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Scrum & Agile Leadership

by Judith Winder | May 10, 2017 | Agile Leadership, Lateral Leadership | 0 comments

Scrum is probably the most known and oldest agile method and it was introduced by IT companies in the 1980s. By now not only IT companies are working with this method but many others as well. We talked to Susanne Spath, who is a Scrum certified OKR Master, about the benefits of Scrum and the difference to other agile methods.

What exactly is Scrum?

Susanne Spath: Henrik Kniberg, Agile & Lean Coach at Crisp in Stockholm describes Scrum in only a few words:

“Divide the project in small, concrete functions and prioritize them according to the business values. Now try to put each function in relation to another one and valuate them.”

Scrum is about dividing the time in repeating loops, which last no longer than 30 days. At the end of every loop, all previously defined functions must be finished and implemented. The development and functionality of the product increases with the growing number of loops (“sprints”). Despite “command and control”, Scrum’s guiding principle is “inspect and adapt”.

What are the similarities of Scrum and agile leadership?

Scrum is the mother of all agile leadership methods in many people’s opinion and was introduced by IT companies more than 20 years ago. Nowadays, many companies are working with Scrum tools and structures – also besides the IT sector. Scrum can be used in a variety of ways and is especially useful wherever knowledge work and development is happening and where complex tasks have to be done. It can be for instance used for the product development, in marketing, or for the definition of strategies, the mission and vision of a company.

Are there some best practice examples, companies that work with Scrum successfully?

Yes, many big companies, such as A1 Telekom, T-Mobile, Siemens or Audi AG.

Why do you think there is a need for agile methods nowadays?

We are living in a VUCA world (VUCA = Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, Ambiguity) and therefore living in a constant change. An objective we define today could be obsolete in two months from now because the market, the customer’s need or the target group could have changed. Using agile methods, stakeholders and (internal) clients are involved in the whole process in the end of every loop at the review meeting. They get informed about the current status, which can then be adapted, if necessary, to a final, valid and best possible result or product. You can find this in every agile method.

Can you give us an example for a practical and a possibly quickly implemented method from the scrum setting?

Very important are agile meetings. They have a flying agenda and fixed time frames in which the following points are clarified:

After the check-in of all attendees of the meeting, following questions must be answered: which problems do I have at the moment? What do I need to be able to finish my tasks in time?
The team has to decide who will contribute in which way to realize the next objective until the following review meeting. This is not about right or wrong.
The next point is the “integrated decision making”: team members make decisions about their distribution of work and the prioritization of the tasks themselves.
One task of the leader at this meeting, the so-called daily stand up meeting, is to provide missing information and resources.

The daily stand-up meeting: one essential aspect of Scrum

What are the role/functions/tasks of a leader when it comes to Scrum methods?

You have different roles in the scrum framework. There is the scrum master who acts like a coach and who is responsible to look after the employees and their interaction with each other, to motivate and communicate with them and to manage conflicts. Another task of the scrum master is to ensure that the scrum framework and the process are being followed.

A further role is the one of the product owner. The product owner is responsible for the business success and acts as the interface between the stakeholders and the team. Therefore the product manager has to constantly communicate with the stakeholders.

In theory the product owner and the scrum master are two different people, in reality you often find one person playing both roles.

One key question of Scrum is „How little results do I have to deliver to make the customer happy?“ What is the thought behind this unusual question?

Agility! If the team has already thought through the end, the stakeholders have no possibility to touch up or co-create something. Now they have the possibility to find resources that were used unnecessarily or other weak spots in time.

What fascinates you about Scrum and why do you improve yourself in this field?

Like I have mentioned before, Scrum is often seen as the mother of all agile methods. Scrum has been around for more than 20 years and it is an internationally valid method. Knowing a lot about scrum gives me a better feeling of understanding other agile methods such as OKR or design thinking.

