New ways of working - less like a unicorn and more like a Swiss Army knife
When an organisation embarks on a journey to change the way it works, it is important to align the expectations of its members in terms of delivery outcomes.
Establishing a new way of working may draw its inspiration from a number of sources:
it may be based on a widely adopted delivery framework, supported by industry training certifications
it may be derived from a successful case study implementation by another comparable organisation
it may internally evolve from recognised weaknesses in the current delivery approach of the organisation.
Regardless of its source, implementing a new way of working will require a series of trade-offs from a list of desirable delivery outcomes. This is because:
Some delivery outcomes are in direct competition with each other. For example, the ability to communicate future delivery direction to customers (i.e. inform in advance of upcoming changes) competes with the ability to enable the late commitment to delivery (i.e. respond to opportunities as they occur).
Not all members of an organisation are motivated by the same delivery outcomes. For example, members who frequently interact with external stakeholders might be interested in outcomes that focus on the customer, while members who maintain internal systems may be interested in outcomes that enable the traceability of work.
Some delivery outcomes will have higher implementation costs in certain contexts. For example, the ability to encourage innovation will have a higher delivery cost in a regulated environment (i.e., more required authorisation and quality controls) where risky outcomes might result in significant negative consequences.
It would be great if the perfect ‘unicorn’ way of working would optimise all delivery outcomes for all member’s interests. The reality is that a new way of working will at best be more like a ‘Swiss Army knife’, with capabilities that optimise well for some delivery outcomes, and less so for others.
Align priorities first, change ways of working next
If an organisation does not first align its expected outcome priorities from a new way of working, the risk is that each member assumes the change will optimise for their particular set of interests from all the potential benefits on offer.
If delivery priorities are not first aligned at the organisation level, some potential impacts are:
certain members, or groups of members resist the new way of working, as they feel their interests are not being recognised
teams are given conflicting delivery directions by senior stakeholders that cannot be resolved
additional rules and policies are created, more planning meetings are held, and more issues are escalated to address ongoing conflicts in delivery expectations.
Ten outcomes to optimise delivery at the organisation level
The following is a list of outcomes to consider when establishing a new way of working. The intent is to list all delivery priorities (in this case from 1 to 10) in terms of outcome importance. Ordering the list in this way challenges an organisation to examine what delivery outcomes it truly values, and what it is prepared to trade-off in order to achieve the right delivery priorities.
Note that this list should not be regarded as authoritative or exhaustive in terms of the establishment of delivery priorities and should be modified to address the context of a particular organisation:
Clarifies work decision making - There is bias towards single points of accountability rather than group decision making. Escalation points are clear and resolution speed is optimised. When group decisions are made, they tend to be local in context.
Communicates future delivery direction - Informs stakeholders as to the intent of upcoming delivery. Enables customer facing teams to manage expectations with external stakeholders. Enables delivery teams to consider the medium-term impacts of their decisions and potentially avoid unnecessary future rework.
Enables flexible work routing - Work can be routed to take advantage of emergent opportunities in spare team capacity. This capability optimises for ‘bringing people to the work’, including swarming on delivery issues in a coordinated way.
Enables late commitment to delivery - Delivery options are kept open until the last possible moment. This capability optimises for responsiveness to changing priorities, or the emergence of new information.
Enables traceability of work - It is possible to unambiguously align delivered work with specific outcomes or goals. Enables the ability to map delivery outputs to the reporting of agreed performance indicators and objectives.
Encourages innovation - Work can be initiated in certain circumstances with few constraints other than allocated time. Failure to produce anything of tangible value other than new learning is an acceptable outcome.
Focuses on the customer - Customer outcome is the priority perspective when considering delivery decisions. Other perspectives also influence decision making as secondary considerations.
Improves delivery predictability - Work is initiated through a defined discovery process to address ambiguity upfront and reduce delivery risk. Enables efficient dependency management and adds predictability to delivery timelines.
Promotes team self-management - Teams are provided guidance in terms of required outcomes, which are then self-managed to convert into delivery outputs. Teams own accountability for their output achieving the required outcomes.
Supports organisational communities of practice - Practice leads establish clear definitions of required delivery standards and actively promote ‘common ways of working’. Movement of people and collaboration between teams works more seamlessly.
The ongoing benefit of prioritising delivery outcomes
Making the effort to align expectations on delivery priorities provides several ongoing benefits:
It provides a daily decision-making framework for delivery teams. It is often the case that a number of alternate delivery solutions are available to deliver any given piece of work. Outcome priorities can assist a delivery team to choose the work solution that optimises for the expectations of its stakeholders.
It guides ongoing changes to the new way of working. It is probable that the external environment in which an organisation operates will evolve over time. As these external changes occur, there will be benefit in adjusting ways of working to align to the new environment. Outcome priorities will continue to assist the organisation to make the delivery trade-offs required to best match its goals with that of its environment.