Agile Leadership Competencies for the Digital Transformation

BusinessVillage
DR. STEFANIE PUCKETT • DR. RAINER M. NEUBAUER
AGILE
LEADER
SHIPLEADERSHIP COMPETENCIES
FOR THE AGILE TRANSFORMATION
E
xtract

BusinessVillage
DR. STEFANIE PUCKETT • DR. RAINER M. NEUBAUER
AGILE
LEADER
SHIP
LEADERSHIP COMPETENCIES
FOR THE AGILE TRANSFORMATION

Dr. Stefanie Puckett, Dr. Rainer M. Neubauer
Agile Leadership
Leadership Competencies for the Agile Transformation
1. Edition 2020
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Content
About the authors .......................................................................... 7
Forwords ........................................................................................ 9
Foreword by Professor Michael Wade, IMD Business School ..................... 10
Foreword by Monika Waber, Swiss Re ............................................... 11
Foreword by the authors ............................................................... 14
1. How does digital transformation influence the workplace? ............ 15
1.1 Digitization – Where does it come from? What‘s new?.................. 16
1.2 How is the (working) world changing? ...................................... 25
2. Leaders in the digitalization ....................................................... 39
2.1 Who is slowing down change?.................................................. 40
2.2 A field of tension .................................................................. 42
3. Leading agile. But how? ............................................................. 45
3.1 What is agility? Where does the concept originate?..................... 46
3.2 The Agile Manifesto and leadership........................................... 48
3.3 A new leadership portrait – and its shortcomings ....................... 64
3.4 Substance for a buzzword: agile leadership with the HAVE model... 69
4. Agile Leadership. Three fundamental behaviors ............................ 75
4.1 Show hyperawareness ............................................................. 77
4.2 Informed decision-making....................................................... 84
4.3 Fast execution....................................................................... 90
4.4 A balancing act – imbalance warnings ...................................... 98
5. Agile leadership competencies .................................................. 111
5.1 Competency dimension »Leading agile through humility« .......... 115
5.2 Competency dimension »Leading agile through adaptability« ..... 130
5.3 Competency dimension »Leading agile by being visionary«......... 141
5.4 Competency dimension »Leading agile through engagement« ..... 154
6. Ready for implementation? Agile leadership in action ................ 167

7. Your personality as an agile leader ............................................ 173
7.1 What role does your personality play? ..................................... 176
7.2 What do we mean by personality? Three sides........................... 179
7.3 Disruption of the classic leadership profile .............................. 181
7.4 The agile personality profile................................................... 182
7.5 What motives are linked to agile leadership?............................ 184
7.6 What are the derailers of the dark side?
Preventing career derailment ................................................. 189
7.7 Risk factors? Four derailment tendencies ................................. 192
7.8 Counterproductive traits ....................................................... 194
7.9 Dealing with derailers and possibly harmful traits ..................... 197
7.10 Personal growth in an agile context ...................................... 199
8. Agile ahead – and no one follows?............................................. 205
8.1 Agile leadership follows a vision – your vision .......................... 206
8.2 Agile leadership must be authentic ........................................ 208
8.3 Agile leadership is people-oriented ........................................ 215
9. What makes the agile organization? .......................................... 227
9.1 What do startups have that we do not have?............................ 228
9.2 »Agilizing« organizations – is that possible?............................ 233
9.3 What is particularly true for large organizations? ...................... 239
9.4 The essence of agile organizations.......................................... 244
10. The inner logic of agile transformations .................................. 249
10.1 From agile to digital business agility..................................... 250
10.2 When are agile methodologies recommended?.......................... 253
10.3 How much agility do you need?..............................................255
10.4 Change management for agile transformations......................... 257
10.5 Who plays a role in transformation initiatives today?................ 262
11. How do culture and values change? ......................................... 267
11.1 What does your very own (agile) culture look like?................... 269
11.2 Which characteristics can you use as a guide?......................... 272
11.3 How do you achieve a change in culture?................................ 273
12. Go! Get it! How to succeed...................................................... 279
Literature list.............................................................................. 281

About the authors | 7
About the authors
Dr. Stefanie Puckett looks back on fifteen
years international experience in management
consulting, executive development and assess-
ment, and talent management. She lived and
worked – in America, Switzerland and Germany
– for several consulting firms, in management
and global role for a Fortune 500 company and
owned her own business.
Dr. Stefanie Puckett completed her doctorate as
industrial and organizational psychologist on
the subject of leadership diagnostics in Mainz, Germany. She is a certified
Executive Coach (CEC and CCE), Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP) and
Certified Professional Agile Coaching (ICP-ACC), has published over fourty
articles and several non-fiction books (latest: "The agile culture code",
BusinessVillage, 2020).
She lives with her husband and three children in Augsburg, Germany. In
her spare time, she follows trends in clinical psychology.
Contact
Web: www.agilethroughculture.com

