The essence of Change and Learning is to embrace discomfort

Change and learning, by their own definition, imply leaving our comfort zone and entering the realm of the unknown in order to do something new. Having some sense of discomfort is inevitable. As leaders, the key is to ensure the change is just enough to stretch our people and systems but not overwhelm them.

For change to happen, it must hurt a little bit.

This is a very delicate balance. Too little change doesn't feel rewarding. Too much change can set us in a state of panic.

When we go too far, change leads people to a place of anxiety and distress where no progress or learning is possible. Our brains are in survival mode. This is the challenge we face when companies impose too much change on people.

However, when things are right, people experience a surge of energy and eustress. In those moments, change can be thrilling and rewarding. The sense of achievement can be enormous. There is a buzz.

These are moments when people feel that they are Ready, Willing and Able to achieve things.

So, when you are engaged in any change check that the conditions are ready for that change to happen. Ensure that the people most affected by the change are actively participating in its design and are willing to give it a go. And make sure that people have the skills and knowledge available to be able to succeed.

Finally, don't forget to keep checking that people are operating in their stretch zone. Listen to the signals that indicate you are doing too much or too little. It's a dynamic zone. It can change depending on many variable factors.

As Mihály Csíkszentmihályi showed us, our ideal is to get into a State of Flow where amazing things can happen.

Navigating Knowledge Debt: The Hidden Cost of Cutting Training Budgets

In the ever-evolving knowledge-work economy, continuous learning isn't just beneficial; it's essential. Yet, when financial pressures increase, training budgets are often the first on the chopping block. This cost-cutting measure might offer a short-term relief, but it accumulates a hidden and existential business risk: Knowledge Debt.

The Consequences?

• Diminished competitiveness while your competitors advance

• Talent retention challenges with ambitious staff eager to learn more

• A tarnished reputation in the job market, deterring top talent from joining your company

The Solution?

Even in difficult times, fostering a culture of learning is possible without large budgets. Consider these innovative, cost-effective strategies to share and expand the wealth of knowledge already existing within your organisation:

• World Café: Harvest and share your collective wisdom through collaborative dialogue

• Learning Mosaics: Visualise and connect knowledge in new and insightful ways

• Learning Cinema: Spark curiosity and discussion with daily or weekly curated content

• Lean Coffee: Facilitate dynamic, democratic conversations on important topics

• Lightning Talks: Encourage rapid knowledge sharing in bite-sized presentations

• Internal Train-the-Trainer Programs: Empower your internal experts to become knowledge multipliers with appropriate training skills

The Takeaway?

Investing in learning isn't just a line item on a budget; it's a strategic imperative for survival and growth in the knowledge economy. Transform Learning into a habit, not just a scheduled event.

Let's commit to turning the tide on Knowledge Debt and secure our companies' futures.

The paradox at the start of most Agile journeys.

The first principle of the Agile Manifesto is "People and their Interactions over Processes and Tools".

What are the first decisions someone (usually in a senior leadership role) makes for their company?

• Selects a framework like Scrum or SAFe (i.e. a process)
• Buys a Jira license (i.e. a tool)

And to make things even "better" there is probably a re-org done in which the people affected most have little say.

This is all PUSH and little PULL.

No wonder things often end up the way they end up...

Want to do better? Change with people. Don't force change on people.

Over 10 years ago, I led a team with a bold ethos: "If no other company wants you, why should you stay here?"

Sounds radical, but here's how we made it empowering:

• Embraced continuous learning

• Offered generous Learning Budgets for personal development

• Conducted Stay Interviews to evolve together as individuals and as a company

• Ensured competitive salaries without waiting for employees to ask for a pay raise

• Promised to "recruit from the bottom and promote from within"

Our ultimate test? Each member had an objective to get external job offers annually.

Then, they could choose to stay because they valued our support. Most of us did while the company remained supportive.

This approach baffled HR, but the team was performing at a much higher level. So, they went along with it.

Would you dare to try this? What innovative practices have enabled your company's success? Let's share and inspire!

Rethinking Expedited Work: A Business Agility Perspective

In my 15-year career as a Business Agility Coach, a recurring theme has emerged: 99% of businesses misinterpret the use of expedited work. Regular reliance on this practice signals a deeper issue within the operational framework.

One that demands immediate attention.

