MORE executive SUCCESS 27th March 2024.pdf

The Management
Revolution
the truth,
the whole truth,
and nothing but the truth
MORE Executive SUCCESS In The Knowledge Economy
through timely humane effectiveness, ambidexterity, or adaptiveness
John Anthony Coleman
executive guide, product leader
author of Kanplexity, co-author of Kanban Guide
host of X-agility and agility island podcasts
*creator of MORE executive SUCCESS , the X-Effect
Not restricted by:
–Professional Scrum Trainer
–Professional Kanban Trainer
–Flight Levels Coach
–LeSS-Friendly Trainer
–Agile Kata Pro Trainer
@JohnColemanIRL
https://linktr.ee/johncolemanxagility
* coming soon

About me
executive guide, product
leader
Power Voice
Thinkers 360 and Leadershum
Flight Levels Coach,
ProKanban Professional
Kanban Trainer, Scrum.org
Professional Scrum Trainer,
LeSS Friendly Scrum Trainer,
Agile Kata Pro Trainer
author of Kanplexity™,
underpinned by Cynefin®
creator of Xagility™ co-author of Kanban Guide
Host of Xagility™ & Agility
Island podcasts
…

My mission for you, the current
or future executive (or board
member)
• Leave a “ding” on the planet
• Make a mark
• Be useful for society
• Create a system that makes you
remarkable

My mission for you
–store away this talk until you’re
ready to try it
• Leave a “ding” on the planet
• Make a mark
• Be useful for society
• Create a system that makes you
remarkable

Rogue ants
• Some ants look for new food sources

MORE executive SUCCESS
the X-Effect
timely humane effectiveness
ambidexterity
adaptiveness
Copyright © 2017-2024 Orderly Disruption Limited. Offered for license under Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International, accessible at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-
nd/4.0/legalcode and also described in summary form at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/. By using MORE Executive SUCCESS InThe Knowledge Economy Through Timely Humane Effectiveness,
Ambidexterity, or Agility – Reference Guide, you acknowledge that you have read and agree to be bound by the terms of Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International of Creative Commons.

the X-Effect
ambidexterity
adaptiveness
1).Culture Gardening

the X-Effect
ambidexterity
adaptiveness
2).Designed for
Responsiveness

the X-Effect
ambidexterity
adaptiveness
3).Embracing
Emergence

the X-Effect
ambidexterity
adaptiveness
4).People
Engagement –
employees,
customers

the X-Effect
ambidexterity
adaptiveness
5a). The knowledge base
the customer, how the work works

the X-Effect
ambidexterity
adaptiveness
5b). The knowledge base
behaviors & habits

the X-Effect
ambidexterity
adaptiveness
5c). The knowledge base
the art & science of
measurement
Copyright © 2017-2024 Orderly Disruption Limited. Offered for license
under Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International,
accessible at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-
nd/4.0/legalcode and also described in summary form at
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/. By using MORE
Executive SUCCESS InThe Knowledge Economy Through Timely
Humane Effectiveness, Ambidexterity, or Agility – Reference Guide,
you acknowledge that you have read and agree to be bound by the
terms of Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
of Creative Commons.

the X-Effect
ambidexterity
adaptiveness
5d). The knowledge base
succession

1).Culture Gardening
2).Designed for
Responsiveness
3).Embracing
Emergence
4).People
Engagement –
employees,
customers
5d). The knowledge base
succession
5a). The knowledge base
the customer, how the work works
5c). The knowledge base
the art & science of
measurement
5b). The knowledge base
behaviors & habits
the X-Effect
ambidexterity
adaptiveness

The gaps in top management
Culture Gardening –
ceiling lower than
needed, due to ill-
suited workflows,
processes, and
systems
01
Responsiveness - to
market and societal
needs
02
Emergence –
Ill-suited predictive
planning in an
uncertain world
03
Engagement –Treating
people as
“resources”
04
Knowledge –
Need to be more
open to educate your
successors, and our
successors’
successors
05

