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Hendrik Esser
Director, Portfolio & Technology Management
@HendrikEsser
Supporting Agile Adoption

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Hendrik Esser | © Ericsson AB 2014 | 2014-10-22 | Page 2

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Hendrik Esser | © Ericsson AB 2014 | 2014-10-22 | Page 4
Why did our agile transition succeed?

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Hendrik Esser | © Ericsson AB 2014 | 2014-10-22 | Page 5
Our transition
People
Practices Processes
Structures
1
2
3
“Our process is not good enough”
“No Silos + Our structures need to support the way we work”
“Oops! Almost forgot something!”

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Hendrik Esser | © Ericsson AB 2014 | 2014-10-22 | Page 6
Our transition: changes
People
Practices Processes
Structures
1
2
3
Scrum
Kanban
Uncertainty Management
New Organization
New roles
New Governance
Wanted culture
Leadership mindset
Recruitment of leaders

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Insight: We have addressed the (whole?) “System”

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Manage / Lead The company as a System?

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From Systems Thinking to Complex Adaptive Systems

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The Learning Organization
Peter Senge, The fifth discipline
Systems Thinking
Team Learning
Shared Vision
Mental Models
Personal Mastery
Real World
Decision
Results
Decision Rules
Mental Model

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Hendrik Esser | © Ericsson AB 2014 | 2014-10-22 | Page 11
Cynefin
Dave Snowden, HBR Article, Nov 2007
SIMPLE
COMPLICATED
COMPLEX
CHAOTIC
sense-categorize-respond
sense-analyze-respond
probe-sense-respond
act-sense-respond
DISORDER
best practice
good practice
emergent practice
novel practice

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How could we (Leaders) make use of this, practically

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How could we identify our next experiment?
respond

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Understand the organization as a complex adaptive system
Lead by vision + setting/managing constraints (continuously)
Need to (continuously) align mental models to achieve a shared vision
Evolving an organization

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Constraints
People
Practices Processes
Structures
1
2
3

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Constraints
People
Processes
Structures
Behavior
Capabilities
Interdependencies

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Hendrik Esser | © Ericsson AB 2014 | 2014-10-22 | Page 18
Basic procedure
Develop a hypothesis on how the System works, explaining the observed phenomena (Discussion  mental model alignment)
Decide what changes you want to trigger towards constraints (next experiment) (Discussion  shared vision)
Observe the emerging system outcomes/response. (narratives, observations, …)

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Hendrik Esser | © Ericsson AB 2014 | 2014-10-22 | Page 19
The tool
Processes
Structures
Behavior
Capabilities
Vision/ desired state

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The tool
Processes
Structures
Behavior
Capabilities
Vision/ desired state
Behavior
Mindset/attitude Values
Competence Skills # people
Hidden talent
Processes Practices Tools
Habits
Organization Governance Remuneration Roles
(Informal) networks

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Development Project
MS
Observation: Classic Projects
Product Management
MS
MS
MS
Test
Study
Implement
Study
Implement
Study
Implement
Study
Implement
Study
Implement
Study
Implement

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Hendrik Esser | © Ericsson AB 2014 | 2014-10-22 | Page 23
Things, that are impossible:
Key Insight
The Problem of
Planning and Committing
Correctly predict what the customers need
Correctly predict how long it will take to develop it

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(Many clever people)

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Mindset shift To Accept uncertainty Embrace Change

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Hendrik Esser | © Ericsson AB 2014 | 2014-10-22 | Page 26
Processes
Structures
Behavior
Capabilities
Deal with uncertainty
Behavior
Mindset/attitude Values
Competence Skills # people
Hidden talent
Processes Practices Tools
Habits
Organization Governance Remuneration Roles
(Informal) networks

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Hendrik Esser | © Ericsson AB 2014 | 2014-10-22 | Page 27
To embrace change and deal with uncertainty:
›
What desired behaviors do people in your organization need to show?
›
What are undesired behaviors?
15 Minutes in teams of 5-7 people
Workshop 1: Behavior and attitude

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Workshop 2: Capabilities, Processes, Structures
To embrace change and deal with uncertainty:
Which processes/practices support the desired behaviors?
Which structures support the desired behaviors and processes?
What capabilities need to be developed?
20 Minutes in teams

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Processes
Structures
Behavior
Capabilities
Manage Uncertainty
Communicate
Make uncertainty visible
Accept, that uncertainty is always there
Share views and insights
Speak up when you see something unexpected
React constructively on surprises
Show and discuss uncertainty in governance meetings
Frequent meetings to digest updates/new insights
Distributed planning on different levels
Iterative development  feedback loop
Communication structure
Manage expectations  anticipate expectations and address them
Translate uncertainty into realistic expectations (customers, internal stakeholders)

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Analyze/understand issues/problems/impediments
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Propose system solutions to issues/problems/impediments
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Propose system changes to achieve a goal/target/vision
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Follow-up on made implemented system changes
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Adapt to a changed goal/target/vision
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…
use cases

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