Mike Burrows's Blog, page 8

Agendashift roundup, March 2024

In this edition: The Great Consolidation (featuring the new Obstacles Fast and Slow video); The Great Rebalancing (news on books 4 & 5 and my next keynote); April’s webinar and experience/practice sessions; Leading in a Transforming Organisation; Top posts; Upcoming events

The Great Consolidation

On Tuesday I announced the release of Inside-out Strategy (II): Fit for maximum impact. This is notable for several reasons:

It’s the module that most deeply covers how we handle assessments in general, the classic Agendashift Delivery Assessment in particular, and how the Assessment Debrief workshop design has branched out into other things (the Adaptive Organisation Workshop and Pathway to Kanban to name two)It has the latest versions of Obstacles Fast and Slow and 15-minute FOTO , two of our most important exercises. So does part I, but Obstacles Fast and Slow is now tweaked specially for the assessment, and with 15-minute FOTO there is always more to explore!Parts I and II together account for the middle half of Train-the-Trainer / Facilitator – ie the second and third of four sessions. They make for a deeper and more repeatable TTT/F than was possible with the corresponding workshop materials alone.Only one module – Outside-in Strategy: Positioned for success – remains still to be migrated off the old learning management system. With a good number of subscriptions now migrated (with a nice 25% saving) to the new system off yet a third system, the Great Consolidation proceeds nicely. I will begin revising and re-recording Outside-in after Easter.

For access, visit the store page, or watch the introductory video first. The next TTT/F is in May; see the events calendar below. And in case you missed the March webinar, the recording features on a new Obstacles Fast and Slow page on agendashift.com and prominently on the homepage also. To save you a click, here it is:

Obstacles Fast and Slow, recorded March 2024The Great Rebalancing

Book 4, Organizing Conversations: Patterns of Dialog for the Transforming Organization, is a few minor edits away from completion after a couple of much bigger revisions. I’ll keep you posted on its progress through the production process in the coming months (to be honest, I don’t know how long it will take).

Book 5, Wholehearted: Engaging with Complexity in the Deliberately Adaptive Organisation, is started. I told myself that I would hold fire until book 4 was done, but I could hold on no longer. After having it kick around in my head these past couple of years it feels good!

Out of chapter 1 of Wholehearted – which you’ll have to wait a while to read of course – will come my next keynote, The Great Rebalancing. It will revisit themes I have blogged about before; it turns out that the need for organisations to increase their decision-making capacity leads to an interesting way to frame the shift heralded by the Agile manifesto that we have seen over the past couple of decades. Conference organisers and meetup hosts, you know where to find me; I do paid private speaking engagements also.

April’s webinar and experience/practice sessions

April’s free webinar and experience practice sessions are a bit different to usual. At the webinar, we’ll have special guest Karl Scotland, one of my earliest collaborators in the development of Agendashift and Leading with Outcomes. The experience/practice session will switch from being about assessments (most months, we look at one of three different templates) to being about organising outcomes into some representation of strategy. We’ll do some Option Relationship Mapping (together with Liz Keogh, Karl was its co-creator by the way) and look at some alternative/complementary tools. Again, see the events calendar for both sessions.

I haven’t added webinar and experience/practice sessions for May or June yet. For news of those, watch this space or subscribe to the series links (eventbrite.com both):

Monthly webinar/AMA sessions Monthly experience/practice sessions Leading in a Transforming Organisation

There are now three of these events in the calendar below: Berlin and London in early and late June (the London one brought forward from July), and Southampton in October (bumped from a highly speculative attempt to put it on at short notice in April). There’s a chance that I’ll do one in Scandinavia in the Autumn; other than that, these represent your best chances to experience Leading with Outcomes in person this year.

Top posts A big update to 15-minute FOTO (February) When to use which Leading with Outcomes workshop (March) From Flow to Business Agility (January) Leaders as keepers of context (September 2022) Better user stories start with authentic situations of need (October 2016)Upcoming events

Recent changes:

Leading in a Transforming Organisation (London) is brought forward a week to 25-27 JuneAdded Leading in Transforming Organisation (Southampton), October 8-10

Series links:

Monthly webinar/AMA sessions Monthly experience/practice sessions

April

04 April, online, 15:00 BST, 16:00 CEST, 10am EDT:
Free webinar/AMA: What if we put agreement on outcomes before solutions? 18 April, online meetup, 18:00 NZST, 07:00 BST, 08:00 CEST:
Between Spaces, Scopes, and Scales: What the scaling frameworks don’t tell you 18 April, online, 15:00 BST, 16:00 CEST, 10am EDT:
Experience/practice session: Organise the strategy

May

14 May to 22 February, online, Tuesday & Wednesday afternoons (UK time):
Leading with Outcomes: Train-the-Trainer / Facilitator (TTT/F) *

June

4-6 June, Berlin, Germany
Leading in a Transforming Organisation (Berlin) *25-27 June, London, UK (venue TBC):
Leading in a Transforming Organisation (London) *

October

8-10 October, Southampton, UK:
Leading in a Transforming Organisation *

*For TTT/F and Leading in a Transforming Organisation, ping me for coupon codes if any of the following apply:

Past TTT/F participants can join the online TTT/F again for free (a popular perk)Past participants of Leading in a Transforming Organisation can re-attend with 60% offEmployees in public sector, education, and non-profit organisations get 40% offMembers of the old partner programme get 30% offLast but not least, Agendashift Academy subscribers get subscription-specific discounts also

Leading with Outcomes from the Agendashift Academy
“Leadership and strategy in the transforming organisation”

Leading with Outcomes is our modular curriculum in leadership and organisation development. Each module is available as self-paced online training or as private, instructor-led training (online or in-person). Certificates of completion or participation according to format. Its modules in the recommended order:

Leading with Outcomes: Foundation Inside-out Strategy (I): On the same page, with purpose Inside-out Strategy (II): Fit for maximum impact Part I: Business agility at every scale Part II: Between spaces, scopes, and scales Outside-in Strategy: Positioned for success

Individual subscriptions from ~~£24.50~~ £18.40 per month after a 7-day free trial, with discounts available for employees and employers in the government, healthcare, education, and non-profit sectors. For bulk subscriptions, ask for our Agendashift for Business brochure.

To deliver Leading with Outcomes training or workshops yourself, see our Authorised Trainer and Authorised Facilitator programmes. Our next TTT/F training takes place in May (online).

At every scope and scale, developing strategy together, pursuing strategy together, outcomes before solutions, working backwards (“right to left”) from key moments of impact and learning.

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Published on March 28, 2024 05:07

Some changes to our published schedule

First off, we’re in that weird time when time zone offsets between Europe and the Americas are out of whack. I’ve updated this Thursday’s event to reflect that:

21 March, online, 15:00 GMT, 16:00 CET, 11am EDT:
Experience/practice session: Outside-in Strategy Readiness Assessment

While we’re looking at free events, April’s webinar features a special guest, Karl Scotland, one of my most important collaborators in the development of Agendashift and Leading with Outcomes. Also, April’s experience/practice session departs from its usual pattern of cycling through the mini assessments to look instead at “organising the strategy” – mapping in other words. Reserve your places here:

04 April, online, 15:00 BST, 16:00 CEST, 10am EDT, special guest Karl Scotland:
Free webinar/AMA: What if we put agreement on outcomes before solutions? 18 April, online, 15:00 BST, 16:00 CEST, 10am EDT:
Experience/practice session: Organise the strategy

There are now three Leading in a Transforming Organisation events in the calendar. Berlin has its venue confirmed (thank you Markus Hippeli and Leanovate), and very quickly it has reached its critical mass of signups. London has been brought forward from July to the last week of June, and we’ve added one for Southampton in October (thank you Steven Mackenzie and Agile South Coast):

4-6 June, Berlin, Germany
Leading in a Transforming Organisation (Berlin) 25-27 June, London, UK (venue TBC):
Leading in a Transforming Organisation (London) 8-10 October, Southampton, UK:
Leading in a Transforming Organisation (Southampton)

I will announce the London venue soon. It is selling, but I do appreciate that for those who need to book travel and hotels (I’m in that same boat), it’s good to know where it will be held!

