
Transparency, And Why Business Agility Will Not Work Without It
12/05/17 • 34 min
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How to Build and Execute a Strategy That Actually Works
"If from your strategy you can't identify anything that you would say no to, it's probably not a good strategy." - Karl Scotland Strategy Execution is Hard. Creating Strategy is Even Harder. Are you struggling with too many conflicting priorities? Constantly dealing with short-term unachievable targets that only send the whole team into a total burnout without any real result? You are not alone. Developing a strategy that leads to a successful execution is one of the biggest issues managers report to struggle with today. As revealed in a survey by PwC’s Strategy, which involved 2,800 executives from companies of various sizes, geographies, and industries, 82% of executives say that growth initiatives companies do commit to lead to at least partial waste. Converting strategic decisions into specific actions, allocating resources to support the success of the strategy, achieving an alignment of the day-to-day activities with the bigger objectives and strategic initiatives - all of these are the challenges managers and executives face every day. In this context, how can a leader build a successful strategy that would make sense at every level of business? Unfortunately, as stated in the same survey, almost half of the executives in question decided not to set a specific action at all - 49% stated their company has no list of strategic priorities. Is having no strategy really an answer? How to Build and Execute a Strategy to Get Real Results Today on Lean Agile Management Podcast, we are looking for a definitive answer to Lean-Agile strategy execution with Karl Scotland. Karl is a Strategy Deployment expert and a professional Lean and Agile consultant, who helped clients like BBC, Yahoo, Cisco, and others. In this episode: How to create an end-to-end alignment of tasks, tactics, initiatives, and strategy? How to give autonomy while avoiding a total chaos and unpredictability in execution? How to use feedback to prevent second-guessing, deadly misunderstandings and unalignment? Who is responsible for creating the strategy? What, who and how comes up with the tactics and tasks? How to execute strategy with a focus on true business benefits? TASTE True North Aspirations Strategy Tactics Evidence Using Hoshin Kanri X matrics to visualize the strategy and related work Future backward exercise as a tool for breaking boxed thinking, draw out How get people to buy-into the strategic ideas? Continuous strategy and tactics adjustment and evaluation. How do we know our strategy is (not) working? Failure is absolutely necessary to a strategic success, Why everyone needs to learn to fail Further reading and mentioned resources: What is A3 problem-solving? Understanding Lean model of shared leadership Catchball as a tool for strategic feedback collection What is Hoshin Kanri X matrix? Free downloadable templates of X Matrix and A3's by Karl Scotland Book Recommendations by Karl Scotland: Good Strategy/Bad Strategy Playing to Win Art of Action Turn the Ship Around Future Backwards Guest Details: Twitter | LinkedIn | AvailAgility LAMP or (Lean Agile Management Podcast) is a show by Kanbanize where some of the brightest minds in Lean Agile management talk about how leaders can boost work efficiency, create a culture of high performance, and build teams that thrive. LAMP is available on YouTube and Apple Podcasts.
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Business Agility is not an option. It’s a matter of business survival.
“Business Agility is not an option. It’s a matter of business survival.” - Jose Casal Will your business be around in 10 years or will you be replaced by a newcomer? How long does it take for your business to deliver a new product from the idea to the market? If questions like these make you worried, it's probably time to talk about business agility. This time on Lean Agile Management Podcast, we are talking to Jose Casal, who is a Business Agility Coach with experience working in both private and public sectors. Jose is a public speaker, chairman of the Agile Methods Specialist Group at BCS Chartered Institute for IT and is the founder of Actineo Consulting. Business Agility is not an option. It’s a matter of business survival. In this episode: Understanding what Business Agility means in practical terms Flow & Fit for purpose Learning Impact People 3 Myths of Product Development vs 3 Facts of Agile Business Practices Myth: Customers know what they want. Fact: The customers discover what they want as they go Myth: We know how to build it. Fact: We only have an approximate idea of what we want to do. We don't know how we're going to deliver until you actually deliver. Myth: Nothing's going to change. Fact: Everything will change. We should be expecting change. Culture of Discovery and Learning The toxicity of "Follow me" culture vs discovering the right solution dynamically through discovery In an Agile business, you need to be learning constantly. How are you learning? Managers should be the agile engine of learning and experimentation culture. Allow people to make mistakes. The importance of psychological safety to make mistakes and let people try things. Little by little. Problems vs Solutions In traditional management and IT education, we are schooled to be constantly looking for solutions. Stop thinking about the solutions. First, we need to be better at understanding the problems, asking about the needs before we start offering solutions. How to achieve business agility? Which method is best? Forget the methods - this is going back to thinking about a solution but what's the problem that you are trying to solve with that? Why do we need to change? What's the better kind of world are you chasing? We need a regular re-evaluation of our strategy. Traditional strategy lacks reflection, adaptation, engagement of the people who are delivering the change The hardest thing to change in an organization is not the culture, process, or boss. How to approach change management as an agile business? How can I encourage others to change? How can I get people to do things differently? Missing out on Business Agility - the answer for the skeptics Skipping agile? This is the start of a eulogy of your company Old banks vs Agile financial companies. Who wins? Much smaller firms, which are fast to deliver, perform quick experiments are disrupting centuries-old banks These little industry disruptors are out there to kill you and they will No, it's not the matter of the industry. Banking, insurance and automotive industries are all going agile with or without you The future of business is agile by default. Business agility is not just an option anymore.
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