Popular Links
Leadership (5)
Friday, 09 December 2022 13:53
Growth, Progress and Success
We often use these words interchangeably. When we grow, we assume we have progressed and therefore, we have become successful. This is not necessarily true. Growth does not necessarily mean progress. With progress, success is not necessarily attained. The words denote very different meanings that must be understood clearly to truly succeed in business.
Growth in Business
To grow a business means to sell more, to have a larger market share, to have more revenue or profits. The word simply means the output of a business endeavor has increased from one period to another. That is all. It does not mean that with growth, progress is assured.
Progress in Business
Progress requires knowledge sharing has to go hand in hand with growth. If a company sells more products in one year compared to the year before and has developed knowledge and expertise that is retained and shared with all employees in terms of how that growth occurred, it has progressed. It has learned what was done right and what needs to be avoided.
This learning, if properly retained, shared, and leveraged upon characterizes progress. It enables the growth to be sustained over time. It enhances maturity levels of the organization. It imbues a sense of accountability and purposeful commitment to continue the growth. Only then can there be real progress. Otherwise, the growth may happen but without such progress, it cannot be sustained.
Success in Business
Can such an organization that is progressive be deemed to be successful?
Not necessarily. Success is contingent on the extent to which an organization extends its expertise, provides support, and enables all other organizations associated with its growth to grow as well. This includes its customers, its end users, its vendors, its suppliers as well as society at large. It means extending the benefits it has gained to benefit others within its circle of influence. It calls for having a deep-seated commitment to extend support to as many external stakeholders as possible
Transitioning from growth to success
Extending support entails adding value to all companies within its network to develop and sustain an ecosystem within which the organization thrives. When knowledge is shared, and support is provided, value is delivered to all organizations without any expectation of returns.
Such a company is deemed to be successful. It succeeds because it realizes how collaborating with clients, end users, suppliers, vendors as well as regulatory bodies adds value its own success. Hence growth should not be equated with success. To achieve success, both enablers are drivers must be present.
What drives the transition from growth to success
The driver for the progression from growth to progress and onward to success is leadership that is committed to succeed through sustained learning and collaborative effort with all external stakeholders. Leaders that are dedicated to the principle of holistic success which requires all stakeholders to be successful for the organization to succeed. Such leaders seek engagement and growth of all internal and external stakeholders associated with the organization as primary indicators of success, not output and performance of the organization
What enables the transition from growth to success
The enablers for such a transition are sharing critical knowledge and embracing agility
Sharing critical knowledge
This requires developing and sustaining a work environment that facilitates the capture, retain, and share critical experience and expertise gained as the organization grows. This sharing enables employees to leverage on past learning to sustain the progression of its growth. This comes about when sharing of expertise and experience is undertaken as a normal practice undertaken routinely at all levels in the organization.
Embracing agility
To achieve holistic success, such an organization embraces agile practices that focus on adding value to all stakeholders. Adding value indicates seeking continually to increase benefits and at the same time reducing cost associated with acquiring these benefits. The commitment to continually focus on adding value becomes an overriding purpose of such an organization that seeks to succeed.
Hence both sharing critical knowledge and embracing agility are key enablers for making the transition from growth to success. These enablers are driven by leadership dedicated towards serving the interest of internal and external stakeholders. Without such leadership that drives sharing critical knowledge and embracing agility, organizations may experience growth on an ad hoc basis but will be unable to sustain the growth over time to success in business.
Summary and Conclusion
In summary being successful requires growth to be sustained, leveraged upon, and shared. Sustaining growth is premised on continually sharing critical knowledge acquired because of growth. Leveraging on learning that is shared to sustain the growth by continually applying lessons learned enables growth to continue over time. This denoted real progress. Success comes about through the development of a collaborative culture cultivated by leadership that ascribes to the notion that we only succeed when we all succeed. This notion is embedded as a key agile principle that when internalized, facilitates collaboration with all external stakeholders.
