Author: Mike Burrows

Champion and enabler of outcome-oriented transformation & strategy; Agendashift founder, Agendashift Academy co-founder, 3-time author

A big update to 15-minute FOTO

Posted on by Mike Burrows

In this new version of our Clean Language-inspired coaching game:

  1. Integrating the Classic and Lite editions formats
  2. Cheat mode
  3. General tidyup
  4. Standard and premium versions

1. Integrating the Classic and Lite formats

The Lite format (or ‘edition’, as it has been called up to now) was introduced in 2019 in version 7 thus:

To understand why we’ve wanted to make changes, consider what each participant is doing when they play the game for the first time:

  • Familiarising themselves with the Clean Language questions (from the cue card if it’s an in-room workshop, from the screen if it’s online)
  • Taking turns in the role of client, coach, scribe, or observer, participating in or supporting what can be an intense 1-on-1 coaching conversation
  • Worrying about the game’s objective, which to generate and capture outcomes

That’s a lot! Instead of doing this all at once, the Lite edition starts with a familiarisation exercise, turns the conversation into one for the table group as a whole, and the objective matters only after everyone has had a chance to get comfortable with it all.

If, as happens in many of our workshops, you plan to do 15-minute FOTO twice, you can start with the Lite edition and do the classic edition the second time round.

Since 2021 and version 11, the Scribe and Observer roles have been combined into a Host role. With the latest wording for the Lite format, the formats and roles are now described as follows:

  • Classic format – rotating every few minutes through the roles of Client, Coach, and Host so that everyone gets a turn in every role
  • Lite format – anyone can ask, anyone can answer – but don’t get stuck too long in one role or on one obstacle

Role responsibilities:

  • Client: Chooses obstacles, responds to the coach’s questions with short, bullet point answers
  • Coach: Guides the conversation using only the clean questions from the card and the client’s own words
  • Host: Helps others enjoy a productive conversation, ensuring that “anything that sounds like an outcome” gets captured

Previously, the slides for the Lite format didn’t mention roles until the debrief. We have found however that participants find them helpful, to the extent that some facilitators choose to skip the introductory Lite format and go straight to the altogether more intense Classic format. They are now integrated such that with just one Classic slide, Lite participants gain a clearer picture of how the game can proceed, and are free to play the game anywhere on a wide spectrum between only loosely coordinated and the highly structured Classic format itself.

Facilitators may skip/hide slides or explain both formats as they prefer, perhaps leaving decisions on that until the last moment. Training and workshop decks need only one set of 15-minute FOTO slides, not two. These benefits are substantial – not least to me, who maintains it all!

2. Cheat mode

Introduced recently in the blog post 15-minute FOTO’s cheat mode, the game now allows an additional question (or variants thereof):

  • Why is that important?

For reasons explained in that article, this question is not included on the cue card.

3. General tidyup

I won’t describe them all in detail, but there has been a raft of minor-to-moderate changes, including:

  • The sequencing of slides in the facilitation deck
  • A thorough overhaul of the 15-minute FOTO page on agendashift.com – well worth a read
  • Wording aligned with Leading with Outcomes

An example of that last one is this tip:

  • Treat What would you like to have happen? as inviting a small outcome – a first, tiniest sign that something interesting might be beginning to emerge

That wording comes from the commentary I use behind a progression familiar to Adademy students. Long before we introduce 15-minute FOTO in a later module, we see this from Foundation onwards:

  • Signs of emergence
  • Indicators of progress
  • Measures of success
  • Goals and aspirations

It’s outcomes all the way down!

4. Standard and premium versions

As ever, the standard Creative Commons (CC-BY-SA) version of the materials that has the same look and feel as other open source resources is available via the 15-minute FOTO page on agendashift.com. This format also includes translations in to French, German, Swedish, Danish, and Italian, some of these more up to date than others. If you’ve accessed it via Dropbox previously, you’ll find the latest materials – deck, cue card, etc – already there for you.

The premium version of 15-minute FOTO has the Agendashift Academy look and feel, some bonus slides, and a short video. Together with other premium resources, it is available to Academy subscribers and supporters here. For access to that and much more, visit the store. The bonus slides:

  • A nice introductory slide that facilitators can practice speaking over as it builds up
  • An extra slide in the debrief exploring the relationship between coaching conversations and strategy conversations
  • A parting shot: Client, Coach, Host: Who’s the leader here?

All of that is explained in the Leading with Outcomes module Inside-out Strategy (I): On the same page, with purpose. We will take a second look in Inside-out Strategy (II): Fit for maximum impact (recording beginning shortly), and it is used in the Adaptive Organisation and Outside-in Strategy modules also. 15-minute FOTO features also in nearly all of our workshops – often the highlight!

While we’re here, Obstacles Fast and Slow

One prerequisite for 15-minute FOTO is a list of obstacles, suitably framed. To that end, don’t miss our upcoming webinar:

Obstacles Fast and Slow is an update to the exercise formerly known as Good Obstacle, Bad Obstacle, and the webinar recording will go on the revised page.

Related

Upcoming events

February

March

*TTT/F and (where shown) LIKE events include free one-year membership of the Leading with Outcomes Authorised Facilitator programme, upgradeable to Authorised Trainer at any time. Both of those include access to the video-based Leading with Outcomes training and the full range of Agendashift assessment tools.

Leading with Outcomes from the Agendashift Academy
“Leadership and strategy in the transforming organisation”

Leading with Outcomes is our modular curriculum in leadership and organisation development. Each module is available as self-paced online training or as private, instructor-led training (online or in-person). Certificates of completion or participation according to format. Its modules in the recommended order:

  1. Foundation module:
  2. Inside-out Strategy:
  3. Adaptive Organisation:
  4. Outside-in Strategy:

Individual subscriptions from £24.50 £18.40 per month after a 7-day free trial, with discounts available for employees and employers in the government, healthcare, education, and non-profit sectors. For bulk subscriptions, ask for our Agendashift for Business brochure.

To deliver Leading with Outcomes training or workshops yourself, see our Authorised Trainer and Authorised Facilitator programmes. See our events calendar for Train-the-Trainer / Facilitator (TTT/F) and Leading in a Transforming Organisation trainings.

