Modern companies need to become more agile at scale if they wish to develop with the times.

It is no longer enough to boast about having an agile team strategy, these days the entire fibre of a firm needs to be flexible.

Going from a handful of agile teams to a full renovation of a firm’s ways of working is daunting.

Agile ways of operating are heralded as having the ability to make the talent present in an organization take a more active role. On a smaller scale agile teams can act almost independently of the core business and act like fast, flexible, and goal driven task forces that gives new insights to the organization.

However, this completely changes when considering the impact agile ways of working can have when adopted by the whole organization and not just a couple teams. Simply, agile at scale is to collectively organize smaller agile teams that have autonomy, gearing them towards accomplishing an organizations larger mission and vison. Vitally it is coordination that allows firms to scale up their agile models, aligning the culture, set of behaviours, and working systems across the organization.

But the challenge of scaling up can be reduced by understanding what the approach is and how to succeed.

The Approach to adopting agile at scale

The mentality of agile approach can best the summarized as leadership invasions the future for the talented teams to forge.

Taking this to the end level requires deep changes to an organization to get results. Requiring, meaningful changes to the ways of working, working systems, culture, behaviours, and mindsets of the workplace.

Finsys makes sure to help guide our clients through every element of the transformation. Given its complexity timing and organizational alignment are vital. People need to understand not just the change itself or how it impacts them but also why its needed. We help by guiding are clients through their agile analysis, agile tool development, scale up, operating model fine tuning and contextualization process.

Agile Analysis

Understand the client. Find out your agile maturity Investigate capabilities, competencies, and willingness to change (benchmark against best-in-class peers). Recommendations are shaped for you, strategies are tailored to fit the environment you are in.

Agile Tool development

Generating a catalyst for change to take root at every level of your firm. We introduce workshops, coaching, simulations, training of agile teams and executive mentoring à All with the aim to better communication, provide agile skills and align expectations across the board.

Scale Up

Implement the systems and new ways of working, Finsys provides ways to identify successes and failures so that future changes can be implanted for greater long-term growth à Help you consider results in all forms by utilizing pilots, quarterly and annual reviews, team performance, work progress, average delivery time and cultural alignment.

Operating Model Fine Tuning

Based on the results of the scaling up process we help the client draw upon new learnings and lessons to inform how methodologies will change the current stage of the agile transformation. Address all elements of the operating model in their new agile contexts; culture, governance, leadership, talent, and technology. Most importantly the client receives help to reduce tensions and to create clear communication across all levels.

Contextualization

With new agile outlooks the way the client interacts with itself, and its environment will change. Finsys helps redefine these interactions by leveraging a road map with check-ups, future coaching, and real time workshops. The end aim is to help the new context and culture adapt to one another to create a healthy symbiotic relationship.

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How to succeed

Embarking on an agile transformation is not enough to succeed against the competition of the modern business landscape. Rather there are additional steps that need to be taken after having adopted an agile operating model at scale to truly see results. Finsys helps go above and beyond by aiding clients understand how to become objective based, stay to their principles, become transparent, use team strategies, remember to be open minded and to use data.

Principles

Old principles need to be cast aside to make room for new ones. When shifting to an agile way of working it is imperative that agile teams get their general direction form leadership but have the autonomy to truly embrace their new roles and freedoms. Principles for cultivating a successful change include trust, communication, open mindedness, loyalty, and freedom. These all amplify the ability to align an organization on the ground actions with its longer-term mission and vison.

Data

Data can serve as a great metric and indicator of how things truly are, data does not care about feelings. Utilising a robust set of tools to gage how teams are doing can be a great way to see how things are really going. This will require a combination of tailormade metrics and generalized trackers. As every organization is different so should the ways in which success is broken down, defined, and measured. Data can help with this by providing the understanding free from feelings how things are truly going and what teams are really preforming.

Transparency

Allowing anyone active in the system to access and understand all the things going on around them can only strengthen the well spring of ideas. Creating the ability for people to build on each other’s ideas, re purpose discarded ideas for new projects, and feel included in the greater system. Additional strengths of transparent operations are that it strengthens trust, creates a consensus, sense of comradery and leads to new innovated outcomes.

Objectives

Objectives help define for people in differing areas of an organization why what they are doing matters. It aids in creating a clear future heading, providing the same end goal unilaterally within an organization. Becoming a driver of success by motivating and providing a perspective for people as to how their work will contribute to the future.

Open Mindedness

Ever changing testing and re directing of agile projects can make it harder to access project time frames, budget and progress using traditional metrics. This suggests that leaders need to be open in the review process to consider all the ideas and productivity relative to the business performance. Be open minded to listen to agile teams that are involved with the day to day and be patient.

Team Strategies

When considering team strategies, it is important to gear agile teams towards long term goals and thinking. Agile teams work together longer and don’t jump around and leave projects until its completion. This leaves them with an in-touch perspective to reassess short term aim and goals as things happen.