Creating an Agile Organisation – three core ingredients!

In our current time if you are not thinking about creating an organisation that is agile, you may have a big problem.  The market and world is now changing at rates we have never experienced before.  The consequences can mean that if you need 12 months to project plan a deliverable … it had better not be too critical to your overall strategy as the whole world may have changed in that time.

Many organisations now use an Agile methodology with project planning which is great but it takes more than that to create an Agile Organisation. 

Agile Decision Making

If you stop and look at how decisions are made in your organisation would you say they are ‘agile’ or hierarchical?  Do decisions need to go through multiple layers prior to getting a yes or no?  Is decision making aligned with accountability?  Is decision making based on data you have today, or is it about waiting until you collect 100% of the data to make a decision?   

One of the best examples of agile decision making organisations can make is in times of crisis!  The organisation needs to make decisions based on what they know at that point in time.  They also ensure they have all the right decision markers around the ‘table’ to make quick decisions.  Information that is missing is quickly gathered.  Time-frames are managed and understood. Decisions are quickly made and enacted and modified as the impact becomes clear. We are not suggesting you need to create a time of crisis but to look at the key ingredients and replicate them in your daily business.

Agile Process

Would you describe your underlying processes as complex or simple?  This is a great place to start to look at the agility of your organisation to be able to change quickly.  All change requires a change in process.  If you have not had the time to stop and look at your processes, now would be a good time to do that.  Agile process also brings about greater efficiencies and reduces cost to your organisation that is often hidden.  As process is simplified this further supports your organisation to bring about change more rapidly.

We can’t emphasise enough, the requirement to focus on simplification of process.   

Agile Culture

Often we get asked … How do you create an Agile culture?  Well one of the ways is to communicate clearly to your people and then just start!   One thing about an agile culture is that you start and you evolve as you build.  If we waited until everything was perfect before we started we would never get anywhere!

The usual factors apply with building any form of culture:-

• Be clear about what you are doing
• Be clear about why you are doing it
• Be clear about everyone’s part in it
• Be clear about all the supporting components and levers you can pull to make it happen

It doesn’t stop there of course but if you can master these three you are off to a very good start!

Remember Albert Einstein said “Everything should be as simple as possible; but no simpler”

5 myths worth considering for business change

“Social Media is not for us!”

Social Media is for everyone whether you like it or not.  Just the like the old saying if you can’t beat them, then join them.  As an organisation these days you are playing Russian Roulette if you don’t have a strategy around Social Media.

Without a doubt social media is revolutionising the way business is being conducted.  It is impacting the world like nothing we have ever experienced before.  If you don’t have social media incorporated within your strategy, you have a major problem!  Your customer and client base are now interacting with you and your people constantly through social media.  Your employees and customers alike are talking online about what they do and don’t like about you.  Take the time out to Google your business name and see what comes up.  You have as much of a problem if people aren’t talking about you as if they are!  You need a strategy on Social Media.

“New Technology is the answer!” 

Well new technology might help but without a focus across the underlying process and supporting cultural change you will be in trouble.  It will be like a new toy that might look shiny and fun but if it is not embedded within an efficient process and a supporting culture, you will be in for trouble! 

So many times we see organisations that think their new technology is going to fix the world.  Often we find that new technology just hides an underlying problem.  So, with all due respect to the new technology, if you haven’t integrated all the other aspects it will end up costing you far more than your expected and you possibly won’t maximise its true capacity.

“We need to gather all the data before we start!”

This is often called Analysis Paralysis.  There is no better time to start than today!  We still witness organisations that spend months and months scrolling through data to work out what they might want to do in the future.  The world is changing so rapidly that by the time you finish going through all the data, it has probably changed again and you will need new data.

The world today no longer sits around and waits for projects 12 months out.  The world today is constantly changing and if you are not changing with it you have a problem.  Effective decision making is critical along with agile planning that can evolve with your business and the market you operate within.

“Why spend money on process!”

Because process is where you are hiding your inefficiencies.  It is often the underlying cause to escalating costs and the missing link that is often not considered when trying to transform organisations.

The best way to think of Process in your organisation is like DNA.  All these strands outline how you work.  Constantly we see organisations wanting to make transformational change, reduce cost and do things differently.  However rarely do we see the approach come via Process.  Process dictates how your organisation operates, efficiently or otherwise. 

In most cases we see that the approach is via new technology.  No they don’t want to touch the process just change the technology.  What do you think technology is?  It is just a faster way to complete a process.  Technology is part of your process!  It doesn’t matter what aspect of your business you decide to change, sitting underneath that will be a process.

If you truly want to be gain efficiencies, and create a more agile cost effective organisation …. Then trust us when we stay you absolutely need to be looking at your process!

“Change Management is part of the project”

No …. Change Management is your project!  It is literally how you will move from current state to future state.  It is not something that sits as part of the project, it wraps around the overall project.

Change Management done correctly should be one of the first things that is considered when beginning a new program of work, to almost the last thing completed.  Believe us when we say … get off to a bad start with no actual change management and it will be like walking up the side of an icy slope with skis on.  You might think you are climbing quickly forward, but you will be sliding backwards at a rate of knots. 