8 | About the authors
Dr. Rainer M. Neubauer has over thirty years
experience in change management, process re-
engineering and management due diligence
as well as in advising small and medium-sized
companies and law firms on assessment and de-
velopment programs for board members, part-
ners and managing directors.
Dr. Neubauer studied psychology in Bonn, Kiel
and the University of Tulsa (USA), where he
earned his doctorate in 1990 as an industrial
and organizational psychologist on the subject of thinking and informa-
tion processing. After his twelve-year career in one of the Big Five con-
sultancies, he founded his own management consultancy for personnel
selection and development in 2003. He is a management consultant CMC/
BDU, author and interview partner of numerous articles on personality,
assessment and agile leadership.
Dr. Rainer M. Neubauer lives with his wife and two children in Düsseldorf
and Switzerland. His hobbies are sport and classical music.
Contact
Web: www.metaberatung.com

10 | Forwords
Foreword by Professor Michael Wade,
IMD Business School
With the increasing pace of disruptive change, one industry after another
is being pulled into the center of the digital vortex to face the challenges
of digital transformation. Many regard this as a threat. But, where there is
disruption, there is also opportunity. In order to successfully capture the
opportunities and respond to the threats, organizations need to build the
right capabilities. More importantly, they need to have the right leaders.
We have learned a great deal about leadership over many decades of re-
search. However, in today’s climate of increasing disruption, success may
require a new approach to leadership.
Building on an evidence-based model that metaBeratung and IMD devel-
oped in 2017, this book is a practical guide to understanding and apply-
ing today`s leadership requirements. In particular, it shows leaders how
to move forward in developing agile leadership competencies. I consider
this book a »must-have« for all current and future leaders – not only as it
presents what is needed on the individual level, but also as it gives many
examples of how leaders are successfully driving change in traditional busi-
nesses. With many examples, it shows how agile leadership applies in day-
to-day leadership situations or in agile transformations of teams, business
settings and organizations as a whole.
There are many books that claim to provide guidelines for leadership in a
digital age. Most are written without the benefit of rigorous methods or
empirical validation. This book is based on science and filled with a variety
of insights into how agile leadership develops maximum impact for leaders.
It is an excellent and practical guide for leaders that shows, step by step,
how we can all utilize our strengths to succeed in driving change through
agility.

Forwords | 11
Michael R. Wade is Professor of Innovation and
Strategy at IMD Business School, Lausanne, Swit-
zerland and holds the Cisco Chair in Digital Busi-
ness Transformation. He is director of the Global
Center for Digital Business Transformation, an IMD
and Cisco Initiative.
Foreword by Monika Waber, Swiss Re
Today, agile leadership is omnipresent. In the course of digitization, or-
ganizations are looking for new approaches to inspire and engage their
employees in a time of rapid change. At Swiss Re, one of the world's largest
(re)insurance companies, this is no different. What is striking is that prac-
tically everyone has a different view of what agility is. It is often equated
with »fast«, »fewer rules« or »no bureaucracy«. Provocatively one could
say that agility is defined as »we just do it and then see what happens«.
The actual agile concept – as described in this excellent book – fortunately
goes much deeper. With this book, we have finally found something that
not only makes agile leadership tangible on a practical level, but also en-
courages reflection and inspires personal development.
Dr. Puckett and Dr. Neubauer explain step by step how our managers can
walk the path to agility without losing face and how our managers can
build on their experience and find their individual agile leadership style.
With this book, we have found a help that meets established and future
managers where they are today and accompanies them up to the agile
transformation of an entire company.
The »HAVE Model« which forms the core of the book, turns our understand-
ing of leadership upside down. Very inspiring are the defined characteris-
tics of the agile manager, namely »humble«, »adaptable«, »engaged« and

12 | Forwords
»visionary«. The book clearly shows that some of these qualities are indeed
new and have hardly been associated with strong leaders. The »humble«
characteristic stands out here: taking oneself back, acknowledging that
others know more than oneself, and continuously looking for feedback to
learn from. These are hardly behaviors that we would spontaneously as-
sociate with the leaders of the past decades.
On the contrary: The current past is marked by dazzling executives who
dominated with their self-confident appearance and ego and were often
admired as charismatic leaders. Omnipresence and omniscience were a must
and the statement »I don't know, however someone in my team knows« was
hardly acceptable.
This time seems to be finally over now: Leaders no longer have to shine
with omniscience, but can concentrate on leading with a vision of the
future. However, in our time, in which everything is constantly changing,
no one can be inspired and guided without a guiding star. Just developing
a vision and standing up for it is of course not that easy. This book is an
indispensable resource for executives, showing astonishingly simply how
visionary leadership can succeed with a few concrete measures.
What is both exciting and challenging is that on the long road to realizing
the vision much will develop differently than expected. The manager is
challenged to be adaptable, to question common working methods and
processes, or to throw them overboard.
Perfection, too, will probably be a relic of the past, because it takes too
long to reach it. As the »agile leader« model puts it so well, not the best
and the strongest but those who are most adaptable will be successful.
This is just one more example of the change in leadership that this book
highlights. How executives can cope with this new mindset, question old
assumptions and become masters of agile leadership is shown by the au-
thors in a very motivating way.

