There has been a lot of talk about ethics in UX circles over the last couple of years. This is a good thing. However, most of it has not been actionable in everyday work. And, to be honest, most ethically problematic products weren’t designed to be unethical. I am quite sure the designers of smart thermostats, easier purchase flows, sharing economy apps and social networks didn’t expect that their work would be used for domestic abuse, unwanted purchases, worker exploitation and skewed world views. In my experience, UX designers are generally a group of people who believes in the good of their fellow humans which means most of the time they don’t even consider how their designs could be used in unintended ways that might be harmful or dangerous. But maybe we, as a group, should. Maybe we should try to imagine the worst ways our designs could possibly be used as a part of our design process so we can at least try to mitigate the risk of that happening.
Can my design be used for evil?
Posted on 2020-01-27 – 08:00 by Anneli Olsen
Interview with Stephen Bungay on Strategy Execution and the gaps of OKR’s
Posted on 2020-01-24 – 06:00 by Mattias Skarin
We took the opportunity to interview Stephen “Art of Action” Bungay during his last visit in Stockholm. Stephen has worked with strategy and making it come alive in areas stretching from Business to Formula 1.
We were curious to know:
- What is the “Art of action” (and how does it help Strategy to come alive)
- What is the differences/similarities to OKR’s (objectives and key results)
- What organisational capabilities needs to be there, for alignment frameworks, to really work?
My own 2’c is that companies implement alignment frameworks like OKR’s blindly, without thinking about the pre-conditions and capabilities that have to be there for them to work. After all, the input is given by humans: Bad input -> Bad output.
psst: Want to meet Stephen and learn more about Agile Strategy? Join his upcoming “Art of action” class in Stockholm on April 21’st.
En definition av Agilt mindset
Posted on 2019-12-17 – 07:00 by Anders Laestadius
Vad är ett Agilt mindset och hur beskriver man det?
Det är en fråga jag fick finna svar på i och med det sista tillfället i Scrum Master programmet Mia Pilebro (agil coach på arbetsförmedlingen) och jag genomförde på Arbetsförmedlingen. Denna artikel beskriver den definition jag landade i, resonemanget bakom samt varför detta är viktigt då man förändrar en organisation mot en Agil kultur och arbetssätt. De definitioner jag hittade när jag sökte svar på frågan kändes inte kompletta, enligt mitt tycke. Efter diskussion med mina kollegor på Crisp, och med Mia, landade jag i en definition som består av ett antal påståenden, hållningar och en intention.
read moreThe Value Responsibility shift – Evolving Beyond the SAFe and LeSS frameworks
Posted on 2019-12-12 – 06:30 by Mattias Skarin and Neil Cook
Are you struggling with improving at a fast enough pace? Perhaps you started your Scaled Agile journey by applying SAFe, parts of SAFe, or maybe even LeSS.
What I’ve found is that once companies have started to apply a certain model, which represents one school of thought. they fail (or struggle hard..) to evolve beyond the basic cookie-cutter recipe. Sometimes it takes close to an existential crisis to force a leap in evolution. So improving beyond the basics, is undoubtedly hard. Yet, wasn’t the whole point with applying Agile to create the capability to continuously improve, to adapt?
The point with this blog is to give you a visualization, of how you can improve beyond SAFe (or any scaled agile framework for that matter).
Imagine that you are on a field trip visiting different companies with a camera on your shoulder. What would you see? We created this illustration by extracting empirical examples from companies, on different stages on their improvement journey (but not describing just one). We hope that this inspires you to try things out beyond the basic cookie-cutter recipe.
[Neil]: “The idea for this post came about during a recent discussion between myself and Mattias. We recently engaged with Jan Grape & Mattias from Crisp to help us look at the next phase of our Agile journey and it was during this that Mattias shared some of his observations about the path along which companies like ours often evolve.
