Martin Ellemann Olesen

My working mission in life is to help leaders create inspiring and engaging workplaces where we would want our kids to work. I do this as a consultant, by helping develop leadership on all levels of the
organization. This includes helping:

• Executives embrace Agile values and principles to create the conditions necessary for the Agile organization to thrive
• Managers develop inspiring workplaces by becoming true Agile leaders
• Scrum Masters to develop an environment where self-organizing teams performs to the best of their abilities
• Product Owners to inspire and facilitate teams to come up with brilliant ideas and deliver valuable products

As a trainer, I mix theory and practice to make sure everyone can relate my training to their day-to-day work. I know there is not a one-size-fits-all solution in leadership, but I’ll provide you with multiple examples of what I have seen work in other organizations.
Hopefully they can help you translate the theory into your own practice.

My Agile journey started in late 1999 as part of a development team pioneering eXtreme Programming practices in a large Danish company. The only guidance we had was the book eXtreme Programming by Kent Beck. We had almost no idea what we were doing, but we experimented a lot and had great fun along the way.

Fast forward 20 years, and I have been working in an Agile manner ever since. After leading an Agile transformation from the inside as a Senior Manager serving 80+ people, I started as a freelance Agile consultant in 2012. Two years later I co-founded Ugilic, a leading Danish consultancy, focusing primarily on helping companies embrace Agile.

At Ugilic I try to practice what I preach about Agile leadership, and together with ten amazing colleagues, we help Scrum teams and leaders on the path to make Agile stick in their organizations.