Vision

Topic time estimate: 7 Minutes

Networking and collaboration

Whenever we meet a person, we can learn very little or a lot about them. It is that what we learn through our first impression, that often forms the basis of whether we include someone in our relationship network or not.

How we build our network has a great impact on our collective IQ and our change-agility.

This is often referred to as our competency to build and manage relationships.

The benefits

One example of agile practice is cross-organisational cooperation, this is the key to information and speed

In the 1980s people held about 75% of the knowledge and skills required for their job. The rest they had to acquire from other sources.
Only 11 years later, the percentage was reduced to about 15-20%. This refers particularly to changing and complex jobs.
In the Information age, about 40 years later, we can safely assume that an even higher percentage than 85% of the information and skills required for our job is sourced externally.

Studies found that

A person requires an average of 3-5 hours to finding a specific piece of information on their own.
Whereas a person with an active and maintained network is generally able to find the same information within an hour.

(Source: Daniel Goleman Emotional Intelligence)

The above information in on page 3 of your workbook

Examples

Read the two examples and the consequences of demonstrating or lacking agile change leadership.

Better adaption and utilisation through Co-Creation

Let’s say you or your organisation is changing the supply processes.

At the project kick-off, you make a point of inviting stakeholders from different departments, suppliers and customers to get a feel for the entire supply chain and it\’s pain points.
During the project, you continuously deliver minimal viable solutions to the stakeholders to test the new processes and get feedback
Your team enjoys the tangible, visible progress and rewards you with passion and motivation
You are flexible to make adjustments to your plans as you proceed with the process improvement project
In the end, you achieve a higher level of adaption and utilisation because your stakeholders felt invested in the co-creation of the outcome.

This change leadership approach is using agile values to drive the changes and progress towards a future supply process

Silos stifle change-agility

Let’s say you or your organisation work on the same supply process change with a structured traditional project management approach.

At the start of the project, the business owner has signed off the business case, scope, budget, schedule and deliverables of the project.
You and your project team are working on a tight schedule with minimal contingencies for budget and time variations.
Each project member is working hard to meet the milestones and deliverables assigned to them.
As the first milestone approaches, you are missing the feedback of key stakeholders and run out of time for a face-to-face meeting. You will need to proceed on assumptions.
As the project continues you find it harder and harder to get time with your stakeholders competing against other projects.
To make matters worse the project team is feeling the stress and pressure and retreats further to working in silos.
A months after the go-live you are wondering about the uptake of the new processes and what resources are available to ensure the new processes are being followed.

This change leadership approach is in direct conflict to the values of the Agile Manifesto and will likely be met with a higher level of resistance, damaged trust, and performance impact.

Reflection

Can you think about examples in your own change context?
Use page 4 in your workbook to answer what agile change leadership means to you in your own change context.