Change Management

Lessons for managing change learned from applying agile mindset in large organizations.

Agile coach Yuri Maalishenko gives an Agile transformation talk focused at the organizational level in this video. Packed with well-detailed visuals, it notes that executives are the principal influencers of change and are often biased by the fact that change is seen as a one-off action. However, he clarifies that this is not the case as the company is usually bombarded by dynamic external events that cause many static Agile transformation efforts to fail. He urges that change should be implemented in steps with a dynamic strategy through the interactive delivery process to achieve customer and organizational value. Check the video webinar to hear more of his insights on the change as a product.

A look at how agile has gotten adopted throughout industry, where it is situated now and where we can expect it to go from here.

Basing on Agile adoption data across different industries collected around the globe, the article proves that agile is not dead as some people perceive. It is actually in its early stages and people are still learning how to do it better - some have even moved forward into more advanced methodologies. This article explores the reasons attributing to the perception that Agile is dead and the preferred way to run your Agile or non-Agile project through the chasm curve.

In 1985 the Ford Motor Company was in deep financial trouble, and bet 3 Billion dollars (not adjusted for inflation) in a new revolutionary way of working to create its last resort.

Ford's futuristic car, the Taurus was the most revolutionary-looking car on the market in the 1980s. It was something new in the American Automotive industry. However, when Ford was rolling out the Taurus, it was on the brink of collapse and the fate of the company was in the hands of the Taurus. The company was on the verge of going bankrupt as some described it was facing a ''financial disaster of epic proportions'' due to the influx of poorly designed and high energy-consuming cars it had in the market. The Ford Taurus was the last throw of the dice for the company. The automobile actually hit the market late but when it was put on sale, it was a blockbuster and netted a million in sales per year saving the company and entire American automotive industry.

Steps to build and sustain change in a systemic fashion using the A.D.K.A.R Model on top of the Scrum Framework.

Many organizations face a challenge identifying a real purpose for change, outside the desire to gain productivity without much effort. Umar Farook shares things the organization can do to achieve balance in the act of sustained improvement. With a focus on the Scrum Master as an agent for change, the author elaborates on how to co-create a safe workplace that instills growth behavior and where people can grow empirically.

A holistic and human-centric approach that enables organizations to succeed today and thrive tomorrow.

Transformation has become a continuous state for most organizations. Leaders must move beyond short-term fixes to envision a compelling future, exchanging the expedient and prescribed set of change actions to an approach that enables execution and innovation to occur simultaneously. This article by BCG shows how to ensure that you: 1) Envision the future and focus on the big rocks; 2) Inspire and empower your people; and 3) Execute and innovate with agility.

How to generate collective responsibility and accountability for service delivery and customer satisfaction.

Changing the culture isn’t a pre-requisite of Kanban, it should be part of the emergent outcome from practicing Kanban. The value gained, depth and maturity of your Kanban implementation will be constrained by your ability to embrace tolerance of failure, through thoughtful, patient, scientific inquiry and the ability of your workforce regardless of pay grade to feel safe making acts of leadership. Ultimately, there needs to be collective responsibility and accountability for service delivery and customer satisfaction, if you are to reach the highest levels of Kanban and reap its benefits.

A look at how to think about organizational change, how to start the process, and how to involve those impacted.

How do we go about producing organizational change? Esther Derby shares her experience in how to get the conversations started, how to prepare the individuals for the change process, how to measure the change effort, how to keep the momentum going, and how to deal with the possible sense of loss. Agile retrospectives are specially important, since changes at the team level will reflect impact on the organization.

Research indicating long-term change is most effective when it occurs over a series of smaller microchanges.

Executives from the digital research company Infosys, explain three micro-change techniques that helped the company make a large scale adoption framework during their multi-year transformation and in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. Based on this experience, they also did a survey on 1000 global cooperate leaders to figure out how the top companies got their people to transition and adapt to the new change induced by the pandemic. They found out that micro-changes were also pivoting these companies to drive their large and lasting transformations amid the pandemic leveraging the three key techniques. Learn more about these techniques in this text to drive successful changes in your organization.

The case study of Penta Technologies, a construction software company that witnessed a six-month cultural transformation from a siloed environment to one with greater agility.

After years of operation under a siloed environment, Penta Technologies, a construction software company realized that the frequency of delivery was slow and inconsistent and there was a complete disconnect between creating value and doing work. They needed a cultural transformation to enhance agility as a profitable software business. The case study outlines the company's agile transformation journey co-led by the President, the CEO, and COO Laura Handerson. Their vision was to stabilize and scale the business through a move to the Scrum framework.

Comparing the EFQM excellence model to the OKR goal management framework.

