In the 21st century, organisations need to
● Put the customer in the centre of our focus
● Shed outdated ways of thinking
● Embrace an agile mindset
● Incorporate new ways of working
● Leverage the pace of change for competitive advantage
This talk explores what it means to be agile in a business context. It looks at the key elements needed, how they are interwoven and what is needed for organisations to transform their thinking and behaviour into new ways of working.
Business Agility is about putting the customer at the centre of the organization’s focus, changing from measuring activities to outcomes and creating an ecosystem which unleashes the productivity and innovation already present in the people in the organisation.
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Agenda
•Introduction
•The need for business agility
•What your organisation can do
•What you can do
•Wrap-up
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Business Agility
•Business agility describes the
nimbleness of a company; that is, the
ability to adapt quickly while
empowering everyone associated with
the brand.
•Forbes
•Agility is the ability of an organization to
renew itself, adapt, change quickly, and
succeed in a rapidly changing,
ambiguous, turbulent environment.
•McKinsey
http://theagiledirector.com/article/2017/05/25/domains-of-business-agility-v2/
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Why Business Agility
The World today is in a state of VUCA
“A rapidly evolving, dynamic, chaotic
complex business environment is the
norm rather than the exception”
David Sypnieski
• Rate of change
Volatility
• Unclear about future
outcomesUncertainty
• Many, many loosely related
factors impact outcomesComplexity
• Lack of clarity about
meaningAmbiguity
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Business Agility is Necessary for Survival
The ability to respond rapidly to changes
in the internal and external environment
without losing sight of organisational
goals
•Adaptability
•Flexibility
•Balance
Building responsiveness and change
into the DNA of the organisation
Change Your Organisation
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State of Business Agility
State of Business Agility Report – 2017 – CA Technologies
Changed Imperatives
• Leadership at every levelTop-down
management
• Do less, betterDo more with less
• Minimum viable process,
empowered people
Process over people
• Realtime value metricsCentralized annual
planning & budgeting
• Decentralized rolling-wave
planning
Activity milestones
• Long lived teams responsible
for products or services
Temporary teams on
projects
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Organisations that have embraced Agile
have 3 core characteristics*
•The law of the small team
•The law of the customer
•The law of the network
*From an article by Steve Denning: http://www.forbes.com/sites/stevedenning/2016/09/08/explaining-
agile/#4415385e2ef7
Great Teams
https://rework.withgoogle.com/guides/understanding-team-effectiveness/steps/identify-dynamics-of-effective-teams/
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Measuring the Right Things
•Value as outcomes delivered, not as work done
•Productivity (Value/Cost to create Value)
•Benefits Realized
•Quality
•Customer and Employee Engagement &
Satisfaction
•Net Promoter Score
•Org Capability and Responsiveness
•How rapidly are we learning?
Beyond Budgeting – New Financial Models
Traditional Budgeting
Management Model
Beyond Budgeting
Management Model
Targets & rewards Incremental targets
Fixed incentives
Stretch goals
Relative targets & rewards
Planning & controls Fixed annual plans
Variance controls
Continuous planning
KPI’s & rolling forecasts
Resource &
coordination
Pre-allocated resources
Central co-ordination
Resources on demand
Dynamic coordination
Organisational
culture
Central control
Focus on managing
numbers
Local control of goals/plans
Focus on value creation
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Radical Transparency
Act on Feedback
•Truthfully and honestly examine
the feedback through all
channels
•What is the next sensible step –
amplify, change direction, or
stop?
•Adapt and respond
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Avoid Waste
Partially
done work
Extra
features
Relearning
HandoffsDelays
Task
switching
Defects
Rethink our Organizations
Respond at the speed of
change
Constantly listening to
the voice of the
customer
Empower and align our
people
People are not
“resources” or “assets”
– they are the primary
source of value and
innovation
Outcomes over outputs Value over busy
Innovation as a core
competency
#NoProjects,
#NoEstimates – stop
pretending we can
predict the
unpredictable and adopt
new funding models
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This means real changes,
not putting lipstick on a pig
http://thenewsdoctors.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/pig-lipstick.jpg
Change Yourself
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Become Customer Fanatical
•We all have customers
•Empathize and understand
their needs
•We all contribute to the
value stream
•How can I make my
customers’ lives better?
Think like an entrepreneur
•Everything is an experiment
•Estimates are hypotheses
•Take calculated risks
•Courage to fail in order to succeed sooner
•Welcome challenges
•Embrace uncertainty and transform into knowledge
•Learn continuously through fact-based data analysis
•Create time and space for experimentation and
innovation
•Become comfortable being uncomfortable
Source: IDEO
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Transform Yourself
•Personal transformation
is necessary in order to
achieve sustainable
organisational
transformation
•This is the responsibility
of everyone in the
organization, not just
those at the top
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20140714023453-85816712-the-difference-between-change-and-transformation
VUCA Revisited
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VUCA Revisited
•Vision
•The intent to create the future
•Understanding
•Learn, hear, feedback
•Clarity
•Sense making
•Agility
•The ability to respond to change
in order to profit in a turbulent
world
“A rapidly evolving, dynamic, chaotic complex
business environment is the norm rather than
the exception”
David Sypnieski
