Your team doesn't need another methodology.
They need skills that actually work.
Practical workshops for engineering leaders — built from 28 years of walking into organizations in trouble.
Every workshop below comes from real consulting engagements — real patterns I've seen across dozens of organizations. No Agile jargon. No Scrum certification theater. Just practical skills that work regardless of your team's chosen methodology.
Workshops are available as half-day (4 hours) or full-day (two half-day blocks) private engagements for your leadership team. Mix and match the blocks that fit your situation.
The Workshop Blocks
Generative Leadership
The flagship. Start here.
Most organizations aren't broken. They're numb. People show up, do the work, go home. Nobody raises their hand anymore. This workshop introduces the generative vs. extractive lens — a way to see why your organization feels stuck even when the metrics look fine — and teaches the communication and coaching skills that change the culture from the inside out.
You'll learn: The generative vs. extractive framework. Why hero skills don't scale (and what to do instead). How the words you use shape what your team believes is possible. How to have coaching conversations that build capability instead of dependency. How to create the conditions where people actually want to do great work.
Who it's for: Engineering managers, tech leads, directors, VPs of Engineering, CTOs — anyone responsible for people and wondering why "more process" hasn't fixed anything.
Delivery Intelligence
See what your organization is actually doing.
Stop guessing. Start measuring. This workshop teaches you to read your team's delivery patterns using real data — not story points, not velocity, not estimates. Throughput, cycle time, work in progress, and forecasting that actually works. You'll learn to spot the early warning signs that a project is in trouble before anyone raises a flag.
You'll learn: Flow metrics as leadership tools (not process artifacts). How to forecast delivery dates with probability instead of promises. Why your team is at 100% utilization and nothing's finishing. How to use aging work as your canary in the coal mine.
Who it's for: Leaders who want to make decisions based on data instead of gut feel. Teams that are tired of estimation debates. Organizations that suspect something is off but can't prove it.
Project Management Bootcamp
How to manage a project without saying the "A-word."
Your team has been through a bad Agile transformation (or three). Nobody wants to hear the word "Scrum" ever again. But you still need to manage projects, prioritize work, and ship software. This workshop teaches the practical skills underneath every methodology — the stuff that actually matters — without the jargon, the dogma, or the certification theater.
You'll learn: How to build and maintain a prioritized requirements list that's a negotiating tool, not a to-do list. Definition of Done that actually prevents technical debt. How to break work down so it finishes instead of lingering. How to run planning meetings that people don't dread.
Who it's for: Tech leads and engineering managers who need to get projects under control. Teams that have rejected "Agile" but still need structure. Product managers and project managers who want practical skills, not methodology religion.
Technical Triage
What to do when the plan stops working.
Something is on fire. The project is late. The team is demoralized. The board is asking hard questions. This workshop is diagnosis and recovery — how to figure out what's actually wrong (it's almost never what you think), how to triage, and how to build the first 45 days of a recovery plan. Every technical crisis I've ever seen was actually a leadership and communication failure wearing a technical costume.
You'll learn: How to diagnose the real problem (not the symptom everyone's blaming). The kill decision — should this project even exist? Crisis communication that builds trust even when the news is bad. The first 45 days: a concrete, sequenced recovery playbook.
Who it's for: Leadership teams with a project in trouble. VPs and CTOs who suspect the problem is deeper than anyone's admitting. Organizations that need triage, not another retrospective.
How It Works
Each workshop block is a half-day (4 hours) of focused, practical content with discussion and exercises. No death-by-PowerPoint. No ice-breaker games. Real problems, real frameworks, real practice.
Book a single block for a focused half-day. Or combine two blocks for a full-day engagement. For teams that want the deep dive, we can build two-day engagements with extended exercises, team diagnostics, and personalized action planning.
The blocks are designed to work independently, but they share a common philosophy: technical problems are people problems wearing technical costumes. Start with the block that matches where your team is right now.
Common Combinations
Generative Leadership + Delivery Intelligence — Lead differently and measure the difference. The most popular pairing.
Generative Leadership + Project Management Bootcamp — Lead differently and get the work under control.
Generative Leadership + Technical Triage — Lead differently and fix what's broken.
Project Management Bootcamp + Technical Triage — The "we need to get our shit together" package.
About Ben
I've spent 28 years as a software consultant walking into organizations in crisis — delayed projects, architectural disasters, post-acquisition dysfunction. I've come to call myself a "therapist for teams" because every technical crisis I've ever seen was actually a leadership and communication failure wearing a technical costume.
These workshops aren't academic exercises. Every framework, every technique, every word swap comes from real consulting engagements with real organizations. I've seen what works, I've seen what doesn't, and I've learned to tell the difference fast.
Workshops are delivered as private engagements for your team. For conference and event organizers: I also deliver keynotes and conference sessions on these topics. Get in touch.