Is your business agile? | Issue #177
How adopting agile techniques across your business will power growth
Are you familiar with agile? If you’re working in tech, project management or software development, you’ve probably used this methodology. In the last twenty years, it revolutionised how software products are developed. Agile has been so successful, it’s being adopted more widely as a tool to run whole businesses.
The world moves fast. So the ability to respond quickly is vital. Even more so in post-pandemic Britain, where there are new opportunities to seize and uncertainty has become the norm. The future is unpredictable, and it’s in these conditions that agile businesses thrive.
Agile is at the heart of our business coaching. We use its principles to guide everything that we do. But what does it mean to be ‘agile’? And why does it lead to growth?
Growing Your Organisation Through a Digital Transformation with Paul Leinwand & Matt Mani
Is your organisation looking for a new growth strategy? Are you about to undergo a digital transformation? Perhaps you already have but you’re not sure what the next step for you is.
In this episode of The Melting Pot, Paul Leinwand and Matt Mani, both of PwC and Strategy&, discuss the book they’ve written, Beyond Digital, the result of their research into companies that have successfully undergone a digital transformation.
But just what is a digital transformation? What does one look like? What does it entail? And what did these companies have to do to achieve it? What changes did they have to make in their leadership team? In their business? How did they plan for and execute on their digital transformation plan?
Don’t miss Paul and Matt share all of this and more, using examples from the Japanese construction firm Komatsu and Starbucks. This is a fantastic conversation, we’re sure you’ll enjoy it as much as we did.
Recommended Podcasts
The Net Promoter System Podcast – Customer Experience Insights from Loyalty Leaders
Companies around the world are using the Net Promoter System to deliver the voice of the customer to employees inside their operations and increase loyalty and customer lifetime value. Loyal customers spend more, stay longer and tell their friends about a company’s products and customer experience. The Net Promoter System Podcast, hosted by Bain Partner Rob Markey, digs deep into the insights and stories of leading Net Promoter practitioners and customer experience experts to find out how companies can keep customers coming back.
Recommended Articles
Building a culture of learning at work
A few years ago, leaders at the Gates Foundation reached out to see if I could help them improve their culture. They already had a strong culture of performance: They hired world-class scientists and maintained excellence of execution. Their goal was to improve their learning culture, in which people have the humility to know what they don’t know and the curiosity to rethink the way they’ve always done things.
What Psychological Safety Looks Like in a Hybrid Workplace
Sorting out hybrid work arrangements will require managers to rethink and expand one of strongest proven predictors of team effectiveness: psychological safety. When it comes to psychological safety, managers have traditionally focused on enabling candor and dissent with respect to work content. The problem is, as the boundary between work and life becomes increasingly blurry, managers must make staffing, scheduling, and coordination decisions that take into account employees’ personal circumstances — a categorically different domain.
Do we still need managers? Most workers say ‘no’
The vast majority of American workers believe they can do their jobs effectively without the supervision of a manager, and during the ongoing Great Resignation, employers might want to take notice.
Recommended Reads
Negotiate Without Fear by Dr. Victoria H. Medvec
With Negotiate Without Fear: Strategies and Tools to Maximize Your Outcomes, master negotiator, Kellogg professor, and accomplished CEO Victoria Medvec delivers an authoritative and practical resource for eliminating the fear that impedes success in negotiation. In this book, readers will discover unique and proprietary negotiation strategies honed over decades advising Fortune 500 clients on high-stakes, complex negotiations. Negotiate Without Fear provides readers at all levels of negotiation skill the ability to increase their negotiating confidence and maximize their negotiation success.
