Summary As an executive, board member, or entrepreneur, learn about a management innovation you can begin working on tomorrow. Try better and more timely decision-making, with happy employees serving happy customers, good psychological flow, and an optimized flow of potential and actual value.    Consider multi-year operational performance over share price; share price focus alone drives cost-cutting to the extent employees incur "moral injury," increase long-term costs, and worsen customer, consumer, or user long-term experience.  Description It's notable how little management innovation occurs. It has dramatic effects when it happens, e.g., RenDanHeyi in Haier, Beyond Budgeting in Handelsbanken, and Cynefin® in government and industry alike. Estuarine Mapping is also making waves. But there is a new upstart.  This is not for you if you are only interested in quick fixes, looking good, or doing the bare minimum to satisfy shareholder, legal, moral, or psychological needs. As W. Edwards Deming often said, "Survival is optional." This is for those who want long-term and short-term success, those who wish to leave a legacy of prestige and successful successors, and those who want to lead the way to being led by others. Try better and more timely decision-making, with happy employees serving happy customers, good psychological flow, and an optimized flow of potential and actual value.    Consider multi-year operational performance over share price; share price focus alone drives cost-cutting to the extent employees incur "moral injury," increase long-term costs, and worsen customer, consumer, or user long-term experience.  Revolutions don't need a majority to get started. As Leandro Herrero once said, "Revolutionaries don't wait for everyone to be aligned." So why are you waiting? As an executive, as a board member, and as an entrepreneur. Do you want to leave a mark or not? How do you want to be remembered? What can you do tomorrow? What's stopping you? Speaker profile John Coleman Executive guide, product leader Trainer for Agile Kata, Kanban, Kanplexity, LeSS, Scrum Flight Levels Coach, co-author of Kanban Guide Podcast host - Xagility, Agility Island "Chef"

1. The Management
Revolution
John A. Coleman
executive guide, product leader
author Kanplexity, co-author Kanban Guide
PST, PKT, FLC, LSFT, Agile Kata Pro Trainer
@JohnColemanIRL
https://linktr.ee/johncolemanxagility

2. Which is the
odd one out?

3. What do you
think?
• Ping pong tables
• Beer on tap at work
• Learning 4 hours per week
• Nice corporate values sitting prominently on the
wall

4. What emotional
reactions, if any, do
you have to work
environments this?

5. Who in the audience
today would feel safe
to do these things at
work?

6. “Let’s have
some extra
stretch in our
goals”

7. “We’re all
psychologically
safe in this
room”

8. “Higher
velocity
please”

9. “Build it and
they will
come”

10. Ask yourself
“Is the work
environment
really set up for
timely humane
effectiveness?” Let’s look at top management gaps

11. The gaps in top management
Agility in teams
but not in
workflows,
processes, and
systems
01
Long distance
between teams
and the
customers
02
Predictive
planning in an
uncertain world
03
Treating people
as resources
04
Inflicting help on
teams but not
open to change
ourselves
05

12. To deal with agility in teams but not in
workflows, processes, and systems…
Regularly…
Water
Feed
Weed
Cultivate
Adapt

13. Culture Gardening for Managers
THINK OF YOURSELF AS A
CULTURE AND CLIMATE
GARDENER
FOSTER OTHERS AND THE
ORGANIZATION TO RISE TO THEIR
HIGHEST HEIGHTS
HELP ENSURE GOOD AGILITY
GROWS

14. GROW
● Getting energized as a change
agent. As flight attendants say, "Put
on your own oxygen mask before
helping others." It’s difficult to
inspire others without good energy.
● Rousing and inspiring others by
cooperatively setting or adjusting
the direction of travel and the next
steps (not getting it exactly right
the first time) with clarity and a
sense of urgency.
● Optimizing the environment so
that happy people serve happy
customers and other stakeholders
● Bringing the Whole organization on
the same executive learning
journey so new executives feel
supported to contribute and be a
part of the direction of travel.

15. Grow
CARROTS
○ Creating the conditions for psychological safety and
promoting job over role security.
○ Accepting and dealing with uncertainty.
○ Routinely performing Go See (10); observing and listening to
people doing the work where they work and doing it so often
that the truth emerges.
○ Being a Real team player by being people-smart, humble,
curious, and hungry to learn (33).
○ Organizing to declutter, simplify, and refactor systems,
workflows, and processes.
○ Tackling agility with agility - being customer and product-
focused, embracing open space technology (72) over
boardrooms, helping customers, embracing empiricism
(248).
○ Seeking out what customers want by listening to them
deeply, designing with them, experiencing or witnessing their
interactions, and reviewing customer analytics.

16. Reduce distance,
improve flow
To deal with long distance between
teams and the customers
…
Consider virtual or actual organization
designs

17. Embrace
complexity
To unlock thinking that we need
predictive planning in an uncertain
world…
Use Cynefin® as your compass

18. To deal with predictive planning
in an uncertain world…
Consider a non-linear empirical
feedback loop
Be open to fresh
thinking and new
information

19. To deal with predictive planning
in an uncertain world…
Consider a non-linear empirical
feedback loop
(Re) enter or (re) exit the loop at
any point
Be intentional about strategy
deployment, and let it emerge
Embrace learning

25. Address the gaps in top management
Culture gardening - cultivating the work environment
Responsiveness - to market and societal needs
Empiricism - deciding what to do next based on what we learnt
Engagement – happy people lead to happy customers and users
Knowledge - replacing behaviors and habits to sustain the change

27. Coming soon… the DESCALERS
Declutter
Energize
Strategize
Cultivate
Act
Learn
be Empirical
get Real
prepare your Successors

28. Thank you
John Coleman
@JohnColemanIRL
https://linktr.ee/johncolemanxagility
https://linkpop.com/orderlydisruption

29. Appendix

30. About me
executive guide, product
leader
#2 Agile Thinkers 360, Top 50
Agile Leaders Leadershum
Flight Levels Coach,
ProKanban Professional
Kanban Trainer, Scrum.org
Professional Scrum Trainer,
LeSS Friendly Scrum Trainer,
Agile Kata Pro Trainer
author of Kanplexity™,
underpinned by Cynefin®
creator of Xagility™ co-author of Kanban Guide
Host of Xagility™ & Agility
Island podcasts
Organizer for Meetup LeSS
Baku Meetup group - an
official scrum.org community
and an official LeSS meetup