Ping me for coupon codes if any of the following apply:

Past attendees of Leading in a Transforming Organisation can re-attend with 60% offEmployees in public sector, education, and non-profit organisations get 40% off, as do authorised trainers and facilitatorsMembers of the old partner programme get 30% offLast but not least, Agendashift Academy subscribers get subscription-specific discounts also

If you’d rather do something online:

14-22 May, online, Tuesday & Wednesday afternoons (UK time)
Leading with Outcomes: Train-the-Trainer / Facilitator (TTT/F)

Finally, not an upcoming event but from a past one, the Obstacles Fast and Slow video is up on its own page, also very prominently on the Agendashift home page. Thank you all who participated! To save you the trouble of following the links, here it is:

Leading with Outcomes from the Agendashift Academy
“Leadership and strategy in the transforming organisation”

Leading with Outcomes is our modular curriculum in leadership and organisation development. Each module is available as self-paced online training or as private, instructor-led training (online or in-person). Certificates of completion or participation according to format. Its modules in the recommended order:

Leading with Outcomes: Foundation Inside-out Strategy (I): On the same page, with purpose Inside-out Strategy (II): Fit for maximum impact Part I: Business agility at every scale Part II: Between spaces, scopes, and scales Outside-in Strategy: Positioned for success

Individual subscriptions from ~~£24.50~~ £18.40 per month after a 7-day free trial, with discounts available for employees and employers in the government, healthcare, education, and non-profit sectors. For bulk subscriptions, ask for our Agendashift for Business brochure.

To deliver Leading with Outcomes training or workshops yourself, see our Authorised Trainer and Authorised Facilitator programmes. Our next TTT/F training takes place in May (online).

At every scope and scale, developing strategy together, pursuing strategy together, outcomes before solutions, working backwards (“right to left”) from key moments of impact and learning.

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Published on March 18, 2024 04:45

When to use which Leading with Outcomes workshop

The facilitated workshops page lists five workshop designs, the first four (those shown on the image above) deliverable by authorised facilitators and trainers alike, the fifth only by trainers:

Discovery Workshop Assessment Debrief Workshop Outside-in Strategy Review Workshop Adaptive Organisation Workshop Leading in a Transforming Organisation

Plenty of choice there, so which should be used when?

The first two of those work both standalone and together (in either order), and the last two should be regarded as alternatives to each other, so let’s divide them into three groups: Inside-out, Outside-in (that middle workshop in a category of its own), and Adaptive Organisation. No surprise there: the Leading with Outcomes training curriculum is organised in much the same way.

Inside-out

Inside-out covers the first two workshops, Discovery and Assessment Debrief, both of these being up-to-date versions of the workshop designs covered in the first two chapters of my book Agendashift: Outcome-oriented change and continuous transformation (2nd edition 2021).

We use the Discovery Workshop in two ways:

To kick off internal changeTo give fresh perspective to a change initiative that is already underway

That second point includes stepping back from the detail uncovered by an Assessment Debrief workshop, perhaps some weeks later as part of a coaching or consulting engagement. Alternatively, a Discovery workshop leads quickly (perhaps directly) into an Assessment Debrief workshop, the former giving context to the latter. Either way, the Discovery workshop produces a high level strategy developed in the language of outcomes – meaningful goals, more immediately actionable outcomes (places to start), and outcomes of intermediate scale (meaningful indicators of success) – all organised coherently.

The Assessment Debrief Workshop can be used with any of our assessment templates (our monthly experience/practice sessions cycle through three of the shorter ones), but most often it is used with the Agendashift Delivery Assessment, aka the Values-Based Assessment, after its six headings of Transparency, Balance, Collaboration, Customer Focus, Flow, and Leadership. Refined repeatedly over a span of nearly a decade for maximum applicability to the widest range of delivery organisations (techology-related or otherwise), this template started life as a framework-agnostic adaptation of the bullets at the end of my first book, Kanban from the Inside, whose 10th anniversary comes in September.

Each assessment template is designed such that participants can be expected to respond positively to at least some of its prompts. Prompts are prioritised, “enjoyed” for what it would be like when (in context) they’re working at their ideal best. Then come obstacles – things that stand in the way of those ideals. They are identified, refined [1], and used as the springboard for the generation of outcomes. As with the Discovery workshop, outcomes are then organised, perhaps more visually this time. Going further into the process than the Discovery workshop does, solution ideas are generated for the most interesting outcomes and experiments designed for the best of those, deliberately biasing that generative process to the outcomes and solutions most likely to generate valuable learning for the organisation.

So… high level first and perhaps drill down, or engage at a more detailed level first and perhaps step back, the choice is yours. Online or in person, each is doable in half a day; a day is sufficient for both.

Outside-in

The two Inside-out workshops are both open to significant customisation, but for initiatives that begin with the customer or other external relationships (with competitors, suppliers, etc), the Outside-in Strategy Review Workshop may be more appropriate. We don’t use this one so often, but when the time is right, it’s powerful.

There are echoes of the previous two workshops in its Ideal, Obstacles, Outcomes progression, but here that IdOO (“I do”) pattern (as we call it) happens within a higher-level agenda:

CustomerOrganisationProductPlatformTeam(s)

We work our way inwards, each subsequent layer given proper context by those that precede it. If you’re looking for customer alignment and/or internal alignment to an organisation that knows the position in the competitive landscape it aims to occupy, this is a great place to start.

Adaptive Organisation

Explaining many organisational dysfunctions and missed opportunities in terms of imbalances, in the Adaptive Organisation workshops we are exploring what it means for different kinds of relationships to be healthy and productive. Given the number and range of these relationships and the agency of many of their participants, we are in the realms of the complex adaptive system (CAS). Accordingly, we pay much attention to the constraints that govern system behaviour.

You will get from that description that the Adaptive Organisation workshops are a little more technical than the others. If there is a workshop/training spectrum, we moving in the direction of training, but still the focus is on the host organisation and it’s very much a participatory experience.

The 1-day Adaptive Organisation Workshop can be thought of as an Assessment Debrief workshop with some supporting material. Underlying both its assessment template and that additional material is a very interesting model, the Deliberately Adaptive Organisation, a radical, engaging, and complexity-friendly take on an absolute classic, Stafford Beer’s Viable System Model.

The 3-day Leading in a Transforming Organisation begins with a day of Leading with Outcomes: Foundation (this introduces the IdOO pattern and others) and expands Adaptive Organisation to two days, allowing a much deeper exploration of the model and the organisational issues it helps uncover. That adds up to 3 days of training presented in workshop form, suitable for both public and private settings.

As well as being interesting for its own sake, Leading in a Transforming Organisation can also be used as a near-alternative to Leading with Outcomes: Train-the-Trainer / Facilitator (TTT/F). See the store page for details.

