5 Products That Emerged from This Blog (Lustrum 3/5)

On January 18, 2013 this blog will be exactly 5 years old. And because 5 is my favorite number, I am celebrating this moment with 5 blog posts about the blog.

I am happy to report that I now have 5 products listed on Amazon: 2 books and 3 card games. The books emerged out of the blog, and the cards emerged out of the course (which grew out of the books, which emerged out of the blog).

Management 3.0

My magnum opus, Management 3.0, has by now sold an estimated 20,000 copies. It has received plenty of favorable reviews, just a couple of bad ones, and a translation in Chinese. I wrote the book because I wanted to explore the role of the (development) manager and team leader in an Agile organization. It took me almost 1,000 hours to write, in a time span of one year.

How to Change the World

My second book, How to Change the World, emerged spontaneously. I noticed that organizational culture is one of the most important topics in Agile transformations, and I decided to look into the field of change management, which turned it into a popular presentation, which resulted in this little book, as a useful experiment in self-publishing. It has sold an estimated 3,000 copies in 9 months.

Delegation Poker

I first tried the Delegation Poker game during a workshop at a Scrum Gathering in Amsterdam, and most people agreed it was the best part of the workshop. The game teaches the seven levels of delegation while stimulating great discussions about empowerment of teams. The “official cards” are now available in shipments of 32 sets each.

Moving Motivators

My personal favorite is the Moving Motivators exercise, because it is simple, powerful and versatile. In this exercise people reflect on their motivation by sorting and moving 10 motivator cards. The exercise can help to visualize the impact of organizational change on people’s intrinsic desires. The “official deck” is available in boxes of 32 sets each.

Kudo Cards

The latest addition to the Management 3.0 workshops (in a physical sense) are the appreciation cards, or Kudo Cards. These simple cards have been used successfully in organizations and at conferences to give people a token of appreciation for a job well done. The colorful cards are available in boxes of 450 cards each.

I’m quite sure I will be releasing more products this year. Despite the fact that we live in the digital age, humans evolved with a strong preference for something physical to play with. I take great pleasure in contributing to that.

I have a special gift for 25 readers of this blog! Send me an email explaining which of my 663 blog posts was important to you and why. Out of the contributions I will select 5×5 people who will get a signed copy of How to Change the World (limited color edition), with a set of Delegation Poker, Moving Motivators and some Kudo Cards. The deadline is 31 January 2013.