Forwords | 13
Personally, I am very pleased that new leadership qualities and thus com-
pletely different styles and personalities which we would not normally
have associated with leadership will be given a real chance on the execu-
tive floor in agile times. This is where support is needed.
However, the vast amount of literature on the subject is usually not very
substantial and not sufficiently implementation oriented. The book by Dr.
Puckett and Dr. Neubauer, on the other hand, is a real diamond. The au-
thors approach the topic both scientifically soundly and absolutely practi-
cally.
Monika Waber is Head of Organizational & People
Development at Swiss Re, one of the world's lead-
ing providers of (re)insurance and other forms of
insurance-based risk transfer. In her role, she ac-
companies the agile transformation of the group.

14 | Forwords
Foreword by the authors
If you now think that the book wants to reprogram you and press you
into a template of agile leadership, then you are wrong. We would also be
wrong, because you are not unfolding your potential within a template.
And then managers should be authentic – you could forget that.
With such an approach, we would expose ourselves. If there's one thing
we've learned, it's that instructions never provide the perfect solution.
People are too complex for this, regions and businesses too different.
A manual is only as good as the model on which it is based. We are psychol-
ogists who are sensitized to the identification and promotion of individual
potential through numerous assessments and coaching sessions.
As such, we may share with you a psychologist's wisdom: Focus on what
you have to offer – your personality, your abilities, your knowledge and
experience, your competencies.
Use the book to develop an understanding of how leadership is changing in
the digital transformation and develop a sense of where you can readjust
your everyday leadership and communication style. With agile leadership
as a backdrop, rethink the expectations, assumptions, and preferences of
your role. Discover old and new strengths in yourself and look for your po-
tential with which you can not only meet the demands of agile leadership
but also exceed them, with pleasure.

1.
How does digital transformation
influence the workplace?

16 | How does digital transformation influence the workplace?
The CEO of one of the largest German automobile manufacturers sees his
competition on the internet. He sees it in Google, in Uber and Tesla. Two
of these three competitors do not produce vehicles. Tesla has a focus on
energy. Modern economists see the world today in ecosystems that fertilize
each other. The boundaries of the industries are blurring. The automotive
industry is changing its focus from mobility to energy and sharing issues.
Today, outsiders can achieve a large reach with messages or advertising via
social media. Technologies are overtaking themselves and no one knows
which ones will actually set the tone in a few years. An unprecedented
speed and complexity lead to confusion. So let's track it all down.
First, read what digitization is at all. Where did it come from? How does
it happen? It is then interesting for you to see how the whole thing has a
concrete impact on the world of work.
1.1 Digitization – Where does it come from?
What‘s new?
Every day, the media report on digitization and its effects. Everything
is new and changing. At least that's the impression it gives. On closer
inspection, however, it becomes clear that digitization did not just begin
yesterday. And yet things are different today.
Historical context
Is digitization really that new? No, not really. In Germany, the term in-
dustry 4.0 is used synonymously. This term follows on from the three
industrial revolutions in the history of technology that help to classify
digitization. The first revolution happened in the course of automation
in the 19th century through the transition from manufacturing to mech-
anized production. At that time, there were protests against machines,
as handworking became more and more redundant. The agrarian society
became the industrial society.

