Mike Burrows's Blog, page 34
November 8, 2018
21-22 November, Berlin, my last public workshop of the year
Quick one…
Today, I’m on my way to Brescia, Italy for a 1-day workshop tomorrow and then Italian Agile Days 2018. Then, in exactly two weeks, my last public workshop of the year:
Outcome-oriented change and continuous transformation (Berlin, 21-22 Nov)
I would love to see you there!
Just a little under a month away and also in Germany, Agendashift partner Julia Wester is holding a 1-day workshop in Munich:
Core Agendashift: Facilitating Outcome-Oriented Change (Munich, 3 Dec)
Private workshops and an Agendashift Studio aside (these aren’t shown on the calendar), that’s it until we publish some 2019 dates. We have some cool locations in the pipeline and will be announcing the first of those soon.
[image error]Blog: Monthly roundups | Classic posts
Links: Home | About | Partners | Resources | Contact | Mike
Community: Slack | LinkedIn group | Twitter
We are champions and enablers of outcome-oriented change and continuous transformation. Building from agreement on outcomes, Agendashift facilitates rapid, experiment-based emergence of process, practice, and organisation. Instead of Lean and Agile by imposition – contradictory and ultimately self-defeating – we help you keep your business vision and transformation strategy aligned with and energised by a culture of meaningful participation. More…
November 5, 2018
Agendashift is not a maturity model
Agendashift – an engagement model – is sometimes mistaken for a maturity model. I can imagine how this happens, but let me explain.
At no point did we specify a number of stages or steps and further corroborate with characteristics (what Wikipedia describes as a top-down approach). Neither did we determine distinct characteristics or assessment items and cluster into steps (the bottom-up approach).
Yes, we do have an assessment tool, and after many iterations of community refinement (much of it in #asssessments in the Agendashift Slack) we think that it’s one to be proud of. No, it doesn’t tell you where you fit on a journey described by someone else’s narrative (one that often says more about the vendor than the client). And the more we look at how our data clusters (we’ve tried), the more sure we are that a linear model would at best a gross oversimplification. We try to avoid those – people spot them a mile away.
What our tool does do is help teams and organisation find opportunities, whether that’s to build on strengths, address weaknesses, or to bridge gaps. The subsequent process is far from prescriptive (a material risk if the job of the aforementioned assessment items is to identify specific practices that you’re not doing by the vendor’s book); instead it’s generative:
Decide what prompts (our assessment items) are important. When I’m facilitating, my opinion is not important, and not shared unless I’m asked directly – I value authentic agreement too much to risk undermining it.
Identify what obstacles are in the way and prioritise them
Identify the outcomes that lie unrealised behind those obstacles, the outcomes behind those outcomes, and so on (visit 15-minute FOTO to see how this is done)
You have by now plenty of raw material from which a plan – an agenda for change (see principle #3 in the graphic below) – can be organised. As for realising those outcomes, the approach to take very much depends on what kind of outcome it is:
Where there’s already widespread agreement on what needs to be done and what the impact will be: It’s done already (well almost)
Things that need a bit more analysis and planning: Delegate someone who will circle back later with a plan
The outcomes that you’ll never achieve in one go: Frame a big hypothesis and some smaller/cheaper/safer experiments that will test its assumptions and get you moving in the right direction
I’ve just described Exploration, Mapping, and Elaboration, the middle three chapters of the book and most of the top row in the graphic below. Typically, it’s preceded by Discovery (chapter 1), a way to build broad agreement on what the destination might look like (a broad brush picture, not a design or a detailed plan). At the bottom of the graphic is Operation, which is about the feedback loops and behaviours that sustain change (the fifth and final chapter in the Agendashift book and to be expanded upon in Right to Left).
(Yes, I’m still tweaking the graphic. The new circular arrows? The moment you learn something, you might decide to revisit your earlier work. You’ll want to do so periodically anyway.)
Upcoming public Agendashift workshops (Italy, Germany * 2):
9 November, Brescia, Italy: Pre-conference workshop: Facilitating Outcome-Oriented Change ( Mike Burrows )
21-22 November, Berlin, Germany: 2-day Advanced Agendashift workshop: Coaching and Leading Continuous Transformation ( Mike Burrows )
03 December, Munich, Germany: Core Agendashift: Facilitating Outcome-Oriented Change ( Julia Wester )
[image error]Blog: Monthly roundups | Classic posts
Links: Home | About | Partners | Resources | Contact | Mike
Community: Slack | LinkedIn group | Twitter
We are champions and enablers of outcome-oriented change and continuous transformation. Building from agreement on outcomes, Agendashift facilitates rapid, experiment-based emergence of process, practice, and organisation. Instead of Lean and Agile by imposition – contradictory and ultimately self-defeating – we help you keep your business vision and transformation strategy aligned with and energised by a culture of meaningful participation. More…
November 1, 2018
Agendashift’s many extension points
I was going to do “Agendashift isn’t a maturity model” this week, but that can wait. In response to a question that came up in the run up to our last #leancoffee (there’s an alternate today at 4pm GMT, on a week where our time difference to the US is an hour less than usual, see Slack for joining details), here are Agendashift’s extension points, things that by design can be swapped for other things.
