Conventional wisdom dictates that the bigger companies are, the slower and less effective they operate. Hence, corporations adopt agile and lean, they flatten their hierarchies and urge their employees to "fail". And still, many are utterly missing the point. What does it really take for complex organizations to act quickly and decisively?

1. How to unsuck Big Organizations
Hamburg (UX Roundtable), 02.09.2019
Customer value & business success without all the hassle
Shared under Creative Commons (CC-BY-ND).

2. Anger.
Frustration.
.
Heroism.
Burnout.
It‘s us against them.

3. 3
I got you covered!
Source: Shutterstock

4. 4

5. 5
„Elitist Crap?“
! https://www.ideequadrat.org/new-work-zwischen-spiritualitaet-elitaerem-scheiss-und-dringender-notwendigkeit/

6. Agility
(a dog sport)

7. 77

8. One fat hairy part of the
problem is this:

9. https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datei:Donald_Trump_by_Gage_Skidmore.jpg
"I know more about courts
than any human being on
Earth.
"I know more about people
who get ratings than anyone.
"I know more about ISIS than
the generals do.
"Nobody knows more about
trade than me.
"I know more about
renewables than any human
being on Earth.
"I think nobody knows more
about taxes than I do, maybe
in the history of the world.

10. No,
of course not Trump!
But the archetypical
MANAGER.
(Sometimes even called Leader.)
Anyway, this is cool:
https://www.axios.com/everything-trump-says-he-knows-more-about-than-anybody-b278b592-cff0-47dc-a75f-5767f42bcf1e.html

11. 1111
„It doesn't make
sense to hire smart
people and tell them
what to do; we hire
smart people so
they can tell us
what to do.“
Steve Jobs
Photo by MatthewYohe

12. 1212

13. 13
Anyway.
We need to think
systemic
and face an
uneasy truth.
!"#$# %& '()*+,-#.)/"0# #- 1-23(42"

14. Companies
are complex
social systems.
Big companies more so.

15. Social Systems are
messy.
Self Persistent Intransparent Unpredictable

16. Ever tried to get a timely reaction from a
complex social system?

17. The truth is …
It is actually possible
to have very nimble,
very effective
big organizations.

18. The Napoleonic Wars
18
A contest of different organizational models
Prussia
" Centralized decision making
" Mercenaries (low motivation)
" High tactical competence
(extensive drill)
18
France
" Decentralized, highly dynamic
action
" Conscripts (high motivation)
" Unexperienced, unskilled

19. Somewhat like incumbents vs. startups
19

20. 20

21. 21
Militär-Reorganisationskommission,
Königsberg 1807

22. 2222
No plan survives
first contact
with the enemy.
“No plan of operations can extend with
any degree of certainty beyond the first
encounter with the enemy’s main body.“
(Helmuth von Moltke the Elder)

23. 23

24. 24

25. 25

26. 26

27. The three gaps of achieving collective purpose
27
Depiction based on Stephen Bungay, The Art of Action

30. 3031

31. Alignment
Gap
Knowledge Gap
Effect Gap
Alignment
Gap
Alignment
Gap

32. 3232
“Very expensive robots”

33. 3333

34. 34
Command & Control Hierarchy
" Slow to react and adapt
" Crititical information loss
" Single point of failure (top leader)
Autonomous Teams
" Complex communication
" Laborious decision process
" No central point of alignment

35. 35

36. 36

37. 37

38. 38
Alignment enables Autonomy

39. 39
! What (to achieve) and why?
! How?
Auftragstaktik
(Mission Command)
Instead of precise orders
communicate intents and purposes
“Do not command more than is necessary,
or plan beyond the circumstances you can foresee.”
Leave the concrete solution
to the experts
“... an order should contain all, but also only, what subordinates cannot
determine for themselves to achieve a particular purpose.”
(Helmuth von Moltke the Elder)

40. 40
We are on a mission!
40
What: Save Private Ryan!
Why: Avoid further morale issues at home.
How: Left to the team
(within certain constraints).
Alignment
Autonomy

41. XING „Auftragsklärung“
41
Practiced and refined by XING since 2015
Framework for Collaborative Alignment
Talk: https://www.mindtheproduct.com/2016/08/alignment-framework-managing-stakeholder-communications/
https://auftragsklaerung.com/
Structured discussion of
new product initiatives
" Aligning the product team and
stakeholders
" Enabling more autonomy for the product
team (”Autonomy through alignment”)

42. Cascading strategic intent („Briefing“)
42
How to mission-command the whole organization
"The strategy of the
organization cascades
down as strategic
intents:
" What to achieve?
" Why?
"The org unit decides on
the how.

