I don’t give motivational talks.
I challenge the room with ideas they’ll argue about at dinner — and implement on Monday.
Every talk I give explores the same question from a different angle: what happens when organisations try to change but leave the power structure untouched? Whether it’s GenAI governance, team autonomy, or leadership development — the pattern is the same. I bring the perspective of someone who runs a transformation at enterprise scale, not someone who studies them from outside.
For conference organisers, L&D leaders, and executive offsite planners at engineering-led organisations.
Current topics
GenAI and the Engineering Operating Model
AI-augmented development is changing team structures, delivery economics, and the role of engineering leadership — but most organisations are only optimising the tooling layer. This keynote examines the organisational design changes required to capture real value from GenAI. Audiences leave with a diagnostic framework for their own operating model.
Team Autonomy at Scale
Self-management sounds great in a blog post. In a 500-person engineering org with regulatory constraints, it’s a design challenge. This talk is a blueprint for team autonomy that survives contact with enterprise reality — covering authority structures, accountability systems, and the leadership shifts required to make it stick.
Vertical Leadership Development
Most leadership development programmes teach skills. The leaders who actually transform organisations have made a developmental shift — in how they make meaning, hold complexity, and relate to power. This keynote explores vertical development theory applied to engineering leadership, and why horizontal skill-building alone misses the point.
Power Dynamics in Transformation
Every transformation is a political act. This talk names the contracts, coalitions, and countermeasures that shape what’s actually possible in organisational change — drawing on Transactional Analysis, systems coaching, and two decades of navigating enterprise politics. Not theory. Pattern recognition from the field.
Agile Isn’t Dead, But It’s Tired — What Now?
A MythChange dialogue for the next decade of agility. What we got right, what we got wrong, and what needs to change. This session is deliberately provocative — designed to surface the uncomfortable truths the community has been politely avoiding. Audiences leave with a sharper lens on where agility actually delivers value and where it’s become theatre.
Stop the Drama: Coaching Teams Out of Psychological Games
Teams get stuck in patterns — blame loops, passive resistance, learned helplessness, hero dynamics. These aren’t personality problems. They’re psychological games with predictable structures. This session uses Transactional Analysis to make the invisible visible, and gives coaches and leaders practical interventions to break the cycle.
AI Is an Amplifier — Your Engineering Culture Determines Your AI ROI
Most engineering leaders treat AI adoption as a tooling decision. The data shows it’s a culture and maturity question. The orgs getting 10x returns already had strong engineering practices, small autonomous teams, and a culture of experimentation before AI arrived. This keynote gives CTOs a diagnostic framework for understanding why their AI investments aren’t paying off — and what to fix first.
When Your Metrics Lie: Flow Analytics and Organisational Dysfunction
A live-demo keynote using FlowMaster, the analytics engine I built, to show how cycle time patterns, anomaly detection, and flow debt reveal structural dysfunction that no survey or retrospective would surface. Audiences see real data patterns — metric gaming, invisible constraints, governance drift — and leave understanding what their delivery data is actually saying and why it matters for transformation.
Seen a topic that fits your event?
Book Roman for your event →Where I’ve spoken
| Year | Conference | Talk |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | Global Scrum GatheringUpcoming | Stop the Drama: Coaching Teams Out of Psychological Games |
| 2025 | RSG Banff | Contracts, Coalitions, and Countermeasures |
| 2025 | RSG SingaporeKeynote | Agile Isn’t Dead, But It’s Tired — What Now? |
| 2025 | XP2025 | Contracts, Coalitions, and Countermeasures |
| 2024 | Business Agility Day | Emergent Strategies for Adaptive Organisations |
| 2024 | RSG Stockholm | The Delicate Art of Scrum Master Leadership |
| 2024 | RSG SingaporeKeynote | Climbing the Leadership Ladder |
| 2024 | Agile Australia | From Fear to Outcomes |
| 2024 | XP2024 | Team Autonomy Unleashed |
| 2023 | Scrum Day Europe | Nurturing Self-Management |
| 2023 | RSG SingaporeKeynote | Emergent Strategies for Adaptive Organisations |
| 2022 | Scrum Day Europe | From Fear to Outcomes |
Practical details
Based in Singapore. Available globally.
Keynotes (45–60 min) · Breakout sessions (30 min) · Workshops (half/full day) · Executive offsites
Remote delivery available. Happy to customise topics for your audience.
Book Roman for your event
Tell me about your audience, format, and dates — I’ll come back with a proposal.