Leadership Memo 2022-7
Happy July! I can’t believe half of 2022 is already gone! Time flies! I’m taking the cue from Calvin to cease the summer days. I’m cooking something new and I hope to give you a sneak peek next month. So, stay tuned!
In the meantime, I’ve been writing stories about how a rather senior level person (Wendy) systematically educates her peers and her supervisor in rethinking meetings and reimagining how work can be done. Why, you may ask? Perhaps let me ask you some questions instead. Is everything a meeting for you or your company? When people want to share some news or want a status update or discuss something or make decisions, they just call a meeting? There are better ways to communicate and collaborate than booking time on people’s calendars and dragging them into video calls. As Wendy’s boss, Peter, points out, this is not what he’s used to doing. It’ll require a change in thinking and people need time to adjust. People also need to learn new skills. Read the stories and see what I mean.
Latest happenings:
It’s party time! SFBABAM (San Francisco Bay Area Business Agility Meetup) is turning 1 year old! To celebrate our 1st birthday, we are bringing our past speakers back to what we’re calling, “SFBABAM Battle Royale”. Our speakers will be sparring on various questions and topics on business agility that our members have submitted. Come join us. You don’t want to miss it! RSVP here.
When: August 3rd at 11:30am Pacific, 2:30pm Eastern, 19.30 BST, 20:30 CEST.
“Business agility is about finding the constraints in the system” – Evan Leybourn, Business Agility Institute founder.
Most teams and departments in an organization encounter constraints in management, the budgeting process driven by finance and the performance management process driven by HR. When management and finance are about control, teams are constrained and the organization cannot be adaptive. E.g. no (or not enough) budget to hire the people when they need it, get the equipment and supplies in time, have the flexibility to try things out, etc.
“Our Agile Tales” have started another brand new podcast series called “Beyond Budgeting”. We explore with Bjarte Bogsnes how going beyond the budgeting constraints helps an organization achieve business agility. Though this journey isn’t for the faint of heart, companies like Tesla and Equinor (formerly StatOil) are doing this today – and are being very successful at it.
You can listen to the podcast on Spotify, Apple, Amazon, Google, Stitcher or you can click here.
