This document discusses how managers can better lead in complex environments using agile principles. It introduces agile concepts like value delivery, continuous learning, and self-organizing teams. It also discusses how most "agile" approaches today overly focus on processes and technology instead of the dimensions of flow, complexity, and people. True agility requires aligning assumptions, culture, artifacts, and processes with a complexity mindset.

1. Managers, Complexity
and Agile
Andrea Provaglio
Agile Organizational Coach
@andreaprovaglio

2. I assist executives, managers
and teams in knowledge-based
organizations in implementing
better ways of doing business
in the 21st century.
In over 20 years I worked with
multinationals and small
companies in three continents
and I had a U.S. work visa for
“extraordinary abilities in
Sciences”.
Welcome

3. Manage changing priorities
Deliver quickly
Stay competitive, innovate
Reduce costs and increase
quality
Meet Bob

4. Thinker-Doer Thinker-Doer
Thinker-
-Doer
Craftsman Economy Creative Economy
Industrial Economy
Micro markets Macro markets Global markets
19th-20th century 20th-21th century< 18th century
Credits: Niels Pflaeging

5. Cynefin
by Dave Snowden
COMPLEX COMPLICATED
Enabling Constraints
Emergent Practices
Governing Constraints
Good Practices
probe-sense-respond sense-analyze-respond
OBVIOUSCHAOTIC
Rigid Constraints
Best Practices
Absence of Constraints
Novel Practices
act-sense-respond sense-categorize-respond

6. Markets are Complex

7. Organizations are
Complex

8. People are Complex

9. Cumtomer needs are
Complex

10. "When we make much more money
from success than we lose from failure,
then we should be willing to invest in
opportunities that have considerably
less than a 50 percent chance of
success.”
-- “Flow” by Donald G. Reinertsen

11. S. Somasegar “We are getting away from 2 years,
3 years, 4 years, 5 years to design,
build, test and then deliver a
product.
We live in a world of high levels of
agility.
Being able to build, measure, learn;
being able to get on a faster
cadence and a faster loop where we
can deliver value more frequently.”Microsoft VP
Developer Division

12. “You must use the agile
approach to project
management to build and run
government digital services.
[…] Agile methods encourage
teams to build quickly, test
what they’ve built and iterate
their work based on regular
feedback.”
Service Manual,Agile Delivery
Introduction
https://www.gov.uk/service-manual/agile-delivery/agile-government-services-introduction

13. Most “Agile” is Antique
Overly focused on processes and ICT
(and affected by widespread misconceptions and
superficial knowledge)

14. “By taking people out of their
functional silos and putting
them in self-managed and
customer-focused
multidisciplinary teams, the
agile approach is not only
accelerating profitable growth
but also helping to create a
new generation of skilled
general managers.”
May 2016 issue

15. Agile (Scrum) application fields:
- create new radio programming (US
National Public Radio)
- develop new machines (John Deere)
- produce fighter jets (Saab)
- marketing (Intronis, cloud backup
services)
- HR (C.H. Robinson, global logistics
provider)
May 2016 issue

16. Today
Agile
Disciplines and Dimensions
PEOPLE
FLOW
COMPLEXITY

17. Agile
Disciplines and Dimensions
FLOW
Understand Value
Deliver Value Constantly
Visualize intellectual work
Optimize the Value stream

18. Agile
Disciplines and Dimensions
COMPLEXITY
Experiment constantly
Learn constantly from results
Explore options

19. Agile
Disciplines and Dimensions
PEOPLE
Self-managing teams
Organic Leadership
Collective Intelligence
Motivated Individuals
Non-conventional
organizational structures

20. A Complicated mindset
in a Complex domain

21. ASSUMPTIONS
CULTURE
ARTIFACTS
PROCESSESThese are of
little use…
if you don’t align
all of these!

22. by VersionOne

23. by VersionOne

24. Courage

25. Courage to challenge
your own assumptions

26. Courage to decide
before understanding

27. Courage to embrace a
Complexity mindset

28. Courage to practice
modern Leadership

29. Agile is Business in
Complexity

30. New managers think in
terms of Value, Flow,
Complexity, People

31. New managers challenge
their own assumptions

32. This takes deliberate intent,
hands-on practice,
sustained effort and skilled,
reliable support

33. Bob :-)

34. Want to Talk?
provagl.io/linkedin
provagl.io/twitter
provagl.io/contact
Click on
the links!