We are incredibly pleased to announce that Christian Hoffer is joining Gladwell Academy’s Trainers Hall! Christian’s professional background is rich in successful Agile Transformations which he has helped lead during his 25-year career, and it is perfectly supplemented by a wide range of industry expertise within the European Market – a perfect blend for providing you with an exceptional training experience.  Dive into our welcome conversation with Christian to discover the insights he has acquired throughout his career, and how he will further share his knowledge during the course of the upcoming Gladwell courses. 

If there was ever a time to put our Agile abilities to the test, that time is now. So much is changing in the world, and it’s becoming increasingly difficult for many individuals and organizations to adapt. That is why we are thrilled to welcome you to the 2022 Agile Coach Conference, where you’ll learn from the Agile masters themselves just how Agile working can help you get ahead of the curve. This event will be the perfect place to share best practices and learning cases, as well as a time to reconnect with fellow Agile colleagues, while getting acquainted with new ones.

After a long year of anticipation, we were excited to return to in-person networking with our 6th annual RTE Summit at the start of November! Taking place at the Railway Museum in Utrecht, the 2021 RTE Summit featured a number of exciting workshops and presentations, organized by companies such as Vodafone, Amadeus, Rentouch, and so many others. Participants -- nearly 150 of them -- came from all over the world to join us at this inspiring event, with Andrew James Conroy of Avianca traveling 24 hours to make sure he didn’t miss out on this year’s RTE Summit! Talk about commitment.

The RTE community will gather in less than a month at the Railway Museum in Utrecht, The Netherlands, for the 6^th edition of the RTE Summit. This event location has been chosen as the perfect metaphor for deliberate planning, aligning teams, reducing risk, and creating value.

What happens when you combine RTE-training with the RTE-Summit? You get the completely immersive “RTE in a Week”-course: combining theory and practice, learning and networking.

If ever there was a time to put our Agile abilities to the test, it has been the past year. Which is why we are thrilled to welcome you to this year’s in-person Agile Coach Conference. So many experiences to share, best practices and learning cases to put under the loop and the chance to reconnect with fellow Agile colleagues. Or, as Renate Cremer, our chairwoman for the Agile Coach Conference, puts it: “it has been a unique learning curve for everyone working Agile, while at the same time making a unique case that working Agile is the only way forward.”

'Great, you're here! So, this is the issue we're facing. Let's get to work.' It's a pretty familiar opening to any assignment for an Agile coach. And you could do it, of course. But are you sure you're dealing with the right problem? Odds are, you're not. Time to take a step back.

Proud to share that Eduardo Alvim, Senior Trainer at Gladwell Academy  is now a qualified SPCT (SAFe Program Consultant Trainer). This qualification makes Eduardo the world’s first and only Spanish & Portuguese speaking SPCT, something we are thrilled to congratulate him on! Representing Gladwell’s global and diverse presence, Eduardo shares his knowledge in no less than 4 languages: Spanish, Portuguese, French and English.  Find out in this interview how he feels about achieving this long-term goal.

No matter how well you've done in your training program or how hard you've studied, you're bound to make mistakes when you finally sit down for your Scrum Master exam. Here are the three most important questions people often get wrong.

Of course, being a truly great Scrum Master doesn't require any certifications. Your skills, experience and mindset aren't tied to a (virtual) piece of paper. So, why would you invest in it anyway? Let's find out.

Program Increment Planning is all about synchronization. To process feedback from the prior delivery; to plan out together what comes next. Doing it right gives you a Train that is worth more than its individual Teams combined. But how to move a decidedly in-person gathering to a virtual setting?

You could be an SPC for years and it might never occur to you. Or, you might discover it’s what you were made for: to become a SAFe Program Consultant Trainer - the select class of people that train the SPCs. Scaled Agile’s own Deema Dajani, herself a seasoned SPCT and an advisor to aspiring SPCTs explains why there is much more behind the role. 

Following an Implementing SAFe with Gladwell Academy trainers is always a good idea. If you are currently considering signing up though, 30 March is an exceptionally good time to go for. Eduardo Alvim is one of the most practically experienced SAFe change agents we have with us. He’s also a highly talented and entertaining trainer. He will join Scaled Agile‘ s own Deema Dajani to become a SAFe Program Consultant Trainer. 

"How do you deal with resistance to change? While it's a question I often get, in my experience resistance is usually a symptom of something else. To find out what lies at its root, we need to ask different questions. I like to start by going through these three steps." - Renate Cremer, trainer at Gladwell Academy

We are strengthening our leadership team with SPCT and SAFe Fellow Michael Stump, who will now oversee our operations as COO. Because innovative companies from all industries are increasingly using the Scaled Agile Framework, Gladwell Academy is seeing substantial growth in all domains, including operations. We had a conversation with Mr. Stump about how he intends to facilitate that growth with us.

SAFe 5.0 was launched a little over a year ago. A new version dedicated to business agility: making whole companies more flexible and agile, ready for change at a moment's notice. Because the world is constantly changing, and you need to change with it if you want to be able to compete. 2020 gave us a perfect example.

Live, from the studio in Loosdrecht: Agile@Scale Global. An event organized for people not just interested in working agile, but at scale – with hundreds of employees at the same time. Hosted by Eelco Rustenburg and Laurens Bonnema, over 50 participants from all over the world took in presentations, breakout room workshops and roundtable sessions, and enjoyed some comic relief during PowerPoint Karaoke.

One of the key topics in the Agile community is leadership. What kind of leader motivates people to get up every morning and give their all? Here are 10 ways to improve your leadership skills and help your team reach new heights.

If you’re a Dutch citizen and you have a mortgage, there’s a reasonable chance that your case file runs on a Florius platform. To reduce time-to-market and increase customer centricity, the company put together its first Agile Release Train about three years ago. Several prize-winning innovations later, there’s reason for SAFe Agilists Maartje van der Veen and Patrick Wijsman to look back and share the learnings at Agile@Scale.

Aspiring SPCs that want to improve their game should seriously consider the triple-deal ‘SPC in a week.’ The subtle work of the SAFe Program Consultant (SPC) requires a lot of what the Germans call ‘Fingerspitzengefühl’: in other words, experience is key. So, what better way to boost your beginnings as an SPC than with our ‘SPC in a week’ offer? Immerse yourself in a full week of mentorship, knowledge exchange and training by one the world’s most experienced SAFe trainers, SPCT Eelco Rustenburg with Marijt Weerts. From January 25^th ‘til 29^th… it’s all about the ART.