Developing the capability to adapt requires more than traditional top-down command and control leadership because it relies on people thinking and acting at all levels of the organisation. The challenges include:
The answer is a target operating model that supports the need to control both predictable and emergent value ways of working simultaneously.
It's not an Agile TOM, nor a traditional TOM. It's a combination that balances the unique value-adding activities of the organisation.
Digital age and technology-savvy firms developed out of collaboration and experimentation, which has given them an unfair advantage in fast-changing and highly regulated markets. In terms of the science of management, they recognise that value often emerges spontaneously, rather than assuming that value is always predictable and can be planned for.
Plan-driven control is appropriate for most activities, but fails horribly when applied to emergent tasks such as new product development, understanding requirements, and designing solutions. Design thinking, Agile ways of working, or research methodologies are needed in those situations but - and here's where most TOMs fail - they have to co-operate with plan-driven methods.
That is what the Taoist symbol of yin-yang represents; shifting forces that compete and oppose each other, yet combine to make something greater than either part.
Russ Lewis' book describes a simple model that reveals the parts of organisations that are normally hidden, but actually determine its performance.
It is one of the few books about Agile that was actually written for managers.
Malcolm Gladwell tells the story of David and Goliath as an unfair contest with odds stacked against the giant. Shepherd David with his simple but precise sling shot isn’t the bravest of King Saul’s men but the one who recognises the deadly disadvantage of an unwieldy, heavily armour-clad, sword-bearing infantryman in one-on-one combat. Gladwell is […]
There is a workplace evolution underway, lots of people are signalling it. Dan Pink came-up with the label ‘Motivation 3.0’ in Drive; Jurgen Appelo followed suit with ‘Management 3.0’; and many of us speak of a move towards a Lean or Agile enterprise. Earlier this year, Frederic Laloux published Reinventing Organisations in which he not […]
Microsoft killed Wiki on Teams - who knew they would delete our data too - here's how to restore it
