10 Components for a Successful Self-Management Transformation
There are 10 essential components for a self-management transformation: (1) transparency (2) no hierarchy (3) teams (4) no privileges (5) salary balance (6) no controls (7) measure & track (8) shared decision-making (9) no layoffs (10) profit share
Cynefin Lego Game
“A game to let you experience four of the five domains of Dave Snowden’s Cynefin framework” The Cynefin framework is used to help decision makers to understand the domain, they are operating in. It offers for contexts: simple, complicated, complex, chaotic, and disorder. They offer a “sense of place” from which to analyze behavior and decide how to act in similar situations (see also the close relation with the Stacey Matrix mentioned in the post Stacey Matrix – adapted to software development). In general it is important to know what type of system you are dealing with. Playing the Cynefin Lego Game shows you how to decode what is happening…
Cross-Functional People
We must get away from the idea people are silos. Just because people are experts, they must not do it all alone. Cross-functional teams require cross-functional people, who are able to contribute critical questions beyond their core expertise. It is the key to focus and robustness. Subject matter experts are silos – subject matter expertise needs to be shared. If experts are leaving, the subject stays. If you are not able to close the gap from within your organization, expertise needs to be bought from the outside. Experts from the outside do not know anything about the culture in your organization – but they will affect it. Others will be…
Stopping the Enterprise Death Spiral with Mob Programming
“Let’s say you are at a company with 10 people; price’s law states that approximately 3 people will be responsible for half of the productivity of value. Scale that out to 100 and now it’s 10 people who are responsible for half the productivity of value. Now scale that to 10,000 and you have 100 people responsible for half the productivity of value.” A finding that goes hand-in-hand with many examples of Pareto Distribution (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pareto_distribution). So what to do about it? Give power to small teams! Develop cross functionality, build in quality from the beginning, and increase competency and team performance. Mob programming is an agile practice, which can help…
Experiment Together. Improve Together. Win Together
“An organization that establishes safety as a prerequisite and experiments together, will improve together, and win together.”
Dare the impossible: Cross-functional teams with end to end ownership
A write up of some exciting and astonishing discussions experienced in the Meetup "Dare the impossible: Cross-functional teams with end to end ownership" of the Agile Munich group.
Why Diverse Teams Are Smarter
In recent years a body of research has revealed another, more nuanced benefit of workplace diversity: nonhomogenous teams are simply smarter. Working with people who are different from you may challenge your brain to overcome its stale ways of thinking and sharpen its performance. Let’s dig into why diverse teams are smarter. [button url=”https://hbr.org/2016/11/why-diverse-teams-are-smarter” target=”_blank” size=”small” icon=”external-link”]Open Article[/button]
How to Involve Your Team in Creating Vision and Strategy
One of the biggest mistakes leaders make is thinking they are supposed to have all the answers, especially when it comes to vision. There is a natural desire to look like you are smart and know what you’re doing. But sometimes the smartest thing you can do is to involve your team in creating vision and strategy and invite them to think together about the future. You don’t need to have it all figured out before you talk about it. In fact, it’s better if you don’t. This amazing article from Seapoint Center gives eight guidelines to involve your team in creating vision and strategy. [button url=”https://seapointcenter.com/involve-your-team-in-creating-vision/” target=”_blank” size=”small” icon=”external-link”]Open…
Out of sight, out of mind? 5 Virtual Team Building Activities
65% of remote employees report that they never had a team building session. Having co-workers spread across two or more locations is becoming a model more and more organization will have to adapt to. Stop hesitating, but look for ways to cope with co-located colleagues in a better way. Here are some virtual team building activities that make the seemingly impossible task of getting and keeping remote employees bonded and easier to reach. [button url=”https://www.teambonding.com/5-team-bondingtips-for-remote-employees/” target=”_blank” size=”small” icon=”external-link”]Open Article[/button]
Agile Organizational Transformation – Mind the People
When talking about agile and agility, we should not forget that we are talking a lot about culture, values, and identity. Irrespective if we start an agile transition from top to bottom or from bottom to top, we need to understand that we have to take a lot of people with us. For many it is a big adventure, as their system, which helped them to achieve stability and reliance is questioned to some degree. We ask them to trust people, with whom they probably never have worked with and where they are lacking a fundamental understanding of their needs and objectives. Learning by Doing I am trying to foster…
Teams – the fundament for the agile way
When we start to become more agile, we start to look at the mindset of people and how they collaborate. We are considering teams to be the fundament for growth and success. Conformity is no objective at all, contribution of individual talents to a group is what we strive for. Where diversity meets collaboration, you can really claim to work the agile way.
John Kotter on why directors should embrace volatility
“The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers… They change things. They push the human race forward.” “The world has seen enough appointed committees. Then there’s bureaucracy, rigid accountability, metrics that measure certain things that are relevant right now but discourage people from trying new things.” ~ John P. Kotter
The Future Of Leadership In The Workplace
When it comes to the future of the workplace, the only safe prediction is to say that it will be different from today—more different than most of us can imagine.