Agendashift™: Serving the transforming organisation
Links: Home | Subscribe | Events | Media | Contact | Mike
Agendashift  Academy: Leading with Outcomes | Trainer and Facilitator Programmes | Store

At every scope and scale, developing strategy together, pursuing strategy together, outcomes before solutions, working backwards (“right to left”) from key moments of impact and learning.

Make the most of your breakouts

Posted on by Mike Burrows

Part-way through the February Train-the-Trainer / Facilitator, I was prompted to create a new slide on the topic of breakouts. We agreed that it would be helpful to add it to every training or workshop deck – hidden by default and kept in reserve, it would be there as a reminder to the host, and available as a resource if needed. Its four key points (which I’ll expand on) are easy enough to remember, and they apply both to remote and in-person events:

  1. Don’t let tools get in the way of a good conversation
  2. Don’t wait to get started
  3. Don’t let yourself get stuck too long in one role
  4. Help each other enjoy a productive conversation

It will seem in what follows that I am writing to breakout participants, but of course the message is to hosts too. There were some wry smiles and chuckles as we discussed it!

1. Don’t let tools get in the way of a good conversation

Disguised perhaps as a warm-up exercise, a fact of life now is the necessary chore of familiarising ourselves with the event’s Miro or Mural board and learning where its most important tools are hidden. But this tip is even more basic than that. Quoting from my new slide:

Put the sticky notes aside until you are ready

At a training event held abroad shortly before the pandemic, the first exercise was getting underway. On each table was a supply of pens and paper (and little else). I watched first with satisfaction as the conversations on each table began, then in dismay as one participant dug out their personal supply of sticky notes and handed them around the table. That group fell silent, the conversation killed.

Sticky notes are great and so are Miro and Mural, but in their place. None of them is capable of capturing a conversation that never happened. Don’t let them get in the way.

2. Don’t wait to get started

You might remember this from 15-minute FOTO:

If a minute passes without progress, something is wrong
– a meta conversation or some other distraction

Often the hardest thing is to get started. Time spent clarifying instructions or objectives might seem time well spent, but often the best way to get started is simply to get started. Don’t confuse the conversation that needs to happen with a conversation about the conversation, and certainly don’t let the latter displace the former.

If you are genuinely stuck or confused don’t hesitate to ask the host for help, but better still, deal with it before the breakout starts. If you’re unsure about something, likely others are too. Don’t carry that uncertainty into the breakout!

3. Don’t let yourself get stuck too long in one role

From the Lite edition of 15-minute FOTO, but it applies to most breakouts:

Anyone can ask, anyone can answer (including answering your own question), and listening is good too

In the worst car crash of a breakout I have ever been embarrassed (as the host) to witness, one participant lined up the other participants on the other side of the table and proceeded to interrogate them. That’s an extreme example, but when we get stuck in one mode for too long, we make ourselves unable to contribute in other ways. Leave yourself open to describing what you are thinking or feeling, to being respectfully curious, to serving the group as observer, scribe, or encourager – but none of those to the exclusion of the others. The more freely you and others can move between those roles, the richer the conversation.

4. Help each other enjoy a productive conversation

• Curious, descriptive, inclusive, safe, generative
• Ready to share key points, captured as appropriate

This final point brings together the three “Don’ts” into something more positive. A productive conversation is one that is actually happening, actually underway, everyone able to contribute in multiple ways. Part of “productive” is also to be able to relate key points back afterwards, but let’s keep that in perspective. Speaking to myself here (I still get this wrong), clarity from the host is especially helpful where the guidance is not what participants might be expecting. Especially in those more tentative early exercises, enjoy it. One way or another, the threads that matter will be picked up again.

Related updates:

  • Watch this space for a new version of 15-minute FOTO, its Classic and Lite editions (rotating roles and “anyone can ask, anyone can answer”, respectively) integrated into one deck, plus other enhancements
  • The next Leading with Outcomes Train-the-Trainer / Facilitator will be in May. See the upcoming events below, also the Store page for subscription options and discounts

Upcoming events

February

March

*TTT/F and (where shown) LIKE events include free one-year membership of the Leading with Outcomes Authorised Facilitator programme, upgradeable to Authorised Trainer at any time. Both of those include access to the video-based Leading with Outcomes training and the full range of Agendashift assessment tools.

Leading with Outcomes from the Agendashift Academy
“Leadership and strategy in the transforming organisation”

Leading with Outcomes is our modular curriculum in leadership and organisation development. Each module is available as self-paced online training or as private, instructor-led training (online or in-person). Certificates of completion or participation according to format. Its modules in the recommended order:

  1. Foundation module:
  2. Inside-out Strategy:
  3. Adaptive Organisation:
  4. Outside-in Strategy:

Individual subscriptions from £24.50 £18.40 per month after a 7-day free trial, with discounts available for employees and employers in the government, healthcare, education, and non-profit sectors. For bulk subscriptions, ask for our Agendashift for Business brochure.

To deliver Leading with Outcomes training or workshops yourself, see our Authorised Trainer and Authorised Facilitator programmes. See our events calendar for Train-the-Trainer / Facilitator (TTT/F) and Leading in a Transforming Organisation trainings.

Agendashift™: Serving the transforming organisation
Links: Home | Subscribe | Events | Media | Contact | Mike
Agendashift  Academy: Leading with Outcomes | Trainer and Facilitator Programmes | Store

At every scope and scale, developing strategy together, pursuing strategy together, outcomes before solutions, working backwards (“right to left”) from key moments of impact and learning.

Agendashift roundup, January 2024

Posted on by Mike Burrows

STOP PRESS – just too late for the main roundup below, here’s the episode I recorded on Monday for the Clean at Work podcast with hosts John Barratt and Sarah Baca. Enjoy!