Nearly all of these extension points are mentioned in the book, Agendashift: Outcome-oriented change and continuous transformation. Often they come with recommendations of other things to try and mentions of books and other resources on the Recommended reading page if suitable references exist. So by chapter:
1. Discovery
Use a different context-setting exercise / icebreaker to the described Celebration (5W). Recommended: Remember the future (Hohmann) and The Future, Backwards (Snowden). Note: a page on agendashift.com for the Celebration (5W) exercise is on my to-do list.
Use a different True North . At our next joint masterclass, Karl will probably have us create one.
Instead of the Clean Language-inspired 15-minute FOTO game to generate outcomes, use something based another coaching model, Solutions Focus (McKergow & Jackson), say
2. Exploration
Use an assessment other than the Agendashift delivery assessment . We’re rather proud of ours, but other good ones do exist. You want one that generates insights and helps uncover genuine opportunities, so avoid:
Assessments that are just checklists of practices (prone to generating more cynicism and resistance than insight)
Anything too vague or fluffy to pinpoint where the opportunities lie
See Discovery above re generating outcomes
3. Mapping
This remains an area ripe for innovation (and watch this space)
The book mentions X-Matrix / TASTE (Karl again) and Impact Mapping (Gojko Adjic). More recently I’ve become a fan of Wardley Mapping (Simon Wardley).
After mapping, reconcile with other models to help you spot the gaps. The book references my own 6+1 Strategies (although I cringe a little to see it described as the “Agendashift transformation strategy framework”, which would also describe Agendashift itself. I will fix that.)
4. Elaboration
Use your favourite hypothesis template
Use your favourite A3 template (here’s ours ). I joke that there are as many A3 templates as there are Lean consultants.
Use, don’t use, or find an alternative to the Cynefin 4 points contextualisation exercise (it’s described as optional, though 15-minute FOTO does such a good job of providing its input ‘micro-narratives’ that I am usually loathe to skip it)
5. Operation
Use your own visual management system for your experiments. The book describes a Kanban design, as seen also in the Changeban game and with roots in Lean Startup. I credit Jeff Anderson for introducing me to this design.
Alternatives to the Agendashift adaptability assessment may exist (I’m not aware of one)
Implement/evolve your own strategy review and service delivery review meetings. There’ll be a whole chapter devoted to these in the 2019 book, Right to Left: The digital leader’s guide to Lean and Agile .
Beyond the book
Agendashift is about change, introducing/developing/deepening the use of Lean and Agile, not a delivery process or framework. So Agendashift + other frameworks? Agendashift + Kanban is already a thing (I don’t advertise it but I do get called upon to do it). I sometimes speculate out loud that Agendashift + DevOps ought to be thing. I also wonder aloud (and not entirely in jest) whether Agendashift could be “the safe way to introduce SAFe”. And why not Agendashift + Scrum?
Agendashift + Strategy very much a thing – I do strategy workshops privately and may find a way to do it in public workshops. Karl also majors in this area; X-Matrix / TASTE is a strategy deployment model.
Agendashift + OpenSpace Agility (OSA) looks like a natural partnership but I haven’t had the opportunity to try it yet. I suspect that others will beat me to it (which is great of course).
Just counting top level bullet points, I make that 17. Not to mention that sometimes we sometimes change the sequence or run exercises standalone.
The standard exercises are all well described in the book. Become an Agendashift partner, and you get ready-made (and customisable) workshop materials as well as unfettered access to the assessment tools (there is a limited free trial also). But don’t feel like you must stick to the standard exercises – we don’t!
Upcoming public Agendashift workshops (Italy, Germany * 2):
9 November, Brescia, Italy: Pre-conference workshop: Facilitating Outcome-Oriented Change ( Mike Burrows )
21-22 November, Berlin, Germany: 2-day Advanced Agendashift workshop: Coaching and Leading Continuous Transformation ( Mike Burrows )
03 December, Munich, Germany: Core Agendashift: Facilitating Outcome-Oriented Change ( Julia Wester )
[image error]Blog: Monthly roundups | Classic posts
Links: Home | About | Partners | Resources | Contact | Mike
Community: Slack | LinkedIn group | Twitter
We are champions and enablers of outcome-oriented change and continuous transformation. Building from agreement on outcomes, Agendashift facilitates rapid, experiment-based emergence of process, practice, and organisation. Instead of Lean and Agile by imposition – contradictory and ultimately self-defeating – we help you keep your business vision and transformation strategy aligned with and energised by a culture of meaningful participation. More…
October 30, 2018
Agendashift roundup, October 2018
In this edition: Brighton; Right to Left; Featureban (DE); Other resources; Three public workshops still to come in Europe this year; 2019 Calendar; Top posts
Brighton
I spent the second week of October in Brighton (UK’s hippest city, according to Wikipedia). Tuesday to Thursday was a joint 3-day masterclass with Karl Scotland, then on Friday I was the last speaker of the day at a brand new conference, Lean Agile Brighton.