When Mattias summarized them by sketching up the Value Responsibility Shift, I immediately said, “‘that’s it, that’s exactly what I have been trying to communicate’. This put my thoughts it into context and improved upon it because it went beyond the time horizon I had been looking at. I said to Mattias ‘we need to share this’, and so here it is.”
First a reminder:
Or as I would phrase it – “Mind over matter”. With that out of the way, let’s take a look at the model.
The Value Responsibility Shift
How to read it
As you improve over time, a responsibility shift happens. Agile teams improve their responsibility towards value, while the reliance on process and governance to deliver this, decreases. Think about it: Can a process create value? No, people do. Yet, what we govern and measure, is often processes. We rarely measure the number of hurdles put in place that makes creating value virtually impossible. As our knowledge grows, we can (and should..) simplify the effort required to deliver one unit of value. And we shift our expectations of responsibility.
In the center ribbon, are a few examples of evidence you can look out for that proves that you are there. This is of course not a linear journey. We are not trying to say that you cannot increase your focus on the customer and usability until you have the ability to release on demand, but more that until you can release at any time with little fanfare, releasing consumes so much of your focus that it is hard to fully shift your focus to the customer and usability.
The Challenge: Taking things away
One important aspect during the value responsibility shift is that you are ready to take things away. Stuff that you considered important before, needs to be removed. One example of these things are metrics. Once your speed gets quick enough, or your delivery becomes predictable enough, it’s pretty useless to measure it. There is simply very little information gain there in it. It’s more important to measure value outcome instead. To be able to throw things away as we improve matters, since we have limited mental bandwidth (Team Topologies book calls this “team cognitive load”) thus deciding how we spend it, matters.
A few similar models
There are other models that describe similar thoughts. By knowing them, this allows you to steal the best of all 🙂
- “Journey to product teams” John Cultler
- The Wardley Doctrine, Simon Wardley
Take it from here!
We hope that this inspires you to improve beyond the basics of frameworks.
Mattias & Neil
This blog is co-authored with guest Neil Cook who works as an Agile coach and RTE for SimCorp, a financial software company based in Copenhagen, Denmark.
How Are You Feeling?
Posted on 2019-12-05 – 05:57 by Yassal Sundman
Did you answer that question by saying: “I’m fine”? Maybe you aren’t fine, and answered that you were happy, sad, or angry? Did you stop to think about what you really mean by that answer? How are you really feeling? Why are you feeling this way and what do you want to do about it?
In his book, “Permission to Feel”, Marc Brackett talks about the importance of Emotional Intelligence and emotional skills. He shows you how you can develop a more varied emotional vocabulary. You learn how to deal with the actual challenges that you face by understanding how you feel. Here are my thoughts on how Brackett’s method will help you develop your emotional skills. By understanding how you feel, you can figure out what you need to do which in turn will influence how you feel, enabling you to create an upward emotional spiral.
read moreMake OKRs and Forecasts come alive!
Posted on 2019-12-03 – 10:57 by Jimmy Janlén
Rigid detailed long-term plans, where progress is tracked based on consumed budgets, are in agile organizations quickly becoming a fading nostalgic memory of the past. They are replaced by forecasts and non-static roadmaps. Gather regularly in front of these visualizations and you will enable learning, sharing and trigger important conversations, resolve dependencies and invite to acts of servant leadership. Make your OKRs and Forecasts come alive!
In this blog I want to give examples of visualizations with accompanying recurring ceremonies. The visualization and accompanying ceremony enable sharing of progress and ensure that impediments and dependencies continuously are addressed and mitigated. It also turns the forecast into a conversation (as opposed to a fixed estimate captured in a project plan that is treated as a promise).
The core question the involved teams answer is:
“How confident do you feel that you will accomplish the Key Result before the end of this quarter?”