Published in
Leadership
Friday, 25 March 2022 09:34
Collaboration in Scrum
The Scrum framework focuses on managing and organizing work based on a set of values, principles, and practices. The principles are building blocks that will help anyone construct an effective agile team. Without principles, the foundation collapses, and any effort in introducing agile will fail.
There are six principles in Scrum which are:-
- Value Based Prioritization
- Empirical Process Control
- Self - Organization
- Collaboration
- Time-Boxing
- Iterative Development
In this article, we will discuss collaboration. For a Scrum team to collaborate, they need to develop a common awareness of the overall requirement of the project, strengths and limitations of each team member, as well as how team members can contribute to deliver the product.
The three pillars of collaboration are
- Awareness
- Articulation, and
- Appropriation
Awareness means individuals working together need to be aware of each other's work. This can be done by visually displaying the current tasks of each team member, how they're doing to do it and when it's going to be completed. The information displayed is critical and can be retrieved any time by all team members.
The word articulation means with full clarity. The information displayed visually need to be broken into simple terms so that everyone in the team is responsible for completing a task to help achieve a common goal.
The final pillar is appropriation means adapting technology to one's own situation; the technology may be used in a manner completely different than expected by the designers. This is in line with the Agile Manifesto of individuals and interactions over processes and tools. The team works together and uses the technology accordingly based on the project requirements.
The sporting world has a lot of examples of collaboration, for example football. Goalkeepers and defenders protect the goal, midfielders act as a link between attackers and defenders, and attackers score the goal. The focus of the game is to win games by scoring more goals than your opponent.
Traditionally this was the case for football. Now things have changed where even goalkeepers and defenders score goals. They don’t care about being in a fixed role. All they care about is winning. And if defenders are going to score goals, attackers must defend. This is collaboration.
To summarize, collaboration is only successful if all team members are working together to achieve a common goal. For that to happen, the team members need to stick to the 3 pillars of collaboration which are awareness, articulation, and appropriation.
By,
Udhay Sharma
Scrum Certified Trainer,
Scrum Master Certified, Scrum Product Owner Certified, Scrum Developer Certified
Scrum enthusiast since 2017
Published in
Leadership
Thursday, 14 October 2021 12:06
Developing a New Normal through Agile Leadership
The COVID 19 pandemic poses a serious challenge. It has forced leaders to rethink how to manage their business in a new environment. An environment where stability has been replaced by volatility. Certainty replaced by uncertainty. Being able to maneuverer around volatility and uncertainty by being agile is no longer an option. It is now a fundamental requirement. Being agile is a prerequisite for survival in such an environment.
Faced with the dire consequence of not being agile, leaders invest heavily on training employees on adopting agile approach at work. This may result in employees undertaking agile practices. The assumption is that by doing work using agile practices, the workforce becomes agile.
Doing agile occurs when employees are required to change what they do and follow strictly agile approach based on agile practices and routines. This leads employees to believe that leaders knows best and they oblige blindly without internalizing the principles of agile. This is where the problem lies. What is needed is agile leadership that shifts from merely adopting a short term tactical to engaging in a long term cultural focus.
Short Term Tactical Focus
When engaging in a short term tactical focus, organizations merely seek to revamp their processes and practices based on agile best practices. Attempts are made to upskill staff quickly. Many employees are sent to be certified as agile professionals. Kanban boards, daily scrums and sprints are introduced. The result is improved visibility and communication with some ability to adapt to changing priorities. However, such an approach delivers an improvement of merely 20% at best.
What hampers greater improvement is not a lack of skill but a lack of will of employees to learn, unlearn and relearn on their own. This is partly attributable to leaders being unwilling to relinquish their command and control mode of leadership.
Consequently, improvements made are sporadic and short term. The excitement and novelty wears out with time and in some instances organizations are forced to revert to the old way of working as it is better and more predictable. All efforts that have been invested are lost.
Long Term Cultural Focus
Agile leadership calls for disbanding a short term change focus to a long term cultural transformation focus. The focus should not be limited towards establishing how work should be done or what has to be achieved in the short term. The focus should be on what the company aims to be in the long run. This requires a focus towards developing an agile mindset among everyone and embracing agile values and principles rather than merely engaging in agile practices.
