2. One person’s journey
toward Lean-Agile
Scott Downs
Vice President
Enterprise Agility Advisory
Temenos+Agility
3. Where have I come from?
• New York
• Chicago
• Tokyo
• London
• JPMorgan
• Citibank
• PA Consulting
• Capco
• Axialent
• nowhere
4. What kind of work have I done?
• Banker
• Chief operating officer
• Consultant
• Entrepreneur
• Helping leaders plan and execute a strategy
5. What challenges did we face?
How to become an investment bank
How to weave technology and people
How to streamline complex processes
How to manage the balance of local and global
How to to disrupt competitors
How to focus on both customer and product
How to move faster
How to move faster?
6. What leadership principles did I
once work with?
• The leader’s job was to have a strategy and a plan
• The leader’s job was to see accurately far ahead
• We could help make the plan, but the leader was
ultimately responsible
• The leader knows best
• The leader’s job is to control and direct
7. What leadership principles did I
once work with? continued…
• Success depended on setting medium-term goals and
achieving them
• Success depends on locking people in to their
medium-term goals – that’s accountability!
• People’s most important relationship is with their boss
• Key values: foresight and control
8. How did we do?
It seemed very hard to make progress
We felt overwhelmed by complexity
Sometimes we succeeded long-term
… sometimes not so much
Almost all the organisations are radically changed
We pretended we knew the answers, but we
almost never did
9. What have I learned?
The most successful organisations are the
ones who learn and change the fastest
• Being close to the customer
• Tapping the skills and insights of people
• … who do the work…
• … who know the customers
• … and the products first hand
• Being intentional learners
10. Enter Lean and Agile
• Cadence for working in short cycles
• Having a big vision … and …
• Delivering fast in small increments
• Constantly delivering value
• Learning fast, adapting fast - with the customer
• Releasing the creative power of great teams …
• Always getting better
11. Cadence and process are
important…
and …
bringing them to life requires a new
way of being with people
12. Enter Temenos
• Creating and holding safe containers
• Trusting each other
• Sharing deep truths
• Being humble and vulnerable
• Learning and co-creating together
• Including everyone
13. A new way of leading
• No heroic leader can predict the future
• We need collective wisdom and learning
• We need patterns that help us deliver fast, learn fast
• These patterns only work when we value people
• This way is a great way of being human
• … and a very successful way of doing business!