Övning kring grupputveckling
Posted on 2019-11-27 – 06:50 by Anders Laestadius
Mia Pilebro, agil coach på Arbetsförmedlingen, och jag, genomför ett Scrum Master program med deltagare från två av enheterna på arbetsförmedlingens IT-avdelning. Programmet innehåller sex träffar med en tvådagars workshop som inledning, fyra träffar, så kallade Learning Labs, varannan vecka, och till sist en avslutande heldag för gemensam reflektion och sammanfattning av programmet. Under den andra Learning Lab-träffen som vi hade för några veckor sedan jobbade vi kring grupputveckling; hur utvecklas en grupp från det att den bildas initialt tills det att den möjligtvis blivit en högpresterande enhet? Vad är det för mönster som visas i olika faser av gruppens utveckling, dvs vad är det för beteenden vi generellt kan uppmärksamma och hur kan man beskriva vad som tar gruppens fokus och energi? Dessutom tittade vi på hur ledarens agerande behöver förändras utifrån där gruppen befinner sig i sin utvecklingsresa.
Mia och jag organiserar träffarna med korta teorigenomgångar blandat med gruppövningar för att skapa en bra miljö för lärande och utveckling. Vid detta tillfälle skapade vi en kortlek och spelplan utifrån Susan Wheelans forskning kring grupputveckling, hennes modell ”Integration Model of Group Development” (IMGD), som beskriver fem faser en grupp kan utvecklas genom:
- Tillhörighet och trygghet
- Opposition och konflikt
- Tillit och Struktur
- Arbete och produktivitet
- Avslut
Då vi endast fokuserade på de fyra första faserna under vår träff innehåller spelplanen inte den sista avslutande fasen.
Workshopen blev väldigt lyckad med både hög energinivå och ett bra lärande kring ämnet. Jag vill därför beskriva hur vi organiserade delen där gruppen fick arbeta kring grupputveckling med hjälp av kortleken vi skapade, och också dela materialet att använda hos era arbetsplatser. Länk till spelkort och spelplan finns längre ner i denna artikel.
Making Sense of Product Discovery: Two Playbooks Anyone Can Use
Posted on 2019-11-14 – 10:00 by Marcus Castenfors
The room was packed. Erin, the Product Manager, had called for an emergency meeting. The product they had just launched wasn’t meeting expectations. Erin stated with a determined voice: “We need to do more Discovery”. The room went quiet.
With confused looks, the team glanced at each other: “What does she really mean?”. “What does she mean by ‘Discovery?’”.
Perhaps this scenario resonates with you. A situation where the term “Discovery” is used, but it’s difficult to discern what it actually entails.
To be fair, the term Product Discovery is ambiguous.
My intention with this article is to try to demystify what Product Discovery is and to give you two Playbooks you can use.
read moreFörutsättningar för en positiv grupputveckling
Posted on 2019-11-01 – 07:00 by Anders Laestadius
Jag utbildade mig nyligen till handledare för försvarshögskolans koncept Utvecklande Ledarskap (UL); fem mycket inspirerande och lärorika dagar. Förutom ny kunskap har jag dock också med mig upplevelsen kring kraften i grupputveckling när den blir som bäst. Under kursen satt och jobbade vi i kvarteret där vi både hjälpte varandra förstå kursinnehållet men också förberedde och genomförde en del av den normala UL-kursen inför övriga kursdeltagare. Det är fascinerande hur starkt relationerna inom en grupp kan utvecklas, och från det att en tydlig teameffekt kan växa fram, efter så kort tid som några få dagar.
Det fick mig att fundera på vad det var som hände under kursen som gjorde detta möjligt. Vid reflektionen kring hur utbildningen var strukturerad, den miljö vi befann oss i, handledarnas agerande och vad vi gjorde i kvartetterna, landade jag i att nedanstående fyra aspekter hjälpte oss till att formeras till kraftfullt team under veckan som gick:
- fokus på att bygga en trygg miljö,
- Vi hade väldigt tajta målsättningar att arbeta mot
- Det fanns möjligheten till frekvent feedback på de resultat vi skapade, samt vi gav varandra löpande feedback på varandras prestationer
- och vi var en liten och komplett gruppering som skulle lösa uppdraget tillsammans självständigt.