How does digital transformation influence the workplace? | 17
In the early 20th century – again through automation – assembly line
work and Taylorism emerged. Mass production began as a result of techni-
cal progress and the reorganization of work. While people became part of
the assembly line chain, with the increased availability of products, the
trend towards a consumer society began.
The third industrial revolution began in the 1970s, with the digitalization
of machines – industrial machines could be controlled by computers. As a
result of this automation, the proportion of people working in industry has
decreased and is decreasing; we have become a service society and have
seen the actual beginning of digitization.
The computer has played and continues to play an essential role. »Digi-
tal« is derived from the Latin word »digitus« and means finger. The term
»digital«, as we use it, came up in connection with the first computers
that could calculate digitally (with the binary system 1 and 0). These were
created at the end of the 1930s and were freely programmable for the first
time. Due to the ever smaller size of such a computer, progress then picked
up significantly in the 1950s. Since then, Moore's Law has been in effect:
The speed of the computer doubles every two years. Also, the internet be-
came widely available in 1991, supporting access to digital information by
many applications, including the World Wide Web.
German media describe the digitalization we are experiencing today as the
fourth revolution – industry 4.0. The future will show whether today's de-
velopment deserves its name. The concept of revolution and the presence
of the issue of digitization in the media have something to do with the
speed of progress. In the last five years there seems to have been more
progress than in the last thirty years.
The undeniable speed of change has to do with two new factors mainly. One
factor is the computing power of computer systems. Computer systems are
connected and supplemented by new services. The brainpower we receive

this way is enormous. The second factor concerns the availability of data
and information through the internet. According to Professor Richard Da-
vid Precht (2017), the fourth industrial revolution can be considered the
greatest since the first, which introduced the steam engine.
Digitization creates new work perspectives and business models and enables
mass production that can take individual customer needs into account.
New digital technologies create new value chains and enable self-organiza-
tion and self-optimization through intelligent processes. A change in con-
sumption and work behavior goes hand in hand with this. We are becoming
an information and knowledge society. Examples of such novelties are the
cloud, big data and the Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, and also
novelties such as virtual reality or modern robots.
Digitization – the fourth revolution?
Many of these digital technologies are not brand new; some have been
around for decades; the internet, as we know it, has been around since
1991, as mentioned; the cloud, for example, has been around since 1999,
but has only been widely used for five to seven years; the first 3D printer,
one of the key technologies of the future, was created in the 1990s. There
are many partly independent, partly interlinked developments which did
not just start yesterday but which are becoming more and more intense
and more noticeable in everyday life. So it is not one alternation that
changed everything overnight; perhaps we should not be talking about a
revolution. Outside German-speaking regions, one does not speak of rev-
olution (i.e. industry 4.0), but of evolution. It is a creeping development
through which digitalization is increasingly finding its way into our every-
day lives, changing our consumption, work and social behavior.
So here we are: Digitization today means the far-reaching use of digital
technologies in our everyday lives. Digitization describes a social process
that contributes to a change in the way the economy, professional work
and our society functions.

Change is actually more visible today than ever. Not only at work – which
will be discussed in the next chapter. And not only the market. Take Am-
azon, Google or Apple, Uber or Airbnb, Alibaba or Tencent. Take a look at
the start-up scene.
The change affects all of us because it affects not only our work but also
our private lives. Not only are we constantly accessible via mobile phones,
but also constantly linked to our networks and information channels. Ev-
erything is becoming more mobile. Smartphones allow us to handle more
and more affairs on the go, even in the form of a talking digital assistant
(for example Alexa or Siri). The internet and social networks change not
only what we do and when, but also how we shape our social lives. Inciden-
tally, 92 percent of American children under the age of two have an online
presence (McLeod/Scott/Fisch 2018).
Some critical voices warn against how smartphones and social networks
can contribute to raising socially incompetent and isolated children. We
can also pump up our ego virtually, until it bursts. Facebook, Instagram,
YouTube – to name a few – offer us a stage anytime and anywhere. Us or
our virtual creation. The possibilities of communication on the internet
today are almost unlimited. But as Richard David Precht points out in his
new book (2018, 63, translated): »The promise of unhindered communica-
tion on the Internet was not followed by the spring of freedom, but by the
long winter of total surveillance.« And the individuality that we believe to
live out on the internet? Precht also has an answer here (ibid. p. 38, trans-
lated): »What should individuality – literally ›indivisibility‹ – be, if man is
broken down into millions of data and bagged as such a profile and sold to
the highest bidder in order to manipulate him to desire things for sale?«
Digital transformation
Digitization is just one of the terms. What does the term digital transfor-
mation mean? Digital transformation is a part and consequence of digiti-
zation.The term can be better understood with a model by Lankshear and

