9

Agile reality

In order to improve what we do, we need to be aware of what currently happens. The R in GROW is for reality check: to look into goals further and observe the reality of the situation from different points of view in order to uncover the real problem. Analysing where we are now enables us to set a starting point for getting where we want to be. In order to reach a goal, we need to understand the current way of doing things and what the problems are with existing processes and systems, so we can establish the frustrations and friction that those cause.

Open questioning

Open questioning is a tool that can be used to find out more about a current situation or scenario. Open questions are questions that require a fuller answer than just yes/no: a yes/no answer is to a closed question, as there are only limited responses.

For example:

Closed question: Is your cup of tea cold? Yes/no.

Open question: Why is your tea cold? My tea is cold because. . .

Here is a list of open questions:

• Why is the work currently undertaken?
• How is the work currently undertaken?
• What value does this deliver?
• What currently works well?
• What could be better?
• Where are the points of friction – problems, constraints, blocks?
• What would happen if you did not achieve your goal?
• What resources are available (time, budget, materials, people, skills, knowledge . . . ).
• What and who is dependent or involved more widely?
• What does not get done?
• Are there key dates or milestones that need to be considered?
• Why?

Root cause analysis – ask why?

The root cause analysis was first used in the 1950s by NASA. A great way to discover the root cause of a problem is to use the ‘five whys’, which originates from the Toyota Production System (developed by Sakichi Toyoda). It drills down into an issue to discover the underlying problem or defect simply by asking what the problem is and then continually asking why that is until the root cause of the issue is uncovered. The question simply can be the use of the single word ‘why’ or woven into the context of the conversation.

This system helps us to dig down into the root cause of the problem and look for ways to prevent it happening again (surge protection) rather than just identifying and fixing the apparent cause (blown fuse).

Mapping reality

By analysing how we spend our time and comparing this to how we would like to spend our time, we can see immediately if we are doing what we need to, if we are getting sidetracked or if we are caught up in the day to day.

The ‘caught up in the details’ situation is a common issue where we get so caught up in the action that we forget to stop and review progress. When we do, we find we have gone off on a tangent, or things have changed and what we were doing previously does not quite fit anymore.

As a business professional, our time is split between tasks we do as part of our core role and with which we are comfortable and familiar – day-to-day activities – and new activities we are developing for the first time. We may be improving processes, growing our role, learning and developing new skills and knowledge, evolving and changing the way we work.

Depending on your specific role, this may be 70 per cent business as usual doing the day-to-day workload and 30 per cent breaking new ground where we are improving our working environment, laying seeds for ideas, or those wonderful events that come from nowhere and send you rocketing into the unknown. These often come with the promise of wonderful rewards and benefits, and sometimes they do, but sometimes they fade away as quickly as they appeared.

Using the agile dashboard in Section 17, Part 3, current processes and activities can be tracked, which will provide key insights into how the current situation operates. Agile tracking methods help to uncover and reveal blocks and barriers, limitations and restrictions, which can help to get a great view of the current reality of the situation.

Gaining balance

Google employees are encouraged to spend 20 per cent of their time working on new projects and improving their performance by researching and developing new ideas.

(Google 2004 Founders’ IPO Letter, http://investor.google.com/corporate/2004/ipo-founders-letter.html, although this idea came originally from 3M).

Slack should be created to enable you to improve your day-to-day working practices, and identify, focus and improve upon the value you deliver

Consider if the balance of your work is right. For example, are you a manager who is spending too much time practically doing instead of managing others (see Figure 9.1)? In order to improve, we should focus on where we create the most value. Do you spend enough or too much of your time planning and organising rather than getting on with the job?

Figure 9.1 Balancing managing and doing

Creating slack

A proportion of work is predictable and can be planned for but, if you are growing, then there is always an element of unpredictability to manage.

