Some folks call me a Visionary Pragmatist, others call me a Pragmatic Visionary, or one of the Retrospective Goddesses. I like to think of myself as helping to build capability and capacity for resilience and learning with teams, leaders, and organizations.

I prefer to collaborate. And I'm co-author of six books.

* Lead without Blame: Building Resilient Learning Teams

* Liftoff 2nd ed.: Start and Sustain Successful Agile Teams

*Agile Retrospectives, second edition: A Practical Guide for Catalyzing Team Learning and Improvement

*Five Rules for Accelerated Learning

*Agile Fluency® Model co-originator

*The Art of Agile Development, second edition, contributor

Drawing on 30+ years of experience working with technical professionals and leaders, I engage with the challenges that emerge at the intersection of team improvement, learning, and leadership. I discover solutions and possibilities where others find only barriers and obstacles.

Here's some official stuff:

As a Roaming Leadership Agility Advisor, Diana Larsen works alongside leaders to build their proficiency in shaping environments for productive, resilient teams and accelerate organizational learning. She delivers keynote talks, as well as consulting and mentoring services.

Esther Derby draws on four decades of experience leading, observing, and living through organizational change. Esther started her career as a programmer, and quickly realized that while her job description referred to computers, her real work involved changing the way people worked, and supporting them though that process. In 1997, she founded esther derby associates, inc., and works with a broad array of clients from Fortune 500 companies to start ups. Her approach blends attention to humans and deep knowledge of complex adaptive systems.

In addition to consulting, Esther has an extensive background in designing and leading experiential learning. She teaches workshops both on-line and in-person around the world. Her workshops support leaders to explore how they can adapt the environment to amplify empowerment, engage in joint problem-solving, and evolve their systems towards better results.

Esther is co-author of Behind Closed Doors: Secrets of Great Management (2005), a guide for people as they make the transition from technical work to management work, and Agile Retrospectives: Making Good Teams Great (2006), a process for teams to inspect, adapt, and improve the way they work. She has also published hundreds of articles, many of which are available on her website, www.estherderby.com.

Esther lives in northern Minnesota, near the shores of Lake Superior. She enjoys cooking from her northern garden, making garments with pockets, quilting, and baking bread.

Esther has an MA in Organizational Leadership and a certificate in Human System Dynamics.

Have a listen to my podcast on nurturing change in your organization. https://changebyattraction.simplecast.com/