Ignition team - creating agile companies
- 1. Agile on the Beach Creating Agile Organisations Robert McGarry www.ignition-team.com
- 2. My vision is a world populated with Agile Organisations Why does this matter? What do I mean by that? How have I done it? What would an Agile Organisation look like? www.ignition-team.com
- 3. Why Agility matters? • All organisations face continuous change. • External and Internal influences drive the need for organisations to continuously adapt: • External Influences: Competitive threats, globalisation, legislative changes • Internal Influences: SLA changes, business goals, increased productivity targets, reduced costs. • To adapt in required timescales and succeed organisations need to be agile. • Becoming agile isn‟t the „end‟ it‟s a „means‟. www.ignition-team.com
- 4. What do I mean by Agile? I‟ve recently taken up road cycle racing… it‟s agile www.ignition-team.com
- 5. What do I mean by Agile? I define Agility as the ability of an organisation (even an amateur cycle team) to: • sense an opportunity or threat, • prioritise its potential responses, and • act efficiently and effectively. In my experience what distinguishes the most successful organisations is that they are excellent at all three activities and that they can do them quickly. www.ignition-team.com
- 6. What do I mean by sensing? Sensing: • An agile organisation excels at recognising opportunities & threats. • It is attentive to the world outside its “four walls” (its customers‟ demands, its competitors‟ capabilities, its macro-economic environment, etc.). • It makes its own performance visible throughout the organisation. Questions: 1. Is sensing a managed activity? (i.e. made explicit & documented) 2. Is it hierarchical? (i.e. for a department, higher management and other departments are part of its „outside world‟) 3. Does it include internal self-awareness review / analysis, leading to self- improvement? www.ignition-team.com
- 7. What do I mean by prioritising? Prioritising: • An agile organisation has a clear purpose, effectively communicated and widely understood by its people. • The organisation‟s destination is known and the organisation‟s entire population is aware of priorities at all levels. • All the organisation‟s people use this joined-up set of goals to choose the best next action in any circumstance. Questions: 1. What is the interface with sensing and prioritising? 2. Is prioritisation a hierarchically managed activity? 3. Does it include monitoring of outcomes? 4. How is conflict / disagreement resolved? 5. How is „joined-up thinking‟ supported? …possible top-level concept? www.ignition-team.com
- 8. What do I mean by acting? Acting: • Agility culminates in appropriate action – people executing play their part exceptionally well and adapting their activity quickly as business needs change Questions: 1. Is there Scrum-like activities involved? 2. Are business processes documented? …if so, where and by whom? 3. Should the appropriate use of support technology be mentioned explicitly? 4. Is compensation expected if sensing and/or prioritisation are weak? www.ignition-team.com
- 9. How to create an Organisation Agile? Measure it then transform it www.ignition-team.com
- 10. Measuring Agility Aware Organised Productive Oblivious Chaotic Unproductive Ability to SENSE Ability to Prioritise Ability to ACT. information & Objectives & People, Processess Organisation Type Measurement Satrategy & Technology L L L OCU - Inert H L L ACU L H L OOU H H L AOU H L H ACP – Bad Busy, without strategy L H H OOP – Bad Busy, without sense L L H OCP H H H AOP – Successful/Agile Analysis Design Implementation Knowing what Knowing how to Being able to do to do do it it www.ignition-team.com
- 11. What we look for? Check for the evidence of people‟s behaviour Showcases “Execution Process” Backlogs Learing from the Past “Sensing Process” Requirements/Tests Business Priorities Understood Act Continious action Gap Analysis Daily Stand-ups Knowing how things are connected Sense Sales Team Feedback Coping with internal struggles Getting top-bottom buy-in Internal Sensing Win/Loss Feedback Removing the barriers to change The Agile The ability to get Mixing existing with emerging Delivery Team Feedback Organisation stuff done Resolving the conflict between what's good for me and what's Team Morale Checks good for the company Customer Feedback Cutting costs and generating External Sensing revenue Competitor Analysis Prioritise Identify New Inititatives Industry Analysts Evaluate Alternatives “Prioritisation Market Research Chose Initiatives Process” Implementation Planing Ranked Business Priorities How long will it take Previous Project History RoI Historical Data What will make the most money Organisational Measurement and Trends What will make money quickest Consider What excites us most Internal Cost Metrics Investment/Return Simple 80/20 measurement is key Can we wait www.ignition-team.com
- 12. The Agile Space By measuring an organisation‟s abilities to Sense, Prioritise and Act, we can place them in the Agile Space www.ignition-team.com
- 13. How Agile is the Organisation? Overall SMT Sales Marketing Operations HR Admin www.ignition-team.com
- 14. How Agile is the Organisation? Can this be an agile organisation? SMT Sales Marketing Operations HR Admin www.ignition-team.com
- 15. How Agile is the Organisation? Can this be an agile organisation? Is this the best we can do? SMT Sales Marketing Operations HR Admin www.ignition-team.com
- 16. How to create an Organisation Agile? Measure it then transform it www.ignition-team.com
- 17. Pain! I think there are two types of pain: • Genuine pain – something‟s broken, stop doing what your doing because you are making it worse • Imagined pain – stop what your doing because it‟s difficult Clearly Schleck, Contador and Wiggins are in pain, www.ignition-team.com but yet they don‟t stop! Why?
- 18. Why continue through the pain? Because there‟s a prize to win! I believe that competition is the motivation! www.ignition-team.com
- 19. Agility & Getting Agile • Creates clarity • Brings innovation through competition • Enables rapid & iterative implementation www.ignition-team.com
- 20. HotHousing • We use HotHousing to kick-start all sort of business activities. • It is an agile project in it‟s self: • Two or more cross functional teams • There are 3 iterations, each a day long • It is time boxed • There stand-ups and daily showcases (present- backs) • It is intense, competitive yet collaborative, orchestrated and facilitated by us and the output is judged on a daily basis by customer executives and sponsors. • A HotHouse is high impact event, exhaustive, great fun and highly motivational which sets the trajectory for the project delivery or business initiative. www.ignition-team.com
- 21. Why HotHousing Agile works (again) A HotHouse can: • get agreement on the strategic direction • prioritise a project portfolio • delivery of a website • development of a product • definition of a business process • resolution of a business dilemma • generation of ideas • select a vendor www.ignition-team.com
- 22. HotHousingHotHouse Day 1 Formation Day 2 Evolution Day 3 Resolution Review Mobilise Understand Understand Design Design Demo Collaboration Collaboration Realisation Realisation www.ignition-team.com
- 23. HotHousing Formation Evolution Resolution Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Understand Understand Understand Design Design Design Demo Demo Demo Collaboration Collaboration Collaboration Realisation Realisation Realisation Outcomes • Focused deep insight • Return on Investment statement • Delivery plan and dependencies to make it happen • Visualisation - prototype of solution / concept • Broad organisational buy-in • Momentum to get started www.ignition-team.com
- 24. What does an Agile Organisation look like? www.ignition-team.com
- 25. Agile in Action Case Studies www.ignition-team.com