Welcome to Our Agile Tales as we start off this new season with Rich Sheridan, founder, CEO and chief story teller at Menlo Innovations.

Aside from founding and leading Menlo Innovations, Rich is also the author of the bests-selling books, Joy Inc. and Chief Joy Officer, whose message is that joy is essential to productivity and profitability in the workplace. Rich recounts his journey from early programming success and a rapid rise to VP to feeling despondent amid chaotic, late, over-budget software delivery, which sparked a search for better ways to organize people.

He defines workplace joy as externally focused delight in serving end users, distinct from perks or simple happiness. He describes an “aha” moment when his eight-year-old daughter observed that no one could make decisions without him, revealing a hero-based organization, and a “click” moment in 1999 influenced by Kent Beck’s Extreme Programming Explained, IDEO’s Nightline segment, and meeting his co-founder, James Goebel.

Rich details early resistance to pair programming, how experiments and a “Java factory” open-room approach shifted behavior, and how the internet bubble burst led him to found Menlo Innovations in 2001. He explains how IBM tours and a conference invitation launched his storytelling and how Edison’s Menlo lab inspired Menlo’s name, concluding that the risk of change was less than the risk of staying the same.

Key topics and timestamps:

• 00:00 Welcome to Our Agile Tales
• 00:22 Meet Rich Sheridan
• 02:30 From Programmer to Burnout
• 05:53 Defining Joy at Work
• 08:21 Aha Moment Leadership Shift
• 10:36 Click Moment XP and IDEO
• 12:53 Pairing Experiment Begins
• 15:54 Java Factory Culture Change
• 19:19 Menlo Innovations Is Born
• 20:59 Joyful Workdays No Overtime
• 22:38 Tour Guide to Storyteller
• 28:04 Risk of Change vs Staying
• 30:05 Closing

About Rich Sheridan

Rich Sheridan is the CEO and Chief Storyteller at Menlo Innovations and the best-selling author of Joy Inc. and Chief Joy Officer. He has spent years traveling across four continents and nearly 20 countries, helping organizations rethink not just how they work, but how it feels to be part of them. His core message is simple: joy isn’t optional—it’s essential to productivity, profitability, and real team energy.

Rich’s ideas have been featured in Forbes, Inc., NPR, and Harvard Business Review. What sets him apart is that he’s been living these principles for over 20 years at Menlo, the company he co-founded in Ann Arbor, Michigan—now known worldwide for its uniquely joyful culture.

Follow Rich Sheridan at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/menloprez

Music: https://www.purple-planet.com

Visit us at https://www.ouragiletales.com/about

Welcome back to Our Agile Tales as we continue our conversation with Bjarte Bogsnes, exploring case studies from his latest book, This Is Beyond Budgeting. The book distills nearly three decades of experience challenging traditional budgeting, targets, and control-based management.

In this final episode of the series, we discuss with Bjarte what distinguishes business models (external interaction) from management models (internal organization). He introduces the Viable Map, inspired by the Business Model Canvas, to help management teams assess their management model against the 12 Beyond Budgeting principles, considering business environment from SUSO (simple, understood, stable, orderly) to VUCA and employees on a Theory X–Y scale. He emphasizes the need for coherence between values/purpose-based leadership claims and often “fixed” budgeting processes, calling mismatches “poisonous gaps.” He argues listed companies can adopt beyond budgeting, as markets want sustainable performance, and recommends starting by separating budget purposes—targets, forecasts, and resource allocation—implemented in parallel. He contrasts beyond budgeting’s enterprise-wide focus with Agile’s origins in software, shares disappointing and rewarding client experiences, and points listeners to bbrt.org and key books.

Key topics and timestamps

• 00:00 Welcome and Guest Intro
• 01:09 Business vs Management Models
• 01:59 Viable Map Framework
• 05:16 Assessing Coherence Gaps
• 08:02 Empowerment Needs Process Change
• 09:40 Markets Wall Street Myths
• 12:08 Why Beyond Budgeting Sticks
• 14:34 Where to Start Separating Budgets
• 17:45 Pilots vs Big Bang
• 19:12 Disappointing Transformation Story
• 21:20 Most Rewarding Successes
• 23:06 Learn More About Beyond Budgeting
• 25:20 Wrap Up and Next Series

About Bjarte Bogsnes

Bjarte Bogsnes is Chairman of the Beyond Budgeting Round Table, a former global finance executive, and a leading thinker in management innovation. He is the author of Implementing Beyond Budgeting and This Is Beyond Budgeting, showing how organizations can replace rigid, calendar-driven systems with models built on trust, transparency, and adaptability — creating companies that are both more responsive and more human.

Follow Bjarte at:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/bjarte-bogsnes-41557910/

Music: https://www.purple-planet.com

Visit us at https://www.ouragiletales.com/about

Welcome back to Our Agile Tales as we continue our conversation with Bjarte Bogsnes, exploring case studies from his latest book, This Is Beyond Budgeting. The book distills nearly three decades of experience challenging traditional budgeting, targets, and control-based management.

In this episode, we discuss with Bjarte how target setting evolved at Equinor from 2005 onward through separating target setting, forecasting, and resource allocation, including allowing indicators without targets and emphasizing team-set, often more ambitious goals and relative “reality targets” versus peers. Bjarte says Beyond Budgeting adoption spans many industries, is stronger in Europe, and is equally relevant in the public sector, citing Norway’s NAV contact centers eliminating cost budgets and a 12,000-inhabitant municipality using self-managed teams, continuous decisions, and stakeholder alignment while still submitting an external “budget.” He argues budgets embed distrust and predictability assumptions, making true agility impossible without Beyond Budgeting, challenges absolute annual financial targets, and advocates relative targets, holistic evaluation, and common incentives. Finally, he describes surveys by Boston Consulting Group and Bain & Company linking Beyond Budgeting to benefits like higher sales and leading financial planning practices.

Key topics and timestamps

• 00:00 Welcome and Guest Intro
• 01:06 Evolving Targets at Equinor
• 03:39 Who Adopts Beyond Budgeting
• 05:14 Public Sector Breakthroughs
• 05:41 NAV Pilot No Cost Budgets
• 07:10 Municipality Self Managed Teams
• 10:00 Funding Constraints Not Earmarks
• 14:24 Why Budgets Block Agility
• 18:24 No Budget No Targets
• 22:09 Forecasting and Ambition
• 23:28 Consulting Surveys and Benefits
• 27:16 Wrap Up and Next Episode

About Bjarte Bogsnes

Bjarte Bogsnes is Chairman of the Beyond Budgeting Round Table, a former global finance executive, and a leading thinker in management innovation. He is the author of Implementing Beyond Budgeting and This Is Beyond Budgeting, showing how organizations can replace rigid, calendar-driven systems with models built on trust, transparency, and adaptability — creating companies that are both more responsive and more human.

Follow Bjarte at:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/bjarte-bogsnes-41557910/

Music: https://www.purple-planet.com

Visit us at https://www.ouragiletales.com/about