When adopting such a focus, there is a pronounced improvement in employee engagement and empowerment. Customer delight is achieved from better values obtained from services and products delivered. Gradually a culture of collaboration and knowledge sharing manifests leading to almost 200% benefit compared to what was achieved previously. The benefits obtained gradually embolden employees to immerse themselves completely within an agile framework that improves with time.
Shifting from a short term tactical to long term cultural focus
To enable a long term cultural focus to emerge, a gradual shift is required. One that involves shifting from profit focus to customer value focus, introducing processes that embrace agile principles and adoption of tools and techniques customised to suit the needs of the organization in question.
Leaders expect bottom line results to be achieved under all circumstances to sustain profit. They need to be made aware of the long term benefits of more customer value that leads to repeat business occurring at lower cost. This is best established by delegating work to self-organised teams, collaborating more with customers and being able to achieve more with less.
Processes being used should be carefully redefined to gradually introduce agile practices to enable the development of “hybrid” processes that include both traditional as well as agile processes. The agile practices will gradually be introduced in tandem with the readiness of the employees level of engagement in agile.
To facilitate the increased employee engagement in adopting agile requires tools to be provided that facilitate such engagement. These tools and techniques should be carefully selected based on ease of use and applicability in the working environment. Through constant use, the psychological and physical engagement levels of employees in their work based on agile practices increases.
Moving the needle on all three parameters simultaneously without disrupting the gradual shift calls for expertise in agile coaching. Such coaching is premised on expertise in mentoring employees and leaders on best agile practices, carrying out the necessary assessments to demonstrate value delivery as well as addressing impediments that could derail the shift from tactical to cultural focus.
In summary refocusing the purpose of embracing agile requires expertise in helping leaders recognise the benefits of customer value focus, coalescing changing processes as well as customisation of techniques in tandem with the demands of the business. Unless this is done, organizations will continue doing agile and will never be agile.
Dr. Rumesh Kumar,
PMP, SCT, Agile Coach, Director
Sharma Management International
Published in
Leadership
Wednesday, 03 February 2021 16:18
Daily Stand Up
Imagine having a daily 15 minute meeting where all participants will have to stand up, and no tea is served! It may sound like a radical idea to some, but it is commonplace in most agile based organizations. It is called the Daily Stand Up meeting, and no, it is not used as a medieval form of punishment! Instead, it is a very useful tool for organizing an Agile Project team. It is as bold and inventive as its title suggests. This write up below will help explain the concept in a practical sense.
The Daily Stand Up is a 15-minute meeting conducted in the same place, at the same time, with the same Scrum/Agile project team. The team stands up throughout the meeting to shorten these meetings. Only three questions are to be discussed. They are:-
- What did I do yesterday?
- What am I going to do today?
- What is stopping me from doing what I am doing
These questions, are designed to provide a status update to all the team members. Every team member shall then be aware of the tasks that are completed, tasks to be done, and the roadblocks along the way to achieving these tasks.
This encourages transparency of information between team members, and effectively maintains the project’s momentum. These meetings must only stick to these issues, and not lose its focus by discussing other matters. Only the three questions above are asked, to make sure that the Scrum team is on track to complete the desired project.
The most common tool used in this meeting is the Scrum board. Project activities on the Scrum board are divided between To Do, Doing and Done. These activities will move from one column to the next on a daily basis, in line with the findings of the daily stand up meeting
In order to guarantee effectiveness of these meetings, the following guidelines should be observed:
- Start and end the meeting on time: Always start and end a meeting on time. The meeting should be time boxed, and no additional time is to be allocated to the meeting. This ensures that team members will not veer off track in their discussions as there is a very limited timefame.
- Use a physical task board. Visually pointing at the user stories that are being talked about is more powerful and interesting.
- No distractions! All team members should at all times have full attention on the meeting. Keep all phones in a tray, or ensure it is turned off.
- It’s not a technical meeting. No technical issues are to be discussed. Everything apart from the above mentioned 3 questions should be avoided. Technical problems should be discussed in a separate sidebar meeting.