Interview partner:

We interviewed Susanne Spath, who is an international trainer for managers and leaders and is working together with MDI for many years already. She is a certified SCRUM and OKR-Master and offers webinars and workshops in the field of agile leadership, SCRUM and OKR.

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What are the benefits of OKR?

In many people’s opinion, Scrum is seen as the mother of all agile methods. By now there many different agile methods exist – one of them is OKR. Susanne Spath, OKR-master, explains the method in a practical way and tells us what’s behind those objectives and key results.

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Agile leadership on three different levels

What does agile leadership mean in general? MDI trainer Alexandra Sock explains the topic from three different perspectives: the one from an individual, a team and an organization.

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What are the benefits of the OKR method?

by Judith Winder | Apr 10, 2017 | Agile Leadership, Lateral Leadership, Training Insights | 0 comments

Leading like Silicon Valley’s top leaders. Successful examples such as Google, Facebook & Co. are often considered as desirable and now seem to be within reach with the OKR system. Based on well-defined objectives and key results, this agile framework stands for successful corporate and employee management. It gives us the opportunity to react adequately to today’s flexible and insecure business world and allows us to find individual solutions for different challenges – together as a team. Agile leadership trainer Susanne Spath will give you a brief introduction to this topic.

Guest article

This article was written by Susanne Spath. She is an international trainer for managers and leaders and is working together with MDI for many years already. She is a certified SCRUM and OKR-Master and offers webinars and workshops in the field of agile leadership, SCRUM and OKR.

Where does the need for this agile method come from?

Our today‘s VUCA world (note: VUCA = Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, Ambiguity) is constantly changing. For a company, this means that it must be more flexible and future-oriented to cope with future challenges in the best possible way. One opportunity is to implement a new as well as approved method. OKR exists for over 10 years already and is used by companies such as Google, LinkedIn, and Twitter. However, the method is relatively new and unconventional.

OKR is an agile system and has a 100% transparent framework which helps you to set the right focus, to use resources in an output-oriented way, to make the right decision at the right time and to rethink about your tasks and goals.

O’s (Objectives) – describe the target state
KR´s (Key results) – describe concrete measurement criteria -> the „how“

A journey to Nice

To visualize this method, I would like to share a story with you I heard about in my OKR-Master training.

Imagine you and your friends spontaneously decide to go to the South of France. Everybody wants to have fun and wants to enjoy some unforgettable spring days together. Everyone gets on the bus. This is your vision.

Now you have to find the strategy how to get there: do we take the highway or the country road? Both have advantages, both involve some risks – you have to decide. Let’s say you take the country road because it is more charming. But: many people say that the French do not build any traffic lights. Instead, they have roundabouts, one after another. Additionally, there are no detailed signposts, only some with the next big cities such as Paris. So if you want to go to the South of France you have to decide at every roundabout, approx. every 500 meters, where to go. Sea or mountains? Somewhere quiet or fancy? You decide that you want to go to Nice. Therefore you have a focus as well.

In the past, you had maps which you could get in advance (alias business plan). But the road network and driving conditions are constantly changing. For your trip you have to get along with the idea of being in an uncertain situation: is the road passable when we get there? For sure we drive at full speed between the roundabouts. After 500 meters we can decide again which exit to take, which way to go. Perhaps to the excellent winery? But if we do so, we have one day less to spend at the beach – so should we leave it? Or does it start to rain? Now the thought and decision could be: before we spend some rainy days in Southern France, we rather go to the winery.

There are so many possibilities, again and again. The important thing is to make a common and flexible decision

Sources: Murakamy

OKR in a nutshell

Let us summarize where there are parallels between the story and the OKR thus for the company context:

The vision is fixed but vague: a vacation in Southern France – in the company for instance: biggest supplier for the product x in area y.

A focus is essential: trip to Nice – in the company for instance: focus on sale, focus on promotion or maybe the focus on product development

The intermediate goals to realize the vision – the O’s, objectives – are constantly redefined: for the journey, for example, you have to decide at every roundabout which way to go. For a company, this could mean: which market do we focus on? Which department has the greatest leverage effect? What is the preferred product? In the story, you have to make a new decision every 500 meters. In the company, new decisions are made every 3 months at the leadership meeting. Participants are the management and representatives from various divisions.

