About

I'm Ahmed Avais, and for more than 25 years I've been learning how systems behave and how to help them change. The systems started out as machines, became teams, and today they're teams working alongside AI.

Machines

I began as an engineer, first running networks and then spending more than a decade on mission-critical infrastructure, where downtime affected thousands of people every day. That's where I learned to look for the constraint in a system and improve the flow around it, a habit I still bring to every problem.

Teams

In 2008 I started Agile 7 to build products with small businesses and startups. Chicago's startup scene was taking off, in the years that produced Groupon, Belly and SpotHero, and I learned a great deal from its Lean Startup and agile meetups. Extreme Programming and test-driven development showed me that code gets better when a team's habits get better, and that idea pulled me into coaching.

For the next decade I coached teams and leaders in finance, healthcare and technology, sometimes with a single team and sometimes across more than 200. I worked alongside CIOs and their leadership teams, led groups of coaches, and helped managers become coaches themselves. I've led transformations with Scrum and Kanban, and along the way I've gone deep into Human Systems Dynamics. No single method fits every context, so I pick the one that fits the people and the problem.

Whatever the method, I start with people as they are and help them see their own system, so they can chart their own path.

Teams and AI

More recently I helped a federal agency take a secure LLM solution from concept to production, and today I lead teams that build with AI every day. We work with specs, an agent harness and a safety net that catches what generated code gets wrong, and we've watched the constraint move from writing code to reviewing it. The human side of that shift is the hardest part, and it's where my years of coaching matter most.

My teams do the work, and my part is to create the conditions for it: the practices, feedback loops and trust that let them do it well.

How I write

I write with AI the way I lead teams that build with it. The ideas, stories and judgment come from 25 years of my own work. I draft with an AI writing partner, then shape, cut and correct until it says what I mean. I don't hide it, any more than I'd hide using a calculator. AI is here to assist people, not replace them, and how we work well together is what I write about.

Talks and sessions

• Human Systems Dynamics Agile Coach Camp Worldwide, 2026
• Adaptive Action for Sustainability ODN Summit, Raleigh, 2023
• Agile Transformation Simulation AgileIndy Conference, 2023
• Failed Transformation Engagement: Lessons Learned AgileIndy Conference, 2023
• A Leader's Guide for Social Responsibility LASTTalk Australia, 2020
• Using the Harada Method to Develop People TriAgile, Raleigh, 2019

All 21 talks and sessions

Credentials

I'm a Certified Enterprise Coach (CEC) and an ICF Professional Certified Coach (PCC), and I co-authored The Leader's Guide for Social Responsibility. I've also published two Miro templates, a balance wheel and an agile adoption roadmap, that people have used more than 1,500 times.

I live in Apex, North Carolina, with my wife and children. The full timeline is on LinkedIn, and I make small interactive things at ahmedavais.com.