A very brief introduction to the why what and how of organisational agility; it's not just IT!

1. ORGANISATIONAL
AGILITY
The Why? What? And How?
Andy Smith Get Agile Consulting Limited

2. WHAT’S CHANGED?
In the 20th Century
• Lengthy Product Cycles
• Rules and regulations are respected
• Competition means 15-20% cheaper on a similar
product
• Specialised workforce, likely to be in same
industry until retirement
• Price-driven economy controlled by regulations
• Bureaucratic, Adversarial, Siloed Departments
• Hierarchical Organisationss, Command & Control
Management
In the 21st Century
• Fast Feedback & Innovation
• Rules and regulations are disrupted (Uber, AirBnB)
• Competition is irrelevant – watch out for
disruption
• Millennial knowledge workers likely to change
jobs 4 times by age 32
• Vibrant consumer oriented market economy
• Collaborative, Cooperative, Competencies within
Teams
• Flat Organisations, Servant Leaders

3. WHAT’S CHANGED?
In the 20th Century
• Lengthy Product Cycles
• Rules and regulations are respected
• Competition means 15-20% cheaper on a similar
product
• Specialised workforce, likely to be in same
industry until retirement
• Price-driven economy controlled by regulations
• Bureaucratic, Adversarial, Siloed Departments
• Hierarchical Organisations, Command & Control
Management
In the 21st Century
• Fast Feedback & Innovation
• Rules and regulations are disrupted (Uber, AirBnB)
• Competition is irrelevant – watch out for
disruption
• Millennial knowledge workers likely to change
jobs 4 times by age 32
• Vibrant consumer oriented market economy
• Collaborative, Cooperative, Competencies within
Teams
• Flat Organisations, Servant Leaders, cross
functional, multi-disciplinary teams

4. WHY WORRY?
In the 20th Century In the 21st Century
1958 = 61, 1965 = 33, 1980 = 25, 2012 = 18, 2026 = 14? …….. the average tenure (years) of S&P 500 listed companies

5. WHY WORRY?
In the 20th Century In the 21st Century
1958 = 61, 1965 = 33, 1980 = 25, 2012 = 18, 2026 = 14? …….. the average tenure (years) of S&P 500 listed companies
Volatility Uncertainty
Complexity Ambiguity

6. Organisational Agility
Agile organisations and
business units reported
achieving both stability and
dynamism; building better
products faster
WHAT CAN WE DO?
“Start-Up”
28%
Agile 22%
Trapped 23%
Bureaucratic
27%
DynamicPractices
(i.e.thosethatenable
speed,responsiveness
andadaptation) Stable Practices
(i.e. those that enable efficiency,
reliability & scale)Source
McKinsey Global Survey “How to create an agile organisation” 2017

7. WHAT IS ORGANISATIONAL
AGILITY?
• A way of getting better results from IT
• Doing Scrum
• One size fits all
• Just for the unicorns
• Only relevant for high tech companies
• A passing fad
A change in the mind-set and culture of an organisation that
opens the door to better ways of working for all

8. HOW DO WE GET THERE?
CXO
Finance
Legal
IT Dev
IT Ops
&c.
Culture
Better
Products
Faster
It is Culture that holds the organisation together like a very strong
elastic band

9. HOW DO WE GET THERE?Culture
CXO
Finance
Legal
IT Ops
&c.
IT Dev
Better
Products
Faster
But Culture can hold us back, take the pressure off and Culture will
snap the organisation back into shape

10. HOW DO WE GET THERE?
CXO
Finance
Legal
IT Dev
IT Ops
&c.
Culture
Better
Products
Faster
But is we all push Culture harmoniously, from top to bottom, then
we can achieve a smooth Cultural shift with minimal friction

11. HOW DO WE DO THAT?
Before
• HR Department
• Departments
• Projects
• IT Groups, Dev, Test, Deploy, Ops
• Product Management, BA, Sales
• Customers
• Business Support Groups, Legal,
Marketing, Finance, Sales etc.
• Delivery Silos, Define, Design, Build, Test,
Deploy
After
• Cross Functional Product Teams
Define the Right Thing}
• Lean | Agile People Operations
• Competencies
• Products
• Cross Functional Control Tribes
Define the Thing Right
• Cross Functional Delivery Teams
Build the Right Thing Right

