Enterprise Agility: Being Agile In a Changing World
- Length: 490 pages
- Edition: 1
- Language: English
- Publisher: Packt Publishing
- Publication Date: 2018-06-29
- ISBN-10: 1788990641
- ISBN-13: 9781788990646
- Sales Rank: #1093649 (See Top 100 Books)
Enterprise Agility is practical framework for enhancing Agility and equipping your company with the tools to survive.
Key Features
- Prepare your company to navigate the rapidly-moving business world
- Enhance Agility in every component of your organization
- Build a framework that meets the unique requirements of your enterprise
Book Description
The biggest challenge enterprises face today is dealing with fast-paced change in all spheres of business. Enterprise Agility shows how an enterprise can address this challenge head on and thrive in the dynamic environment. Avoiding the mechanistic construction of existing enterprises that focus on predictability and certainty, Enterprise Agility delivers practical advice for responding and adapting to the scale and accelerating pace of disruptive change in the business environment.
Agility is a fundamental shift in thinking about how enterprises work to effectively deal with disruptive changes in the business environment. The core belief underlying agility is that enterprises are open and living systems. These living systems, also known as complex adaptive systems (CAS), are ideally suited to deal with change very effectively.
Agility is to enterprises what health is to humans. There are some foundational principles that can be broadly applied, but the definition of healthy is very specific to each individual. Enterprise Agility takes a similar approach with regard to agility: it suggests foundational practices to improve the overall health of the body culture, mindset, and leadership and the health of its various organs: people, process, governance, structure, technology, and customers. The book also suggests a practical framework to create a plan to enhance agility.
What you will learn
- Drive agility-oriented change across the enterprise
- Understand why agility matters (more than ever) to modern enterprises
- Adopt and influence an Agile mindset in your teams and in your organization
- Understand the concept of a CAS and how to model enterprise and leadership behaviors on CAS characteristics to enhance enterprise agility
- Understand and convey the differences between Agile and true enterprise agility
- Create an enterprise-specific action plan to enhance agility
- Become a champion for enterprise agility
- Recognize the advantages and challenges of distributed teams, and how Agile ways of working can remedy the rough spots
- Enable and motivate your IT partners to adopt Agile ways of working
Who This Book Is For
Enterprise Agility is a tool for anyone with the motivation to influence outcomes in an enterprise, who aspires to improve Agility. Readers from the following backgrounds will benefit: chief executive officer, chief information officer, people/human resource director, information technology director, head of change program, head of transformation, and Agile coach/consultant.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1. Fast-Paced Change – Threat or Opportunity?
Chapter 2. From Agile to Agility
Chapter 3. Enterprise as a Living System
Chapter 4. Mindset and Culture
Chapter 5. Leadership
Chapter 6. Organization Structure
Chapter 7. Process
Chapter 8. People
Chapter 9. Technology
Chapter 10. Governance
Chapter 11. Customer
Chapter 12. Distributed Teams
Chapter 13. Technology Partners
Chapter 14. Framework for Action
Chapter 15. Facilitating Change
Enterprise Agility Table of Contents Enterprise Agility Why subscribe? PacktPub.com Forewords Endorsements Contributors About the author About the reviewer Packt is searching for authors like you Preface The challenge of fast-paced change Agility is a necessity Goal of the book Value and limitations of the book Intended audience What this book covers Part 1 – The need for enterprise agility Part 2 – The foundations of enterprise agility Part 3 – The components of enterprise agility Part 4 – The blind spots Part 5 – The journey for enhancing agility Learning outcomes The final word Conventions used Get in touch Reviews I. The need for enterprise agility 1. Fast-Paced Change – Threat or Opportunity? The significance of the fourth industrial revolution The impact of fast-paced change Disruptive innovations Breakdown of traditional entry barriers Intersection of domains No place to hide Demanding customers Demanding employees Plentiful and cheap information What has worked in the past is unlikely to work now Change as an opportunity Summary References 2. From Agile to Agility The values and principles of Agile The Agile Manifesto Agile is a resounding success in IT Agile has also made a difference to the business world Issues with Agile adoption and scaling Focus on "doing" Agile Adoption without addressing systemic issues Adoption for wrong/unclear reasons The "Cookie cutter" approach Early visibility of issues seen as a problem with Agile Leaders feeling threatened Wrong expectations Underestimating the extent and impact of change The need for enhancing agility Adopting Agile is not enough Enhancing agility is not the same as