- Not a status update meeting. Stop attending if it becomes a status update meeting. Your time is more valuable if spent on development and coding instead.
- Acknowledge your teams’ contribution. Whenever someone helps you, acknowledge it. It builds rapport and is a small gesture that may mean a lot to your team members.
The daily stand up is just one tool within a Scrum Master’s toolbox. For more information about Agile tools and techniques, do consider the Scrum Master Certification (link here) online course.
Udhay Sharma,
Scrum Master Certified, Scrum enthusiast since 2017.
Published in
Leadership
Wednesday, 01 July 2020 13:26
Tale of Two Leaders: Jurgen Kloop and Donald Trump
When Donald Trump ascended to the presidency in 2016, the United States was a global leader, a world power that exuded immense global influence. The US was held in high regard by their NATO allies due to their ability and willingness to support the military alliance.
Four years later, the United States is described by Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, as having lost its position as a world power with its global influence declining significantly. The French President, Emmanuel Macron called on his European allies to forge a European “strategic autonomy” so that European leaders may defend the continent “without reliance on the US”. This very significant shift in how the United States is perceived worldwide occurred during the presidency of Donald Trump.
When Jorgen Klopp joined Liverpool, it was drifting away from its glory days as a team to be reckoned with. A once towering giant of football supremacy was flirting with mediocrity, having spent two decades without a Premier League title. Jurgen Kloop revitalized and transformed a creaking institution of the past into a behemoth, with the team transitioning from being in the 10th position in the League to becoming the European Champions, and has now returned Liverpool to their domestic perch as Premier League Champions, exceeding all expectations.
A deep dive into differentiating factors between both leadership styles can reveal how specific leadership behaviors play a defining role in shaping success, as well as breeding failure. This article compares and contrasts both leaders within the context of how both leaders ‘sense and respond’ based on their ability to ‘connect people and collect knowledge’.
Sense and Respond
The global uproar due to the heavy-handed manner in which police officers killed George Floyd was unprecedented. Everyone was up in arms against police brutality against people of color. Black Lives Matter trended globally on social media.
This very significant shift in popular mood was keenly sensed by local American politicians, who had no other option but to respond to this crisis. Monuments of public figures who championed of slavery and racial segregation in the past was removed in many cities across the US. The US state of Mississippi passed a resolution to replace the state flag with one without the Confederate emblem. This was done to assuage the rising tide of anger against entrenched systematic abuse against African Americans.
In sharp contrast to other American politicians, President Trump’s response to anti-racist protesters was deny their cause as being a justified cause. He swiftly signed an executive order to protect the monuments of men who fought to preserve slavery at the expense of the union. He ignored and at times contradicted the actions of local US politicians.
President Trump’s COVID 19 response also illuminates his leadership deficiencies. Despite repeated warnings from the US infectious disease chief Dr. Anthony Fauci that the nation has a "serious problem", the President routinely dismisses his top man’s advice. He refuses to wear face masks and insists that the spike in COVID 19 cases is rising purely based on “too many tests” being done.
Clearly Donald Trump appears unable or unwilling to accurately sense what is happening around him. As a result, his response is not only inappropriate but totally contrary to how a leader should respond in times of a crises.
Jurgen Klopp on the other hand has remained focused on the mission ahead of him ever since he joined Liverpool. He could sense that he needed the support of everyone who had a stake in helping him achieve success. Jurgen Klopp was obsessively immaculate in detailed planning and displayed flawless execution of his plans in the field. His planning was always done in collaboration with experts. He has been quoted as saying: "I know I'm good at a couple of things and really good at a few things and that's enough. My confidence is big enough that I can really let people grow next to me. That's no problem. I need experts around me."
A good example was how he sensed the leadership qualities within Jordan Henderson, signed by Kenny Dalglish in June 2011. Klopp recognized that Jordan Henderson needs to continue to play a leading role in inspiring the team despite his declining form. He responded by supporting Jordan Henderson all the way, even with his slump in form. By doing so, he built the midfield foundations and team culture which led to Liverpool being the well-oiled machine that it is, rather than a collection of individual players. This foundation led to Liverpool, with Jordan Henderson as captain, lifting the Champions League in Madrid last May. Klopp never wavered. Now, Henderson's form and reputation has never been higher.