[1] See Obstacles Fast and Slow – the March 7th event, the video it will produce, and some updated resources

Upcoming events (many of them free)

Recent changes:

Fixed the link for the May TTT/FAdded two Leading in a Transforming Organisation events (Berlin in June, London in July)

Series links:

Monthly webinar/AMA sessions Monthly experience/practice sessions

March

07 March, online, 15:00 GMT, 16:00 CET, 10am ET:
Free webinar/AMA: Obstacles Fast and Slow 12 March, online, 16:00 GMT, 17:00 CET, 11am ET:
Wholehearted Strategy 21 March, online, 15:00 GMT, 16:00 CET, 10am ET:
Experience/practice session: Outside-in Strategy Readiness Assessment

April

04 April, online, 15:00 BST, 16:00 CEST, 10am EDT:
Free webinar/AMA: What if we put agreement on outcomes before solutions? 18 April, online meetup, 18:00 NZST, 07:00 BST, 08:00 CEST:
Between Spaces, Scopes, and Scales: What the scaling frameworks don’t tell you 18 April, online, 15:00 BST, 16:00 CEST, 10am EDT:
Experience/practice session: Organise the strategy

May

14 May to 22 February, online, Tuesday & Wednesday afternoons (UK time):
Leading with Outcomes: Train-the-Trainer / Facilitator (TTT/F) *

June

4-6 June, Berlin, Germany
Leading in a Transforming Organisation (Berlin)

July

2-4 July, London, UK (venue TBC):
Leading in a Transforming Organisation (London)

*For TTT/F, ping me for coupon codes if any of the following apply:

Past TTT/F participants can join again for free (a popular perk)Past participants of Leading in a Transforming Organisation get 60% offEmployees in public sector, education, and non-profit organisations get 40% offMembers of the old partner programme get 30% offLast but not least, Agendashift Academy subscribers get subscription-specific discounts also

Leading with Outcomes from the Agendashift Academy
“Leadership and strategy in the transforming organisation”

Leading with Outcomes is our modular curriculum in leadership and organisation development. Each module is available as self-paced online training or as private, instructor-led training (online or in-person). Certificates of completion or participation according to format. Its four modules in the recommended order:

Leading with Outcomes: Foundation Inside-out Strategy: Part I: On the same page, with purpose Part II: Fit for maximum impact Adaptive Organisation: Part I: Business agility at every scale Part II: Between spaces, scopes, and scales Outside-in Strategy: Positioned for success

Individual subscriptions from £24.50 per month after a 7-day free trial, business subscriptions from £259 per month for 15 individual subscribers, with discounts available for employees and employers in the government, healthcare, education, and non-profit sectors.

Save 25%! More details on the store page.

To deliver Leading with Outcomes training or workshops yourself, see our Authorised Trainer and Authorised Facilitator programmes. Our next TTT/F training takes place in February (online).

At every scope and scale, developing strategy together, pursuing strategy together, outcomes before solutions, working backwards (“right to left”) from key moments of impact and learning.

View more on Mike Burrows's website »

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Published on March 05, 2024 06:34

Agendashift roundup, February 2024

In this edition: A big update to 15-minute FOTO; The Featureban Flow Experience; Coming in March: Obstacles Fast and Slow and more; Adaptive Organisation (Berlin & London); The Great Consolidation; Top Posts; Upcoming events

A big update to 15-minute FOTO

On Monday I released v13 of our Clean Language-inspired coaching game, 15-minute FOTO. This was the most significant release for a long time, making it easier for participants and facilitators alike to get things started. Read all about it here:

A big update to 15-minute FOTO The Featureban Flow Experience

Also last Monday was the Featureban Flow Experience, a two-hour workshop which I co-hosted with Allan Kelly. Featureban is my open-source kanban simulation game, and we played it online using the KanbanZone tool. We had KanbanZone founder Dimitri Ponomareff in attendance also, and behind the scenes the three of us are working out how best make a Featureban template available to other KanbanZone users.

It was a lot fun, and given that this one sold out within 24 hours, I’ve no doubt that there will be more. The next one might see us use Changeban, a Lean Startup-flavoured and more gamified variant.

Speaking of kanban, my first book, Kanban from the Inside, has its 10th anniversary in September. I’m thinking of marking the occasion with a 1-day in-person event, most likely in London. It will be of interest to anyone looking for ways to introduce kanban in a manner more resonant with continuous improvement than the one most often taught. It could be described – at least to those in the know – as “Reverse STATIK meets Leading with Outcomes”, and it leaves you with not only a working kanban system but an organised agenda for change too. If you’re not sure what that all means (let alone what it might look like), watch this space.

Coming in March: Obstacles Fast and Slow and more

Hot on the heels of the 15-minute FOTO update comes Obstacles Fast Slow. This is a rename and an update to Good Obstacle, Bad Obstacle, the exercise that typically precedes 15-minute FOTO. The exercise in short: How you frame obstacles matters, and the process of reframing them can an interesting challenge! The March webinar slot is given over to this exercise so that we can record a new video:

07 March, online, 15:00 GMT, 16:00 CET, 10am ET:
Free webinar/AMA: Obstacles Fast and Slow

The following week I’m ValueGlide’s guest with a new talk that expands on the short opening keynote I did at SEACON 2022:

12 March, online, 16:00 GMT, 17:00 CET, 11am ET:
Wholehearted Strategy

The third of three free events in March is a regular fixture, a monthly experience/practice session – a chance perhaps to practice 15-minute FOTO:

21 March, online, 15:00 GMT, 16:00 CET, 10am ET:
Experience/practice session: Outside-in Strategy Readiness Assessment

April’s by the way breaks from the usual format. See Upcoming events below.

Adaptive Organisation (Berlin & London)

I did my first 1-day Adaptive Organisation Workshop at MBDA last week and was very happy with how it went (“Massive thumbs-up to the whole workshop” was one response). I only do these privately (do get in touch if you’d like to hold one; within reason I am increasingly able to travel) but yesterday I added two public Leading in a Transforming Organisation events to the calendar:

4-6 June, Berlin (venue TBC):
Leading in a Transforming Organisation (Berlin) 2-4 July, London (venue TBC):
Leading in a Transforming Organisation (London)

There are substantial savings offered on the first few tickets so get in there! The Berlin venue may be confirmed as soon as tomorrow (update: it was!), so be in little doubt that it will happen. For London, I have a venue in mind but am very open to it being hosted by a sponsoring organisation (so to speak) in return for seats. Don’t hesitate to get in touch if that could be of interest.

Leading in a Transforming Organisation is the longer form of the Adaptive Organisation workshop; the latter was extracted from the former. Presented in workshop format, it integrates the following modules of Leading with Outcomes, which you can take self-paced online if you can’t get to do it in person:

Leading with Outcomes: Foundation Adaptive Organisation (I): Business agility at every scale Adaptive Organisation (II): Between spaces, scopes, and scales The Great Consolidation

Slowly but surely, the Agendashift Academy is moving off its old platform and onto the new one, relying less and less on the gubbins that held it all together, making for a much smoother experience. Subscriptions are now native to the new platform, and a number of people whose yearly subscriptions were approaching renewal moved theirs across this month.

Over the next few weeks while this process continues, both in recognition that two modules have yet to be transferred (I’ll be re-recording them) and as an incentive to move subscriptions across, a substantial discount of 25% applies. Visit the Academy’s Store page to take advantage.

Top PostsA big update to 15-minute FOTO (February) From Flow to Business Agility (January) My favourite Clean Language question (January 2019) From Reverse STATIK to a ‘Pathway’ for continuous transformation (October 2019) 15-minute FOTO’s cheat mode (October)Upcoming events (many of them free)

Recent changes:

Fixed the link for the May TTT/FAdded two Leading in a Transforming Organisation events (Berlin in June, London in July)

Series links:

Monthly webinar/AMA sessions Monthly experience/practice sessions

March

07 March, online, 15:00 GMT, 16:00 CET, 10am ET:
Free webinar/AMA: Obstacles Fast and Slow 12 March, online, 16:00 GMT, 17:00 CET, 11am ET:
Wholehearted Strategy 21 March, online, 15:00 GMT, 16:00 CET, 10am ET:
Experience/practice session: Outside-in Strategy Readiness Assessment

April

04 April, online, 15:00 BST, 16:00 CEST, 10am EDT:
Free webinar/AMA: What if we put agreement on outcomes before solutions? 18 April, online meetup, 18:00 NZST, 07:00 BST, 08:00 CEST:
Between Spaces, Scopes, and Scales: What the scaling frameworks don’t tell you 18 April, online, 15:00 BST, 16:00 CEST, 10am EDT:
Experience/practice session: Organise the strategy

May

14 May to 22 February, online, Tuesday & Wednesday afternoons (UK time):
Leading with Outcomes: Train-the-Trainer / Facilitator (TTT/F) *

June

4-6 June, Berlin, Germany
Leading in a Transforming Organisation (Berlin)

July

2-4 July, London, UK (venue TBC):
Leading in a Transforming Organisation (London)

*For TTT/F, ping me for coupon codes if any of the following apply:

Past TTT/F participants can join again for free (a popular perk)Past participants of Leading in a Transforming Organisation get 60% offEmployees in public sector, education, and non-profit organisations get 40% offMembers of the old partner programme get 30% offLast but not least, Agendashift Academy subscribers get subscription-specific discounts also

Leading with Outcomes from the Agendashift Academy
“Leadership and strategy in the transforming organisation”

Leading with Outcomes is our modular curriculum in leadership and organisation development. Each module is available as self-paced online training or as private, instructor-led training (online or in-person). Certificates of completion or participation according to format. Its four modules in the recommended order:

Leading with Outcomes: Foundation Inside-out Strategy: Part I: On the same page, with purpose Part II: Fit for maximum impact Adaptive Organisation: Part I: Business agility at every scale Part II: Between spaces, scopes, and scales Outside-in Strategy: Positioned for success

Individual subscriptions from £24.50 per month after a 7-day free trial, business subscriptions from £259 per month for 15 individual subscribers, with discounts available for employees and employers in the government, healthcare, education, and non-profit sectors.

