Success with Agile by Working with the Willing
With Daniel Mezick, President, New Technology Solutions Inc


Most Agile adoptions face significant issues, impediments, and roadblocks. The low rate of genuine, lasting change is now a well-understood reality of Agile adoption.

Questions discussed in this webinar were:

  • Are we happy with these results?
  • How do we improve these results?

Is increasing the rate of success with Agile adoption programs as simple as working with the willing — the "motivated individuals" as described in the Agile Manifesto?

If so, how can we implement this idea … at enterprise scale?

What is the process? What are the specific steps? How do we actually do this? Where are the experience reports?

We answered all of these questions, in detail, in this webinar. We also enumerated four very specific, incremental steps to implementing this idea. Finally, we investigated a specific methodology called OpenSpace Agility, which employs this technique.

Learning objectives:

  • How to align your Agile adoption plans with the spirit of agility as described in the Agile Manifesto
  • Why risk management is your job when implementing Agile, how to use the concepts of win-rate and expected value, and how to assess your very real risk of failure and chances of success
  • Four specific steps to measure levels of “Agile willingness” across the enterprise
  • How the open space meeting format and OpenSpace Agility can save you time, money, and effort as you bring Agile to your organization

For an example of the very real risks of the "big bang" approach to implementing Agile at scale, please visit Please also be sure to examine the comments.


Daniel Mezick is an expert on extending adaptive Agile culture beyond software. His books and workshops teach you how.

A frequent speaker at industry conferences, Daniel’s list of clients include Capital One, Intuit, Cigna, Siemens Healthcare, Pitney Bowes, Harvard University, and dozens of smaller enterprises.

His first pioneering work on culture was published in 2012; The Culture Game described 16 specific patterns that extend Agile ideas across the organization, beyond software. The Culture Game describes a very clear, step-by-step program for doing exactly that.

In 2014 he built upon The Culture Game patterns and formulated the OpenSpace Agility method. OpenSpace Agility is a flexible template for enabling lasting change in your organization. Daniel is the primary author of the The OpenSpace Agility Handbook with co-authors Louise Kold-Taylor, Deb Pontes, Mark Sheffield, and Harold Shinsato.


You can learn more and contact Daniel at