Working Agreements Mingle
Posted on 2019-10-23 – 06:00 by Yassal Sundman
Facilitating a workshop or class? Need to come up with working agreements? Are people still shy and quiet and is the tempo still low? Here’s an easy method to get a medium sized group, about 20 people, to come up with and agree to a set of working agreements, while energizing the room and getting people talking to each other.
read moreAnti-Agile – skapa insikter kring förändringsbehov
Posted on 2019-10-21 – 08:10 by Anders Laestadius
Anti-Agile är en av mina favoritövningar att facilitera vid uppdrag hos kund. Använder man denna övningen internt inom en organisation så synliggör man ofta många dysfunktioner som finns inom organisationen; kulturellt, strukturellt och hur man arbetar. Övningen fungerar också väldigt bra som en murbräcka i att bryta tron att allt fungerar så bra som det är, och föreställningen att vi är så agila som vi möjligen kan bli. Det senare är många gånger en utmaning då en stark föreställning om sin egna förträfflighet är ett stort hinder att ta sig över som coach för att få kunder att öppna upp sig för coaching och vägledning i sin arbetssituation.
Doug Kirkpatrick, CFO who turned management innovator
Posted on 2019-10-16 – 17:44 by Michael Göthe
Interview with Doug Kirkpatrick, startup team member of Morning Star and co-founder of the Morning Star Self-Management Institute. Famous for being built on their principles of self-management, which has led to that Morning Star is today the largest tomato processing in the world. Today Doug has left Morning Star to spread his experience as a speaker, author, and consultant.
In his book, Beyond Empowerment, Doug tells the story of how Morning Star became an example of true empowerment. He tells us how they went beyond traditional ways of delegating (empowering) and creating a self-managed and truly empowered company.
I found Morning Star to be an intriguing and fascinating story! I have been following the company for quite a while and recently had the fortune to meet with Doug. During one of our discussions, he shared the fascinating story and his experience as one of Morning Star’s original colleagues.
To learn how you can operate a large successful company in a very agile way based on self-management and a few simple but powerful organizational principles, then continue reading.
read moreOutput vs Outcome vs Impact
Posted on 2019-10-16 – 07:58 by Christophe Achouiantz
Here is an attempt to establish a definition of Output, Outcome and Impacts! It is based on my interpretation of the work of Jeff Patton, Marty Cagan and Clayton Christensen, with some good input from Gojko Adzic, John Seddon and John Cutler.
Pair Coaching
Posted on 2019-10-06 – 21:59 by Yassal Sundman and Michael Göthe
Just like pair programming, there are a lot of benefits to pair coaching. In fact, the positives – two pairs of eyes, direct feedback, observation from two different perspectives – are even stronger motivators for pairing up when coaching! We see a lot of pairing when it comes to teaching classes, and larger facilitations, why not apply the same benefits to coaching as well!
The coaching context
In an individual coaching session, there are a lot of things going on. First, there is the content of the conversation. Then there are the thought processes and emotions within both the coach and the person being coached. As well as the communication and dynamics of the relationship between them. This is already a complex situation that can benefit from an added perspective. Imagine the complexity when we start talking about team or group coaching.
Get Awesome Team Focus with this daily routine!
Posted on 2019-10-03 – 19:02 by Christophe Achouiantz
Tired of the same old boring and ineffective daily meetings with your team?
Try this new Awesome Team Focus daily routine!
It will help your team use a swarming technique to laser-focus on the stuff that really matters and get it done. As a bonus it will help you start limiting Work In Process without realizing it!
Welcome to your new effective and efficient team!
Yeah!