Rob Davies delivers the first part of his OKR and other frameworks series exploring how the Objective Key Results framework is akin to and differs from the EFQM framework. We learn how the European Foundation for Quality Management model was founded, the history behind it, and its benefits and relationship with OKRs. Dive into the article to learn more about these two frameworks.

If a transformation is really agile, does it fail due to culture or due to lack of understanding about this change process?

One of the key elements of any agile transformation is adaptation of the plan when new insights are gained or when new circumstances present themselves. Sjors Meekels challenges that when things are not going according to plan, you should ask yourself whether it is really the transformation that is failing or something else. Is there enough understanding about this change process, the required organizational capabilities, or the skills needed in shaping this process? Perhaps all that is needed is to adjust the plan.

Four strategies for leaders to apply into their organizations to thrive amid constant change.

The future is nothing but a mystery. We don't know how it will be until it unfolds. The outcome could be in your favor or sometimes the odds could shift against you. So what does this mean for organizations? Should you prepare them for these future outcomes? YES! April Rinne in this article notes that the future is engulfed by constant changes that organizations should always be prepared for to thrive. She gives four steps leaders should adopt to position their organizations ready to survive constant changes and adds that reacting when the change hits, is not viable.

Taking a look at the dark and sad aspects of agile transformations, as they experience downsides and negatively affect business along the journey.

Agile coach and worldwide consultant Anton Zotin makes an informative video conference on "Why you should not start an agile transformation" noting that when making an Agile transformation you're at times in limbo if it will deliver value and people might not want to leave their status quo thus the change might not be effective.

Learn 4 Gamification techniques leveraged by organizations for ultimate performance and successful transformations.

Playing games is exciting, gamers are always motivated and eager to proceed to the next step. They gain psychological gratification and interest to improve their performance to pass even more difficult levels. Organizations have found ways to mirror the gaming world techniques in their environment to trigger motivation and boost personal performance, teamwork, and attain successful transformations.

A successful transformation entails understanding the players' desires, mindset, and involving them in the process.

It's important to consider the desires (heart), the mindset (brain), and the contribution (hands) of stakeholders during a transformation. These elements precede each other and are key to attaining a successful transformation. The heart powers emotions that people cannot intellectually control, while the brain commands people to actively do something. Whereas hands make people do things against their will. Transformations that turn a blind eye to these elements end up failing.

An in-depth explanation of the 3 major Objectives and Key Results (OKRs), that leaders can leverage to achieve successful Agile transformations.

Transforming an organization's traditional culture is a hard task as people are resistant to change. But what can you leverage as the leader to help the organization become Agile? Erik Cottrell in this text shares his knowledge of OKRs to leaders explaining how they can use 3 major OKRs to mitigate Agile transformation failures.

Five key insights into the true nature of change, in order to create profound and transformational change.

Organizations stumble to implement change picturing it as a controllable process that takes a series of phases to transform from the status quo to the desired state. This interpretation sums up what we call "Planned change" and is undermined by factors such as "Resistance" - a force deemed to affect managers and employees equally. However, Niels Pflaeging reiterates change in this text as a "Profound transformation" that involves constant flipping of the current system to a new state, backed by 5 key insights about the true nature of change.

A detailed explanation of the key thing that creates resistance during an organizational agile transformation, how resistance hinders the organization's agile change, and the best way to eliminate it.

Organizations face resistance during an agile transformation from managers, employees, and stakeholders. But what creates the resistance and what is the best strategy to eliminate it? This article explains some of the wrong patterns used by leaders during an agile transformation that promote resistance, and the perfect way to overcome it by involving everyone in the change. It details that agile is not about pushing change onto people, but inviting them in using pull success patterns.

What constitutes to most agile transformation failures in an organization? A dive into behavior change to understand why.

The habits practiced by an organization determine its effectiveness to implement change. Organizations under agile-like approaches "doing agile'', are easier to transcend to agile while it's harder for those that live by the name agile only. Anthony Murphy in this text, uses analogies like the "onion agile" concept to explain how behavioral change hinders most agile transformations in organizations, and why the Fogg behavior model is key to eliminating this barrier.

Accelerating agile transformation by leveraging polarities and converging on the business agility third wave of agile.

SAFe sells the illusion you can radically change without leaving your comfort zone.

Some important ways organizations should consider in the hard side of change project management to make a successful transition.

Often as organizations strive to make a successful change, they face a handful of drawbacks such as resistance to change by the workers, lack of patience by the executives, and not putting in enough effort. As a result, making the transition becomes a steep slope to climb. In this article, we learn what is change project management and how to mitigate difficulties that exist in the hard side of it, using ways proposed in a classic Harvard Business Review article. Sian Dodd adds a checklist of 4 ways organizations can leverage to ensure change success.