Author Archives: Liz

A Helping Hand

Posted on July 18, 2017

This week, Sallyann Freudenberg and Katherine Kirk have been running a small summit on inclusive collaboration and neurodiversity – not just focused on diversity in our experiences, but in the very make-up of our brain. Sallyann suggested there was a … Continue reading →

Posted in cynefin, learning, life | 1 Comment

When Ignorance is Bliss

Posted on June 23, 2017

I’ve written before about epiphany; that sudden sense of enlightenment that you get when you realise that you’ve discovered a new pattern in the world. It’s ironic that my favourite moment of epiphany was when I finally understood its opposite … Continue reading →

Posted in cynefin | 3 Comments

Yes, and…

Posted on March 5, 2017

Imagine two actors standing on stage. “I like your penguin,” the first says. The other turns round, looking at the empty space where one might imagine a penguin could be following. There are two things that can happen. Perhaps the … Continue reading →

Posted in complexity, cynefin, deliberate discovery, real options | 9 Comments

Breaking Boxes

Posted on November 7, 2016

I love words. I really, really love words. I like poetry, and reading, and writing, and conversations, and songs with words in, and puns and wordplay and anagrams. I like learning words in different languages, and finding out where words … Continue reading →

Posted in complexity | 7 Comments

How do you terminate a project in your org?

Posted on July 18, 2016

We all know that when we do something new, for the first time, we make discoveries; and all software projects (and in fact change efforts of any variety) target something new. (You can find out what that is by asking, … Continue reading →

Posted in business value, capability red, deliberate discovery, real options | 1 Comment

On Learning and Information

Posted on May 31, 2016

This has been an interesting year for me. At the end of March I came out of one of the largest Agile transformations ever attempted (still going, surprisingly well), and learned way more than I ever thought possible about how … Continue reading →

Posted in learning models, scale, Uncategorized | 2 Comments

Correlated in Retrospect

Posted on May 9, 2016

A few  years back, I went to visit a company that had managed to achieve a high level of agility without high levels of coaching or training, shipping several times a day. I was curious as to how they had … Continue reading →

Posted in complexity, cynefin | 4 Comments

BDD: A Three-Headed Monster

Posted on December 14, 2015

Back in Greek mythology, there was a dog called Cerberus. It guarded the gate to the underworld, and it had three heads. There was a great guy called Heracles (Hercules in Latin) who was a demi-god, which means he would … Continue reading →

Posted in bdd, deliberate discovery, stories, testing | 4 Comments

Capabilities and Learning Outcomes

Posted on September 17, 2015

When I started training, I taught topics. Lots of topics! Nowadays, thanks to some help from Marian Willeke and her incredible understanding of how adults learn, I get to teach capabilities instead. It’s much more fun. This is how I … Continue reading →

Posted in bdd, learning models | 3 Comments

On Epiphany and Apophany

Posted on September 9, 2015

We probe, then sense, then respond. If you’re familiar with Cynefin, you know that we categorize the obvious, analyze the complicated, probe the complex and act in chaos. You might also know that those approaches to the different domains come … Continue reading →

Posted in cynefin, real options, uncertainty | 9 Comments