Leadership Memo 2021-1 Happy New Year! As we start the first week of the new year, new hope and excitement bubbles. However, we’re not that quick to forget the volatility, uncertainties, complexities and ambiguities (VUCA) that we all experienced in…
Category: Business Agility
How do you know they are resistant?
Have you encountered resistance to change? What are the signs that would tip you off? Body language, e.g. cross arms, face away from you? Facial expressions, e.g. smirks, frowns, curled lips, sneer chin up? Tone of voice, like sarcastic grunts,…
Uncertainties and messiness is something to be embraced
In my October posts, I listed out several examples of resistance to agile from executive management and middle management. We also explored why they acted that way. Today, let’s look at it from a different perspective. What is agile? Agile…
Read More Uncertainties and messiness is something to be embraced
Can we not play tug of war, please?
Have you encountered individuals who demanded to have templates to follow when you try to roll out agile? And if you don’t provide one, then you’re deemed not to know the process well? These kinds of individuals use their resistance…
You want us to do what?
Have you experienced either of these scenarios? The teams had “agile transformation” before, but those experiences left a sour taste in their mouths. They have “seen it all” and thought agile is nothing but a hyped up word, and they…
There are more than fight or flight options, aren’t there?
Let’s consider a different scenario: the executive management team was excited about agile and actively encouraged the company to go agile. They had taken the company on an 18-month agile transformation journey. They focused on being agile and wanted to…
Read More There are more than fight or flight options, aren’t there?
Would you think that “blasé, nonchalant” are the synonyms for resistance?
Continuing with the same topic that I started, let’s consider one last scenario: He was the head of product development, and he never outright said no to agile. He thought agile is a development thing, nothing to do with him.…
Read More Would you think that “blasé, nonchalant” are the synonyms for resistance?
Flip flop on the road to nowhere
Continuing with the same topic that I started last time, let’s consider another scenario: This time, the CEO was very enthusiastic in the beginning when I told him what an agile organization meant. He liked what I told him, and…
Pride and ego, a sure recipe to block improvement
Let's consider a scenario: This one company hired me as head of program management to roll out agile. When I tried to set up cross-functional teams for better delivery, my boss, the Chief Product Officer (CPO), told me that my…
Do you dare to overhaul performance management?
“Not everything that counts can be counted and not everything that can be counted counts.” - Albert Einstein In the past couple months, I’ve been writing and talking about performance management and reward & recognition. We even explore whether we…