The deck shares our journey towards an agile, adaptable, selfsufficient organisation of about 100 people, and where we took our ideas from.

1. Alexander Birke, @AlexBirke
Philipp von Bentivegni @PvonB
Munich, March 21, 2019

2. 2Copyright © 2019 Accenture All rights reserved.
I admit…
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I am an Agilist and work for one of
these big consultancies.

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Why have big consultancies often problems to
guide their clients towards an agile organization?
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Can big consultancies deliver Agile transformations?
Jurgen Appelo, Source: LinkedIn November 2019, URL: https://bit.ly/2RGHnon

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To do that check YOUR stag of cultural evolution.
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Confirmist / Role-Driven (amber)
Achievement / result-driven (orange)
Evolutionary / Purpose-driven (teal)
Pluralistic / Relationship-driven (green)
See Frederic Laloux, Reinventing Organizations

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A couple of things we would like to discuss with
you …
WHAT WE WILL DO
How real „agile“ or adaptable org structures can
look like
How to create teams in an agile organization?
How to steer and guide
…and “our” story ;-)
1
2
3
4

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Six people with the same purpose...
JOURNEY
starting to do something different.

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First try – FAILED and learned
JOURNEY

8. Decentralized and
distributed
leadership and
decision principles
Transparent and
defined flow of
requests
Flexible and
market-oriented
structures
Collaboration
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Our organisational Agile Base (envisioned principles)
JOURNEY

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One Word of Caution before we continue.
JOURNEY
Holacracy, Sociacracy … a lot of different and heavy frameworks!

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Circles as Pattern for
an Agile Organization
Structure
JOURNEY
direct value delivery
indirect value delivery
coordination
supportservices
business

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Coordination Circular Ring
▪ Contains elements that need
centralized decision-making
and consistency
▪ Includes all tasks to act and
communicate in common
and coordinated way on the
market (int./ext.)
A possible
Organization Structure
JOURNEY
OwnerAdmin Organisation
Strategy
Top Circle
See also Bernd Östereich et al, “Kollegiale
Unternehmensführung”

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Steering from a Strategy & Vision Circle.
DETAILED PATTERNS
Business model canvas.
Identifying and managing
of strategic relevant
aspects for running an
agile advisory business.

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Administration and Tooling:
Each circle has its Board
DETAILED PATTERNS
Kanban.
Organizing all
necessary back
office tasks in a
transparent and
efficient manner.

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Business Circular Ring
▪ Contains all circles with
direct value creation
▪ Value-added services are
producing instant effect the
customer is willing to pay for
Example from our Living
Agility Organization
Structure
DETAILED PATTERNS
“PuCs”
VK OEK
SVK
Training
Account circles,
client is sponsor

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(Support) Service Circular Ring
▪ Contains all indirect value
creation circles to enable
business with the focus on
synergies or support skills
▪ Centralization of specific
skills to use expert
knowledge in an efficient and
scalable manner
Example from our Living
Agility Organization
Structure
DETAILED PATTERNS
Training
Account circles,
client is sponsor
Living
Circles
Assets / PE /
Innovation
PR /
Marketing
Market
Maker
People
Advisory
“PuCs”
VK OEK
SVK

16. Confluence
Snapshots
Exemplary Circles
DETAILED PATTERNS

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Our Synchronization
DETAILED PATTERNS
Fact/emotional
check-in
Recurring
Topics
What matters
here?
Everything
else
Each
Person
Check-In Checklist
Relevant
Metrics
Project
Updates
Popcorn
Agenda

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It is all about people: Regular in person
meetings on a “Peoples’ Konvent”.
JOURNEY

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Who does not honor the experiment will
never become an Agilist
DEVELOPMENT
Vision: We scale Agile
to Enterprises
Themes:
Epics: Strategic targets
for 6 months
User Stories: Experiments

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Organizational Chart v3
(Rationale)
CURRENT EVOLUTION STEPS
Agilists structure
organizations based on
value streams or customer
journeys, we do this
through end-2-end life
cycles that we want to
support.
STEWARD
CIRCLE
CUSTOMER
ENGAGEMENTsPRODUCTS
+ SERVICES
EMPLOYEE COMMUNITY

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Growth concept for us: sociocratic “Team of
Teams”
CURRENT EVOLUTION STEPS
Dynamic team layer of small
teams connected via dedicated
members and steered via a
sociacratic “Top Circle”
See McCrystal, “Team of Teams”

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Selection of main patterns we have used
SUM UP
Using a flow-supporting
tooling system (e.g. flow
metrics, recruiting Kanban)
Making decisions that are value / objective
based (Epic Value Statement, Value Definition)
Setting the organizational frame with Circles
using accountables, responsibles and
Connectors (Backbone vs Circles)
I&A I&A
I
P
I&A
I
P
Using a planning process that is
cadenced, integrative and uses reviews
Inspiring Vision to work for, e.g. vision statement
and CI
Strategy validation using Business
Model Canvas via Lean Startup
Hypothesis
Using Scrum/Kanban as working und
community model (e.g. Trainer Circle)

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Now, we are progressing to a
purpose-driven unit.
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Exotics / 10% Slack Time / Entrepreneurs / First Mover

24. 27
What we used and where to learn more…
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All cover pictures © by amazon.de