20 ADVANCED assumptions for mastering the Business Agility journey

In the previous article, 20 BASIC assumptions to make Business Agility a reality in organizations, I introduced the rationale behind our Business Agility Getting Real? model. In its content, I presented the basic management and leadership premises we used to build this powerful metamodel that will guide you on the journey of developing a true Business Agility in your company.

In summary, the 20 basic assumptions serve to structure the Agile Business Owner's thinking and make him/her understand how to accomplish a business-oriented transformation journey.

In this article, I will conclude?the rationale for the model by demonstrating the 20 advanced assumptions that will serve as a guide for the design and implementation of this journey. It is worth mentioning that I call them advanced assumptions because they take a step in the direction of the leadership model that we want to influence and the management principles that we want to promote in the companies we work for.

But first, I would like to recap some important concepts for you who are reading the content of this newsletter for the first time.

From Operational to Business Agility

Basically, the essential agile thinking starts from the operational level of product development, which focuses on delivering value to the customer through simplicity, collaboration, reflection, and continuous improvement of the way we work?(Heart of Agile, by Alistair Cockburn).

Agile thinking later evolved to the organizational level, expanding its impact to all stakeholders in the organization. It became focused on continuously delivering value in complex environments, from a culture of rapid experimentation and learning supported by a psychologically safe environment?(Modern Agile, by Joshua Kerievsky).

We are currently in the era of Business Agility, which seeks to develop new organizational capabilities to enable growth and delight all stakeholders, even with a positive impact on society. While Kerievsky proposes the Make People Awesome principle in the context of the second wave of Agile (Organizational Agility), I started proposing Make Business Awesome as a principle of the third wave (Business Agility).

Therefore, we idealized the Business Agility Getting Real? model as a guide to make a business awesome through a genuinely business-oriented organizational transformation, made from the perspective of its Business Owners. Its basic structure, presented in the previous article and illustrated in the figure 1, is based on the following four essential premises of business management:

1. Every individual is influenced by the organizational culture, which is the direct reflection of the management model determined by its leadership (primordial cause-and-effect relationship).
2. To become awesome, every company must delight its ecosystem, delivering awesome results, practices, and experiences to all parties, and enabling the personal fulfillment of its employees (what we want).
3. Awesome businesses demand awesome leaders who act as change agents for the entire organizational ecosystem that transcend the internal aspects of the company itself?(why we want).
4. Awesome businesses demand an awesome ability to orchestrate their problems and address their solutions at the strategic, tactical (portfolio), and operational levels, accelerating the generation of value from the first three elements?(how we do).

From this introduction, let's resume the original purpose of this article which is to present the advanced assumptions to conclude our Business Agility Getting Real? model.

10 Advanced Assumptions for Designing the Journey

The first 10 advanced assumptions of the Business Agility Getting Real? model focus on the right side of the diagram (strategy and leadership), which is directly related to the responsibilities of the company's top management.

They start by exposing the need for Transformational Leadership, which inspires the change and fosters the trust in all team members (first five assumptions). Finally, they end with the need for an strategic Exponential Thinking that can challenge the inertia of the current organizational system (last five).

The first 10 advanced assumptions confirm top management's interest in making the business awesome from the inspiring vision of its leaders and in structuring the transformation strategy aimed at accelerating organizational growth. In other words, they are assumptions intended to ensure the design of the business-oriented transformation journey.

TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP:

1) The goal of every business-driven transformation should be "Make Business Awesome" (results, practices, experiences, and personal fulfillment).

2) The leadership must inspire the transformation from a higher purpose that transcends the organization itself (people and society).

3) The purpose must awaken a sense of identity and mission in all parts of the organizational ecosystem.

4) The leadership must trust the mission of each individual and also be trusted by all parties.

5) Inspiration and trust are characteristics of Transformational Leadership.

EXPONENTIAL STRATEGY:

6) The leadership must design the long-term organizational transformation from a strategy management process focused on business and market results.

7) The business and market strategy must reflect the leadership beliefs and values that support the supports the acceleration of organizational growth.

