1. Traditional hierarchical and bureaucratic organizational structures can limit agility by slowing down decision making and reactions to changing circumstances. 2. In today's fast-changing world, it is impossible to define the ideal output or strategy far in advance. Organizations need to be able to constantly adjust their strategy and make quick reactions. 3. Simply claiming to "become agile" is not enough - organizations need a fundamental change in how they function to truly develop the agility needed to adapt and succeed in today's complex environment.

1. BusinessVillage
THE AGILE
CULTURE CODE
DR. STEFANIE PUCKETT
A guide to
organizational agility
E
xtract

2. BusinessVillage

4. BusinessVillage
THE AGILE
CULTURE CODE
DR. STEFANIE PUCKETT
A GUIDE TO
ORGANIZATIONAL AGILITY

5. Dr. Stefanie Puckett
The Agile Culture Code
A Guide to Organizational Agility
1. Auflage 2020
© BusinessVillage GmbH, Göttingen
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ISBN 978-3-86980-525-2 (Print)
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6. Content
About the Author ........................................................................... 7
Foreword by Professor Michael Wade ................................................ 9
Foreword by Audrey Clegg, Coca-Cola HBC ........................................ 11
Foreword and Introduction ............................................................. 15
1. At the Heart of Organizational Agility ......................................... 21
2. Grasping the Culture of Organizations ......................................... 27
2.1 Culture is about Consequences ................................................. 31
2.2 Culture is Built on Consistency ................................................ 33
3. The old Question: Can a Culture be changed? ............................... 39
3.1 The »Maybe we do not need to change the Culture« Pitfall ........... 42
3.2 The Right Conditions for a Culture Change ................................. 43
4. The Three Pillars of Agile Culture in Organizations ........................ 53
5. Transparency ............................................................................. 65
5.1 Information (Transparency with Information and Data) ............... 71
5.2 Practical Hacks for Transparency with Information and Data ......... 84
5.3 Intention (Transparency with Intentions and Plans) .................... 90
5.4 Practical Hacks for Transparency with Intentions and Plans........... 97
5.5 Effect (Transparency with Results and Impact) ........................... 99
5.6 Practical Hacks for Transparency with Results and Impact .......... 105
6. Empowerment ......................................................................... 109
6.1 Freedom (Freedom to Adapt and Create) .................................. 114
6.2 Practical Hacks for Freedom to Adapt and Create ...................... 134
6.3 Enablement (Empowerment to Take Charge) ............................. 138
6.4 Practical Hacks for Enablement in the Organization ................... 155
6.5 Ownership (Ownership with a Bias toward Action)..................... 159
6.6 Practical Hacks for Ownership in the Organization..................... 172

7. 7. Collaboration .......................................................................... 175
7.1 Exchange (Collaboration through Exchange and Sharing)............ 179
7.2 Practical Hacks for Exchange and Sharing................................. 185
7.3 Contribution (Collaboration through Contribution and Flexibility)...189
7.4 Practical Hacks for Contributions and Flexibility........................ 202
7.5 Learning (Contribution through Learning and Growing Together) ... 206
7.6 Practical Hacks for Learning and Growing Together.................... 222
8. Living the Agile Culture ........................................................... 227
8.1 Agile Culture Needs a Balance – Warnings ............................... 228
8.2 Initiating and Living an Agile Culture ..................................... 232
Sources ....................................................................................... 239

8. About the Author | 7
About the Author
Dr. Stefanie Puckett is a psychologist with re-
search background who worked and lived global-
ly. She worked for several consulting companies,
and in management position as well as global
roles for a Fortune 500 company. She owned her
own business and is author of several specialist
books and articles. She is convinced that change
starts with the person. As consultant and execu-
tive coach, she uses scientific based hypotheses
to get to the bottom of challenges.
Contact
E-mail: stefanie.puckett@agilethroughculture.com
Website: agilethroughculture.com