The misuse of Expedited Work

Frequently expedited work suggests that the company is unable to follow its established business processes or that its processes are not Fit-for-Purpose. This leads the company into an unsustainable cycle of crisis management.

Expediting work should be the exception, not the norm.

2 conditions to expedite work

• Unacceptable business impact
  Expedite only when facing severe repercussions. These could be financial, reputational, or customer-related.

• Incapability to deliver timely
  Take exceptional measures if a critical business event is happening now or in a span of time much shorter than what your business process is capable of achieving.

Expedited work is a last resort, not a go-to solution.

4 signs of companies abusing Expedited Work

• Absence of strategic assessment tools like Cost of Delay (CoD)

• Lack of a clear understanding of the Service Level Expectation (SLE).

• Persistent presence of expedited work, even leading to queues of work waiting to be expedited.

• Inability to regain a stable flow of work after the disruption caused by expedited work. This is something a Cumulative Flow Diagram (CFD) will show.

A call for rebranding Expedited Work: It's a Drama!

To counter the misuse, consider redefining what qualifies as expedited work.

In one company I worked with, their usual expedited work was rebranded as "Diva Work". This simple change significantly reduced the use of expediting as people didn't want to be seen as "Diva Owners".

As this is a gendered term, the term "Drama Work" could serve a similar purpose.

This allows companies to reserve Expedite Lanes for genuinely critical situations.

Conclusion

The habitual use of expedited work is a glaring red flag that jeopardises the health of your business. It's crucial to recalibrate and reserve expedited lanes for true emergencies, ensuring the agility and resilience of your business operations.

I invite fellow business leaders and agility enthusiasts to share their experiences and insights on managing expedited work. How do you ensure your business remains adaptive and responsive without falling into the trap of constant crisis mode?

#BusinessAgility #OperationalExcellence #Leadership #AgileMindset

Are you addicted to working in crisis mode?

Most companies are. From a systemic perspective, working in crisis mode may be the only way the company can deliver on a timely basis. Culturally, there may be people that are unwillingly driven to create a crisis and then rescue work at the last minute with "heroic" work that is often rewarded.

So, how do you spot if your environment suffers from this addiction? And how do you get fix this?

3 signs that your environment is addicted to crisis mode

• There is always some type of crisis happening.
  Your company shouldn't feel like the setting of your favourite hospital TV series.

• There is always some expedited work in progress.
  Expediting work means that work business process can not handle the work. This should be a very rare event. If you use your expedited lane, this means that you have no work process to speak of.

• People are regularly having to task-switch to respond to the latest high-priority work.
  Task-switching and multi-tasking are some of the worst practices in a knowledge-work environment. They simply destroy our ability to focus and deliver.

Unfortunately, in many companies creating a crisis, whether real or not, is the only way to ensure a reliable and timely delivery of work.

2 strategies to overcome crisis mode

• Focus on the age of work.
  Prioritise the work that has been worked on for the longest time. Finish work as soon as possible. Don't let it stagnate in your system.

• Balance the amount of work you have on the go.
  Don't have more work than what you can handle. Use flow metrics to measure your workload capacity and stick to it.

I fired my main coaching client at the end of 2023. Given the economic head-winds,. am I going mad? Well, it depends on what I do in the next 9 months of intentional non-billable work :-)

Quick background

I have spent the last 8 years working continuously delivering training and coaching. During these years, I have taken annual mini-retirements of 6-8 weeks, but I have had no capacity to dive into any of the product development ideas we have at Actineo.

So, at the end of last year I decided that I needed to reclaim my time and rejected the opportunity to continue working with my biggest coaching client.

Plans for 2024

Doing ship30for30 was the first thing I wanted to do. I had been postponing it for 2 years and I finally decided this was the time. This is post 33 of 30 :-)

What's next? I am keen to work on the following product ideas we have at Actineo:

• Create a self-paced introductory course on Business Agility.

• Write a guidance book on Business Agility based on our experience.

• Develop a self-coaching Business Agility tool based on Flight Levels.

• Provide workshop and conference materials to introduce Business Agility.

I'll share more thoughts on each one of these in the next few days. I would love to hear your thoughts on these product ideas.

Am I really planning to do no billable work? Yes. Unless...

• There is an opportunity in Finland (where I live) that allows me to do more sustainable work.

• Someone contacts me with an irresistible proposal that can't wait until September.

• There is an opportunity to do some work that directly benefits our product ideas.

Curious? Stay tuned the next few days.