Save 25%! More details on the store page.

To deliver Leading with Outcomes training or workshops yourself, see our Authorised Trainer and Authorised Facilitator programmes. Our next TTT/F training takes place in February (online).

At every scope and scale, developing strategy together, pursuing strategy together, outcomes before solutions, working backwards (“right to left”) from key moments of impact and learning.

View more on Mike Burrows's website »

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Published on February 29, 2024 06:56

A big update to 15-minute FOTO

In this new version of our Clean Language-inspired coaching game:

Integrating the Classic and Lite ~~editions~~ formats Cheat modeGeneral tidyupStandard and premium versions1. Integrating the Classic and Lite formats

The Lite format (or ‘edition’, as it has been called up to now) was introduced in 2019 in version 7 thus:

To understand why we’ve wanted to make changes, consider what each participant is doing when they play the game for the first time:
Familiarising themselves with the Clean Language questions (from the cue card if it’s an in-room workshop, from the screen if it’s online)Taking turns in the role of client, coach, scribe, or observer, participating in or supporting what can be an intense 1-on-1 coaching conversationWorrying about the game’s objective, which to generate and capture outcomes
That’s a lot! Instead of doing this all at once, the Lite edition starts with a familiarisation exercise, turns the conversation into one for the table group as a whole, and the objective matters only after everyone has had a chance to get comfortable with it all.

If, as happens in many of our workshops, you plan to do 15-minute FOTO twice, you can start with the Lite edition and do the classic edition the second time round.

Since 2021 and version 11, the Scribe and Observer roles have been combined into a Host role. With the latest wording for the Lite format, the formats and roles are now described as follows:

Classic format – rotating every few minutes through the roles of Client, Coach, and Host so that everyone gets a turn in every roleLite format – anyone can ask, anyone can answer – but don’t get stuck too long in one role or on one obstacle

Role responsibilities:

Client: Chooses obstacles, responds to the coach’s questions with short, bullet point answersCoach: Guides the conversation using only the clean questions from the card and the client’s own wordsHost: Helps others enjoy a productive conversation, ensuring that “anything that sounds like an outcome” gets captured

Previously, the slides for the Lite format didn’t mention roles until the debrief. We have found however that participants find them helpful, to the extent that some facilitators choose to skip the introductory Lite format and go straight to the altogether more intense Classic format. They are now integrated such that with just one Classic slide, Lite participants gain a clearer picture of how the game can proceed, and are free to play the game anywhere on a wide spectrum between only loosely coordinated and the highly structured Classic format itself.

Facilitators may skip/hide slides or explain both formats as they prefer, perhaps leaving decisions on that until the last moment. Training and workshop decks need only one set of 15-minute FOTO slides, not two. These benefits are substantial – not least to me, who maintains it all!

2. Cheat mode

Introduced recently in the blog post 15-minute FOTO’s cheat mode, the game now allows an additional question (or variants thereof):

Why is that important?

For reasons explained in that article, this question is not included on the cue card.

3. General tidyup

I won’t describe them all in detail, but there has been a raft of minor-to-moderate changes, including:

The sequencing of slides in the facilitation deckA thorough overhaul of the 15-minute FOTO page on agendashift.com – well worth a readWording aligned with Leading with Outcomes

An example of that last one is this tip:

Treat What would you like to have happen? as inviting a small outcome – a first, tiniest sign that something interesting might be beginning to emerge

That wording comes from the commentary I use behind a progression familiar to Adademy students. Long before we introduce 15-minute FOTO in a later module, we see this from Foundation onwards:

Signs of emergenceIndicators of progressMeasures of successGoals and aspirations

It’s outcomes all the way down!

4. Standard and premium versions

As ever, the standard Creative Commons (CC-BY-SA) version of the materials that has the same look and feel as other open source resources is available via the 15-minute FOTO page on agendashift.com. This format also includes translations in to French, German, Swedish, Danish, and Italian, some of these more up to date than others. If you’ve accessed it via Dropbox previously, you’ll find the latest materials – deck, cue card, etc – already there for you.

The premium version of 15-minute FOTO has the Agendashift Academy look and feel, some bonus slides, and a short video. Together with other premium resources, it is available to Academy subscribers and supporters here. For access to that and much more, visit the store. The bonus slides:

A nice introductory slide that facilitators can practice speaking over as it builds upAn extra slide in the debrief exploring the relationship between coaching conversations and strategy conversationsA parting shot: Client, Coach, Host: Who’s the leader here?

All of that is explained in the Leading with Outcomes module Inside-out Strategy (I): On the same page, with purpose. We will take a second look in Inside-out Strategy (II): Fit for maximum impact (recording beginning shortly), and it is used in the Adaptive Organisation and Outside-in Strategy modules also. 15-minute FOTO features also in nearly all of our workshops – often the highlight!

While we’re here, Obstacles Fast and Slow

One prerequisite for 15-minute FOTO is a list of obstacles, suitably framed. To that end, don’t miss our upcoming webinar:

07 March, online, 15:00 GMT, 16:00 CET, 10am ET:
Free webinar/AMA: Obstacles Fast and Slow

Obstacles Fast and Slow is an update to the exercise formerly known as Good Obstacle, Bad Obstacle, and the webinar recording will go on the revised page.

Related Aka the ‘And when X…’ game (February 2020) My favourite Clean Language question (January 2019)Upcoming events (most of them free)

With Mike Burrows unless otherwise specified. Recent changes:

12th March, as guest of ValueGlide, new talk Wholehearted Strategy

February

26 February, Online, 14:00-16:00 GMT:
The Featureban Flow Experience
Mike Burrows, Allan Kelly

March

07 March, online, 15:00 GMT, 16:00 CET, 10am ET:
Free webinar/AMA: Obstacles Fast and Slow 12 March, online, 16:00 GMT, 17:00 CET, 11am ET:
Wholehearted Strategy 21 March, online, 15:00 GMT, 16:00 CET, 10am ET:
Experience/practice session: Outside-in Strategy Readiness Assessment

April

04 April, online, 15:00 BST, 16:00 CEST, 10am EDT:
Free webinar/AMA: What if we put agreement on outcomes before solutions? 18 April, online meetup, 18:00 NZST, 07:00 BST, 08:00 CEST:
Between Spaces, Scopes, and Scales: What the scaling frameworks don’t tell you 18 April, online, 15:00 BST, 16:00 CEST, 10am EDT:
Experience/practice session: Organise the strategy

May

14 May to 22 February, online, Tuesday & Wednesday afternoons (UK time):
Leading with Outcomes: Train-the-Trainer / Facilitator (TTT/F) *

*For TTT/F, ping me for coupon codes if any of the following apply:

Past TTT/F participants can join again for free (a popular perk)Past participants of Leading in a Transforming Organisation get 60% offEmployees in public sector, education, and non-profit organisations get 40% offMembers of the old partner programme get 30% offLast but not least, Agendashift Academy subscribers get subscription-specific discounts also

Leading with Outcomes from the Agendashift Academy
“Leadership and strategy in the transforming organisation”

Leading with Outcomes is our modular curriculum in leadership and organisation development. Each module is available as self-paced online training or as private, instructor-led training (online or in-person). Certificates of completion or participation according to format. Its four modules in the recommended order:

Leading with Outcomes: Foundation Inside-out Strategy: Part I: On the same page, with purpose Part II: Fit for maximum impact Adaptive Organisation: Part I: Business agility at every scale Part II: Between spaces, scopes, and scales Outside-in Strategy: Positioned for success

Individual subscriptions from £24.50 per month after a 7-day free trial, business subscriptions from £259 per month for 15 individual subscribers, with discounts available for employees and employers in the government, healthcare, education, and non-profit sectors.