10. Foreword by Professor Michael Wade

11. 10 | Foreword by Professor Michael Wade
There is no question in my mind that cultural transformation is the larg-
est challenge facing organizations when it comes to digital disruption.
Executive teams have spent a great deal of time, energy and money on the
»digital« side of digital transformation, but have paid much less attention
to the »transformation« side.
And, when it comes to transformation, cultural change is key. The failure
to address cultural change, I believe, is the main reason that most digital
transformation exercises fail to meet objectives. However, just acknowledg-
ing that culture can be both a blocker and an enabler of transformation is
not enough – executives need to know »how« to drive cultural change. Or,
more precisely, they need to build a culture within their organizations that
is adaptable to change. That is, one that is able to change as environments
change; in other words: »How can you build an agile culture?«
This question is at the core of this book and Stefanie Puckett has taken
a rigorous approach to answering it. Her »transparency, empowerment,
collaboration« model provides a powerful lens through which to view and
manage cultural change. The Agile Culture Code bridges theory and practice
to produce a thoughtful and useful blueprint, full of practical examples,
checklists and cultural change »hacks«. It is an extremely useful tool for
anyone struggling to navigate the tricky world of cultural change in orga-
nizations.
Michael Wade, Professor of Innovation and Strategy at IMD,
Cisco Chair in Digital Business Transformation,
Director of the Global Center for Digital Business Transformation

12. Foreword by Audrey Clegg,
Coca-Cola HBC

13. 12 | Foreword by Audrey Clegg, Coca-Cola HBC
In 2020, everything changed. The human family retreated into lockdown
all over the world: Shops, offices and factories closed; cities emptied as
social distancing took root.
As our physical world transformed, so did our mental and emotional land-
scape. A stream of urgent questions demanded our attention.
How do we maintain close working relationships when we’re physically
apart? How do we remain successful with our work? Can we adapt and
continue to create value?
The loss, anxiety and uncertainty were hard for all of us to bear. But there
was also a huge opportunity to look again at how we work and live. What
do we value? What can we change? How fast can we do it?
In the weeks and months that followed, it was clear that in organizations
where culture was strong – whether in government, academia, business or
the social sector – people shared, flexed and bounced back: Decision-mak-
ing accelerated, creativity soared, and resources were reallocated to accom-
modate the new reality.
At the Coca-Cola Hellenic Bottling Company, we had begun planning in
2019 for the introduction of a more flexible and productive way of match-
ing personal growth opportunities with organizational growth needs. The
need for our own »talent marketplace« was clear.
But the crisis not only demanded a more urgent response. It also showed
us that change could be much more rapid and far-reaching than we had
thought possible.

14. Foreword by Audrey Clegg, Coca-Cola HBC | 13
Writing now, in the middle of the crisis, I see a world of confusion, anxiety
and frustration. But I also see a world of resilience, collaboration, inspira-
tion and hope. And agility is the defining characteristic of those individu-
als and organizations who bridge the two.
I am very impressed by this book: It uncovers what is needed to build this
essential competence and provides valuable guidance on what the organi-
zation – and more importantly – what individuals can do to contribute,
step by step.
What tomorrow will bring is, as ever, hard to predict. But what we see at
this extraordinary time is just how fast the »future of work« can arrive and
how fast we can adapt when we act transparently, when we are empowered
and when we collaborate.
Audrey Clegg, Group Talent Director at Coca-Cola HBC

