Tag: change

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Education Innovation Reading

Latest Read: Doing Agile Right

Doing Agile Right: Transformation Without Chaos by Darrell Rigby, Sarah Elk, and Steve Berez

Doing Agile Right: Transformation Without Chaos by Darrell Rigby, Sarah Elk, and Steve Berez

Darrell holds a MBA from Harvard Business School. He is a Senior Partner at Bain & Company and is a founder and leader of Bain’s Innovation and Agile Practices. Sarah holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and is a partner at Bain & Company with a focus on agile transformations and organizational change. Steve holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and is a partner at Bain & Company specializing in technology and agile practices. As a team they provide a deep and well-rounded perspective on implementing agile methodologies while avoiding common pitfalls associated with chaotic transformations.

Agile is a project management and software development approach that emphasizes flexibility, collaboration, and customer-centricity. It breaks projects into smaller phases called sprints. This permits teams to adapt quickly to changes and deliver value faster. It certainly has the power to transform work, but only if it’s implemented the correct way.

This isn’t a product or goal in itself, it’s a means to becoming an efficient operation. This book is really a must-read for any organization making transitions. They addresses the challenges many organizations face when implementing agile methodologies. They emphasize understanding and applying agile principles effectively in order to to achieve real transformation without falling into chaos. Today this is a tall order indeed, more than ever before.

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Education Innovation Reading

Latest Read: The Five Dysfunctions of a Team

The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni.

The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni

Pat holds a BA in Economics and Spanish from Claremont McKenna College. He is President of the Table Group, and previously worked at Bain & Company, Oracle Corporation and was a former Vice President of Organizational Development at Sybase.

Regardless of where you work, even if your are a one person consultant or new startup, you will benefit from Pat’s book. This is about engaging people to achieve outcomes. Should this be your consultancy or new product, your future will in part be influenced by the people you engage.

This is a long time bestseller for a damn good reason. In fact, we see teams as a group of individuals striving to achieve success in perfect sync with one another and their individual daily tasks. However Pat is able to analyze the fundamental causes of why teams fail, their projects do not result in closure and the impact of organizational politics

Pat outlines identifies five interrelated dysfunctions that can undermine team performance which hinder team effectiveness and performance:

Absence of Trust:
Perhaps the most difficult to confront within any team is their unwillingness to trust one another regardless of how long they have worked together.

Fear of Conflict:
Teams without trust will result in limited discussions on their project contributions. The free flow of conversations is required to be successful. You must engage your team at 100 percent.

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Design Education Innovation Reading

Latest Read: Subtract

Subtract: The Untapped Science of Less by Leidy Klotz. Leidy is a professor of engineering and architecture at the University of Virginia. He is published in the scientific journals Nature and Science. Leidy is also published in The Washington Post, Harvard Business Review, and Fast Company.

Subtract: The Untapped Science of Less by Leidy Klotz

Leidy is providing interesting lessons addressing the idea that subtraction, or the science of less is actually beneficial, especially in the COVID era. There are multiple ideas that will strike readers as important. You can certainly address the efficiency of your organizations today by removing the extra junk no longer needed to operate.

In fact, there are many efficiencies that my own organization can benefit from by adopting his less is more message.

Organizations are obviously recognized for adding incentives for good behavior, yet do not remove the obstacles that continue to exist for other employees. Especially in the COVID era, we are presented with new ideas and challenges.

However we cannot seem to be brave enough to subtract those dead ideas, policies, or procedures. Ultimately organizations continue the ‘pile it on’ approach. I am reminded of similar goals from two books by Daniel Pink: When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing and last year’s popular The Power of Regret. If by chance you have read either book, then you will know how Dan and Leidy are thinking.

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Design Education Innovation Reading

Latest Read: Upstream

Upstream: The Quest to Solve Problems Before They Happen by Dan Heath. Today Dan is a consultant to Duke University’s Corporate Education program. Along with his brother Chip, the Heath brothers have been writing impactful books for over 20 years.

Upstream: The Quest to Solve Problems Before They Happen by Dan Heath

Dan is providing great thinking to modern problems. This is even more valuable in the age we live in today regarding opioids and COVID. Perhaps the idea of instilling his lessons of ‘Preventing Problems Rather Than Reacting to Them’ is the ground floor many organizations need today.

Upstream is certainly an excellent book that talks about the value of thinking in systems and finding/fixing the root cause of problems. In fact, our world today is simply more difficult and demanding. The daily ‘grind’ often forces groups to overlook their ability to see upstream.

So, here is a book addressing how we can begin understanding a process needed to mitigate the problem versus just putting out fires. There is certainly a lot of research across this book showing how how Dan certainly understands how colleges operate.

Secondly, Dan Heath has obviously done a lot of research on this topic and has come up with the gotchas that hit many organizations.

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Design Education Innovation Reading

Latest Read: Making Numbers Count

Making Numbers Count: The Art and Science of Communicating Numbers by Chip Heath and Karla Starr. Chip is professor of organizational behavior at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business.

Making Numbers Count: The Art and Science of Communicating Numbers by Chip Heath, Karla Starr

Much to my surprise I looked up my first review of Made to Stick, Dan and Chip’s debut book. I read that book over 15 years ago. That book made such an impression that I have read their books without disappointment. However they recently published independent books and I will share Dan’s book Upstream shortly. His brother Dan is a consultant to Duke University’s Corporate Education program.

Chip presents multiple lessons to make numbers more meaningful to any group you are sharing data with in order to make an impression. This book is really one that should be not only on your shelf but also sharing with colleagues.

An interesting point is Chip’s message that nobody is really a “numbers person” as our brains cannot easily understand the analysis of very large number sets.

The focus is numbers in the billions. However, Chip documents how to understand and communicate the difference between one million and one billion that makes an impact within your organization:

You and a friend each enter a lottery with several large prizes. But there’s a catch: If you win, you must spend $50,000 of your prize money each day until it runs out. You win a million dollars. Your friend wins a billion. How long does it take each of you to spend your lottery windfall? As a millionaire….you go bust after a mere 20 days. If you win on Thanksgiving, you’re out of money more than a week before Christmas. For your billionaire friend….He or she would have a full-time job spending $50,000 a day for 55 years.
pg. 10

This example makes perfect sense in helping many users understand how to begin learning how to communicate their data sets.

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