“Build it and
they will
come”

the X-Effect
ambidexterity
adaptiveness
All about
quarterly results
Queues
everywhere
Delivering
what was promised,
no checking for value realization
Transactional
with employees
and customers
lack of
succession planning
Thinking inside the building
w/o understanding the customer
“muppet show”measurement
Asking the same
old-fashioned questions
emergence
responsiveness
culture
engagement
Knowledge – art & science
Knowledge – succession
Knowledge – the customer, how the work works
Knowledge – behaviors & habits

the X-Effect
ambidexterity
adaptiveness
All improvement is
on current products
or markets
Silo-oriented
change
Strategy
is an annual event;
no room for emergence
Individual
OKRs + lack of
emergence
Ringing McKinsey
or BCG or Bain & Co.
to hire the next CEO
Dreaming up features
then building them without research
Velocity atrocity
Predicting deliveries
for 3rd April 2026
emergence
responsiveness
culture
engagement

the X-Effect
ambidexterity
adaptiveness
Non-agile managers
hired, promoted, or
rotated
Organized for
ease of
management
not delivery
No
experimentation
Not addressing
what is slowing
down the work
Fast-track managers
learning 20th century
materials
Rarely meet customer or user, and
overplay the importance when its done
Measuring planned vs actuals
Minutes of meetings delayed
so they can be massaged
emergence
Responsiveness
culture
engagement

Bar-stool pitch
Executives... What got you here won't get you there.
Avoid:
–Focusing too much on quarterly results and targets
–Not caring how employees deliver results
–Not truly empowering teams to solve impediments
–Employees not feeling inspired and hence not exciting customers in the right way.
Prepare your successors. Attain MORE SUCCESS through ambidextrous ACTION

MORE SUCCESS
ACTION
MORE –
Managerial and Organizational Resilience
Evolution
SUCCESS –
Savvy United Culture and Climate
Envelope with Succession Superpowers
ACTION –
Act, Clarify, Try-out, Iterate, Orient, Now

Assess objectively
where you really
are
• The work environment
situation might not be
as advanced as you
think, under objective
inspection

To raise the performance ceiling
lower than needed, due to ill-
suited workflows, processes, and
systems..
Regularly…
–Water
–Feed
–Weed
–Cultivate
–Adapt

Culture Gardening for Managers
THINK OF YOURSELF
AS A CULTURE AND
CLIMATE GARDENER
1
FOSTER OTHERS AND
THE ORGANIZATION
TO RISE TO THEIR
HIGHEST HEIGHTS
2
HELP ENSURE GOOD
AGILITY GROWS
3

Beyond Budgeting is proven to free organizations of
“command and control” cultures and improve performance
Beyond Budgeting Management Processes –
Copyright © 2023 Beyond Budgeting
1. Targets - Set directional, ambitious, and relative goals; avoid fixed and cascaded targets (181).
2. Forecasts - Make forecasting a lean and unbiased process; not rigid and political exercises (182).
3. Resource allocation - Foster a cost-conscious mindset and make resources available as needed. Plan and make (financial)
resources available as needed; not through detailed annual budget allocations (183).
4. Performance evaluation - Evaluate performance holistically to guide interventions; not based on measurement only and not
for rewards only (184).
5. Rewards - Reward shared success against the competition; not against fixed performance contracts (185).
6. Coordination (formerly Rhythm) - Organize management processes dynamically around business rhythms and events; not
around the calendar year only (180).

Beyond Budgeting is proven to free organizations of
“command and control” cultures and improve performance
Beyond Budgeting Leadership
Principles - Copyright © 2023 Beyond Budgeting
1. Purpose - Engage and inspire people around bold and noble causes; not around short-term ﬁnancial targets (174).
2. Values - Govern through shared values and sound judgment; not through detailed rules and regulations (175).
3. Transparency - Make information open for self-regulation, innovation, learning, and control; don’t restrict it (176).
4. Autonomy - Trust people with the freedom to act; don’t punish everyone if someone should abuse it (178).
5. Organization - Cultivate a strong sense of belonging and organize around accountable teams; avoid hierarchical control and
bureaucracy (177).
6. Customers - Connect everyone’s work with customer needs; avoid conﬂicts of interest (179).

