Agility frameworks address things companies control:
💲 Where and how you spend money.
🧔 Who you hire and how you train.
🔗 How people work together.
🗺 Architectural and organizational dependencies between teams.
🎁 The products you build.
This is entirely reasonable - why would a framework be built to guide you in something you don't control?
Here's the challenge. The success or failure of your business depends entirely on taking advantage of things you will never control:
🧠 Changing customer sentiment
📱 Disruptive technology
🏦 Monetary policy
🏛 Government regulation
🥊 Amount and type of competition
📈 Macroeconomic trends
If your chosen framework doesn't spend disproportionate time helping you create an outside-in strategy to take advantage of what you don't control (and you don't address these factors seriously), you are building a world-class car engine to drive your business straight off a cliff.
Most agile scaling frameworks and the teams who implement them don't spend enough energy here. To start, try some focused workshopping with your executive teams using the ideas from:
- What is Strategy?, Margretta
- Playing to Win, Martin & Lafley
- Crossing the Chasm, Moore
- Dealing with Darwin, Moore
Need help getting started? Just reach out to us!
