Session Title: Business Agility with Scaled Agile Thinking Session Overview: Business agility requires scaled lean and agile thinking, more than just scaled lean and agile practices. Change must be bootstrapped in order to manage the tension between the need to align the organization to the strategic commitment of becoming an agile business and the aim to create organization-wide engagement. From the top down, this requires new ways of teaching and coaching that instil new ways of thinking more than just doing. From the bottom up, this new way of thinking must inspire (contagious) action, not just talk.

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Business agility
September2018
patrick.steyaert@okaloa.com
Scaled agile thinking

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Agile that begets agile
An organization is only agile to the
extent that it autonomously tends
towards more agility.
“

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Life begets life
The chicken or the egg?

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legitimate need
e.g. shorten the
time to market
e.g. what to build for
whom and why?
e.g. people working
together in
autonomous teams

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Less legitimate Bandwagon effect
a self-reinforcing loop that fuels the agile industry
Others are adopting
popular agile method.
We must adopt
popular agile method
also!
R

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Side effects
Or, the consequences of our own decisions?
nasty

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What makes a great team
Strategy
Tactics
Scores Skills
? ?
? ?

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Looking at the whole
Context
Autonomy
Social
intuition
BUSINESS AGILITY
Principles &
practices
feedback
rational
individual

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On the practical side …
Strategy &
organization
Teaching &
coaching
Portfolio

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Principles and practices
means to an end
Outcome
Principles
& practices
produces
Context
constrains/enables

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Portfolio kanban
A cornerstone of business agility
Image courtesy of

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Using System dynamics
Stock
Inflow Outflow
R B
delay delay
Oscillation
stock
S-curve
stock
Exponential
stock
Goal-seeking
stock

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Flow of work
Rate of starting work Rate of finishing work
S-curve
WIP
R
Exponential
WIP
Blocked
work
+
+
B
Goal-seeking
WIP
Pull
options
+
+
WIP*
c
WIP limit
*Work in progress

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Modeling end-to-end flow
Overburdening
(lack of supply)
+
+
Starvation
(lack of demand)
-
+
Rate of creating options Rate of exercising options
Options
inventory
upstream downstream
Oscillation
delay delay

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Oscillating demand
And the effect on capability
Capacity
Demand
Excess capacity
(starvation)
Lack of capacity
(overburdening)

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WIP Limit
Order point
CAP Token
Market place
Triage
Agile portfolio management
Incommensurable
demand
Team End-to-end Multi-team Multi-customer Portfolio
Conflicting
demand
Over-
burdening
Fluctuating
demand
Heterogenous
capability
Going Beyond the obvious

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feedback
Knowledge discovery Across the value stream
Viability
Feasibility
Desirability
FEEDBACK
How does it impact users?
How can we solve the problem?
Discover
(tension)
Divergence Convergence
One of many
options
Design
(concept)
Convergence
One of few
options
Divergence
Convergence
Embedded
options
Develop
(product)
Divergence
What is the problem or opportunity?
business
Deliver
(solution)
Minimum Viable Product (MVP)
Test / Experiment
Spike

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feedback
PLANS
Planned
change
Outcome-oriented
change
ACTION OUTCOME
Idealistic
change
Feedback
Feedback
Feedback
STRATEGY

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Friction
… getting an organization made
up of individuals, to pursue a
collective goal produces friction
just as surely as applying the
brakes of a car.
Stephen Bungay, The art of action
“ “ Effects gap Knowledge gap
Alignment gap
ACTION PLANS
OUTCOMES

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Autonomy

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Externally enabled system
AB
A
B
produces
constrains/enables
Boundary
conditions

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Self-enabled systems
AB
A
B
BA
producesproduces
enables
enables

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Autonomous Capabilities
• Specific ability
• that is truly distinctive,
• self-enabled, and
• can produce a wide variety of performances
depending on (evolving) circumstances

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Constraints that enable
Rover
Team A
Team B

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Enabling constraints
Patterns of
play
Small area
game
produces
Rover
enables

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Developing organizational capabilities
Patterns of
collaboration
Work produces
WIP limit
enables

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Mutually enabling capabilities
CollaborationFlow producesproduces
enables
enables
Work
Collaboration
Policies
Flow
Policies

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Capabilities first, practices second
Outcome
Principles
& practices
produces
Context
Interacting
capabilities
Flow
Collaboration
Learning

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Thinking about thinking
The divided mindRational brain
The rider
Intuitive brain
The elephant
Rational reasoning is (slow)
conscious, verbal thought using
models and logic
Thinking is intuitive as well as
rational
Intuition is (fast) unconscious
matching to patterns formed by past
experience
Jonathan Haidt, The Righteous Mind

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Intuitions first, Reasoning second*
Its hard to reason oneself into new behavior
past
experience
intuition judgement reasoningUnfolding
events
*Jonathan Haidt, The Righteous Mind
Strong feedforward
Weak feedback

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Thinking is social, not just individual
Social intuition model*
A’s
intuition
A’s
judgement
A’s
reasoning
B’s
intuition
B’s
judgement
B’s
reasoning
*Jonathan Haidt, The Righteous Mind
Past
experience
Unfolding
events

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$
$
$
Designing experiences,
More than rational explanation
Using simulation that goes through the full learning loop to
create a shared experience and catalyse change!

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Why Business agility?
Business agility is needed not just
because we need agile methods to cope
with the accelerating pace of change.
No, it is needed because we cannot
keep pace despite the agile methods
available to us.”
“

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Thank you@PatrickSteyaert @OkaloaFlowlab
More info about Okaloa Flowlab at www.okaloa.com/flowlab
Or join our Business Agility training at www.okaloa.com/business-agility-training

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CONTACT DETAILS t +32 473 56 50 98
t +32 477 79 12 98
arlette.vercammen@okaloa.com
patrick.steyaert@okaloa.com
@OkaloaFlowlab
@PatrickSteyaert