Knobel. According to the model, there are three levels of digital change.
Digital competence is at the first level. Through courses, online videos, in-
tuitive menu navigation or manuals, employees develop digital skills that
enable them to use digital tools. The use of digital tools, for example to
digitally document employee appraisals, takes us to the second stage of
the model, digital application. If this is mastered and if the use of digital
tools awakens innovative and creative ideas that result in a noticeable
change, the level of digital transformation is reached. If, for example, data
is combined in a new way that makes predictions that enable much earlier,
quasi-preventive personnel decisions (e.g. identification and promotion of
potential high performers), or if new forms of communication are devel-
oped, it can be a matter of transformation.
A new form of communication can be created, for example, by digital de-
velopment plans that allow employees and superiors to digitally document
learning progress and comment interactively. This transparency, together
with the expansion of the communication network, can also open up new
possibilities, for example for the deployment of an employee in a project
or for mentoring. The project experience can be matched to fill gaps in the
development plan and the new mentor could be matched based on similar
work experiences. The virtual data also provide insights into previously
unknown but real correlations.
It is also digital transformation when the use of digital technologies im-
proves business processes or products, for example customer experience or
the rationalization of a business. This also includes the development of new
business models.
Platforms are an example of such a new business model. Platforms act as
agents, as intermediaries between suppliers and customers and make a prof-
it from their activities. Data resulting from the purchase and handling of
products becomes merchandise itself. Think of Airbnb, the hotel company
without hotels. Apple is also showing the way: The commissions that go to

platforms are considerable. Apple thus collects 30 percent per purchase in
the App Store. Airbnb or Booking.com collect about 10 percentage points.
New value creation potentials open up above all at the interfaces between
industry and sector boundaries. The best-known examples are Airbnb, Uber
and Alibaba. Airbnb is the world's largest provider of accommodation with-
out owning a single hotel. Uber is the largest taxi company in the world
without owning a single car. Alibaba has become the most valuable retailer
in the world without an inventory. Facebook is another example: As the
world's most popular media company, it does not produce any content. The
delivery and maintenance of the content are the job of the users. Facebook
only offers the portal and makes a profit from advertising and user data.
Digitalization is neither simply a representation of a physical state in elec-
tronic form nor a simple automation of processes in electronic form. Rather,
an additional benefit must be generated. That is the difference between the
third and fourth industrial revolution. Digital transformation can take many
forms. An important differentiation that is often forgotten by companies is
the nature of the impact that digitization is expected to have on a business.
When employees hear digitization, they often associate it with a radical
replacement of the existent. They expect to deliver a different product in
future, to provide a different service. Which is often not the case.
This has happened to Airbus, for example. Airbus is focusing on platforms
for the future and intends to further expand its civil drone business. One
example is the sale of images taken with drones to first responders in the
event of natural disasters. They can use such images to identify where the
greatest damage is and to coordinate their deployment accordingly. This
is a complement to the Airbus business, an extension to its services, made
possible by digitization. Dirk Hoke, CEO of Defence and Space, describes in
an interview that the internal cultural change necessary for the change was
slowed down by the fact that the employees thought classic Airbus business
would be replaced.

Therefore it is worthwhile to communicate in a differentiated way what kind
of change is aimed at by utilizing digitization opportunities. Replacing old
businesses is only one of three ways of renewing, supplementing or replac-
ing, as shown below.
Renew: Here, an existing product or service is renewed using technological
components. One example is the development of IT for autonomous driving.
The car is renewed by technology, transformed, gaining a new function.
Complement: An existing product or service is complemented by digi-
tal components. One example is the remote maintenance and predictive
maintenance of elevators. A memory chip collects and stores data in the
elevators. For example, it monitors how many trips an elevator makes each
day. Mechanical data from other wear sensors are also collected. This allows
predictions to be made as to when the failure of a component is likely to
occur. The spare part is ordered automatically, and maintenance can be
carried out proactively to avoid a long downtime.
Replace: This replaces an old product or an existing service. For instance,
instead of selling a product in a store, it is sold online.
Digital disruption
When do we talk about digital disruption? Digital disruption means the in-
terruption of existing systems, products, business models or services. New
technologies or business models change the value proposition of existing
products or services. An example illustrates this.
New technologies can renew, supplement or replace existing products or
services. Digital transformation therefore does not automatically mean
that the old is replaced by something new.

An example of the renewal of an existing product can be found in the
automotive industry. Digital transformation does not lead to the replace-
ment of the car. The renewal takes place through the development of IT
packages that enable autonomous driving. In addition, car production will
be significantly accelerated and made more flexible by further digitiza-
tion of the supply chain. The car itself becomes a data carrier or, in the
future, a decentralized energy storage unit. Differentiation in the market
is achieved through additional digital services. At the same time, the car
is no longer a fixed part of one's own property (my house, my car). It has
become a shareable means of transportation. At one of the largest premi-
um automobile manufacturers, the change in the automotive industry is
described as CASE. CASE stands for connected, autonomous, shared and
electric, as a vice president of an automobile manufacturer explained in an
interview with Nicole Neubauer, CEO of metaBeratung, during the research
for this book in 2018.
Supplementation means that existing products or services are enriched or
expanded with digital offers. KONE, one of the world's leading suppliers of
elevators and escalators, has been using machine-to-machine (M2M) tech-
nology since 2014. The company integrates SIM cards into its elevators,
which collect and transmit data. Data can be the number of trips per day,
the respective load on the elevator, and also performance data from micro-
processors in the elevators. This data is evaluated to identify trends that
provide information about when and where wear and tear are likely to oc-
cur. Not only can maintenance work be planned and scheduled in advance,
it can also be used preventively to avoid outages, which increases service
quality for customers.
Replacement, that is to say digital disruption, takes place when existing
products, services or processes are replaced by digital technologies or their
value proposition is affected. One example, again from the automotive
industry, is the construction of an e-commerce platform for ordering spare
car parts. The fashion trade is another readily visible example. A glance

