OrganizaonalAgility: TheHiddenGoal(and …...(allow the path forward to reveal itself) -> Follow emergent practices: 1. Probe 2. Sense 3. Respond - But watch for command/control, imposing

Copyright © 2012 Big Visible Solutions © 2012 BigVisible Solu1ons

Michael Hamman

Jim Elvidge

Organiza1onal Agility: The Hidden Goal (and

OA-‐Missed Opportunity) of Agile

Transforma1on

Copyright © 2012 Big Visible Solutions

This is just a taste…the 1p of the iceberg

Goals!

1.  Appreciate that agile transi1on is by its very nature, a holis1c endeavor

2.  There are some models and tools to help you bring holis1c thinking to the agile transforma1on -‐ here are some

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Copyright © 2012 Big Visible Solutions 3

Why Organizational Agility?


Most Agile adoptions focus on the delivery capacity of teams or

aggregates of teams.


A Common PaSern of Agile Teams Over Time...

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Time

Perf

orm

ance

Teams start off great guns.



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Time

Perf

orm

ance

Then, at some point performance and enthusiasm begin to plateau



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Time

Perf

orm

ance

Without substantial intervention, those teams can plateau or even begin to decline.


What is Happening?


We can fix this ourselves

We can influence others to fix this

This is beyond our control

Over time, the team confronts things that appear more challenging to improve.

Time


Managers that haven’t changed to enable self-organization still attempt to control and coordinate

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Staff Caught Between Conflic1ng Goals

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Department Goals

Product or Team Goals


Exis1ng processes have not been reviewed and updated to support agility


In other words, your teams have hit an ins1tu1onal ceiling.

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Time

Perf

orm

ance

Institutional Ceiling


Exercise

What are 1-‐3 challenges you are facing in your agile transforma1on?

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Challenge -‐  Challenge 1

-‐  Challenge 2

-‐  Challenge 3


Merely trying to resolve these challenges tac1cally is not sustainable.

There are simply too many holes to plug.


In the end, we need to think about agility holis1cally.

(Moving from a team delivery focus toward an organiza1onal learning orienta1on.)


This session introduces a framework and a couple of tools for thinking and managing holistically.


What is Organizational Agility?


Working Defini1on

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Organiza1onal agility is being able to rapidly sense and effec1vely respond to arising opportuni1es and challenges.


Fostering organiza1onal agility requires first that we have a way of seeing the whole.


MODEL: Spectrum of Agility Capabili1es

© 2010 BigVisible Solu1ons, Inc.. All Rights Reserved 21

•  Leadership and management styles and beliefs about what constitutes effective leadership and management

•  Structures, processes and systems by which work gets done and is organized

•  Collective beliefs, perspectives and habits by which people make sense of things

•  Product Management/Strategy •  Lean, continuous planning

•  Product Development/Delivery •  Multiple Team/Programs •  Kanban •  Scrum

•  Automated Testing •  Test-driven Development •  Continuous Integration


Spectrum of Agility Capabili1es

© 2010 BigVisible Solu1ons, Inc.. All Rights Reserved 22

Broader organizational agility can be achieved to the degree that agile capability

is realized across all five parts of organizational array.


Category

-‐  Leadership?

-‐  Organiza1on?

-‐  Product Vision?

-‐  Delivery

-‐  Execu1on


-‐  Challenge 2

-‐  Challenge 3

Exercise

Revisit your challenges: Which bands on the spectrum do the seem to reflect most strongly reflect?


To get beSer at seeing this, we’ll want to re-‐orient the way we think about the nature of organiza1ons.