16. Foreword and Introduction

17. 16 | Foreword and Introduction
»Nothing is permanent, but change.«
Heraclitus 535–475 BC, pre-Socratic Ionian philosopher
Transforming to agile requires a culture in the company that is aligned
with or supports key agile principles. This is true for implementing agile
methodologies, applying agile principles or achieving organizational agil-
ity.
Researchers and practitioners agree – culture is the highest hurdle to jump
and the biggest lever. It is culture that will drive innovation, enable adapt-
ability, keep the organization nimble and its competitors on their toes.
Of course, there is more to becoming an agile organization than culture
alone. Purpose? Maybe. A purpose gets found/is identified. Vision? Maybe.
A vision is defined and gets set in stone. Strategy? Structure? Strategy as
well as structure do not get built, ideally. They evolve. As the widely used
quote »Culture eats strategy for breakfast« suggests, strategy evolves from
and through culture. The best structures evolve from culture as well.
The real construction area that requires a company’s focus is organiza-
tional culture. And its significance will grow even more in future. Pow-
er gets decentralized, management responsibilities are shared with if not
transferred to teams. Adaptions happen at the edges of the organization
through data- and feedback-based self-steering. Command and control lose
their effectiveness to navigate productivity. What’s more, they endanger
progress and limit performance. It is culture that replaces command with
inspiration, information and orientation. It is culture that replaces the
need for control with living iterative self-correcting and learning systems.
The right culture is anchor, enabler and helmsman of long-term success.
But can such a culture be developed? Can culture change? How? And what
does an agile culture look like?

18. Foreword and Introduction | 17
This book is meant to inspire and equip readers to transform a team, trans-
form a department, transform an organization. And, maybe most impor-
tantly, to transform yourself.
But why transform? Why agility?
Digitization offers new ways of doing business and enables disruption
across the market. It does provide a threat. At the same time, there is
opportunity. Not only for startups. Startups have a few bright minds with
creative ideas. How many bright minds does your organization have?
Many believe they cannot compete with startups but the reality proves
different. Medium-sized and large corporations can compete. They even
have advantages over startups. Many more bright minds, brand recogni-
tion, access to capital and customers, to name a few. The conditions are
excellent. Yet many large organizations are being overtaken by faster com-
petitors with far less horsepower under the hood. This is because large
organizations struggle to get their horsepower on the road. They struggle
to reinvent themselves, to adapt.
If only …
Do you have the feeling you could achieve so much more for the organiza-
tion, for the customer, by filling in the if only blanks?
Does the organization utilize the many eyes and ears on the market? Do
they take advantage of the large amounts of data they possess or could
access? Are they able to use the company’s – most of all human – resources
to sense opportunities, make the right decisions and get the job done fast
to secure a footprint before the new path is crowded?
Is your team able to take a difference? Is your team motivated and inspired
to go beyond filling roles and doing jobs? Is your team equipped and em-
powered to use its collective capacity to focus on value creation, improve-

19. 18 | Foreword and Introduction
ment and advancement? Is your team empowered to take charge in solving
issues and generating solutions? To not only meet customer needs but also
exceed expectations and inspire the customer for more? Could and would
the team be able to fill in the if only blanks?
There are plenty of examples: The company, your team, you probably do
a lot of things right. But are you doing the right thing? Can you? Are you
equipped and empowered? And would you be rewarded? Creating the right
culture is about filling in the »if only« blanks.
To help with that, this book provides a framework of an agile organiza-
tional culture, the TEC model. With all the complexity of the collaboration
between people – of company culture – there are connections and mech-
anisms that offer an orientation for one’s own behavior and the effort to
create an agile culture. The book clarifies the underlying logic and laws of
the agile culture and thus shows ways how culture can be formed, disrupt-
ed and grow.
The book will guide you through the elements of an agile culture step by
step. Examples and guides, as well as collections of hacks, are there to help
organizations, teams and individuals to actively contribute to building the
best version of the company’s future self.
Developing and changing a culture is something we can all do.
Regardless of where you are in an organization, you are part of the system,
part of the culture. Sometimes, a handful of internal activists or just one or
two teams who live a principle are enough to initialize change on a broad
level. Often it is the small things that have a big impact.
This book aims to motivate, inspire and equip its readers to take the trans-
formation into their own hands. Regardless of where you sit in the orga-
nization, you can be the one who starts the fire, you can be part of the

20. Foreword and Introduction | 19
engine of the transformation, you can be the one with the ideas or the
one who connects the right people, or you can hold the steering wheel for
your area.

