A·gen·cy·a·gile
/éˈ ǰənˈsiˌǽˈǰəl/
noun
- 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)
- 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 you 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
Interstellar Dark Matter
20+ years of exposure to pre-Agile methods, like Stand-up, Kanban, TQC, IEPM, etc.
RAND research
Our early research into knowledge worker organizations, empowered management.
Agile was born
Hands-on Agile projects, using xP, Scrummerfall and SA/3
The Big Ideas
The 37 principles for managing a knowledge worker environment were drawn from work by the greats, Senge, Maslow, Mintzberg and others.
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.
The $1MM+ Projects
Big projects, ruthlessly un-managed, on-time, in-budget, happy Clients.
AgencyAgile is Born
Agencies have lots of challenges, and we had some good answers.
High-intensity Training Model
We prove that high-intensity, hands-on workshops create instant change and results. We become trainers, teachers.
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.
Leadership Awareness Training
Change needs support from the top, and we support them.
Empowered Leadership Coaching
We become partners in helping leaders and managers grow.
Strategy Consulting
The future of knowledgework organizations becomes our latest addition to our offerings.
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
THAT HELP YOU CREATE BUSINESS RESULTS
Jack Skeels
Jack leads AgencyAgile and is responsible for ensuring that agency engagements, along with goals, business objectives and overall results are aligned from start to finish with agency partners, our teams and all related stakeholders.
Greg Morrell
Greg is responsible for establishing and growing AgencyAgile’s relationships with agencies while guiding agency and client teams through Agile transformation.
Steve Wages
Steve is small agency strategist who specializes in our Roadmapping and Scoping and Estimation methods. A former licensed architect, Steve co-founded and bootstrapped 60-person Juxt Interactive in 1998 as CEO, exiting with a buyout in 2008.
Maya Krauss
Maya specializes in agency assessments, and delivery operations optimization. Based in NYC, she has a decade-plus of experience at top agencies producing large scale projects and operationalizing teams to work more efficiently.
Allegra Tiver
Allegra brings a unique vantage to business challenges in health care and pharma, with more than 10 years of experience in the industry spanning digital/project management, marketing, content development, and publishing – including 2 years supporting Agile transformations. Allegra has a record of success driving continuous process improvement and growing teams, and believes all things are possible through communication and collaboration.
Lauren Dobkin
Lauren leverages 18 years of creative and production management experience to AgencyAgile engagements with creative-led organizations. Previously an AgencyAgile client, her experience as a Photographer, an Art Buyer, Executive Producer and Operations Lead offer a pragmatic and balanced perspective to helping organizations learn new ways of working.
Dave Foster
As a former agency COO, Dave brings a wealth of practical experience operational experience from over 10 years of agency side experience. Dave has particular expertise in systems, analytics, and performance measurement of agency operations under Agile as well as insight into key considerations of employee engagement.
Allen Singer
Allen brings over 20 years of experience optimizing Creative and Media Operations for top agencies in NYC. He has a focus in consumer healthcare, HCP and adtech. Allen has led the identification, planning and successful implementation of many enterprise level platforms that drive efficiencies across cross functional teams.
Jennifer Laidlaw
Jen is a 13-year agency/marketing veteran joining AgencyAgile from Merkle/HelloWorld where she had responsibility for training and launching roadmaps and seven AgencyAgile workstreams while leading the agency’s Talent and Development organization.
Ryan Gee
Ryan, a recent graduate of UC Santa Cruz with a BA in Economics and Mathematics, brings his analytical expertise to AgencyAgile. While playing collegiate tennis, he cultivated his skills in data mining and coding experience through freelance and volunteer work as a Budget Analyst. Now he assists AgencyAgile with data querying, data visualization, and data analysis.
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