It began with a simple but persistent question:
Why is it so hard for smart teams to get good work done?

Jack Skeels first explored that question in the late 1990s at RAND, where he researched large, project-driven organizations. The answer — then and now — wasn’t a lack of talent or effort. It was the way the work working was structured: unclear scope, chaotic collaboration, costly over-managing, and a resultant massive productivity loss that reduced quality and slowed progress.

That insight led to AgencyAgile, a company built in 2011 to help creative and service organizations move faster, with less friction and more autonomy. Those methods — especially the development of Workstream Pods — proved transformational. AgencyAgile was a testbed wherein 170+ organizations deployed and refined the basic pod model and its many methods. Many still use it a decade later.

But as the world changed, so did the nature of the problems our clients faced.

We didn’t stop training teams — but we stepped up.
What started as a training model evolved into a broader advisory practice. One that helps leaders not just fix their teams, but rethink how their organizations work — structurally, strategically, and systemically.

That’s what Better Company is built for.

We still make teams work better, faster, and happier. But now, we help entire companies design new ways of working — and do it faster, with more clarity and less pain.

And as AI reshapes the work ahead, it turns out the same structures that help humans collaborate better — Pods, lightweight, empowering methods, and shared ownership — are some of the best ways to adopt and craft AI to deliver real, sustained value.

We help organizations build the connective tissue between people, process, and intelligent tools.

Fifteen years later, we still are about making work, actually work.