Digital Leadership Requires Ecosystems, Not Machines (Part 2)

The “organization as machine” philosophy has become fundamentally flawed in today’s knowledge age, especially in the digital environment. Dismantling the centuries-old “organization as machine” model and replacing it with a new management technology that unleashes the creativity and productivity of humans is the greatest opportunity and challenge now faced by companies seeking the much needed Continue

Digital Leadership Requires Ecosystems, Not Machines (Part 1)

Fast-growing and larger firms today are facing unprecedented volatility and uncertainty. Worse, the imperative to innovate and exploit new opportunities in digital is where disruption and unpredictability is highest. The rate of change and uncertainty that digital has unleashed today puts those companies following centuries-old management practices at greatest risk. Management practices and organizational structures Continue

You’re asking for the wrong thing: you don’t need Agile software teams, you need an Agile Enterprise

Most big companies today are structured and managed like those during the industrial revolution. They may have started small and nimble, but over time, layer upon layer of bureaucracy was piled on. If something bad happened, a rule was instituted so it never happened again. Then a rule was created to deal with another problem. Continue

The New Role of Leadership: Human Networks and Transformation

Organizational Network Analysis (ONA) is a visual representation of the relationships that employees rely on to succeed in their jobs. It depicts daily interactions and conversations that occur that enable work. ONA provides leaders with an understanding of the “as is” network structure of their organization. They revel how work is actually getting done across Continue

The New Role of Leadership: Shaping Employee Networks for Agility and Innovation

Agility and product innovation can be difficult to master. Most companies that invest in Agile product and software development methods (in pursuit of enhanced innovation, quality and speed) fail to overcome the obvious: entrenched norms, beliefs and behaviors. Worse, Agile “improvements” often inject new conflict into the work processes. That’s the bad news. The good Continue