In the previous post I talked about the process of moving from a functional to cross-functional structure. In this post I’ll describe how we used Spotify’s model of squads and tribes as a guide. What we ended up with was quite different from Spotify, but it relied on the same principles. I’ll also outline the values and roles within our squad model.
Beyond the obvious reasons why alignment is sensible, for me alignment was critical in order to promote speed. I believed this would help achieve one of our key outcomes - to get faster.
In order to organise my own ideas, I realised it would be helpful to have a clear vision for what I wanted to achieve, together with measurable outcomes. I began with a mission statement:
“I want to design a tailored system of work that optimises the entire organisation, allowing Moonpig to innovate and move fast at scale, whilst still ensuring it is a place that people love to work.”
Introducing change is hard. Very hard. One way to make it slightly easier, is to take the time to communicate clearly why you need to change. At the time we began introducing business agility at Moonpig, most people outside of product engineering had little or no knowledge of lean or agile — and most would have believed them to be “tech things”.
For the last few weeks, I’ve been vigorously wrestling with the changing nature of IT and the role of the CIO. I seriously believe IT is in some sort of mid-life crisis. Or possibly, it’s just about to grow up and get some long trousers.
Recently, The Business Transformation Network hosted an event on “HR TechOps - Bridging the Gap between HR Tech and Operational Excellence”, which is a topic of growing importance in business today. The main questions the conversation revolved around were:
1. What HR Technology platforms are being implemented and how is the implementation process going?
2. How can HR technology be used to improve efficiency and employee experience?
In this exclusive video for the BTN, Richard Morecroft (Managing Partner at Digital Work Group) discusses how to get your digital transformation moving. He looks at the importance of balancing strategy and execution for long-term success.
Bio
This last post on the series on the adoption of Procurement technology will highlight what actually happens during a change.
It is only with a good understanding of these aspects that change leaders can conduct fruitful and lasting change initiatives.
A classic representation of a person’s reaction to change is the Elisabeth Kübler-Ross change curve. It describes the emotional phases people go through when they lose someone:
Over the past two decades, Design Thinking has emerged as a practice that enables innovation, change, and complex problem solving. Many companies hoping to benefit from Design Thinking invest in training workshops to learn the Design Thinking way of working. While training workshops are an effective way to learn new skills, putting new skills to use requires taking the learning beyond the workshop. It is when organizations put new skills into practice that they start to see the benefits. So, how can you continue to foster Design Thinking capabilities after the workshops?
Many organisations embarking on an enterprise-wide transformation to agile working, struggle to sustain or scale the benefits they initially achieve. The journey towards agility is a marathon, not a sprint, and it requires continued commitment, at all levels of the organisation, to ensure agile ways of working stick.
The first six to 12 months of introducing agile throughout an organisation will result in visible improvements in speed to market, productivity, efficiency and employee engagement.