, they are also more kind and forgiving.

Now, that brings me to change management and experimentation.

Organisational mindfulness

Trusting the system can leave an individual stuck reenacting the same patterns with mediocre results. I’m not saying processes are bad. Yet if we deal with them mindlessly they won’t get us far. They can even mean a step back in whatever we are trying to achieve.

Below I share a mental note to myself as a reflection taking from the paralel above:

• Be mindful that your improvement has a certain shelf-life. Observe if it still works for you, your team or the organisation after weeks or months.

• Instead of asking always for permission - test the waters with an experiment being mindful about not messing too much with the environment. Sometimes breaking patters and asking for forgiveness can show in practice what you have been pitching for months.

• Let others know you are doing the change and why. How will you make their lives better? What should they be mindful of? Why should they care?

• Don’t do change for the sake of change - respond to a goal or a problem. In the end, it’s not about speed nor huge throughput.

• Understand your company’s scaffolding:

  • What counts business-wise?

  • What are the non-negotiables in decision making? (like for real, not declarative)

  • What are the recent goals and mission?

Making a decision within the scaffolding mitigates the risk of excessive collateral damage. Additionally, one of the organisations I visited during an Agile Coaches exchange programme that I revitalised in Allegro many years ago had a specific role (more of a hat somebody took when needed) that let others know you are fixing something important for the organisation. By having this temporary title people knew that helping this person would benefit everyone.

Let me know in the comments what helps you being mindful in your organisations instead of blindly following the beaten path?

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🎈Share this post if you think it can help your mates make things happen.

- What is the one question worth answering in terms of making progress on the stage? - What is the relaxation technique drawn from the military that can help you soothe? - How to prepare, how to manage stress before and on the stage?

📖 Further reading: What is TRE

We are aware we just touched the surface in many cases, so let us know if we should deepen some of the topics at hello@konkel.co or tag us on Twitter @⁠⁠m_konkel⁠⁠, @⁠⁠j_nuszczynski⁠⁠

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