Save 25%! More details on the store page.

To deliver Leading with Outcomes training or workshops yourself, see our Authorised Trainer and Authorised Facilitator programmes. Our next TTT/F training takes place in February (online).

At every scope and scale, developing strategy together, pursuing strategy together, outcomes before solutions, working backwards (“right to left”) from key moments of impact and learning.

View more on Mike Burrows's website »

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Published on February 26, 2024 00:12

Make the most of your breakouts

Part-way through the February Train-the-Trainer / Facilitator, I was prompted to create a new slide on the topic of breakouts. We agreed that it would be helpful to add it to every training or workshop deck – hidden by default and kept in reserve, it would be there as a reminder to the host, and available as a resource if needed. Its four key points (which I’ll expand on) are easy enough to remember, and they apply both to remote and in-person events:

Don’t let tools get in the way of a good conversationDon’t wait to get startedDon’t let yourself get stuck too long in one roleHelp each other enjoy a productive conversation

It will seem in what follows that I am writing to breakout participants, but of course the message is to hosts too. There were some wry smiles and chuckles as we discussed it!

1. Don’t let tools get in the way of a good conversation

Disguised perhaps as a warm-up exercise, a fact of life now is the necessary chore of familiarising ourselves with the event’s Miro or Mural board and learning where its most important tools are hidden. But this tip is even more basic than that. Quoting from my new slide:

Put the sticky notes aside until you are ready

At a training event held abroad shortly before the pandemic, the first exercise was getting underway. On each table was a supply of pens and paper (and little else). I watched first with satisfaction as the conversations on each table began, then in dismay as one participant dug out their personal supply of sticky notes and handed them around the table. That group fell silent, the conversation killed.

Sticky notes are great and so are Miro and Mural, but in their place. None of them is capable of capturing a conversation that never happened. Don’t let them get in the way.

2. Don’t wait to get started

You might remember this from 15-minute FOTO:

If a minute passes without progress, something is wrong
– a meta conversation or some other distraction

Often the hardest thing is to get started. Time spent clarifying instructions or objectives might seem time well spent, but often the best way to get started is simply to get started. Don’t confuse the conversation that needs to happen with a conversation about the conversation, and certainly don’t let the latter displace the former.

If you are genuinely stuck or confused don’t hesitate to ask the host for help, but better still, deal with it before the breakout starts. If you’re unsure about something, likely others are too. Don’t carry that uncertainty into the breakout!

3. Don’t let yourself get stuck too long in one role

From the Lite edition of 15-minute FOTO, but it applies to most breakouts:

Anyone can ask, anyone can answer (including answering your own question), and listening is good too

In the worst car crash of a breakout I have ever been embarrassed (as the host) to witness, one participant lined up the other participants on the other side of the table and proceeded to interrogate them. That’s an extreme example, but when we get stuck in one mode for too long, we make ourselves unable to contribute in other ways. Leave yourself open to describing what you are thinking or feeling, to being respectfully curious, to serving the group as observer, scribe, or encourager – but none of those to the exclusion of the others. The more freely you and others can move between those roles, the richer the conversation.

4. Help each other enjoy a productive conversation

• Curious, descriptive, inclusive, safe, generative
• Ready to share key points, captured as appropriate

This final point brings together the three “Don’ts” into something more positive. A productive conversation is one that is actually happening, actually underway, everyone able to contribute in multiple ways. Part of “productive” is also to be able to relate key points back afterwards, but let’s keep that in perspective. Speaking to myself here (I still get this wrong), clarity from the host is especially helpful where the guidance is not what participants might be expecting. Especially in those more tentative early exercises, enjoy it. One way or another, the threads that matter will be picked up again.

Related updates:

Watch this space for a new version of 15-minute FOTO, its Classic and Lite editions (rotating roles and “anyone can ask, anyone can answer”, respectively) integrated into one deck, plus other enhancementsThe next Leading with Outcomes Train-the-Trainer / Facilitator will be in May. See the upcoming events below, also the Store page for subscription options and discountsUpcoming events (most of them free)

With Mike Burrows unless otherwise specified. Recent changes:

12th March, as guest of ValueGlide, new talk Wholehearted Strategy

February

22 February, online, 15:00 GMT, 16:00 CET, 10am ET:
Experience/practice session: Agendashift Delivery Assessment (mini edition) 26 February, Online, 14:00-16:00 GMT:
The Featureban Flow Experience
Mike Burrows, Allan Kelly

March

07 March, online, 15:00 GMT, 16:00 CET, 10am ET:
Free webinar/AMA: Obstacles Fast and Slow 12 March, online, 16:00 GMT, 17:00 CET, 11am ET:
Wholehearted Strategy 21 March, online, 15:00 GMT, 16:00 CET, 10am ET:
Experience/practice session: Outside-in Strategy Readiness Assessment

April

04 April, online, 15:00 BST, 16:00 CEST, 10am EDT:
Free webinar/AMA: What if we put agreement on outcomes before solutions? 18 April, online meetup, 18:00 NZST, 07:00 BST, 08:00 CEST:
Between Spaces, Scopes, and Scales: What the scaling frameworks don’t tell you 18 April, online, 15:00 BST, 16:00 CEST, 10am EDT:
Experience/practice session: Organise the strategy

May

14 May to 22 February, online, Tuesday & Wednesday afternoons (UK time):
Leading with Outcomes: Train-the-Trainer / Facilitator (TTT/F) *

*For TTT/F, ping me for coupon codes if any of the following apply:

Past TTT/F participants can join again for free (a popular perk)Past participants of Leading in a Transforming Organisation get 60% offEmployees in public sector, education, and non-profit organisations get 40% offMembers of the old partner programme get 30% offLast but not least, Agendashift Academy subscribers get subscription-specific discounts also

Leading with Outcomes from the Agendashift Academy
“Leadership and strategy in the transforming organisation”

Leading with Outcomes is our modular curriculum in leadership and organisation development. Each module is available as self-paced online training or as private, instructor-led training (online or in-person). Certificates of completion or participation according to format. Its four modules in the recommended order:

Leading with Outcomes: Foundation Inside-out Strategy: Part I: On the same page, with purpose Part II: Fit for maximum impact Adaptive Organisation: Part I: Business agility at every scale Part II: Between spaces, scopes, and scales Outside-in Strategy: Positioned for success

Individual subscriptions from £24.50 per month after a 7-day free trial, business subscriptions from £259 per month for 15 individual subscribers, with discounts available for employees and employers in the government, healthcare, education, and non-profit sectors.

Save 25%! More details on the store page.

To deliver Leading with Outcomes training or workshops yourself, see our Authorised Trainer and Authorised Facilitator programmes. Our next TTT/F training takes place in February (online).

At every scope and scale, developing strategy together, pursuing strategy together, outcomes before solutions, working backwards (“right to left”) from key moments of impact and learning.

View more on Mike Burrows's website »

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Published on February 20, 2024 03:41

Agendashift roundup, January 2024

STOP PRESS – just too late for the main roundup below, here’s the episode I recorded on Monday for the Clean at Work podcast with hosts John Barratt and Sarah Baca. Enjoy!

