Back to Basics

Personal Note

I am taking a break from more and more electronic tools. I'm more or less inactive on Slack, only checking in now and again, for example. But I still have work to do on reducing app usage so I can stay focused on what's most important, delivering value. But I guess the new Apple technology will reconnect me next year:). I'll just have to remember to sign out of lots of messaging apps:).

This past week my office has become a whiteboard office; if there is a wall there is a whiteboard, with current stuff on it. It's basically an Obeya room with strategy (inspired by one of the books below), business model canvas, Lean UX Canvas, one backlog inspired by Scrum, Nexus, and LeSS, one Kanban board, and cards on the Kanban board with actual start dates and actual end dates. And I have an Agile Kata experiments board. As Jim Benson says, if you can't visualize work, you can't manage it. Physical is so much better. Inspired by Marty Cagan and, by extension Kanplexity, the team shares concerns on value, viability, feasibility, and usability.

I have a new pattern for me, reading physical books as I can read much faster than listening; increasing audio speed does not work for me. But audiobooks are still great for travel time.

I am looking forward to meeting Scrum.org staff and trainers at an in-person gathering this week in London.

Before then, I hope to tweak the alpha version of the Executive Success Through Agility Mini-Guide and Guide and bring it more in line with accessibility standards before I publish.

For those of you who do "strategic planning," check out Roger Martin's video below.

Have a great week!

Book Reviews

Patterns of Strategy - Patrick Hoverstadt and Lucy Loh - review submitted on Amazon - 5 stars out of 5

I read the physical book. I did not expect to enjoy a book on strategy. The book was forgotten on my bookshelf, but I picked it up again after being nudged by a document on the Agile Business Consortium's website.

From the moment I opened the book, I noticed visuals that use drawn images of mountain landscapes to convey the relative strength of strategy patterns, notwithstanding context. It was difficult to put the book down, as I was glued to it.

During my readings, I added a new whiteboard wall in my office to weigh up strategy patterns and categories for my own business. And I think I noticed the patterns of my competitors and dominant players in the market. It's an inspiring read! 

There is training and/or a toolkit to support what's in the book. I will be checking it out!

Mastering Executive Transitions - Navid Nazemian, PCC - 2 stars out of 5

This book does a good job of explaining the challenges of the transition into the organization/role for new executives, but this is not news. Nevertheless, the book of evidence is presented well for those in doubt. 

I disagree with one of the top ten reasons quoted for the failure of executive transitions, leaving the organizational design in place. I agree that the need for structural change is often true if redesign means redesigning for the interlaced discovery and delivery of value, but not redesigning for the sake of redesigning. There was also a mention of a to-be organization design. Sorry to break it to you, but target operating models are not the way to go, as that's traditional waterfall thinking.

A transition that is not mentioned is the long mediocre period for many CEOs who hold back their organizations through a lack of appetite for risk-taking, thus leading their organizations to follow the likes of Nokia cell phones, Kodak, and Blackberry into their "best years ever." I prefer early failure and course correction to a slow death of an organization.

Some prominent quotes in the book came from sectors with a sub-optimal record in innovation, invention, and sustainability.

The key message in the book is to hire people like the author and use the author's shiny new framework. No doubt some elements of transitions are deterministic, but in these times, the embracing of uncertainty and empiricism is paramount, and the model presented lacks in that department.  

To give the author credit, there is a place in the model for continuous improvement. But, the model smacks of the big energy upfront push. I noticed very little about engagement or continually preparing potential successors and their successors before the executive even thinks of moving on.

To my mind, the model presented is a traditional waterfall model with iterative stuck onto the end. In my view, this book is for laggards but still has utility in some useful checklists and guidelines for the parts that are more obvious. Recipes don't work in the complex space. I deem executive transition to be in a complex space. Hindsight is not also 20:20.

Overall verdict - useful data-informed diagnosis, wrong prescription. There are no context-free recipes that consistently work in the complex space. 

Coming soon on the podcasts

Xagility editing backlog

• Tom Gilb on Success
• Ted Rau on Sociocracy
• Brian Robertson on Holacracy
• Jurgen Appelo on UNFIX
• John Hibbs on Monergy

Xagility podcast

agility island editing backlog

• Tom Gilb on Success

agility island podcast

On the YouTube channels

Xagility - YouTube Short with Joe Justice

Xagility - What are the basics of leadership and decision-making?

Xagility - What attracted you to executive agility, and why do you think such a great need for it exists?

agility island - the one question to figure out where you are in the product life cycle

My favorite video this week

Strategy Vs. Planning - Roger Martin

Upcoming training - Agile Kata, LeSS, Prokanban, Scrum.org - in-person or live virtual

Some classes have super-early bird pricing, only available one month before class. After that, a limited supply of early bird tickets is available for each class.

Reviews on TrustPilot - 4.9 out of five stars from almost 200 reviews

Reviews on Google - 110 reviews with no less than five stars in any review so far

Reviews on VocalReferences - 4.985663 out of 5 stars across 287 reviews

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