Mike Burrows's Blog, page 15

Open AMA (Ask Mike Anything) sessions

Just for the months of August and September I’m opening up the Academy’s AMA sessions to all. If you have any questions at all about Leading with Outcomes, the new Trainer & Facilitator programmes (see Upcoming events below for the first TTT/F training), or anything else for that matter, join us!

If you knew about these already, please note that this week’s is pushed back to next week due to an ongoing medical thing family-wise which means that I can’t be sure to be able to make it. I am however contactable and would be glad of a catch-up if you don’t mind the possibility of life intruding a bit!

Open AMA sessions

For the Zoom link, check the email version of this post if you’re on the mailing list, the #community channel on Slack, or Public events in Circle, or ping me.

Wednesday, August 17th, 10:00 BST, 11:00 CEST (not the 10th as previously advertised)Wednesday, August 24th 16:00 BST, 17:00 CEST, 11am EDT, 8am PDTWednesday, September 7th, 10:00 BST, 11:00 CESTWednesday, September 14th, 16:00 BST, 17:00 CEST, 11am EDT, 8am PDTUpcoming events20-28 September, Online, Tuesday & Wednesday afternoons (UK time) September 20, 21, 27, 28:
Leading with Outcomes: Train-the-Trainer/Facilitator (TTT/F) 07 November, London, UK:
Keynote: The Study of Enterprise Agility Conference (SEACON) part 2 18-26 April, Live online, 12pm-4pm EST Tuesdays and Wednesdays, April 18, 19, 25, 26 2023:
Creating Generative Conversations by Leading with Outcomes
Part of the Cape Cod Institute’s BMI Series in dialogic organisation development

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Published on August 08, 2022 04:54

Agendashift roundup, July 2022

In this edition: Outside-in Strategy: Positioned for success; Train-the-Trainer / Facilitator (TTT/F); Two new interviews; Cape Cod Institute’s BMI Series; Upcoming events; Top posts

Outside-in Strategy: Positioned for success

The fifth and final chapter of Outside-in Strategy: Positioned for success went live today. If you need a customer-first strategy or you have something to contribute to one, check out this unique self-paced training. With plenty of leadership-focussed content, it’s based on the outside-in strategy review found in my books Right to Left (where most of a chapter is devoted to it) and the Agendashift 2nd edition (where we ask the question “Who’s invited?“).

This is the third of four planned Leading with Outcomes modules, and like everything we do it’s applicable at every scale – team, team-of-teams, something bigger, something different even – and every level of experience. Come join us! Have your colleagues join us!

We have subscription plans for individuals and businesses, and do reach out if you’re in the government, non-profit, or educational spaces – we’d be glad to work something out for you.

Train-the-Trainer / Facilitator (TTT/F)

And earlier this week:

New! Authorised Facilitator and Trainer Programmes for Leading with Outcomes

Let’s just say that we’ve been busy! Next up (this autumn): Adaptive Organisation: Business agility at every scale and I’m super-excited about that one – I think there’s another book in it…

Two new interviews

These and more on the media page:

Interviewed by Miljan Bajić for Agile to agility (youtube.com) Interviewed by Ennis Lynch for Agile Review (youtube.com)Cape Cod Institute’s BMI Series

Next April I’m doing a workshop for the Cape Cod Institute’s BMI Series in dialogic organisation development – organised with the people responsible for some of Agendashift’s key references: Dialogic Organisation Development (Bushe & Marshak), The Dynamics of Generative Change (Bushe), and a curated series of books, including (fingers crossed) one of mine in the not-too-distant future. Needless to say, it is quite something to be invited, and more on that new book soon.