Evolutionär förändring
Posted on 2019-10-02 – 11:09 by Anders Laestadius
Inledning
Ser jag tillbaka på mina år som konsult och coach på Crisp har det skett en rätt stor förändring i vilka typer av uppdrag vi får. Många organisationer möter en allt mer föränderlig omvärld med snabbfotade kunder; är de inte nöjda med det utbud som organisationen levererar går det till en konkurrent i stället. Det räcker inte längre med att enskilda team fungerar bättre; hela organisationer behöver förbättras för att nödvändiga effekter skall skapas.
För att lyckas med förändringsarbetet behöver vi:
- Utgå från att organisationer är komplexa system vilket kräver en organisk förändring snarare än ett plandrivet och mekaniskt sådan.
- Genomför förändringen evolutionärt drivet genom de hinder som teamen upplever,
- Successivt forma den struktur och arbetssätt som just den specifika organisationen bäst behöver för att leverera värde.
Agile in Public sector and the “Play with the thought” Digitalisation kit
Posted on 2019-10-01 – 09:44 by Mattias Skarin
I just got back from Agile Islands 2019. I really encourage people who haven’t been there to pay it a visit. It’s refreshing to get back with a new insight and idea every time I visit the conference.
Anyway: Here are the slides from my presentation
Let me also share the workshop kit I used.
The “Play with the thought” Digitisation Kit.
- The challenge template (print in A1)
- The play markers – future technologies that will impact us (print on cardboard paper)
- An example for inspiration (print on A4)
Anti-Agile Personalities – Part 2
Posted on 2019-09-20 – 11:13 by Anneli Olsen
In my previous blog post I listed personalities on the management side that stood in the way of efficient, modern product development. In this post, I will cover some of the personalities you might find in the actual development teams.
read moreEfficient, effective and inclusive decision-making – A bold statement, a book and a video
Posted on 2019-09-16 – 10:15 by Jimmy Janlén
I hereby proclaim that; there are ONLY 10 different ways a decision can be made!
At least in a meeting with several participants.
Sorry for starting with this click baity statement. On the other hand – I haven’t been disproven so far. Regardless of if this is true or not, I believe that the art and skill of decision-making is an increasingly important topic. Why do I believe that?
In many organizations, I often encounter the assumption that a decision is either made by one person, or by a group that has discussed a proposal until everyone agrees. If this is actually true, your ability to conduct effective, efficient and inclusive decision-making is sadly limited. A rapidly increasing number of companies go agile, organizing people into a network of autonomous teams, supported by teams of managers and leaders.
Decision-making and ownership are decentralized to those closest to the problems and opportunities. Leadership is no longer manifested in hierarchies of individual accountability, but in interconnected layers of supportive leadership teams. Just as agile teams collaborate to delivering value to users and customers, so must the leadership collaborate when working, meeting and making decisions. A leadership team’s ability to reach a shared understanding through debates and discussions, explore options and then together decide on the best path forward – is crucial. The speed to decision and time to review and evaluate the impact will dictate your whole organization’s ability to quickly respond, learn, adapt and improve.
With this blog I hope to expand your toolbox and inspire you to experiment with a more varied approach to decision-making.
.
read moreThe top 3 biggest forecasting and planning errors
Posted on 2019-09-16 – 05:00 by Troy Magennis
In my consulting and training engagements I get to see the impact where planned delivery dates are missed. It’s never because people just aren’t trying or working hard enough. This post gives you my top 3 real reasons traditional Agile planning and the dates produced by them fail.
Number One Reason: The Assumed Start Date is Missed
Sounds obvious right. To give an estimated delivery date you add the estimated duration to a starting date. Rarely do I see anyone track or adjust for the eventual start date for any initiative. Often the definition of “started” isn’t clear.
read moreAnti-Agile Personalities – Part 1
Posted on 2019-09-13 – 11:13 by Anneli Olsen
The technology development is going in lightning speed nowadays and almost every company has at least 10 competitors who can offer their customers the same or better experiences or goods. This puts quite a lot of pressure on companies and organisations to be nimble and customer focused which in turn does the same on the people working for them. Certain traits have become more important in employees than before, whether it is management or development teams, such as trust, flexibility, passion, curiosity, ability to collaborate, humility, and innovativeness. It also means that personalities not defined by these traits that still worked very well in traditional, hierarchical organisations actually might be obstructing efficient development in modern organisations.
