Good morning! Is it still morning?
You know, in some events like this, they save the best for last. But in this one, I think it was whoever had the last plane flight! I don’t know why it's us, but we’re very, very happy to be here. Are you happy to be here?
I am thrilled! Full disclosure—this is the first time that Howard and I have had the opportunity to tell this story together on one stage. And I’m probably going to cry… just saying.
Yeah, we probably will. We probably will.
Our Mission and Vision
A little context in case you don’t know—this isn’t intended as a pitch, but it’s important to understand the type of organization we are. That helps set the stage for our journey because our journey is a little different from most.
We are a mission- and vision-driven organization. Our tagline is transforming the world of work, but really, it’s about helping create a future where workplaces are joyful, prosperous, and sustainable. And let’s be honest—most organizations aren’t there yet. We still have a lot to do.
We believe that by adopting Agile principles and values, companies and individuals can achieve those things. And as an organization, we are responsible—from our board of directors down—to ensure that every dollar that comes in is spent toward that mission.
Reimagining Leadership
Our organization is structured a little differently. I was hired in September 2018. I applied for a very traditional CEO role, but the moment I was hired, the board and I immediately started discussing a new idea—what would a product owner role look like for our organization? We wanted to think differently.
But we also knew that a product owner is worthless without a Scrum Master, so the board quickly found Melissa to join the team. Together, we share what would traditionally be considered the CEO role. She joined in January 2019, so we’ve now been together for just over a year. And it has been one heck of a journey.
We’re very different. I don’t know if you’ll pick up on that. Besides the fact that being on stage with Melissa is one of the few times in my life I feel like the tall one! But yes, our voices are big.
Melissa journals, processes internally, and is a deep thinker. I tend to jump into the middle of things and process them out loud. We work very differently, but we are completely aligned in principles and values. As a co-lead team, we have never disagreed on the heart of what we are supposed to be doing. We may approach it at different paces, but we are always aligned on the mission.
Honoring Where We Came From
One of the things I always think about is that our journey didn’t start when we arrived. We have to honor what came before us—even the people who were there just a short time before us—because without them, this last year wouldn’t have been possible.
Before Howard and I joined, I wouldn’t say Scrum Alliance was a fully Agile company. Much like many of your organizations, there were pockets of agility. Some teams and departments were doing well, but agility wasn’t yet woven throughout the entire organization.
However, there were experiments happening. For example, they had tried pulling together cross-functional teams that would work together 50% of the time on company-wide projects. In the mornings, teams from marketing, IT, education, and support would collaborate. In the afternoons, they would return to their departments.
It was actually quite successful… for a while. But over time, the cultural gravity of the organization started pulling people back. First, they returned to their departments at 11 AM. Then 10:30. Eventually, the pull back into their silos became too strong.
But we saw that it could work. And when we arrived, we had a choice—we could either keep doing what they had been doing, or we could choose a different path.
A Structural Shift
When I arrived in September 2018, Scrum Alliance looked like a traditional pyramid-shaped company. We had marketing heads and marketing departments, education heads and education departments. Each of these departments was trying to function as an Agile team, but the tension between hierarchical management and Agile ways of working was maddening.
People were stuck between two worlds. Some had managers on their Scrum teams. Others were product owners on one team while their own manager was the Scrum Master on another. It was a bizarre matrix, and getting anything through the system was painfully slow.
And let’s be honest—we are the Scrum Alliance. If anyone should be applying Scrum well, it should be us.
A Radically Different Approach
Given the experiments we had seen and our vision for the organization—a workplace that is joyful, prosperous, and sustainable—we decided to make a massive change.
Over the course of three days, we transitioned from a traditional, hierarchical structure to six interdisciplinary, community-centric Scrum teams.
We did this through a self-selection workshop. We mapped out all the work and let people choose which team they wanted to be on based on the community they would serve and the work that team would own.
These were not product teams. I want to emphasize that. We are a membership organization, and our teams were designed to serve communities, not just build products.
- Foundational Team – Supports those new to Agile (1–2 years in).
- Practitioner Team – Supports experienced Agilists (3–5 years in).
- Guides Team – Supports trainers and coaches.
- Leaders Team – Supports C-levels and HR.
- Gatherings Team – Supports Agile events worldwide.
In this model, there were no managers. We had full-time Product Owners and Scrum Masters—each dedicated to a single team.
To maintain alignment across disciplines (marketing, IT, education, support), we introduced Communities of Practice. Once a week, people from the same function met to share knowledge and stay connected.
The Role of Leadership
For us as leaders, our role had to change too. Traditional leaders sit at the top of the pyramid and make all the decisions. But that creates a single point of failure. We wanted to flip the pyramid upside down.
Our role became about enabling and empowering. Our teams are the ones closest to the customer, so they should have the decision-making power and budget to experiment, explore, and deliver value.
Building a Storytelling Culture
With this shift, we realized that the only way to keep these seven teams connected was through storytelling. We needed new stories to replace the old ones.
We created a storytelling channel in Slack and encouraged people to share wins, struggles, and moments of collaboration. We also introduced a gratitude channel to foster positivity.
When people tell their stories, they become more attached to them. And by sharing these stories, we created a culture of learning, support, and shared purpose.
The Journey Continues
This journey hasn’t been easy. There have been tears—ours included. But we’ve seen incredible results.
For the first time, people who have been with Scrum Alliance for years are seeing work that had been stuck for years finally move forward. Teams feel ownership, excitement, and purpose.
So my question to you is: What path will you choose? How can you impact joy, prosperity, and sustainability in your organization?
Thank you so much!