Models and Frameworks

Exposing the reality of work at Spotify, as a failure/learning report intended for change agents to see the challenges and the opportunities for growth.

Let's put aside the 'bubblegum and unicorns' of the Spotify Engineering Culture videos and talk about what doesn't quite work at Spotify, and how we're trying to solve it. Joakim Sundén (who was an agile coach at Spotify headquarters from 2011 to 2017) presents a failure/learning report intended for coaches and other change agents who need encouragement that it's always hard AND it's always possible to improve.

The principles of Agile 2 - the self-proclaimed "Next Generation of Agile".

The article describes the proclaimed next-generation of Agile principles. The authors further list the problems and insights discovered during their retrospective on the state of Agile and the ensuing discussions when coming to a consensus on these principles. As we have highlighted some of them in the takeaways, the principles teach us about what to expect in Agile 2.0. Check the article for more insights about each principle, the corresponding problem, and the key roles that Agile will be playing to solve them.

How to identify when agile tools and practices are being adopted without deploying them with the accompanying mindset.

Agile senior contributor Steve Denning explains Fake Agile. It follows a request by a major corporation to give a talk on the topic describing what it is, how to identify it, and how to deal with it. He argues that the term “agile” is often thrown around without any agreement on its meaning and being applied to firms, or parts of firms, that have no substantive claim to any agility. Surveys by Deloitte and McKinsey show that more than 90% of senior executives give high priority to becoming agile, while less than 10% see their firm as currently highly agile. Based on his past research, Steve suggests that Real Agile is achieved by organizations embodying a mindset with three main laws: the "Law of the Customer", the "Law of the Small Team", and the "Law of the Network".

Find out why attempting to standardize a single method of Agile practice across your organization could be slowing everyone down.

Knowing the power of self-organization, frameworks, and best practices can be very useful. But staying open to solutions that are different is more important than standardizing one framework in the organization. An Agile framework that works for one department may not automatically work for all other departments. As such, rather than having a universal process for all departments within the organization, allow tailored processes for each department(s) as required. Check the article to find out more about the risk of adopting a one-size-fits-all approach and the role of leadership when implementing Agile frameworks.

Introducing an iterative innovation process focused on the creation of value and the priorities of the organization.

Jose Cabrera introduces an iterative innovation process that is being adopted by new generation companies within the current age of technology to survive the uncertainties it poses and accelerate their growth. He alleges that the world is moving exponentially while company structures remain very linear thus creating a dynamic environment for organizations. As a result, he suggests that stakeholders need new mental models to build and lead organizations in this world of accelerated changes, new organizational structures capable of interacting with the new reality, and new systemic models for change, in order to allow the transformation of the entire organization.

Outlining a framework to handle the rapid pace of change by managing the Survive Channel and the Thrive Channel.

In the post-pandemic period, organizations are adapting to the new changes made during the pandemic. Such as leveraging social tools like zoom to interact with their teams and clients. However, how are the companies dealing with this major transition? Here, we learn the two-channel systems coded into humans that are usually in response during times of rapid change and uncertainty. The Survive Channel, which is activated by threats and leads to feelings of fear, anxiety, and stress; and the Thrive Channel, which is activated by opportunities and is associated with feelings of excitement, passion, and joy.

Understanding how cultural management impacts agile approaches in an organization.

Does managerial culture influence agile approaches? Johanna Rothman, a managerial consultant, summarizes a Twitter thread about perspective and non-perspective agile approaches in this article to explain how managers (and the culture they uphold) impact agile transformations in an organization. Organizations live by either Theory X or the Theory Y of management, however, irrespective of the method used, most agile transformations fail! WHY? Johanna adds that for any agile approach to work, managerial culture has to change first.

A simple model to explain Agile in a nutshell with an anchored visualization, with visible items and some below the surface.