The event page is here:

18-26 April, Live online, 12pm-4pm EST Tuesdays and Wednesdays, April 18, 19, 25, 26 2023:
Creating Generative Conversations by Leading with Outcomes

And a PDF brochure:

2023-cci-bmi-od-burrows.1 DownloadUpcoming events20-28 September, Online, Tuesday & Wednesday afternoons (UK time):
Leading with Outcomes: Train-the-Trainer/Facilitator (TTT/F) 07 November, London, UK:
Keynote: The Study of Enterprise Agility Conference (SEACON) part 2 18-26 April, Live online, 12pm-4pm EST Tuesdays and Wednesdays, April 18, 19, 25, 26 2023:
Creating Generative Conversations by Leading with Outcomes
Part of the Cape Cod Institute’s BMI Series in dialogic organisation developmentTop posts A new (alternate) Outside-in Strategy Review template If you want to understand scaling… (two-part series) My favourite Clean Language question (January 2019) On values, meaningfulness, and change – parallels with Bateson and Mead (May) New! Authorised Facilitator and Trainer Programmes for Leading with Outcomes

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Published on July 29, 2022 03:44

New! Authorised Facilitator and Trainer Programmes for Leading with Outcomes

Another milestone for Agendashift and the Agendashift Academy: the partner programme goes into sunset mode (no new signups accepted from today) and is replaced by two new programmes:

Authorised Leading with Outcomes Facilitator – everything you need to bring the tools of Leading with Outcomes into your workplace or practiceAuthorised Leading with Outcomes Trainer – on top of the above, the ability to deliver certified public or private training in the Leading with Outcomes curriculum

Of the two, Facilitator corresponds most closely with the old partner programme: it provides access to the Agendashift assessment tools and to integrated workshop materials.

The Trainer programme goes significantly further in allowing something that previously was excluded, namely for Agendashift-related services to be offered explicitly as training. Moreover, it is designed to be open to innovation: trainers will be able to use Academy-provided materials as-is, customised to local needs, used with or without the Academy’s video material, packaged for cohort-based training, and so on.

You’ll find detailed information on both programmes at the link below, including dates for forthcoming Train-the-Trainer / Facilitator (TTT/F) events.

Leading with Outcomes: Authorised Facilitator and Trainer Programmes

More about the Leading with Outcomes curriculum (each page except the last one has a short video):

Overview Leading with Outcomes: Foundation Inside-out Strategy: Fit for maximum impact Outside-in Strategy: Positioned for success Adaptive Organisation: Business agility at every scale (from autumn 2022)

And subscription plans:

Agendashift for Individuals Agendashift for Business

Let me finish by thanking the existing partners and early Academy students for their support, patience, encouragement, and enthusiasm as they watch this come together. It means a lot! Thank you!

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Published on July 27, 2022 06:40

If you want to understand scaling… (part 2 of 2)

If you want to understand scaling:

Start with what must be true at each scale of organisation (part 1)Then with what happens between scales (this post)

Where we got to last time (and from there to what a healthy relationship with the process frameworks looks like):

A structure that makes sense – not just tidy on paper, but purposeful at every scale – allowing each unit at every scale to self-manage effectively (structuring itself to minimise dependencies, for example)Each unit at every scale able to express its own strategy in its own words, in terms appropriate to its domain and its customers, aligning it with other units and other scales according to both structure and opportunity Each unit at every scale able to identify what it must manage at that scale – no more and no less – with protocols to deal with what should be managed elsewhere

We reached that via a route that made it very obvious that those bullets apply at every scale, and that the consequences can be serious if there’s a problem with any of them. But it doesn’t stop there. Whilst it’s possible for a scale to be badly designed in its own right – awkward structure, missing capabilities, or poor coordination to name but a few – it’s not hard to see that the relationships between scales (or more accurately, between units at different scales) are no less important. If anything, they’re more troubling.

Consider these:

One unit doing the coordination work of another – micromanaging, or interfering in other waysOne unit doing the strategy work of another – imposing it downwards (directly, via an overly-top-down or centralised plan), second-guessing upwards, etcUnits taking on responsibility for outcomes over which they have insufficient controlUnits providing insufficient transparency about strategy, progress, or risks for related others to make good decisionsUnits failing to share useful intelligenceOr conversely, units willing to provide that transparency and to share, but others unwilling to receive (punishing unwelcome news, for example)

These describe dysfunctional relationships even when they’re between peers, but when there’s any kind of power distance involved, those at the receiving end may feel powerless to fix them.