By a country mile and already a top 5 post for the year, the transcript for my short (20-minute) talk is this month’s top post. Speaking last gave me a great opportunity to namecheck several other speakers, also one or two other collaborators and influencers that were in the audience.
If you missed it:
Right to Left: a transcript of my Lean Agile Brighton talk
Right to Left
Monthly status check: 24,755 words and I’ve completed an initial draft of the 5th chapter of 6. With roughly half of chapter 4 deferred and an introduction still to write, I estimate that this first draft is approaching 70% complete. But before I continue to chapter 6, enough time has passed that I can look at the existing material with fresh eyes, and I’ve started on a round of revision.
Overview, with an initial cover design:
Right to Left: The digital leader’s guide to Lean and Agile .
Featureban (DE)
Even without an official German language translation, our Kanban simulation game Featureban has been played quite a bit in Germany. And now there is one – thank you Tim Themann!
Go to the downloads section of the Featureban landing page to get your copy. Also available in English, French, Polish, Russian, Italian, and Spanish.
Other resources
I’ve substantially reworked Agendashift’s about page, which as well as a refresh of the text incorporates the new clickable Overview image and a link to the new Engagement model page.
Next I plan to bundle up what the Resources page refers to as “referenceable elements” such as the True North, Principles, and Done along with the old poster and the aforementioned Overview image into one convenient download. Each of these are single-slide (or single image) resources that are referenceable in the sense that they each have their own nice url, and are published under a Creative Commons with-attribution license to facilitate adaptations, translations, etc. I’ll do 16×10 format first and then A4 for those assets that would benefit most.
Work on Changeban 1.0 and Featureban 2.3 will begin after that.
Three public workshops still to come in Europe this year
Julia Wester deserves a special mention: she’s coming over from the US in December to lead a 1-day workshop Core Agendashift: Facilitating Outcome-Oriented Change in Munich, Germany, in a tie-up with DevOpsCon.
Before that, I’m doing a 1-day workshop in Brescia, Italy on November 9th (Friday next week) in conjunction with Italian Agile Day 2018 on the 10th, then a 2-day Advanced workshop in Berlin, Germany, 21-22 November, courtesy of my friends at Leanovate.
2019 Calendar
Nothing published yet, but expect to see a 2-day UK workshop in Q1, and (fingers crossed) appearances in the US, India, and mainland Europe. Also, expect Agendashift Studio workshops to take place roughly quarterly; these are cozy workshops for 3-4 participants at Agendashift HQ here in Chesterfield, UK, organised informally via the #agendashift-studio channel in Slack.
As always, if you’d like to see a workshop at a location convenient to you (whether public or private, and I’m doing the latter with increasing frequency), do please get in touch. Conference tie-ins work particularly well, making it double value for the trip for everyone involved.
Top posts
Recent:
Right to Left: a transcript of my Lean Agile Brighton talk
5 reasons to come to an Agendashift workshop
Engagement: more than a two-way street (September)
Dealing with internal contradictions – if they can’t both be true at the same time, then what?
A small departure from the book (September)
A couple of Kanban-related classics also did particularly well this month:
Scrum and Kanban revisited (August 2017)
Introducing Kanban through its values (January 2013)
In case you’re new here, that second one is the career-changing post that led to my first book. Even though Kanban is now only a small part of what I do, it still has to be said that the rest wouldn’t have happened without it. Values got me to outcomes, and outcomes is what Agendashift and Right to Left are all about.
[image error]Blog: Monthly roundups | Classic posts
Links: Home | About | Partners | Resources | Contact | Mike
Community: Slack | LinkedIn group | Twitter
We are champions and enablers of outcome-oriented change and continuous transformation. Building from agreement on outcomes, Agendashift facilitates rapid, experiment-based emergence of process, practice, and organisation. Instead of Lean and Agile by imposition – contradictory and ultimately self-defeating – we help you keep your business vision and transformation strategy aligned with and energised by a culture of meaningful participation. More…
October 23, 2018
Dealing with internal contradictions – if they can’t both be true at the same time, then what?
From my post Towards the wholehearted organisation, outside in (May 2018):
It got me thinking that I would love to be known for being in the business of helping organisations to be more wholehearted – less at war with themselves, their contradictions identified and owned so that they can be resolved in some pleasing way. If squeezing out excess work-in-progress is a key strategy for improving our delivery processes, perhaps squeezing out the contradictions is the way to improve our organisations for the mutual benefit of all concerned.
In the draft of the Outside In chapter of Right to Left (2019) I’ve included a version of the above paragraph together with the Christopher Alexander quote that inspired it. However, it seems wrong for the book to raise the prospect of bringing contradictions out into the open without also suggesting some constructive ways of looking at them.
