transforming agile strategy - scrum day europe · 2018. 7. 10. · scrum (n): a framework within...

Transforming Agile Strategy

A guide to letting go of linear futures

bearbnb

What’s a Strategy?

A plan of action designed to achieve a long-term or overall aim

Source: Google Search

Common Approaches to Strategy1. Forecast years into the future2. Assume relative stability and predictability 3. Craft a vision of a desirable future state4. Establish a set of ambitious company-wide goals 5. Develop an implementation plan, including change management efforts to get

buy-in and alignment around ambitious goals, sub-goals, sub-sub goals ad infinitum

Digital Transformation

What Causes Complexity?● Fast flow of information● Global competition● Increased power of startups● Sinking costs to start a business● Sinking marginal costs● Easier scalability

What’s Scrum?

What’s Scrum?Scrum (n): A framework within which people can address complex adaptive problems, while productively and creatively delivering products of the highest possible value.

Strategy

Progress

Unused potential

Unused potential

So What to Do?

Strategy

The ‘No Plan’ Approach1. Don’t forecast or only for a limited timeframe2. Assume unpredictability3. Focus on incremental improvement4. React to external factors and market dynamics5. Focus mainly on a product scale

There’s Something Else

What Do We Want?A strategy that

● Not only doesn’t flatten complexity but takes advantage of it● Continuously looks into the future but is firmly grounded in the present

moment● Includes more voices in shaping it

Single MonolithicOver-controlled: one way flow from the top down; engaging only a select few in strategy-making

No PlanUnder-controlled: infinite possibilities; too uncoordinated to shape direction

LiberatedDistributed control: flow from any point; direction is shaped by participants out of local-global interaction

Liberating Structures exist to

● replace unwitting practices that exclude, stifle, and over-control people

● unleash everyone to work at the top of their intelligence

liberatingstructures.com

Liberating Structures

Strategy Knotworking

• …• …• …

4. Baseline: Where are we starting, honestly? (What3, TRIZ, CU)

•

2. Context: What is happening around us that demands a fresh approach?(Mad Tea, What3, CU, DAD)

5. Ambition: Given our purpose, what seems possible now? (25/10, CU, What3)

3. Challenge: What paradoxical challenges must we face to make progress? (WQs, TRIZ)

• …• …

6. Action: How are we moving away from the current state toward the future? (Ecocycle, 15% Solutions, WINFY)

1. Purpose: Why is this work important to you and the larger community? (9 Whys, 1-2-4-All, Drawing Together)

• …• …

• …• …• …

• …• …• …

• ____ exists to…

Purpose

Purpose

The fundamental reason for a group or an activity to exist

Examples● ___ exists to provide bears and their owners with a home on the road, while

strengthening the bear community and promoting animal welfare.● ___ exists to give everyone the power to create and share ideas and

information instantly, without barriers● ___ exists to improve its customers’ financial lives so profoundly, they couldn’t

imagine going back to the old way● ___ exists to build the best product, cause no unnecessary harm, use business

to inspire and implement solutions to the environmental crisis

Purpose

Actions Intentions

Sample String

Sample String

Why is the work you are doing important? What is the deepest

need you serve? How do you justify it

to others?

9 WhysMake the purpose of your work clear LS exist to

replace unwitting practices that exclude, stifle,

and over-control people

LS exist to unleash everyone to work at the top

of their intelligence

Plausible

Unfolding Futures

2018-2028

Need for bear-friendly BnBsBearnormous

Need for bear-friendly BnBsLow

Strong Global competition

Weak Global competition

Scenario 1Get the Honey

Scenario 2Break the Bearriers

Scenario 3Bear Market

Scenario 4Bear With Me

Plausible

Unfolding Futures

2018-2028

Global Energy DemandHigh

Global Energy DemandLow

High New Technologies

Low New Technologies

Scenario 1Live Now

Scenario 2

Source: http://amp.timeinc.net/fortune/2018/01/24/royal-dutch-shell-lower-oil-prices

Scenario 3Brave New World

Scenario 4

Score25

24

23

22

21

20

19

Revisit WINFY commitments

quarterly

User research collected by

everyone everyday

Launch a research +

customer care squad

Daily stand up meetings +

coordination

Refresh cross-functional

Ecocycle monthly

Form creative destruction unit to free up space

1 App

2 Website

3 Partnership with bear owner clubs

4 Collaboration with zoos

5 Collaboration with circuses

6 Social media initiatives

7 Lobbying

8 Online advertisement

9 Print advertisement

10 bearbnb forum

11 Biannual fundraiser

1

2

3

4 5

67

8

9

10

11

Function A

1. In functions, formulate top needs to operationalize your strategy 2. Elect a leader to share your needs in the Fishbowl3. Develop & share your top needs as individual requests to each of the other 6

functions or roles4. Answers limited to: Yes, No, Huh?, Whatever

What I Need From YouCross-Functional Knot-Working

B

CF

E

G

D

A New Definition

A New Definition of Strategy

Strategy is a collective activity designed to make progress continuously

on a worthy yet elusive purpose by focusing on and sharpening the interplay of actions and intention

Next StepsFor strategists and experts of all stripes, we are inviting you to:● accept that surprise is inevitable rather than the consequence of faulty

forecasting● move from a small circle of the usual suspects forming strategy to including

every voice in shaping the future● trust you are shaping the future responsibly without knowing precisely what

will unfold

Read moreComing soon: the Liberating Strategy white paper

liberatingstructures.eu/strategy

Thank you!

Keith McCandless

@KeithMcCandless

keith@liberatingstructures.com

Johannes Schartau

@IntegralAgile

johannes.schartau@holisticon.de