Yesterday, the half-day LAS (Lean, Agile, Scrum) conference took place in Zurich. Two inspiring keynote speeches by David Snowden and Jutta Eckstein broadened the perspective away from the day-to-day realities of agile practice (Are we applying Scrum correctly? Is that really the Product Owner's job?) and towards questions such as: When is which method the right one? How large should teams be in chaotic or complex environments? And do rules perhaps need to be broken to foster creativity? What are the building blocks for making an organization agile?
From David Snowden I learned that the choice of method depends heavily on the context. Applying a one-size-fits-all approach, even with the most impressive tools ("hammers") like Kanban, Scrum, or Design Thinking, doesn't always lead to the desired outcome ("It's not all a nail"). There are many situations in companies, projects, and developments where we can safely set these tools aside and achieve our goals more effectively using other methods.
Nevertheless, survival in the VUCA* world is essential. Jutta Eckstein's book "BOSSA nova" (or "Company-wide Agility with Beyond Budgeting, Open Space & Sociocracy: Survive & Thrive on Disruption") provides insightful answers for business leaders on what to do in this regard. Based on agile principles, which she translates for companies as "self-organization," "transparency," "permanent customer focus," and "continuous learning," she recommends the following measures:
- To make traditional, annual budget-driven development more flexible
- to actively involve and develop all employees
- to dismantle hierarchies and allow bottom-up control
In my opinion, reading this book is a must for any manager who wants to advance the agile transformation of their company.
* We live in a volatile, uncertain, complex, ambiguousworld
In a practical session, we learned from two Scrum Masters at the health insurance company CSS how they, together with a core team, initiated a bottom-up cultural shift within the company (or, initially, within the development department with 140 employees). As a communication tool, they created, among other things, a videothat very clearly conveys these new values, which now need to be brought to life. With this and many other measures, they are trying to bridge the gap that has emerged between the abruptly changed organizational structure (into an agile organization) and the employees' still less agile, "old" mindset. Many thanks to Manuel Müller and Martin Ineichen for this interesting practical insight into one of the most critical aspects of agile transformation.
Conclusion: The fact that this conference only lasted half a day did not detract from the quality – on the contrary: It was a compact program that delivered a lot of value and still left enough room for networking.
Many thanks also to the organizers from Swiss ICT.
