Matthew Skelton

@matthewskelton.com

2880 Followers 2021 Following

CEO at Conflux | Exec Advisory | Operating Models | Capability Design | Co-author of 'Team Topologies' and 'Adapt Together'

Our new report, "The Organizational Foundation for AI ROI". Many organizations find that bringing in AI also makes them rethink how work gets done and how teams cooperate → https://teamtopologies.com/all-mini-books/executive-report-the-organizational-foundation-for-ai-roi-with-team-topologies
I’ve noticed that some of the best ideas come from giving people the space to learn from one another. This story shows how internal conferences can help organizations adapt → https://adapttogether.info/all-case-studies/cultivating-alignment-and-innovation-through-internal-conferences-at-tillo
A sentence I hear surprisingly often is: "We've become slower, but we don't know why". The real issue is often much more subtle. ⭕ One more approval needed ⭕ One more handoff We explore these ideas in the second edition of Team Topologies → https://www.teamtopologies.com/book
AI is changing the way companies need to execute. That's the core idea behind ETANO: Engineering the AI-Native Organization. ETANO is a leadership uplift and awareness program for everyone leading and shaping AI adoption in every knowledge-work context. More details here → https://etano.ai/
A question I find myself asking more often is: Who decides? Not who owns the work, but who has the authority to make the decision when it matters. We expanded a lot of our thinking on topics like this in the 2nd edition of Team Topologies → https://www.teamtopologies.com/book
Have you ever finished a busy day and wondered what you actually got done? I’ve found that the problem often is not the work itself, but constant interruptions. Sometimes teams do not need to work harder; they need more space to focus. We explore this idea → https://www.teamtopologies.com/book
Thanks to everyone who came to my session at Flowtopia 2026. One of the best parts of these events is hearing how other people are dealing with the same challenges. The conversations about AI and how organisations learn were really interesting. Looking forward to keeping the conversation going 💪🏼
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A guy holding up a book called The Psychology of Software Teams
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I sometimes ask companies: How many teams does it take to finish a simple task? When work feels harder than it should, the solution is often in how your teams are set up. Get the 2nd edition → https://www.teamtopologies.com/book
One way to think about organisational complexity: it's often the result of many sensible local decisions that create unintended friction at a system level. Understanding those interactions is a key part of improving flow. https://www.teamtopologies.com/book
The pace of change keeps increasing, which is why we've gone deeper in the 2nd edition of Team Topologies, exploring cognitive load, flow, and team boundaries in greater detail. ⚙️ If you're navigating any of these challenges, you can learn more here → https://www.teamtopologies.com/book
Last Wednesday in Yorkshire, I spoke about Economies of Empowerment and why organisations often slow themselves down as they grow. Endless approvals and decisions stuck at the top create friction fast. Curious how others are thinking about empowerment today 👀
“The organisation feels busy, but strangely fragile.” I hear this a lot. Small disruptions start spreading further than they should. One dependency slows multiple teams. Context switching becomes constant. More on this in Team Topologies → https://www.teamtopologies.com/book
📢 TOMORROW: I’ll be speaking at Agile Yorkshire about Economies of Empowerment and why so many companies get bogged down when they try to scale. Bring your questions, challenges, and experience → https://matthewskelton.com/all-events/agile-yorkshire-talk-on-economies-of-empowerment
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$1.4T TOTAL INDUSTRY SPEND $613B TOTAL INDUSTRY REVENUE $417,211 $ SPENT ON AI SINCE PAGE LOAD
Interesting idea from HBR: AI agents shouldn’t be treated like employees. Team Topologies points to the same need for clear boundaries and ownership. Read more here → https://hbr.org/2026/05/research-why-you-shouldnt-treat-ai-agents-like-employees
Traffic jams don’t always happen because there are too many cars. Sometimes one little choke slows everything behind it. Organisations feel similar, and small gaps between teams add up and slow the flow of work. More in Team Topologies, 2nd Edition → https://www.teamtopologies.com/book
Most organisations don’t slow down because people stop caring, they slow down because work becomes harder to carry. Complexity builds quietly, then delivery, ownership, and decisions start to suffer. More on my board advisory work → https://matthewskelton.com/board-advisory
Strange thing about the AI conversation right now: people assume teams matter less. To me, it feels like the opposite. The faster AI gets, the more obvious unclear ownership and weak boundaries become. We explore this in the 2nd edition of Team Topologies → https://www.teamtopologies.com/book
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Progress can slow in ways that are hard to explain. Small gaps add up: work pauses between teams, decisions go back and forth, and ownership feels unclear. In the 2nd edition of Team Topologies, these are treated as system signals. Get your copy here → https://www.teamtopologies.com/book
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Scaling is where most change efforts run into trouble. One team improves, but others can’t replicate it due to different constraints. The shift is to focus on how change spreads between teams, not just what works locally. More here → https://teamtopologies.com/scale
