A·gen·cy·a·gile

/éˈ ǰənˈsiˌǽˈǰəl/

    noun

  1. a leadership and management system for real-world organizations that was derived from Software Agile, and extended with research-based techniques from behavioral economics, cognitive science and evolutionary psychology.
    • first developed for advertising and marketing agencies in 2011
    • highly effective in most naturally-occurring chaotic organizations (see NOCO)
  2. an effective and proven approach to transforming organizations using hands-on high-intensity team trainings, coupled with leadership education and coaching

"Since the Agencyagile trainings, we’ve seen a huge increase in collaboration and how fast work gets done."

We solve the biggest problem in management and organization today: how to create empowered and inclusive cultures that bring out the best in teams and chart a new way of being for managers and leaders.

We've assembled a better model, a toolkit, for getting the best out of knowledge work organizations. If you know Agile, at times it will seem familiar...but it is definitely not the same. If you are struggling with Agile, then we can fix it beyond your hopes and dreams. And it works really well for agencies.

OUR STORY

It's not about agencies. That was just an accident of fate. Agencies are where we proved that it works.

We've always believed in people. Yet, as the years passed it became more clear that much of what people think they should do for managing was counter productive or just not needed. Managing less was better, it seemed, so we asked ourselves, what should a manager be?

Several years of grad school and work at a top-flight research instituition followed, and we delved into the very heart and soul of how knowledge worker organizations should operate. Later, back in the real world, working across a range of industries, we tinkered with Agile and other techniques that gave alternate models to what managers should do, and what they do best.

The Global Economic Downturn of 2008 provided a window in which we could assemble the behavioral principles, 37 of them, but what to do with something that is just theory? Then, in 2010, at a crazy-busy marketing agency, in a project that looked like a flaming fuel tanker plane headed toward a granite cliff, we unleashed it, the power of teams. The results were profound. It was as if we had discovered the power of the atom, a new superpower, the ablity to make teams amazing and bad projects go away.

Within a year, we were attacking the advertising and marketing business, "agencies" as they are known, high-productivity knowledge work business with crazy time, schedule and budget challenges. Most other businesses have some of the problems that an agency has...agencies have them all...and also get an amazing amount of work done. We knew we could fix them. We called ourselves "AgencyAgile."

Eight years later, we have an enviable track record: over 150 agencies, marketers and digital shops as clients, over 15,000 people trained, and a sky-high NPS of 94. Our agency clients tell us of impressive results: margin improvements of 20% and more, faster delivery (often by 50+%), better quality, all coupled with higher client and team satisfaction. The ad industry? Their publications have called us "the Fixers." Broader business publications like the Wall Street Journal look to us for insights on how to do empowered management.

We're ready to help you make your organization better, faster and happier.

AgencyAgile in the News

A Brief History of AgencyAgile

1980-1990's

Interstellar Dark Matter

20+ years of exposure to pre-Agile methods, like Stand-up, Kanban, TQC, IEPM, etc.

1998-2001

RAND research

Our early research into knowledge worker organizations, empowered management.

2001-2008

Agile was born

Hands-on Agile projects, using xP, Scrummerfall and SA/3

2009

The Big Ideas

The 37 principles for managing a knowledge worker environment were drawn from work by the greats, Senge, Maslow, Mintzberg and others.

2010

Project in Flames

We piloted our 37 principles and gave a team control of a disastrous project.  They got it done. Amazing. No, really amazing.

2010

The $1MM+ Projects

Big projects, ruthlessly un-managed, on-time, in-budget, happy Clients.

2011

AgencyAgile is Born

Agencies have lots of challenges, and we had some good answers.

2014

High-intensity Training Model

We prove that high-intensity, hands-on workshops create instant change and results. We become trainers, teachers.

2015

High Productivity Days

We turbocharge and extend the stand-up model to create massive gains in productive "flow" for teams of 30-50 people. We now call these Workstreams.

2015

Leadership Awareness Training

Change needs support from the top, and we support them.

2017

Empowered Leadership Coaching

We become partners in helping leaders and managers grow.

2019

Strategy Consulting

The future of knowledgework organizations becomes our latest addition to our offerings.

2020

Inclusion is the New Empowerment

Diversity and Equity are just table stakes in the post-COVID era. Our methods make Inclusion and Empowerment more than just words.

Over 170 Agencies and other complex knowledge worker organizations

Let's add yours to the list

Consultants, Advisors, Coaches and Teachers

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We're ready to go! Let us know what it will take to get you started on the road to AgencyAgile awesomeness.