Key results are derived directly from the objectives and are measurable: in consideration of the current resources, concrete key results are defined up to the next quarter. On the way to Nice, this would be the tank filling and the fuel price, a decision about the winery or the tires of the car. In the company, there are concrete actions: sales training, advertising campaign, product redesign and so on.

Implementing OKR in the company

In contrast to many other agile methods, it doesn’t make sense to implement OKR in only a few teams or departments. There would be conflicts between the OKR and regular system regarding resources and objectives. A policy decision and commitment from the management are essential to implement the system successfully in a long-term.

Those are many:

The company’s vision, mission, and strategy will be transmitted into short-term and therefore achievable steps
An understanding of the big picture is given to every employee
Rise of the clarity and understanding in the daily business
Motivation through participation
100% transparency leads to better communication (everyone knows everybody’s tasks and can understand their objectives)
Concrete and ongoing success measures
Clear instructions are possible even with short resources.

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Design Thinking - what's behind the hype?

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Individual, team and company – agile leadership on three levels

by Judith Winder | Mar 22, 2017 | Agile Leadership, International leadership development, Lateral Leadership | 0 comments

Euphoria on the one and uncertainty on the other hand: In terms of agile leadership you can see great enthusiasm and thirst for action on the market. More and more companies are playing with the thought of implementing agile methods. However, if you ask for more detailed information, many people are uncertain about what this agile concept really is and how meaningful it is for their company. Here are a few thoughts from three different perspectives: the one from an individual, a team and an organization.

Agile leadership picks up speed

In my opinion there are three resons why agile leadership picked up so much speed in the last few months.

First of all, companies and teams are becoming more and more aware that they can no longer rely on the state of facts, at least not in the long-term. This means that not everything which is right today, will be right tomorrow. That is the reason why companies need to find a way to react quickly to changes and learn what is relevant and what is not.

The second aspect why this topic is currently gaining importance is that the increasing complexity and uncertainty of the market and the entire company-, product-, and brand world. To be future-oriented, companies must not only be flexible but also try to create innovation and products or services under complex circumstances. By letting people from different teams work together, companies are hoping to find the best solution to this challenge. Interdisciplinary work is a key factor of agile leadership:

Complex and fast-changing markets – companies must learn how to react to those changes

The third reason is a changed view of the leadership culture in general. In the last few years, it has become clear that people want to think and work more independently than they have been allowed to in companies with classic hierarchical structures. Just think about the generation Y and the upcoming generation. The classical understanding of leadership is no longer contemporary. Modern work demands new models and approaches. Agile leadership is one of them.

Implementation of agile leadership: top-down or first in the team?

When we talk about agility, we generally talk about three levels: the individual level, the team level and the organizational level. Companies must first weigh up whether and how agile methods can be meaningful for them. In this way they can avoid rushing into this topic and subsequently fail with the implementation. Therefore it is important to know that agile leadership does not always have to be introduced throughout the whole company in order to be successful. In the beginning it can make sense to introduce it only to particular teams or divisions. Especially if a team has to deal with very complex and different tasks or has to cover up different topics. The level of complexity is an indicator that makes agile methods either meaningful or not.

If the company’s goal is an agile corporate culture, a top-down approach is certainly needed. Therefore, a complete cultural change must take place, which is impossible without the management level on board. The company has to find answers to questions such as who, where, when and how to participate in projects and decisions, how to deal with information release internally and how much the existing hierarchies should be softened. Transparency is a very important factor as well.

There is one central question before deciding whether to introduce it top-down or in individual teams: How far do we want to go and how far do we have to go to stay competitive and sustainable?

Agile leadership on three levels

To recognize potential resistance and prevent them at an early stage, a company should first analyse the three different levels of agile leadership: the individual, team and organization level.