The key question in a nutshell: If X and Y can’t both be true at the same time, then what?
On the premise that it can often be helpful to make explicit the thought processes that lead to our decisions, (perhaps as an aid to creating an agreed precedent or policy for next time), I offer a breakdown of the main ways in which contradictions get resolved. If I’ve missed any important combinations or references, do please let me know!
X and not Y
X achieves our goals better (in some defined way) than Y
Y does not align with strategic objective, mission, or core purpose X
Y is incompatible with core value X
Caution: Whilst it may be good to exclude Y, it’s possible that this decision says little about the merits of X, which may not be better than other alternatives (including doing nothing).
X and not yet Y
X naturally precedes Y / Y depends on X
X is more urgent than Y / X has a higher opportunity cost than Y (see also Cost of Delay )
X has higher priority than Y (because reasons)
We choose X to precede Y (because reasons)
Similar cautions apply. Y’s deferral may not justify X starting. And might Y be deferred for so long that it ought to be taken off the table entirely?
An important variation on the first one that an outside-in review might generate: Not Y because we don’t have capability X, the X not previously identified. Begs the obvious question: should we make it a priority to build capability X?
Neither X nor Y, but Z
Some higher objective Z either delivers X and Y or renders them unimportant
Some prerequisite objective Z comes first, or in other words, Z and not yet X and Y
Z as an alternative to X and Y – superior in some way, a better use of our time
X and Y
Creative tension: contradiction as a motivation for innovation (see TRIZ )
Perhaps, after challenging the assumptions of the apparent contradiction, we can demonstrate that X and Y aren’t necessarily in conflict (see Evaporating Cloud , one of the six Thinking Processes in the Theory of Constraints )
Conflict felt at a personal level, needing mediation perhaps
Caution: Beware the cop out, dodging the difficult decision…
Upcoming public Agendashift workshops (Italy, Germany * 2):
9 November, Brescia, Italy: Pre-conference workshop: Facilitating Outcome-Oriented Change ( Mike Burrows )
21-22 November, Berlin, Germany: 2-day Advanced Agendashift workshop: Coaching and Leading Continuous Transformation ( Mike Burrows )
03 December, Munich, Germany: Core Agendashift: Facilitating Outcome-Oriented Change ( Julia Wester )
[image error]Blog: Monthly roundups | Classic posts
Links: Home | About | Partners | Resources | Contact | Mike
Community: Slack | LinkedIn group | Twitter
We are champions and enablers of outcome-oriented change and continuous transformation. Building from agreement on outcomes, Agendashift facilitates rapid, experiment-based emergence of process, practice, and organisation. Instead of Lean and Agile by imposition – contradictory and ultimately self-defeating – we help you keep your business vision and transformation strategy aligned with and energised by a culture of meaningful participation. More…
October 15, 2018
Right to Left: a transcript of my Lean Agile Brighton talk
Friday was Lean Agile Brighton, a chance to catch up with friends in the community after the 3-day Brighton workshop with Karl. Here, from memory, is a rough transcript of my talk, the last one of the day (giving me the opportunity to refer back to other speakers), and just 20 minutes long. I don’t often do talks this short, but it was fun!
PS Over the weekend, I knocked up a cover for Right to Left (the book). It’s in the first slide below, also at agendashift.com/right-to-left, where you’ll find an overview.
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Like Sal [Freudenberg, @SalFreudenberg, the previous speaker] I’m getting all misty-eyed about coming back to Brighton. My wife’s a Brighton girl, and my first job out of uni was in Lancing, just just down the road from here. My wife’s first boss later became mine (though not at the same time), and he’s in the audience today. Hi Peter! Thirty years!
Another reason to be excited: so many collaborators and influencers here: Karl [Karl Scotland, @kjscotland, one of the conference organisers] Steven [Steven Mackenzie, @busywait], and Liz [Liz Keogh, @lunivore] to name just three.
And I get to meet Caitlin [Caitlin Walker, @caitlinwalkerTA, opening keynote speaker] face to face at last! Her book [From Contempt to Curiosity] was quite an influence on the Agendashift book.
As I talk with colleagues and as I write my third book [see agendashift.com/books and agendashift.com/right-to-left], I detect a convergence: things happening in the Agile world that have long frustrated us but were hard to pin down we now have names for. And that’s good – instead of just complaining, we can begin to find solutions! Look out for couple of those in my talk today.
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Who here is a Lego fan?
Wow, that’s a lot of hands!
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If you had to describe Lego, where would you start? On the left with truckloads of plastic granules arriving at the Lego factory, or with children playing with the finished product? Plastic feedstock, or children playing? From the left, or from the right?
From the right of course.
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Let’s try that with Agile. Where would you start? On the left with backlog items in Jira* (*other tracking tools are available), or on the right with people collaborating over working software that’s already beginning to meet needs? Backlog items in Jira, or people collaborating over working software. Left or right?