8) It is possible to accelerate organizational growth by using new technologies and innovating in many different aspects of the organization.

9) Beliefs and values can stimulate different emotional states in different parts of the organizational ecosystem, accelerating or slowing the change.

10) The mindset of abundance and growth associated with innovation and technology is a common characteristic of Exponential Organizations that accelerates the change.

10 Advanced Assumptions for Implementing the Journey

The next 10 advanced assumptions of the Business Agility Getting Real? model focus on the left side of the diagram (operations and portfolio), which is directly related to the responsibilities of the company's middle management.

They start with the need for Lean Thinking in managing the company's product and project portfolio, and end with the need for Agile Thinking in the governance of its operations. While the first focuses on the early delivery of value to all stakeholders, the second focuses on continuous learning of new ways of working to make the transformation happen.

These last assumptions confirm the interest of the leadership in the new organizational management model and guide the path of professional development of the middle management, responsible for the execution of the strategy. In other words, they are assumptions aimed to ensure that the implementation of the transformation journey is business oriented.

LEAN PORTFOLIO:

11) Managers must implement the transformation in the medium term by managing the strategic projects and products portfolio.

12) The portfolio of strategic projects and products must ensure the development of new organizational capabilities that enable business growth.

13) Developing new organizational capabilities demands a continuous process of business experimentation and learning.

14) A continuous process of experimentation and learning is able to produce new knowledge and skills for generating value to all parts of the organizational ecosystem.

15) Seeking for perfection in the way we generate value and eliminate waste is a common characteristic of Lean Thinking.

AGILE GOVERNANCE:

16) Managers must sustain transformation in the short term by managing the operations of business-critical processes and services.

17) Critical processes and services must ensure the evolution of organizational environment and behaviors necessary to support business scalability.

18) The evolution of organizational environment and behaviors demands from individuals better attitudes, practices and habits, as well as the use of better artifacts.

19) We leverage the improvement of attitudes, practices, habits and artifacts by inspecting and adapting in short feedback loops.

20) Working with short feedback loops, inspecting and adapting all aspects of the organization, is a common characteristic of Agile Thinking.

Now that I have introduced the new assumptions that will make you master the Business Agility journey in your organization, I will present the full version of the Business Agility Getting Real? model, addressing all 40 assumptions (basic and advanced) in its elements:

To think about ...

It is very common to hear in companies that the current organizational culture is the enemy of organizational transformation initiatives. Whenever I hear this, I usually return the following question, of course with an ironic tone:

- Can we schedule a meeting with Culture so that I can understand her fears, beliefs, and values that hinder the organizational evolution?

Needless to say, the immediate response is a deafening silence ... But what comes next almost always is:

- So you need to talk to top management.

- Yes! Let's schedule a meeting with the "business owners" as soon as possible.

I tried to make it clear in this article that there is no business evolution (Business Agility) without a cultural transformation (Lean-Agile-ExO). In the same way that there is no cultural transformation without a desired state that inspires change and catalyzes the evolution of leadership models and organizational management.

The Business Agility Getting Real? model makes it clear that in order to accelerate the achievement of results from our agile and digital transformations, we need to start from an awesome and attractive desired future scenario, defined by the company's top management. After all, it is the true Business Owners who must desire and enable the evolution of their own organizations.

We should not stop Lean-Agile initiatives at the operational level,?but we need to provoke exponential thinking in top management, stimulating the acceleration of growth by developing new organizational capabilities.

Although some managers still tell me that the role of the Business Owner is not necessary in organizations, I answer by saying that it already exists, it is just that they have not yet realized it or been qualified to perform it effectively.?After all, have the top management of today's companies stopped wanting leaders, managers and even employees thinking with the head of a business owner?

The Business Agility Getting Real? model stimulates debate in companies about the cause-and-effect relationships between leadership, management, culture, and individuals, suggesting new paths for developing core competencies for organizational transformation.

In the next article, I will address the practical considerations of this model and the role of leadership in the development of Business Agility, specifically the role of the Agile Business Owner.