It’s time to hit that button.

Say hello to Better Company and jackskeels.com

Hey there. Sorry if it’s been a while. Lots of changes.

About fifteen years ago, I set out to make agile actually work for agencies. That work mattered, and it stuck. But along the way, something bigger emerged. The organizations that took these practices seriously didn’t just become more agile. They became better companies. Decision-making improved. Work flowed more cleanly. The systems around people doing hard work got stronger.

It had been clear for a while that that Agile Fad would fade. And our work was outgrowing the name, and three years ago I got the trademark on: Better Company. A name waiting for its moment. Now is its time.

The market has been disrupted. AI isn’t just another tool. It’s changing how our favorite topics, judgment, coordination, and action, happen inside organizations. And AI as well! (this is my third or fourth iteration working on/in AI, the first was in 1984, lol) It feels like the right moment to lean back in. (See some of my recent posts below).

What I and the team built at AgencyAgile isn’t disappearing. It’s still part of the foundation. And I’ll be rolling out some alumni offerings shortly. But going forward, the work I’m doing lives under the name Better Company, At bettercompany.co. And my writings, which will be in these newsletters and also LinkedIn, will find their home on JackSkeels.com.

Same values. Same thinking. Broader scope. If you’ve followed this work for a while, this probably won’t feel like a sharp turn. It’s more like naming what the work has already become.

Thank you for being part of the journey.

Jack

Good News: No, Your Agency Isn’t Going Away

Every few months someone else does a “Sam Altman” and announces that AI will make agencies obsolete. The case always sounds the same. AI can research faster. AI can ideate faster. AI can write and design faster. Therefore the agency model must collapse. But a recent study published in Decision

JackSkeels.comJack Skeels

AI, Innovation, and the Automation Vortex

Most conversations about AI and innovation assume a simple replacement story. As automation improves, human work recedes. The messy becomes structured. Judgment gives way to systems. That framing misses what is actually happening. A better way to understand modern work is as a spectrum pulled toward a powerful center. On

JackSkeels.comJack Skeels

Rhetorical AI and the Age of the Talking Machine

How Fluency Without Understanding Is Reshaping Work, Organizations, and Industry. Managers are confronting a problem unlike anything they have seen. Today’s AI systems are not intelligent in the human sense. They are talking machines. They produce language that carries the shape of understanding without the substance. That language moves

JackSkeels.comJack Skeels