22. 1.
At the Heart of Organizational
Agility

23. 22 | At the Heart of Organizational Agility
»[…] you need to have good agility to move your feet quick and be in the
right place at the right time.«
Michelle Carter, Olympics women’s champion
Our tayloristic models of the past and vast present are not made for agility.
In the tayloristic world, perfect structures and processes exist, and orga-
nizations are built as a highly efficient machine to deliver the company’s
products or services. Even if the output changes, it is still a seductive
thought to just improve within those walls and structures till the company
machine is perfectly capable to execute a new strategy.
What happens if we cannot define the ideal output in advance? If a strate-
gy is subject to constant course corrections and change? If the complexity
exceeds the capability of a handful of strategic minds at the top? If the
place at the top of the pyramid is suddenly too far away from the ground,
too isolated from the company’s environment? Too detached from the eco-
system?
What has been the stable skeleton, guarantor of efficiency and quality of
the organization starts to turn into limiting shackles: centralized deci-
sion-making, thinking and functioning in silos, separating thinking and
executing, focusing on alignment and safeguarding the existent, to name
a few.
Centralized control, centralized decision-making, reducing the rest of the
organization – the edges that face the customer, that move in the market-
places where success is decided, that master their trades – to subordinates
that are left unable to react to changing circumstances. The ability to react
quickly is compromised. Before reactions are triggered at the top, a lot of
signals from the bottom have to jump hierarchic and bureaucratic hurdles,
in the hope that one makes it through the information filters on the way
to the top. Even if enough signals and messages make it through, reactions
are slowed down and watered down by countless information and decision

24. At the Heart of Organizational Agility | 23
channels. Once the decision – detached from the original problem – arrives,
it is often greeted by skepticism, passive resistance and the usual slow,
slow wheels of change.
Today’s fast changing and increasingly complex and connected world does
make it impossible to identify the ideal output in advance. It is not pos-
sible to define a ten-year strategy, adjust some screws and switch points,
and then lean back and switch on the company machine.
So, what do companies need to do differently? Although widely preached,
simply »becoming agile« is not a solution. Becoming agile is not a goal.
The goal is to find a solution to stay competitive in today’s markets. It is
about transforming the company to its better, future-proof self.
The answer does not lie in the question what companies need to do dif-
ferently. Companies need to be different: The organizational machine is a
thing of the past.
Organizational Agility
»I can’t wait for people to wake up to the fact that the only good parts of
Agile are just basic common sense […]«
Luke Halliwell, ex-game developer 2008
Organizations today need to be alert, versatile and nimble. They need to
be able to adapt and, furthermore, to be able to think several steps ahead.
They need to be smart. And quick. It is organizational agility that is likely
to be helpful, or even required, to realize a company’s new solution for
securing its existence.
Organizational agility can be described as the capability and willingness
for rapid reactions to changing circumstances by adapting. The Agile Al-
liance adds to the basic definition by incorporating sensing of change:
»Business agility is the ability of an organization to sense changes inter-

25. 24 | At the Heart of Organizational Agility
nally or externally and respond accordingly in order to deliver value to
its customers.« What that means for the organization is more explicit in
McKinsey & Company’s definition: »the ability to quickly reconfigure strat-
egy, structure, processes, people, and technology toward value-creating
and value-protecting opportunities.«
A global survey by The Economist (Economist Intelligence Unit) showed as
early as 2009 that nine out of ten executives believe that organizational
agility is a critical factor for business success. Newer surveys confirm the
picture (e.g. by the Project Management Institute in 2015 or the Global
Center for Digital Business Transformation in 2017, several McKinsey sur-
veys in recent years).
There is also a body of diverse international studies that clearly shows the
benefit of and prove a correlation between organizational agility and busi-
ness performance as summarized by Joiner (2018) in an academic article:
Greater agility in companies is associated with greater success: market
share, revenue growth, profitability and customer satisfaction.
To reach those benefits, as mentioned, it is not enough for a company to
do things differently. Companies have to be different for one reason: Orga-
nizational agility requires a heartbeat.
The heartbeat makes the organization a living organism. An organism that
lives in constant interaction with its environment that is connected to its
ecosystem. The heartbeat keeps the blood moving, delivers the oxygen
where needed. The organism is mobile, shifts its weight with ease quickly
from one foot to the other, keeps adapting to stay ahead.
How the organism behaves, how it functions, is defined by its culture.
There we are. At the heart of organizational agility.