More: media

In this edition: February TTT/F; 15-minute FOTO, Obstacles Fast and Slow, and 25% off; From Flow to Business Agility; Upcoming events; Top posts

February TTT/F

Approaching fast, the next Leading with Outcomes: Train-the-Trainer / Facilitator (TTT/F) begins on the 6th. With the Inside-out Strategy module now split into two parts (I will record part II of the self-paced version after TTT/F finishes) and a much stronger relationship with the two most-used Agendashift / Leading with Outcomes workshop designs, the TTT/F agenda now looks like this:

  1. Tuesday 6th February – Leading with Outcomes: Foundation – a trainer’s eye view on the first two chapters of this core module of the Leading with Outcomes curriculum, introducing the IdOO (“I do”) pattern – Ideal, Obstacles, Outcomes
  2. Wednesday 7th February – Inside-out Strategy (I): On the same page, with purpose – featuring classic exercises including Celebration-5W, Obstacles Fast and Slow, and the first of two experiences of our Clean Language coaching game 15-minute FOTO. This session builds on the Leading with Outcomes Discovery Workshop and related workshop designs, including the Outside-in Strategy Review
  3. Tuesday 13th February – Inside-out Strategy (II): Fit for maximum impact – featuring the Leading with Outcomes Assessment Debrief Workshop and related workshop designs including the Adaptive Organisation Workshop, this session’s exercises include Option Relationship Mapping and a second experience of 15-minute FOTO and of course the assessment tools
  4. Wednesday 14th February – Moving into Action – Completing Leading with Outcomes: Foundation (specifically, the ideation part and its core pattern, Meaning, Measure, Method) before delving deeper into Adaptive Organisation

All sessions begin 13:00 GMT, 14:00 CET, 8am ET and finish by 17:00 GMT, 18:00 CET, 12 noon ET.

Ping me for coupon codes if any of the following apply:

  • Past TTT/F participants can join again for free (a popular perk)
  • Past participants of Leading in a Transforming Organisation get 60% off
  • Employees in public sector, education, and non-profit organisations get 40% off
  • Members of the old partner programme get 30% off
  • Last but not least, Agendashift Academy subscribers get subscription-specific discounts also

More information on Leading with Outcomes and its trainer and facilitator programmes here.

15-minute FOTO, Obstacles Fast and Slow, and 25% off!

Partly a bonus of the recently-announced release of the self-paced version of Inside-out Strategy (I): On the same page, with purpose, I will soon be releasing updated materials for our Clean Language-inspired coaching game 15-minute FOTO and the exercise that typically precedes it, Obstacles Fast and Slow (formerly Good Obstacle, Bad Obstacle).

Expect a new 1-deck 15-minute FOTO sometime in February. The one deck will cover both the Classic and Lite editions, plus the new cheat mode!

The March webinar/AMA is given over to recording a new video for Obstacles Fast and Slow. Join us! Materials and website updates to follow shortly after.

The release of Inside-out Strategy (I) also heralded some site reorganisation and a win/win! Details here:

From Flow to Business Agility

What can I say? January’s first blog post has been read more times than anything that made it onto last year’s top 10! If you missed it:

Upcoming events

With me (Mike Burrows) unless otherwise specified:

February

March

April

May

Top posts

  1. From Flow to Business Agility (January)
  2. My favourite Clean Language question (January 2019)
  3. What Lies Beneath (Spoiler: Constraints) (October 2023)
  4. From Reverse STATIK to a ‘Pathway’ for continuous transformation (October 2019)
  5. What’s in store for 2024 (January)

Leading with Outcomes from the Agendashift Academy
“Leadership and strategy in the transforming organisation”

Leading with Outcomes is our modular curriculum in leadership and organisation development. Each module is available as self-paced online training or as private, instructor-led training (online or in-person). Certificates of completion or participation according to format. Its modules in the recommended order:

  1. Foundation module:
  2. Inside-out Strategy:
  3. Adaptive Organisation:
  4. Outside-in Strategy:

Individual subscriptions from £24.50 £18.40 per month after a 7-day free trial, with discounts available for employees and employers in the government, healthcare, education, and non-profit sectors. For bulk subscriptions, ask for our Agendashift for Business brochure.

To deliver Leading with Outcomes training or workshops yourself, see our Authorised Trainer and Authorised Facilitator programmes. See our events calendar for Train-the-Trainer / Facilitator (TTT/F) and Leading in a Transforming Organisation trainings.

Agendashift™: Serving the transforming organisation
Links: Home | Subscribe | Events | Media | Contact | Mike
Agendashift  Academy: Leading with Outcomes | Trainer and Facilitator Programmes | Store

At every scope and scale, developing strategy together, pursuing strategy together, outcomes before solutions, working backwards (“right to left”) from key moments of impact and learning.

About today’s release – and save 25%

Posted on by Mike Burrows

The great consolidation continues apace! Landing this morning on the newer of the two Agendashift Academy platforms was part I of the latest version of the Inside-out Strategy module. Part I introduces many of our most popular exercises, most notably:

  • Our trusty, context-capturing kickoff exercise Celebration-5W
  • The inspiring (and sometimes cathartic) True North: Ideal
  • Our Clean Language-inspired coaching game 15-minute FOTO
  • Obstacles Fast and Slow, the exercise formerly known as Good Obstacle, Bad Obstacle

The last two of those have received some updates. Standalone materials in premium and Creative Commons incarnations will be published in the coming weeks.

For a taste, here’s the module introduction (08:03):

Introduction to Inside-out Strategy (I): On the same page, with purpose

Once part II Inside-out Strategy (II): Fit for maximum impact is recorded, that leaves only the final module Outside-in Strategy: Positioned for success to be done before the old learning platform can be retired. Quite apart from that steady stream of content updates, that consolidation smooths the onboarding process greatly and reduces the administration burden too.

To get an early advance on that win/win, you can now join just the new platform on its own. It means for a few weeks forgoing the two modules still left behind on the old platform, but saving 25% in perpetuity. If you have an old-style subscription you are more than welcome to take up this offer too, especially if your annual subscriptions is up for renewal soon. Ping me to get your old one cancelled, and over the coming months I will actively reach out to subscribers as their annual or monthly subscriptions approach their anniversary. Watch this space for simplifications to billing arrangements for trainers and facilitators also.

Subscribe here:

Grab that saving while it lasts!

With that business stuff out of the way, what’s changing content-wise?