Yes, from the right again. You have to wonder though… How often do you hear Agile explained from the left, starting with backlogs, item sizing, and stuff? Rather too often. That’s a problem! It’s very easy to completely miss the point when you start from the wrong perspective.
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We can do this with Scrum too. On the left we have the two levels of backlog, planning events, and so on. On the right: shared objectives pursued goal by goal.
Here we have two very different descriptions of Scrum, yet both of them entirely compatible with the Scrum Guide. And there are two mindsets represented here. Which mindset is the one more likely to encourage self-organisation, engagement, and innovation? The one that thinks mainly from the left, or the one that thinks from the right?
Again right, no question. Why then do we mostly hear the “from the left” version? Why do goals seem to be treated as though they’re some kind of advanced concept?
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Now to SAFe, and it’s almost identical: n levels of backlog (where n is a parameter determined by the height of your SAFe poster), planning events and so on (very much like Scrum), or shared objectives pursued goal by goal (the wording here is identical to the previous slide, and it’s 100% compatible with SAFe).
I ask again: Which mindset is the one more likely to encourage self-organisation, engagement, and innovation? The one where progress against plan is closely tracked by the PMO, or the one where teams are encouraged to self-organise around goals?
You’re with me: the one on the right.
I’m not a SAFe user myself, but friends of mine in the SAFe community whose opinions I respect tell me that this tension is already beginning to be acknowledged and discussed in the SAFe community. Some implementations are more one way than the other; sometimes different people on the same project take a different view. Awkward!
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We’ve done Scrum and SAFe but I’m not quite finished with this pattern yet. Let’s try it with Agile adoption. What’s your kind:
Here on the left: Prescribe a solution (or have it sold to you), justify it (manufacturing an inauthentic sense of urgency), roll it out regardless of what people think, and deal with the consequences: the resentment, the cynicism, the disengagement (which is very hard to undo once it’s there), not to mention the realisation that much time has passed, the world has since moved on, and we’ve got to do it all over again! Maybe that sounds a bit like a caricature, but from the nods I’m seeing around the room, I know that this hits pretty close to home for some of you.
And here on the right: Agree on some outcomes (a process we’re well practiced now in facilitating), generate some options (based perhaps on expert advice, but perhaps you’re already capable of more than you initially realise), and start to test some assumptions. Who here has worked with Lean Startup? [A few hands go up]. At least somewhat familiar with it? [Several more]. You’ll know that the way we make progress is by relentlessly testing assumptions, and trying to do it in such a way that we often realise some business value in the process. It’s the main engine of progress in Lean Startup, and also a great model for change. Do that for a while and change becomes part of the day job, real work done by real people, not spare-time work, hobby work, or something to outsource.
So which is it? Left or right? I hardly need ask.
The brokenness of that left-to-right model is a serious issue. Here for example is Martin Fowler [@martinfowler], a signatory of the Agile Manifesto:
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[See agendashift.com/engagement-model]
That’s quite recent, in a 2018 State of Agile Software keynote. But he’s been consistent about this over the years: teams must have choice in their process.
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[Again: agendashift.com/engagement-model]
Let me highlight this term, Engagement Model. When Daniel Mezick used it in the foreword to my book, I knew right away it was an important term, one that I might perhaps have run with in the book if we weren’t just about to go to print! It’s something I also recognised in Caitlin’s work – in fact the way she deliberately went about discovering and iterating on her engagement model is one of her book’s main threads, even if the phrase itself isn’t there. Of course whether they’re explicit about it or not, every Agile supplier has some kind of engagement model; the question is whether their model does what Daniel’s definition seeks: promoting staff engagement rather than destroying it (creating the kind of disengagement we heard about earlier).
There is a third level to this engagement model thing, and it’s the focus of some of the excited conversations I’ve had with Liz and other collaborators like those I mentioned at the start. As I said, I think we’re converging on something. It’s about teams, as they transform, engaging constructively with their surrounding organisations, not saying “don’t bother us, we’re busy being Agile”. We want both sides to thrive! Hunkering down might make sense for a short while as teams are trying out radically new ways of doing things, but to normalise this attitude is a disaster! How is that going to encourage the organisation as a whole to develop? What we need – and it’s something that Liz said in her talk too – are collaborations and feedback loops that deliberately span organisational boundaries, and we have some great patterns for that. The opportunity is enormous – think just of the opportunities created by cross-boundary participation in strategy, for example.
We have only a few minutes left but I want to give you a taste of what an overtly right-to-left and outcome-oriented approach to change can look like. And based on what we’ve experienced over the course of the day, it’s going to feel surprisingly familiar.
We’ll start with this True North statement:
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[See agendashift.com/true-north]
Let’s pause for a few moments pause to take that in.
You might remember “Working at your best” from Caitlin’s talk; in my book I give full credit to Caitlin for the inspiration.
Now, to get the conversation started, a question for your neighbour.
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In pairs: What obstacles do you see in the way?
You’ll recognise question 2 – it was one of the Clean Language Language questions we heard in Caitlin’s keynote:
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With your neighbour, and with respect to the obstacles you identified: What would you like to have happen?
