1. Agile Leadership: Want to Change Your Results? Change How You Lead
Niel Nickolaisen – CTO OC Tanner

2. The IT Paradox: Achieve operational excellence while driving organizational innovation Trends that I think are important

3. the currency is now speed
Collaboration Model
Everything is moving fast
We need to move fast too
the currency is now speed

4. We are swimming in oceans of uncertainty and ambiguity
We must move fast but move where?

5. We are buried in data and so need to be really good at personalizing the filters

6. the individual is the device and there is no difference between organizational and personal computing
Emphasize again that Parity activities are important and necessary. 6

7. Leadership Challenges
focus innovation on the few things that create competitive advantage
Get More Done by Doing Less
Lead Change
Deliver the Right Product
Meet Customer’s Changing Needs
Meet Market Windows

8. Unleashing Innovation
think BIG
technology trends towards perfection
Collaboration Process

9. We need to be in the experience business

10. My belief, “The biggest change to the enterprise since Al Gore invented the internet.”

11. This requires a new leadership model
It is likely that, in a collaborative environment, there will be differences of opinions about the specific inputs to the decision model and the resulting decisions. One tool is to use the collaboration process to resolve the differences.

12. Create a culture of Trust and Ownership
A Leader whose primary goal and role is to . . .
Create a culture of Trust and Ownership

13. Context: Trust Ownership Model

14. Context: Trust Ownership Model
If we operate here, we are the
speed, operational excellence,
and innovation bottleneck

15. The Transformational Leader
1. Creates a culture of trust.
2. Creates ownership by being in the What and Why business and GETTING OUT of the How business

16. Culture of Trust

17. Trust First!
Collaboration Model

18. Project Management
Trustworthy
How Do We Deliver?

19. purpose over personal agenda

20. Teach and support agile principles
(the best way to handle uncertainty and ambiguity and show that you get it)

21. Using Agile / Lean Start-up Principles
Three things I know:
No one knows what they want until they see it (so get visual)
Once they see it, they will want to change it (so don’t invest much without getting market feedback)
Big projects fail (so do everything in chunks)
If we do not yet have enough value, we should ask ourselves if we should continue. In other words, if we continue with our current decision and plan, will it eventually generate enough value to go to market?

22. Culture of Ownership

23. Push decision-
making to the
edges

24. What are the risks of pushing decision-making to the edges?

25. What to do? What to do?

26. How can we set up our teams for decision-making success?
What defines decision-making success?

27. From my perspective, great decision-making:
Drives value
Moves the needle in customer and organizational lives
Is rapid and agile
Is repeatable
Because . . .

28. What if it all comes down to . . .
making better decisions?

29. Don’t Do It This Way calculation Value Calculation Business Value
Costs
calculation
Value Calculation
Benefits

30. we need some help !

31. Business Value Model Purpose Considerations Costs and Benefits
This gives an overview of the value model and the following slides describe each element of the model starting with Purpose
Costs and Benefits 31

32. where do we
start?

33. Business Value Model
Purpose 33

34. My Operating System: Purpose Alignment Model
High
Partner
(very rare)
Differentiating
(Better Than)
Market
Differentiating
Who cares
(hopefully rare)
Parity
(As Well As)
Differentiate is how to gain market share. Parity is how to hold market share.
Low
Low
High
Mission Critical

35. In Practice High Low Low High Innovate, Create Market Differentiating
Do we take this on?
Innovate,
Create
Market
Differentiating
Achieve and
Maintain
Parity
Minimize or Eliminate
While there are many examples of Parity activities, it is helpful to point out some of the Differentiating activities of the team or group you are training.
It is also important to emphasize that the Parity activities are important. They are as important as the Differentiating activities. However, their importance does not come from their uniqueness.
It is important to emphasize that Purpose not only helps us stop over-engineering or over-investing in Parity activities, features, and functions, it also helps us focus our creativity and innovation on the Differentiating activities, features and functions.
Low
Low
High
Mission Critical

36. The Differentiating Rules
How?
Always Be the Market Leader
Innovate now and forever
Focus
Have 1-3 specific things you do better than anyone else
Own Differentiating
You cannot outsource your innovation

37. The Parity Rules Rules How? Fill Any Gaps Because Gaps Kill
Adopt Best Practices – adopt the innovation of market leaders
Eliminate Risks Because Risks Kill
Simplify – complexity increases risks and reduces agility
Create Capacity To Focus Resources on Innovation
Standardize – there is only downside to exception handling of Parity activities

38. Fin Aid, Registration, Student Support, Faculty, Etc
Example - WGU
High
Self-paced,
Competency-
Based Higher Ed
Market
Differentiating
Everything Else
Fin Aid, Registration, Student Support, Faculty, Etc
Low
Low
High
Mission Critical

39. How Did We Operate? High Low Low High Market Differentiating
Fin Aid, Enrollment,
Marketing, Registration,
Student Support, CRM, Etc
Market
Differentiating
Low
Low
High
Mission Critical

40. What Did That Mean For IT?
We either built or customized everything
WGU was slow
IT was a bottleneck
“Outsource” all new projects
Tons of shadow IT
No focus on what makes WGU unique
Instead, focus everywhere
No IT operational excellence (systems down at least hours a week)

41. Aligning WGU to the Market and IT to the Market and WGU
High
Student Analytics
(for competency-based and self-paced)
Market
Differentiating
Everything Else:
Network, CRM, SIS, Portal, ERP, Enrollment
Low
Low
High
Mission Critical