Clean at Work: Episode 14 Strategizing Clean – Mike Burrows on Integrating Clean Language

More: media

In this edition: February TTT/F; 15-minute FOTO, Obstacles Fast and Slow, and 25% off; From Flow to Business Agility; Upcoming events; Top posts

February TTT/F

Approaching fast, the next Leading with Outcomes: Train-the-Trainer / Facilitator (TTT/F) begins on the 6th. With the Inside-out Strategy module now split into two parts (I will record part II of the self-paced version after TTT/F finishes) and a much stronger relationship with the two most-used Agendashift / Leading with Outcomes workshop designs, the TTT/F agenda now looks like this:

Tuesday 6th February – Leading with Outcomes: Foundation – a trainer’s eye view on the first two chapters of this core module of the Leading with Outcomes curriculum, introducing the IdOO (“I do”) pattern – Ideal, Obstacles, OutcomesWednesday 7th February – Inside-out Strategy (I): On the same page, with purpose – featuring classic exercises including Celebration-5W, Obstacles Fast and Slow, and the first of two experiences of our Clean Language coaching game 15-minute FOTO. This session builds on the Leading with Outcomes Discovery Workshop and related workshop designs, including the Outside-in Strategy ReviewTuesday 13th February – Inside-out Strategy (II): Fit for maximum impact – featuring the Leading with Outcomes Assessment Debrief Workshop and related workshop designs including the Adaptive Organisation Workshop, this session’s exercises include Option Relationship Mapping and a second experience of 15-minute FOTO and of course the assessment toolsWednesday 14th February – Moving into Action – Completing Leading with Outcomes: Foundation (specifically, the ideation part and its core pattern, Meaning, Measure, Method) before delving deeper into Adaptive Organisation

All sessions begin 13:00 GMT, 14:00 CET, 8am ET and finish by 17:00 GMT, 18:00 CET, 12 noon ET.

Ping me for coupon codes if any of the following apply:

Past TTT/F participants can join again for free (a popular perk)Past participants of Leading in a Transforming Organisation get 60% offEmployees in public sector, education, and non-profit organisations get 40% offMembers of the old partner programme get 30% offLast but not least, Agendashift Academy subscribers get subscription-specific discounts also

More information on Leading with Outcomes and its trainer and facilitator programmes here.

15-minute FOTO, Obstacles Fast and Slow, and 25% off!

Partly a bonus of the recently-announced release of the self-paced version of Inside-out Strategy (I): On the same page, with purpose, I will soon be releasing updated materials for our Clean Language-inspired coaching game 15-minute FOTO and the exercise that typically precedes it, Obstacles Fast and Slow (formerly Good Obstacle, Bad Obstacle).

Expect a new 1-deck 15-minute FOTO sometime in February. The one deck will cover both the Classic and Lite editions, plus the new cheat mode!

The March webinar/AMA is given over to recording a new video for Obstacles Fast and Slow. Join us! Materials and website updates to follow shortly after.

The release of Inside-out Strategy (I) also heralded some site reorganisation and a win/win! Details here:

About today’s release – and save 25% From Flow to Business Agility

What can I say? January’s first blog post has been read more times than anything that made it onto last year’s top 10! If you missed it:

From Flow to Business Agility Upcoming events

With me (Mike Burrows) unless otherwise specified:

February

6-14 February, online, Tuesday & Wednesday afternoons (UK time):
Leading with Outcomes: Train-the-Trainer / Facilitator (TTT/F) 15 February, online, 15:00 GMT, 16:00 CET, 10am ET:
Free webinar/AMA: Where to start? Where next? 22 February, online, 15:00 GMT, 16:00 CET, 10am ET:
Experience/practice session: Agendashift Delivery Assessment (mini edition) 26 February, Online, 14:00-16:00 GMT:
The Featureban Flow Experience
Mike Burrows, Allan Kelly

March

07 March, online, 15:00 GMT, 16:00 CET, 10am ET:
Free webinar/AMA: Obstacles Fast and Slow 21 March, online, 15:00 GMT, 16:00 CET, 10am ET:
Experience/practice session: Outside-in Strategy Readiness Assessment

April

11 April, online, 15:00 BST, 16:00 CEST, 10am EDT:
Free webinar/AMA: What if we put agreement on outcomes before solutions? 18 April, online meetup, 18:00 NZST, 07:00 BST, 08:00 CEST:
Between Spaces, Scopes, and Scales: What the scaling frameworks don’t tell you 18 April, online, 15:00 BST, 16:00 CEST, 10am EDT:
Experience/practice session: Organise the strategy Top postsFrom Flow to Business Agility (January)My favourite Clean Language question (January 2019) What Lies Beneath (Spoiler: Constraints) (October 2023)From Reverse STATIK to a ‘Pathway’ for continuous transformation (October 2019) What’s in store for 2024 (January)

Leading with Outcomes from the Agendashift Academy
“Leadership and strategy in the transforming organisation”

Leading with Outcomes is our modular curriculum in leadership and organisation development. Each module is available as self-paced online training or as private, instructor-led training (online or in-person). Certificates of completion or participation according to format. Its four modules in the recommended order:

Leading with Outcomes: Foundation Inside-out Strategy: Part I: On the same page, with purpose Part II: Fit for maximum impact Adaptive Organisation: Part I: Business agility at every scale Part II: Between spaces, scopes, and scales Outside-in Strategy: Positioned for success

Individual subscriptions from £24.50 per month after a 7-day free trial, business subscriptions from £259 per month for 15 individual subscribers, with discounts available for employees and employers in the government, healthcare, education, and non-profit sectors.

Save 25%! More details on the store page.

To deliver Leading with Outcomes training or workshops yourself, see our Authorised Trainer and Authorised Facilitator programmes. Our next TTT/F training takes place in February (online).

At every scope and scale, developing strategy together, pursuing strategy together, outcomes before solutions, working backwards (“right to left”) from key moments of impact and learning.

View more on Mike Burrows's website »

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Published on January 31, 2024 05:15

About today’s release – and save 25%

The great consolidation continues apace! Landing this morning on the newer of the two Agendashift Academy platforms was part I of the latest version of the Inside-out Strategy module. Part I introduces many of our most popular exercises, most notably:

Our trusty, context-capturing kickoff exercise Celebration-5WThe inspiring (and sometimes cathartic) True North: IdealOur Clean Language-inspired coaching game 15-minute FOTOObstacles Fast and Slow, the exercise formerly known as Good Obstacle, Bad Obstacle

The last two of those have received some updates. Standalone materials in premium and Creative Commons incarnations will be published in the coming weeks.

For a taste, here’s the module introduction (08:03):

Introduction to Inside-out Strategy (I): On the same page, with purpose

Once part II Inside-out Strategy (II): Fit for maximum impact is recorded, that leaves only the final module Outside-in Strategy: Positioned for success to be done before the old learning platform can be retired. Quite apart from that steady stream of content updates, that consolidation smooths the onboarding process greatly and reduces the administration burden too.

To get an early advance on that win/win, you can now join just the new platform on its own. It means for a few weeks forgoing the two modules still left behind on the old platform, but saving 25% in perpetuity. If you have an old-style subscription you are more than welcome to take up this offer too, especially if your annual subscriptions is up for renewal soon. Ping me to get your old one cancelled, and over the coming months I will actively reach out to subscribers as their annual or monthly subscriptions approach their anniversary. Watch this space for simplifications to billing arrangements for trainers and facilitators also.

Subscribe here:

Agendashift for Individuals (25% off at £18.40 monthly or £184 yearly, the new platform only)

Grab that saving while it lasts!

With that business stuff out of the way, what’s changing content-wise?

The old version of Inside-out Strategy did not keep up with significant progress elsewhere. The new version has a much clearer and more productive relationship with the Foundation module and it overlaps less with the other two modules. Nevertheless, part I does nicely introduce Outside-in Strategy, and part II will do the same for Adaptive Organisation. That’s because as well as exploring leadership, organisation, and strategy as all the Leading with Outcomes modules do, an additional function the two parts fulfil is to explain how two families of workshops are constructed, ie those that can usefully be understood as derived from the Discovery and Assessment Debrief workshops respectively.

