13. July 2016
I described the fundamental aspects of agile talent management in my last blog post on the topic of talent management: a development-guided notion of talent, talent enabling, self-organization and a supportive talent culture. Building on that, I will now propose further thoughts on actually implementing these in a company.
Talent management with flexible formats
In agile environments, talent management – or rather talent enabling – needs to be dynamic instead of process-driven. We therefore have to question specified annual cycles of talent management. There is little point to conducting employee conversations at pre-set points in time when work structures undergo dynamic change and project cycles take the form of thirty day sprints. The format of the employee conversation is still an important tool in principle. It does not do, however, to use it as a mere step within a process. In other words, feedback is provided, individual development desires and training requirements are talked about and employees are evaluated whenever there is an occasion to do so. The timing is variable, as are the persons who are invited into the setting. Team colleagues may be included, where necessary. Employees and managers have to be enabled to apply these formats for talent flexibly and apply them in their own manner as required.
Talent management software must not be the structural guide for talent development. This is even more true now than it was in traditional forms of organizations. Interaction and learning by experience are pivotal. A a result, talent management and its supporting systems gain a new flexibility. Adaptable and accessible formats for talent are more important than one continuous talent process.
New roles in intrinsic career management
My previous contribution described development-guided behavior and self-organization in talent management; these create a demand for new skills in an organization. Employees now shoulder more responsibility for themselves and their career development. In traditional companies, career planning is often still based on the mechanism of the system: pre-ordained career paths, promotion cycles, appointments as high potential, which will surely deliver the employees – given good work – to the correct (and crucial) position in the organization. Linear formats of this kind no longer work in agile environments. The employees need to establish their own profile of competence by themselves, as well as being able to name their personal motivation and values truthfully and in detail in order to deduce from these their career goals and action plans. It takes a new way of thinking and acting to be able to perform this kind of self-direction. The employees can be supported in their self-organization by way of staff offers with regard to career planning. Such offers include, e.g., position reckoning, peer coaching, job shadowing and mentoring.
Managers will also have to rethink and assume their role as a talent coach. As a professional coach does, they do not decide career questions, but are required to accompany the employee with regular feedback and negotiation that takes into account the available capabilities. They help to identify fields for development and to attain learning goals, they make educational offers, e.g, for new projects. Managers may need support in order to implement this role. This can come in the form of training. However, what is required is not only the attainment of concrete skills but also a new understanding of the management role, as is generally true for agile organizations. As in other fields, the managers will assume a moderating and supporting function in talent management.
Agile talent management requires new formats and interventions. New attitudes and roles need to be assumed and accepted so that flexibility and personal responsibility can be implemented successfully.
Anke Wolf
14. June 2016
This is a game of six stations with set game boards and role ascriptions, thirty-five players, a range of supply concepts, several thousand Lego bricks, a great number of containers, lorries and ships. It is the goal of this game of quick rounds to produce eight Lego vehicles in three versions each according to a pre-determined production plan in two plants. »SYNNECTA Global Logistics« is a strategic simulation game that brings the full complexity of logistics to life.
If you are not a logistician, you won’t think it is so much of a challenge to deliver a component from a Chinese supplier to a German installation site.
Consider, however, that this component, together with thousands of other just-in-time components, needs to arrive – potentially in a particular order – at that installation site undamaged, having traveled around half the globe: being delivered by suppliers via a packaging service, placed into a container, going by ship to Europe, by lorry to a deconsolidation facility, put in intermediary storage to then go on again by lorry directly or via another, plant-internal storage stage… It is beginning to sound rather more complex and considerably more likely to fail! Yet a company’s logistics field will successfully supply in such by now global goods streams in about 99% of the cases.
It is nevertheless becoming more and more frequently impossible for individual logistics staff – especially at large companies – to maintain a complete overview of these highly complex global streams with countless parts and a range of material flows and supply paths and therefore to fully understand the contexts and dependencies.
That is why we developed this strategic logistics game in the course of a client project. The fundamental goal of this game is to allow the players to fully experience the entire logistics chain and the repercussions of different supply concepts. It also, obviously, covers topics such as interface coordination, communication, cooperation and, last but not least, is fun for the participants.