You may not have any time for breaking new ground, commonly known as firefighting, and this leaves little or no time to consolidate learning and ensure work is as efficient and effective as it needs to be. The ideal is to achieve a balance of comfort and consistency with a framework that enables us to review and improve constantly. Analysing the reality can help us to find where the value is generated, while identifying inefficient and non-value-adding activities that may be unnecessary. Agile provides a methodology for visualising the current reality so it can be reviewed and managed continuously.

It is vital to identify how you spend your time, which of your work delivers the most value. How much you can plan, versus how much you need to deal with, as it happens. This helps to maintain an awareness of your workload and maintain a good balance of planning or responding and doing or improving (see Figure 9.2).

A great agile concept is to ensure you create slack within your time so that you can explore new options and opportunities, gain new skills and make new connections. This time can be spent improving and increasing your performance.

Figure 9.2 Balancing doing and improving

Enabling change

Peter, the founder of a growing surveying company, was finding that as his business and his team grew, it was hard to keep track of everything. The systems used when the team was small were no longer working efficiently: the team was starting lots of change projects to improve systems but they were not being finished. The team seemed to be constantly firefighting the sheer volume of work as well as failing to implement a number of change projects.

The teams within the business took time to map out the current improvement projects that had been started and put these onto a board in the office. Utilising any slack time they had available, after day-to-day activities, project activities were selected that they would have time to action. Any new projects or actions were added and discussed and scheduled in to action. By doing this, the team was able to see and manage the projects they were working on; it also enabled management to capture ideas for improvements and schedule them appropriately, as time was available.

By using agile tactics the teams were able to deliver value early within the projects by developing the elements that delivered the most benefit and value to the team. As these benefits were realised and efficiencies in day-to-day activities gained, the team was able to create more time and slack to work on improving their working practices, as well as increasing the volume of day-to-day work that they were able to achieve while also maintaining quality.

Value proposition

Every job is different but, ultimately, we all deliver value and someone or something benefits from our work. In order to be viable to employ, we need to create more value than we cost the business. This could be through making, selling, providing or supporting products and services, or in an internal role, such as finance, marketing or administration where you support the delivery of products or services. Whatever your job, you create value and benefits to those with whom you work and your customers.

There is a great principle known as the Pareto Principle. This shows that often there is an 80:20 ratio when it comes to delivering value. In the early twentieth century, economist Vilfredo Pareto discovered the 80:20 rule where, in many scenarios, 80 per cent of the value was delivered by 20 per cent of the resource.

The Pareto Principle suggests that 80 per cent of the value you create comes from 20 per cent of your actions.

Value drivers

It is important to identify what factors drive the need for a solution and identify the value expected. Value can be defined in a number of different ways, depending on the desired outcome. At a top level, solutions can be driven by three alternative objectives (see Figure 9.3):

1. Faster – time is the key driver; the solution needs to be delivered quickly.
2. Better – quality is the primary driver; the solution has to meet quality standards.
3. Cheaper – the solution needs to be more cost-effective; budgets are the key driver.

The construction and IT industry use the triangle below (Figure 9.3) to show these three dynamics and claim that only two of the three can be delivered at one time.

Figure 9.3 Value drivers

For example, if you want the solution to be fast and cheap, it cannot also be high quality and a choice has to be made. Goals cannot include all three of these objectives, as one will cancel out another.

Establishing what determines value at a high level informs decision making by setting objectives against goals. These objectives can be used to inform ranking and prioritisation and provide clear performance measures for actionable tasks.

Controls and boundaries

The work we can achieve is governed by the boundaries of our own capacity and the resources that we have available to contribute to and support our work.

Establishing a clear picture of how our work and time is currently structured allows us to measure our capacity and the slack we can create to increase and improve performance.

In order to implement improvements, resources are needed to implement the changes. Resources can include people and their time, cash for investment into materials and systems, and wider supporting service and support providers. Identifying the resources available, and therefore the constraints of work, is vital to ensure that options are viable when being considered.

Activities have to provide a return on investment that is profitable to be sustainable: that is, that it creates more value than it consumes. If activities are successful, the result of this is that they should generate additional resources that can be reinvested into additional growth and improvement activities.