Agile transformation

Organizing Agile

Our current day and age demands from organizations a strong capacity to adapt, renew and even completely reinvent themselves. In some cases this means saying goodbye to ideas about management, hierarchy, or even efficiency. And embracing new ways of thinking, working and organizing.

By putting Agile into practice we seek to establish a sustainable behavioral- and mindset change. This means it is insufficient to only apply specific techniques or frameworks: it requires bringing change to individuals, teams and organizations at a deeper level. To make this happen we help organizations undertake what is called an Agile transformation. In this transformation we work together to ensure long-term sustainable change by focusing on both the ‘soft’ and the ‘hard’ side of Agile organization. Our approach is characterized by curiosity, non-conformity, and courage. We deploy all our skills from the worlds of change management, coaching, team development and our knowledge as authors of ‘Scrum in Action’ and ‘Agile HR’.

We see the elements below: network organization, stable teams, inspired employees and customer value as integral parts of Agile organization. All solutions can be used separately , but when using them together as part of an Agile transformation, the effects are compounded.

Customer Value

Customer value is the only true judge of whether an organization is relevant. Only organizations that really succeed in putting the customer’s wishes first, in all work, and at all levels of the organization will endure. This is easier said than done, it puts serious demands on your people, ways of working, and your strategy. Asking customer feedback in frequently and in an early stage of product development requires a change in mindset that is anything but simple. New ways of working will help you, but sustainably putting the customer first in everything you do, is a change that requires time.

The following solutions contribute directly to focusing on customer value: Agile KPIs, Agile Marketing, Design Thinking

Engaged people

We believe that everyone can be a change agent. Everyone van have insights, experiences, or ideas that can help improve an organization. This does not mean that everyone needs to study change management in detail; the point is simply to better use the existing human potential.This means that people should be higher on the agenda, the top priority at the highest level of all organizations. Not just as employees, colleagues or ‘resources’. This is the very reason that Joshua Kerievsky made ‘Make people awesome’ one of the centerpieces of Modern Agile. We subscribe to this vision.

The following solutions directly contribute to inspired people: Agile HR

Stable teams

Many organizations use projects to work on new ideas and priorities. We form new groups for everything ranging from putting out fires, developing new products or running campaigns. Often these organizations struggle to deliver these projects on time and on budget.

Working in a stable teams means you have to let go of existing organization structures. It means we structure the organization in a way that supports teams to deliver their best work. In doing so teams can respond quickly to new opportunities and developments. They no longer briefly work on a project (or worse, many projects), but have a long term mission to create long term sustainable result. A team might for instance work on a specific product for a target audience. Preferably in close contact with the end-user and a high degree of autonomy. Such a way of working can only revolve around stable teams.

The following solutions contribute directly to stable teams: Self-organization, Scrum, Kanban, Agile Portfolio Management

Network Organization

In order to stay relevant in these volatile times organizations need to be able respond quickly to changes and continuously adapt to the situation and the (local) playing field. Key to this is being able to share information simply and rapidly and making it easy to make decision quickly. Organizations that succeed in doing so will quickly start to resemble a network, rather than a pyramid. Being able to respond to changes quickly is a key competitive advantage to any organization in out time, but there is more to it than that. How quickly an organization is able to reshape and adapt itself is what determines how successful it will be in new and challenging (local) circumstances.

The following solutions contribute directly to becoming a network organization: Scaling Agile