Information Sources
for Culture
Gardening THINK OF YOURSELF AS A
CULTURE AND CLIMATE
GARDENER
FOSTER OTHERS AND THE
ORGANIZATION TO RISE TO
THEIR HIGHEST HEIGHTS
HELP ENSURE GOOD
AGILITY GROWS
1. Consider Beyond Budgeting (188, 193) as an
innovative way of running the organization
2. Into Agile or not, consider the Agile Business
Consortium's Leadership Principles (225)
3. Consider 8 Trends from Corporate Rebels
(308)
Potential ↑capability, ↑adaptiveness,
↑humanity.
Copyright © 2017-2024 Orderly Disruption Limited. Offered for license under Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International, accessible at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/legalcode and also described in summary form at
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/. By using MORE Executive SUCCESS InThe Knowledge Economy Through Timely Humane Effectiveness, Ambidexterity, or Agility – Reference Guide, you acknowledge that you have read and agree to be bound by the
terms of Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International of Creative Commons.

As the executive, you have an active role in preparing the ground for
enterprise agility
Start with Why (2)
Check if your executive team is not
as aligned as you thought
Consider clarifying the formulation
of the change objectives and
quantifying the seemingly
unquantifiable (189) to crystallize
objectives
Clinically assess solution options
using value/cost ratio considering
option credibility over time from the
perspective of “wins this week”

Fill the Responsiveness
Gap – Visualize the work
Managing what you can't
"visualize" is tricky
– Jim Benson (creator of
Personal Kanban, Lean
Coffee)

Gap – Visualize the work
Solve visualization by:
1. being psychological-
safety in action
2. "visualizing" work with
intentional interactions
across silos
3. focusing on the highest
potential value and
minimize the number &
size of backlogs.
4. optimizing the flow of
potential value
5. restructuring the
organization (directly or
indirectly) for
adaptiveness

Gap – Optimize Flow
Optimize the flow pf potential
value and actualized value by:
1. Considering queueing theory
(258).
2. Considering flow-based
approaches at the value
stream or customer-oriented
product or service level.

Reduce distance,
improve flow
To deal with long distance between teams and the
customers
…
Consider virtual or actual organization redesigns

Your top team is not
as aligned on the top
objective as you think
• Twelve tough questions
• (Tom Gilb)

Twelve Tough Questions - Copyright © 2024 Tom Gilb
How do we know this is the most important
problem? Why isn’t the improvement quantified?
How do you know it works that way? How do you
know perception is reality?
What’s the risk or uncertainty, and why? Have we got a complete solution?
Are you sure? If not, why not? Considering potential market value, are we going to
do the‘profitable things’first?
Where did you get that from? How can I check it
out? How frequently can I check that out?
Who is responsible? Who else is responsible?
How does your idea affect my goals? How can we be sure the plan is working? And what
empirical rhythm is in place to help us adapt
quickly?
Did we forget anything critical? Is it no cure, no pay, in a contract? Why not? What
is the risk of not harvesting value?

Cynefin®
a sense-making and
leadership decision
making framework

Empiricism in complexity
requires critical thinking
supported by:
1). Parallel“safe to fail experiments based on based on
–deductive thinking (logic)
–inductive thinking (inferences)
–abductive thinking (hunches)
–psychological safety
• empirical [ em-pir-i-kuhl ]
• adjective
1. derived from or guided by direct experience
or by experiment, rather than abstract principles
or theory
• 2. depending upon experience or observation
alone, without using scientific method or theory,
and hence sometimes insufficiently
authoritative, especially as in medicine

supported by:
2). Fresh thinking (the opposite of groupthink)
– dissent welcomed
– requires different people deciding when to pivot/stop from those who
started the work (Annie Duke - Quit)
• adjective
or theory

supported by:
2). Fresh thinking (the opposite of groupthink)
– dissent welcomed
– requires different people deciding when to pivot/stop from those who
started the work (Annie Duke - Quit)
3). Exaptiveness
–trying solutions to old problems on a new problem
• adjective
or theory

Fill the Empiricism Gap
–Emergent Strategy
–Emergent Strategy Deployment
Use emergent strategy; solutions should be discovered by the
people closest to the problem. Consider strategy and strategy
deployment options, in particular Agile Strategy Deployment and
Estuarine Mapping.
Use a leadership decision-making compass; consider Cynefin®
(71, 187) to guide sense-making and decision-making or Kanplexity™
(64) as a jumping-off point.
Cocreate and coevolve clarity on the direction of travel. Consider
Value Planning (169, 168).

