The Agility Series

(originally posted on LinkedIn)

It's Sunday morning, and as I am apt to do on weekends while drinking my morning coffee, I spend the first hour or so wandering through Facebook, LinkedIn  and Twitter seeing what my connections have been up to over the past few days.   This morning I saw a post on Facebook by a old friend of mine on the definition of coddiwomple.

Ever had that moment where you see a description of something or you a come across a word that succinctly summarizes something for you?

Coddiwomple is one of those words for me. For those who have read my recent book on Organizational Agility or my Adaptive Strategy Framework Guide or my first book Agile Value Delivery: Beyond the Numbers, attended any of our webinars, read any of my previous posts, or is an member of my LinkedIn group know that I write a lot about uncertainty and the fact we live in a VUCA world.

Living in a VUCA world means that we cannot use the past to predict the future  which is a basic assumption behind most strategic planning exercises that try to lay out a vision for the next 3-5 years. Couple this with the fact that our window of opportunity is now often measured in months not years and that is by windows of stability that are  measured in weeks instead of months, leaders of every organizational size and in every sector are challenged more that ever to learn how to be adaptive. They need to learn to base their decision-making on what they and their people do next based on what know today they did not know last month or even last week.

Does that mean that strategy execution is now a crap-shoot?  No. What it does mean is that we can no longer assume that we can simply make a plan and work the plan. It  means leaders and their teams  need to do strategic iteration as opposed to strategic planning as I describe in my Adaptive Strategy Framework Guide.

Being able to prioritize what you and your teams do next means you need to have some sort of destination in mind, a vision of the future. This  enables you to move towards that destination, however vague it may be, in a purposeful manner.

By taking an adaptive approach to how you realize strategic goals and objectives also means that you may in fact end up at a slightly different destination that what you originally envisioned. And that's ok as it will be where you need to be, which is not necessarily where you intended to be. Being where you intended to be as opposed to where you need to be is failure - it means you executed to a strategic goal where all the signs along the way meant you were going in the wrong direction, yet you and your teams chose to ignore the signs anyway.

So, as a leader, can you coddiwomple?

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How to contact me:

1. Send me an e-mail directly
2. Follow me on Twitter: @cooperlk99
3. Connect to The Agility Series Webinar Channel

Want to engage me and my friends:

1. Check out our LinkedIn Group
2. Check out our learning portal: www.MPlaza.ca - lots of free stuff plus some great courses on Scrum  and PRINE2 Agile. Go get The Adaptive Strategy Guide and Organizational Agility while you are there - both are FREE.
3. We provide coaching and mentoring in Agile and Scrum for public and private sector clients. Contact me for more details
4. We also offer classroom training  for Scrum.org courses plus other agile and Scrum training (http://bssnexus.com/education/)

(First published at https://www.linkedin.com/groups/8539263)

There's a great HBR article on "The Secret History of Agile Innovation" written by Jeff Surtherland (Scrum co-author) and Hirotaka Takeuchi ( “The New New Product Development Game”) - it started with Walter Shewhart and P-D-C-A in the 1930's which W. Edwards Denning took to Japan where it became  the Toyota Production System.  It's a great read (and what we have been teaching as part of the origins of Agile thinking in our courses for the past 4 years). You can read it here  https://hbr.org/2016/04/the-secret-history-of-agile-innovation.

They start the article with:

"You hear a lot about “agile innovation” these days. Teams using agile methods get things done faster than teams using traditional processes. They keep customers happier. They enjoy their work more. Agile has indisputably transformed software development, and many experts believe it is now poised to expand far beyond IT.

Ironically, that’s where it began — outside of IT."

This article is proof we are on to something with The Agility Series where we want to engage in conversations about beyond IT. In a way we will be helping take agility back to its roots.

With Leadership Agility as the next topic we plan to address in the series, here's my question for you:

If you could pose one powerful question of any leader whom you respected as an agile leader to get a better sense of what makes them that way, what would you ask?

To get you started, here's mine:

Which traditional leadership tendencies did you find to be the hardest ones to overcome in order for you to transition to someone who is now viewed as a person to emulate as an agile leader?

Let the conversation begin.

Yours in agility,

Larry Cooper

(First published on LinkedIN)

As some of you already know we have launched The Agility Series which will include eBooks (Organizational Agility is set launch in the next few weeks), guides, webinars, posts, a LinkedIn group, and soon tools as well. One of the recent members of our LinkedIn group asked me to tell him more about the 9 types of agility.

But before I do that a bit of a back story. Last year I was the lead author on a book called Agile Value Delivery: Beyond the Numbers which we were lucky enough to have endorsed by a co-author of The Manifesto for Agile Software Development. At the same time as I was writing that one I was also acting as the mentor for the PRINCE2 Agile (my pic and bio is just below that of the lead author - quite an honor) and was working on creating an Agile for Executives and Leaders course.

As I was laying out the course I felt the need to take a different approach than simply writing yet another executive overview of Scrum or basic agile the way most have done (there is value in those as well, I just wanted something different). Our book  had talked about Value agility and we also had a section on the implications of agile thinking on the rest of an organization with a particular emphasis on HR and Finance. So as I started writing the course I started to think about the 'rest of the organization' part. So that's where 8 of the 9 types came from which were then introduced in that course. The 9th type of agility came about while working with my friends at www.GreatWork.io and with our first wisdom council for the soon to be released Organizational Agility eBook. One of our council members, Claude Emond identified Learning Agility as a missing type so it was added to the list.

