Agendashift: Outcome-oriented change and continuous transformation (2nd Edition)

By Mike Burrows

"Mike provides a path for new ways of working and thinking, new tools, and a new mindset for a continually changing reality. With his new book, he is showing a better way of working, where we can come together and intuitively understand how to move forward, even in challenging situations."

"An impressive piece of culture technology - facilitates clear thinking and communication while encouraging real agreement at scale across the whole enterprise."

"If you are a business leader looking for tools that facilitate real change in real organisations, this is your book."

Extensively revised and adding a new final chapter, this second edition of Agendashift provides both the manual and the deep background for outcome-oriented change and continuous transformation. With its exercises explained in terms of memorable patterns such as Ideal, Obstacles, Outcomes (IdOO) and Meaning before Metric, the framework - an engagement model - is made significantly easier to understand and apply. Moreover, its generously-referenced and pluralistic style invites integration with a wide range of sources and encourages further innovation in this exciting and rapidly-developing field.

Author and Agendashift founder Mike Burrows describes himself as "in the business of wholehearted organisations". Mike is recognised for his pioneering work in Lean, Agile, and Kanban, for his ground-breaking books Agendashift (2018, 2021), Right to Left (2019, audiobook 2020), and Kanban from the Inside(2014), and as a champion of participatory and outcome-oriented approaches to change, transformation, strategy, and leadership. Before embarking on his consulting career, he was global development manager and Executive Director at a top tier investment bank, and CTO for an energy risk management startup.

• Language: English
• Publisher: NewGenerationPublishing
• Release date: Feb 9, 2022
• ISBN: 9781800313569

Book preview

IllustrationIllustration

Published by New Generation Publishing in 2021

Copyright © Mike Burrows 2021

The author asserts the moral right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work.

All Rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means without the prior consent of the author, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

Paperback ISBN: 978-1-80031-357-6

Ebook ISBN: 978-1-80031-356-9

www.newgeneration-publishing.com

Illustration

Agendashift™ is a trademark of Positive Incline Limited.

To Sharon

Contents

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

FOREWORD TO THE 2ND EDITION

FOREWORD TO THE 1ST EDITION

INTRODUCTION

What Agendashift is

What Agendashift provides

Why this 2nd edition?

Agendashift in relation to my other books

What to expect from the rest of this book

CHAPTER 1. DISCOVERY

Celebration-5W

The True North exercise

Good Obstacle, Bad Obstacle (I)

Practice Outcomes

15-minute FOTO (Lite), aka the And When X… game

Plan on a Page

Behind the scenes

Key points – 1. Discovery

CHAPTER 2. EXPLORATION

The Agendashift Delivery Assessment, mini edition

The survey debrief

Areas of Opportunity

Practice Obstacles

Ideal / Obstacles

Good Obstacle, Bad Obstacle (II)

15-minute FOTO (Classic)

Reconciliation

Behind the scenes

The Charitable Explanation

Cleanish Strategy

Key points – 2. Exploration

CHAPTER 3. MAPPING

Option Approach Mapping

Option Relationship Mapping

Pathway Mapping

Behind the scenes

Mapping in context

TASTE / X-Matrix

Key points – 3. Mapping

CHAPTER 4. ELABORATION

Choose an Outcome

Challenge Mapping Revisited

Signs of Success

Idea Generation (aka Ideation)

Your ‘Fantastic’ Option

The Agendashift Experiment A3 template

Alternative approaches

Behind the scenes

User Story, Job Story, Hypothesis

Key points – 4. Elaboration

CHAPTER 5. OPERATION

The Generative Change Model

Viable System Model (VSM)

Our wholehearted mission

Right-to-Left Strategy Deployment

Make your own Outside-in Service Delivery Review (OI-SDR)

Changeban

Right-to-Left Strategy Deployment is a generative process

Key points – 5. Operation

CHAPTER 6. UP AND DOWN THE DELIBERATELY ADAPTIVE ORGANISATION

The Deliberately Adaptive Team

Scaling up

Scaling down

Where to start

RESOURCES

Partner Programme

APPENDIX A. AGENDASHIFT WORKSHOPS

Transformation Strategy Workshops

Outside-in Strategy Workshops

Short Training Workshops

APPENDIX B. FROM THE 1ST EDITION

Principles

The Full Circle Exercise

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

INDEX

Acknowledgements

This book is more than just a solo project, more even than a team effort. It should be seen as a product of the Agendashift community – a community that has grown substantially in number, diversity, and depth since its birth in 2016, a process that has accelerated since the publication of this book’s 1st edition in 2018.

