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.

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?

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.

Agilists focus on program performance; line management focuses on functional excellence and control. Agilists preach a focus on product outcome, while line management tends to maximize output. Just two obvious stereotypes between the two groups. Sander Nienkemper looks forward to visiting Agile@Scale, because he combines both roles (as well as a third!) at insurance company Vivat.

The first speaker to present a case on January 25^t, 2021 at our upcoming event Agile@Scale is Rick van Benten, of telecoms conglomerate VodafoneZiggo. Offering a peek into his planned narrative, he says: “I wanted the desired outcome to lead us, rather than just unbox a method.”

My personal highlight of the RTE Summit Global: seeing the conference’s chairman Ali Hajou wearing a black braided ‘hippie’ wig for a themed presentation halfway through the second day. That, and seeing so many seasoned RTEs share their stories of failure, struggle, strength and success at the end-of-day online roundtables. What was yours?

Chris James expresses a deep appreciation for the Release Train Engineer. He has to, in a way: as CEO of Scaled Agile, RTEs are his bread and butter. But as CEO he’s also a Business Owner himself, working with the RTEs of Scaled Agile’s own ARTs – and from that perspective he’s seen some room to improve for many who drive that Train. So, Chris James’ keynote for this year’s RTE Summit on November 9^th… dives into the business-RTE relationship.

It’s a wrap! On October 28^th we received over 100 Agile coaches on our virtual online platform for the first edition of the agile coach conference. Over the course of an entire day, these enthusiastic professionals followed more than 8 presenting speakers, 3 keynote speakers, and 2 rounds of 6 workshops each, and many exciting ideas exchanged.

Eelco Rustenburg and Niels Groen,  SAFe Program Consultant Trainers (SPCT) and twin driving forces behind Gladwell Academy’s Agile @ Scale Global, explain why you should Save the Date of January 25, 2021. 

Jenny van Rinsum and Larry Anderson are both witty personalities who like to share a joke. They also share the responsibility for a monumental undertaking at Nike: the replacement of its huge legacy ERP platform Island Pacific with SAP CAR and S/4HANA. And that’s no joke, especially because it involves a cross-continental ART that has several complex dependencies with other ARTs.