A lot has changed since the first edition of Team Topologies back in 2019. That’s why we’ve gone deeper in our 2nd edition, looking at cognitive load, flow at speed, and clearer boundaries in practice. If you’re dealing with this, it’s all in here → https://www.teamtopologies.com/book
Been listening to the Boundaryless Conversations podcast recently. Good mix of ideas on platforms and how organisations are set up, but it all comes back to something simple - how work is structured and how teams interact. Worth a listen → https://www.boundaryless.io/resources/podcast
Organisational design has quietly moved up the leadership agenda. For a long time, this sat in the background, something to “deal with later”. That’s getting harder now. That’s why we wrote the 2nd edition of Team Topologies → https://www.teamtopologies.com/book
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How do your teams actually work together? Team Topologies highlights three interaction modes: 🔹 Collaboration 🔹 X-as-a-Service 🔹 Facilitating Used thoughtfully, these modes reduce friction and help teams deliver with clarity. Learn more → https://teamtopologies.com/
Tech is moving fast, and many leaders are catching up. What helps is having a few clear levers. Simple metrics and guardrails give direction, while sharing learning across teams makes change easier. More here → https://teamtopologies.com
Teams can feel busy all the time, yet work still moves slowly. Team Topologies, 2nd Edition, offers a different lens: focus on flow. Fewer handoffs, clear responsibilities, supportive platform teams, and fast feedback loops help work move. Get your copy here → https://www.teamtopologies.com/book
Most bottlenecks in organisations are structural, not personal. The question is rarely who is slowing things down, but what was set up in a way that makes that inevitable. Full article: https://www.forbes.com/sites/jodiecook/2026/04/04/how-to-empower-your-team-to-do-your-work-better-than-you-could
Cognitive load is one of those things that builds slowly and shows up late. Team Topologies, 2nd Edition, offers a way to get ahead of it: smaller teams, clearer ownership, and fewer dependencies pulling focus in different directions. Get your copy here → https://www.teamtopologies.com/book
Most conversations about burnout focus on what individuals can do differently. The more useful question is often what the structure around them is asking them to absorb. Source: https://hbr.org/2026/04/burnout-looks-different-across-the-org-chart-watch-for-these-signs
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More people are turning to AI for support at work. It’s fast and always available. But something shifts. You get answers, but lose shared context and human connection. Find the full read → https://hbr.org/2026/05/employees-are-relying-on-ai-for-personal-support-thats-risky?ab=HP-hero-featured-1
Most organisations don’t lack effort. They lack clarity on where to start. The Team Topologies assessment helps surface where things feel heavier than they should, and where to begin. Take the assessment here - https://survey.teamtopologies.com/tt-assessment
Learn Team Topologies for fast flow 🚀 Guided by expert practitioners, our Academy walks you through key concepts and patterns to help teams deliver value more effectively. Explore more → https://academy.teamtopologies.com/
Smaller teams keep coming up for a reason. Teams of around 6 to 8 tend to work better. Not a rule, but a useful direction. As teams grow, communication becomes harder and cognitive load increases. More in Team Topologies, 2nd Edition → https://teamtopologies.com/book
How clearly is your organisation’s “why” reflected in daily decisions? For us, it’s a simple North Star: the number of empowered teams we help shape. When the purpose is clear, people act on it. You can learn more here → https://teamtopologies.com
Teams often try to improve delivery by adding more tools. But progress can still feel slow. Often the issue is cognitive load. Team Topologies, 2nd Edition, explores the link between the fast flow of work and bounded cognitive load More here → https://www.teamtopologies.com/book
Middle management isn’t disappearing. In many places, it’s evolving. Less focus on supervising people, more on shaping how teams work. Setting priorities, defining boundaries, and removing friction. Close to the ideas in Team Topologies → https://teamtopologies.com
I was at QCon London last week speaking about Team Topologies and AI. It came down to this: if you want teams to use AI effectively, they need to be set up to act with clarity and ownership. Where is this working for you, and where is it slowing down? 👇
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Just published in Forbes Business Council: why transformation sticks or stalls. Most efforts don’t fail on strategy, they fail on conditions. Read my article here ➡️ https://www.forbes.com/councils/forbesbusinesscouncil/2026/03/11/driving-sustainable-transformations-the-prerequisites-for-success/
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Great discussion last week at CTO Craft Con London 2026. I hosted a roundtable with CTOs and engineering leaders about how teams build skills as organisations grow. One theme came up often. Learning works best when it is connected to real work and shared across teams.
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Teams can look busy while progress still feels slow. Work moves fast inside teams but stalls at boundaries. Team Topologies, 2nd Edition suggests focusing on flow, not activity 📘 https://teamtopologies.com/book
Sometimes it helps to talk with others who care about how teams work and evolve. The Team Topologies Community is a free space to connect and learn from peers exploring fast flow and better team design. You’re welcome to join → https://teamtopologies.com/community
In Team Topologies, 2nd Edition, cognitive load becomes something to notice and shape. Clear ownership, better boundaries, and supportive platform teams can reduce what each team needs to carry. Explores this idea in more depth 📘 https://www.teamtopologies.com/book