Agile transformation Capabilities underlying agility Responsiveness Versatility Flexibility Resilience Innovativeness Adaptability Properties of agility Characteristics of enterprises with high agility Optimal agility Summary References II. The foundations of enterprise agility 3. The Enterprise as a Living System The mechanistic approach that is outdated for enterprise modeling Taylor's scientific management theory – the roots of mechanistic modeling Managers should "think" and workers should "do" Efficiency is the most important outcome to aim for Processes and methods should drive ways of working Need to reinfuse "life" into enterprises Complex adaptive systems (CAS) – a proven model of high agility What are CAS? Characteristics of a CAS Continuous evolution Autonomous and self-organizing agents Agents' interactions influence system behavior Agents' behavior is driven by purpose Loosely-coupled agents Variety is a source of strength Emergent behavior The nonlinear relationship between cause and effect Patterns of behavior Reasons for high agility in a CAS Implications for enterprises Enhanced agility Responsive structure Build social density Amplify success stories Encourage healthy friction Link purpose to work Balance proximity and modularity Cultivate diversity Build on emergence Shorter feedback loops Experiment with lever points Balance order and chaos Selective destruction Simple rules Safe to fail experiments Prioritize effectiveness over efficiency Monitor and leverage patterns Summary References 4. Mindset and Culture Significance What is mindset? What is culture? The culture and mindset ecosystem Changing mindset and culture Values aligned to agility Internal-oriented values External-oriented values Behaviors aligned to agility Treat failure as a learning opportunity Focus on continuous improvement Value team spirit over individual heroics Willingness to share knowledge Diversity of thought valued Practice "brutal" transparency Effective feedback Recognize the last responsible moment Driven by value Enabling behavior changes Align the metrics Levelling environment Leadership involvement Identify what needs to change about the current mindset and culture Link a behavior change to business outcomes Call out gaps between expected and actual behaviors Have clarity and consensus around trade-offs Deal with individual negative behaviors on a case-to-case basis Look out for broader anti-patterns Go beyond logic Aligning the workplace to an agility-enabling culture Summary References 5. Leadership Significance Dimensions of leadership Personal traits Willingness to expand mental models Self-awareness Creativity Emotional intelligence Courage A passion for learning Awareness of cognitive biases Confirmation bias Bandwagon effect bias "Guru" bias Projection bias Stability bias Resilience Responsiveness Behavioral capabilities Tolerance toward failure Connection with peers Comfort with "VUCA" Ability to guide and facilitate teams Ability to leverage risk Connection through engagement Ability to apply systems thinking Being technology aware Following servant leadership Balancing the paradoxes Encouraging inclusivity and diversity "Humble inquiry" Summary References III. The components of enterprise agility 6. Organization Structure Significance Inhibitors to agility A "tall" hierarchy Organizing primarily for efficiency Devaluing knowledge workers Centralization of core capabilities Leadership-level silos Enablers for enhancing agility Organize teams around business outcomes Self-organizing teams Coaching Empowered to make decisions Team chemistry Access to needed resources Stable teams Flat(ter) structure Repurpose the "frozen middle layer" Enable learning through communities Delink employee growth from structure Adhocracy as a decision-making model Supportive tooling Flexible, adaptable, and lean structure Summary References 7. Process Significance Inhibitors to agility Broken processes Processes not being aligned with the company's purpose/outcomes Processes not being fit for purpose Rigid processes Striving for 100% utilization Estimation and capacity planning done by "outsiders" Enablers for enhancing agility Optimize for outcomes Valuable inputs "Pull-based" flow Make it visual Seize opportunities to automate Use of enabling tools Build quality in Enable teamwork and shared ownership Determine capacity based on throughput Summary References 8. People Significance Inhibitors to agility Mechanistic view of people Lack of trust Blaming people Feeling of "being used" Lack of appreciation The "that's not my job" attitude The "yes boss" mindset Competition among individuals Differential treatment for contractual employees "Forcing" people to become managers Enablers to agility Psychological safety Competency-driven people development Intrinsic motivation Autonomy Mastery Purpose Engagement Ability to have fun at work Hiring for diversity Holistic and frequent feedback on performance Learning culture Summary References 9. Technology Significance Inhibitors to agility Treating the technology department as a cost center The "stepchild" treatment of the technology function Obsolete legacy systems Silos within the technology function Lack of engineering practices The bimodal approach