Agile Event Session

3 years of Feedback Using Tribal Leadership Techniques from the Amazon Rainforest

This video content is for Agile Alliance members only

If you’re already an active member, please log in.

To view this content, and gain access to many more valuable resources, conference discounts, and invitations to exclusive networking and learning events, please consider becoming an Agile Alliance member.

About this Event Session

After spending a year on a social project with Yanomami tribes in the Amazon rain-forest in Brazil, I was surprised by their peculiar leadership practices. Nightly circle gathering rounds of discussions, regular visits to neighboring villages with ritualized discussions and intriguing common practices among others.

When moving back to Europe, I returned to my regular job, which I had been doing for the past 15 years, leading XP/agile digital teams on complex projects.

This time the project grew much bigger, and I had to quickly lead over 10 teams developing micro-services, balancing autonomy and alignment.

I decided to experiment preserving the simplicity of XP by adapting some practices I saw during my year with Amazonian tribes. This is a first feedback of three years of experiments.

See the Experience Report for this talk here.

Additional Resources

We hope you found this content informative

Before you move on, please consider supporting our non-profit mission by making a donation to Agile Alliance today. The opinions and ideas expressed in this video belong solely to the speaker or speakers, and may not represent the opinion or policy of Agile Alliance.

Speaker(s) may be willing to present this session at local group meetings and other events.

XP 2021
Talk

More Agile Event Session Videos

Stop Aligning, Start Agreeing with Dave Sharrock
When everything is a priority, getting meaningful work done becomes a challenge. In this Agile Online session, Dave Sharrock explores why organizational alignment often fails to produce real results and why genuine agreement requires difficult decisi…
A Hack-for-Good Case Study – One Part Hackathon, One Part Immersive Learning Experience, One Part Social Good with Jason Hall and Kody Fintek
Jason Hall and Kody Fintak share the story of Hack for Good at Agile2026, where conference participants used self-organization, customer collaboration, and rapid experimentation to tackle real challenges for the Jubilee Association of Maryland, a non…
Agile Online – You’re Probably Solving the Wrong Problem
Kimberly Antrikaitis’s presentation, “You Are Probably Solving the Wrong Problem,” argues that teams and leaders often waste time fixing symptoms because they jump too quickly from an observed problem to an assumed solution. Drawing on examples from …
Stop Aligning, Start Agreeing with Dave Sharrock
When everything is a priority, getting meaningful work done becomes a challenge. In this Agile Online session, Dave Sharrock explores why organizational alignment often fails to produce real results and why genuine agreement requires difficult decisi…
A Hack-for-Good Case Study – One Part Hackathon, One Part Immersive Learning Experience, One Part Social Good with Jason Hall and Kody Fintek
Jason Hall and Kody Fintak share the story of Hack for Good at Agile2026, where conference participants used self-organization, customer collaboration, and rapid experimentation to tackle real challenges for the Jubilee Association of Maryland, a non…

Have a comment? Join the conversation

Ready to join Agile Alliance?

Unlock members-only access to online learning sessions, Agile resources, annual conference discounts, and more! And when you join, you’ll be supporting our member initiatives, regional events, and global community groups.

IMPORTANT: We have transitioned to a new membership platform. If you have not already done so, you will need to SET UP AN ACCOUNT on the new platform to establish your user profile. Your previous login credentials will not work until you do this set up.

When you see the login screen, choose “Set up Account” and follow the prompts to create your new account. You can choose to log in using your social credentials for either Google or Linkedin (recommended), or you can set up your account using an email address.