192. Accelerate Value FLOW powered by Lean-Agile Change Engine

Today's world is in the midst of great changes that have not been seen in centuries. According to Roland Berger's Trend Compendium, organizations are facing the following 6 major trend challenges. Be adaptable in the new digital age with creative solutions is inevitable and crucial for not only survival but also seize the emerging opportunities to meet customers need in very competitive global market and rapidly evolving business landscape, but

traditional hierarchical organization, incentivized to optimize for efficiency and stability, in a pyramid system, is no longer sufficient to be adaptable to change, the mission of LACE, is to enable the 2nd operating system: a Lean-Agile virtual organization to accelerate flow of value

WHAT IS LACE?

The Lean-Agile Center of Excellence (LACE) is a small, cross-functional Agile team dedicated to implementing the Scaled Agile Lean-Agile way of working within an enterprise. An effective LACE is one of the key differentiators between companies practicing Agile in name only and those fully committed to adopting Lean-Agile practices and getting the best business outcomes.

According to Fernando Weinbuch from Airbus, he has emphasized the importance of creating a holistic change & transformation approach, with operational, strategic and transformational change, via "Lean-Agile Change Engine".

In my view, LACE is a group of Flow Architects, their main focus, is to improve flow of value in the organization and enable effective collaboration.

WHY LACE?

Dr. John Kotter, a renowned thought leader in change management, introduced the concept of the Dual Operating Model in his book "Accelerate: Building Strategic Agility for a Faster-Moving World."

He explains how traditional organizational hierarchies evolved to meet the daily demands of running an enterprise. For most companies, the hierarchy is the singular operating system at the heart of the firm. But the reality is, this system simply is NOT BUILT for an environment where change has become the norm. Kotter advocates a new system a second, more agile, network-like structure that operates in concert with the hierarchy, a second operating system, one that allows companies to capitalize on rapid-fire strategic challenges and still make their numbers.

WHAT ARE THE MAIN DIFFERENCES BETWEEN LACE AND COMMUNITY OF PRACTICE?

To sustain lean-agile transformation, LACE must be

• capable of design, execute, scale and enable the 2nd operation model holistically and consistent with business strategy
• accountable for achieving business outcomes with measurable metrics including compliance and risk management
• coach and drive top leadership engagement and sponsorship, neither buy-in nor support is sufficient, because systematic challenges can only be solved by people who determines the policy on ways of working, and that's leadership
• put theory to practice and adjust according to organizational' s context

In case of community of practices, it helps to create collective learning and exchange best practices, on Agile Practice Adoption, however,

it normally neither has the mandate nor it is mandatory for delivering lasting business results

Overtime, frequency of CoP exchange would reduce with less engaged people, as a result, not sustainable to own the transformation, however remain as a key responsibility within LACE. So, it is the question "how agile do you want to be" that determines if you need to establish LACE.

WHY LACE SUMMIT?

Now you would understand why core deliverables of a Lean-Agile Transformation is about organizational design and enablement, its about leadership and people, therefore most organizations would face similar challenges, regardless of industry and technology, because the patterns are the same, despite of contextual adjustment.

As world leading travel solution provider, Amadeus brings LACE leader together and share their expertise, insights and co-create solutions for similar challenges each year. Here are few takeaways.

don't reinvent the wheel, also don't follow the book blindly

over and over again, the events have proven that the problems we are facing during transformation are very similar, don't reinvent the wheel, get someone who knows and ask, regardless if it is from business or IT. Amadeus has tried between 2016 and 2018 its own framework with ASAM, but it didn't work as expected, from 2018 onwards, organization has decided to go for SAFe and it has accelerated since then, until today, 83 Agile Release Trains, 18 Portfolios and 5 Large Solutions are built.

no transformation will ever be sustainable unless portfolio management and demand management becomes leaner

Orange, the leading French telecommunication provider has shared their insights how to ensure all projects, roles, tools are properly established and orchestrated via LACE, to create a common language, standard and transparency for driving change.

Airbus, has demonstrated several LACE use cases due to complexity of their business segments, especially on transformational steering and demand management orchestration.

never assume business and IT know what they want are aligned, it is joint discovery journey, find the right configuration for the right context

Lise Bouzat and David Ferreira have shown their experiences at Renault to increase business and IT alignment in agile hardware and software development. That means business with other business, and IT with other part of IT, to map and align roles, building bridges between a physical product (e.g. a car) and digital solution (e.g. software platform), and define clear metrics on how to measure the effectiveness of those roles. For example, marketing campaign efficiency, platform adoption, retention and user engagement.

David has shown how to apply the five patterns and trends for business and technology domains gathered from the experiences of practitioners leading the way.

platform seem to be everywhere but make it useful and economically viable is still a big challenge in practice, but lean-agile ways of working can guide how to get it done

According to 2023 - 2027 Ranking of technologies likely to be adopted 2023-2027, digital platforms and apps, are listed as number 1, so platforms seem to be everywhere, whether it’s platform business models that fuel the most valuable companies and most unicorns, 100-billion Dollar cloud platforms, or in-house developer and analytics platforms.

And that's no surprise: platforms appear to be able to rewrite the laws of physics, for example by boosting innovation thanks to harmonization. Most organizations looking to harvest the power of platforms discover that building one, or even deploying one, is far from easy. Many in-house platforms are outdated by the time they’re launched, restrict rather than enable users, and face a certain demise when their use is mandated in a last-ditch effort to make the economics work.

So some structural guidance is needed, and thanks to AWS Architect Gregor Hohpe, there is a new book published to set the foundation.

• Part I: Understanding Platforms: because "platform" is an overloaded term, this part delineates the types and characteristics of platforms
• Part II: A Strategy for Platforms: building platforms requires significant investment and stamina. Learn how to articulate your platform strategy for both technology and organization.
• Part III: In-House Platforms: internal platforms are all the rage. Learn how to build one and how to avoid common pitfalls.
• Part IV: Designing Platforms: platforms hide a lot of complexity but that means building one isn't trivial. Learn how to make design trade-offs using fruit salads and submarines. ..
• Part V: Implementing Platforms: drilling deeper yet, this part discusses platform anatomy and architecture blueprints
• Part VI: Growing Platforms: mandating platform usage is sure to backfire. Instead, learn how to build communities and support platform adoption.
• Part VII: Organizing for Platforms: platform teams need to balance customer feedback and a clear vision.

Resistance to change? Apply personas and active listening

According to Everest Group, 68% of enterprise fail to achieve desired ROI on digital transformation, and most cite change resistance as key obstacle.

Cyril Gaujous, RTE from amadeus has given a practical talk on how to help and guide people along the change journey, put people at the center of everything we do.

Apart from experience sharing, there were few workshops organized, on decision making, on LACE - cost center or profit center, from Rune K?lle Christensen and Vodafone LACE leader Alena Keck, with valuable discussion and insights shared that I am still digesting.

Overall, it was an insightful event, Big thank you to iSPCT Sandra Bellong and great LACE team, for not only being wonderful host but the remarkable leadership that sets benchmark for large scale transformation up to 8300 people on a global scale, there’re so much to learn.

Last but not least, may the flow be with you, it's always day 1 to learn.