26. At the Heart of Organizational Agility | 25
Few common rules seem to apply broadly when it comes to achieving or-
ganizational agility. Looking at cases of born-agile or transformed orga-
nizations, there seem to be the following three conditions that can be
generalized.
Three general conditions for the agile organization
An inspiring vision and/or purpose with a long-term orientation that is
connected tightly to delighting customers.
A culture that focuses on value creation, nurtures ownership and
entrepreneurship, flexibility and innovation.
A structure and governance that allows dynamism in sensing and exploring
chances, executing accordingly, and fast.
At the heart of sustainable organizational agility lies an agile company
culture. Culture is trigger, creator, enabler and stabilizer for organizational
agility. However, if impediments are ignored and structure, as well as gov-
ernance, play against an agile culture, it will not survive. Make no mistake:
Without an enabling structure and governance, organizational agility can-
not be achieved. It definitely comes second.
Reviews from well-known sources such as the Fortune magazine or McK-
insey (Kimes 2009; Aronowitz, De Smet & McGinty 2015) conclude that the
most successful (in the case of Fortune, their most admired) agile com-
panies have surprisingly little in common in their organizational design.
Thus, for an organization, culture remains at the heart of a transformation.
From there, governance, regulations and even structure grow organically.
The resulting ideal organizational setup is as individual as the culture.

27. 26 | At the Heart of Organizational Agility
There is broad agreement in the literature that the most important and at
the same time biggest challenge in an agile transformation is company cul-
ture. Even on a project or pilot base, a culture that does not support agile
ways of working is also one of the most frequent reasons that individual
agile projects fail, as the Project Management Institute (PMI) points out.
A culture transformation that triggers, allows and supports the right mind-
set is a must for an agile transformation. To say it with McKinsey (Brosseau
2019), »The importance of investing in culture and change on the journey
to agility cannot be overstated. Agile is, above all, a mind-set.«
Drawing a conclusion: Organizational agility is achieved by forming and
living a culture where people are inspired, energized and enabled, po-
tential is utilized, and responsibility is shared. Eyes lie on the customer.
Structures emerge, are reviewed and adapted continuously, around moti-
vated people, to enable and foster high performance as a result of culture.

28. Agile Leadership
Agile leadership is considered the modern miracle cure. Hardly any executive gets
past this topic. Yet in many places this topic is nothing more than a buzzword.
Unfortunately - because agile leadership is a valuable tool that can be acquired
and applied by every manager.
What does agile leadership mean in the context of digital transformation? How
does it change leadership responsibility and style? How can agile leadership
competence be developed in everyday life? How do you become an agile leader
driving transformation?
Puckett and Neubauer`s book provides answers to these questions. It looks
beneath the surface and shows evidence-based which competencies and
personality traits distinguish agile leaders, and how they can be acquired. This
is complemented by the perspective of how agile leadership can be successfully
implemented. Agile leadership must be authentic and connect. It all too often
fails due to the existing environment or resistance from others. Pragmatically,
the book shows how this resistance can be overcome and how the transformation
of the organization can succeed.
This book is based on decades of work with leaders and organizations, and a
scientifically substantiated behavior-oriented competency model.
It focuses on how learning agile leadership helps to use our existing strengths,
competencies and experiences to become fit for the future.
»I consider this book a ‘Must Have’ for all current and future leaders.«
Michael Wade, Professor at IMD, Director of the Global Center for Digital Business Transformation
Dr. Stefanie Puckett, Dr. Rainer M. Neubauer
Agile Leadership
Leadership Competencies
for the Agile Transformation
1. Auflage 2020
298 Seiten; Broschur; 34,95 Euro
ISBN 978-3-86980-554-2; Art.-Nr.: 1113
www.BusinessVillage.de