12. DELIVERING WHAT IS NEEDED –
PREDICTIVE VERSUS EMPIRICALDefined / Predictive (Waterfall)
plan upfront and manage to the
plan
Empirical (Agile)
continually inspect and adapt
based on the emerging reality
Plan and all
requirements
Goals and some
priority
requirements
Initial Target
Initial Target
 What is really needed
 Goals met
 Just enough features
 Consider Cutting the Tail
 Value Released Incrementally
 Everything that was asked for
× What was really needed
Frequent inspect-adapt points
£££
£
£
£
£
££
× Everything that was asked for

13. Failed to Adapt
Integrated
Digital with
Legacy
Embraced
Digital and
Adapted
WHAT CAN GO WRONG?
• Commit top down, middle out and bottom
up to Cultural transformation
• Pay particular attention to the “frozen”
middle
• Adopt and promote ‘Agile’ contract
models
• It’s an ‘everyone’ thing
• Hire a Transformation Coach and build an
internal coaching capability
• Just in time, at point of need, train it, coach
it and mentor it
• Fix that before you try to adopt Agile, this is
where an enthused HR team can really help
GE, the only surviving member of the original Dow Jones Index of 1896, is reasserting its pre-eminence by
reinventing itself in the context of the newly emerging digital space. Harvard Business Review, Feb 28th 2016

14. WHAT CAN GO WRONG? (AND
HOW CAN WE AVOID THAT?)
× Company Philosophy or Culture at Odds
with Agile Values
× Lack of Management Support
× External Pressure to Follow Traditional
Waterfall Processes
× Treating it as “an IT thing”
× Lack of experience with Agile methods and
how to adopt outside IT
× Insufficient training
× A Broader Organizational or
Communications Problem
• Commit top down, middle out and bottom
up to Cultural transformation
• Pay particular attention to the “frozen”
middle
• Adopt and promote ‘Agile’ contract
models
• It’s an ‘everyone’ thing
• Hire a Transformation Coach and build an
internal coaching capability
• Just in time, at point of need, train it, coach
it and mentor it
• Fix that before you try to adopt Agile, this is
where an enthused HR team can really help
GE, the only surviving member of the original Dow Jones Index of 1896, is reasserting its pre-eminence by
reinventing itself in the context of the newly emerging digital space. Harvard Business Review, Feb 28th 2016

15. IS IT HEALTHY?

16. PROGRESS & COLLABORATION =
ENGAGEMENT = PRODUCTIVITY
Daily
Agile teams make visible progress
every day and collaborate constantly
to produce valuable outcomes
76% (53%)
76% of employees who took part in a
multi year study by HBS cited ‘Making
visible progress’ as a reason for
having a good day at work.
(53% said ‘Collaborating with others’
made coming to work a pleasure)
50%
The happiest employees in the
organisation are 50% more
productive than their less engaged
peers
Why would you limit this benefit to your IT department?

17. DIFFERENTIATING THE MOST AGILE
1. Shared Vision & Purpose
2. Actionable Strategic Guidance
3. Sensing and seizing opportunities
4. Flexible resource allocation
5. Action-oriented decision architecture
6. Fit-for-purpose accountable cells
7. Active partnerships and ecosystem
8. Open physical and virtual environment
9. Standardized ways of working
10. Fail Fast in Safety
11. Top Down, Bottom Up and Middle Out
12. Performance Orientation
13. Rapid iteration and experimentation
14. Information transparency
15. Continuous learning
16. Shared and servant leadership
17. Cohesive community
18. Entrepreneurial drive
19. Role mobility
20. Technology, systems, and tools
Top 20 Organisational Agility Practices

18. IS IT WORTH IT?Just One Example – Salesforce.com
Within the first year of implementing Scrum, Steve Greene VP,
Program Management and Chris Fry VP, Platform & Core
Development realized a
• 94% increase in overall feature development
• 38% increase in features per developer
• 500% increase in value delivered to end users
Within the ensuing two years, revenue more than doubled.
Note: The first four reasons for success ARE the primary principals
and values of Agile
Top Five Reasons for Success
User Involvement
Executive Management Support
Clear Business Objectives
Optimising Scope
Agile Practices
 1.
 2.
 3.
 4.
 5.
Agile organisations
80% - Report Performance
Improvement
70% - rank in the top quartile for
Organisational Health Index
scores (McKinsey)

19. Follow Principles
Innovate
Share
Knowledge
Manage
Portfolio
Measure
Achievement
Communicate
Vision & Mission
Anticipate &
Respond to
Change
Fast Decision
Making Based
on Trust
Q&A
THANK YOU
07970811605
ANDY.SMITH@GETAGILECONSULTING.COM
Agility
Plan
Do
Inspect
Adapt