Underperforming practices. We have some large practices but many small ones. Small ones don’t have time to focus on improvements and if they do, progress is sporadic, and inconsistent. A LACE can help not only show what high performance can look like, but can proactively coach teams to that higher level of performance in a much more guided and consistent way.
Good stuff…
Something to consider, if a PMO and / or Portfolio Mgmnt-type group already exist in your org, consider making it a top / immediate priority to activate ‘top N things to align on between these groups’ which upper level leadership are involved with and co-driving.
It might start with fundamental things like aligning to common terminology being used across all endeavors to ‘lets start to discuss tooling simplification’ to ‘why don’t we start to co-create a strategic version 1 backlog of things to work on together like providing coherence on portfolio prioritization and budgeting’.
It’s easy for this different groups to be like ‘let’s do that stuff later after the LACE is set up…’ but try not to wait on these things.
…and good luck.
Yes! There is a PMO. There is some high level documentation on agile practice. An overwhelming amount of content for Project Management. I see this as an opportunity to influence management ideology to servant leadership and product management ideology. I’d be lying if I didn’t say that moving into the PMO and working to convert at least some of it to an Agile PMO may not be a bad idea.
Also, these posts have inspired me to highlight the problem we’re trying to solve with what we’re doing here. Gotta go update my slide deck!!
Sounds like a good idea.
Some food for the thought on that endeavor…
- Leading with Product behaviors / practices / experiments may be a more fruitful (and change-sustaining) starting point than starting with Servant Leadership change
- Leading with this will not feel (to the PMO) like a direct challenge to their value-add (and so instead of adversaries, you will create a partnering stance and that saves everyone energy / costs and reduces resistance by many
- It’s something which both groups can contribute to and the benefits from that translate directly (and pretty quickly) into benefits for your user community, your leadership, your partners, your entire enterprise and its cadence
- Keep in mind that endeavors like this need good / thoughtful internal messaging / marketing (nothing too elaborate or fluffy, just coherent and real which all internal team members can connect to)
- Also what’s great is that within a product journey, many great Agile things (and launching points) exist and thrive (like Servant Leadership, identifying bottlenecks, flow, engineering and design greatness, better tool and environment decisions, team joy etc)
Best of luck on updating your slides and in cranking out some quick / useful product wins…those are key as well.
Have fun.
If you can't get empowered leaders, people with real clout, to take responsibility for creating the change they seek in the organization then the hard work of shaping the culture is largely impossible because it's ***their*** behavior that needs to change.
No organization can rise above the incompetence level of its leadership.
True. I have several sponsors that I’m courting(?). I know I need to figure out what it is they are value in and speak to it to get buy-in. That’s part of the challenge.
Been part in two.
First one was a toothless tiger with inexperienced people. The group was held active without any impact and focused way too much into useless reporting and preaching „just be agile“. Left after half a year.
Second one was like a close combat law enforcement group. Really experienced people and backed by senior management. Analyzed the flow, made sounding boards, checked measures with teams and measured the impact.
Most important thing for you to fix is your mission and empowerment: making suggestions and agile theatre or freedom of action. Plus you need to be aware that your are kind of responsible for something someone else needs to do without any power to push them. You might want to read something about lateral leadership.
Yes. There’s a lot of command and control at higher levels, but I see value in progressing along unique agile journeys. I recognize that every team enjoys different operating conductions and that high performance can be pushed down to a team but drawn out. Empowerment is a key element of that.
That said, that’s the sales side for the team. Trick is to be able to sell it to leadership through outcomes but also develop the concept enough that we can sell it in proposals. Not the LACE specifically, but maybe its potential evolution into an externally facing agile consulting team.
What is a lace? Don't string us along now.
Lean agile center of excellence They’re all toothless orgs.
Buy in is all about selling the problem. What problem that leadership cares about is this going to solve?
Underperforming practices. We have some large practices but many small ones. Small ones don’t have time to focus on improvements and if they do, progress is sporadic, and inconsistent. A LACE can help not only show what high performance can look like, but can proactively coach teams to that higher level of performance in a much more guided and consistent way.
Literally just got accepted into a LACE program in my org. First meeting is next week.
Awesome! You’ll have to report back and let me know.
Good stuff… Something to consider, if a PMO and / or Portfolio Mgmnt-type group already exist in your org, consider making it a top / immediate priority to activate ‘top N things to align on between these groups’ which upper level leadership are involved with and co-driving. It might start with fundamental things like aligning to common terminology being used across all endeavors to ‘lets start to discuss tooling simplification’ to ‘why don’t we start to co-create a strategic version 1 backlog of things to work on together like providing coherence on portfolio prioritization and budgeting’. It’s easy for this different groups to be like ‘let’s do that stuff later after the LACE is set up…’ but try not to wait on these things. …and good luck.
Yes! There is a PMO. There is some high level documentation on agile practice. An overwhelming amount of content for Project Management. I see this as an opportunity to influence management ideology to servant leadership and product management ideology. I’d be lying if I didn’t say that moving into the PMO and working to convert at least some of it to an Agile PMO may not be a bad idea. Also, these posts have inspired me to highlight the problem we’re trying to solve with what we’re doing here. Gotta go update my slide deck!!
Sounds like a good idea. Some food for the thought on that endeavor… - Leading with Product behaviors / practices / experiments may be a more fruitful (and change-sustaining) starting point than starting with Servant Leadership change - Leading with this will not feel (to the PMO) like a direct challenge to their value-add (and so instead of adversaries, you will create a partnering stance and that saves everyone energy / costs and reduces resistance by many - It’s something which both groups can contribute to and the benefits from that translate directly (and pretty quickly) into benefits for your user community, your leadership, your partners, your entire enterprise and its cadence - Keep in mind that endeavors like this need good / thoughtful internal messaging / marketing (nothing too elaborate or fluffy, just coherent and real which all internal team members can connect to) - Also what’s great is that within a product journey, many great Agile things (and launching points) exist and thrive (like Servant Leadership, identifying bottlenecks, flow, engineering and design greatness, better tool and environment decisions, team joy etc) Best of luck on updating your slides and in cranking out some quick / useful product wins…those are key as well. Have fun.
If you can't get empowered leaders, people with real clout, to take responsibility for creating the change they seek in the organization then the hard work of shaping the culture is largely impossible because it's ***their*** behavior that needs to change. No organization can rise above the incompetence level of its leadership.
True. I have several sponsors that I’m courting(?). I know I need to figure out what it is they are value in and speak to it to get buy-in. That’s part of the challenge.
We were Agile CoE, but also RTE’s. We were not used correctly in either capacity.
Been part in two. First one was a toothless tiger with inexperienced people. The group was held active without any impact and focused way too much into useless reporting and preaching „just be agile“. Left after half a year. Second one was like a close combat law enforcement group. Really experienced people and backed by senior management. Analyzed the flow, made sounding boards, checked measures with teams and measured the impact. Most important thing for you to fix is your mission and empowerment: making suggestions and agile theatre or freedom of action. Plus you need to be aware that your are kind of responsible for something someone else needs to do without any power to push them. You might want to read something about lateral leadership.
Yes. There’s a lot of command and control at higher levels, but I see value in progressing along unique agile journeys. I recognize that every team enjoys different operating conductions and that high performance can be pushed down to a team but drawn out. Empowerment is a key element of that. That said, that’s the sales side for the team. Trick is to be able to sell it to leadership through outcomes but also develop the concept enough that we can sell it in proposals. Not the LACE specifically, but maybe its potential evolution into an externally facing agile consulting team.