We’re starting a process Caitlin described as “modelling a landscape”; here we’re modelling a particular kind of landscape, a landscape of obstacles and outcomes. We could dig into the obstacles, but instead we’re going to go deeper into outcome space – it turns out this is a much better use of our time (quick book plug: Solutions Focus):
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In your pairs: Then what happens?
People sometimes say to me “Oh, this is the 5 Whys!”. In a way it is, but here we’re going forwards into outcome space, not backwards into obstacle space. But now that we’re on the subject, I have to tell the 5 Whys joke:
Q: Why are the 5 Whys called the 5 Whys
A: Because with the 6th Why you get a punch in the face
We could break a relentless line of questioning with a different choice of question, perhaps one of the questions Caitlin introduced to us this morning. But let’s risk it:
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In your pairs: Then what happens?
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[See agendashift.com/15-minute-foto]
What we’ve done here is a super-quick, stripped-down version of our Clean Language coaching game, 15-minute FOTO. We’ve open sourced it, so you can download everything you need to play the full version. We do it in table groups of around 4 people, and in just 15 minutes, each group can easily generate 15 or more outcomes. Across a few table groups it can generate loads – it’s really effective.
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[See agendashift.com/overview]
In our workshops or as part of a longer engagement we actually use it twice: once as part of Discovery, to help explore our ambitions and aspirations, and for a second time in Exploration when we’re looking for the opportunities to take forward.
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[See agendashift.com/done]
I’m done, at least in the sense that my 20 minutes are up. I hope that someone’s need was met. Thank you very much.
Upcoming public Agendashift workshops (Italy, Germany):
9 November, Brescia, Italy: Pre-conference workshop: Facilitating Outcome-Oriented Change ( Mike Burrows )
21-22 November, Berlin, Germany: 2-day Advanced Agendashift workshop: Coaching and Leading Continuous Transformation ( Mike Burrows )
03 December, Munich, Germany: Core Agendashift: Facilitating Outcome-Oriented Change ( Julia Wester )
[image error]Blog: Monthly roundups | Classic posts
Links: Home | About | Partners | Resources | Contact | Mike
Community: Slack | LinkedIn group | Twitter
We are champions and enablers of outcome-oriented change and continuous transformation. Building from agreement on outcomes, Agendashift facilitates rapid, experiment-based emergence of process, practice, and organisation. Instead of Lean and Agile by imposition – contradictory and ultimately self-defeating – we help you keep your business vision and transformation strategy aligned with and energised by a culture of meaningful participation. More…
October 4, 2018
5 reasons to come to an Agendashift workshop
The day before the main conference Italian Agile Days 2018 (Brescia, November) I’m doing a Pre-conference workshop: Facilitating Outcome-Oriented Change. To help publicise the workshop I did a quick Q&A with organisers Stefano and Fabio and it seemed a waste not to reuse it, so here it is!
1. Why do I have to participate?
The Agile community is waking up to the fact that Agile by imposition is not only wrong, it doesn’t work. “An absolute travesty” is how Agile manifesto signatory Martin Fowler described it recently. Of course, if all you were going to do about it was to complain, that would just be whining and you’re better than that – you want practical alternatives.
2. What problems will help me deal with?
One reason that mediocre systems get built is that people fixate on solutions and their so-called requirements long before needs have been explored and meaningful outcomes articulated. If they are to work at their best, it’s important that Agile teams have meaningful goals to self-organise around; often these are lacking too.
3. What do I take home from the workshop?
You will learn some practical tools for exploring and organising shared ambitions, obstacles, and outcomes. You will then learn how to generate options, frame hypotheses, and develop your ideas. You’ll be exposed to ideas from Lean, Agile, Clean Language, Cynefin, Story Mapping, Lean Startup, and A3 – integrated into one coherent engagement model, a framework you can use in your coaching or change management role.
4. What do I lose if I do not participate?
You’ll be missing out on the chance to participate in the first public workshop of its kind in Italy! (Each of the workshops listed below is unique in its own special way)
5. What will we do in the workshop?
Expect a day packed with hands-on exercises, all of them business-relevant, many of them producing useful artefacts. You don’t need to be an expert, just willing to participate!
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Public Agendashift workshops this autumn:
9-11 October, Brighton, UK: Agendashift + X-Matrix Masterclass ( Mike Burrows , Karl Scotland )
9 November, Brescia, Italy: Pre-conference workshop: Facilitating Outcome-Oriented Change ( Mike Burrows )
21-22 November, Berlin, Germany: 2-day Advanced Agendashift workshop: Coaching and Leading Continuous Transformation ( Mike Burrows )
03 December, Munich, Germany: Core Agendashift: Facilitating Outcome-Oriented Change ( Julia Wester )
[image error]Blog: Monthly roundups | Classic posts
Links: Home | About | Partners | Resources | Contact | Mike
Community: Slack | LinkedIn group | Twitter
We are champions and enablers of outcome-oriented change and continuous transformation. Building from agreement on outcomes, Agendashift facilitates rapid, experiment-based emergence of process, practice, and organisation. Instead of Lean and Agile by imposition – contradictory and ultimately self-defeating – we help you keep your business vision and transformation strategy aligned with and energised by a culture of meaningful participation. More…
September 28, 2018
Agendashift roundup, September 2018
In this edition: On disengagement and Engagement Models; Resource updates; Workshops; Right to Left; Top posts
On disengagement and Engagement Models
The 2-year anniversary post Engagement: more than a two-way street very quickly became a top 5 post for the year, and I’m very glad that it did – it makes some key statements of intent and I’m sure that it’s one we’ll keep referring back to.