at the USA currently shows how one retailer after another is closing. For
example, when Zappos began offering shoes online in 1999, hardly anyone
believed that customers would ever buy shoes online. Ten years later Zap-
pos achieved a $1.2-billion turnover and was bought for the same amount
by Amazon. Another example is the disruption of the classic SMS business
of telecom companies by WhatsApp, providing the service at no cost. Or
let's look at Skype: With Skype, Microsoft is pulling 37 billion dollars of
revenue away from traditional telecommunication companies, while earn-
ing only an extra two billion dollars. Skype is an example of the phenom-
enon described by the McKinsey Global Institute: Technology firms and
technology-driven firms destroy more value for established firms than they
themselves gain with the new business model.
In 2015, the Global Center for Digital Business Transformation, an initia-
tive of Cisco and the IMD Business School, surveyed nearly a thousand
top managers worldwide about the risk of digital disruption in individual
industries. The results show digital disruption is happening first in the
technology industry itself. But it's spreading. Next on the list are media/
entertainment, followed by retail, finance and telecommunications. Edu-
cation, travel, consumer goods/industry, health, utilities, and oil and gas
are also affected. At the bottom of the list is the pharmaceutical industry.
There is no question that the economic context is changing – companies
need to reposition themselves quickly to complement or renew old value
chains and to create new ones.
But digital transformation is not limited to the economic context. The
implications are much more far-reaching, as outlined. Let's look at our
everyday work.

1.2 How is the (working) world changing?
Meanwhile we have quite a clear picture of what the future – at least the
near future – of work will look like. Here, too, we find trends that are not
new, but which are condensing and making change more and more no-
ticeable. Various surveys, expert surveys and publications by well-known
consulting firms since 2016 have repeatedly come to the same conclusions.
We present the central developments to you in two categories:
• How is the labor market changing – what will happen to our jobs?
• How is the workplace changing? The way we work translates into new
leadership requirements, which will be addressed later.
If we want to try to capture the effects of digitization in a catchword, it
is increasing flexibility. Structures of work and cooperation become more
flexible or dissolve.
A flexibilization of structures and increasing permeability can be observed
on several levels:
• within the organization
• between organizations
• between supplier and customer
• geographically
• between work and private life.
Changes in the labor market. What will we do for a living in
the future?
For the sake of completeness, we will briefly discuss the changes in jobs
themselves. Ultimately, something is automated. This is cause for fear that
jobs will be automated away. A theme that has also accompanied the revo-
lutions that have taken place in the world of work so far. Professor Richard
David Precht emphasizes in his new book that as early as 1933 the Brit-
ish economist John Maynard Keynes announced that progress would lead

to mass unemployment. In 1978, Der Spiegel published an article titled
Progress creates unemployment and in 1995 the American sociologist and
economist Jeremy Rifkin announced the end of work. Well, we're all still
working. However, change is happening.
Automation, which affects us today and will affect us more and more in
the future, focuses primarily on two types of work. One type involves
simple physical or manual activities in areas that are highly structured
and predictable. For example, since 2013 the world's best-known sporting
goods manufacturer, the US company Nike, has been manufacturing shoes
using 3D printing techniques. By using lasers, the company can make ad-
justments to shoes within a few hours that would have taken months in
the past. Another example is the sporting goods manufacturer Adidas.
The use of 3D printers has led to a massive acceleration of its work. In the
past, twelve technicians were required to build and evaluate a prototype.
The process lasted four to six weeks. The use of 3D printers means that
only two technicians are needed. The process today takes no more than
two days.
The other type involves working with data, collecting and analyzing them.
The World Economic Forum (2016) assumes that the number of jobs in
production and traditional office occupations as well as administrative jobs
will decrease.
Occupations that fall into these categories will not automatically be elimi-
nated in the future. A job does not usually consist 100 percent of an activi-
ty that is able to be automated. Rather, automatable activities are one part
of a job. McKinsey estimates that only 5 percent of jobs have such a high
proportion of automatable activities that can disappear completely in the
future. However, a share of such activities in other jobs means that such
jobs will change, and parts of the previous work will disappear. But where
workload can be reduced, jobs can also be reduced. This fear is therefore
not unfounded. On the contrary. According to estimates by the World Eco-