Accordingly, the list of people I am honoured to thank is long: Heidi Araya (US), Tom Ayerst (UK), Susanne Bartel (Germany), Greg Brougham (UK), John Clapham (UK), Andrea Chiou (US), Craig Cockburn (UK), Paul Cooper (UK), Richard Cornelius (UK), Matthew Dodwell (UK), Emma Collingridge (UK), Bülent Duagi (Romania), Ray Edgar (UK), Philippe Guenet (UK), Kenny Grant (UK), Kjell Tore Guttormsen (Norway), Mike Haber (UK), Mo Hagar (US), Tim Hagen (US), Julie Hendry (UK), Patrick Hoverstadt (UK), Brad Hughes (US), Paul Immerzeel (Netherlands), Dragan Jojic (UK), Allan Kelly (UK), Liz Keogh (UK), Andrew Kidd (UK). Irene Kuhn (Germany), Mike Leber (Austria), Angie Main (UK), Steven Mackenzie (UK), Roy Marriott (UK), Kevin Murray (UK), Olivier My (France), Jussi Mäkelä (Sweden), Johan Nordin (Sweden), Kert Peterson (US), Matt Philip (US), Alex Pukinskis (Germany), Ajay Reddy (US), Karl Scotland (UK), Rod Sherwin (Australia), Jonathan Sibley (US), Thorbjørn Sigberg (Norway), Joey Spooner (US), Martien van Steenbergen (Netherlands), Patrick Steyaert (Belgium), Dieter Strasser (Austria), Mathias Tölken (South Africa), Derek Winter (Australia), Andreas Wittler (Germany), and Teddy Zetterlund (Sweden).

Of those, there are some that I must single out for special mention. The 1st edition owed a great deal to Dragan Jojic, Karl Scotland, Andrea Chiou, and Steven Mackenzie; their input and influence continues into the present. For the 2nd edition specifically: Patrick Hoverstadt, Jonathan Sibley, Andreas Wittler, Tom Ayerst, Matthew Dodwell, Kjell Tore Guttormsen, and Teddy Zetterlund.

Beyond those names to leaders prominent in communities that intersect with Agendashift’s: Gervase Bushe (US, Dialogic and Generative Organisation Development), Dave Snowden (UK, Cynefin), Simon Wardley (UK, Mapping), Pia-Maria Thorén (Sweden, Agile People), Judy Rees & Caitlin Walker (UK, Clean Language both). And as will be explained in this edition’s completely rewritten introduction, Daniel Mezick (US, OpenSpace Agility) for the gift I found hidden in his 2018 foreword.

And finally to my amazing wife Sharon. Anything I could add here would be understatement, but what a ride these five years have been!

Sincerely, thank you all.

Mike Burrows

Chesterfield, Derbyshire, UK

agendashift.com/mike

Foreword to the 2nd edition

As I write this, we are in the midst of the second wave of the Corona pandemic. The number of people in Sweden needing intensive care has sky-rocketed. There are no free beds in hospitals, and next week we will experience a Christmas without the usual gatherings and parties. Everyone is told to take responsibility and avoid any kind of physical contact with other people. We don’t know when this will be over as they have only just started to distribute vaccines in the US and UK.

The effects on the economy will be without comparison in history. We are facing tremendous hardship, and nobody knows the full extent of the consequences that will follow. Needless to say, we will suffer from this for years to come. Who could have predicted this a year ago? All those managers and leaders in traditional companies who at this time last year were putting their final touches on their budgets for 2020, if they had known about the pandemic coming, what would they have done differently?

