Business Agility: Leadership, Teams & the Work - Jude Horrill - AgileNZ 2017

theagilitycollective.com

Business agilityA new way of being, leading & working

Jude Horrill

Founder – The Agility Collective


Engagement Design - Agility Coaching - Lean Change - Communications

Speaker | Consultant | Coach | Facilitator

Founder @ The agility collective Founder & Director @ The Change Agency www.judehorrill.com

Jude HorrillConnect. Simplify. Change.

@judehorrill @123agility


THE

WHY

The Agility Collective


Because we are feeling…

Sense of urgency, loss of control, continuous change/disruption, anxiety



•Reduce Risk in constantly changing environments• ROI/cost on big projects• Time it takes for validation by customers

•Manage increasing complexity• Customers expecting instant response & multi channels• Needs are changing - Boomers ageing, Millennial’s growing

•Make faster, effective decisions

We need to…


•Manage a more fluid workplace (contingent workers)

•Engage a new generation of employees

…and

Lead with a new mindset

to become capable of responding and adapting

in dynamic environments

We need to…


This model no longer works

Control

Command


Our new networked reality1. You, not your organisation, are at the center of your network.

2. Multiple influences reduce the relative impact of any one source … and you choose.

3. Information flows in multiple directions.

4. Connections in yournetwork are unpredictable and fluid, re-forming assituations change.



Drivers: New path to influence

Traditional

• Organisational control• One way information flow• Company drives messages• Structured around channel• Siloed• Hierarchical• Measure of success = Acceptance

Agile / Networked

• Greater individual control• Networked information flow• Individual creates own messages • Individual has choice• Collaborative• Connected• Measure of success = Active

support



EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT


Agility…our people are central to value creation

LeadershipDirection

Manager

Employee

Employee

LeadershipDirection

Manager

Peer

Peer

Peer

Peer

Employee agility

Object of change Driver of change

Employee responsiveness


Employee drivers for value creation & agility

1. Personal connectionUnderstand what action team must take & the link between their work and organisational success

2. Peer learningPeer support and idea sharing, & what my peers are doing to improve their performance

3. Environment / market contextUnderstand strategic intent, and organisational risks & opportunities

The Agility CollectiveThe Agility Collective


Employee drivers for value creation & agility

4. Organisational encouragementTo try new things, find new solutions to problems, and develop my own ideas

5. Confidence in leadershipTrust in leaders to make the right decisions, align purpose and values, and to listen to the people and the system of work.



WHATshould leadership look like?



Leadership: current thinking

A leader’s job is to anticipate the future, to identify the trends that will affect their organization, and to guide and inspire people to move toward a better reality.

Today more than ever, this job requires leaders to grasp the rapid rate of change in the business world and to build an organisation that’s capable of continually adapting.

- Nancy Duarte & Patti Sanchez, Duarte Inc. 17 Feb, 2016

“



New reality: Leadership mindset is now …

• Self leadership

• Decentralised and Distributed

• Agile and Adaptable

• Facilitator and Enabler

• Co-creator and Ideator

• Collaborative and Interactive

• Ecosystem mindset



New Organisation MindsetOLD

Organisation = organism mindset

• Network is inside the building

• Bounded entity, complete unto itself

• Siloed, non-questioning

• Slow to adapt

• Stuck with old DNA while world outside changes, recombines, evolves

NEW

Organisation = ecosystem mindset

• Network is also outside the building

• Part of a wider ecosystem

• Interactive, always asking “is our network working?”

• Fast to adopt and adapt

• Able to absorb, react and transform


Agile means leaders need to…• Foster a safe environment, with equal voice, where people are

willing to do the unexpected and challenge the norm

• Courageously unlearn command and control management practices

• Embrace change and continuous improvement…the learning organisation = business agility

• Role model new behaviours

• Nurture culture through aligned values

‘Leadership as a service’



Most value comes from…Mindset and culture NOT from agile practices

DOING AGILE BEING AGILE

PRACTICES MINDSET

Ability to manage changing priorities Customer delightImproved visibility Workplace happinessIncreased productivity Employee engagementImproved quality Innovation, CreativityReduced risk Continuous learning

The Agility Collective@Michael Sahota


The agile

environment

ChosenCollaborative

ConnectedVisible

FluidRelevant



THE

HOW



…the smartest person in the room is the room David Weinberger – Too Big to Know: Rethinking Knowledge Now That the Facts Aren't the Facts, Experts Are Everywhere, and the Smartest Person in the Room Is the Room

“

An agile leaders mindset recognises…



Agile starts with mindset

Behaviours that enable the agile mindset:

•Respect for the worth of every person

•Truth in every communication

•Transparency of all data, actions, and decisions

•Trust that each person will support the team

•Collaboration in team and goal commitment


Principles behind Agile

• To satisfy the customer is the highest priority

• Self-organising teams deliver the best outcomes

• People must work together daily

• Deliver outcomes frequently

• Face-to-face is the most efficient and effective communication


Principles behind Agile

• Simplicity is essential…limit work in progress

• Outcomes are the primary measure of progress not outputs e.g. customer delight vs new product feature

• Team reflects regularly on how to become more effective and adjusts behaviour - the retrospective.