The old version of Inside-out Strategy did not keep up with significant progress elsewhere. The new version has a much clearer and more productive relationship with the Foundation module and it overlaps less with the other two modules. Nevertheless, part I does nicely introduce Outside-in Strategy, and part II will do the same for Adaptive Organisation. That’s because as well as exploring leadership, organisation, and strategy as all the Leading with Outcomes modules do, an additional function the two parts fulfil is to explain how two families of workshops are constructed, ie those that can usefully be understood as derived from the Discovery and Assessment Debrief workshops respectively.

That is good news in turn for Train-the-Trainer / Facilitator (TTT/F), whose middle two sessions are now Inside-out Strategy parts I and II, both sessions packed with our most popular exercises. The next one of those begins in two weeks:

Ping me for coupon codes if any of the following apply:

  • Past TTT/F participants can join again for free (a popular perk)
  • Past participants of Leading in a Transforming Organisation get 60% off
  • Employees in public sector, education, and non-profit organisations get 40% off
  • Members of the old partner programme get 30% off
  • Last but not least, Agendashift Academy subscribers get subscription-specific discounts also

Then what? In this order:

  1. For trainers only, the Inside-out Strategy (I) training materials
  2. For both trainers and facilitators, a new version of the Leading with Outcomes Discovery Workshop
  3. New versions of the 15-minute FOTO and Obstacles Fast and Slow exercises – premium then Creative Commons versions
  4. Inside-out Strategy (II): Fit for maximum impact – the new recording and materials for trainers
  5. For both trainers and facilitators, a new version of the Leading with Outcomes Assessment Debrief Workshop
  6. Outside-in Strategy: Positioned for success – re-recording, training and workshop materials
  7. Retire the old platform

Enough to keep me busy for a while!

Upcoming events

February

March

*TTT/F and (where shown) LIKE events include free one-year membership of the Leading with Outcomes Authorised Facilitator programme, upgradeable to Authorised Trainer at any time. Both of those include access to the video-based Leading with Outcomes training and the full range of Agendashift assessment tools.

Leading with Outcomes from the Agendashift Academy
“Leadership and strategy in the transforming organisation”

Leading with Outcomes is our modular curriculum in leadership and organisation development. Each module is available as self-paced online training or as private, instructor-led training (online or in-person). Certificates of completion or participation according to format. Its modules in the recommended order:

  1. Foundation module:
  2. Inside-out Strategy:
  3. Adaptive Organisation:
  4. Outside-in Strategy:

Individual subscriptions from £24.50 £18.40 per month after a 7-day free trial, with discounts available for employees and employers in the government, healthcare, education, and non-profit sectors. For bulk subscriptions, ask for our Agendashift for Business brochure.

To deliver Leading with Outcomes training or workshops yourself, see our Authorised Trainer and Authorised Facilitator programmes. See our events calendar for Train-the-Trainer / Facilitator (TTT/F) and Leading in a Transforming Organisation trainings.

Agendashift™: Serving the transforming organisation
Links: Home | Subscribe | Events | Media | Contact | Mike
Agendashift  Academy: Leading with Outcomes | Trainer and Facilitator Programmes | Store

At every scope and scale, developing strategy together, pursuing strategy together, outcomes before solutions, working backwards (“right to left”) from key moments of impact and learning.

What’s in store for 2024

Posted on by Mike Burrows

Welcome to 2024! Happy New Year!

2024 has already started of course, and with the valued help of over 20 contributors I iterated several times over the holiday period on this article posted on the blog here yesterday:

Also new is a section on the Agendashift Academy site for facilitated Leading with Outcomes workshops:

In the calendar (see Upcoming events below):

Regarding that last one, see Upcoming events below re discounts.

In the pipeline:

Most pressing is the re-recording of the Inside-out and Outside-in strategy modules. Like the Adaptive Organisation module, Inside-out will be split into two, likely titles:

  • Inside-out Strategy (I): On the same page, with purpose
  • Inside-out Strategy (II): Fit for maximum impact (keeping the title of the original one-part module)

Once Inside-out and Outside-in are on the new learning management system there will be significant opportunity for rationalisation. If you’re not already on board there, check these out:

  1. Leading with Outcomes: Foundation
  2. Adaptive Organisation, two parts:

Or get in touch about holding a Leading in a Transforming Organisation training workshop near you; this covers Foundation and Adaptive Organisation, with all the benefits of an in-person experience, and some unique features too. I’m not asking anyone to take responsibility for the event (though that can be arranged); just your interest would be good to know.

Upcoming events

February

March

*TTT/F and (where shown) LIKE events include free one-year membership of the Leading with Outcomes Authorised Facilitator programme, upgradeable to Authorised Trainer at any time. Both of those include access to the video-based Leading with Outcomes training and the full range of Agendashift assessment tools.

Leading with Outcomes from the Agendashift Academy
“Leadership and strategy in the transforming organisation”

Leading with Outcomes is our modular curriculum in leadership and organisation development. Each module is available as self-paced online training or as private, instructor-led training (online or in-person). Certificates of completion or participation according to format. Its modules in the recommended order:

  1. Foundation module:
  2. Inside-out Strategy:
  3. Adaptive Organisation:
  4. Outside-in Strategy:

Individual subscriptions from £24.50 £18.40 per month after a 7-day free trial, with discounts available for employees and employers in the government, healthcare, education, and non-profit sectors. For bulk subscriptions, ask for our Agendashift for Business brochure.

To deliver Leading with Outcomes training or workshops yourself, see our Authorised Trainer and Authorised Facilitator programmes. See our events calendar for Train-the-Trainer / Facilitator (TTT/F) and Leading in a Transforming Organisation trainings.

Agendashift™: Serving the transforming organisation
Links: Home | Subscribe | Events | Media | Contact | Mike
Agendashift  Academy: Leading with Outcomes | Trainer and Facilitator Programmes | Store

At every scope and scale, developing strategy together, pursuing strategy together, outcomes before solutions, working backwards (“right to left”) from key moments of impact and learning.

From Flow to Business Agility

Posted on by Mike Burrows

Preamble: You may have noticed that I don’t use words like ‘waste’, ‘improvement’, or ‘flow’ nearly as much as my history in Lean-Agile [1, 2] might suggest. Recently [3] I expressed what could be interpreted as a lack of enthusiasm for a more recent term, ‘cognitive load’. Not to put fuel on the fire but to put those and similar terms into what I think is their proper context, here’s where I’m coming from.

