Agile Strategic Management
Agile Strategic Management
Agile Strategic Management
Agile strategic management can significantly increase the probability that you will achieve your strategies. Traditional strategic planning processes work best in manufacturing and construction firms for instance, where repetitive, long-term, stabile operations are required. However, today many organizations are confronted with constant change, and have considerable resources invested in knowledge or R&D work. Unfortunately, in most organizations traditional strategic planning processes do not work well.
WHAT IS AGILE STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT?
Agile strategic management is the process of developing and adjusting strategies as needed based on live data and new insights. Agile strategy management works best in flat organizations. If done well everyone is:
focused on executing on concrete top priorities,
fully engaged and productive,
tapping into the best ideas of each other,
interacting with each the customers frequently,
building, testing, deploying products or services in modules in short releases (e.g., monthly),
receiving live input and make adjustments.
Agile strategic management in action is exciting. It is fast paced and ends up becoming more strategic in the end, but for the quick learning cycles everyone go those.
Agile strategic management can significantly increases the chances of achieve your strategies. Traditional strategic planning processes work best in manufacturing and construction firms for instance, where repetitive, long-term, stabile operations are required. However, today many organizations are dealing with constant change, and have significant resources invested in knowledge or R&D work.
Unfortunately, in most of these organizations traditional strategic planning processes are imposed and do not work well.
Agile strategic management isn't complex. It is simple to understand, but harder to implement. It means that egos are checked at the door. It means being passionate for the cause and humble and respectful of the talents of everyone. Here is the great news. It is change we want to make because it so engaging and stimulating.
WHERE DOES AGILE WORK?
At the simplest level, a business establishes goals and strategies they believe will enable them to achieve the goals. They identify the products and/or services they will offer, an the processes needed to successfully.
GOALS
Goals can provide clarity regarding what is most important to the organization and how those will be measured. Establishing goals centered on the customers, employees, processes and financial results are all important in creating a successful organization.
STRATEGIES
The strategies outline how you plan to achieve your goals. Strategies are developed based on your sweet spot, rich customer insights, deep competitive analysis, and critical research in other areas. A key to competitive advantage is having a workforce that is passionate about the strategic direction of the organization. When people are genuinely able to contribute their best insights to a noble cause, they are significantly more likely to be emotional dedicated to working together, and helping the organization succeed.
PRODUCTS AND SERVICES
Products and/or services are what the firm offers to its customers. When a new product or services is developed or significantly improved, then generally project teams are chartered. Significant investments are made to develop, test, launch, support, and so on. Then, there is lost opportunity costs if the projects are not successful.
Using agile to manage your projects, whenever possible, can significantly reduce your risks and increase your odds of success. Agile teams work with frequently with customers and stake holders, in defining, prioritizing, building, testing and using the most important features upfront. Real live feedback is being provided before unnecessary resources are expended.
Strategy and Projects Interaction
Strategies may need to change as agile project teams collect deep insights as they partner closely with customers as they produce key features and they publish product releases. Consequently, there needs to be a tight working relationship between project teams and executive stakeholders. To maximize your investments, having your strategist partner with these teams is also vital. Executives and your strategist need to be trained in how to best engage with teams and effectively remove barriers. An authoritative voice if misguided can easily sway and misguide a team.
Projects and Releases
Project teams starts by working closely with the customer(s) in identifying desired features. These features are referred to as a product backlog or wish list. The product backlog is grouped into releases also known as release backlogs. The releases are prioritized. The highest priority release is generally focused on first by the whole team.
The term "release" is used deliberately. The focus is on organizing all work around what is to be released to the customer. This helps to always keep the team concentrating on are most value added to the customer. Releases are subdivided into iterations or what some call sprints. Finally, project teams meet "daily" for a few minutes. Each member answers these three questions:
What did I do yesterday?
What will I do today?
Are there any impediments in my way?
PROCESSES
Processes are where the day to day work is carried to produce, sell and service the products and/or services. Processes should be continually improved. Sometimes it is important to design new processes or re-engineer existing processes. Training in process analysis, best practices and automation is helpful.
Agile principles should be applied to process improvement efforts. Teams are put together, to identify, group and prioritize problems. The top problem is focused on first. The team uncovers and prioritizes root causes, identifies ideal solutions, and designs, develops, tests and deploys the solution. Partnering and meeting frequently with customers (sometimes internal customers) and stakeholders is important.
What Agile Strategic Management Isn't
Agile is not unstructured management. Agile is a higher form of leadership, that leverages the best of all disciplines, requires teamwork and a focus on top priorities, and a quicker pace of work.
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