Fill the
Empiricism Gap
–Make Space for Learning
For a meaningful direction of travel,
consider malleable goal-oriented models.
Use an empirical approach – be humble,
experiment safely in a direction, learn, and
improve. Try a "company bets" list and
smaller bets. Embrace discoveries and
abductive reasoning (203).
Get real. Add slack time (256) as it’s
needed. Go See (10) with customers and
teams.
Monitor for early detection of signs that the
change is unraveling.
Potential ↑wisdom, ↑quality-of-change,
↑disruption of others, ↓transaction-cost.

Fill the Engagement
Gap
• The imposition of change is unwise
○ With colleagues, get help, and select or
co-create an engagement model(s)
○ Be intentional about cognitive diversity
(227) and Diversity, Equity, and
Inclusion (226)
○ Be intentional about “customer
engagement”
Potential ↑quality-of-change,
↑engagement, ↑joy

The“X-Effect”
behavior themes
Humane environment
Create leaders at every level
Demonstrate diversity and inclusion in action
Align workflows, processes, & systems with timely humane effectiveness, agility, or
ambidexterity
Scale respect, professionalism, trust, psychological safety, and cooperation
Happy people, happy customers, users, and other stakeholders
Employees are inspired and inspire others, including the customer and other stakeholders
Catalyze continual organizational changeability
Foster healthy communications and relationships
Focus on employee growth and make work-life better
Own cultivation of the organizational climate and culture
Flow
Balance priorities with organizational capacity
Create slack time (256) for invention, reinvention, collaboration, and cooperation
Cultivate psychological flow, where work is effortless, enjoyable, and uplifting
Value and decision making
Delegate authority to where the best information is
Encourage sense-making
Balance the short-term and long-term
Ensure cognitive diversity and skills-based growth
Balance focus and tension between thecustomer,theorganization,thelegallandscape,the
market,effectiveness, efficiency, the flow of potentialvalue, capability, organization
design, and diversity of products or services
Xagility™ - Copyright © 2017-2023 Orderly Disruption Limited
Creative Commons License
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/. By using MORE Executive SUCCESS InThe Knowledge Economy Through Timely Humane Effectiveness, Ambidexterity, or Agility – Reference Guide, you acknowledge that you have read and agree to be bound by the terms of
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International of Creative Commons.

The X effect
from X-agility
The recommended behavior swaps are practical. For example:
Record and agree on meeting minutes in the meeting,
not afterward
Prioritize within the organization’s capacity instead of
taking capacity for granted; in a way, the organizational
capacity is its value throughput
Consult with teams before making external
commitments
Get educated on complexity instead of assuming
everything is predictable
When a team escalates an issue, help them, or
authentically give the team the power to fix it
As there are no recipes, these hypotheses need to be tested with context-specific experiments. Executives discover their own path
through the Xagility™ behavior map in coaching sessions, workshops, cohorts, and leadership assessments from the employee
perspective.
Based upon experiments and consultations with executives and product folks 2017-2023, Xagility™ provides a set of hypotheses for
more effective, timely, humane, compassionate, and ambidextrous behavior, all the while ruthless with value.

Close the Knowledge Gap
for you and your
successors
• To support excellent decisions, seek a "goldilocks" zone of knowledge & skills on the
customer, "how work works," "Timely Humane Effectiveness" (THE), agility, or
ambidexterity.
○ Study "how work works," the Flaw of Averages (234), and the customer
○ Practice executive behavior options
○ Examine habit-forming approaches that support professionalism,
resilience, and playfulness
○ Learn. Think. Act. Arrange to prepare your successors with knowledge and
skills
Potential ↑change, ↑leadership, ↑joy, ↓transaction-cost