The Deliberately Adaptive Organisation

Let’s recast these challenging but still fixable problems more positively as principles. These are table stakes I believe for any serious approach to scaling. With minor caveats they apply to every identifiable scope or scale:

Each responsible for its own strategy and accountable for its own performanceRespectful of the autonomy of others, each responsible for its next level of structure and its self-management across itEach building mutual trust in every direction

Maintaining that “at every scope or scale” vibe, the Deliberately Adaptive Organisation (deliberately-adaptive.org) integrates the following:

From Agendashift: facilitating rapid strategy development and alignment between scopes and scales through generative conversations, multi-level participation, and outcome-orientationFrom Lean and Agile, patterns for collaboration and coordination, and the deep integration of delivery and learningFrom Sociocracy (known some as dynamic governance and to Akoff fans as circular hierarchy), consent and purpose as the basis for effective self-organisation and governanceFrom the Deliberately Developmental Organisation (as described in An Everyone Culture by developmental psychologists Robert Kegan and Lisa Laskow-Lahey), attention to the human side of development

What holds it all together is one of the crowning achievements of Systems Thinking, Stafford Beer’s Viable System Model (VSM), perhaps the most powerfully “at every scale” organisational model in existence. We take the management consultant’s Swiss Army knife and give it some 21st-century attitude in an innovative and accessible presentation.

Given that most of the popular approaches to scaling focus mainly on process, it is necessary for me to stress that the Deliberately Adaptive Organisation is not a process framework. Neither is it prescriptive. Instead, it is two kinds of model in one:

Diagnostic, but only in the everyday sense that it helps with the identification of dysfunctions and opportunities (building on strengths as well as mitigating weaknesses), not in the sense that those dysfunctions become the excuse for heavy-handed prescriptionGenerative in the sense that it helps organisations engage constructively with themselves, generate a wealth of ideas, and find their own way forward

If you know Agendashift (mostly generative, with the diagnostic part done generatively), you will recognise that winning combination. In fact, the Deliberately Adaptive Organisation is introduced in the closing chapters of the Agendashift 2nd edition (2021), my previous book Right to Left (2020) doing some of the setup.

And development continues. After I release this month the final instalment of Outside-in Strategy: Positioned for success, production work begins on Adaptive Organisation: Business agility at every scale, the last module in the Agendashift Academy’s Leading with Outcomes curriculum. Then sometime next year I hope, a book (my fifth – I have a fourth book close to completion, more on that another time).

As that roadmap indicates, the earliest access to the next iteration of the Deliberately Adaptive Organisation will be via the Academy, and you can be part of it. Join one of our regular Ask Me Anything sessions and even before the content is released I’ll be only too happy to explore it with you. Subscribe now:

Take me to the Academy

If you want to understand scaling:

Start with what must be true at each scale of organisation (part 1)Then with what happens between scales (this post)

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Published on July 16, 2022 08:59

If you want to understand scaling… (part 1 of 2)

If you want to understand scaling:

Start with what must be true at each scale of organisation (this post)Then with what what must be happening between scales (coming soon)

Let’s begin with teams, or more specifically with its members (people). Even allowing for diversity, there are a number of near-universal things you can say about the members of any well-established team:

They each know who they are; many will also have a sense of who they’d like to beThey each know what they want to contribute; many will also have identified capabilities they’d like to developThey each have a sense of what they can manage on their own and what should be managed more collectively

There are some boundaries there. They may be fuzzy and there may be room for negotiation in the short term and for development in the longer term, but cross them – insist that people do things that aren’t “them”, aren’t what they signed up for, or take away their ability to self-manage to the level they expect – and you have unhappy people in an unhappy team. For example, most people don’t like to be micro-managed; neither do they want to see important things left unattended.

Now to the team itself. You’d be hard-pressed to find a high-performing team for which these aren’t true:

There are collective senses of identity, purpose, and of what it aspires toIt knows what it’s there to do, what it is capable of, and ways in which those capabilities might be developedIt knows what it can manage for itself as a team, and (conversely) what needs to be managed more collectively, ie with (and perhaps by) other teams – potentially even with others outside the organisation

Again, there are some boundaries there. Fuzzy and negotiable no doubt, but only a fool would think they could cross them without negative consequences.