nomic Forum (2016), seven million jobs will be lost worldwide between
2015 and 2020 (two-thirds in the administrative sector).
If we take a more holistic look at the shrinking labor market, it may seem
to solve one of our current problems. Most Western countries today already
rely on immigration from other countries to meet their labor market needs.
However, it is estimated that the sources of immigration will also increas-
ingly dry up. In the long run, therefore, the problem will probably lie in a
lack of qualifications rather than a lack of workers.
As part of the research for this book, Nicole Neubauer, CEO of metaBera-
tung, conducted a series of interviews in 2018. In one of these interviews,
we received an estimate of workplace development from a leading glob-
al pharmaceutical company, research group and healthcare provider. The
global company estimates that within the next 20 to 30 years 30,000 of
the jobs within the company will disappear. At the same time, 20,000 new
jobs are expected to develop.
And new jobs are being created in many fields – a trend that is sure to con-
tinue. The World Economic Forum (2016) estimates that two million new
jobs will be created between 2015 and 2020. These are distributed only
among specific smaller job families and tend to concern jobs that require
a high level of education. An increase in jobs is expected in the fields of
architecture, engineering, computers, and mathematics. It can also be as-
sumed that care and service jobs will continue to grow.
What about all those new and growing employers like eBay or YouTube?
Well, eBay employs 74 people in Germany, YouTube four, as Professor Rich-
ard David Precht cites in a lecture in 2017.
Then we can expect the creation of completely new occupations. Just ten
years ago, many of today's most sought-after professions or specializations
did not exist. A popular estimate, which is also reflected in the World

Economic Forum report (2016), is that 65 percent of children of school age
today will work in jobs that do not yet exist.
The idea of working in the same company as Mom or Dad is also becoming
more unrealistic. As reported by the McKinsey Global Institute, the average
life of the 500 largest US-listed companies has already shrunk from 61
years (1958) to 20 years today, and further shortening is expected.
Are we even still talking about permanent positions as we know them?
The taxi company Uber is an example of how permanent employees can be
successfully exchanged for external contract partners. Some predictions go
so far as to say that the relationship between employer and employee will
fundamentally change. We would then no longer be employed by one com-
pany to carry out different or changing tasks. Rather, we would jump from
project to project that matched our core competencies – between com-
panies. Just as, for instance, independent photographers and also many
researchers do today. We already see that organizations have a constantly
shrinking stable core of permanent employees. Ever fewer permanent em-
ployees are supported by external employees or consultants for specific
projects. (Here, too, a large number of new platforms are emerging that
mediate between job seekers and employees, the human cloud or crowd-
sourcing). On behalf of the Daimler and Benz Foundation, Dr. Andreas Boes
reports on a company in Silicon Valley that operates a crowd platform.
The company has 1,000 permanent employees and 900,000 freelance IT
developers.
The trend is clearly towards »hiring on demand«, that is, purchasing cer-
tain services outside the company instead of hiring internal permanent
employees.
Your parents probably had one job in their lives. You may be in your third
or fifth job right now. Your children may have several jobs at the same
time.

On an individual level, too, a parallel change is happening. People are
increasingly organizing themselves via flexible, profession-related inter-
est groups and turning away from rigid organizations. This is also having
an impact on organizations such as trade unions, as people become more
selective and less involved in general issues. Loyalties are thus sometimes
being diverted from the company to which they belong to interest groups.
As can be seen from the paragraph above, this will probably be even more
important in future than we think today. However, it does provide a chal-
lenge for managers to retain talent in the company.
Company affiliation is losing relevance due to another trend. Borders be-
tween companies are opening up. One example is the sharing of standard-
ized back-end processes by third-party providers. This creates jobs that
cannot be clearly assigned to an organization. And it leads to products
that are created or services that are delivered that do not have a clear
sender.
Increasingly, companies are also working together on specific topics.
Cross-company collaboration is becoming a competitive advantage. Joint
workshops or structured exchanges of experience are on the way. One ex-
ample is the »Working out Loud« movement (John Stepper). Digitalization
demands more networks, the dissolution of silo thinking and the willing-
ness to learn and progress faster by sharing knowledge and experience.
These thoughts are reflected in the »Working out Loud« movement, which
promotes the sharing of experience and joint learning within and across
organizations. Again, it is interest groups that act as an alternative orga-
nization.
Labor market trends continue seamlessly and infiltrate existing jobs. Here
they encounter further current trends and again the developments con-
dense to a new work experience, which is described next.