Succession – protecting
your legacy
1/3
• As an executive, you should arrange to
educate everyone in the organization so that:
● Everyone gets upskilled on the change and
feels psychologically safe to reveal the
unraveling of change
● Unhelpful behavior can be called out and
eradicated for good

your legacy
2/3
● Everyone can become more customer-
oriented and technical to grasp risks and
opportunities
● Newly installed executives hired internally
would have already received executive
success education
● Executives should bring their successors
and successors' successors through their
learning and change journey
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/. By using Executive Success InThe Knowledge Economy Through Timely Humane Effectiveness, Ambidexterity, or Agility – Reference Guide, you acknowledge that you have read and agree to be bound by the terms
of Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International of Creative Commons.

your legacy
3/3
• Avoid "one right way." Let successors find
their own paths with your support
• Consider direct vs. indirect ambidexterity,
management of things, and leadership of
people (254) when assessing candidate
successors (244)
• When hiring or promoting executives or
managers, shortlist the enlightened ones
only, no matter how impressive otherwise

What does good
look like?
in the executive team …

What a successful
executive team does
1/2
• Eradicates toxicity, starting with the executive team by making immediate explicit agreements, making
everything about the direction of travel, and testing supporting ideas while safely "keeping the lights on" and
at the same time not dreaming up unconnected stuff in fiefdoms

What a successful
executive team does
1/2
• Improves psychological safety, starting with the executive team, by not “shooting the messengers.”

What a successful
executive team does
1/2
• Studies and gets help. It starves “lip service” and does not let change pockets starve of momentum.

What a successful
executive team does
1/2
• Uses Open Space Technology (72) or other complex facilitation over slides.

What a successful
executive team does
1/2
• Uses Open Space Technology (72) or other complex facilitation over slides.
• Engages and liberates the organization through an invitation to change.

What a successful
executive team does
2/2
• Reduces the number and size of backlogs and allows slack (256) for professionalism, learning, cooperation,
collaboration, innovation, and invention to improve focus on the highest potential value.

What a successful
executive team does
2/2
• Treats backlog items as bets and acquires more humility from interlaced discovery & delivery.

What a successful
executive team does
2/2
• Focuses on where timely humane effectiveness, agility, or ambidexterity are needed.

What a successful
executive team does
2/2
• It would help if you gave people in teams and networks of teams a fighting chance of short to long-term
success.

What a successful
executive team does
2/2
success.
• Some areas must change early to enable an environment for timely humane effectiveness, agility, or
ambidexterity, e.g., Finance, HR, Procurement, Legal, and Compliance.

What a successful
executive team does
2/2
success.
• Some areas must change early to enable an environment for timely humane effectiveness, agility, or
ambidexterity, e.g., Finance, HR, Procurement, Legal, and Compliance.
• Co-creates the direction of travel, is empirical at every level, and adjusts the direction as needed.

How are the big names doing
against this model …

Culture Gardening–
ceiling lower than
needed, due to ill-
suited workflows,
processes, and
systems
01
Responsiveness - to
market and societal
needs
02
Emergence–
Ill-suited predictive
planning in an
uncertain world
03
Engagement –
Treating people as
“resources”
04
Knowledge and Need
to be more open to
educate your
successors, and our
successors’
successors
05
John Anthony Coleman’s opinion from the outside – take with a pinch of salt
Apple?
Amazon OK at time of writing
Google?
Haier?
Microsoft?
Pixar?
Spotify?
Stripe?
Tesla OK at time of writing
Apple OK at time of writing
Google OK at time of writing
Haier OK at time of writing
Microsoft OK at time of writing
Pixar OK at time of writing
Spotify OK at time of writing
Stripe OK at time of writing
Google OK at time of writing
Haier OK at time of writing
Spotify OK at time of writing
Amazon ?
Google ?
Haier ?
Spotify ?
Stripe ?
Tesla ?
Apple ?
Amazon ?
Google ?
Haier ?
Microsoft ?
Spotify ?
Tesla ?

This is a saying
“A fish dies from the head”
Change also dies from the head, don’t be that head

Thank you
John Coleman
@JohnColemanIRL
https://linktr.ee/johncolemanxagility
https://linkpop.com/orderlydisruption

MORE executive SUCCESS 27th March 2024.pdf

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MORE executive SUCCESS 27th March 2024.pdf