Jump now to the organisation as a whole. I almost don’t need to write these points down, but I will:

It has a sense of identity, a sense of purpose, and a sense of what it aspires toIt knows what it’s there to do, what it is capable of, and ways in which those capabilities might be developedIt knows what it can manage for itself as an organisation, and (conversely) what needs to be managed with others – suppliers, customers, industry groups, and so on

You can be pretty sure that if there are significant issues with any of those points, you’re looking at an organisation that has problems – big problems.

Starting again at the level of the individual, on the topic of what makes the work meaningful, the answers may vary hugely. Moreover, you never know until you ask, and perhaps not even then until you get to know them well enough. At higher levels, diversity of purpose and capability is essential to meeting the complexities of the business environment; going up through the scales, the successful organisation has them distributed appropriately whilst achieving some coherence of its own.

What does all that mean for teams-of-teams? Does this repeating pattern – a pattern that already works at three levels – the levels of individuals, teams, and the whole organisation – apply at other scales? Pretty much!

If your team-of-teams doesn’t have its own sense of identity and purpose – meaningful to the people in it, not just its designers – it is unlikely to amount to anything more than an aggregation of its parts. What is it for? What is it capable of? What does it add, other than overhead? If this problem is widespread, you have a structure that is hard to navigate, a direct cost to the organisation and potentially a problem for customers too.

What if it has those senses of identity and purpose but not a sense of where it would like to get to, what it would like to become, and so on? In that case, what holds it all together as its component parts continue to develop?

And what does it manage? If it’s trying to manage what its constituent parts are capable of managing on their own – interfering, in other words – it does both them and itself a serious disservice.

All that said, what does good look like?

A structure that makes sense – not just tidy on paper, but purposeful at every scale – allowing each unit at every scale to self-manage effectively (structuring itself to minimise dependencies, for example)Each unit at every scale able to express its own strategy in its own words, in terms appropriate to its domain and its customers, aligning it with other units and other scales according to both structure and opportunity Each unit at every scale able to identify what it must manage at that scale – no more and no less – with protocols to deal with what should be managed elsewhere

Any problems here I would characterise as organisational problems first (the organisation getting in the way of doing the right thing), problems of the strategy process second, and problems of the delivery process third – a distant third if the first two are in any way significant. And as leadership problems? It is hard work for leaders when these problems aren’t dealt with, so let’s be careful not to personalise problems that may not be of their own making. Neither should we underestimate the power of participation, self-management, and self-organisation. But if as a leader you’re getting in the way of the organisation fixing its problems or are complacent about them, well that’s on you.

Neither should you expect your problems of organisation, strategy, and leadership to go away by rolling out a process framework. Why would they? I don’t know if we have got to “peak process framework” yet – I don’t suppose we can know until some time afterwards and I’m not ready to call it – but in the meantime let’s be realistic about what they can and can’t do. And while we’re at it, let’s lay to rest the idea that a framework rollout is an easy and risk-free thing.

Much as I detest the rollout, this is not an anti-framework rant. If you find the opportunity to borrow from a framework as you address those more fundamental problems, that’s totally sensible – there’s no point in reinventing the wheel. You are still are in control of your own destiny, free to pursue what really matters.

Part 2 on what happens between scales is coming soon. Meanwhile, there is more on the topic of maintaining healthy relationships with frameworks in these two articles:

On values, meaningfulness, and change – parallels with Bateson and Mead (May) Adaptability by Agreement: Valuing Outcomes over Imposed Solutions (infoq.com)

On some of the leading frameworks themselves:

What I really think about SAFe (October 2019) What I really think about Scrum (August 2020) What I really think about Kanban (April)

And to those bigger themes:

The Deliberately Adaptive Organisation (deliberately-adaptive.org) Agendashift Academy: Leadership and strategy in the transforming organisation (academy.agendashift.com)

Watch those last two come together in the coming months. At the Agendashift Academy, the final Leading with Outcomes module, Adaptive Organisation: Business agility at every scale is due in the autumn. You can get ready meanwhile with the first three modules:

Leading with Outcomes: FoundationInside-out strategy: Fit for maximum impactOutside-in strategy: Positioned for success Take me to the Academy

And next year another book (my fifth, with a fourth already on the way). Exciting times!

