The secret agile structure within your organisation

by Evan Leybourn on      3 minutes read

But beyond creating "squads" and "tribes" most organisations don't have the luxury of building a true network organisation structure.

There’s a lot of talk around business agility and the structure of an agile organisation these days. Moving beyond the simple pyramid hierarchy but rather moving towards a network model. Hundreds of self-organising, cross-functional teams forming dynamic structures and collaborating towards common goals and outcomes, but ultimately independent in action.

But beyond creating “squads” and “tribes” most organisations don’t have the luxury of building a true network organisation structure.

Except they already have…

The secret truth is that all organisations have a network structure. It may not be visible in the org-chart, but in the more real sense of how the organisation operates.

During this hands-on workshop, you will uncover the agile structure that exists within your organisation today and create a network map of your collaborators, colleagues and customers across all teams and divisions. By understanding your sphere of control and your sphere of influence, you will then learn how to build out and properly engage this network to help you in your business agility transformation. Finally, you will come away from this workshop with a personalised org-chart of your company.

TARGET AUDIENCE

Anyone, but team leaders, managers and executives will get the most out of it

OUTLINE

The structure will be as follows:

  • 10 mins: Introduction – Providing context on structural agility, teal organisations and various other models (e.g. the spotify squad/tribe model)
  • 5 mins: Workshop Introduction – Describe the workshop activities and steps that the attendees will go through over the next hour
  • 5 mins: Hierarchy – Participants start building their network org-chart by looking at their hierarchical structure. Their boss, her boss, their subordinates and so on. Participants will learn why the hierarchical structure is dominant today and the pros and cons of this model.
  • 10 mins: Customers – Business agility creates purpose-driven organisations For most companies, it is their customer who provides this. Participants will map their customer to extend their network org-chart. What are the interface points (and what should they be)?
  • 10 mins: Value-Stream – It takes a tribe to build a product. Participants will extend their network map to encompass the value stream involved in delivering products or services to the customer. How much are they involved? Where else is their attention spread? How do we get their focused engagement?
  • 10 mins: Support Functions – Finance, HR, Marketing - participants will extend their network org-chart to incorporate different elements of the organisation. In many organisations these are the constraining factors to business agility.
  • 10 mins: Sphere of Influence & Sphere of Control – Participants will use this map to identify who they have control over and who they influence. We’ll then talk through strategies on how to expand those sphere’s in order to promote and develop champions for their business agility transformation.
  • 15 mins: Presentation and Q & A - Some of the participants will be invited to share their map with the entire audience and open up for a Q/A

I have run this workshop at Scrum Gathering Singapore and Spark the Change India.

LEARNING OUTCOMES

  • Uncover the agile structure that exists within your organisation today
  • Create a network map of your collaborators, colleagues and customers across all teams and divisions
  • Understand your sphere of control and your sphere of influence
  • Learn how to build out and engage your network to help you in your business agility transformation