Leading a large-scale Agile transformation is hard. It requires relentless focus and discipline to create an environment that empowers teams to deliver innovation at pace. There are thousands of publications describing how this should be done in theory, yet not so many on how to translate that theory into practice. The majority of those that […]
There is an ongoing dispute in the Agile community focused on the question “Is Kanban Agile?”. Isn’t that funny? People argue and spend their time trying to classify the terminology to clarify what is inside the Agile universe and what is not. Where is the value in that? Instead of approaching this question like a […]
This month our team was part of the PMI Organizational Agility virtual series, so we used the opportunity to do a small survey. One of the main questions we wanted to explore was, “What is your biggest daily challenge when managing projects?”. Although for us, it seems that such struggles should already be in the […]
Kanban has long ago left the automotive industry and conquered the IT world, but now, with an increased focus on flow, it is about to expand its reach to the entire business. Many business leaders have realized that Kanban has an extremely flexible architecture that allows it to scale across the enterprise naturally and gently. […]
Virtually all companies use Key Performance Indicators (KPI) but too many are measuring the wrong things. The result is wasted effort and misdirection because choosing the wrong metrics rewards the wrong behaviors. U.S. banking giant Wells Fargo learned this the hard way. They incentivized associates based on a key metric: the number of accounts opened. […]
Tracking progress is the core of the continuous improvement process. Without regular monitoring and tracking one cannot either recognize whether any changes should be applied nor realize if everything is going on well. An old management cliché states that you “can’t manage what you don’t measure” and this is exactly the case here. Monitoring and […]
Managing projects is not an easy job. Having just one under your belt requires a lot of commitment to ensure its successful realization and delivery. However, the reality is that as project managers, we often have to manage multiple projects at once. In a traditional project environment, we would create detailed plans for them upfront […]
I entered the Agile and Lean world about 4 years ago, and since then, I’ve read hundreds of articles and a few books about the different practices, methods, and approaches in the field. All this completely changed the way I approach work processes now and how work should be done. But most importantly, it helped […]
“Just make sure to keep me in the loop, alright?” How many times have you heard this expression in the organization you work for? And what happens if you end up being “out of the loop” for an important update regarding the product or the project you are working on? It’s quite uncomfortable to be […]
Previously, I wrote about Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey as a mental model for evolutionary change management. It was perfect for my needs. Now, let me introduce you to the implementation of this mental model as an evolutionary change management tool. I use this storification technique to understand what the organization wants first (needs later) and […]