Pick a scope, any scope. Bigger is better perhaps – your whole organisation even – but what I’m about to share works for small scopes too, your team, say.

Now picture its sweet spot, a metaphor for the set of its most desirable states or configurations: the right people working on the right things, the right conversations happening at the best possible moment, needs anticipated, met at just the right time [4].

Enjoy that for a moment.

What stops that? What gets in the way? Well, here’s how it often plays out.

Decisions on what work to start aren’t always optimal, and to correct past decisions, new work may need to be started. Already, and despite good intentions, we’re out of that sweet spot.

As a consequence perhaps of those earlier decisions, some of what is in progress can’t be finished, so yet more things get started. Inevitably, before this increasing pile of work finishes, new work arrives, and some of that gets started too.

Those “right conversations”? Can’t you see that we’re busy? Now there’s work being done by people who don’t have all the customer or business context they need. This results in yet more work – rework. With all of that going on, little thought can be spared for the question of how the organisation itself impedes those conversations. 

“Needs anticipated, met at just the right time?” You’re kidding me! People overburdened, work lying around not getting finished, staff and customers alike frustrated by delays, the business having to finance not only the productive, value-adding work, but the delays and the rework too. That sweet spot turned out to be a tiny island in an ocean of other, far less desirable states.

The improvement story runs in the opposite direction. Focusing on finishing. Learning to be more careful about what gets started when. Reducing overburden. Testing assumptions sooner [5]. Improving quality. Reducing rework. These are measures that promote flow – better for the people doing the work, better for the customer, better for the business – a triple win!

So far, so conventional. Is that all there is to it? Of course not. If it were enough simply to manage the process more efficiently, why not just outsource it or sell off the offending product line? Let others find the efficiencies! That can’t be the right answer for most teams, most product lines, or most organisations – those with any kind of future ahead of them at least – but if the logical conclusion of that kind of thinking is a race to the bottom, there must be something that we are missing. Clearly, there’s a trap here.

With some justification, the missing piece is often assumed to be purpose. But the issue is even more basic than that. It is viability. Excluding perhaps project organisations whose mission and timescale are bounded, most organisations would not wish to pursue purpose in ways incompatible with survival, and efficiency is only part of that challenge.

John Boyd (of OODA loop fame) [6], described the challenge as one of “developing our capacity for independent action in a changing environment”. If there is a better definition of the pursuit of viability than that, I haven’t found it. Understand (as Boyd did) the competitive nature of that challenge, and it describes business agility very well too. Without going too deeply here into the study of viable systems [7] (fascinating, but outside the scope of this article), let’s try to make that actionable.

First of all, let’s see all that waste (including other forms of waste not identified above) not only as impediments to flow (as measured by things like lead time, flow efficiency, etc), but as drains on the organisation’s decision-making capacity. All that extra workload, the constant context switching, the quality issues, the dependencies, the frustration, the untested assumptions, the rework, and so on and so on – all of that needs to be dealt with, consuming the decision-making capacity of every participant in the system.

Conversely, improving the system releases decision-making capacity. A good thing no doubt, but improve the system enough it might seem to someone obsessed with efficiency that we now have excess capacity. That’s people we no longer need, right? It’s that trap again!

To understand why that decision-making capacity is so vital, we must understand that sweet spot not as the ultimate goal, but as a local optimum. Adjacent to it are other possibilities – possibilities that people now have the capacity to explore. And what lies beyond those? Not just optimisations to the end-to-end process, but new communication channels that might one day lead to new organisational structures. Not just changes in practice, but innovations and understandings that might lead to radically new solution ideas. Not just improved performance, but the organisation reaching a different understanding of itself and its position in the world.

That is what “developing our capacity for independent action in a changing environment” looks like. Turning that around, if you’re not developing your capacity for independent action, sooner or later you run out of options, and it’s game over. That applies at every level: to the organisation, to its larger structures (teams-of-teams, value streams, cross-cutting structures, and so on) down even to its teams and their team members. It applies to you. At none of these levels do you want your capacity for independent action to be so constrained that effectively you’re out of options. You don’t want to be out of options, and you don’t want that happening around you either.

You thought business agility was only about speed? Think again. Business agility comes from the capacity to keep creating options (ie to strategise), to select and test the best of them at the right time and with sufficient pace (I hesitate to call that execution), and to keep learning from the experience. To sustain it, the organisation must keep striking the right balances between delivering to existing commitments, discovering new opportunities, and developing the capacities they will need. At any level of organisation, some of those activities may (rightly) bring into challenge its structure, its purpose, even its identity. All of that demands decision-making capacity at every level [7, 8].

Decision-making capacity is a fundamental constraint on organisations. Without it, needs and challenges go unrecognised. Opportunities go unexplored. Options don’t get generated. Good options don’t get exercised at the right time or with the right priority. It is provisioned not only by reducing wasteful drains on it (reducing what is popularly known as cognitive load), but by enabling it to be exercised effectively. Therein lies the organisational challenge, because it depends on the availability of opportunities to participate and on situational awareness, both of which are constrained by far more than workload [9].

Ask yourself this: what is stopping people from deciding for themselves to do the right thing, to deviate where necessary from accepted practice, to seek to understand their work more contextually, to empathise more deeply with the customer, to interact with different people, to enter into new collaborations, to self-organise around new challenges – ie to innovate process-wise, product-wise, or organisationally? This is the organisation exercising and developing its capacity for independent action, but if the cost is too high or the capacity simply isn’t there, it won’t happen. Or perhaps at some level it is happening, but the surrounding organisation is too focused on other things for it to make a difference.

The truth is that no formal process or organisational structure can guarantee you the decision-making capacity to deal with every situation that your organisation will face. In a changing environment, they may hinder as much as they help. Whether for reasons material or psychological, the people closest to the challenge may feel constrained from acting. Lacking context, others around them may fail to lend their support. The wider organisation may be impeded structurally from recognising that the problem or opportunity even exists.

