This document discusses improving organizations beyond team-level agility. It argues that while agile practices at the team level have benefits, they have limited impact without broader organizational changes. The document advocates for redefining value more broadly across the organization, enriching teams through more customer interaction, upgrading management practices, and using Scrum to inspect and adapt organization-wide. This would help organizations design value-creating ecosystems and move to higher architecture types with benefits like multi-team learning, whole-product focus, and reduced complexity.

2. CAN FAKING
A CHANGE
HAVE VALUE?
(yes)

3. ORG CHANGE?

4. https://www.craiglarman.com/wiki/index.php?tit
le=Larman%27s_Laws_of_Organizational_Be
havior

5. "The research results are clear:
[for a real change to happen]
the solutions must come
from within the organization.”
-- Dr. Kotter

7. Our research question at #OrgTopologies:
HOW TO MAKE
ORGANIZATIONS
OWN THE CHANGE?

8. Alexey
Krivitsky
Roland
Flemm

9. IT HAS BEEN 22 YEARS SINCE
THE ‘AGILE’ AS A BRAND WAS INVENTED.
ARE WE THERE, YET?
WHAT HAVE WE LEARNED?

10. IT IS POSSIBLE TO IMPROVE HOW TEAMS WORK!..
https://gds.blog.gov.uk/2016/09/
01/using-mob-programming-to-
solve-a-problem/

11. managers
objectives
IT
…AND WAY HARDER TO IMPROVE THE MGMT SYSTEMS
"management by objectives"

12. DEMING HAD A POINT
#11 Eliminate management by objectives.
1. Look at how the process is carried out, not just
numerical targets. Production targets encourage
high output and low quality.
2. Provide support and resources so that production
levels and quality are high and achievable.
3. Measure the process rather than the people behind
the process.

15. And redefined to mean team-level improvements.
But there is a value in that change too, right?
It has opened the door for more change.
AGILE HAS BEEN FAKED

16. Who is doing the work? And what work is it?
Data scientists
Search team
Mobile team with backend devs
Customer retention
How do you know you’re in A?
What’s the state of perfection?
Anyone in B or C?
Shared language
Stop talking frameworks
Org Scans™ can show snapshots of org design over
time

17. TEAMS CAN ABSORB COMPLEXITY AND ACQUIRE KNOWLEDGE FASTER
AGILE WAVE #1: INDIVIDUAL WORK -> TEAMWORK

19. Where is your organization on the
map?
How do you know? Signs?
Symptoms?
Where is your organization
improving toward?

20. 1. Multi-disciplinary work
2. Shorter lead times
3. Faster feedback
4. Focus on customer value
5. Less management overhead
AGILE AT TEAM-LEVEL PROMISES:
REMEMBER THIS LIST!

24. 1. Multi-disciplinary work
2. Shorter lead times
3. Faster feedback
4. Focus on customer value
5. Less management overhead
LIMITED IMPACT OF TEAM-LEVEL AGILITY
More of the same won’t be generating the same high value forever.
No matter how good the teams and team-level practices are.
REMEMBER THIS LIST?

25. IS AGILE DEAD? OR TEAM-LEVEL AGILE WAS NOT ENOUGH?
2001-2023

26. https://www.orgtopologies.com/post/set-free-the-
caged-cheetah-stagnated-agile-and-productization-
as-a-way-out

27. AGILE IS A TEAM SPORT?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cr2rjaGmUzo&ab_channel=MichaelJames

28. WHAT MAKES ORG STUCK AT TEAM-LEVEL AGILITY?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cr2rjaGmUzo&ab_channel=MichaelJames
PBL per team
PO per team
Sprint per team
Private code
External coordination
Lack of vision on org
improvements!

29. AGILE IS A TEAM SPORT? THINK TEAM OF TEAMS!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cr2rjaGmUzo&ab_channel=MichaelJames

30. Today’s solutions create tomorrow’s problems.
By focusing on team-level agility, organizations have created
the need for scaling.
Scaling is a problem. It is not a solution.
It is a self-inflicted issue caused by a lack of systems thinking.
SCALING!?

31. SYSTEMS = PARTS + ?

32. TEAMS
CLIENTS
STAKEHOLDERS
MANAGEMENT

33. RICH INTER-TEAM
COLLABORATION
ON BROADLY DEFINED
CUSTOMER VALUE
TOWARD HIGHER-LEVEL ORG
ARCHETYPES OF HIGH
ADAPTIVITY
AGILE WAVE 2

34. DESIGNING VALUE-CREATING ECOSYSTEMS
0. Broaden value definition
1. Enrich teams with customers (empathy & learning)
2. Upgrade management (go & see)
3. Elevate Scrum (inspect & adapt at a holistic level)

35. BROADENING VALUE DEFINITION?

36. STEP 0: LOOK OUTWARD AND BROADEN THE VIEW
What is your business making
money on?
What do customers pay for?
What do your customers
perceive as your product?

37. C-level
B-level
There will always be some level of specialization (value silos).
But customer needs are not siloed, they cut across.
So the broader you re-specialize, the longer you stay relevant.
Avoid small (faked) areas!

38. BUSINESS VALUE AREAS
Business Units
Value Streams
Tribes
Requirement Areas
…
Whatever they are
– they ought to help you descale!

39. DESCALE WITH BROADELY DEFINED VALUE AREAS
https://www.productlevelscrum.com/

40. HIERARCHIES SUPPORT THIS
… Marketing
Product-centric orgs
Product A Product B Product C Product D
Engineering Product
Teams PMs
Engineering Product
Teams PMs

41. CLASSICAL HIERARCHIES SUPPORT THIS TOO
Functional orgs
Engineering Product Sales Marketing
Team 1..5 Team 6..10 PM1 PM2

42. THE BENEFITS OF HIGHER ORG ARCHETYPES
Multi-team events
(more learning)
Whole-product focus
(more value)
Engineering excellence
(less complexity)

43. THANK YOU! TIME FOR BEER?