Abstract: Thinking seriously, as an agillist would you consider helping a whole organization or area at once? Would you pilot with
100 people at first hand? And how about to move almost
1.000 people, in 8 floors within a month? Yes, sounds kind of chaotic, but sometimes **it’s the best way of doing it!
As agilists and lovers of inspecting and adapt mindset, it’s in our DNA that we must start small and grow organically. And it’s actually the way we have seen organizations done (doing) it. But what if small means 70+ teams with basic key discipline and practices that bases the culture and help them flourish? What if it could work? What are the pre-reqs for it?
Well, with a direct request from a
CEO and the board we were challenged to have a whole building adopt Agile as the new way of work. Limited time, limited team and a fair amount of resistance, none of the Agile@Scale approaches we considered were enough to be sure it could work. *Actually, it almost did not work… *
In this talk, we'll bring a complete case study (in Latin America within Telecom Industry) that we could live this challenge/experience over the year (2017). We will share how we aligned the client leadership across all levels, from c-level executives to the agile teams, creating a single view around core values and principles which allowed the teams to thrive and to create value.
The program was based on the following work streams and core areas:
1. Organizational re-design based on value streams and end-to-end structures
2. Pilot of 6 months within 9 agile teams across 3 communities/tribes
3. Logistic and infrastructure program assuring all the physical changes, including moving almost
1.000 people in 8 floors 4. Change management involving HR and operations as well as
mentoring and coaching from the c-levels to the teams 5. Training and capability building with focus on the leadership and middle management
6. Re-design the organizational strategic planning, implementing a
QBR (Quarter Business Review) and
OKR approach 7. Created a concept called
"Agile Nest", 2 entire floors built as an incubator, to improve the agile team's maturity based on waves
More about the numbers involving this case:
- 72 new end-to-end teams from 3 core business units
- 7 value stream-oriented communities/tribes putting business and IT working together
- 20+ chapters / CoEs
- Several teams with no developer on it, based completely on business operations areas
- ... all of them set up in a month, based on a few core values and principles and then started their own journey on being agile
Although we were very skeptical about if it could work, we were decided to take the risk. And after a number of failures (or learnings), we could see it working and creating value.
Learning Outcomes: - To learn and think in different perspectives when approaching an enterprise digital adoption or agile “transformation”
- To have a different views of what should work and what shouldn't when it comes to adoptions at scale
- Thinking on different ways to shape the culture around teams
- Agile is a means, not an end. Keep the values and principles, adapt the practices
- In what areas or value streams agile will not help you in the beginning?
- What are the role of the leadership in a transformation such this?
- How to align an entire organisation through purpose and goals?