The disruption and lasting change caused by events like this pandemic will sadly become more common in the future, not less. It requires us to think and work in new and different ways, to change old, outdated governance structures, and to welcome new ways of working and a new mindset to guide us moving forward. We need new values and principles, ways of working, practices, methods, models and tools, to survive and thrive in the increasingly complex reality.

Mike provides a path for precisely that – new ways of working and thinking, new tools, and a new mindset for a continually changing reality. With his new book, he is showing a better way of working, where we can come together and intuitively understand how to move forward, even in challenging situations.

I came into contact with Mike via a mutual acquaintance that we have in common and who introduced us digitally. Although I never met Mike IRL, through his book, I came to understand that we have lots in common in terms of values and principles that we strongly believe in and work towards. Values which become necessary to develop and grow when we cannot control reality (did anybody ever have this ability?) and the world is so unpredictable that it’s useless to plan for a horizon that is longer than three months.

Through his book, I understood that we are both believers in a different way of working with all kinds of organisations. A way of working permeated by the belief that people are indeed the greatest asset of an organisation (although many companies only say so but seldom act accordingly). People, the flesh and blood and soul of any organization, are complex adaptive systems and cannot be controlled. Not unlike the uselessness of trying to control the future, it is similarly useless to control people and their behaviour. The only thing we can do is provide the conditions in the environment so that people can work and move and learn in a common direction together.

We need new ways of working urgently, working ways that help people perform and be happy and achieve great things together. The old annual budgets, performance management processes, and reward structures do not help today. It’s an outdated governance structure that died with the industrial revolution more than 50 years ago. Today, people need help to become the best they can be at work. Supporting systems that would talk to how the brain works instead of going against it. We cannot rely on structures that were invented more than 100 years ago and believe that they will function when all the people in organizations have moved on and are as competent and knowledgeable as the managers. The gap between the people who think and the people who do the work is no longer there, and this reality requires a changed approach to management and new structures that are supporting people to perform, not hindering them.

Mike provides us with another solution, new, fresh and modern tools and methods that are built to work with how people function, not against it. With the help of these practices, people will get support for doing the work they believe will lead to the organization’s most successful outcomes and prosperity. They will be able to create a different future, a future where it’s easy to change when reality changes. In this future, they have the opportunity to live and make the most of abnormal situations instead of being the victims of them.

Thank you, Mike for writing this book and providing people in all sorts of industries and organizations with a better way. And to you, the fortunate reader of this book, I can only congratulate you for investing in your future in the best possible way and wish you Happy Reading!

/Pia-Maria

December 2020, Göteborg (Gothenburg), Sweden

Pia-Maria Thorén

Founder, Agile People

Author, Agile People: A Radical Approach for HR and Managers (That leads to Motivated People)

Author, Agile People Principles: Your call to Action for the Future of Work

Co-author, Agile People Manifesto (agilepeoplemanifesto.org)

Foreword to the 1st edition

It’s a good thing Agendashift is now here. The pace of change, driven by software technology, is transforming the world of work in a rather abrupt way. Businesses that cannot adapt quickly find themselves under pressure from those who actually can. Progressive business leaders now need innovative new tools: methods for navigating and coping with continuous change.

Agendashift is such a tool. A deep integration of many useful elements in a clear, 5-step process, Agendashift is an impressive piece of culture technology. Culture tech includes designed meeting formats, designed workflow frameworks, and designed interaction protocols. These elements facilitate clear thinking and communication while encouraging real agreement at scale across the whole enterprise. Tools like these help teams, divisions and entire enterprises to thrive, by increasing the quality of interactions, in service to great outcomes. Agendashift is an excellent example of one of these tools.

One striking aspect of Agendashift is the inherently engaging nature of the process. Employee engagement is absolutely essential for rapid and lasting change. This is so important that a new type of culture technology called Engagement Models is now emerging. Agendashift is a kind of engagement model. It represents a way to naturally engage every employee, at every level, in the process of change. Part framework and part engagement model, Agendashift is a rich composition of culture technology tools, a composition that forms a complete system. A system that facilitates real improvement - not just quick fixes, but changes of a more challenging kind, brought to life by people engaged in the process and invested in outcomes that they helped to articulate.