Between 25 and 40 employees can play our strategic game together and experience the logistics chain: beginning with a range of suppliers, they move on to transport, elements of delinkage and internal plant logistics, and eventually construct Lego vehicles. The supply concepts can be altered in the course of the game. The repercussions of such adaptations are immediately felt by the participants. Playing time for each game is about half a day, including reflection and application to practical experience.
If you wish to gain more detailed insight, we will be delighted to send you our strategic game concept. Please contact Thomas Meilinger, E-Mail: meilinger@synnecta.com
2. June 2016
»A society that cannot bear old age will be destroyed by its own selfishness.« Willy Brandt
How old are you?
When I was six, I thought I was old – I was, after all, about to start school. When I was eighteen, I did not feel like an adult. And now? I feel young, middle-aged or old, depending on who is looking at me or talking to me. I might feel fresh or stale, experienced or inexperienced. Why is the dermatologist trying to sell me anti-wrinkle cream? I thought millennials were forever young?
Anyone who has been born has legal capacity. Be it school attendance, criminal accountability or the vote: age limits and thresholds mark particular stages in our biographies. Time, beginning, end, development, change. Our own age is just a simple number, but it brings with it a world of meanings. It is a social construct: there is a calendar age and a biological age. These denotations follow no natural necessity; they are social agreements that we have grown up with and which we often accept as given. We allow such definitions to shape our individual identity. Employee age also plays an important role for companies and in diversity management: consider child labour laws, childcare provision in family-friendly companies or retirement schemes. It is also relevant with regard to capacities, staffing, team composition, and every day in the way individual employees act around each other.
»Age« can mean any age. Each age has its own ascriptions. The terms »young« and »old« usually hide assumptions and stereotypes: for example, that young people have less experience or that older people are no longer flexible. As organizational consultants, we have to ask which kind of ascriptions, rules and norms are defining and shape an organizational culture. What does that mean for the working climate and the attainment and work processes? For companies with an international remit, we also have to ask how definitions of age and the corresponding expectations differ depending on and shaped by the culture and laws of a country.
»Nothing displays a person’s age as much as when they denigrate the young generation.« Hermann Hesse
In 2020, half the population in Germany will be over 50 years old. All generations need to consciously note this fact now, here and today and put it on their agendas. This is about ageing processes as well as the integration of different generations. Germany is ageing, but international migration combined with a shortage of specialists is bringing young generations into companies. This is not a hypothetical situation: it is happening right now. A holistic diversity management approach should therefore realistically address all generations and age groups. The entire workforce should be made aware of the fact that all employees can learn from each other. That is easier said than done.
It does not matter which category the diversity management is focused on: in company cultures where hierarchical career ladders, seniority principles and authority are part of the norm, the creation of a new awareness will require enormous changes in personal attitudes and daily interactions as well as in organizational structures. This concerns people of all ages.
In what way is age related to experience and ability? Here, I support a deconstructivist approach. Trust the (given) age and individuality of a person. Mentality and performance should be more decisive than an image I might have in my head of you or myself. PS: I will not use anti-wrinkle cream.
Hanna Göhler
7. December 2015
»Agility« has become a key term for anyone keen to show that they are »ahead of the times«. Yet, at the same time, use of the word often elicits negative reactions and rejection. Beyond showmanship and buzzword bingo, however, the term hides valuable notions and concepts that can enable teams, organizations and managers in VUCA situations.
The notion of agility that is often encountered in discussions is usually notably imprecise; this may be so because the term has a wide range of nuances that come out in different given contexts. I will briefly sketch out these different aspects of »agility« in the following in order to bring some clarity to the discussion. At the end of each paragraph, references to earlier texts are included that cast more light on the topic touched on in the paragraph.
»Agile«
The thesaurus provides several synonyms for »agile«: words such as »nimble«, »active«, »spry«, »lively«, »brisk«, »quick«, »swift«, »lithe«, »supple«, »fit«. This range of associations is largely related to activity, which has to do with the etymology of the term: the Latin word agiliscomes from agere, »to do«, »make« or »act«. The current range of meanings emerged primarily from the software industry, where programing and project methods have been »agilized« by way of alternative approaches.
