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"Cold start" fast flow - using external supplie...

"Cold start" fast flow - using external suppliers to bootstrap a nimble, flow-centric organization - Red Hat Summit Connect London 2024

The challenge: how can we “cold start” an organization with limited digital delivery capability with a hiring freeze and turn it into a beacon of excellence in digital services?

Many traditional organizations have been slow to see the importance of building a sustained capability around digital delivery and are now scrambling to catch up to challenger startups and scale-ups that are slowly but steadily eating their market share. It’s particularly challenging when the organization has a hiring freeze in place to keep costs down, because this limits the speed with which new capabilities can be acquired and strengthened.

However, by using principles and practices from both Team Topologies and Adapt Together™️, it’s advantageous to “cold start” a digital delivery capability in such organizations by using external suppliers - such as Conflux, Red Hat, and Team Topologies - that use commercial agreements, delivery practices, and partner relationships that amplify fast flow and cross-organizational learning and alignment.

In this talk, Matthew Skelton - co-author of ‘Team Topologies’ and originator of Adapt Together™️ - shares how a blend of external suppliers and in-house staff can provide a advantage over purely home-grown talent as the organization builds its “digital muscles”; by taking advantage of the natural boundaries between suppliers, a flow-centric architecture can emerge more quickly.

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From a talk at Red Hat Summit Connect, London - 2024-10-09

Matthew Skelton

October 09, 2024
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  1. "Cold start" fast flow - using external suppliers to bootstrap

    a nimble, flow-centric organization Matthew Skelton Co-author of ‘Team Topologies’ Originator of Adapt Together™ by Conflux matthewskelton.com K301 Red Hat Summit Connect, London | 2024-10-09
  2. Matthew Skelton holistic innovation Originator of Adapt Together™ by Conflux

    Co-author of Team Topologies matthewskelton.com 2
  3. Challenge: How to “cold start” an organization with limited digital

    delivery capability with a hiring freeze?❄ 3
  4. 4

  5. More generally: how to accelerate the move to fast flow

    by using “flow-aware” external suppliers 5
  6. Team Topologies Organizing business and technology teams for fast flow

    Matthew Skelton & Manuel Pais IT Revolution Press, September 2019 Over 160k copies sold: EN, DE, JP, CN, KR Order via stores worldwide: teamtopologies.com/book 14
  7. “Architecture for fast flow resembles an ecosystem of loosely-coupled independently-viable

    services with clear boundaries and stewardship aligned to the flow of business value.” 16 Matthew Skelton
  8. 24 “With the explicit platform strategy [based on Team Topologies],

    we simplified upfront planning … for the whole organization. Defined interaction models between teams streamlined execution with just enough collaboration.” – Maksim Koutun, Director of Engineering @ Flo Health teamtopologies.com/flo
  9. 50 Flow of value Supplier S S S S S

    S S S Internal I I I I I I I I I
  10. External “flow-aware” suppliers can help to cold-start and accelerate a

    fast flow initiative … if procurement boundaries are also “flow-aware”. 54
  11. If we have clear boundaries for flow, with limited interactions,

    how do we create alignment? How do we learn from each other at pace? 56
  12. 60 Alignment and engagement “High performers favor strategies that create

    community structures at both low and high levels in the organization...”
  13. 63 “This initiative around internal conferences has been the single

    most effective thing to align business and technology that I have seen in this organization” – Murray Hennessey, CEO, (UK retail co)
  14. 68 Flow of value Supplier S S S S S

    S S S Internal I I I I I Active Knowledge Diffusion
  15. 71 “The way that the Conflux crew used their active

    knowledge diffusion approach to seek out and champion good practices was a real revelation to us at TELUS and helped to shift thinking around how we innovate and share successes.” — Steven Tannock, Director, Architecture (Platform Technology & Tools) at TELUS Digital (telecoms, Canada)
  16. 74

  17. Challenge: How to “cold start” an organization with limited digital

    delivery capability with a hiring freeze?❄ 75
  18. More generally: how to accelerate the move to fast flow

    by using “flow-aware” external suppliers 76
  19. 80

  20. 81

  21. External “flow-aware” suppliers can help to cold-start and accelerate a

    fast flow initiative … if procurement boundaries are also “flow-aware”. 82
  22. 87 The Adapt Together™ approach from Conflux creates alignment, trust,

    and engagement across your organization whilst delivering at pace with fast flow. adapttogether.info Team Topologies is the leading approach to organizing business and technology teams for fast flow, providing a practical, step-by‑step, adaptive model for organizational design and team interaction. teamtopologies.com