Design Studio Facilitation
Posted on 2019-09-08 – 08:27 by Yassal Sundman
Design studios are useful for helping a group of people converge on an idea. This post provides a PDF presentation for facilitating a design studio workshop, including an additional optional section for refining ideas when the desired result is to generate multiple ideas. The general pattern is:
- Generate ideas
- Present
- Get feedback
- Refine and converge the ideas
Agile 2019
Posted on 2019-08-25 – 17:48 by Yassal Sundman
Agile 2019 in a nutshell: Jam packed with inspiring, informative talks! I tried to sum up my experience when I came home from DC a couple of weeks ago, but there were just too many good things to say! So I’ll leave you with the graphic above with some of the highlights, and I’ll share what I’ve actually followed up on since I’ve been back.
Three Myths About Strategy
Posted on 2019-08-23 – 09:47 by Stephen Bungay
There are lies, there are big lies, and then there are myths. And myths are the worst of the three.
Myths present a subtle trap, which is what makes even smart people fall for them. They are usually based on a plausible half-truth, and they do not immediately lead you astray if you start to act on them. It’s only with the passage of time that you realize that you’ve made a mistake, but by then your wrong choices can’t be unmade and the damage is done.
We encounter myths in most realms of human endeavour, and the discipline of strategic thinking is no exception. Here are three of the most pernicious ones I’ve encountered in a long career studying strategy and advising companies about it:
Myth 1: Strategy is about the long-term
Why it’s plausible
In some industries, the basis of competition can remain unchanged for decades, and leaders who stick to their strategy through downturns as well as upturns and ignore surface noise do very well.
Why it’s wrong
It is precisely when long-held assumptions about an industry are challenged that strategic changes happen. And you will need to make those changes very quickly. Thinking about strategy as some kind of long-term commitment can blind you to that need Strategy is not about the long term or the short term, but about the fundamentals of how the business works: the sources of value creation, the drivers of the cost to deliver it, and the basis of competition. To get a grip on strategy, we do not need to lengthen the time horizon of our thinking, but its depth. Far from being about things we are going to do in the future, strategy is about what we are going to do now in order to shape the future to our advantage.
Myth 2: Disruptors change strategy all the time
Why it’s plausible
It looks as if Amazon and the platform giants like Google and Facebook keep changing strategy because they use the massive amounts of cash they generate to innovate, bringing out new products and services every year. Innovation is easily confused with a change in strategic direction, and sometimes it does indeed trigger such a change.
Why it’s wrong
In the case of Amazon and the rest of Big Tech, most of the innovative new products and services reflect a single, consistent strategy, one that’s been familiar to business people since at least the 1960s. That’s when Bruce Henderson, the founder of BCG, observed that in many businesses, costs decline by a predictable amount with every doubling of cumulative volume. The implication was that by pricing ahead in anticipation of those cost declines, a company could sacrifice current margins to gain share, achieve market leadership and then reap the gains. The strategy was captured in the imperative: ‘Cut price and add capacity’. That’s basically what today’s platform businesses are doing – though do they use more jazzy vocabulary like ‘blitzscaling’ or ‘hypergrowth’ and add some twists. For today’s platform businesses for instance, the imperative could be called ‘Give it away and add users’. But it’s just a more radical version of a strategy that’s more than half a century old.