If you are a business leader looking for tools that facilitate real change in real organizations, this is your book. As you read it, realize that Agendashift represents a new kind of tool for a new kind of executive leader. In the new world of work, executives create the conditions for employee engagement and innovation, in service to great business outcomes. To make this happen, pioneering leaders will use new tools. Culture technology tools.

Tools like Agendashift.

Daniel Mezick

www.DanielMezick.com

Author, The Culture Game

Co-Author, Inviting Leadership: Invitation-Based Change™ in the New World of Work

Co-Author, The OpenSpace Agility Handbook

Guilford, CT, USA

March 14, 2018

Introduction

We’ll start of course with introductions. Would you like to go first?

Let’s kick off with a few questions about your situation:

1. What’s great about what you do and where you do it?

2. What’s frustrating – things that prevent you from achieving what you’d like to achieve in the way that you’d like?

3. What are your most exciting goals – those you own yourself, and others to which you hope to contribute?

Now to your organisation – your employer, your client organisation, or the part thereof with which you identify most strongly. In particular: What are its challenges?

To help you avoid missing anything important, let’s categorise them:

1. Challenges that confront it from outside – perhaps influenceable but certainly not controllable

2. Challenges that are more internal in origin – addressing organisational shortcomings or pursuing opportunities it has identified

3. Challenges it is considering (or perhaps ought to consider)

Looking at your answers across all three categories, which challenges might be described as adaptive? Your adaptive challenges are those which:

•Will require significant adaptation and learning at both individual and organisational level

•Are full of uncertainty – neither the problem, the opportunity, nor its range of solutions can be known in their entirety up front

•Contain enough paradox, creative tension, or delicate balances to warn you that addressing elements of the challenge in isolation could easily result in failure overall

Now try this little exercise: Under the heading "My organisation’s adaptive challenges", write them down. Take care to describe them in terms that all your stakeholders would completely understand – avoiding not only jargon and company shorthand but any mention whatsoever of solutions.

How did you get on?

We’ll continue this conversation in chapter 1, Discovery (yes, we’ve started that already). It’s time now for me to introduce Agendashift.

What Agendashift is

Agendashift is the wholehearted, outcome-oriented, engagement model. There’s a lot there in just a few words, so let me unpack that a little before we dig in deeper. Working backwards:

•engagement model is the kind of thing Agendashift is – its category

•outcome-oriented describes its philosophy – held so strongly that it is a differentiating feature

•wholehearted is shorthand for our mission statement; we describe ourselves as being in the business of building wholehearted organisations

Engagement model

Engagement models have just three jobs to do:

1. To structure and support the work of change agents like you – not just external facilitators, consultants, and coaches, but leaders, managers, and other employees whose remit or desire involves encouraging some strategic kind of change to come to life

2. To help the organisations concerned engage their staff meaningfully in change-related work, inviting the level of participation necessary, and sustaining the expectation of further success as outcomes are achieved and momentum is built

3. With and through their staff, to help keep the different parts of these organisations engaged with each other, all of them enjoying the best chance to thrive even as they change at different speeds

If those sound to you like the jobs of change management models you wouldn’t be far wrong, but the time has come – if it is not already overdue – to carve out a new category, the engagement model. Time and again, traditional approaches to change management keep proving themselves spectacularly ill-suited to adaptive challenges – failing in at least one of the above jobs. Patching up the tired old models just won’t do; a completely different kind of approach is called for, an approach not founded on the solution-driven rollout project. You can’t upgrade your organisation like you’re upgrading your email server!

Outcomes all the way down, outcome-oriented

Everything we do in Agendashift works directly with outcomes or on something explicitly and obviously connected to one. Outcomes are the currency in which Agendashift deals: it’s outcomes all the way down – from the most aspirational