Yes, it’s important to seek efficiencies, to reduce waste, to pursue flow, to iterate and learn faster. But don’t see it only as a productivity play. If you aren’t quickly seeing the improvements spill over into a more profound kind of capacity [10], it could be that you aren’t helping your organisation half as much as you think. Your organisation’s reserves are enormous. Is it time you released them?

(Comment on LinkedIn | Hacker News)

References

[1] Kanban from the Inside (2014)

[2] Right to Left: The digital leader’s guide to Lean and Agile (2019, audiobook 2020)

[3] I may be on my own here but… (linkedin.com)

[4] Borrowing from Agendashift True North (agendashift.com/resources/true-north)

[5] Cockburn, Alistair, Elements to a Theory of Software Development (HaT Technical Report, 2016)

[6] Boyd, John R., Destruction and Creation (U.S. Army Comand and General Staff College, 1976)

[7] Everywhere all at once: Introducing the Deliberately Adaptive Organisation (agendashift.com/resources/everywhere-all-at-once)

[8] Adaptive Organisation (I): Business agility at every scale (academy.agendashift.com/c/adaptive-organisation-i)

[9] Between spaces, scopes, and scales: What the scaling frameworks don’t tell you (agendashift.com/keynotes#between)

[10] Explaining the “unreasonable effectiveness” of Agile (blog.agendashift.com)

Acknowledgements

For their encouragement, feedback, and comments as this post developed over the holiday period I am grateful to the following: Andrea Place, Badre Srinivasan, Cat Hicks, Craig Lucia, Daniel Walters, David Michel, Dickson Alves de Souza, Dustin Parham, Elizabeth Jones, John Obelenus, Karl Scotland, Kyle Byrd, Leif Hanack, Matt Mitchell, Matthew White, Michael Cicotti, Nader Talai, Nariman Dorafshan, Ricardo Alvarez, Robert Howes, Sarah Whitely, and Shern Tee. Thank you all.

1

Agendashift roundup of the year 2023

Posted on by Mike Burrows

Whether you have followed Agendashift and Leading with Outcomes over the years or have only just found us, thank you for your interest and support. As we approach the Christmas and New Year break, let me wish you a time of peace and renewal.

In this end-of-year edition: December looking forward; Top 10 posts of the year; Upcoming events (most of them free)

December looking forward

The usual monthly list of the top 5 most-read posts would overlap quite a bit with the year’s top 10, so instead I’ll point out just one recent post:

As for the rest of the month, I have my fourth book to finish, and only then (though my head feels fit to burst) my fifth to start. Two very different books, their provisional titles:

  • Organizing Conversations: Patterns of Dialog for the Transforming Organisation – for the BMI series in dialogic organisation development, hence the American spelling
  • Wholehearted: Engaging with complexity in the Deliberately Adaptive Organisation

It would be quite something to get both books published in 2024, ten years since my first. Wish me luck! In relation to that second one, I have in the past couple of days updated the Everywhere all at once white paper to include a brief section on the recent What Lies Beneath stuff. You can request your copy here.

Of course 2024 won’t only be spent writing. Two modules of Leading with Outcomes still live on the old learning management system. Once their videos are re-recorded, I can consolidate everything onto the new platform. I’m looking forward also to doing more in-person training and workshops. I intend to put on the 3-day Leading in a Transforming Organisation publicly at least twice in the UK, hope to do it at least once in mainland Europe, and further afield as opportunities arise. Opportunities to do the private 1-day Adaptive Organisation workshop are materialising too; introductory pricing remains available for bookings taken in the next few weeks.

Top 10 posts of 2023

Most popular first, these are this year’s most-read posts:

  1. #2MBM: Meaning before Metric, Measure before Method (July 2020) – the prototype for the Meaning, Measure, Method pattern that features now in every Leading with Outcomes module
  2. Your organisation in 5 networks (November 2022) – now part of the Leading with Outcomes module Adaptive Organisation (II)
  3. My favourite Clean Language question (January 2019) – the oldest post in this list, still a regular fixture on our monthly top 5
  4. What Lies Beneath (Spoiler: Constraints) (October 2023) – only a few weeks old but already #4 for the year!
  5. Explaining the “unreasonable effectiveness” of Agile (July 2023) – expect more on this in the coming months
  6. 15-minute FOTO’s cheat mode (October 2023) – another recent entrant
  7. It’s 10 years since the post that changed my career (January 2023) – referring to the evergreen Introducing Kanban through its values (January 2013), the post that spawned my first book
  8. Start where you are (July 2023) – a twist on an old idea
  9. Sell the pain, not the solution, the theory, or the blame (December 2022) – a tip repeated several times across Leading with Outcomes; see also the March webinar below
  10. Avoiding the disaster that is ‘solution-driven’ (June 2023) – why outcome-orientation matters

Upcoming events

February

March

*TTT/F and (where shown) LIKE events include free one-year membership of the Leading with Outcomes Authorised Facilitator programme, upgradeable to Authorised Trainer at any time. Both of those include access to the video-based Leading with Outcomes training and the full range of Agendashift assessment tools.

Agendashift™: Serving the transforming organisation
Links: Home | Subscribe | Events | Media | Contact | Mike
Agendashift  Academy: Leading with Outcomes | Trainer and Facilitator Programmes | Store

At every scope and scale, developing strategy together, pursuing strategy together, outcomes before solutions, working backwards (“right to left”) from key moments of impact and learning.

Developing and pursuing strategy in the language of outcomes

Confirming some changes to Leading with Outcomes

Posted on by Mike Burrows

Last week’s Leading with Outcomes trainer/facilitator Zoom [1] confirmed some changes. The first two relate to two of our favourite exercises:

  1. The exercise Good Obstacle, Bad Obstacle has been renamed Obstacles Fast and Slow (yes, both names are indeed references to books). As time passes, the more we have learned to appreciate this exercise, and the latest slideware reflects its importance.
  2. The workshop and training decks now explicitly support 15-minute FOTO’s cheat mode.

In both cases, watch out for releases in the coming weeks of standalone versions of these tools. In relation to Obstacles Fast and Slow, the March edition of our monthly webinar series will be devoted to it, with the goal of replacing the old Good Obstacle, Bad Obstacle video and related material.