Agile leadership on the individual level

As an individual, I have to ask myself following questions: how transparent am I at the moment, how much can I work independently and how much responsibility I bear and can bear. If I currently work in a very hierarchical-oriented team, where there are almost exclusively instructions from the supervisor, the introduction to an independent and agile way of working can be relatively difficult. If I already have a lot of freedom and work almost independently the difference to agile methods is perhaps hardly noticeable.

Secondly you have to question the status quo: How self-responsible and transparent do I want to be? There are certainly many people for whom agile leadership is not (yet) the declared goal and perhaps will never be.

The third point at this level is an open error culture. As a member of an agile team the willingness to acknowledge mistakes very quickly and openly is important because otherwise you might make the work more difficult for all other team members. And for a previously established leader it can be quite difficult not to be the declared leader anymore but to be an equal member of the team. Therefore you renounce power and status.

Agile leadership on the team level

The most challenging part for the team in an agile setting is the communication. Constant coordination, exchange and communication among each other are crucial. This requires openness and extraversion of all the team members on the one hand and the right tools on the other hand. When agile methods are introduced to a team, it is worth investing in the communication structure and skills of all members, otherwise many difficulties could arise.

Constant communication – this is absolutely essential in an agile team

Agile leadership on the organization level

The entire organization must be ready for the establishment of agile structures, to soften hierarchies and to question the status quo. It is important as well to let the employees question the status quo repeatedly. We must remember that not everything that is right today, will be right tomorrow. For the management level of a large company this constant questioning combined with much flatter hierarchies can be of course presented as a loss of control, which is instinctively something to avoid. That is the reason why the introduction of agile methods is probably most challenging on the organization level. It takes a lot of openness and real commitment to move away from rigid rules and procedures in order to become really agile at this level.

The role of leadership and the leader in an agile world

Now, you could get the impression that leadership has become useless or counter-productive in this agile world. In fact, one strongly discussed question is whether and how far classical leadership is still meaningful in an agile setting. Personally, I believe that leadership will always be needed – and I am talking about leadership in the sense of controlling and setting framework conditions. However, there is one thing that is different in the agile world: leadership is no longer the job from one individual, but from several people. It is not important who sets the framework as long as one is set. This is necessary so that everyone knows how far he or she is allowed to go and what budget and resources there are available. Thus there is no elimination of the classical leadership but a change in the roll definition and allocation. Leadership is no longer the responsibility of one leader but of all team members. For this, individuals must be willing to hand over control to a group.

Conclusion: the right self-assessment as a requirement for agile leadership

The more familiar you are with the topic, the more you realize that agile leadership is not a tool-box or method you can simply introduce, but more a mindset that starts with oneself. The interaction of all participants with each other as well as the relation to their own tasks and the work in general are central. What drives us? How do we work together? How do we deal with each other? How much transparency do we allow? How much control are we willing to take?

Introducing agile methods only makes sense if the answers to all these question already show a glimpse of “agile thinking and if the people who are involved have the right self-assessment: as an individual, team and organization.

Guest author

This article was written by Alexandra Sock for our blog. She is currently living in Vienna and is a managing partner at MDI Management Development International, as well as a passionate trainer, consultant and coach with many years of experience. She is dealing with the topic of agile leadership for a long time already and has now designed an orientation workshop together with MDI. If you are interested in agile leadership you get some insights and targets of the workshop with Alexandra Sock in this video. You are also very welcome to contact her for further information.

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Design Thinking – What is behind the hype and what benefits does the concept have?

by Judith Winder | Feb 6, 2017 | Agile Leadership, International leadership development, MDI Inside, Training Insights | 0 comments

Design Thinking was founded in America and now often sounds like a wonderful IT-Start-Up fairy tale: managers are sitting in a play corner and play with building bricks and developers visit their customers directly and design new products together with them. This way the company develops incomparably innovative products and earns a lot of money as well. We asked the Design Thinking trainer Ursula Weixlbaumer-Norz: What is Design Thinking actually and how does a company profit from it?

