What a ride! On 6 May 2025, Nat and I had the absolute pleasure of sharing our talk “Meme Thinking” at the Global Scrum Gathering in Munich—and it was one for the books.
A huge shoutout to the brilliant audience whose good humour, curiosity, and creative contributions made the session truly unforgettable. You laughed with us, challenged ideas, played along, and helped create something uniquely memorable—literally. Together, we even made a GIF (see above).
The Final Battle
One of the most hotly debated moments of the session? Whether “GIF” should be pronounced with a hard-G or a soft-G. It played out something like this…
Nat: Ah, Andrew I am having flashbacks of our long flight over here
Andrew: Just relax Nat, that image playing over and over is just a simple GIF, it’s not the same plane.
Nat: It’s pronounced jif
Andrew: Huh?
Nat: Dot jif, like the peanut butter—the Creator said so.
Andrew: That’s can’t be right—it’s Graphics Interchange Format, GIF!
Nat: The ‘p’ in jpeg stands for photographic but I bet you don’t say J-FEG.
Andrew: No, a ‘P’ on its own isn’t pronounced like ‘F’, that’s totally different.
Nat: It’s exactly the same.
Andrew: Okay, name ONE word that starts with G, but is pronounced like J.
Nat: Jin.
Andrew: Shoot. I just drank one of those this morning… err, I mean last night.
Nat: By your logic we’d say scubba (SCUBA) or lassier (LASER), yeah?
Andrew: Well, then you’d have to say jpej. Wait—is laser an acronym?
Nat: Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation.
Andrew: Huh. Didn’t know that. You’re still wrong though.
Nat: You’re just annoyed at me because I’m right.
Andrew: I’m just annoyed by you in general.
Nat: You mean in G’eneral.
Andrew: Okay, I see what’s happening here. We’re Joing to settle this right now…
The result? We took a vote….
The people have spoken in a landslide victory…
Henceforth, it’s GIF with a hard-G. Sorry Steve Wilhite!
But back to business—what is Meme Thinking all about?
Here’s a summary of our session…
“Meme Thinking: Forget the face-to-face, it’s meme-to-meme now” is a compelling, research-informed presentation by Andrew Ramsden and Nathaniel Simpson that explores how memes, GIFs, emojis, and AI-generated art can transform communication, collaboration, and culture in the modern workplace. The talk challenges the outdated Agile Principle that face-to-face is the most effective communication method, drawing instead on neuroscience and organisational psychology to show how visual humour in digital channels creates emotional cues, fosters psychological safety, and enhances cultural cohesion—especially in remote and hybrid environments.
Through lively demonstrations and examples, the presenters explain that meme-based communication serves three key roles: as a pattern interrupt to capture attention in an overloaded information environment, as a vehicle for emotional signalling when non-verbal cues are missing, and as a tool for building safety and belonging, which boosts creativity and innovation. The audience learns how meme culture is both a mirror of workplace dynamics and a lever for shifting them—“change the memes to shift the teams.”
Real-world use cases include using custom memes to reinforce norms (like respecting lunch breaks), improve agile training, support change management, and even personalise team-building exercises using AI art. The talk ends with a call to action: start small, explore the tools at memethinking.com, and remember—humour isn’t a distraction from work, it’s a foundation for better work.
Watch the full talk
You can watch the full talk here right now! Talk about burying the lead—Consider this an Easter Egg for those of you who are still reading. Good for you! 😃
Danke für die MEMEries!
A big thank you to Scrum Alliance, the organisers and volunteers for such a fantastic gathering. We’re grateful for the opportunity to share Meme Thinking with the world—and to co-create moments of laughter, learning, and transformation together.
Until next time: Stay funny, stay human.
– Andrew