The rest of this post relates to the agenda of February’s Leading with Outcomes Train-the-Trainer / Facilitator (TTT/F), which comes in four half-day sessions – Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons UK time, beginning on Tuesday, February 6th, finishing Wednesday 14th.

The old TTT/F agenda:

  1. Leading with Outcomes: Foundation, chapters 1 & 2 (of 3) – introducing and applying the IdOO (“I do”) pattern, Ideal, Obstacles, Outcomes
  2. The Leading with Outcomes Discovery Workshop – a high-level application of the IdOO pattern, covering the classic exercises Celebration-5W, True North, Obstacles Fast and Slow, 15-minute FOTO, and Plan on a Page
  3. The Leading with Outcomes Assessment Debrief Workshop – the assessment, survey debrief, and Areas of Opportunity, then for a second time Obstacles Fast and Slow and 15-minute FOTO (both of those well worth the repeat), and finishing at Option Relationship Mapping, leaving the ideation part to session 4
  4. Beyond inside-out strategy – Leading with Outcomes: Foundation chapter 3, which covers the ideation part of the Assessment Debrief workshop left over from the previous session, followed by overviews of the Outside-in and Adaptive Organisation parts of the Leading with Outcomes curriculum and their related workshop offerings

That structure has worked well enough, but session 4 can feel a bit of mixed bag. The new agenda brings forward some of that content, achieved by seeing sessions 2 and 3 less exclusively in terms of inside-out strategy and more as representing two families of workshops:

  1. Leading with Outcomes: Foundation, chapters 1 & 2 (of 3) – as before
  2. Discovery-level workshops – not only the classic Leading with Outcomes Discovery Workshop and variations thereof, but the Outside-in Strategy Review (OI-SR), understood here as building on Discovery’s basic structure
  3. Assessment-based workshops – the generic survey debrief and other workshops, some of which incorporate additional training content, for example a Reverse STATIK workshop [2] and the Adaptive Organisation Workshop [3]
  4. Moving into action – completing (as before) Leading with Outcomes: Foundation chapter 3, then delving deeper into Adaptive Organisation, possibly including (this is under development) a look at narrative enquiry

Discovery workshops can now be seen as choosing from the following:

Assessment-based workshops similarly:

Details vary, but the IdOO and Meaning, Measure, Method patterns are shared, the former pattern bracketed by establishing context and organising the strategy. The new TTT/F structure should build the confidence not only to make use of these workshop designs, but to innovate new ones.

Not that TTT/F is only about workshops – doing this under the Leading with Outcomes banner means a strong emphasis on leadership development, for which the Foundation training module sets the tone very effectively. Furthermore, I’ll be re-recording the Inside-out and Outside-in training modules in the new year, and to the extent possible within the time available, sessions 2 & 3 will use those latest materials.

You can book your place at the February TTT/F here. Ping me for coupon codes if any of the following apply:

  • Past TTT/F participants can join again for free (quite a popular option)
  • Leading in a Transforming Organisation participants get 60% off
  • Employees in public sector, education, and non-profit organisations get 40% off
  • Members of the old partner programme get 30% off
  • Last but not least, Agendashift Academy subscribers get subscription-specific discounts also

For an overview of Leading with Outcomes in general and the Trainer / Facilitator programmes specifically, the store page is a good place to start.

Notes

[1] I haven’t published the recording and notes but they’re available on request. Intended audience: trainers, facilitators, members of the old partner programme, participants in a past TTT/F or Leading in a Transforming Organisation, or anyone curious about any of these

[2] The Reverse STATIK workshop is how I like to introduce Kanban. It is not officially part of Leading with Outcomes but that might change. The point here is that much of it can be recreated from parts already available to Leading with Outcomes trainers and facilitators.

[3] About the new 1-day Adaptive Organisation workshop, introductory pricing remains available if you’d like to book one for your organisation. In-person very strongly preferred, which means UK and European destinations easily reachable from Manchester unless a longer trip can be made worthwhile. That’s less of an issue for the 3-day Leading in a Transforming Organisation – I have done that as far away as Australia, albeit with a conference keynote and a family visit also!

Upcoming events

February

March

*TTT/F and (where shown) LIKE events include free one-year membership of the Leading with Outcomes Authorised Facilitator programme, upgradeable to Authorised Trainer at any time. Both of those include access to the video-based Leading with Outcomes training and the full range of Agendashift assessment tools.

Leading with Outcomes from the Agendashift Academy
“Leadership and strategy in the transforming organisation”

Leading with Outcomes is our modular curriculum in leadership and organisation development. Each module is available as self-paced online training or as private, instructor-led training (online or in-person). Certificates of completion or participation according to format. Its modules in the recommended order:

  1. Foundation module:
  2. Inside-out Strategy:
  3. Adaptive Organisation:
  4. Outside-in Strategy:

Individual subscriptions from £24.50 £18.40 per month after a 7-day free trial, with discounts available for employees and employers in the government, healthcare, education, and non-profit sectors. For bulk subscriptions, ask for our Agendashift for Business brochure.

To deliver Leading with Outcomes training or workshops yourself, see our Authorised Trainer and Authorised Facilitator programmes. See our events calendar for Train-the-Trainer / Facilitator (TTT/F) and Leading in a Transforming Organisation trainings.

Agendashift™: Serving the transforming organisation
Links: Home | Subscribe | Events | Media | Contact | Mike
Agendashift  Academy: Leading with Outcomes | Trainer and Facilitator Programmes | Store

At every scope and scale, developing strategy together, pursuing strategy together, outcomes before solutions, working backwards (“right to left”) from key moments of impact and learning.

About tomorrow’s free webinar/AMA session

Posted on by Mike Burrows

Our monthly webinar/AMA series “The questions that drive us” returns tomorrow to question #1:

What if we put agreement on outcomes before solutions?

Essentially, this is principle #1 framed as a question. Framing it that way makes it even less prescriptive than it would be otherwise and more likely to spark innovation. Moreover, asking it can be an act of leadership. Given the premature rush to solutions typical in most organisations and assuming at least some level of safety, that act of leadership will be available frequently to many.