Design Thinking – Which values does the concept have?

Ursula Weixlbaumer-Norz: Design Thinking originally comes from America but is nowadays established in Europe as well. Together with the d.school in Stanford, the HPI School in Potsdam plays a pioneering role in the development and dissemination of Design Thinking.

The benefits of the concept are explained quite easily: the designers of the IDEO innovation agency developed Design Thinking as a method for solving complex problems in modern times. First of all they explained and illustrated the innovation process to make it more understandable and learnable. This is one main characteristic of Design Thinking. All in all Design Thinking is an innovation process with 6 different levels. Each level includes different methods, which can be selected according to the specific challenge and the problem-solving competence of the participating leaders and teams. The concept works across all industries and business sectors.

So Design Thinking is “just“ a new creative process?

Only in the first moment – but if managers and companies are ready to use and to exploit its full potential, it can be much more than that. Therefore I would like to quote the HPI school: “What was first developed in Stanford as an innovation method for products and services, turned out to be much more than this. It is a new way to see people in relation to work, to think about the concept of work and to ask how we want to live, learn and work in the 21st century. The aim of Design Thinking is to provide new and surprising forms of a creative collaboration. We-intelligence is the new slogan and collaboration becomes the basis for a new work-awareness*.” (*Translation of the original quotation in German)

Design Thinking – a new design process consisting of 6 levels

What is the difference between Design Thinking and other innovation and creation techniques?

Design Thinking is often named together with agile management methods, “Lean Start-Up” or “Scrum”. As already mentioned, the special feature is that it is not only a technique, but also a whole new kind of collaboration where you can work with flexible rooms and especially profit from interdisciplinarity. At a current customer project which I am doing as a MDI trainer, the participants of the Design Thinking workshop were not only the employees and leaders of the client, but according to the concept of Design Thinking also entrepreneurs, start-ups, students and experts from other companies. They all contributed actively on different challenges – it was incredible to see what it triggered in the participants.

As a way of thinking, Design Thinking contributes to the solution of complex problems in all areas and can be applied to a variety of questions – not just for the development of new products and services but also for the improvement of internal processes and services.

Keyword Agile Leadership: What does it mean to you personally? Why do you deal with agile methods such as Design Thinking?

I am an entrepreneur myself for a long time and a former start-up. And also before that I have already been working in a very agile and international working environment. That is the reason why I am always looking for new innovative methods for myself but especially for all the leaders I meet in my workshops. And I am convinced that Design Thinking can help leaders and teams to deal with complex problems in a strategic and structured way.

From the perspective of HR departments: For which leaders is Design Thinking suitable and what is the benefit for the company?

The method suits especially leaders who have to deal with complex issues. I am teaching Design Thinking at MDI as a tool for those leaders. And one thing I am very happy about at the moment: the HPI School just published a study on the effectiveness of Design Thinking. A large majority of the respondents (71 percent) say that Design Thinking has improved the working culture, especially in the team. Innovative processes have become much more efficient for many users (69 percent) and the involvement of users or consumers is more frequent (48 percent). Cost savings (18 percent) or profit growth (29 percent) were less important. “It is, of course, difficult to measure the exact and direct financial value of Design Thinking. However, the responses show that business processes and customer experiences are sustainably improved which increases the profitability in the long term*” said Jan Schmiedgen, one of the three authors of the study. (*Translation of original quotation in German)

Interview Partner

MDI trainer Ursula Weixlbaumer-Norz answered our questions about Design Thinking. She is working together with MDI Management Development International as an international Management and Leadership trainer for many years.

Since 2016 she improves herself within agile Leadership at IDEO, Strategyzer/Business Model Canvas and the HPI School of Design Thinking. Since 2017 she is offering workshops on Design Thinking, some of them especially designed for leaders.

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