How To Do Agile Right

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Agile teams believe that customer feedback is better than management hunches for determining which innovation efforts are most important and how best to adapt them.’

Agile teams do not use sprints to make people work harder or faster. They use sprints to get faster feedback real customers (external and internal) about what those customers truly value.’

‘Creating an agile enterprise requires balancing and integrating operations with innovation.’

‘The best way to manage the transition to an agile enterprise is to manage it like any other agile team.’

Effective agile programs adapt to empirical feedback about inputs, activities, outputs, outcomes, and purposes. Few organizations currently have sufficient data to assess their present level of agility or their progress in improving it.’

Teams in an agile enterprise must make decisions quickly. Agile leadership teams can support quick decision making by being inclusive, overcommunicating, coaching, and building learning loops.’

‘Contrary to the popular myth, planning is an essential part of agile. Planning, budgeting, and reviewing must work together in frequent, adaptive cycles.’

Continuously revisit your talent strategy, recognizing that while you will need some new talent, most of the people in your organization are already there.’

Persistent, cross-functional agile teams are the best ways to improve business processes and technology. As teams gain experience and trust with operators, their development capabilities increase and adoption rates accelerate.’

Pace yourself to create pull and build momentum. The sequenced plan needs to include all the elements of the operating model- accountabilities and decision rights, management system, leadership and culture, talent practices, and the like.’

Source

Darrell Rigby, Sarah Elk, and Steve Berez (2020). Doing Agile Right: Transformation Without Chaos

How To Make Your Reorganization Work For You

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Question whether the reorganization is worth doing at all: are the benefits worth the costs (including the human cost) and risks?’

You should expect your reorganization to take longer if the organization is bigger, if you plan to bring in a lot of external talent to fill roles, or if you operate in countries with more legal requirements.’

‘Make a wider announcement to the organization, focused on what is happening, why, how long it will take, and when they will hear more.’

‘In reality, paper plans never work out exactly the way you intend. Do not think your reorg will be perfect (it never is), and be prepared to make course corrections.’

Start by defining the elements of the current organization that you want to test, with input from experts across the organization.’

Make sure that you understand the drivers of performance gaps– in particular, the activities that drive people costs.’

‘Determine the most powerful way of sharing the findings of your diagnostic with the leadership of the company (e.g., through a gallary walk rather than a straightforward presentation.’

Remember to focus on people and processes as much as, or more than, structure.’

‘Decide whether you should take a top-down or bottom-up approach to reorganization.’

Use the collective wisdom in your organization. You should hold brainstorming meetings with the staff closest to the action to generate ideas for improvements.’

Decide how you want to implement the changes: e.g., layer by layer, function by function, or all at once.’

Source

Stephen Heidari-Robinson and Suzanne Heywood (2016). Reorg: How to Get it Right