I’ve spent a lot of time making and thinking about decisions within organizations. One thing I’ve noticed is that the best decisions are those that are the best informed (obviously). However, collecting and analyzing enough data to make the “best” decision can be a significant investment. This typically results in leaders collecting some data and … Continue reading Organizational Decision Making
Category: Agile Management
According to a recent CEB whitepaper on Enterprise Change Management... The average organization has undergone five enterprise changes in the past three years. From restructuring to leadership transitions to M&A, today’s organizational changes are significant and complex for any organization. Also, 73% of organizations expect more change initiatives in the next few years. So are … Continue reading Enterprise Change Management = Agile?
A good discussion by Steven J. Spear on how experimentation is useful when dealing with complex systems like markets and Mustangs. Spear explains how this technique led Toyota to the creation of Lexus.
There seems to be a ton of willingness today for companies to modify their legal relationship with their clients. Maybe we are finally at a point where we realize that holding people’s feet to the fire doesn’t produce the kind of results we had hoped for. What I’m talking about here is commonly referred to … Continue reading Agile Contracts
I spend a fair amount of time these days working with senior business leaders on some of the challenges they face. One of the things that both they and I are seeing is the impact of shorter business cycles on planning. While the use of the word “cycle” implies that these changes occur with some … Continue reading Agile and the Boom/Bust Cycle
There is a misunderstanding of Scrum and other processes and frameworks that anyone that follows the “rules” will be successful. Simply write some code in a two week Sprint and show it at the Sprint Review and magically all problems disappear. The people that believe this are missing a few key points. 1) Creation of … Continue reading Scrum, Skill and Dead Bodies
I talk quite a bit about the concept of intrinsic motivation in my presentations and workshops. Intrinsic motivation describes our satisfaction in doing something simply for the sake of doing it. Think of playing an instrument, solving a puzzle or painting a picture. The activity is a reward in itself. Daniel Pink’s “Drive” is great … Continue reading Intrinsic Motivation – Drive
Over the last few years I have found myself drawing the same Scrum diagram on the whiteboard over and over again. A simple, no-frills, diagram that shows the basic ideas of Scrum. This is that diagram.
Betting on a greyhound race can be tons of fun. You find a cool sounding greyhound, check the stats, then lay down $20 to win. (or some other bet variation) We are ecstatic when our greyhound wins, collecting our money and touting the prowess of our keen eye for the stats. When we lose, we … Continue reading Corporate Greyhound Racing
Inspired by Michael Dubakov's article Flow. Discover Problems and Waste in Kanban, I thought I’d spend some time looking at Value Stream Analysis. We talk a lot these days about delivering value to our clients, but many of us don’t understand the details of how that is accomplished. Sure we understand that raw ones and … Continue reading Analyze your Value Stream, A Quick How To Guide