Presentations and Events
You Can Make More of a Difference Than You Think
October 9: 8:00-9:00am Pacific.
Have you ever seen something going wrong at work, known it could be better, and thought: “Yeah, but what can I do about it?”
A lot of people want to make things better but assume they need more authority, a new process, a formal transformation, or permission from someone higher up. Often they don’t. Sometimes the real limitation is what we can see. If we understand the situation better, notice what others may be missing, ask better questions, and think through the consequences of different choices, we often discover actions that were available all along.
That is where I think AI can be far more useful than simply helping us do more work faster.
David Marquet distinguishes between red work—doing the work—and blue work—thinking about the work. Most attention on AI today is focused on red work: coding faster, writing faster, analyzing faster, producing faster.
In this session, I’ll show how Sonesis/AI can help with the blue work: – understanding what is really happening
– seeing system effects and constraints
– questioning assumptions
– exploring alternatives
– preparing better conversations
– deciding what is actually worth doing
We’ll look at how this applies to five kinds of change agents: individual practitioners, team leads and consultants, HR/L&D leaders, consulting organizations, and senior leaders. A key idea is that you do not always need to introduce a new method or convince everyone to adopt new terminology before you can help improve behavior. Sometimes better questions and better insight are enough to start changing what people see—and therefore what they do. If you want to make a difference but are not sure what you can actually do from where you sit, this session is for you.
Register here.
Changing How We Change: Humanity, Learning, and AI
October 21: 8:00-9:30am Pacific.
Continuing the webinar series with David Scott Bernstein, Wolfram Müller, myself, and Woody Zuill
If we were starting today, how would we help people understand their situations, choose appropriate actions, create value, and learn continuously, with AI available as an educator and collaborator?
We will explore:
- What assumptions are embedded in our current framework-and-training model?
- What does AI make possible that was previously too difficult or expensive?
- What technical, organizational, and human capabilities make continuous learning real?
- How do we scale expertise while strengthening everyone’s ability to think?
- What principles or experiments might help us begin without creating another rigid framework?
All webinars in this series are here.
You can register by going here.
Recordings of Selected Presentations. (Click picture to see video).
Why we’re at the edge of another AI revolution – growing the capability of people 26_09_29
People + AI: Better Together Than Either Alone 26_09_24
Correcting the Overreactions of Agile: Move Beyond Either/Or Thinking. Sonesis Session on September 22, 2026.
Introducing AmpGPT, an AI tool based on how to improve workflows, how people learn, & how people are
Learn more about AmpGPT by going here.
An Introduction to Jobs to be Done Thinking
The Jobs to be Thinking Framework is a breakthrough method to discover what customers really need. While it was originally intended for marketing and product identification, Amplio extends the JTBD framework to use it both as a means to discover what customers need and a method to guide the workflow to create it. This integration helps create alignment across the organization. Learn more here.
To see a webinar on the Job to be Done Framework, go here.
Using an integration of Flow, Lean, and Theory of Constraints to Guide Workflow Improvements.
Flow, Lean, and the Theory of Constraints all work together. There is no conflict between them. Each has a slightly different focus. Knowing the essence of all three provides more insights as well as a variety of starting and improvement points. These combined enable you to be more effective than if you merely respond to challenges.
These theories provide the basis of Factors for Effective Value Streams.
Learn Why It’s Important to Take a Jobs to be Done approach.
Jobs to Be Done (JTBD) is a framework for understanding customer needs and motivations by focusing on the “job” that a customer is trying to accomplish rather than just the product or service they use. It shifts the focus from product features to the underlying problem or goal that drives customer decisions.
Done well, a JTBD approach can save a lot of wasted effort while creating greater innovation.
See Amplio’s Learning Journey on the Jobs to be Done Framework here.
An Overview of the Amplio System
Amplio is a complete system designed to be learned in stages. This enables a quick start or a more complete analysis before starting. It is more flexible than other approaches because it is an integration of what works while avoiding being complicated to adopt. Agile seems to have lost its commonsense. This webinar will present the following which on a quick glance should be clear are needed:
* having a common vision
* running a diagnosis before suggesting a solution
* discussing a new approach with employees before implementing the plan
* educating your people to have the ability to implement a plan
* having an expanding body of knowledge so that people don’t need to reinvent the wheel
* providing a support system for all of the people involved.
This webinar will present these six capabilities required to be effective: This is more about what’s needed and then discusses how to implement it than it is about Amplio
Taking a Jobs To Be Done Approach
Jobs to Be Done (JTBD) is a framework for understanding customer needs and motivations by focusing on the “job” that a customer is trying to accomplish rather than just the product or service they use. It shifts the focus from product features to the underlying problem or goal that drives customer decisions.
Done well, a JTBD approach can save a lot of wasted effort while creating truer innovation.
A Pragmatic way to deal with complexity
Complexity is a perception problem. Much of what at first appears to be complex is really clear once we see what’s going on. The challenge complexity causes us is that it obscures what might happen when we make changes. Using what we know to achieve quick feedback enables us to be effective even in the complex environment of knowledge work. See A pragmatic way to deal with complex situations Amplio Axiom #5 for a linkedin post on this.
What managers need to know and how to tell them
Many people complain about lack of management engagement but don’t tell you how to get them engaged. It is absurd, and demeaning, to expect them to “follow to understand.” You want them to use their experience and energy to help move things forward. This not only requires concepts that most Agilists don’t explain to managers, but many deny they exist. This talk lays out what concepts will help managers to understand their role in the new world.
Introducing Requirements by Objectives.
Focusing on users and the benefits they will get seems to make sense. But it creates a myopic view, ignoring other important stakeholders while promoting solutions without exploring the real objectives of what’s needed. RBO integrates design thinking into how you write your features and stories while making the requirements clearer and less likely to change.
Being a Great Scrum Master Requires More Than Knowing Scrum
Scrum was originally designed for a different era and context. Today, merely adhering to the basic Scrum framework isn’t sufficient for teams to achieve effectiveness.
A deeper comprehension of systems thinking, value stream management, and the various cause-and-effect relationships in product management can empower Scrum Masters to significantly enhance team performance. Additionally, this knowledge equips teams to transcend traditional Scrum methodologies and adapt to modern demands.
Join us for an inspiring session where you’ll gain the insights and tools needed to elevate your Scrum practice to the next level.
Introduction to the Quickest Valuable Release
This is the most useful single concept I’ve seen in 25+ years of Agile consulting and coaching. Unfortunately, it’s not in any of the popular Agile frameworks. We should be focusing on what will be the Quickest Valuable Release. This artifact is not present in any of the popular Agile approaches. While it is referred to at times, other artifacts take center stage, resulting in a lack of alignment, diluted value, and too much work in process. QVRs create focus on what we can release next. This creates alignment and speeds up the delivery of value.
The Penta
This talk explains why the Iron Triangle is both a poor model limiting our thinking, and what we can use instead.
The Penta helps us design our system so that we can apply our resources (including our capabilities, time, and budget), efficiently, to create as much value so that we meet our business objectives. Scope may change from its original statement to deal with competitive and constraining forces consistent with the stakeholders’ values, success criteria, and constraints. This, however, should be in line with the original objectives of the project
People are not taking advantage of what’s been demonstrated by Toyota on how to reduce waste and deliver more value quickly with the same costs.
See a post about the Penta here.
Kicking off a free online learning journey for improving your team approach.
Amplio Team is a team approach to doing knowledge work based on Flow, Lean, the Theory of Constraints, and Human-Centered Development.
It is not a framework. Instead it is a collection of principles and practices along with a diagnostic system to guide you in knowing which practices will work best for you in your situation.
This session kicks off the free Amplio Team / Amplio Scrum learning journey. An 8 week program that is part of the free Amplio Community of Practice. It is designed for anyone with experience in Agile or Scrum that wants to make it better.
This learning journey will improve your team’s workflow. It also can provide a transition from Scrum to Amplio Team.
Information Structures by Rick Greene
This presentation is an Amplio University session being made open to the public.
Are you interested in a repeatable structure using a premise of systems thinking? Are you interested in stair stepping mental models to practice understanding information? This session will help you move quickly from information theory to practice, from confusion to clarity, in just a few steps.
In this “Information Structures” session, you will be guided through an information practice and given mental models you can apply immediately. The mental models can help simplify your information, structure it for shared understanding, and adapt it to fit the unique circumstances of your organization.
As a bonus you will also learn effective prompting techniques for Large Language Models you can implement right away, enhancing your journey with “AI as a tool”
Agile is transforming. Many organizations are letting go of Agile Coaches and Scrum Masters.
Many Agilists have responded to this by claiming management is a problem.
However, the reasons lie mostly with how popular Agile methods have dealt with organizations and their management by leaving out critical concepts for management to learn and then blaming them for not knowing them.
Many have been convinced that it takes years to become effective. I suggest that what’s needed more experience, and even more than deep knowledge, is a shift in perspective Each of these shifts can be immediate. This talk will discuss:
- Why systems thinking and an appreciation of theory is so important.
- How we must shift our focus off of us and onto the people we are trying to help.
- Why we must cultivate a sense of agency. That is, having the sense of yourself as being able to do things, to be efficacious, to not just have to react to things that hit you.
Each of these is more of a personal decision to make than it is something to learn. They can all be done immediately and with no training. Of course, in the beginning, you may find yourself falling out of them – but then you just need to recommit.
This will be a collaborative style session, not a presentation.
Panel discussion on coaching a la ICF and a la the Amplio Kata Coaching style.
The intention of coaching is not to convince someone of what is right. It is to guide them in convincing themselves of what is more effective for them.
When you see a better path for them than they see, the action to take is not to build a path to the target in how you would like to get there, but in creating breadcrumbs that enable them to create their own path in getting to their better way.
The other half of this is being able to see these paths.
In most of the Agile-related conversations I see on LinkedIn, the feeling is that such a path does not exist.
You don’t need to see the entire path to take it. It emerges.
But you need to know how to take it, avoid detours, and overcome unexpected encounters.
Panelists with Ilana Sprongl, Daniel Gagnon, Susan Thompson and myself. We’ll discuss the differences and advantages of ICF coaching and Amplio Kata Coaching.
Shifting Security to the Left
Have you ever wondered why “security” was such a pain for most software development projects, resulting in countless hours of rework, over-the-top stress levels and costly delays to the tune of hundreds of millions – or even billions – for large organizations?
The root of these problems is ultimately down to the way security is thought about. It’s about preventing change, fixing problems and emergency response. It’s not generally about enabling the organization to achieve its objective.
In this talk I’ll share with you the most critical things to shift in the way you define and implement security, spanning applied economics, systems thinking and an adaptive governance model. It’s a small shift in thinking that can make a big difference, and I’ll show you how to make it.
This talk was presented by Andrew Townley, one of the ACEs in Amplio University. You can learn more about his services by going here.
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Extending Toyota Kata – Amplio Kata Coaching
While it’s not effective to tell people to do, merely asking questions to get them to figure things out themselves isn’t as effective as it could be either. The intention of coaching is not to convince someone of what is right. It is to guide them in convincing themselves of what is more effective for them. Doing this quickly is important because otherwise people may flounder.
This session introuces a breakthrough method in coaching concepts in addition to coaching improvements. Al Shalloway introduces his coaching method developed in the 90s based which now extends the Toyota Coaching Kata.
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Letting go of limiting beliefs
More people have more problems because of limiting beliefs they have than because of what they don’t know. We discuss some of these limiting beliefs in this session as well as how to dispel them. This was the precursor session to the definition of Amplio Kata Coaching in Amplio University.
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The Amplio Capabilities and Patterns Project
The sessions for the Amplio Capabilities and Patterns project are now complete. You can still work on them on the Lucid board available (see the link earlier in this sentence).
You can also go to the YouTube channel with all of the recordings.
The Essense of Listening
This is part of the Amplio Community of Practice Self-Study Program on coaching https://bit.ly/4igv2jv In this session we talk about how people don’t listen to others, but pay more attention to the voice in their own head – what is called their “listening.” The chapter on “listening” and filters have been put up on linked in and can be seen here https://successengineering.works/bein…
The requirements for an Agile approach
This video discusses what Al Shalloway has seen are the requirements for an Agile approach based on his over 10,000 conversations with practitioners and consultants over the last 20 years. The document Al goes through is on a LinkedIn post here. https://bit.ly/3B0PSCD
Using inherent simplicity to remove the four major impediments to a successful of adoption of Scrum.
Stop buying into the limits of Agile. Too many people are telling us about Agile’s inherent waste and limits. In this session we’ll out line these “limitations” and point to how they can be overcome. Pages referred to
- Disempowering Beliefs and Amplio’s Attitude.
- How to use inherent simplicity to remove the four major impediments to a successful of adoption of Scrum
- Introducing Amplio Scrum
Accommodated Beliefs Causing Problems
Three accommodations made decades ago that still plague agilists and make short-term training both ineffective and excessively expensive. Three truths we didn’t know how to deal with decades ago led to three accommodations that are still with us today. Even though we know how to avoid their limitations today, we don’t see this much in Agile. See the Word document being referred to here
The Need for Diagnoses and Adaptable Frameworks
Although it seems obvious that one should see where your organization is before settling on a solution (aka an approach) this is not espoused by any Agile framework. And when you do decide on an approach, it should not have an immutable framework but one that adapts to your needs at the start and changes as your needs change.
How things are easier when you use first principles and how to look at complexity.
The Technology Gap
How Agile Thinking Is Holding Us Back
ACoP Session: Q&A on how SMs can talk to techs and why Cynefin is misdirecting our focus.
This session was a recording of the Amplio Community of Practice session. I first presented what I feel are the 4 root causes of problems in Agile. I then shared a virtual collaboration board listing common problems and myths in the Agile space. I then took questions. The two main ones were how SMs can talk to techs and why Cynefin is misdirecting our focus.
During the talk I refer to why theory is so important. Here’s a page where you can learn more.
I start out talking about the four root causes of virtually all problems in the Agile space.
At 9:36 I talk about the board I’ve set up regarding common problems and myths.
At 14:00, I responded to a question about how non-technical Scrum Masters could speak to technical folks.
At 51:14 I respond to a question about Cynefin.
Creating value without waste.
When you have an existing product with a known clientele, there is no reason to create features without knowing that they will be of value. Running experiments to determine this is a symptom of not following the well-defined procedure that will be presented in this talk.
The talk begins with a little rant on how many in the Agile space are pushing limiting beliefs. That you have to run experiments to see what clients want is one of them. These are the capabilities needed to create value without waste:
1. Come from value first by identifying critical stakeholders’ success criteria and their constraints
2. Understood the business the customer is in
3. Take the customer’s perspective
4. Know that systems thinking informs behavior
5. Attend to the customer value stream
6. Write code to be easily changeable so that it can be built incrementally without waste.
This is a recording of an Amplio Community of Practice session.
Why what you base your approach on makes all the difference.
Foundations: Using Christopher Alexander’s Approach to Systems Design For Simple At Scale Solutions
- We need a systems view
- The composition of the system must be based on how different aspects of the system work together.
- People need to decide on their way of working. That is, they need their autonomy within the context of the whole.
This is a recording of an Amplio Community of practice session which talks about how to use Christopher Alexander’s patterns concept and pattern languages to provide structure with flexibility.
Factors for Effective Value Streams
Effective value streams are derived from fundamental principles and guidance. They allow us to assess the effectiveness of our value streams and determine whether proposed workflow changes will be beneficial. These factors are expressed as actionable steps.
By considering these factors, we can avoid frequent experimentation and quickly evaluate whether a workflow change will lead to improvement.