Jurgen Klopp was able to instinctively sense the need of the moment, and by doing so was able to correctly respond to the situation appropriately, leading to results that were expected of him as a leader.
Connect and collect
As president, Trump must navigate an increasingly uncertain and complex world. Escalating tensions with North Korea and China, dealing with the current pandemic, and navigating relations with the Kremlin are just some of the challenges on the table.
MIT Leadership Center executive director Hal Gregersen said he would characterize Trump as a "top-down" or "command-and-control" leader. He said that such leaders tend to work best in "predictable and certain" atmospheres.
However, they fail significantly where it's unclear what to do or even pay attention to. Their fixation on them being “the best person to decide”, springs from an inherent inability or unwillingness to connect with others and collect knowledge crucial from making the right decisions.
Jurgen Kloop was the opposite. In preparing for games, he insatiably gathers information before condensing it into the essential and most urgent details. Based on reports from inside Anfield, this is regarded as a key skill that helps drive one of his best qualities - the ability to take big decisions quickly, without prevarication, and getting those decisions right. This was attributed to his ability to connect with the right people to acquire the right information needed at the right time.
He worked very closely with both his assistant managers, Peter Krawietz and Pepijn Lijnders who are assistant managers. No hierarchy exists and both serve crucial, differing roles within Klopp's team. Krawietz runs a team of four analysts, focusing on all aspects of previous and forthcoming games - a role so integral it shapes training sessions and team selection.
During a normal week at Melwood, Krawietz will usually present Klopp with 90 minutes of analytical detail which will be whittled down over the course of two meetings to a 25 - 30 minute presentation which the manager will deliver the day before the game.
The very close connection he had with his assistants enable them collectively to collect crucial information about the best strategy to adopt when playing with top notch teams. In 2016, they honed in on the increasing influence of defensive and attacking set-pieces for crucial games against top opposition.
Consequently, in 2017-18, Liverpool scored 13 goals from set-pieces. He was open to ideas and innovative ways of scoring goals. What greater example than Trent Alexander-Arnold's quickly taken corner that caught Barcelona cold in last season's Champions League semi-final second leg at Anfield?
As a leader, Jurgen Klopp connected very well with people that mattered and by doing so collected ideas and knowledge that helped him make the right decisions at the right time as a leader should.
When it comes to identifying what leadership is best in today’s world, we need only to apply the law of inertia that says an object in motion stays in motion with the same speed and in the same direction unless acted upon by an unbalanced force.
Simply put, progress under a certain leadership style will be forever stymied unless and until we remove the unbalanced force that glorifies leaders that are unwilling to sense and respond appropriately. But to do that such leaders need to reexamine their ability and willingness to connect with people and collect knowledge from them.
If back in 2016, Donald Trump imbued the leadership trait of being able to sense correctly and respond appropriately to situations, having internalized the need to connect with people and collect crucial knowledge from them, the world today would be in a very much different position.
Likewise, if Jurgen Klopp failed to sense the enormity of the challenge that lied ahead of him and respond accordingly, dismissing the need to connect with people that matter, Liverpool would still be hovering in the mid table of the English Premier League.
In today’s rapidly changing world, agile leadership that hinges on responding correctly and responding appropriately is the only way to lead people out of crises. All else is bound to fail.
Dr. Rumesh Kumar
Published in
Leadership
Tagged under
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
© 2007-2023 All rights reserved — Sharma Management International Sdn Bhd (767951-X), 16-4 Subang Business Center, Jalan USJ 9/5T, 47500 Selangor, Malaysia. Project Management Institute (PMI), Project Management Professional (PMP), PMBOK, Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM), PMI Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP), the PMI Logo, PMP, PMI-ACP, CAPM and the PMI Authorized Training Partner logo are registered trademarks of the Project Management Institute, Inc. All trademarks are owned by their respective owners. Learn more about our global network.
 |
 |
 |
 |