Complicated vs. Complex

David J. Snowden and Mary E. Boone, A Leader’s Framework for Decision Making, Harvard Business Review, Nov. 2007

Complex Complicated The relationship between cause and

effect can only be perceived in retrospect (most organizational situations)

The relationship between cause and effect requires analysis and/or expert knowledge (expert domain)

-> Catalytic, experimental methods work best (allow the path forward to reveal itself)

-> Follow emergent practices: 1. Probe 2. Sense 3. Respond

- But watch for command/control, imposing order

-> Follow good practices: 1. Sense 2. Analyze 3. Respond

- But watch for entrained thinking (experts), analysis paralysis

-> So, welcome new thinking, scenarios

A Model: The Cynefin Framework From: Snowden and Boone



David J. Snowden and Mary E. Boone, A Leader’s Framework for Decision Making, Harvard Business Review, Nov. 2007

Complex Complicated The relationship between cause and


The relationship between cause and effect requires analysis and/or expert knowledge (expert domain)




-> Follow good practices: 1. Sense 2. Analyze 3. Respond

- But watch for entrained thinking (experts), analysis paralysis

-> So, welcome new thinking, scenarios

MODEL: The Cynefin Framework From: Snowden and Boone


Though most managers and leaders view organiza1ons as complicated, most modern organiza1onal sehngs are complex.


Complex organizational situations call for a different approach to leadership and management…

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A Well Designed Environment

Photo provided under Creative Commons by Eugene Chan


…from sense-analyze-respond


…to probe-sense-respond.


A Probe-Sense-Respond Approach to

Catalyzing Team Agility


Agile Team

Introduce a Probe


Agile Team

Introduce a Probe

Blocks, impediments, bad behaviors, inefficiencies


Agile Teams


Agile Enablement Team

Enablement Team Tac1cally ‘Solves’ Team Issues

Common Pattern: An agile enablement team tactically resolves the issue, either through direct intervention with the team, or by introducing some improvement into the environment.

Tactical Improvement

Org’l Environment


The problem is that such short-term fixes rarely have staying power.

What is needed is deeper organizational learning.


MODEL: Single Loop vs. Double Loop Learning

From Rainer Falle, hSp://bsix12.com/double-‐loop-‐learning/ 36


Organiza1on Structures

Organiza1on Culture

Leadership Styles

MODEL: Organiza1onal Sensing Lens to facilitate double-‐loop learning


The organiza1onal structures, rules and policies which facilitate how work gets done and how results get produced.

MODEL: Organiza1onal Sensing Lens


Collec1vely held beliefs, values and assump1ons which determine how people think and how they behave.



How leaders and managers lead, inspire, direct and mo1vate others.



Applying Double-‐Loop Learning: From Agile Team ‘Enablement’ to Agile Teams as Catalysts for

Organiza1onal Learning

Systemic Inquiry:

Agile Teams


Agile Enablement

Team

How might our thinking and leadership styles be impeding the capacity for effec@ve agile delivery, product development, and organiza@onal agility?

What assump@ons, collec@vely held beliefs, or percep@ons of our values are blocking our ability to imagine new ways of working?

What org. structures, rules, or policies, which once may have been needed, have now become boFlenecks to effec@ve agile delivery?


Category

-‐  Leadership?



-‐  Delivery

-‐  Execu1on


-‐  Challenge 2

-‐  Challenge 3

Exercise

Revisit your challenges: How might you apply this frame to one of the organizational challenges you are thinking about?

-‐  Organiza1onal structures

-‐  Organiza1onal culture

-‐  Leadership Styles


This constitutes a form of deep organizational sensing.


Now we want to say something about organizational responding.


A shiA from managing through direc1ng, mo1va1ng and coordina1ng people…

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People


Organizational Environment

… to managing through design of environments.

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People


Orienting organizational change is accomplished by exercising the notion of ecosystem design through… Designing Environments

‘Environments’ are: •  The structures, practices and processes by which we organize things •  The tools and technologies we use to get work done •  The way we arrange ourselves physically •  Collectively held beliefs and values •  The mental models and perspectives which determine how we see the

world •  The kinds of agreements we have within and between groups and

departments •  Dominant styles of management and leadership within the environment


Orienting organizational change is accomplished by exercising the notion of ecosystem design through… Designing Environments

‘Designing’ is: •  Setting up situations and circumstances that promote and invite particular

kinds of behaviors and actions •  Introducing structures, practices, and processes which empower and

enable people to find new and improved ways to work together •  Seeking out and inspiring those who are passionate and who are willing to

put their passion to work to further a greater cause •  Engaging others in a vision for a future and which inspires them to step

forward, but in the particular walk of life they are naturally already involved in. Then, create a supportive environment for them to make those steps.

