All change please!….mind the gap!
We are living in a time of enormous disruption. Nothing new there.
Before COVID we were faced with the prospect of ‘digital disruption’. Many were waiting to see. Seeing it as hype, or waiting before making the painful investment to transform.
There was a gap between the desire and the investment.
Before COVID there were calls for more working from home, but with doubts. Resistance from many senior leaders about its effectiveness, of losing control.
There was a gap between the need and the appetite.
However, since COVID, digital disruption has been brutally forced upon us. More and more organizations are needing to rapidly to develop digital solutions and services, and learn to work remotely.
Agile Transformations to adopt new ways of working like Agile, DevOps, ITIL4 have become an imperative. And one that is needed NOW!
The gap between the business demand and the speed of capability development is a risk to business success.
Working from home has become an imperative.
The gap between ‘habit, comfort, familiarity’ of the office environment and ways of working
and the sudden ‘fear, uncertainty and doubt’ of remote, new ways of working is painful, frustrating and poses risks to both the speed and effectiveness of adopting new ways of working.
Managing and leading remote teams and new ways of working requires a shift in management mindsets, behaviors and leadership styles and approaches.
The gap between the way we currently manage and coach people and manage change
and how we need to manage both people and change in the age of ‘new ways of working’
is a risk to business success and employee well being.
We are seeing organizations around the world being forced to, and struggling with adopting these new ways of working. Having to invest in online training:
– Losing out on some of the dialogue, discussions and interactions of face-to-face learning;
– Struggling to make classes more interesting and interactive;
– Struggling to translate theory into practice.
The gap between the investment in learning and the ability to apply in practice is a barrier to the desired velocity of change.
We are also seeing organizations around the world struggling with end to end communication and collaboration skills and behaviors, trying to get end-to-end stakeholders and teams working and improving together as they learn to use new video conferencing and work collaboration tools.
The gap between the human behavior changes required and the way technology is used to enable this is a barrier to end-to-end value stream capabilities and a risk to the desired velocity of change.
Business leaders are needing to rapidly invest in innovative IT solutions to create new business value, yet existing IT still needs to be effectively managed and remain secure in an increasingly on-line, connected world. The need for effective IT governance is becoming increasingly evident. New ‘agile’ governance. New, faster, devolved decision making mechanisms. Pulling business people increasingly into the ‘end-to-end value chain or value streams’ of IT.
The gap between the business governing old style and new style IT investments, decison making and prioritization is a risk to business success and to business continuity.
It has become clear to us that Leadership skills and behaviors, coaching and facilitation skills and softer skills such as relationship management, and empathy are critical success or fail factors , as too are clear end-to-end decision making mechanisms focused on closing the gaps.
Closing the gaps
Below are Four recent articles containing key learning discoveries and actionable takeaways from a series of global workshops using our online business simulations. These are based upon the Phoenix Project (DevOps) and MarsLander (ITSM agile approaches such as ITIL4) simulations.
These workshops were aimed at exploring and addressing the gaps and challenges posed above.
- Take a look at the pain points discovered in these workshops. Which ones do you recognize in YOUR organization?
- Take a look at the captured takeaways. Which of these are relevant in YOUR organization?
- Take a look at the coaching and facilitation skills, the leadership behaviors, which of these need developing in YOUR organization?
- Take a look at the shifting role and behaviors of the business stakeholders? What are you doing to engage with and change mindsets and behaviors around governing IT?
- Which stakeholders do YOU need to bring together to start closing these gaps in terms of behaviors, capabilities and in terms of relationships?
Advice for common remote communication and collaboration issues – The impact and challenges brought about by COVID, remote ways of working, fear-uncertainty-doubt and fixing the ‘collaboration’ challenges.
MarsLander flight checklists: paracetamol! – How many paracetamols does it take to align #ITSM practices such as #ITIL4 with more agile ways of working?
Smile or Frown – The face of the CEO? – do you see more smiles or frowns when you talk about #ITSM and new ways of working?
Developing DevOps coaching skills and coaching teams for success – changing the way we facilitate and coach teams, helping address the fear, uncertainty, doubt, develop communication and collaboration skills and capture agreed improvement actions.
Unfortunately there is no quick fix for these gaps or medicine to relieve the pain.
A good dose of empathy, energy, effort, enablement and empowerment. All change Please!….. Mind the gap(s)!