Myth 3: Competitive advantage is dead
Why it’s plausible
There is evidence that the time period over which advantage can be sustained is shortening, which suggests that achieving defensibility is harder, which in turn implies that barriers are more flimsy and easier to surmount. One market observer notes that average tenure in the S&P 500 has fallen from 33 years in 1964 to 24 years in 2016.
Why it’s wrong
Reports of the death of competitive advantage are vastly exaggerated. The competitive advantages of Amazon, Alphabet, Apple, Facebook and Microsoft are so massive and the barriers to overcoming them so high, that public discussion of them revolves around the use of regulation to break them up to reduce their power. In a very short time, it has become hard to imagine how market forces alone could tame them. The full truth is not that competitive advantage is dead, but that you need to rely on multiple advantages rather than just the one. And part of the reason that Amazon & Co will be hard to unseat is that they have realized this. They are not betting on a building a single big wall, but on building up lots of smaller ones.
The Art of Strategy
In our uncertain world, fundamentals are changing so we need to think about them, whether they are valid in the short- or long-term. Think how you can deploy the capabilities you have and build new ones you need to defend your competitive position. Be on the lookout for the emergence of unexpected events at the customer interface that point to opportunities that can be deliberately exploited. Play to win the short games that will enable you to prevail in the long ones. Think deep to act fast. Strategy is still what it has always been: the art of taking action under the pressure of the most difficult conditions.
Psst: Do you want to learn the art of making strategy come alive? “Stephen “Art of action” Bungay is coming to Stockholm on Sept 4:th. We are a bunch of Crisper’s going, take the chance and join up you too!
Note: This is an exert from a longer article by Bungay in Harward Business Review. You can read the full versionhere.
6 Tips towards Business Agility
Posted on 2019-07-12 – 10:56 by Michael Göthe
Agile, and Agile methods, like Scrum and Kanban, have had tremendous success over the past few decades, but still, most organizations are not getting the value and expected outcomes from their Agile initiatives. A big reason is that people often confuse Agile methods, or applying the methods in one department, with agility, which means having the ability to adopt these methods and deliver value to both the business and customers. Having that organizational ability is the essence of Business Agility. You can also refer to it as scaling Agile to the whole organization.
As co-organizer of the yearly Agile People Sweden conference, we have recognized that this is a current challenge for most organizations today, and hence the Business Agility is the theme for this year´s conference.
I had the opportunity to be interviewed by Kari Kelly from Atypical Workplace LLC. It resulted in 6 tips for how your organization can create value through Business Agility.
read moreThe Product Roadmap Agility Checklist
Posted on 2019-06-10 – 06:00 by Mattias Skarin
How self driving car company AID builds its organisation using Agile – interview with the CEO
Posted on 2019-05-31 – 07:55 by Mattias Skarin and Jan Grape
How do you grow, innovate, and deliver – at the same time? AID (Audi’s unit for self-driving cars) uses Agile to build its organisation at the same pace as their product. We interviewed their CEO Karlheinz Wurm on why they have chosen to do so. We also sneaked in a question – how is it (really) to get feedback as a leader?
Enter The Target Sergeant
Posted on 2019-05-22 – 19:54 by Evil Coach
Hi there, it’s been a while since you last heard from me, I know.
I have to admit it, I’ve been feeling lost for some time now. Since our company adopted Agile, I haven’t felt at home. People around me started thinking, took initiatives, started to talk about building a “culture”. I felt lost as my position was being challenged. I’ve done my best to highlight the threats of Agile all this time but no one ever listens (and what the heck is a “growth mindset” anyway?). But fear not, redemption is finally at hand! I got promoted to Controller (*cough* there was apparently no other position to put me in) and our CEO just briefed us that he was thinking of introducing OKR’s (obviously, everyone else is doing it). Now here’s an opportunity! Enter the target sergeant!
This thing about letting people think, and “self-organization”, why don’t people get it that this is the recipe for chaos! But – I see my part of the equation clearly now. There is a gap to fill! The target sergeant is what I need to reclaim my importance.
