What are some real-world examples of successful agile and lean innovation methods in change management?

1 Agile change management

Agile change management is a flexible and adaptive approach to planning and executing change initiatives, using short cycles of feedback and improvement, known as sprints. This method allows you to quickly respond to changing needs, expectations, and opportunities, while involving stakeholders and users throughout the process. The benefits of agile change management include faster delivery of value, improved engagement and satisfaction of employees and customers, reduced waste and risk of failure, and increased learning and innovation. An example of agile change management is the transformation of ING Bank in 2015. ING Bank adopted the Spotify model which created autonomous and cross-functional units, such as squads, tribes, chapters, and guilds. These units worked together to deliver customer-centric products and services using agile principles and practices like Scrum, Kanban, and DevOps. As a result, the organization became more agile, customer-focused, innovative, efficient, and competitive.

2 Lean change management

Lean change management is a lean startup-inspired way of designing and testing change hypotheses, using minimal viable change (MVC) experiments. This method allows you to validate assumptions and learn from mistakes before scaling up or pivoting the strategy. Lean change management has several benefits, such as lower cost and time of implementation, higher alignment and buy-in of stakeholders and users, increased evidence and data to support decision making, and enhanced creativity and problem solving. For example, GE Healthcare adopted the FastWorks program in 2012 to apply lean startup principles and tools, such as customer discovery, value proposition canvas, and pivot or persevere. This program enabled teams to run MVC experiments to test their ideas, measure their impact, and iterate or pivot based on feedback. Consequently, GE Healthcare became a more lean, customer-driven, innovative organization that reduced its cycle time, increased its revenue, and improved its quality.

3 Hybrid change management

Hybrid change management is a combination of agile and lean innovation methods that utilizes the strengths of both approaches. It enables you to balance the speed and flexibility of agile with the rigor and validation of lean, while customizing your change process to your unique context and goals. This approach offers several benefits, such as greater customization and integration of change methods, higher adaptability and scalability of change initiatives, increased synergy and collaboration among change teams, and enhanced agility and learning for the change organization. One example of hybrid change management is Spotify's transformation in 2018. The music streaming service implemented the Mission Beyond program, which blends agile and lean innovation methods like OKRs, design thinking, and lean startup for its change initiatives. This allowed teams to define their missions, vision, and objectives, as well as run experiments to validate their hypotheses and deliver value to their customers. The result was a more hybrid, mission-driven, and innovative organization that saw growth in its retention and differentiation.

4 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?