That is good news in turn for Train-the-Trainer / Facilitator (TTT/F), whose middle two sessions are now Inside-out Strategy parts I and II, both sessions packed with our most popular exercises. The next one of those begins in two weeks:

6-14 February, online, Tuesday & Wednesday afternoons (UK time):
Leading with Outcomes: Train-the-Trainer / Facilitator (TTT/F)

Ping me for coupon codes if any of the following apply:

Past TTT/F participants can join again for free (a popular perk)Past participants of Leading in a Transforming Organisation get 60% offEmployees in public sector, education, and non-profit organisations get 40% offMembers of the old partner programme get 30% offLast but not least, Agendashift Academy subscribers get subscription-specific discounts also

Then what? In this order:

For trainers only, the Inside-out Strategy (I) training materialsFor both trainers and facilitators, a new version of the Leading with Outcomes Discovery WorkshopNew versions of the 15-minute FOTO and Obstacles Fast and Slow exercises – premium then Creative Commons versionsInside-out Strategy (II): Fit for maximum impact – the new recording and materials for trainersFor both trainers and facilitators, a new version of the Leading with Outcomes Assessment Debrief WorkshopOutside-in Strategy: Positioned for success – re-recording, training and workshop materialsRetire the old platform

Enough to keep me busy for a while!

Upcoming events (most of them free)

January:

25 January, online, 15:00 GMT, 16:00 CET, 10am ET:
Experience/practice session: Adaptive Organisation assessment

February:

6-14 February, online, Tuesday & Wednesday afternoons (UK time):
Leading with Outcomes: Train-the-Trainer / Facilitator (TTT/F) *15 February, online, 15:00 GMT, 16:00 CET, 10am ET:
Free webinar/AMA: Where to start? Where next? 22 February, online, 15:00 GMT, 16:00 CET, 10am ET:
Experience/practice session: Agendashift Delivery Assessment (mini edition)

*For TTT/F, ping me for coupon codes if any of the following apply:

Past TTT/F participants can join again for free (a popular perk)Past participants of Leading in a Transforming Organisation get 60% offEmployees in public sector, education, and non-profit organisations get 40% offMembers of the old partner programme get 30% offLast but not least, Agendashift Academy subscribers get subscription-specific discounts also

March:

07 March, online, 15:00 GMT, 16:00 CET, 10am ET:
Free webinar/AMA: Obstacles Fast and Slow

Leading with Outcomes from the Agendashift Academy
“Leadership and strategy in the transforming organisation”

Leading with Outcomes is our modular curriculum in leadership and organisation development. Each module is available as self-paced online training or as private, instructor-led training (online or in-person). Certificates of completion or participation according to format. Its four modules in the recommended order:

Leading with Outcomes: Foundation Inside-out Strategy: Part I: On the same page, with purpose Part II: Fit for maximum impact Adaptive Organisation: Part I: Business agility at every scale Part II: Between spaces, scopes, and scales Outside-in Strategy: Positioned for success

Individual subscriptions from £24.50 per month after a 7-day free trial, business subscriptions from £259 per month for 15 individual subscribers, with discounts available for employees and employers in the government, healthcare, education, and non-profit sectors.

To deliver Leading with Outcomes training or workshops yourself, see our Authorised Trainer and Authorised Facilitator programmes. Our next TTT/F training takes place in February (online).

At every scope and scale, developing strategy together, pursuing strategy together, outcomes before solutions, working backwards (“right to left”) from key moments of impact and learning.

View more on Mike Burrows's website »

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Published on January 23, 2024 06:21

What’s in store for 2024

Welcome to 2024! Happy New Year!

2024 has already started of course, and with the valued help of over 20 contributors I iterated several times over the holiday period on this article posted on the blog here yesterday:

From Flow to Business Agility – your comments/reactions etc on LinkedIn greatly appreciated

Also new is a section on the Agendashift Academy site for facilitated Leading with Outcomes workshops:

Leading with Outcomes Discovery Workshop Leading with Outcomes Assessment Debrief Workshop Outside-in Strategy Review Workshop Adaptive Organisation Workshop

In the calendar (see Upcoming events below):

Free monthly webinars ( series link ) – these recommence Thursday 11thFree experience/practice sessions ( series link ) – recommencing Thursday 25th Leading with Outcomes: Train-the-Trainer / Facilitator (TTT/F) – beginning February 6th

Regarding that last one, see Upcoming events below re discounts.

In the pipeline:

Leading in a Transforming Organisation – at least two of these events in the UK this year and I hope one or two abroad tooUpdates to Obstacles Fast and Slow – the exercise formerly known as Good Obstacle, Bad Obstacle ) – also 15-minute FOTO , Featureban , and Changeban Two books (my fourth and fifth), working titles:Organizing Conversations: Patterns of Dialog for the Transforming OrganizationWholehearted: Engaging with complexity in the Deliberately Adaptive OrganisationA new keynote to add to the three recorded here

Most pressing is the re-recording of the Inside-out and Outside-in strategy modules. Like the Adaptive Organisation module, Inside-out will be split into two, likely titles:

Inside-out Strategy (I): On the same page, with purposeInside-out Strategy (II): Fit for maximum impact (keeping the title of the original one-part module)

Once Inside-out and Outside-in are on the new learning management system there will be significant opportunity for rationalisation. If you’re not already on board there, check these out:

Leading with Outcomes: Foundation Adaptive Organisation, two parts: Part I: Business agility at every scale Part II: Between spaces, scopes, and scales

Or get in touch about holding a Leading in a Transforming Organisation training workshop near you; this covers Foundation and Adaptive Organisation, with all the benefits of an in-person experience, and some unique features too. I’m not asking anyone to take responsibility for the event (though that can be arranged); just your interest would be good to know.

Upcoming events (most of them free)

January:

11 January, online, 15:00 GMT, 16:00 CET, 10am ET:
Free webinar/AMA: How do we keep bringing outcomes in the foreground? 25 January, online, 15:00 GMT, 16:00 CET, 10am ET:
Experience/practice session: Adaptive Organisation assessment

February:

6-14 February, online, Tuesday & Wednesday afternoons (UK time):
Leading with Outcomes: Train-the-Trainer / Facilitator (TTT/F) *15 February, online, 15:00 GMT, 16:00 CET, 10am ET:
Free webinar/AMA: Where to start? Where next? 22 February, online, 15:00 GMT, 16:00 CET, 10am ET:
Experience/practice session: Agendashift Delivery Assessment (mini edition)

March:

07 March, online, 15:00 GMT, 16:00 CET, 10am ET:
Free webinar/AMA: Obstacles Fast and Slow

*For the February TTT/F, ping me for coupon codes if any of the following apply:

Past TTT/F participants can join again for free (a popular perk)Past participants of Leading in a Transforming Organisation get 60% offEmployees in public sector, education, and non-profit organisations get 40% offMembers of the old partner programme get 30% offLast but not least, Agendashift Academy subscribers get subscription-specific discounts also

Leading with Outcomes from the Agendashift Academy
“Leadership and strategy in the transforming organisation”

Leading with Outcomes is our modular curriculum in leadership and organisation development. Each module is available as self-paced online training or as private, instructor-led training (online or in-person). Certificates of completion or participation according to format. Its four modules in the recommended order:

Leading with Outcomes: Foundation Adaptive Organisation, two parts: Part I: Business agility at every scale Part II: Between spaces, scopes, and scales Inside-out Strategy: Fit for maximum impact Outside-in Strategy: Positioned for success

Individual subscriptions from £24.50 per month after a 7-day free trial, business subscriptions from £259 per month for 15 individual subscribers, with discounts available for employees and employers in the government, healthcare, education, and non-profit sectors.

To deliver Leading with Outcomes training or workshops yourself, see our Authorised Trainer and Authorised Facilitator programmes. Our next TTT/F training takes place in February (online).

At every scope and scale, developing strategy together, pursuing strategy together, outcomes before solutions, working backwards (“right to left”) from key moments of impact and learning.

View more on Mike Burrows's website »

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Published on January 05, 2024 03:57

From Flow to Business Agility

(Comment on LinkedIn | Hacker News)

Preamble: You may have noticed that I don’t use words like ‘waste’, ‘improvement’, or ‘flow’ nearly as much as my history in Lean-Agile [1, 2] might suggest. Recently [3] I expressed what could be interpreted as a lack of enthusiasm for a more recent term, ‘cognitive load’. Not to put fuel on the fire but to put those and similar terms into what I think is their proper context, here’s where I’m coming from.

