Search for the real scaled agile, here is OST

Presentation on Open Systems Theory, offering it as an organisational design paradigm that may help organisations seeking to scale agile to the organisation level. These slides are prepared for a talk at LAST Conference, Melbourne on 1st December 2023

Transcript

1. Search for the REAL Scaled Agile - try OST! Martin Chesbrough, Intern @ Everest Engineering
2. Scaling Agile Where did OST come from? Org Design Wrapping Up What is OST? PREFACE SYSTEMS THINKING IN 10 MINS EXAMPLES OF DP1 AND DP2 NEXT STEPS? SUMMARY OF THE MAIN POINTS Quick look at what does it mean to “scale agile” Systems Thinking 101 Socio-Technical Systems Open Systems Genotypical Organisation Design Principles Two Stage Model of Active Adaptation 6 Intrinsic Motivators 2 stories of similar organisations Where do I learn more? What can I do? My Agenda MAP OF THE JOURNEY CALL TO ACTION WE ARE HERE
3. Agile AND Scaled Agile - strange bedfellows? THE CONUNDRUM BEHAVIOR? STRUCTURE? Credit: https://agilemanifesto.org Credit: https://scaledagile.com
4. A large engineering organisation (company A) ORGANISATIONS IN THE REAL WORLD - Let’s do sprints and standups - Keep the existing structure - Very “faux” agile Agile Mgmt in a Stage Gate setup
6. A Brief Look into Systems Thinking “Systems Thinking” has been around for centuries … e.g. Ptolemaic and Copernican systems 1956: Von Bertalanffy publishes “Theory of Open Systems” 1970 onwards: proliferation of approaches
7. Socio-Technical Systems and OST OST evolved from STS - key difference is “active adaptation” and consideration of social system within environment Fred and Merrelyn proponents of Action Research (research by doing) 3 important things to remember: 1. Discovery of the Genotypical Organisation Design Principles (DP1 and DP2) 2. Two stage model of Active Adaptation 3. Use of the 6 Intrinsic Motivators Plus use of Search Conference and Participative Design Workshop in active adaptation FRED and MERRELYN EMERY
8. People Tasks Goals set and monitored from above Team Leader Manager DP1 Redundancy of Parts Genotypical Organisation Design Principles DP2 Redundancy of Functions Yields basic structural module of: Responsible for control, coordination and goals People Whole Task Management Team Goals set and negotiated by the team Team goals Oh, there’s a 3rd: Laissez Faire Bureaucratic? Generative?
9. The Global Environment (extended social field) The Task Environment (industry, market) Two Stage Model of Active Adaptation Organisation as Open System The environment changes the system (learning) The system changes the environment (planning/action) Note: mechanisms used are The Search Conference and Participative Design Workshop
10. Dave Witney slide on 6 Intrinsic Motivators
11. Another large engineering organisation (company B) ORGANISATIONS IN THE REAL WORLD - Team of Teams - Dynamic re-teaming - Strategy cascaded and shared - No single failure mode Participative Workplace
12. Scaling Agile Where did OST come from? Org Design Wrapping Up What is OST? PREFACE SYSTEMS THINKING IN 10 MINS EXAMPLES OF DP1 AND DP2 NEXT STEPS? SUMMARY OF THE MAIN POINTS Quick look at what does it mean to “scale agile” Systems Thinking 101 Socio-Technical Systems Open Systems Genotypical Organisation Design Principles Two Stage Model of Active Adaptation 6 Intrinsic Motivators 2 stories of similar organisations Where do I learn more? What can I do? My Agenda MAP OF THE JOURNEY CALL TO ACTION WE GOT HERE !
13. For more info: https://opensystemstheory.org/ LinkedIn OST Group https://www.linkedin.com/groups/1 4292719/ And the supporting blog post
14. A call to action: - Join the discussion and learn about OST - Expand OST knowledge, conduct action research in your workplace, share your knowledge