Agile Mindset
In 2001, seventeen persons from the programing sector signed the Manifesto for Agile Software Development, which focused on four points: individuals and interactions were considered more important than processes and tools, just as working software was taken to be of greater significance than comprehensive documentation. Customer collaboration was favored over minute contract negotiation and greater importance was placed on response to changes than following a plan. The manifesto resulted in twelve principles: client satisfaction, openness for change, iterative development, intensive collaboration, focus on a motivating environment, face-to-face communication, working software as a measure of progress, constant pace, technical excellence and good design, simplicity, self-organization and self-reflection. This list provides a good summary of the mindset it takes to achieve success in any agile practice and configuration.
Also see the blog entries VUCA-Aikido, Improvisation, Agile and lean
Agile Practices and Methods
Agile practices and methods are designed to each in their specific way turn the above-named principles into practice. In the software industry this includes approaches such as Adaptive Software Development, Crystal, or Extreme Programming. Scrum has by now emerged for the fields beyond software development. Scrum is the best known among a range of agile methods. It endeavors to reduce effort as much as possible by defining a development framework within which a team of developers organize themselves to work empirically and iteratively in what is known as increments to achieve the product. Each (partial) function of the product should be completed – including planning, development, realization and testing – within short intervals known as sprints (no longer than 30 days each). The team of developers, who organize themselves to deliver the product functionalities, work together with the Product Owner, who is responsible for the product, and the Scrum Master, who ensures that the few existing rules of scrum are adhered to. Together, they regularly reflect on product, process and cooperation in order to increase efficiency and learn from each other.
Agile Team
An agile team is usually a small group of colleagues who have a clear, shared goal that they aim to reach by self-organization without a supervisor. That does not mean that an agile team lacks leadership. Informal leadership usually emerges from within the team or group out of each type of task and situation: one member will adopt topical leadership for a time, for example, but will pass it on once the situation changes. An agile team can, but does not have to, use agile practices and methods. Ideally, however, an agile team will reflect regularly on themselves and will, if necessary, accept supervision. Transparency and an open feedback culture are fundamental conditions for a group to be able to work as an agile team. The team should be as diverse as possible. Ideally, agile teams are interdisciplinary and cross-functional. The members should have different and complementary T-profiles: i.e., all team members are generalists (horizontal bar), but in addition can each provide depth in a different area of expertise (vertical bar). This makes an agile team best prepared for complex situations and unexpected events.
Also see the blog entries Multitude, Pirate Leadership
Agile Organization
An agile organization aims to realize the values and principles of the agile manifesto whilst retaining the greatest possible proximity to their client. While there is no clear definition, most agile organizations are described as decentralized organisms that shift »power« from the center to the periphery. Minor, autonomous units which carry responsibility for themselves closely »dock on« to the client in order to recognize and fulfill the client’s wishes without delay. These »cells« are independent of each other; therefore, the organism as a whole will not be in danger when a single unit is in trouble. At the same time, the minor parts of the organization are able to unite with others by way of collaboration if that brings an advantage to all concerned. This structure makes it possible for the entire organization to be established or disbanded at speed: it can at any moment be rescaled »upwards« or »downwards«. A service platform at the center of the organization seeks to bundle the synergies of the parts of the organization and makes them available to the periphery. At the same time, all organizational units are tied into a dense network so that they can learn from each other.
Also see the blog entry Organism
Agile Strategy
Agile strategy goes beyond exact planning by defining a fuzzy vision (Bouée) that is broad enough to permit a range of approaches. The primary approach is one of effectuation. The actors are guided by the means that are already available and identify the potential that is inherent in all potential goal options. Financial planning is not focused on return on invest but on the maximum affordable loss: this minimizes risk. Strategy is implemented iteratively, step by step, employing efficient tactics and putting circumstances and coincidences to use rather than trying to eliminate them. The establishment of trusting partnerships that use co-creation and risk minimization make a solid base for such an effectuation strategy.
