Evolving your Company using a Systems Thinking
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The document discusses how Ericsson successfully transitioned to agile practices. It addresses that the transition involved changes across people, practices, processes, and structures. It also involved adopting Scrum, Kanban, and new roles while establishing a culture that embraces uncertainty and continuous evolution. The rest of the document discusses tools and approaches for understanding an organization as a complex adaptive system and using constraints to evolve it in an agile manner.
Evolving your Company using a Systems Thinking
- 1. Hendrik Esser Director, Portfolio & Technology Management @HendrikEsser Supporting Agile Adoption
- 2. Hendrik Esser | © Ericsson AB 2014 | 2014-10-22 | Page 2
- 3. Hendrik Esser | © Ericsson AB 2014 | 2014-10-22 | Page 4 Why did our agile transition succeed?
- 4. Hendrik Esser | © Ericsson AB 2014 | 2014-10-22 | Page 5 Our transition People Practices Processes Structures 1 2 3 “Our process is not good enough” “No Silos + Our structures need to support the way we work” “Oops! Almost forgot something!”
- 5. Hendrik Esser | © Ericsson AB 2014 | 2014-10-22 | Page 6 Our transition: changes People Practices Processes Structures 1 2 3 Scrum Kanban Uncertainty Management New Organization New roles New Governance Wanted culture Leadership mindset Recruitment of leaders
- 6. Hendrik Esser | © Ericsson AB 2014 | 2014-10-22 | Page 7 Insight: We have addressed the (whole?) “System”
- 7. Hendrik Esser | © Ericsson AB 2014 | 2014-10-22 | Page 8 Manage / Lead The company as a System?
- 8. From Systems Thinking to Complex Adaptive Systems
- 9. Hendrik Esser | © Ericsson AB 2014 | 2014-10-22 | Page 10 The Learning Organization Peter Senge, The fifth discipline Systems Thinking Team Learning Shared Vision Mental Models Personal Mastery Real World Decision Results Decision Rules Mental Model
- 10. Hendrik Esser | © Ericsson AB 2014 | 2014-10-22 | Page 11 Cynefin Dave Snowden, HBR Article, Nov 2007 SIMPLE COMPLICATED COMPLEX CHAOTIC sense-categorize-respond sense-analyze-respond probe-sense-respond act-sense-respond DISORDER best practice good practice emergent practice novel practice
- 11. Hendrik Esser | © Ericsson AB 2014 | 2014-10-22 | Page 12 How could we (Leaders) make use of this, practically
- 12. Hendrik Esser | © Ericsson AB 2014 | 2014-10-22 | Page 13 How could we identify our next experiment? respond
- 13. Hendrik Esser | © Ericsson AB 2014 | 2014-10-22 | Page 14 Understand the organization as a complex adaptive system Lead by vision + setting/managing constraints (continuously) Need to (continuously) align mental models to achieve a shared vision Evolving an organization
- 14. Hendrik Esser | © Ericsson AB 2014 | 2014-10-22 | Page 16 Constraints People Practices Processes Structures 1 2 3
- 15. Hendrik Esser | © Ericsson AB 2014 | 2014-10-22 | Page 17 Constraints People Processes Structures Behavior Capabilities Interdependencies
- 16. Hendrik Esser | © Ericsson AB 2014 | 2014-10-22 | Page 18 Basic procedure Develop a hypothesis on how the System works, explaining the observed phenomena (Discussion mental model alignment) Decide what changes you want to trigger towards constraints (next experiment) (Discussion shared vision) Observe the emerging system outcomes/response. (narratives, observations, …)
- 17. Hendrik Esser | © Ericsson AB 2014 | 2014-10-22 | Page 19 The tool Processes Structures Behavior Capabilities Vision/ desired state
- 18. Hendrik Esser | © Ericsson AB 2014 | 2014-10-22 | Page 20 The tool Processes Structures Behavior Capabilities Vision/ desired state Behavior Mindset/attitude Values Competence Skills # people Hidden talent Processes Practices Tools Habits Organization Governance Remuneration Roles (Informal) networks
- 20. Hendrik Esser | © Ericsson AB 2014 | 2014-10-22 | Page 22 Development Project MS Observation: Classic Projects Product Management MS MS MS Test Study Implement Study Implement Study Implement Study Implement Study Implement Study Implement
- 21. Hendrik Esser | © Ericsson AB 2014 | 2014-10-22 | Page 23 Things, that are impossible: Key Insight The Problem of Planning and Committing Correctly predict what the customers need Correctly predict how long it will take to develop it
- 22. Hendrik Esser | © Ericsson AB 2014 | 2014-10-22 | Page 24 (Many clever people)
- 23. Mindset shift To Accept uncertainty Embrace Change
- 24. Hendrik Esser | © Ericsson AB 2014 | 2014-10-22 | Page 26 Processes Structures Behavior Capabilities Deal with uncertainty Behavior Mindset/attitude Values Competence Skills # people Hidden talent Processes Practices Tools Habits Organization Governance Remuneration Roles (Informal) networks
- 25. Hendrik Esser | © Ericsson AB 2014 | 2014-10-22 | Page 27 To embrace change and deal with uncertainty: › What desired behaviors do people in your organization need to show? › What are undesired behaviors? 15 Minutes in teams of 5-7 people Workshop 1: Behavior and attitude
- 26. Hendrik Esser | © Ericsson AB 2014 | 2014-10-22 | Page 29 Workshop 2: Capabilities, Processes, Structures To embrace change and deal with uncertainty: Which processes/practices support the desired behaviors? Which structures support the desired behaviors and processes? What capabilities need to be developed? 20 Minutes in teams
- 28. Hendrik Esser | © Ericsson AB 2014 | 2014-10-22 | Page 32 Processes Structures Behavior Capabilities Manage Uncertainty Communicate Make uncertainty visible Accept, that uncertainty is always there Share views and insights Speak up when you see something unexpected React constructively on surprises Show and discuss uncertainty in governance meetings Frequent meetings to digest updates/new insights Distributed planning on different levels Iterative development feedback loop Communication structure Manage expectations anticipate expectations and address them Translate uncertainty into realistic expectations (customers, internal stakeholders)
- 29. Hendrik Esser | © Ericsson AB 2014 | 2014-10-22 | Page 33 › Analyze/understand issues/problems/impediments › Propose system solutions to issues/problems/impediments › Propose system changes to achieve a goal/target/vision › Follow-up on made implemented system changes › Adapt to a changed goal/target/vision › … use cases
- 30. Hendrik Esser | © Ericsson AB 2014 | 2014-10-22 | Page 34