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Published on July 08, 2022 07:41

A new (alternate) Outside-in Strategy Review template

The Outside-in Strategy Review (OI-SR) template as described in my books Right to Left: The digital leader’s guide to Lean and Agile and Agendashift: Outcome-oriented change and continuous transformation (the 2nd edition especially). For a given scope – team, team-of-teams, something bigger (up to whole organisation) – it poses an interesting sequence of questions that launch generative conversations of the form Ideal, Obstacles, Outcomes, in other words the IdOO (“I do”) pattern.

I have added an alternate version:

This new version is especially for fans of tools such as Option Relationship Mapping, Wardley Mapping, and Challenge Mapping. The idea is to keep outcomes (or alternatively “How might we?”s) nicely spread out so that the relationships between them can be identified and drawn. Then choose an objective and work backwards to find suitable starting points. If you’re a fan of OKR, work forwards again and you have your key results in a sensible sequence.

Grab both template versions here:

Take me to the Outside-in Strategy Review (OI-SR) template page

It is of course no coincidence that over at the Agendashift Academy, the latest self-paced training module in the Leading with Outcomes series is Outside-in Strategy: Positioned for success. The first two chapters/episodes of five have already been released, the next is due on Friday, and it will be available in its entirety by the end of the month. It takes you through the layers, unpacking their respective questions, and walks you through the Ideal, Obstacles, Outcomes process too.

Watch the introductory video (05:33):

As I mentioned in the June roundup, the Leading with Outcomes curriculum is nicely on track to complete its rollout this year:

Leading with Outcomes: Foundation – already live (take this one first)Inside-out Strategy: Fit for maximum impact – already liveOutside-in Strategy: Positioned for success – rolling out nowAdaptive Organisation: Business agility at every scale – due this autumn

All four self-paced modules are included in your Agendashift Academy subscription. Beginning from as little as €29 per month, there are affordable plans for both businesses and individuals, yearly and monthly options in both cases, and a 7-day risk-free trial period for all card-based plans. If you’re a leader in a transforming organisation, you aspire to that role, or you support others in that journey, you’ll find plenty there for you and your colleagues.

Take me to the Academy

Watch this space for a Zoom-based Train-the-Trainer (and Facilitator) event, and of course give me a shout if you need a strategy review facilitated for you.

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Published on July 06, 2022 03:28

Agendashift roundup, June 2022

In this edition: Outside-in Strategy (I) and (II); Lean Agile London 2022; 15-minute FOTO; Top posts

Outside-in Strategy (I): Positioned for success

New at the Agendashift Academy, Outside-in Strategy: Positioned for success is the third of four planned Leading with Outcomes training modules. In its video-based self-paced incarnation (other formats are available) it began its rollout this month. I have enough recorded now to be confident of the release schedule:

Monday, June 20th: Customer
– “What’s happening when we’re reaching the right customers, meeting their strategic needs?” (their needs, our strategy)Friday, July 1st: Organisation
– “When we’re meeting those strategic needs, what kind of organisation are we?”Friday, July 8th: Product
– “Through what products and services are we meeting those strategic needs?”Friday, July 15th: Platform
– “What are the defining/critical capabilities that make it all possible?”Friday, July 29th: Team(s)
– “When we’re achieving all of the above, what kind of team(s) are we?”

Here’s a quick introductory video (05:33):

This leaves the Leading with Outcomes curriculum nicely on track to complete its rollout this year:

Leading with Outcomes: Foundation – already live (take this one first)Inside-out Strategy: Fit for maximum impact – already liveOutside-in Strategy: Positioned for success – rolling out nowAdaptive Organisation: Business agility at every scale – due in the autumn

All four self-paced modules are included in your Agendashift Academy subscription. Beginning from as little as €29 per month, there are affordable plans for both businesses and individuals, yearly and monthly options in both cases, and a 7-day risk-free trial period for all card-based plans. If you’re a leader in a transforming organisation, you aspire to that role, or you support others in that journey, you’ll find plenty there for you and your colleagues.

Take me to the Academy

While we’re here, a Zoom-based Train-the-Trainer (and Facilitator) event isn’t far away, probably September. Details should be ready in time for next month’s roundup.