•  Inspiring leaders at all levels and across all areas of the organization to step forward and self-organize toward the betterment of their environment


It can be helpful to use our organiza1onal sensing lens to orient our design thinking.

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Organiza1on Culture

Leadership Styles


A Simple Example:

We Reflect On and Improve How we Work through Retrospec1ves

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Photo provided under Creative Commons by Improve IT


Leadership Style


Organiza1on Culture

•  Leaders publicly reflect on their own successes and failures – and improving

•  Leaders demonstrate ac1ve learning

•  Structures support people gathering to reflect •  Team spaces •  Collabora1ve technology

•  It is safe to admit failures •  There is a constant drive for improvement


Org’l Environment

Probe-‐Sense-‐Respond Revisited

Systemic Inquiry:

Agile Teams


Agile Enablement

Team

How might our thinking and leadership styles be impeding the capacity for effec@ve agile delivery, product development, and organiza@onal agility?

What assump@ons, collec@vely held beliefs, or percep@ons of our values are blocking our ability to imagine new ways of working?

What org. structures, rules, or policies, which once may have been needed, have now become boFlenecks to effec@ve agile delivery?

Design Move


Such an approach to organizational management calls for something more than just tactical or strategic leadership.

It calls for catalytic leadership.



Complex The relationship between cause and





MODEL: Cataly1c Leadership From: Joyner & Josephs


•  Each level reflects a greater capacity to deal with complexity and rapid change.

•  Each level builds upon, but expands the range of mental and leadership capability over the levels below

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Three Levels of Leadership Agility*

Expert Achiever Catalyst

* Bill Joiner, Stephen Josephs, Leadership Agility: Five Levels of Mastery for Anticipating and Initiating Change.


Catalyst

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View of Leadership Agility in Pivotal Conversa@ons

Agility in Leading Teams

Agility in Leading Organiza@onal

Change

Visionary, facilitative orientation

Believes that leaders articulate an innovative, inspiring vision and bring together the right people to transform the vision into reality. Leaders empower others and actively facilitate their development.

Adept at balancing assertive and accommodating styles as needed in particular situations. Likely to articulate and question underlying assumptions. Genuinely interested in learning from divers viewpoints. Proactive in seeking and utilizing feedback.

Intent upon creating a highly participative team. Acts as team leader and facilitator. Models and seeks open exchange of views on difficult issues. Empowers direct reports. Uses team development as a vehicle for leadership development.

Organizational initiatives often include development of a culture that promotes teamwork, participation, and empowerment. Proactive engagement with diverse stakeholders reflects a belief that input increases the quality of decisions, not just buy-in.

From Bill Joiner, Stephen Josephs, Leadership Agility: Five Levels of Mastery for Anticipating and Initiating Change, p. 8.


“During the early 1980s, a series of academic studies produced statistically significant correlations, showing that the capacities managers develop at the more advanced stages carry over into the way they exercise leadership. These studies also found that, in the great majority of cases, catalytic managers are more effective than conventional managers.

Why? Because they are more strategic in their thinking, more collaborative, more proactive in seeking feedback, more effective in resolving conflicts, more active in developing subordinates, and more likely to redefine problems to capitalize on the connections between them.”

Correlation of Stages to Managerial Styles

Source: Bill Joiner, Stephen Josephs, Leadership Agility: Five Levels of Mastery for Anticipating and Initiating Change, pp. viii-ix

Correla1on of Stages to Management Styles


Given what you’ve learned in this extremely brief session, what might be some next actions or ideas?

Next Ac1on -‐  Meet with

___ -‐  Talk to Boss

-‐  TBD

-‐  Talk to VP PD

Exercise

Category

-‐  Leadership?



-‐  Delivery

-‐  Execu1on

-‐  Organiza1onal structures

-‐  Organiza1onal culture

-‐  Leadership Styles


-‐  Challenge 2

-‐  Challenge 3

Documents

OrganizaonalAgility: TheHiddenGoal(and …...(allow the path forward to reveal itself) -> Follow emergent practices: 1. Probe 2. Sense 3. Respond - But watch for command/control, imposing