Lean Agile for

Leaders

Scott DownsVice President

Enterprise Agility AdvisoryTemenos+Agility

One person’s journey toward Lean-Agile

Where have I come from?❖ New York

❖ Chicago

❖ Tokyo

❖ London

❖ JPMorgan

❖ Citibank

❖ PA Consulting

❖ Capco

❖ Axialent

❖ nowhere

What kind of work have I done?

❖ Banker

❖ Chief operating officer

❖ Consultant

❖ Entrepreneur

❖ Helping leaders plan and execute a strategy

What challenges did we face?❖ How to become an investment bank

❖ How to weave technology and people

❖ How to streamline complex processes

❖ How to manage the balance of local and global

❖ How to to disrupt competitors

❖ How to focus on both customer and product

❖ How to move faster

What leadership principles did I work with?

❖ The leader’s job was to have a strategy and a plan

❖ The leader’s job was to see accurately far ahead

❖ We could help make the plan, but the leader was ultimately responsible

❖ The leader knows best

❖ The leader’s job is to control and direct

What leadership principles did I work with? continued…

❖ Success depended on setting medium-term goals and achieving them

❖ Success depends on locking people into their medium-term goals – that’s accountability!

❖ People’s most important relationship is with their boss

❖ Key values: foresight and control

How did we do?It seemed very hard to make progress

We felt overwhelmed by complexity

Sometimes we succeeded long-term

… sometimes not so much

Almost all the organisations are radically changed

We pretended we knew the answers, but we

almost never did

What have I learned?The most successful organisations are the ones who learn and change the fastest

❖ Being close to the customer

❖ Tapping the skills and insights of people

❖ … who do the work…

❖ … who know the customers …

❖ … and the products first hand

❖ Being intentional learners

Enter Lean and Agile❖ Cadence for working in short cycles

❖ Having a big vision … and …

❖ Delivering fast in small increments

❖ Constantly delivering value

❖ Learning fast, adapting fast - with the customer

❖ Releasing the creative power of great teams …

❖ Always getting better

Cadence and process are important…and …

bringing them to life requires a new way of being with people

Enter Temenos❖ Creating and holding safe containers

❖ Trusting each other

❖ Sharing deep truths

❖ Being humble and vulnerable

❖ Learning and co-creating together

❖ Including everyone

A new way of leading❖ No heroic leader can predict the future

❖ We need collective wisdom and learning

❖ We need patterns that help us deliver fast, learn fast

❖ These patterns only work when we value people

❖ This way is great humanity … and great business!