Very short version:
Disengagement is a real problem, and one cause of it is inept change management, of which Agile by imposition is an inexcusable example.
Engagement Models – a very helpful term coined by Daniel Mezick and used in his foreword to my Agendashift book – are approaches designed to involve people meaningfully in organisational change, so that they are engaged in the process rather than disengaged. Agendashift is of course an engagement model, and I list some others (which I regard as complementary, not competitors).
Another kind of engagement is also essential to the viability of any organisational unit as it transforms: it must continue to participate in the wider organisation, and in such a way that both sides of any organisational divide will thrive. If you have studied viability, you will recognise that there are huge opportunities for organisational design and leadership development there. Inward-looking framework adoptions only exacerbate the problem meanwhile.
Read the whole thing, and expect to see it developed further in our product offerings and in Chapter 4 ‘Viable Scaling’ of the Right to Left, the 2019 book.
Resource updates
The simulation game Changeban is now quite well tested, and I released version 0.4 this month. Only two things keep it from reaching 1.0:
A page of instructions
An alternative deck that uses playing cards rather than coins as the source of variation
I won’t say that it’s better than Featureban (which has served me wonderfully – not bad for a sleepless night’s work) but Changeban is a better fit for my current needs. I still would recommend Featureban if your main goal is to teach the mechanics, basic practices, and metrics of kanban systems, but use Changeban if you’re focusing on product or organisation-related experimentation. Changeban is also a fun way to tee up our A3 template for hypothesis-based change.
Questions? #changeban and #featureban on Slack.
You may also have caught a sneak preview of a new overview picture:
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After some minor tweaks and reformatting for printing, I’ll add this to the poster deck. If you subscribed to that, expect to receive an update in October sometime.
It’s less linear than the original, and from the very positive feedback I’ve received, it’s both easier to understand and more representative of how Agendashift gets used in the wild. It allows for a lot more “circling round” through Operation (for example between Discovery and Exploration as need and outcomes get better understood through initial baby steps of change), or around Elaboration as assumptions get tested.
Workshops
We did another Agendashift Studio this month, a cozy workshop for up to 4 participants in my studio office, with lunch at a Peak District farm shop. I was thrilled that two of the four participants were attendees of past workshops back for a second helping, one of whom also brought a colleague! If you’d like to attend a future Studio, announce your interest in the #agendashift-studio channel in the Agendashift Slack – from there it’s basically an exercise in self-organisation.
Then a busy autumn schedule:
9-11 October, Brighton, UK: Agendashift + X-Matrix Masterclass ( Mike Burrows , Karl Scotland )
9 November, Brescia, Italy: Pre-conference workshop: Facilitating Outcome-Oriented Change ( Mike Burrows )
21-22 November, Berlin, Germany: 2-day Advanced Agendashift workshop: Coaching and Leading Continuous Transformation ( Mike Burrows )
03 December, Munich, Germany: Core Agendashift: Facilitating Outcome-Oriented Change ( Julia Wester )
Brighton (myself and Karl Scotland) is only 11 days away! There are still places available, and if you’d like a discount code, feel free to use (and share) SHARE15 for 15% off, or get in touch if you believe a bigger discount might be appropriate. Discount-wise, we give preference to employees of public sector and non-profit organisations, but clients, colleagues, and friends of the community will be seen right too 
September 21, 2018
“Core or better”
“Core or better, right?“, Daniel Mezick kept saying, implying that “core or better” should be a familiar phrase. It wasn’t, and I had to ask; turns out it comes from the Core Protocols (Jim & Michele McCarthy). Now that I know that context, it comes across as even more delightfully humble and punny than I had already assumed:
I will use the Core Protocols (or better) when applicable
In that same spirit, let me list a draft set of exercises for the upcoming 3-day Agendashift + X-Matrix Masterclass that Karl Scotland and I are leading on the 9th-11th of October, just ahead of the inaugural Lean Agile Brighton conference:
Impromptu Networking
Celebration/5W
The Future Backwards*
True North/FOTO/Aspirations
TRIZ
Wardley Doctrine
Assessment/FOTO
Schein Pyramid
Even-Over Strategies
ODIM Evidence
Four Points
Story Map
X-Matrix* – Delphi Style
Wardley Map
Impact Mapping*
Changeban
Catchball
Improv
Backbriefing A3
Outside-In Review*
15% Solutions
Experiment A3
Full circle
Items in bold are core in the sense that they’re well covered in the Agendashift book and feature in any Core Agendashift workshop. Here, “Core or better” translates to “alongside the ones we’ve documented, there’s a ton of great stuff out there that can be used as tools for outcome-oriented change, continuous transformation, and strategy deployment; here are some you might want to try”. Some of these non-core but still great tools are already recommended in the book (the starred items above).