42. Rationalizing The Portfolio And The Projects
Purpose
What To Do
Student Profile
Parity
Kill current custom project, configure in CRM
CRM
Replace seven different systems / approaches with one
Enrollment
Configure (not customize) and free up 4 engineers
Analytics For Student Engagement
Differentiating
Pilot “Edge” technologies to capture and analyze data

43. Results
6 months later, IT throughput doubled
9 months later, WGU asked IT to “Please slow down – we cannot embrace new
technologies at your pace”
IT developed breakthrough student analytics technologies
In two years, IT budget doubled
All excess funds were first allocated to IT
(CIO got an amazing job offer from someone else)

44. The Challenge? Strategy What goes here? Everything else goes here
High
What goes
here?
Market
Differentiating
Everything
else goes
here
Differentiate is how to gain market share. Parity is how to hold market share.
Low
Low
High
Mission Critical

45. strategy = sustainable competitive advantage
And, strategy is equivalent with what generates our strategic competitive advantage. As a result, what belong in the Differentiating category are those things that directly generate sustainable competitive advantage.

46. 4 important questions: Who do we serve?
What do they want and need most?
What do we do – better than anyone else – to meet these wants and needs?
What is the best way to provide this?
These 5 Questions are a useful tool to help us identify the sustainable competitive advantage activities – those that belong in the Differentiating category.

47. the “billboard” test…
A basic human need is to want to be needed. Often, we translate this to mean that we want what we do to be Differentiating. One way to filter what is truly differentiating is the idea that, since the Differentiating activities, features, and functions help us gain market share and win new customers, we should be willing to advertise these to the world.
If there are questions about whether or not an activity, feature, or function is differentiating, we can ask whether or not we would ever post it on a billboard to win new customers. 47

48. Don’t worry about learning, you should see our
Student Profile!
CTO was arguing for significant investments in their financial system but trying to create a billboard makes is clear that this can only be a parity – not a differentiating investment

49. strategy creates a HUGE idea! decision filters
Because we want to improve decision making and push it out to our teams, we can assess our Differentiating activities, features, and functions and define a simple, effective decision filter (just like Southwest Airlines’) that our teams can use for the thousands of decisions they make. 49

50. decision filters: schedule projects make daily decisions
what to develop

51. cascade
decision
filters
throughout
organization

52. caveats

53. treat exceptions as exceptions
Much of the complexity is our Parity process is due to exception handling. We need to assess the value created by standardizing our treatment of exceptions. If the value is low, treat the exception in a one-off manner.

54. List Three Professional Options
Managing Risks
List Three Professional Options
common sense not common practice

55. parity is mission critical
Emphasize again that Parity activities are important and necessary. 55

56. priority purpose is not
This is a reminder that when we prioritize our projects and tasks, it could be that we should complete work on a Parity activity, product, feature, or function before we complete work on something that is Differentiating. Getting up to Parity might be the most important thing to do today.

57. Differentiating changes over
time
As soon as we release Differentiating features and functions, our competitors can mimic them. So, we need to be thinking several iterations ahead and constantly innovate our Differentiating products, features, and functions. 57

58. Leadership Influence
innovate!

59. How About Those WGU Analytics?
Increased student retention 10 percentage points (this is huge)
The one time my IT innovation changed the way the entire organization operated

60. What data did we use to classify students?
demographics
prior academic performance
assessment performance
pacing performance
mentor notes
on-line course usage
difficulty of assessments in term
time left in term
These broad categories created approximately 1800 attributes per student

61. The Process
Emit
Collect
Analyze
Feedback/Intervene
(Sucker Fish)

62. Illustrative
Illustrative

63. Example: Course Navigation Predicts Success
Machine Learning algorithm can predict pass or fail with 77% accuracy after a student’s first session

64. To Recap Focus innovation where it makes a real difference
Use every interaction to build relationships of trust
Deal with uncertainty with iterative methods
Use Purpose Alignment to pick and fight the right battles
Focus innovation where it makes a real difference
Adopt best practices to quickly get to operational excellence

65. Final Thoughts On Trust - Ownership
Establish two decision filters:
Will this improve trust?
Will this improve team / individual ownership?
And always ask, how can every human interaction create a relationship of trust?

66. Next Steps
Trust first
Get agile
Use Purpose Alignment on your portfolio or next projects
Learn more about the Business Value Model and Purpose Alignment, Iterative Methods, Analytics and Strategic Planning
Become the leader your organization needs to succeed in a technology-driven world

67. questions
What is the hardest part???

68. www.synerzip.com Hemant Elhence hemant@synerzip.com 469.374.050084 68
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69. Synerzip in a Nutshell
Software product development partner for small/mid-sized technology companies
Exclusive focus on small/mid-sized technology companies, typically venture-backed companies in growth phase
By definition, all Synerzip work is the IP of its respective clients
Deep experience in full SDLC – design, dev, QA/testing, deployment
Dedicated team of high caliber software professionals for each client
Seamlessly extends client’s local team, offering full transparency
Stable teams with very low turn-over
NOT just “staff augmentation”, but provide full mgmt support
Actually reduces risk of development/delivery
Experienced team - uses appropriate level of engineering discipline
Practices Agile development – responsive, yet disciplined
Reduces cost – dual-shore team, 50% cost advantage
Offers long term flexibility – allows (facilitates) taking offshore team captive – aka “BOT” option
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70. Our Clients
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71. Next Webinar
Technical Track: Docker Containers for Continuous Delivery
Complimentary Webinar: Wednesday, February 18, noon CST
Presented by: Rohit Ghatol
Director of Engineering
Synerzip
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72. Thanks! Call for a Free Consultation! Hemant Elhence
linkedin.com/company/synerzip
@Synerzip_Agile
facebook.com/Synerzip
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