I got back from India only yesterday afternoon, and while it is fresh in my mind, I thought it would be good to debrief Friday’s conference workshop and certain aspects of Sunday & Monday’s Train-the-Trainer / Facilitator (TTT/F). My plan is to visualise* the designs of multiple workshops to make more visible some of their inbuilt configuration options, and to highlight recent and planned improvements to the materials. In the spotlight will be some old favourites:

See Upcoming events below for the registration links for tomorrow’s event and others, most of them free. Tomorrow’s begins at 15:00 GMT, 16:00 CET, 10am ET, and will finish as usual with an AMA (Ask Mike Anything) session. Notice also that we have the next of our free experience/practice sessions a week later.

*That visualisation is still under construction, but the Picturing Foundation picture is working very well, so I leave you with that for now 🙂

Upcoming events

February

March

*TTT/F and (where shown) LIKE events include free one-year membership of the Leading with Outcomes Authorised Facilitator programme, upgradeable to Authorised Trainer at any time. Both of those include access to the video-based Leading with Outcomes training and the full range of Agendashift assessment tools.

Leading with Outcomes from the Agendashift Academy
“Leadership and strategy in the transforming organisation”

Leading with Outcomes is our modular curriculum in leadership and organisation development. Each module is available as self-paced online training or as private, instructor-led training (online or in-person). Certificates of completion or participation according to format. Its modules in the recommended order:

  1. Foundation module:
  2. Inside-out Strategy:
  3. Adaptive Organisation:
  4. Outside-in Strategy:

Individual subscriptions from £24.50 £18.40 per month after a 7-day free trial, with discounts available for employees and employers in the government, healthcare, education, and non-profit sectors. For bulk subscriptions, ask for our Agendashift for Business brochure.

To deliver Leading with Outcomes training or workshops yourself, see our Authorised Trainer and Authorised Facilitator programmes. See our events calendar for Train-the-Trainer / Facilitator (TTT/F) and Leading in a Transforming Organisation trainings.

Agendashift™: Serving the transforming organisation
Links: Home | Subscribe | Events | Media | Contact | Mike
Agendashift  Academy: Leading with Outcomes | Trainer and Facilitator Programmes | Store

At every scope and scale, developing strategy together, pursuing strategy together, outcomes before solutions, working backwards (“right to left”) from key moments of impact and learning.

Agendashift roundup, November 2023

Posted on by Mike Burrows

In this edition: Adaptive Organisation; 15-minute FOTO; New podcast interview; More free sessions; Train-the-Trainer / Facilitator (TTT/F); Top posts

Adaptive Organisation

There is plenty to report here! Let’s begin with its online, self-paced version. Now that I’ve finished hand-editing the captions on all of its videos, Adaptive Organisation (II) is out of beta. That’s both parts now:

Both parts lean on Leading with Outcomes: Foundation, and we recommend that you take that first.

Also online, the latest version of my keynote:

With regard to the in-person experience, the Leading in a Transforming Organisation training (Foundation and Adaptive Organisation combined) goes from strength to strength. Thought’s on this month’s training in Manchester:

Also some tweaks to this post from October:

Each of these events generates a further flurry of activity. Trainers now have access to post-Manchester decks and handouts for Adaptive Organisation parts I & II. For Facilitators, an update to the Adaptive Organisation workshop will follow as soon as I have synced the handout with the deck – not a huge task but I begin my travels to India shortly.

I’m looking to do at least two more of these in the UK next year, and maybe a couple of in mainland Europe also. If you have thoughts on bringing it to your city, get in touch! Similarly for the 1-day workshop (only privately for the time being, introductory pricing between now and the end of January).

Adaptive Organisation, the two-part module: Engaging with complexity in the Deliberately Adaptive Organisation

15-minute FOTO

A couple of updates to our Clean Language-based coaching game 15-minute FOTO:

  1. Gaël Mareau has kindly contributed a French language cue card – merci beaucoup Gaël!
  2. During my trip to India I’ll be testing a number of usability improvements (none of them major, but they add up), so expect a new release in the next couple of weeks

New podcast interview

While in Australia last month I was interviewed for Kanban Lab by Orod Semsarzadeh and Soma Mazumder. You can listen to Exploring Kanban from Right to Left: A Thoughtful Conversation with Mike Burrows here:

More interviews, talks, etc on our media page.

More free sessions

Train-the-Trainer / Facilitator (TTT/F)

Unusually, the next TTT/F is in person, and it begins this coming Sunday:

Thank you Prachi, Noopur, and the Kanban India 2023 team – the conference begins on Friday.

The February TTT/F is now confirmed:

Top posts

  1. 15-minute FOTO’s cheat mode (October)
  2. What Lies Beneath (Spoiler: Constraints) (October, recently updated)
  3. Leading in a Transforming Organisation: Takeaways from Manchester (November)
  4. A small update to the Constraints Club exercise (November)
  5. My favourite Clean Language question (January 2019)

Leading with Outcomes from the Agendashift Academy
“Leadership and strategy in the transforming organisation”

Leading with Outcomes is our modular curriculum in leadership and organisation development. Each module is available as self-paced online training or as private, instructor-led training (online or in-person). Certificates of completion or participation according to format. Its modules in the recommended order:

  1. Foundation module:
  2. Inside-out Strategy:
  3. Adaptive Organisation:
  4. Outside-in Strategy:

Individual subscriptions from £24.50 £18.40 per month after a 7-day free trial, with discounts available for employees and employers in the government, healthcare, education, and non-profit sectors. For bulk subscriptions, ask for our Agendashift for Business brochure.

To deliver Leading with Outcomes training or workshops yourself, see our Authorised Trainer and Authorised Facilitator programmes. See our events calendar for Train-the-Trainer / Facilitator (TTT/F) and Leading in a Transforming Organisation trainings.

Agendashift™: Serving the transforming organisation
Links: Home | Subscribe | Events | Media | Contact | Mike
Agendashift  Academy: Leading with Outcomes | Trainer and Facilitator Programmes | Store

At every scope and scale, developing strategy together, pursuing strategy together, outcomes before solutions, working backwards (“right to left”) from key moments of impact and learning.