Self-organization sounds promising. Until disagreement gets uncomfortable, conflict disappears underground and everyone starts wishing someone would just make a decision.

In this episode of transform together, Johannes Schartau talks with Richard D. Bartlett about how to have better fights: conflicts that bring important differences into the open without destroying trust or relationships.

Richard explains why psychological safety should not mean avoiding disagreement. It should give people enough confidence to be honest, notice anger before it takes over and say what they are trying to protect. When differences can be expressed with both courage and curiosity, conflict becomes a source of collective intelligence, creative tension and better decisions.

Together, they explore how Fight Wise helps habitual conflict avoiders practise assertiveness, how to surface unspoken tensions in groups and why temporary leadership can help self-organized teams move forward. They also discuss authority baggage, developmental “speed wobbles” and the growing temptation to replace difficult human interactions with agreeable AI assistants.

A conversation about disagreeing more skilfully and why healthy collaboration may require us to get a little better at fighting.

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In this episode of transform together, Johannes Schartau talks with Nancy White about moving from traditional strategic planning toward a more adaptive and participatory “strategic way of being.” They explore why strategy begins with purpose, how the six questions of Strategy Knotworking help groups navigate complexity, and why noticing, learning, and adjusting are more valuable than pretending the future can be planned in detail.

Nancy explains how Liberating Structures such as Ecocycle Planning, Creative Destruction, and Wicked Questions can uncover hidden tensions, challenge comfortable assumptions, and turn disagreement into a source of learning. The conversation also explores why alignment does not require complete agreement and how organizations can replace three-year master plans with meaningful first steps, shared ownership, and continuous reflection.

Chapters

Welcome and Guest Introduction: Nancy White's Facilitation Journey (00:00:00)

Rethinking Strategic Planning: Purpose, Value, and Common Pitfalls (00:01:18)

From Plans to Practice: The Value Creation Framework and Iterative Strategy (00:03:34)

Liberating Structures and the Six Strategic Questions (00:07:53)

Ecocycle Mapping: Visualizing Work and Organizational Change (00:10:02)

Navigating Uncertainty: Context, Challenges, and Wicked Questions (00:15:34)

Unlocking Possibilities: Moving from Discomfort to Strategic Action (00:20:30)

Building Alignment: Embracing Disagreement and Shared Ownership (00:37:38)

Practical Takeaways and Closing Reflections (00:40:13)

Resources:

Liberating Structures and the Liberating Structures Fieldbook: https://www.liberatingstructures.com/

Nancy White and Full Circle Associates: https://fullcirc.com/

Contact:

Write an email to Johannes: [email protected]

Follow Holisticon on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/holisticon-ag/

Learn more about Holisticon: https://www.holisticon.de/

In this episode of transform together, Johannes Schartau talks to Simon Flossmann about Evidence-Based Management, Scrum.org’s framework for connecting goals, measures, experiments, and actual value delivered.

Many organizations are very good at producing output: more features, more projects, more initiatives, more meetings. But how do they know whether any of this actually creates value? Simon explains how EBM can help teams and organizations move beyond “we shipped it” and toward better conversations about customer outcomes, product value, learning, and decision-making.

Together, Johannes and Simon explore what “evidence” means in the messy reality of product development, how EBM relates to Scrum, Product Goals and Sprint Reviews, and why measuring value can become deeply uncomfortable. They also talk about the difference between being busy and creating impact, why leadership often prefers opinions over evidence, and how teams can start small without turning EBM into another framework rollout.

The conversation touches on current value, unrealized value, customer behavior, confidence in assumptions, outcome-oriented Product Goals, organizational change, AI transformations, and the awkward but necessary moment when evidence shows that something simply is not working.

As always, the episode is both practical and reflective: less about installing a new method, and more about asking better questions. How do we know whether our product delivers value? What would change our mind? And what can we learn before we spend even more time building the wrong thing?

Resources

Find out more about Simon at

https://www.linkedin.com/in/simonflossmann/

https://simonflossmann.substack.com/

Find out more about Evidence-Based Management at

https://www.scrum.org/resources/evidence-based-management

Contact:

Write an email to Johannes: [email protected]

Follow Holisticon on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/holisticon-ag/

Learn more about Holisticon: https://www.holisticon.de/

Episode 16

Together, they explore why useful patterns alone are never enough, what happens when consent decision-making reveals hidden issues, why willingness and trust matter so much, and how organizations can make authority more explicit without simply flattening everything. Lili also shares how her own view of S3 has changed over the years, why she often avoids introducing the terminology directly with clients, and why asking “Do you have any objections?” instead of “Do you agree?” can already shift the quality of a conversation. A thoughtful and practical conversation for anyone interested in organizational change, self-organization, and more effective collaboration.

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In this episode of transform together, Johannes Schartau talks to Joshua Arnold about the shift from project thinking to real product flow and why that shift matters more than ever. Joshua explains why Cost of Delay is such a powerful way to understand value, urgency, and the hidden price of waiting, but also why organizations so often fall back into politics, overloaded priority lists, and “this comes from the top” decision-making. Together, they explore what gets in the way of better flow, how finance and funding models can become part of the solution, why ProductDevOps needs to connect fast delivery with fast learning, and how AI may change product development by making execution easier while putting even more pressure on good judgment. A practical conversation for anyone who wants to build the right things sooner instead of just delivering more things faster.

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For Episode 14 of transform together, Johannes Schartau talks to Keith McCandless, co-developer of Liberating Structures, about the biggest expansion of the Liberating Structures menu since the publication of The Surprising Power of Liberating Structures. Keith shares what has changed, why the new Liberating Structures Fieldbook brings the experience of the global practitioner community into the repertoire, and how ten new structures deepen the possibilities for working with groups, strategy, relationships, and change.

The conversation also explores the principles behind Liberating Structures, the role of minimum specifications, the limits of traditional whole-system change, and why Keith believes real transformation starts by shifting the patterns of interaction at the smallest relational level. Along the way, Johannes and Keith discuss complexity, adjacent possibilities, Creative Commons, the future growth of the Liberating Structures repertoire, and the experiments in the global community that currently excite Keith most.

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Published: 25.03.2026

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Veröffentlicht: 11.03.2026

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Veröffentlicht: 04.03.2026

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