Agile Coaching Retreats

We are happy to announce the Agile Coaching Retreat Belgium (September 2025) – read all about it in this post.

Join us in Adelaide’s Barossa Valley! We welcome anyone who has a passion to explore and improve their #agilecoaching approach. Attendees range from new #scrummasters to aspiring and experienced #agilecoaches, #productowners, #changeprofessionals, and #agileleaders.

🎟️ Tickets are limited! Buy your tickets now at https://lnkd.in/geYKYiqU

🗓️ 𝐒𝐀𝐕𝐄 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐃𝐀𝐓𝐄

𝟭𝟴𝘁𝗵 𝘁𝗼 𝟮𝟬𝘁𝗵 𝗢𝗰𝘁𝗼𝗯𝗲𝗿 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟰

💥 𝐉𝐮𝐬𝐭 $𝟗𝟎𝟎!!! 𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐢𝐧𝐜𝐥𝐮𝐝𝐞𝐬:

👉 All meals
👉 King room, single occupancy
👉 Bus transport to and from Adelaide Airport

You can find more answers about this retreat at the FAQ https://lnkd.in/gy7rHAui

You can find more info about Agile Coaching Retreats, in general, at https://lnkd.in/gVBuaj2N

The Agile Coaching Retreat stands apart from typical conferences or gatherings, where discussions often only skim the surface of topics. This retreat is a deep immersion into the heart of agile coaching, offering a unique opportunity to thoroughly explore and engage with the issues that matter most to you. Over the course of two days, you won’t find yourself sitting through presentations or workshops. Instead, you’ll have the freedom to identify the challenges you’re passionate about solving. Collaborating closely with a team of fellow Scrum Masters, change agents, agile coaches, and certified professionals, you’ll dedicate your efforts towards creating meaningful solutions. The results are defined by your imagination and initiative — previous retreats have seen the creation of innovative agile games, comprehensive product canvases, and insightful leadership assessment toolkits, among others. What’s more, the impact of this retreat often extends beyond its duration; many participants continue to refine their projects, with some even showcasing their achievements at conferences. This retreat is not just an event; it’s a catalyst for ongoing development and collaboration in the agile community.

🏨 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐕𝐄𝐍𝐔𝐄

The Novotel Barossa Valley Resort is centrally located overlooking the vines of Jacob’s Creek and the Barossa Valley Ranges. With 140 accommodations rooms all featuring balconies you will be immersed in the beautiful regional setting. Adjacent to the Tanunda Pines Golf Course and near the Barossa Cycling Trail, there is plenty of outdoor activity to enjoy while in the Barossa Valley. At Novotel Barossa Valley Resort, enjoy a relaxing, resort-style getaway just a short drive from the Adelaide city centre. Each of the refurbished spacious rooms have every amenity required for a great retreat experience. Chefs from the Cellar Door restaurant work with small local farmers and growers to create seasonal menus that reflect the unique terroirs of the Barossa and showcase its extraordinary produce.

And the retreat is complete! The teams have uploaded their outcomes/outputs. Please feel free to explore all of the goodness. For your viewing pleasure, we offer this video of the experience.

We have completed an amazing new experiment with Agile Coaching Retreats! In 2020 we had a giant experiment – a virtual and global retreat for 5 days in 4 time zones. And in 2021 we continue holding retreats virtually, but now we have experimented with a language-specific retreat – Mandarin! Mandarin speakers from around the world united virtually and created amazing connections and outcomes. Check out the Mandarin retreat pages and their website to check out their awesome results. It’s time to practice your Mandarin!

Mike Cohn, Mountain Goat: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-AW7NBocN64

Marita Frijhon, CRR Global: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOegsBc0f3A

Dr. Dave Cornelius: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YA-dg6vwAEY

Welcome to the “Infinite Game” team pages.
We take the name of this page from a book by James Carse called Finite and Infinite Games. Of the book, amazon.com says:

“There are at least two kinds of games,” states James P. Carse as he begins this extraordinary book. “One could be called finite; the other infinite.”

Finite games are the familiar contests of everyday life; they are played in order to be won, which is when they end. But infinite games are more mysterious. Their object is not winning, but ensuring the continuation of play. The rules may change, the boundaries may change, even the participants may change—as long as the game is never allowed to come to an end.

We also call ourselves the Kirkegaard Group after Danish existentialist Søren Kirkegaard. Kirkegaard is best known for his “leap of faith” philosophy, based on taking a decision to affirm some reality in the absence of evidence for that reality and even in the presence of evidence to the contrary: faith is therefore more than belief, but a choice to act.

The group’s position stands on the foundation that we couldn’t find anyone else at the retreat who has actually ever seen a team that is fully practicing Scrum, without some element of Scrum-butt. We have seen such teams and believe that lack of management constraints is the differentiating factor. Scrum fails to thrive in organizations because some aspect of the environment or of management policy takes away the power of the Product Owner, or the autonomy of the Team, or the authority (ownership of the process) of the ScrumMaster. Coaches who are hired to do transformations do not persevere in removing this interference out of fear of being fired, and they rather help teams “suck a little less.”

Our position is that Scrum isn’t about helping teams suck a little less. Its roots in TPS in Japanese manufacturing are not about helping their products and environments suck a little less. Our perception is that most contemporary coaching dialectic is about helping teams suck a little less. We still need kaizen (incremental, low-risk change at the team level) but also kaikaku (more radical change that often entails management involvement). We have been fired. And we have helped clear the way so teams could do great things.

So we believe great coaches are existensialistic. They acquire learning not to enhance their marketing plan but because it is the right thing to do. They are fearless about being fired. They put flesh in the game. They take only those engagements where it is possible to do great things. They are unafraid to confront managers with the fact that they might misunderstand Scrum.

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For the first time there will be 2 Scrum Coaching Retreats in Europe in the same year.  In 2017 we will be going to Kiev in May and Copenhagen in September.

• Kiev – 26 to 28th of May
• Copenhagen – 18th to 20th September

Please save the dates in your calendar, the venues and other details will be announced later.

Team ToB

Mobilisation and vison

Sprint 1 – Lack of trust

Challenges dealing with Senior Management

Our first Sprint Retro

Source: Dealing with non-Agile mindset (Senior management)