So, here are the 9 types of agility with a (still forming) definition for each type:

1. Organizational Agility - Organizational Agility is what you get if the other eight types of agility are present. While that statement is true, what is also true is that how we define our organization through mission, vision, values, and  principles statements determines the organization that we get. While Mission and vision are specific to each organization,  values and principles statements can be more universal. For example think the Manifesto for Agile Software Development is applicable in any organization that does software development. The manifesto’s values and principles statements are  not specific to any single organization. So is, we believe, with the values and  principles of an agile organizations—there are some statements that have a universal applicability to them.
2. Leadership Agility - will focus on helping leaders understand the differences between the traditional model and the one required to lead an agile organization in an ambiguous an uncertain world (will be tackled next)
3. Cultural Agility - focuses on the culture of our organization while recognizing current contexts such as the five generations in the work force, the importance of diversity, as well as our values and principles. This supports the ‘who’ aspect of  delivery as well as the environment we want to create for success. We will be adding a tool very soon to our learning portal that focuses on the creating high-performing teams in support of cultural agility.
4. Strategic Agility -focuses on ensuring we have unity in leadership and remain sensitive to emergent understanding as we execute against our strategic goals such that we can reallocate our people and resources as needed. This establishes the why of things. We have already released a companion guide for this one.
5. Value Agility - focuses on prioritizing and incrementally delivering value through individual product deliveries that are in line with an organization’s strategic objectives and key stakeholder needs. This establishes the what and when
6. Delivery Agility - focuses on making the right choices in each part of delivery to support the established priorities for value delivery. This establishes the how, who, and where
7. Business Agility - focuses on improving efficiency and effectiveness in current business operations. This serves to both validate the value that has been delivered and also identifies new opportunities for creating value
8. Client/Customer Agility - focuses on how we can create and maintain a shared understanding on the “why” question throughout delivery. It takes an outside-in view of the organization and why it does things - to satisfy customer needs
9. Learning Agility - focuses on the people in your an organization and adopts the perspective of hiring people who have a growth mindset over a fixed mindset which means hiring to behaviours versus only hiring to skill. Hiring the behaviours which support your values and principles is a leading indicator of how well people will mesh into your culture. As an organization is a reflection of its people, if you want an agile organization t

As The Agility Series is still being written (both literally and figuratively) it remains to be seen whether we will stop at the 9 types or not as we don't know what will emerge from the work ahead. It also remains to be seen what the exact definitions will be for each type - the above is just our starting point.

So if you have not done so already, please come join the conversation - who knows, you might identify a new type that we need to add to our list. You will also have the opportunity to shape the currently remaining 8 types.

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How to contact me:

1. Send me an e-mail directly : Larry. [email protected]
2. Follow me on Twitter: @cooperlk99
3. Connect to The Agility Series Webinar Channel

Image source: http://www.jasonstapleton.com/the-power-of-principle/

(originally published on LinkedIn)

People are, well people. We do like recognition. It's a human sort of thing. We all stand a little straighter and sound a little more confident when we are recognized for the good work we do. It's a natural reaction. The only question is the form that the rewards will take.

If you subscribe to Scientific Management Theory of Frederick Taylor the answer would be to reward the pocketbook. That works well with mostly manual types of work. The trouble with the theory beyond manual work is that knowledge workers have a different set of motivators and this is especially true with the new workforce. There are three factors in play.
 
First, we need to recognize the changing demographics of the workforce – the new workforce doesn’t have the same motivators as prior ones. This new generation of workers tend to hate hierarchies and will often seek out less hierarchical organizations – sometimes for less money or for less perceived upward mobility. Traditional hierarchies are the complete antithesis of what motivates them.
 
Second, we need to recognize the shift that values collective intelligence over individual intelligence –the smartest organizations are now the ones that know how to aggregate and leverage their collective intelligence by designing organizations not as top-down hierarchies but as powerful collaborative networks.
 
Third we need to change the performance and compensation systems – as the shift to valuing collective intelligence over individual intelligence and the manifesting of collaborative networks takes shape, performance and compensation systems will also need to be replaced by ones that support the new motivators and drivers of the modern workforce – and surprise, it isn’t just monetary.
 
People want a sense of belonging, of being valued, of feeling like they are making a difference – for them principles matter. A recent survey found that “83% of employees said recognition for contributions is more fulfilling than any rewards and gifts” and “71% said the most meaningful recognition they have received had no dollar Value” (see: http://badgeville.com/announcements/study-on-employee-engagement-finds-70-of-workers-don%E2%80%99t-need-monetary-rewards-to-feel )
 
Jurgen Appelo’s Management 3.0 talks about using Kudo Cards to recognize people. To quote Appelo:
 
“There is a constant need for organizations to give thank-yous for jobs well done, small tokens of appreciation, a written memory of when your coworker made you laugh so hard you spat coffee, or a recognition of just stellar teamwork. But it’s the recognition of valued work, not financial incentives, that encourages intrinsic motivation within an organization.”
 
So reward principles – not pocketbooks if you want high-performing teams!

The Adaptive Strategy Framework is officially out on ProjectManagement.com - the live webinar attracted over 1200 attendees - I am truly humbled. 

Using The Adaptive Strategy Framework

We help leaders share intent,

for their people to solve holistic messes,

while networked teams proceed through uncertainty

To find out what it's all about look for the webinar to be posted in the next day under Webinars/On-Demand. 

To get a copy of the Framework itself head on over to our learning portal at www.MPlaza.ca - there's a link right on the main page. And best of all? It's free! 

We also announced that the first eBook in The Agility Series is nearing its final stages and will also be launched soon. And guess what? It'll be free too! Be watching your Inboxes for a webinar to coincide with the book launch. 

Yours in agility,

Larry