The Agile Brand: When "unmanaging" is the best way to manage teams

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About the Episode

Today we’re going to talk about effective management of teams, even when that means you need to “unmanage” them - and we’ll talk a lot more about what that means.

Host Greg Kihlstrom welcomes Jack Skeels, CEO & Founder of AgencyAgile Inc. and author of the book Unmanaged: Master the Magic of Creating Empowered and Happy Organizations to discuss this topic.

ALSO: Congrats to host Greg Kihlström for being named the #1 Marketing Thought Leader in 2024 by Thinkers360

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About Jack Skeels

Jack Skeels is a former RAND senior analyst, and currently CEO of AgencyAgile, an Agile transformation and coaching firm that helps agencies, consultancies, and other complex service organizations go better, faster and happier. His career includes leading Sapient’s 105-person Los Angeles office, and founding and executive roles in multiple startups. He is a coach to executives, a thought-leader and evangelist to industry, and wakes every day driven to create a revolution in leadership and management practices, optimal organization design, and delivery excellence.

Jack is recognized as an outstanding speaker, writer, and educator. He speaks at over 15 industry and association events per year, including Ad Age, Digiday, SoDA (annual meeting and The SoDA Academy), 4A’s conferences, Advertising Week, Magnet Global, Miss Collective, TAAN, Bureau of Digital, and others. With over 35 published articles, his work frequently appears in leading publications such as: Ad Age, Entrepreneur, Ad Week, MediaPost, and Campaign.

Jack is a two-time Inc-500 Award winner and entrepreneur, with several successful startups to his credit. In addition to a bachelor’s in Industrial Engineering and an MBA with honors in Entrepreneurship and Finance from the Marshall School of Business, he has held several graduate-level teaching roles, including associate professor at the RAND-Pardee School of Public Policy.

Resources

• AgencyAgile website: https://www.agencyagile.com

• Headed to Marketing AI Institute MAICON 24 - the premier marketing and AI conference? Use our discount code AGILE150 for $150 off your registration code. Register here: http://tinyurl.com/5jpwhycv

• Check out The Agile Brand Guide website with articles, insights, and Martechipedia, the wiki for marketing technology - https://www.agilebrandguide.com

• The Agile Brand podcast is brought to you by TEKsystems. Learn more at https://www.teksystem.com

• The Agile Brand is produced by Missing Link—a Latina-owned strategy-driven, creatively fueled production co-op. From ideation to creation, they craft human connections through intelligent, engaging and informative content. https://www.missinglink.company

Listen to more episodes on Apple | Spotify | Amazon | YouTube | Website

📚 Book Updates

NOW AVAILABLE: Meaningful Measurement of the Customer Experience, Second Edition by Greg Kihlström with a foreword by Greg Melia, CAE, CEO of Customer Experience Professionals Association (CXPA)

Thanks to Thinkers360 for naming 2 of our books: The Agile Brand Guide to Generative AI & The Agile Brand Guide to Marketing Measurement & Analytics to their "Top 50 Books to Read in 2024" list!

🎤 Events & Speaking Engagements

4/30-5/2: Customer Experience Professionals Association (CXPA) Leaders Advance (Denver, CO): Greg will be co-presenting on the topic of customer journey orchestration

5/23: B2B MarCom Summit: Greg will be leading a fireside chat at this inaugural event from Capitol Communicator and Potomac Tech Wire. Register now with code AGILE for 15% off your registration.

6/9-11: Pegasystems PegaWorld iNspire 2024 (Las Vegas, NV): More details forthcoming.

6/17-20: Forrester CX (Nashville, TN): Greg will be presenting on RTIM. More details forthcoming.

6/18: SME 2024 (virtual): Greg Kihlström will be talking about how to turn social media interest into action on a panel at this digital marketing conference. More details forthcoming.

8/10-12: eTail Boston (Boston, MA): Greg Kihlström will be participating in this leading e-commerce event. Stay tuned for more.

9/10-12: MAICON 2024 (Cleveland, OH): It's (Past) Time for AI Operations. Greg Kihlström will be presenting on the topic of setting up AI Operations to run in parallel with your Marketing Operations at this conference from Marketing AI Institute. Register now with code AGILE150 for $150 off your registration

9/18: AAF South Dakota (Sioux Fall, SD): Greg Kihlström will be speaking about his book, House of the Customer for the AAF South Dakota members in Sioux Falls, SD.

10/16-18: Shoptalk Fall (Chicago, IL): Greg Kihlström will be interviewing and talking with industry leaders at this retail-focused show.

Links: Books | Podcast | Blog | Consulting | Book Greg as a Speaker