Twelve and a half by Gary Vaynerchuk
For decades, leaders have relied on “hard” skills to make smart decisions, while dismissing the importance of emotional intelligence. Soft skills like self-awareness and curiosity aren’t quantifiable; they can’t be measured on a spreadsheet and aren’t taught in B-schools or emphasized in institutions. We’ve been taught that emotional intelligence is a “nice to have” in business, not a requirement. But soft skills can actually accelerate business success, Gary Vaynerchuk argues. For analytical minds, it’s challenging to understand how to get “better” at being self-aware, curious, or empathetic – or even why it’s important to try. In this wise and practical book, Gary explores the 12 human ingredients that have led to his success and happiness and provides exercises to help you develop these traits yourself. He also shares what the “half” is – that emotional ingredient of leadership he’s weakest at and makes the most effort to improve. Working through the ideas and exercises in the book, he teaches you how to discover your own “halves” and offers insight on how to strengthen them.
News from the farm
The Melting Pot LIVE episode with Ian Mann and Dominic Monkhouse
Are you doing everything possible to protect your business against security threats?
Attacks such as ransomware are increasing at a 400% rate year on year. Staying on top of your security is now more critical than ever.
That’s why we’ve invited cyber Security expert and CEO of ECSC Group, Ian Mann, to share his expertise and insights.
In this LIVE session, Ian and Dominic will discuss the reasons behind the increase of cyber-attacks and the actions you can take today to protect you, your data and your business.
Join Ian and Dominic LIVE, 7th March at 12:30 GMT
MEANINGFUL ACTION FOR MONDAY
Think about firing some clients
Business inflation is probably higher than household inflation. Hiring talent is hard and wages are going up. You might have clients that aren’t making you any money. If you put their prices up, or fire them, you won’t need to hire more people. Take a margin increase over a revenue increase.
Upcoming events
YPO/EO LIVE: Leading @Scale (2:22pm – 5:22pm ET)
With speakers ranging from Warren Buffett’s protégé’ to an Oscar-winning filmmaker to a YPOer who used the crowd to find $6 billion in gold, this 3-hour virtual summit will feature 8 extraordinary presenters, 22-minutes each. They will detail the new “teeming” (not a typo) model for leading at scale. Based on one of the more important books of the 21st Century, modern organizations are using a more nature-informed approach to scale their enterprises – one that’s at the heart of most of the unicorn companies today.
Like Minds Nudge Ideas Festival, Exeter (UK) – 25th March
The Like Minds Nudge Ideas Festival is back in person. Join 200+ entrepreneurs and business leaders at the South West business event of the year. It takes place at the impressive Winslade Manor, just outside Exeter on March 25th. They’ve curated an amazing group of speakers and workshop leaders for you this year.
Early Bird tickets are on sale now and include all your tea/coffee during the breaks and lunch in the Georgian Manor House itself.
Very limited on numbers so don’t miss out.
Monkhouse & Company Scaling Up Workshop – New Forest – 23rd June
The workshop is your first step in the process of identifying and addressing the real challenges confronting your business. You will receive practical guidance in the essential skills that underpin manageable and sustained growth. Join five other business leaders on a half-day session with Dominic Monkhouse, away from the uproar of the everyday commercial world and look at your business afresh – to recognise your strengths, your weaknesses and your opportunities.
CEO Bootcamp with Verne Harnish and Dominic Monkhouse – 12-15th September
Author of Scaling Up, Verne Harnish is coming to the UK for the first Scaling Up CEO Bootcamp in Europe. A reinvigorating 4-day Bootcamp where you and nine other CEOs and their #2’s will spend small group and one-on-one time with Verne addressing your specific opportunities and challenges – in a setting that promotes deep thinking and relaxation.
Join Verne and Dominic from Monday 12th, September – Thursday 15th, September at Lucknam Park Hotel & Spa, near Bath (UK).
Quote of the week
“If you adopt only one agile practice let it be retrospectives. Everything else will follow.”
Woody Zuill
Dominic Monkhouse
Dominic offers business coaching and management development, strategy planning and organisational change, using tried and tested methods to launch your organisation onto an unparalleled growth trajectory. His programme is a function of his broad experience, his deep expertise and a proven process used by over 2,700 firms worldwide.