Systemic Agility Community

"They are resisting."
"This shouldn't take so long."
"We must hold them accountable to new behaviours."

These are complaints I have heard from people working on organisational changes.

It is true that change often happens more slowly than we'd like. In my observation, that is in large part due to how people go about it. I'll share a different perspective on how to approach change-- whether you want to make a small scale change on your team, or a significant change at the department or company level. Because whether or not you have change management in your job title, your job involves change.

Note: This will be a recorded event in speaker view. Only the speaker(s) will be recorded. Feel free to bring your questions and your sharing spirit to this conversation.

About Esther Derby
Esther Derby draws on four decades of experience leading, observing, and living organisational change. She works with a broad array of organisations. Her clients include both startups and Fortune 500 companies. Based on experience and research, her approach blends attention to humans and deep knowledge of complex adaptive systems. Esther has been called one of the most influential voices within the agile communities when it comes to developing organisations, coaching teams, and transforming management. Her work over many years has influenced coaches and leaders across many companies.
Esther started her career as a programmer. However, over the years she’s worn many hats. From all these perspectives, one thing was clear: individual, team, and even organizational success depends greatly on the work environment and organizational dynamics.
Esther has an MA in Organisational Leadership and a certificate in Human Systems Dynamics. She’s trained as a Mentor Coach and a Satir Coaching Specialist.
She’s also the host of the popular podcast, Change by Attraction and co-host of the Law of Jam podcast.

This talk introduces “Patterns of Strategy” - a radically different approach to understanding and formulating business strategy which is built on a different paradigm to conventional strategic approaches.

We’ll take you through some of the theory, the practice and illustrate it with some examples. Patterns is “agile strategy” in two ways - first it is a dramatically faster way of developing strategy which means that you can speed up the cadence of formulation and execution. Second, it describes
a strategy as sets of manoeuvres and gives a totally different way to deal with the dynamics of strategic situations allowing the business to become more agile in its strategic environment.

The statistics on the failure of conventional strategy are shocking at 70%-98% failure rate,. We’ll look at why this is and at some of the ways in which conventional strategy is fundamentally flawed and show how Patterns provides a proven alternative.

About Patrick Hoverstadt
Patrick has worked as a consultant since 1995 with organisations of all sizes and internationally across 24 countries in the private, public and third sectors. He specialises in using systemic approaches, working mainly on strategy, organisational design and organisational change.
Patrick is the author of “Fractal Organisation”, a book on organisation design using the Viable System Model published by Wiley in 2008 which has been used used on seven masters programmes around the world. He is co-author of “Patterns of Strategy” a book on a systemic approach to strategy published by Gower in 2017, co-wrote 7 other books, and is the author of ‘The Grammar of Systems’ – a book on how to think like a systems thinker, published in 2022. He chairs SCiO the professional body for systems practitioners and is a Visiting Research Fellow at Cranfield School of Management.

Please note: This session will be recorded in speaker view.

Cognitive Diversity is not a buzzword—it's a powerful approach that leaders can use to drive innovation, enhance problem-solving, and foster inclusive leadership. By embracing diversity of thought and actively cultivating an environment where all voices are heard, we can unlock the full potential of our teams and organisations. Its core foundation lies in psychological safety.

About Seun Opanubi
Seun runs an independent Scrum Master mentorship programme and is a facilitator and a transformational strategist. She has recently completed an Executive Diploma in Digital Leadership at University of Warwick.
As a seasoned professional and mentor with a passion for helping organisations, Seun empowers Scrum Masters to elevate to new heights, providing personalised guidance and insights to navigate complexities, foster collaboration, and drive Agile practices. In addition, Seun guides clients through their transformation journeys towards great outcomes in their digital strategy.