How you manage change will be the difference between embedding a sustainable solution or otherwise!

Systems Thinking is just the start ....

Systems thinking is a great start but systems planning and action is critical!

What do we mean by that?  Well we have spent years listening to and witnessing organisations talk about systems’ thinking but not taking this thinking and turning it into action.  We often hear talk about “breaking down of silo’s” or “working together across the organisation” but rarely see the sustainable action around this.  We see evidence time and time again that if a total system approach is not considered, your newly developed strategy or transformational change will be short lived.  Multiple upstream and downstream impacts will be overlooked and will cause the approach to be unsustainable.

So what do we mean by systems thinking versus systems planning and action?  Well it really is not one versus the other.  It is about understanding that whilst it is appropriate to think about whole systems- it is absolutely critical to plan and implement the new system from a total systems perspective.  Think about the system but ensure when you act you create it for the system and the system should create that which you are trying to transform. 

Some key points to remember when building, transforming or changing any form of system:-

1.     Remember a system is dynamic and continually interacting with its environment.  The solution should not only depict this, but your implementation plan should allow for the capability to manage our ever-changing environment.

2.     There are many different elements that make up a system and all should be accounted for and managed throughout the transition.  From a scientific perspective these are often seen as energy, material and informational elements.  From a business perspective these elements include but are not limited to things like the way you communicate, the hierarchy of decision making, and the way you operate both culturally as well as organisationally.

3.     Your system not only needs to be able to interact and manage within its own environment, but also be able to interact and manage within other environments also.  These impacts need to be worked through and managed dynamically as well.

4.     All systems work to find a point of equilibrium or balance, but will often experience oscillating and chaotic behaviour because of their very nature.  These systems are composed of people who are operating within their own systems that are oscillating also.  Therefore it is important to acknowledge this fact but even more important to plan for and act on.

So ... Great that you are thinking about the system but don’t forget to plan and then act on it!

A Quantum View of Change Management

Each year there are more and more views on the “right” way to carry out change management in organisations. For the last few centuries we have seen the Newtonian view of the world take centre stage. This is viewing the business as a machine that can be separated into parts and managed accordingly.

More recently the systems thinking approach was developed. This approach sees the organisation as an entire system with many parts that make up the whole. Each part requires focus and attention and all parts are interdependent and cyclically linked.

We believe there is now an even broader and deeper perspective that needs to be considered. This is the Quantum multi-dimensional view of the world that takes the level of interconnectedness and interdependence to a much more critical level. Quantum physics has progressed the idea of interconnectedness over the last 80 years. It promotes a perspective or world view of seeing the whole (business) as an integrated, multidimensional and deeply interconnected organism. The impacts of this are profound and far reaching. Generally speaking you cannot separate an organism -a living creature - into many pieces and then put it back together hoping it all fits properly!

Using the Quantum view of the world we in fact need to move from our paradigm of linear thinking and cause and effect to one of multi dimensional interconnectedness - one where many dimensions are impacted instantaneously. When we look at change management in this light it is evident that change will need to be managed differently.

There are many papers and theories written on change management and it is well known that most change programs fail. A 20 year study of change programs shows that 10% of them have a negative impact on an organisation, 53% no impact and 37% a positive impact (UNSW, Managing Change,2009). When we take a quantum view of change management we can now begin to understand more fully why this has been happening.

Clients often ask us our view on the best time to bring in a change management strategy. The answer to this question is simple ... as soon as you think you want to change something you need to be working on the change management component. We often see major transformational programs take the Newtonian view, where they work in parts, often in isolation to each other. They work across a very linear project plan, which does not allow for flexibility of change as the environment changes.

Where systems thinking is already introduced in an organisation, we often see a far more integrated approach to change management. Generally though, change is still managed in a very linear fashion. There is often a set project plan that may cover all aspects of the change and this is essential. However once the change has been integrated and perhaps a review completed, the project team will leave, hoping that the embedding has worked. How often do we see that 12 months later the change has failed and people have reverted to the old way of doing things?

Taking a Quantum view all aspects of the change program would be managed together and dynamically. This would include reviewing and managing the total system the program was running within, as well as a review of the impact on people and culture. The program would be strongly supported with a governance structure that is dynamic and flexible and allows for rapid changes and decisions to be made to support the new system. In the past we would have seen days if not weeks go by before decisions could be made around change. By then everything has continued to move. What we highlight here is that not only does the change management need to be dynamic but all aspects related to the change do as well. This includes such things as governance and decision making.

Take the example of the delivery of a new process. The quantum approach would not only develop the process but would also assess, manage and monitor any impact on the people, culture and system it operates within. This approach takes in the total picture and as any environmental changes occur (as they tend to daily in businesses) these are also re-assessed as part of the whole. The system is dynamic and ensures rapid changes can be made as necessary without being cumbersome. If the change is not managed from a dynamic perspective we would find that the process that is embedded will not match the environment that it needs to operate within. This is why all elements need to be managed together.

We believe strong change management of the future will be those that can take a quantum view and have systems in place that support the multi-dimensional and interconnected nature of the business they are working within.