Also see the blog entries Chinese Strategy, Narration, Effectuation
Leading Agility
Agility can only be fully realized by an alternative form of leadership. Management will no longer position itself above the team and at the head of the organization, but instead will lead from the side or out of the center. Leading agility means to trust in and enable the potential of the employees’ intrinsic motivation and the abilities of individuals and groups to organize themselves (Theory Y). A leader who supports agility curates topics, is available to coach the team and will provide and accept detailed and intensive feedback. Such kind of leaders consider themselves the organization’s gardeners: they foster and cultivate a culture of trust and appreciation within which the entire employees’ potential can come to full bloom…
Also see the blog entries In-Waste-Ment, Curation (German), Irreparability, Pirate Leadership
Agile Transformation and Agile Culture Coaching
Companies and organizations who want to establish agility usually face a massive cultural shift. Agile transformation means generating change in many aspects of agility at the same time: bringing people into a new mindset and introducing agile practices into use, building new teams and re-configuring organization, creating new strategic plans and leadership models. These changes can be professionally designed with the accompanying help of experts who have substantial knowledge on the topic of agility and are able to deal with people, organizations and cultures out of their experience with processes. In order to support agile transformation from within companies, SYNNECTA will offer a new qualification in agile process accompaniment (including preparation for Scrum Master Certification) from April 2016: Agile Culture Coach Training.
More information on Agile Coach Training available here (German).
Johannes Ries
3. December 2015
Cultural anthropologists have addressed the cultural aspects of organizations and companies since the 1920s, beginning with the Hawthorne Experiments. Now, economists and management have come to recognize that organizational culture is a resource for economic success that should not be underestimated. There are two trends in the debates about a precise definition of organizational culture: while one group assumes that every company has a culture (instrumental view, objectivism, organizational culture as subsystem), the other side argues that every company is a culture (institutional view, subjectivism, organizational culture as an encompassing system) (see, e.g. Franken 2004: 219f). Both groups, however, tend to disregard a fundamental aspect of culture: its dynamic nature.
In the following analysis, organizational culture will be considered as a field of discourses in tension within which employees have a range of possible courses of action at their disposal. Following Rainer Keller’s sociology of knowledge approach to discourse (Keller 2005), discourse is understood to be »ensembles of meaningful units structured by content and form, which are produced within a specific set of practices: structured connection of interpretation/action. They provide meaning […] to social phenomena and therefore constitute their social reality. They are simultaneously an expression and constitutive condition of the social.« (Keller 1999).
According to cultural anthropologist Wolfgang Kaschuba, a discourse includes
- a set system of argumentation,
- a system that defines a topical field and sets the rules of engagement,
- a thought system that configures the perception of reality and
- a social practice system that connects manners of thinking and acting. (Kaschuba 1999: 236f)
Every social system prefers a certain type of discourse and controls, organizes and channels the production of all discourses so as to maintain order (see, e.g., Foucault 1994). Philosopher Jean-François Lyotard, however, made it clear that any single social system is always percolated by several discourses, which will either support each other or are mutually exclusive in a state of the differend (Lyotard 1987). Even where one discourse is excluded or suppressed by the publicly advanced and currently more powerful discourses that does not mean that it does not have any influence or cannot even become that major discourse in particular situations.
From this point of view, every company is a lived culture, where the manner in which culture is lived will be defined by (competing) discourses. A company can, however, also have a culture, e.g., by having a displayed culture that may be enforced by top management by means of discourse in order to attain a principle set of concrete values, norms and rules. The discrepancy between displayed and lived culture is, as change projects show time and again, one of the most important reasons for resentment and a lack of motivation among the employees. In this context, a differend in discourses will soon develop into internal crises of plausibility within companies, and these will sooner or later seep outside via the employees and can cause lasting damage to the company’s, brand’s or product’s reputation.
However, change management that goes deeper than the mere surface essentially produces a differend in discourses and therefore a field of discourses in tension: the »old« lived organizational culture (condition as is) is confronted with a »new« displayed organizational culture (condition as desired). Change management has to face the challenge of turning displayed into lived culture – easily said, but much more difficultly done. Each lived organizational culture has discourse resources that can support change towards a displayed culture; it can, however, also raise discourse barriers that will hinder successful change management.
Against this background, cultural anthropology and its own theoretic, methodic and practical set of tools emerges as a leading discipline for a change management that has a sensibility for culture and therefore will have a lasting effect…
Johannes Ries
This text is an extract from the article »Führungs-Kraft Unternehmenswerte: Kultursensibles Change Management im diskursiven Spannungsfeld von Unternehmenskulturen«, published in the anthology »Die verdeckten Spielregeln der Veränderung«, ed. by Johannes Ries and Susanne Spülbeck, Lit-Verlag, 2015. Available at bookstores.