What makes a tool appropriate? For us, it’s easy: we’ll consider any tool that engages people in the real work of bringing about change in their own organisations, so long as its use is supportive of the core idea that agreement on outcomes beats prescription as the basis for change. Our five principles and basic workshop structure (both of which feature in the picture below) help us decide where and how a tool is likely to integrate effectively for maximum impact.
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Just so we’re clear about our goals, here’s just one possible expression of those, a conversation-starting true north statement:
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A reminder again of some upcoming opportunities to try some of these tools for yourself:
9-11 October, Brighton, UK: Agendashift + X-Matrix Masterclass ( Mike Burrows , Karl Scotland )
9 November, Brescia, Italy: Pre-conference workshop: Facilitating Outcome-Oriented Change ( Mike Burrows )
21-22 November, Berlin, Germany: 2-day Advanced Agendashift workshop: Coaching and Leading Continuous Transformation ( Mike Burrows )
03 December, Munich, Germany: Core Agendashift: Facilitating Outcome-Oriented Change ( Julia Wester )
[image error]Blog: Monthly roundups | Classic posts
Links: Home | About | Partners | Resources | Contact | Mike
Community: Slack | LinkedIn group | Twitter
We are champions and enablers of outcome-oriented change and continuous transformation. Building from agreement on outcomes, Agendashift facilitates rapid, experiment-based emergence of process, practice, and organisation. Instead of Lean and Agile by imposition – contradictory and ultimately self-defeating – we help you keep your business vision and transformation strategy aligned with and energised by a culture of meaningful participation. More…
September 18, 2018
A small revision to Changeban
Friday was quite a big day! Agendashift’s second birthday, plenty of attention for the article Engagement: more than a two-way street, and an Agendashift Studio*, a small-scale workshop held in my studio office.
After lunch at our local farm shop we played Changeban. Changeban is based on our popular Featureban game, with slightly different mechanics, a Lean Startup-inspired board design (below), and an introduction to hypothesis-based techniques.
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It went down a treat, generating these interesting comments:
Featureban’s great but I think I will start using Changeban with my clients instead. By not simulating a software development process, people who work outside of technology will relate to it much more easily.
– Steve
Absolutely agree. Not once during playing the game did we reference or talk about anything tech-related.
– Karen
Always keen to make language as accessible as possible (something the Agendashift delivery assessment is appreciated for), I’ve done another pass on the Changeban deck and removed all references to “features”. Instead of “feature ideas”, we have “product ideas”; “feature experiments” becomes “product experiments”, and so on. Small changes, but every little helps!
These new references to “product” also help to reinforce an observation made in the Agendashift book: tools designed for the product development space often have applicability in the organisational/process improvement space, and vice versa. Lean Startup is the perfect example of that!
If you’re a registered Changeban user, you’ll receive an update by email from me sometime in the next few hours. If you aren’t registered and would like to be, sign up here. We’re now up to revision 0.4; it seems stable enough to go to 1.0 once I get round to preparing a page of facilitation instructions (there’s a #changeban channel in the Agendashift Slack meanwhile).
*There is no calendar for these Agendashift Studio events – they’re self-organised via the #agendashift‑studio channel in Slack. If 3‑4 participants can agree on a date that works for me too, then we’re on! We’re based in Chesterfield, UK, close to the Peak District National Park.
Upcoming Agendashift workshops (UK, IT, DE)
9-11 October, Brighton, UK: Agendashift + X-Matrix Masterclass ( Mike Burrows , Karl Scotland ) – yes we’ll play Changeban here!
9 November, Brescia, Italy: Pre-conference workshop: Facilitating Outcome-Oriented Change ( Mike Burrows )
21-22 November, Berlin, Germany: 2-day Advanced Agendashift workshop: Coaching and Leading Continuous Transformation ( Mike Burrows ) – and here!
03 December, Munich, Germany: Core Agendashift: Facilitating Outcome-Oriented Change ( Julia Wester )
[image error]Blog: Monthly roundups | Classic posts
Links: Home | About | Partners | Resources | Contact | Mike
Community: Slack | LinkedIn group | Twitter
We are champions and enablers of outcome-oriented change and continuous transformation. Building from agreement on outcomes, Agendashift facilitates rapid, experiment-based emergence of process, practice, and organisation. Instead of Lean and Agile by imposition – contradictory and ultimately self-defeating – we help you keep your business vision and transformation strategy aligned with and energised by a culture of meaningful participation. More…