Outside-in Strategy (II), the new assessment tool

This was developed for the training, but as I’m keen to see how it applies elsewhere I’m making it available in the form of a free (registration required) public survey. It’s a super-short (15-prompt) Agendashift-style assessment tool, three prompts for each of the five layers of Agendashift’s outside-in strategy review. Like all the Agendashift assessment tools it can be used as the template for an organisational survey too; if you’re an Agendashift partner, you’ll find it on the templates dropdown.

Take me to the Outside-in Strategy Readiness Assessment Lean Agile London 2022

Last month I spoke to a packed room at Lean Agile London 2022, the first time I have taken the new 3 strategies model (see the Agendashift home page) to an in-person conference.

You’ll the recording and slides here and listed on our media page. To access all the rest of the conference videos (which I encourage you to do – it’s one of my favourite conferences) you can register here:

Sign me for the LALDN2022 Videos (actineo.xyz) 15-minute FOTO

I announced version 12 of our Clean Language-inspired coaching game 15-minute FOTO a few weeks ago (see Top posts below). It has since gone through a couple of minor revisions (12a and 12b) announced so far only in the #cleanlanguage channel on Slack; they’re worth picking up if you have an older version. Re-download if you have the Dropbox link in your inbox still, or subscribe here:

Take me to the 15-minute FOTO page

Spot the difference – version 12b (the newest) first:

Top posts On values, meaningfulness, and change – parallels with Bateson and Mead (May) Resistance – or feedback? (June) 15-minute FOTO, version 12 (May) My favourite Clean Language question (January 2019) You can’t deliver a task (August 2018)

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Published on June 30, 2022 02:56

New from the Outside-in Strategy department

Two things:

The next Leading with Outcomes module, Outside-in Strategy: Positioned for SuccessA new Agendashift-style assessment/survey tool, the Outside-in Strategy Readiness Assessment1. Outside-in Strategy: Positioned for success

This is the third of the Agendashift Academy’s four planned Leading with Outcomes modules, and its self-paced incarnation begins its rollout today. Tentative schedule:

Monday, June 20th: Customer
– “What’s happening when we’re reaching the right customers, meeting their strategic needs?”
Friday, July 1st: Organisation
– “When we’re meeting those strategic needs, what kind of organisation are we?”
Friday, July 8th: Product
– “Through what products and services are we meeting those strategic needs?”
Friday, July 15th: Platform
– “What are the defining/critical capabilities that make it all possible?”
Friday, July 29th: Team(s)
– “When we’re achieving all of the above, what kind of team(s) are we?”

We are big believers in leadership and strategy at every level of organisation. “Strategic needs” brings together our customers’ needs and our strategy – whether we’re a team, a team-of-teams, or something bigger, and whether our customers are inside or outside our organisation.

Here’s a quick introductory video (05:33):

Module-wise, Leading with Outcomes is nicely on track to complete its rollout this year:

Leading with Outcomes: Foundation – already live (take this one first)Inside-out Strategy: Fit for maximum impact – already liveOutside-in Strategy: Positioned for success – rolling out nowAdaptive Organisation: Business agility at every scale – due in the autumn

All go live initially as self-paced, video-based training; instructor-led training (with me) is available right now for all but the last one, and we’ll be announcing a train-the-trainer programme soon too.

All four modules are included in your Agendashift Academy subscription. There are affordable plans for both businesses and individuals, with yearly and monthly options in both cases. If you’re a leader in a transforming organisation, you aspire to that role, or you support others in that journey, then it’s for you.

Sounds like me – tell me more 2. The Agendashift Outside-in Strategy Readiness Assessment

Developed for the above but I’m keen to see how it applies elsewhere, a really short (15-prompt) assessment tool, three prompts for each of the five layers of Agendashift’s outside-in strategy review. It’s free to try (registration required in this public survey mode). Like all the Agendashift assessment tools it can be used as the template for an organisational survey too; if you’re an Agendashift partner, you’ll find it on the templates dropdown.

The Agendashift Outside-in Strategy Readiness Assessment

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Published on June 20, 2022 06:07

Resistance – or feedback?

