Right to Left: My kind of…

Appendix B of Right to Left: The digital leader’s guide to Lean and Agile (2019, audiobook 2020), not a technical glossary, but gathering together some informal definitions that are especially characteristic of the book. These definitions apply very much in the context of digital leadership and are often helpful in wider contexts too.

My kind of…

Agile (short version)

People collaborating over the rapid evolution of working software that is already beginning to meet needs

Agile (longer version)

People bringing their various skills to bear on the rapid evolution of working software that is already beginning to meet needs, working in teams that place high value on collaboration and adaptation

Digital

Applying the culture, processes, business models & technologies of the internet era to respond to people’s raised expectations
~ Tom Loosemore, Definition of Digital, definitionofdigital.com

Digital leader

Anyone who sees in digital technology the opportunity to serve their customers better (meeting their needs more effectively), recognises that this may have profound implications for how their organisation should work, and is ready to help make that happen

Done

Someone’s need was met – agendashift.com/done

Engagement model

A model – of which Agendashift is an example – for how change agents do their work. To be effective in the organisational change space, an engagement model must do three things:

1. Help to structure the work of change agents – facilitators, consultants, coaches, or employees whose remit includes the encouragement of change
2. Help the client organisation engage its staff meaningfully in change-related work, inviting high levels of participation
3. Help those parts of the client organisation that are undergoing deliberate change to engage constructively with the rest of the organisation, so that all sides will thrive

See agendashift.com/engagement-model

Lean (short version)

The strategic pursuit of flow, a deliberate process of organisational learning
(After Modig & Åhlström’s This is Lean and its “a strategy of flow efficiency”)

Lean (longer version)

The pursuit of flow as strategic imperative, an open-ended and purpose-driven endeavour that continuously and deliberately engages people at every level of the organisation in a learning process

Lean-Agile

The strategic pursuit of flow in complex environments, the organisation placing high value on collaboration, continuous delivery, adaptation, and learning

Outside in

Starting from outside the organisation – emphasising customers and their needs – and working inwards through layers of organisation and capability. The Outside-In Strategy Review (OI-SR) and the Outside-In Service Delivery Review (OI-SDR) are designed to create and sustain alignment (respectively).

Right to Left

A whole-process focus on needs and outcomes coupled with a sense of pull from the customer side (on the right hand side of a conventional value stream map). From the introduction: Putting outcomes before process, ends before means, vision before detail, “why” before “what”, “what” before “how”, and so on. It can also mean considering outputs before inputs, but give me outcomes over outputs, every time.

Rule of Three

“Design your strategy and governance meetings so that they invite the active participation of at least three levels of seniority. Include representatives from a range of different disciplines who have skin in the game and are respected for their direct knowledge of the situation.”

Upside down

Servant leadership in inverted hierarchies:

• The organisation existing to support those who serve its customers
• Decision authority moved to those who have the most relevant information (after Marquet).

As described in chapter 6 and after Greenleaf, the servant leader’s legitimacy rests on these three activities:

1. Helping others to be successful
2. Helping others find autonomy and meaning in their work
3. Helping develop Servant Leadership in others

Wholehearted

“I choose to be in the business of helping organisations to be more wholehearted – less at war with themselves, their contradictions identified and owned so that they can be resolved in some satisfactory way. By way of analogy, if we improve our delivery processes by removing impediments to flow, then we improve our organisations by removing impediments to alignment.”

As acknowledged in chapter 5, wholehearted is inspired by a quote from Christopher Alexander’s The Timeless Way of Building. Since publication of the print edition of Right to Left, it gave rise to our mission statement: Our mission: Wholehearted.

Copyright © 2019-2020 Mike Burrows. All rights reserved.

Related

• The books:
  • Organizing Conversations: Preparing Groups to Take on Adaptive Challenges (May 2024)
  • Agendashift: Outcome-oriented change and continuous transformation (2nd edition 2021)
    • Recommended reading (Agendashift 2nd edition)
  • Right to Left: The digital leader’s guide to Lean and Agile (2019, audiobook 2020)
    • Recommended reading (Right to Left)
    • My kind of…
  • Kanban from the Inside (2014)
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