Also in
German
Agiles Führen
Agiles Führen gilt als das Wundermittel schlechthin. Kaum eine Führungskraft
kommt an dem Thema vorbei. Dennoch ist dieses Thema vielerorts nicht mehr
als ein Schlagwort. Leider – denn agiles Führen kann sich jede Führungskraft
aneignen und anwenden.
Was bedeutet agiles Führen im Kontext der digitalen Transformation? Wie
verändert sie die Führungsaufgabe? Wie entwickelt man eigentlich agile
Führungskompetenz im Alltag? Und wie wird man zum agilen Change Manager?
Neubauers und Pucketts Buch gibt Antworten auf diese Fragen. Es wirft
einen Blick unter die Oberﬂäche und zeigt, welche Kompetenzen und
Persönlichkeitseigenschaften agile Führungskräfte auszeichnen. Dabei hat es
beide Seiten im Blick. Denn agile Führung muss authentisch sein und scheitert
allzu oft am Widerstand der Mitarbeiter. Pragmatisch zeigt das Buch, wie sich
diese Widerstände auﬂösen lassen und die Transformation der Organisation
gelingt.
Auf Basis jahrzehntelanger Arbeit mit Führungskräften und eines
wissenschaftlich untermauerten verhaltensorientierten Kompetenzmodells ist
dieses Buch entstanden. Es lenkt den Blick darauf, wie wir mit agiler Führung
unsere vorhandenen Stärken, Kompetenzen und Erfahrungen zukunftsfähig
machen.
Stefanie Puckett, Rainer M. Neubauer
Agiles Führen
Führungskompetenzen für die agile Transformation
1. Edition 2018
320 pages; 29,95 Euro
ISBN 978-3-86980-433-0; article number 1053
www.BusinessVillage.de

The Agile Culture Code
It is an organization‘s culture that provides the biggest challenge and at the
same time, the biggest lever to form an agile organization.
So how can we grasp the concept of organizational culture in an actionable
way? What is the essence of an agile culture? What are the elements? How is
this culture formed and developed? Where are the levers and pitfalls? What
does work hands-on?
Puckett‘s book delivers answers to those questions and explains how
organizational culture can be created and formed. Insights from organizational
psychology are translates into practical advice. Based on analysis of agile
organizations and those in transition, the agile culture code is decoded. The
core elements of agile organizational cultures are defined and elaborated. The
book is filled with field-proven culture hacks, tips, tools and methods, and
illustrated with many examples.
Puckett provides a new perspective on organizational culture. For it is in
our hands to shape the culture: As individual, as team, as leader. We are
organizational culture.
This atlas invites to experiment and create, and shows how organizations can
master the agile transformation.
“An extremely useful tool for anyone struggling to navigate the tricky world of
cultural change in organizations.” Michael Wade, Professor at IMD, Director of
the Global Center for Digital Business Transformation
“This book uncovers what is needed to build agility and provides very valuable
guidance.” Audrey Clegg, Group Talent Director at Coca-Cola HBC
Dr. Stefanie Puckett
The Agile Culture Code
A guide to organizational agility
1. Edition 2020

Win With OKR
OKR, aka Objectives and Key results, makes the difference between setting strategic goals
and actually achieving them. Entire teams focus on those few important things, which
truly make a difference, bringing purpose, agility and transparency to the work they do.
In three-month sprints, companies take quantum leaps and innovative pivots, whilst
their teams establish a learning culture, constantly questioning how to not if they can
overdeliver on the next audacious targets.
The power of OKR is truly impressive, but how should a team practically decide which
priorities to ignore for three months? How does a leader let go a little without letting go
too much? How do teams deal with the challenge of de-prioritizing their own dreams in
order to support their colleagues and how do individuals learn to collaborate and deliver
10x more without sacrificing their personal wellbeing in the process?
Whilst the OKR methodology is simple to describe and easy to understand, experienced
OKR practitioners know that the mindset behind this methodology is the true key to a
successful implementation and return on energy invested.
As one of Europe’s first ever OKR consultants, our author Nick Stanforth shares his
ground-breaking approach to a swift, successful and enjoyable OKR implementation
for the first time. He shares valuable insights, gathered whilst training hundreds of
OKR practitioners in the most diverse markets and coaching them throughout their
transformation journey.
Regardless whether you are new to OKR or have been working with the methodology for
years; whether you are a manager, team mate, agile PO or even an OKR trainer yourself,
Nick goes beyond the standard theory of OKR and shares real-life examples of how his
international client-base made OKR their own, repeatedly delivering audacious results
and solving age-old puzzles in astonishingly short timeframes.
Nick Stanforth
Win With OKR
Your Fast Track to Awesome OKR
1. Edition 2020

Agile Leadership Competencies for the Digital Transformation

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