Organizational Transformation

How to grow individuals out of a job description that is rigid, constrained and lacks empowerment.

An in-depth analysis of defining jobs and roles in organizations by Jeff Anderson. The writer walks us through the traditional approaches to roles and jobs noting that they don't allow self-organization - as they lead to rigidity, constrain, and lack of empowerment in the workplace. He further pinpoints that we can however define roles and jobs in an Agile organization without undermining self-organization to create a borderless workplace where employees focus on getting to the outcome rather than creating deliverables, specialists train and mentor others, and leaders step in to help when necessary.

Three practices that when modeled by a leader will shape the culture you want the organization to move towards.

Culture can be changed intentionally, and leaders from all levels can shape the organization with the practices they do with teams. In this online meetup Ronica Roth covers three practices that, when modeled by a leader, have a big impact on those around you - and will eventually move the organization towards the culture you desire. These three practices are: 1) Facilitate open and honest discussions; 2) Help people plan to learn; and 3) Express appreciation to make values real through storytelling.

Contrasting having a few coaches set the tone for many others or having dedicated coaches embedded in teams.

This whitepaper extensively talks about Agile coaching with the key focus on decentralized and centralized coaching. It states that there is a frequent misunderstanding with respect to the definition of agile coaching: coaching focus (e.g. enterprise vs. team) is confused with coaching alignment (centralized vs. decentralized) within an organization. We learn that centralized coaching is basically a distinct organization driving transformation across the entire organization while decentralized coaching is a less rigidly structured team of like-minded coaches that align themselves with a clearly defined product, service, or line of the business. Read the whitepaper now to draw the difference between centralized coaching and decentralized coaching, know the benefits of decentralized coaching, and generally gain a deeper insight into Agile coaching.

A scientific investigation of a model tested on both small-scale and large-scale organizations to determine the success factors for agile transformations.

What really attributes to a successful agile transformation? Christiaan Verwijs in this post summarizes a scientific investigation carried by Daniel Russo, a professor at the University of Aalborg, about the key factors that give agile transformations traction. The research is based on a model tested on a single organization and then on a large-scale sample for generalization. The results indicate that Scrum masters and other factors explained in the article, contribute to successful agile transformations.

Addressing changes to both leadership and management processes in order to integrate self-regulating and value-based controls systems and become more adaptive.

Bjarte Bogsnes leads this presentation on Beyond Budgeting explaining what it is, and why businesses need it using a roundabout and a traffic system analogy. Through the presentation, he also talks about the traditional management practice that majorly hinders business agility and introduces Beyond Budgeting citing it is the key to achieving a true organizational Agile transformation. It involves changing and addressing both leadership and management processes in a coherent, consistent way in order to become more adaptive. Let's click the button now to learn about Bjarte's knowledge of the Beyond Budgeting process and much more about organizational management.

Exploring the different requirements for collaboration in agile transformations when they are complex and complicated efforts.

Jay Stanton Goldstein figures out the answer to the dilemma of whether Agile coaches could actually team up and work on a project. He describes how he joined a large agile consulting company working on agile transformations within a major US insurance company and he suggested to his coach to join forces with the other lead coaches of the value streams. However, the coach noted that agile coaches are way too much of divas to be able to work together. Read the article for more insights and understand why agile ways of working are a particularly good approach for the "VUCA" world we inhabit--a Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, and Ambiguous one.

If you want a Product Puppet, then don't do Scrum.

Roadmaps are an easy litmus test to assess the stage the organization is at in their Agile journey and what you will be up against.

Thoughts and views on ways of implementing new change efforts in organizations.

‎An introduction to Lean Change Management.

A conversation with Jason Little, author of the Lean Change Management book. Lean Change Management advocates that any change plan has to be described as a set of assumptions and that the change agents, change stakeholders and change recipients are responsible for validating those assumptions using explicit hypotheses. Validated learning is learning from data measured in experiments.

Companies must pay as much attention to the hard side of change management as they do to the soft aspects. By rigorously focusing on four critical elements, they can stack the odds in favor of success.

A look at the possible stages of development in a scrum adoption journey.

Some organizations are completely tied to the traditional processes simply because they have mastered the system over time. Embracing and mastering Scrum is also the ultimate weapon against poor teamwork and bad results in an organization. Scrum promotes cross-functional teams and positions organizations towards becoming truly Agile. However, the process does not take the flip of a switch. Learn what is Scrum transformation and what is required for organizations to make it through the journey. From the nascent stage of Scrum transformation "Technical Scrum'', to "Organizational Scrum'' in this text.

The analogy between playing Chess and Agile transformation

Transforming an organization from its planned-approach system to full agility is a process that has many challenges. Most organizations end up backing out from the journey. But, just like playing Chess, Agile transformation takes time to master. Tristan Libersat in this article mirrors Chess to Agile transformation giving tips on how the game relates and teaches us about Agile transformation.

Steering away from the Agile Industrial Complex by identifying negative anti-patterns and adopting healthy patterns.

Have you ever asked yourself why most Agile transformations fail in organizations? Even after a successful start of the journey to change from a planned approach system to an Agile setting, a couple of organizations don't make it to the finish line. This is a result of countless setbacks that spur amid the transition. But where do they really go wrong? The article explains anti-patterns leveraged by leaders to implement change that trigger fear and resistance in the employees and in the end hinder the whole transformation process. You will also learn some of the patterns like motivating your employees that shed light on successful transformations.

What agile transformation really means and the steps required to transition your non-agile status quo to an effective agile culture.

Christine Thompson, an agile coach, narrates leaving her former organization to help a new company transition to agile. The change prompts her to reflect on what is really agile transformation and why implementing it in an organization is hard? In the text, she leverages credible agile sources like the Michael Sahota book and concludes that most organizations only "adopt agile" and get trapped in a non-agile world thinking they have transitioned to an agile culture. She notes that a transition of a whole organization takes every stakeholder, including management, and involves basic adoption, team agility, and organizational agility.