The agile working

style

Connected

Co-created

Feedback driven

Experimental

Visible

Non-linear

CO

NN

EC

T

CO

MM

UN

ICA

TE

CREATESIMPLIFY EXPERIMENT

SHARE



As agile mindset and processes enter management mainstream, organisations are learning how to draw on the full talents of those doing the work, involve customers at every stage of product development and so generate innovations that customers value.

- Steve Denning, May 22 2017

“


Key Concepts

•Agile is based on empiricism – evidence, as discovered in experiments

•We use the word ‘experiment’ to describe work that is uncertain

•Experiments have a ‘hypothesis’ to test our understanding - this is a key metric



Key Concepts

•Work (in an experiment) is sliced as small as possible so it can be delivered quickly to a customer to be tested

• If it matches what we expected, the hypothesis, it is accepted and delivered or ‘done’ - if it does not it is rejected

•Small improvements are delivered quickly, rather then big ones slowly



In other words, agile is…

The ability to slice work into increments that is the minimum required, to satisfy a piece of ‘done’ work …so it can quickly be validated or rejected by customers.

Customer feedback is used to inform the next iteration.


The customer is directly involved in the work

Which removes risk

…associated with lengthy planning, staging, project management, production, testing, then delivery …

in an uncertain and changing environment.


Summary

WHOLE OF BUSINESS AGILITY CANREDUCE UNCERTAINTY AND RISK


LEADERSHIP IMPACT



The focus on leadership is shifted, affecting 3 organisational domains…

Thinking

Design

Engagement



In other words

HOW THE WORK GETS DONE


Organisational thinking

Strategy & alignment

Agile strategy = Strategic Intent

High-level intent, aligned to purpose

• The what we seek to achieve …and why

•Not ...what to do and how to do it

•Operational details are added as it moves down the chain

•Greater detail is added at the final stages, giving the ability to respond to changing needs.



Planning & decision making

Agile leadership:

• Is shifted from telling people what to do, to making sure the intent is being carried out

• Removes impediments

• Creates trust, alignment and systems to support fast ‘iterations’ of work

• Seeks to constantly improve delivery of services and products to customers, throughout the system.

‘Manage the system not the people’The Agility Collective


Accounting and measurement

New metrics will be required

• Budgeting e.g. CapEx and OpEx may need to change from those required for big, long term projects, to support smaller faster ones

• Change from Return On Investment to Cost of Delay i.e. the cost of not doing something, versus potential future value.



Organisational design

•How do we structure ourselves?

• Includes Corporate Centre i.e. redesigning HR, Finance, Risk, Governance, and Marketing functions

• Some roles are embedded in a lean/agile environment e.g. Project & change management, communications, employee engagement

• Building cross functional ‘line of business’ teams



Organisational engagement

•How we do the work – Agile ‘doing’

•Change ‘management’ moves to lean

•Communication is everyone's responsibility

•Collaboration is everyone’s responsibility



Organisational engagement

•High visibility of decision-making

•Planning and decision making is collaborative and performed by the team – it happens where the work is done

•The style of work is visible so that anyone can see it, offer feedback, or act as input to another team.



Transparency – increases clarity and collaboration Empowerment – increases autonomy and self

organisation Focus – increases productivity/ outcomes



From silos to collaboration

At the heart of agile

Powers collective ideas

Accelerates learning

Helps build for meaning



Summary

BUSINESS AGILITY REQUIRES STRATEGIC RE-ALIGNMENT

ACROSS THESE THREE CORE DOMAINS


BRINGING IT ALL TOGETHER


Business agility

Helps deal with complexity Requires new leadership Creates shared purpose Builds a collaborative workforceAligns values Manages riskEnables innovation Improves workplace happiness

and …delivers CUSTOMER DELIGHT

Start a new way of being, leading and working tomorrow “


One Degreeof Influence:170 Contacts

Two Degrees of Influence:25,400 Contacts

Three Degrees of Influence:2,145,900 Contacts

Source: N.A. Christakis and J.H. Fowler (2009), Connected; LinkedIn; Communications

Executive Council research.

A single individual can have huge

influence in a network

Be the leader who inspires others to

join you on your business agility quest

You are the change catalyst


PREPARE TO BE

DISRUPTED


Many businesses are only now coming to terms with disruption, and responding through new ways of working.


The old disruptors


The new disruptors


The tsunami of change about to hit us will make the last 20 years of disruption look like a water feature.


Thanks for listening

Business Agility: Leadership, Teams & the Work - Jude Horrill - AgileNZ 2017

Presentations & Public Speaking

Transcript of Business Agility: Leadership, Teams & the Work - Jude Horrill - AgileNZ 2017