COTS products for core capabilities Infrastructure vulnerability Enablers to agility Business-technology alignment and collaboration Shared measures of success Business appreciating the nature of technology work Visibility and transparency Direct exposure to customers Understand that change has a cost Speak in a common language Make the business self-reliant Agile and DevOps Culture of technology artisanship Portfolio management Evolutionary architecture Build core capabilities internally T-shaped skills Platforms Summary References 10. Governance Significance Inhibitors to agility Optimization of silos Relying on misleading and non-actionable metrics Watermelon metrics Vanity metrics Lagging indicators Metrics that drive wrong behaviors Sunk cost fallacy Speed at the cost of quality Annual budgeting Governing for compliance and documentation Projects/initiatives delinked from strategy "Frozen middle" Enablers to agility Value-driven prioritization Continuous validation of value Incremental funding Balancing of leading and lagging indicators Attend showcases/demos End-to-end link between purpose and initiatives Summary References 11. Customer Significance Inhibitors to the effectiveness of agility Exploitation mindset Taking customers for granted Focusing only on linear customer journeys Make assumptions about customer needs and preferences Ignoring end users Enablers to the effectiveness of agility The "customer-first" culture Aim for customer delight Understand what value means to the customer Summary References IV. The blind spots 12. Distributed Teams Significance Inhibitors to agility Cultural differences Time zone differences Language differences Lack of the "big picture" view Misunderstanding of requirements Trust deficit Lack of visibility Low morale Lack of collective ownership Risk of unpleasant surprises when "everything comes together" Enablers for enhancing agility People Proxy product owner/business representative Cross-pollination Cultural sensitivity Feedback culture Leverage effective communicators Process Inception/project kick-off workshop Joint stand-ups Joint retrospectives Maximize overlapping hours Periodic "work in process" showcases/demo Tools and infrastructure Electronic work pipeline Electronic build radiator Communication and collaboration tools Coding standards Source control system Network connectivity Structure Cross-functional teams Conway's law Perception of power Summary References 13. Technology Partners Significance Inhibitors to agility Resistance and concerns in adopting Agile ways of working Transactional relationship Frozen contracts Enablers for enhancing agility Ways of working True spirit of partnership Outcome-focused partnership Agile contracts Success story Agile awareness and training Coaching Stakeholder map and communication plan Social contract Alignment on estimation framework and standards Alignment on the definition of "ready" and "done" Ensure infrastructure and security alignment upfront Risk and issues – identification and management Governance mechanism for handling escalations Lead partner Heads up on changes in capacity Primarily focus on outcomes, not on practices Phased introduction of advanced Agile practices Learning through pairing Maintain clarity on priorities Continuous eye on quality Monitor time in wait states post-handoffs closely Knowledge transfer Behaviors Respect their pride Empathy Pick your battles Summary References V. The journey to enhancing agility 14. Framework for Action Leadership alignment on the need for change Redefine/validate the purpose of the enterprise Define the capabilities underlying agility Translate intent into action Assess the current state Envision the future Plan the change Execute the plan Don't copy frameworks blindly Balance evolution and execution Regression in periods of crisis Keep teams stable Leverage ways of working using propagation techniques Agility as a journey and not a destination Summary References 15. Facilitating Change Significance Learnings People do not resist change Things will get worse before they get better Continuous adaptation should be the norm Employee engagement is a prerequisite for extrinsic enablers to have impact Need to slow down to go faster Watch out for change fatigue Don't "steamroll" the "laggards" Don't "shoot the enablers" Sense of purpose over sense of urgency Clarity on "what's in it for me?" Primary focus on outcomes over means Small gestures of appreciation can have disproportionate positive impact Upgrade skills Respect the hard constraints Don't manage change, facilitate it Summary References Summary Other Books You May Enjoy Lean Product Management Understanding Software Leave a review – let other readers know what you think Index
Donate to keep this site alive
How to download source code?
1. Go to: https://github.com/PacktPublishing
2. In the Find a repository… box, search the book title: Enterprise Agility: Being Agile In a Changing World
, sometime you may not get the results, please search the main title.
3. Click the book title in the search results.
3. Click Code to download.
1. Disable the AdBlock plugin. Otherwise, you may not get any links.
2. Solve the CAPTCHA.
3. Click download link.
4. Lead to download server to download.