This week I came across blog post that categorised resistors to “Agile” (actually to Scrum) as “diehards, sabateurs, followers, and skeptics”. I couldn’t let that lie and I responded on LinkedIn, but my post is now unavailable, possibly – though I speculate – because the one I responded to in an important way misrepresents Mike Cohn’s original. So here it is again, and slightly longer.

To those who take a solutions-first approach to change, resistance means:

You’re not selling hard enough, andIt’s the fault of those resisting that they’re not buying (and hence those shamefully blaming labels)

Never mind the contradiction, it simply does not occur that maybe it’s feedback, a quite reasonable response when you’ve failed to involve people in the right way early enough, failed to recognise real systemic issues, or most likely both. But that would mean admitting that the solution and/or the change paradigm are wrong. For different reasons, both are difficult things to admit, so it doesn’t happen.

And they wonder why people disengage when Agile, Scrum, or are inflicted on them! As far as I’m concerned, in frameworks-land, this is the only fight worth fighting. Forget fixing the the process frameworks, our relationship with them needs to change. In a healthier relationship, we would see them not as solutions to roll out, but as resources to draw on as people up and down the organisation find fitting solutions to strategic goals agreed authentically and in proper context. Not solutions-first, but outcome-oriented.

Outcome-oriented change is both practical and teachable. If you want to be a more effective leader in a transforming organisation, you aspire to that, or if it’s your job to support others in that journey, check out Agendashift Academy. We help leaders at all levels succeed at developing and pursuing the kinds of strategy that go hand-in-hand with transformation. Membership is now by subscription, and with plans for both businesses and individuals and monthly and yearly options for both, you’ll find a plan that suits you.

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Published on June 14, 2022 08:33

Agendashift roundup, May 2022

In this edition: June workshop; Academy Update; A fight worth fighting; New podcast interview; 15-minute FOTO version 12; Upcoming; Top posts

June workshop

Plenty of reasons to put this one first: It’s less than 3 weeks away, there’s a 10% discount on offer, and it’s my first public workshop in quite a while:

1-day Leading with Outcomes workshop, June 20th, Europe-friendly timing Academy update

For Agendashift Academy subscribers, the fifth and final chapter of Inside-out strategy: Fit for maximum impact was released last Friday and already we’ve issued the first certificate of completion for this self-paced training.

Currently live:

Leading with Outcomes: Foundation (do this one first)Inside-out Strategy: Fit for maximum impact

In production, chapter 1 due for release in June, announcement to follow:

Outside-in Strategy: Positioned for success

In development:

Adaptive Organisation: Business agility at every scale

Not only are we on track for releasing the whole of the planned Leading with Outcomes curriculum this year, we have plans for some ‘bitesize’ content that we’ll be able to drip out on a weekly basis.

A reminder of our intended audience:

Leaders in transforming organisations – at whatever level of experience and in whatever roleThose that aspire to that – whether that’s aspiring to leadership or to be a leader in an organisation that’s transforming healthilyThose who support the above

Check out our subscription plans for both businesses and individuals; both have monthly and yearly options. And talk to us if you might be interested in the trainer or facilitator programmes which we’ll be announcing soon.

A fight worth fighting

As featured on the Agendashift and Agendashift Academy homepages, the three strategies thing is brewing nicely. Don’t worry if you don’t know what that means – all is explained in my latest article on InfoQ:

Adaptability by Agreement: Valuing Outcomes over Imposed Solutions

That’s pretty definitive, well worth the read if you want to understand where Agendashift is right now. And inspired by my current reading (Bateson):

On values, meaningfulness, and change – parallels with Bateson and Mead

Read both and the connection between the two will be obvious enough. The punchline to the second one:

In the methods & frameworks world, I believe there is only one fight worth fighting, and it is not between frameworks. It is between those who would fit people and organisations to frameworks (branded or otherwise), and those who find that idea intolerable.

New podcast interview

Last month’s roundup went out early, and it missed a podcast interview that went out on the 30th. It was with Shahin Sheidaei of the Elevate Change podcast, and you can find it here and on the usual podcast platforms:

Kanban, Leadership, Games and more with Mike Burrows 15-minute FOTO version 12

A small tweak to our Clean Language-inspired coaching game 15-minute FOTO, further emphasising the Host role: