On Change...

The other day, I heard my son and his friends complain about their football coach. They were frustrated because they did not get enough playing time in the last match and considered it unfair that their coach's son got to play the whole match despite not delivering.

I watched and listened for some time... and then I got involved in the conversation. I asked them: "Let's assume you are right... what are you going to do about this?"

They looked at me confused: "What do you mean? There is nothing we can do!" They were completely in a victim mindset... they felt powerless.

I responded: "There is always something you can do... You can either love it, change it, or leave it."

They just got more confused... they had no idea what I meant, so I explained: "Love it means you accept how things are and stay without constantly complaining about it. Change it means you address that topic with your coach and make constructive suggestions how things could be better. Leave it means you leave for another team hoping for a better coach."

There eyes opened up... They suddenly felt powerful... They felt like they could shape things.

That conversation got me thinking... do I apply the same principle in my life? Am I aware of my power to choose when I am facing challenges? The answer was partly yes and partly no.

This is when I decided to make a significant change.

In November of 2015, I became a CST which stands for Certified Scrum Trainer? with the Scrum Alliance. Back then I was 33 and one of the youngest to ever get that title... except for a few people who - back in the days - were minted CSTs just by shaking hands with Ken Schwaber ;-)

I also received the CST back then in record time... it took me less than 2 years from my initial Product Owner training to pass the incredibly hard Trainer Approvel Process.

Long story short: I was super proud. Next to becoming a medical doctor, getting accepted into Bain & Company, and earning my MBA, this was an incredible achievement that would also transform my work and ability to create impact.

Very quickly, I got deeply involved in the global Scrum Trainer and Coaches community. I build relationships with many incredible people from all over the world. I co-trained with many people aspiring to become CSTs and helped at least 15 people achieve that level... at some point I lost count. I started a petition against an initiative from the Scrum Alliance CEO and got him fired. I joined the Board of Directors for three years (2018 - 2020) and fought for our community.

In the past 9 years, I loved the Scrum Alliance and its community... I tried to change the Scrum Alliance from various positions and managed to create some change... Now, I have decided to leave the Scrum Alliance for good.

Love it, change it, or leave it...

Why did I decide to leave? I believe the Scrum Alliance has lost its soul. It has lost its mission. It has lost its direction. It is about to lose its most important asset which is the trainers and coaches that passionately aim for change.

It has also forgotten what a not-for-profit organization should be... it should not be an organization that aims for profit maximization.

I am not an idealist... I am an entrepreneur. I know that any organization even a not-for-profit should better be making profits in order to operate in a sustainable manner. But even for-profit organizations - let alone not-for-profits - should never aim for maximizing profits because that leads to short-term thinking which leads to doing stupid stuff.

Organizations need to consistently reevaluate whether they are acting in line with their mission and values. Every organization today operates within an ecosystem. In that ecosystem we need to create conditions that work for all players in that ecosystem that are - together with us - aiming to make a difference.

An organization like the ScrumAlliance needs to work through its trainers and coaches not by bypassing them.

An organization like the ScrumAlliance needs to constantly raise the bar for what Agile Coaching and Enablement mean instead of lowering it.

An organization like the ScrumAlliance needs to create products/services in an agile way and lead as a role model.

An organization like the ScrumAlliance needs to go beyond Scrum in order to support the world's need for holisitic agile approaches.

At the end of 2020, my last year as a board member and as the vice-chairman of the board, I was asked to step in as CEO. I was hesitant, because two of my friends were back then, Co-CEOs and I did not want to throw them under the bus. But I was willing to spend a day writing down my thoughts on what the ScrumAlliance should be doing. I wrote a 3-page strategy for them... I shared that strategy with the next CEO of the organization as well. That was my last try to make/catalyze a change.

Over the past few weeks, my team and I carefully thought about what we would want to stand for... how we want to create value for our clients... and why we do what we do.

Together with my team, I came to the conclusion that I want to put my time, energy, and creativity into creating something new from scratch. Something that sets new standards in how people and organizations learn about agility and how we make learning not only stick, but actually how we support people to embark on a life-long journey.

In the past 4 years, we already developed a ton of e-learning, so that every participant of our live courses also gets a life-time access to the e-learning. That makes learning so much more sustainable. Our course participants can recap, deep dive, and connect with other learners in our community.

This year, we created an AI Agile Coach called Henrik which acts as a sidekick and supports many agile practitioners on a daily basis by answering questions, truly coaching them using socratic questioning, and providing inspiration on what to learn next.

In 2025, we will extend our offering by creating our own accreditation unit which helps people demonstrate/back their knowledge and experience... in a way that none of the existing organization has done and in a fair model e.g. without certificates that expire after 2 years. That was one of the biggest criticisms I had during my time on the board... and it was only due to a focus on profits why the ScrumAlliance was not willing to let this go.

My team Agile Academy on LinkedIn and I will share more over the next few weeks. If you are interested to learn about what we will be doing, I suggest you follow our team's account too. I will also reach out to each and everyone of my alumni with an offer... stay tuned.

Many of my CST friends asked me "why would you leave... you are probably the most successful CST at the moment?" My response: "From nothing, comes nothing."

I need to believe in something to be part of it... I am not scared of change given how much change I have already faced in my life... I am energized by building new stuff... And I know I am not doing this alone having a wonderful team around me.

#FromNothingComesNothing