Pick a scope, any scope. Bigger is better perhaps – your whole organisation even – but what I’m about to share works for small scopes too, your team, say.

Now picture its sweet spot, a metaphor for the set of its most desirable states or configurations: the right people working on the right things, the right conversations happening at the best possible moment, needs anticipated, met at just the right time [4].

Enjoy that for a moment.

What stops that? What gets in the way? Well, here’s how it often plays out.

Decisions on what work to start aren’t always optimal, and to correct past decisions, new work may need to be started. Already, and despite good intentions, we’re out of that sweet spot.

As a consequence perhaps of those earlier decisions, some of what is in progress can’t be finished, so yet more things get started. Inevitably, before this increasing pile of work finishes, new work arrives, and some of that gets started too.

Those “right conversations”? Can’t you see that we’re busy? Now there’s work being done by people who don’t have all the customer or business context they need. This results in yet more work – rework. With all of that going on, little thought can be spared for the question of how the organisation itself impedes those conversations.

“Needs anticipated, met at just the right time?” You’re kidding me! People overburdened, work lying around not getting finished, staff and customers alike frustrated by delays, the business having to finance not only the productive, value-adding work, but the delays and the rework too. That sweet spot turned out to be a tiny island in an ocean of other, far less desirable states.

The improvement story runs in the opposite direction. Focusing on finishing. Learning to be more careful about what gets started when. Reducing overburden. Testing assumptions sooner [5]. Improving quality. Reducing rework. These are measures that promote flow – better for the people doing the work, better for the customer, better for the business – a triple win!

So far, so conventional. Is that all there is to it? Of course not. If it were enough simply to manage the process more efficiently, why not just outsource it or sell off the offending product line? Let others find the efficiencies! That can’t be the right answer for most teams, most product lines, or most organisations – those with any kind of future ahead of them at least – but if the logical conclusion of that kind of thinking is a race to the bottom, there must be something that we are missing. Clearly, there’s a trap here.

With some justification, the missing piece is often assumed to be purpose. But the issue is even more basic than that. It is viability. Excluding perhaps project organisations whose mission and timescale are bounded, most organisations would not wish to pursue purpose in ways incompatible with survival, and efficiency is only part of that challenge.

John Boyd (of OODA loop fame) [6], described the challenge as one of “developing our capacity for independent action in a changing environment”. If there is a better definition of the pursuit of viability than that, I haven’t found it. Understand (as Boyd did) the competitive nature of that challenge, and it describes business agility very well too. Without going too deeply here into the study of viable systems [7] (fascinating, but outside the scope of this article), let’s try to make that actionable.

First of all, let’s see all that waste (including other forms of waste not identified above) not only as impediments to flow (as measured by things like lead time, flow efficiency, etc), but as drains on the organisation’s decision-making capacity. All that extra workload, the constant context switching, the quality issues, the dependencies, the frustration, the untested assumptions, the rework, and so on and so on – all of that needs to be dealt with, consuming the decision-making capacity of every participant in the system.

Conversely, improving the system releases decision-making capacity. A good thing no doubt, but improve the system enough it might seem to someone obsessed with efficiency that we now have excess capacity. That’s people we no longer need, right? It’s that trap again!

To understand why that decision-making capacity is so vital, we must understand that sweet spot not as the ultimate goal, but as a local optimum. Adjacent to it are other possibilities – possibilities that people now have the capacity to explore. And what lies beyond those? Not just optimisations to the end-to-end process, but new communication channels that might one day lead to new organisational structures. Not just changes in practice, but innovations and understandings that might lead to radically new solution ideas. Not just improved performance, but the organisation reaching a different understanding of itself and its position in the world.

That is what “developing our capacity for independent action in a changing environment” looks like. Turning that around, if you’re not developing your capacity for independent action, sooner or later you run out of options, and it’s game over. That applies at every level: to the organisation, to its larger structures (teams-of-teams, value streams, cross-cutting structures, and so on) down even to its teams and their team members. It applies to you. At none of these levels do you want your capacity for independent action to be so constrained that effectively you’re out of options. You don’t want to be out of options, and you don’t want that happening around you either.

You thought business agility was only about speed? Think again. Business agility comes from the capacity to keep creating options (ie to strategise), to select and test the best of them at the right time and with sufficient pace (I hesitate to call that execution), and to keep learning from the experience. To sustain it, the organisation must keep striking the right balances between delivering to existing commitments, discovering new opportunities, and developing the capacities they will need. At any level of organisation, some of those activities may (rightly) bring into challenge its structure, its purpose, even its identity. All of that demands decision-making capacity at every level [7, 8].

Decision-making capacity is a fundamental constraint on organisations. Without it, needs and challenges go unrecognised. Opportunities go unexplored. Options don’t get generated. Good options don’t get exercised at the right time or with the right priority. It is provisioned not only by reducing wasteful drains on it (reducing what is popularly known as cognitive load), but by enabling it to be exercised effectively. Therein lies the organisational challenge, because it depends on the availability of opportunities to participate and on situational awareness, both of which are constrained by far more than workload [9].

Ask yourself this: what is stopping people from deciding for themselves to do the right thing, to deviate where necessary from accepted practice, to seek to understand their work more contextually, to empathise more deeply with the customer, to interact with different people, to enter into new collaborations, to self-organise around new challenges – ie to innovate process-wise, product-wise, or organisationally? This is the organisation exercising and developing its capacity for independent action, but if the cost is too high or the capacity simply isn’t there, it won’t happen. Or perhaps at some level it is happening, but the surrounding organisation is too focused on other things for it to make a difference.

The truth is that no formal process or organisational structure can guarantee you the decision-making capacity to deal with every situation that your organisation will face. In a changing environment, they may hinder as much as they help. Whether for reasons material or psychological, the people closest to the challenge may feel constrained from acting. Lacking context, others around them may fail to lend their support. The wider organisation may be impeded structurally from recognising that the problem or opportunity even exists.

Yes, it’s important to seek efficiencies, to reduce waste, to pursue flow, to iterate and learn faster. But don’t see it only as a productivity play. If you aren’t quickly seeing the improvements spill over into a more profound kind of capacity [10], it could be that you aren’t helping your organisation half as much as you think. Your organisation’s reserves are enormous. Is it time you released them?

(Comment on LinkedIn | Hacker News)

References

[1] Kanban from the Inside (2014)

[2] Right to Left: The digital leader’s guide to Lean and Agile (2019, audiobook 2020)

[3] I may be on my own here but… (linkedin.com)

[4] Borrowing from Agendashift True North (agendashift.com/resources/true-north)

[5] Cockburn, Alistair, Elements to a Theory of Software Development (HaT Technical Report, 2016)

[6] Boyd, John R., Destruction and Creation (U.S. Army Comand and General Staff College, 1976)

[7] Everywhere all at once: Introducing the Deliberately Adaptive Organisation (agendashift.com/resources/everywhere-...)

[8] Adaptive Organisation (I): Business agility at every scale (agendashift.com/academy/adaptive-orga...)

[9] Between spaces, scopes, and scales: What the scaling frameworks don’t tell you (agendashift.com/keynotes#between)

[10] Explaining the “unreasonable effectiveness” of Agile (blog.agendashift.com)

Acknowledgements

For their encouragement, feedback, and comments as this post developed over the holiday period I am grateful to the following: Andrea Place, Badre Srinivasan, Cat Hicks, Craig Lucia, Daniel Walters, David Michel, Dickson Alves de Souza, Dustin Parham, Elizabeth Jones, John Obelenus, Karl Scotland, Kyle Bird, Leif Hanack, Matt Mitchell, Matthew White, Michael Cicotti, Nader Talai, Nariman Dorafshan, Ricardo Alvarez, Robert Howes, Sarah Whitely, and Shern Tee. Thank you all.

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Published on January 04, 2024 02:10