Let me quickly summarize the key success factors for the target sergeant:
- Highlight the risks. Whenever there’s a creative initiative in your surroundings, highlight the risks. Always begin by acknowledging that it is a great initiative. Then do a silent pause. Raise your voice and start your next sentence with “but…” (oh this always works BTW). You’ll start noticing a few eyeballs darting from side to side. Then, build up a focused crescendo, “…have you thought about the risks?”(Of course they haven’t! Seize the moment as you’ve got the whole management team by the balls now). Your fellow management colleagues will start to panic. Because, let’s be honest, who wants to insert risks? If anyone at this point has the gumption to object, then cut them off with, “We have commitments to keep!” Game over! Silently smile and lean back as your peers start to appreciate the senior wisdom you bring to the table (a great example has been made. Who would dare to be creative now. Ha!).
- A master target sergeant recognizes that few ever really meet their targets. This is a problem! How can our company ever be competitive as long as this is happening? Become a target sergeant master by always highlighting the target gaps in anyone’s execution. Aren’t they committed to the cause? Silently smile and lean back as your colleagues scurry around like mice squabbling over the safest bet during target setting meetings. Then raise your voice “shouldn’t our targets be aggressive”? Watch your colleagues squirm! Muhaha!
- Oh, and this is one of my favorites,“Has anyone tried this before?” (…of course not, that’s why it’s a novel idea, duh! ) Look around and you’ll see signs of doubt. Should we really be the first ones to try this out? Who would dare to object to that?
- The final killer: Put emphasis on the time pressure we are under. This is the simplest trick in the book! You are always late! This is due to the fact that you set impossible stretch goals in the first place! (does that ring a bell?) When “time pressure” and “late” appear in the same sentence, the meeting will quickly loose interest and move over to the next status point on the agenda. Watch the nods around the table as your peers recognize your senior wisdom!
To sum it up, I realize that my Controller role wasn’t so bad after all. I’ll make sure we avoid chaos and my CEO has hinted that I will be considered for the CFO position – he wants more execution at the top level!
Final target sergeant advice: Always remember to jump ship and move on to the next company before the ship sinks. The story will be that your peers failed in executing the vision. You are exonerated because you pointed this out from the start. (At this point in time, everyone will have forgotten that what you really failed to do was to innovate muhahaha). Happy drilling Sergeants!
Enkelt att ta bort 10 miljoner ton CO2 ur atmosfären och lagra i marken
Posted on 2019-03-27 – 14:33 by Hans Brattberg
Det är tekniskt och finansiellt möjligt att inom några få år kunna ta bort CO2 från atmosfären och lagra i marken “negativt utsläpp” med så kallad bio-CCS i Sverige.
Det enda som hindrar är lite lagar och regler.
Playing with Power – Game of Structure, Beta version
Posted on 2019-03-21 – 13:11 by Mathias Holmgren
Two years ago I created a simple role-play card game called Game of Structure. After trying it out a couple of times it has been sitting idle, and what fun is that? So now I am making it available with this post.
=> Game of Structure – Beta version
The game is Creative Commons Attribution 4.0, so you may use it freely as long as you honor it’s origin. If there is enough interest I may go ahead and create a physical card deck based on this game.
What type of game is this?
The idea is to offer an experience of how a single hierarchy of fixed power roles can generate some common patterns of stuck attention, conversation and challenge that we frequently see in organizations. Often we spend a lot of time managing those conversations without seeing that some of them may emerge just from the power structure itself as a design choice. If we can experience that this may be the case we can talk about it and consider redesigning those structures rather than having to fix these challenges directly.
This game helps you see and experience some of the load of this extra complexity. Have fun!
Disclaimer – The game is fun as it is but I invite you to be a little careful when drawing conclusions from it – there may be some fallacies and traps! If you want to dive down this perhaps sensitive and deeper rabbit hole, read on through the second part of this blog post. read more