43. Aligning understanding („Backbriefing“)
43
Tell me what and why, and I will tell you how
"The org unit breaks
down the strategic
intent into tasks
(„how“).
"Tasks and possible
impediments are
discussed with the
manager („backbriefing“)
"Once agreed, the tasks
become the „what“ of
the next level.

44. 44
Photo by Mahir Uysal on Unsplash
Where to go from here?

45. 45

46. 46
Explore and
iterate to
success

47. 47
How do
insights get
back “up“?
How to
avoid rigid
plans?

48. 48
Strategyprovides direction.
Photo by Wolfgang Rottmann on Unsplash

49. Strategy
≠
Plan
Strategy
=
A framework
for
decision making.
Central idea(s) giving
direction and focus.

50. 50
1st Advice
Plan less,
Strategyze more
§Invite active and open discussion of company strategy.
§Actively assure that everybody in the organization
understands their part in the strategy.
§Communicate strategic intents instead of detailed plans.
§Use backbriefing and other formats to enable insights to
trickle up to management. Refine strategy, if necessary.

51. 51
2nd Advice
Develop a culture of
granting and taking
responsibility
L. David Marquet:
Leader – Follower Leader – Leader

52. Action is
frozen
Mercenaries
self-optimize
Leading by
choking
52

53. Action is
frozen
Mercenaries
self-optimize
Leading by
choking
53
Leading by
choking
Mercenaries
self-self-self optimize
Humble
Leader
Competent
Missionary
Structure &
Process
" Emphatic
" Integrative
" Growth Mindset
" Competence
" Initiative
" Personal Maturity*
(aka Team Player)
" Support efficacy
over efficiency
* See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loevinger%27s_stages_of_ego_developmentSee https://svpg.com/empowered-product-teams/

54. 54
3rd Advice
Do not rely on heroes
Bad alignment is often compensated by hero roles:
§Project Manager (in former times)
§Product Manager
§Also: Designer, DevOps, Hero Developer etc.
è Burning out some of your best resources.
è “Lateral Leadership” will not resolve organizational issues.

55. „The intelligence of
an organization is
never equal to the
sum of the
intelligence of the
people within it.“
Stephen Bungay

56. 56
I dare you to make it
greater.

57. You still got questions?
57
@minutefforts / @Anstrengungslos
hans-joachim.belz@anstrengungslos.de
www.anstrengungslos.de

58. Further Reading
Where to go from here, if I peaked your interest.
58

59. Meine Artikelserie bei
59
Der bald erscheinende zweite
Artikel beschäftigt sich mit
Management und Strategie als
Voraussetzung für modernes
Produktdesign.
Einige der Konzepte dieses
Vortrags werden hier vertieft
diskutiert.
https://www.produktbezogen.de/design-fuer-
das-naechste-jahrzehnt-teil-1-produktdesign-
prozesse-im-agilen-kontext/
Thema „Moderne Designprozesse“ Sorry, German only

60. Books developing central concepts of this talk

61. Books about product management
facilitating the concepts of this talk
61

62. What is strategy?
62
" 5 Myths About Strategy, Stephen Bungay
https://hbr.org/2019/04/5-myths-about-strategy
" The Big Lie of Strategic Planning, Roger L. Martin
https://hbr.org/2014/01/the-big-lie-of-strategic-planning
" Can You Say What Your Strategy Is?, David J. Collis and Michael G. Rukstad
https://hbr.org/2008/04/can-you-say-what-your-strategy-is
" How to Run a Quarterly Product Strategy Meeting: A Board Meeting for Product, Gibson Biddle
https://medium.com/speroventures/how-to-run-a-quarterly-product-strategy-meeting-a-board-
meeting-for-product-3a14c4d53d1b
And what is it not? – Some articles about strategy

63. Empowering teams, developing people
63
" Empowered Product Teams, Marty Cagan
https://svpg.com/empowered-product-teams/ + https://vimeo.com/340648597 (talk at mtp)
How to shift responsibility and initiative down to the edge

64. Backup
64

65. Strategy is layered
Based on Build Trap by Melissa Perri - created by Charles Lambdin

66. This may sound familiar …
66
Jeff Gotthelf
"Output over Outcome!
"Stop shipping features
"Escape the Build Trap!
Melissa Perri
John Cutler
"Feature Factory
"Success Theatre

67. 67
The two modes of an employer
Activity
All stuff not creating value for
the company and/or the
customer.
If this gets bad, people start to run in
autopilot. Getting from 9am to 5pm as
painless as possible. Doing stupid things
without questioning the status quo.
Action
Creating the most value
possible in the given
situation.
People know the companies intent and
are allowed to figure out the best
possible way they can support it.They
feel empowered and effective.