Simon is the Managing Principal of LASTing Benefits a boutique consultancy operating in both Australasia and Europe. LASTing Benefits focus is on Agile Benefits Realisation, creating self sustaining agile transformations by blending together Lean, Agile & Systems Thinking as well as complexity science, psychology, emotional intelligence and the dynamics of organisational change.

Simon is a popular international conference speaker on topics such as Agile contracting, decision science, mindfulness, social and cognitive complexity as well as Scrum, Lean, Innovation & Product Strategy.

Simon has been working with the Responsibility Process® for over a decade now, blending and expanding its wisdom into talks and workshops as well as agile, executive coaching and individual performance coaching.

Simon is a Certified Responsibility Process® Trainer.

With 21 years of experience in Agile, Simon runs regular public and private training courses in Australia, New Zealand, Singapore & Europe and the rest of the world by invitation.

One-on-One

Coaching you through the Responsibility Process® with individual attention, and relating this to your Agile adoption. To influence others you must first apply this to yourself, learn to be the change you seek. 

Team Coaching

We are there to help your team navigate the through the Responsibility Process® and harness Agile. Working with the team as they encounter challenges day to day is a powerful way to transform the way people work.

HR Systems

Your people are ready to take personal responsibility and work hard for you on your Agile projects but do you have the systems in place to help rather than hinder them> We work with your Human Resources team to encourage a positive outcome for your staff and your company.

Whole Team Training

Getting the whole team onboard with both the Responsibility Process® and Agile will revolutionise your outcomes.

Company Wide Awareness

Introducing the Responsibility Process® and Agile together to every part of an organisation. This will improve operations, understanding and compassion within your organisation to directly impact your bottomline as your people work together with a common goal.

Public Speaking

Simon Bennett is a popular international conference speaker on topics such as Agile contracting, decision science, mindfulness, social and cognitive complexity as well as Scrum, Lean, Innovation & Product Strategy.

Simon has been working with the Responsibility Process® for over a decade now, blending and expanding its wisdom into talks and workshops as well as agile, executive coaching and individual performance coaching.

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Why the Responsibility Process® is the key to Succeeding with Agile

The first and most fundamental Agile Value is “Individual and Interactions over Processes and Tools” and it’s far from being empty rhetoric. It reminds us that it’s fundamentally the people who do the work and it’s people who are called on to respond to change.

This core concept is often lost in the rush to adopt the latest framework.

Over the years, many organisations have struggled to adopt Agile successfully because they prioritise getting the process right instead of working more directly on the people.

The Responsibility Process®, popularised by Christopher Avery, may well be the key to unlocking the true power of your people, and thus your Ultimate Agile Potential.

When you adopt the Responsibility Process® in your organisation, equally at every single level, from the most senior Product Owner through to the most junior team member, you’ll find that your organisation almost transforms itself. Petty and distracting arguments about Scrum vs Kanban vs SAFe disappear and are replaced by a focus on performance, results and the delivery of actual value.

The Mindful Manager Series

Rules, Reactance and Gaming

The modern organisation is full to the brim with rules, regulations, policies and procedures. It’s necessary right? It’s standard operating procedure correct? It’s not like there are any alternatives… (Are there?) I mean we’re supposed to follow the Scrum Rules and even The Kanban Method™ says to “make process policies explicit” – so it must be good.

But are all these rules actually producing the intended results?

In this session we will investigate how explicit rules and policies affect the behaviours of both groups and individuals; showing how many traditional approaches may be well meaning, but out of date as well as offering hope to those looking for more control with fewer rules.

Strategy, Politics, Competition & Knowledge — Lessons in advanced Product Backlog Management

The Scrum Product Backlog seems like such a simple concept. So simple, in fact that it's potential sophistication is typically overlooked.  Instead people flock to seemingly more "advanced" techniques such as Story Maps.  

Sadly these techniques often create as many problems as they solve, offering the chance to revert to old patterns "requirements definitions" created by "value creating teams".  And in the confusion the power of true prioritisation has been lost.  If you're done with "agile delivery" and you're ready to harness the real power of agile, then this just might be the session that starts you on your way.

The Mindful Manager

Navigating Complexity means navigating uncertainty. Dealing with uncertainty requires emotional maturity and clarity of thought. 

Unfortunately politics and power games do more to obscure reality than they do to uncover it. 

As managers, leaders and even customers, in order to truly harness the power of Agile, Lean and Design Thinking we need to cultivate an attitude of mindfulness and a sense of equanimity.

Mindful Manager III: The Search for Spock

The final barrier to dealing with complexity is within ourselves. Fundamentally humans like certainty and fear the unknown. We hide behind a mask of professionalism, whilst all the time being emotional beings, ultimately driven by our hopes, dreams and fears. Agile methods test our fortitude and humanity like never before.

In this session we’ll explore the role that emotions play in decision making and provide participants with a path towards gaining mastery over their own emotions with a view to making better decisions in the fast paced world of Agile and Lean.

An Introduction to Hoshin Kanri and the Art of Strategy Deployment

Whether applied to a single team or across an organisation of hundreds of developers, the typical focus of both Agile and Lean tends towards the tactical. It’s something that’s done to execute on a strategy created via conventional means. But this can leave a gap in both thinking and in culture. What if you could apply the same concepts for developing Strategy?

If you’re ready start think about Strategic Agility then this is the session for you…