An Agile Coach to the Royal Rescue

In today’s organisations we are faced with royal messes rather than just specific problems.  We have unnecessary controls that defeat transparency and trust.  We have processes that cause excessive resource wastage.  We have legacy systems with much technical debt. We have unhealthy conflict with suppliers. We have the inability to keep our most talented employees. Our product delivery and service lack quality. Customers don’t seem to matter.

The biggest challenge for an organisation is its very own internal environment.

To fix this the royal mess requires adaptability, courage, modesty, diligence, gratitude, honesty and loyalty.  It requires an Agile Coach.  An Agile Coach can convert your traditional mind-set organisation into one that is sustainable, innovative and adaptive.   To fix this royal mess requires:

  • Co-creative teams that are hands on, inter-connected and share a common purpose, a common language and common values
  • Emergent solutions from emergent mind-sets with shorter cycles and feedback loops
  • Challenging thinking, challenging concepts and challenging thoughts through continuous learning and actively taking on this responsibility
  • Making adaptability a strategic goal as that creates agility. Agile is a noun.
  • Values and principles based on the Agile Manifesto and Declaration of Interdependence
  • Transparency and Trust which in turn requires shared values and principles, it requires that we like each other, that we rely on each other, that our behaviour embodies our values and principles
  • Networked leaders that can utilise collective intelligence of the network internal and external to the organisation
  • Team’s that are self-organised, self-motivated, self-driven including team self-selection to create collective intelligence
  • Being comfortable with ambiguity
  • Fairness which is a big deal
  • Failure which is our feedback. Leaders must not only protect their team when it has failed but cut themselves some slack too.  It’s okay to be vulnerable. It reflects that you are authentic.
  • That decision-making is shared by empowered teams leaving leaders to concentrate on strategy thus allowing the right problems to be solved by the right team
  • That team members always says Yes and…….there are no buts, in other words an inclusive team
  • Courage to be coached, mentored, to lead, to fail, to experiment
  • Continuous small improvements very often, more than often, regularly
  • Delivering business value through relationships not through business processes
  • Utilising the Kipling Method allowing you to think out the box – who, what, why, where, when and how
  • Customers matter. We work to create customer value. Customer value drives our performance behaviour at every level all the time, every time

 

We cannot predict the future.  Ambiguity is frightening. Yes and we all have choices!  Agile is the way to go!  It is not without challenges.  It does not have a strategic time frame as it is emergent, it never ends, it is adaptable, it is about continuous improvement.

Leadership must recognise that to overcome this royal mess requires acknowledging and accept that change is required.  Leaders are human beings who feel fear, anxiety, guilt, and worry.  To start the transition to agility, leaders must create a parallel environment within the organisation.  An environment that will allow the Agile team to look at controls that inhibit performance, allow self-selection, allow people to choose if they want to be part of this highly adaptable team.  Leaders must provide sufficient funding, sufficient space and sufficient resources. Agile Coaches and Leadership Coaches are a necessity during this transition.  Diligence reflects that there are no short cuts to success only hard work, consistency and perseverance.

Let us strive to make business sustainable through relationship building, through our dedication to help one another while striving to achieve the organisation’s strategic goals.  Let me help you on your transformation journey.

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