My friend & colleague Michael McCalla posted the following advice on LinkedIn:
Am I oversimplifying?
Whenever organizations come to us inquiring about Enterprise (or Business) Agility adoption, here is our advice:
1. Start with a thin horizontal slice across different units of an organization in which people collaborate to deliver value. Call it a value stream if you want:)
2. Engage each layer (Individual Contributors, Teams, Middle Management, and Senior Leadership) for all impacted parties and involve them in the change. Call this a vertical slice if you like:)
3. Align on Outcomes and Metrics that you will use to measure the new way of working. Call this OKRs if you like:)
4. Define a set of principles that will guide our behaviors and the way we work (i.e. bake quality in at all steps, self-organizing teams, small batches, customer feedback, etc.)
5. Create Feedback Loops from those doing the work to those that can resolve systemic impediments. We call this “Manage Change as Real Work.”
6. Run small experiments and focus on quick wins.
I have found myself calling this Outcome-Oriented and Data-Driven Change.
It feels more natural to me than big transformation programs, and quite frankly I have had much more success with it. It gives all stakeholders “stake” in the game.
Make the metrics and impediments transparent to hold all parties accountable for the change.
Make the change continuous, not transformative. There is no end state, just a drive to always get better.
If you want to adopt a framework somewhere in there, be my guest, but in my experience, it is not necessary.
Feedback welcomed....
And Michael asked this question at the very beginning – Am I oversimplifying?
The answer, Michael, is NO you are NOT oversimplifying things. Instead, many of us are overcomplicating things.
Wrapping Up
I like this article. It reminds me of this one by Riina - https://rgalen.com/agile-training-news/2019/6/23/riina-on-transformational-leadership
Simple, direct, and spot on!
I love the simplicity, the clarity of thought, and the direct experience that Michael and Riina bring to the table. I wish there were more of it…
Stay agile my friends,
Bob.
And Michael has co-created a wonderful agile measurement platform called Lean Agile Intelligence. Check it out…
https://rgalen.com/agile-training-news/2018/2/3/recommending-lean-agile-intelligence