Business Transformation Requires Transformational Leaders
Leadership and teaming skills are front and center in times of rapid change. Meet today’s constant disruption head on with expert guidance in leadership, business strategy, transformation, and innovation. Whether the disruption du jour is a digitally-driven upending of traditional business models, the pandemic-driven end to business as usual, or the change-driven challenge of staffing that meets your transformation plans—you’ll be prepared with cutting edge techniques and expert knowledge that enable strategic leadership.
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Cutter Senior Consultant James Mitchell has developed a revolutionary way to determine how you can optimize your cloud use. Whether you’re moving to the cloud or looking to save on your cloud investment, Dr. James Mitchell provides the tools and insight to help you understand cloud procurement and optimize your cloud computing spend.
Peer-to-peer financing in the form of crowdfunding is increasingly filling a funding gap for companies that are unable to obtain traditional financing or are too early in their lifecycle to attract angel investors and venture capitalists.
Jan-Paul Fillié and Hans Boer talk about the “hills” an organization must surmount to implement Agile at scale. Based on their experience with numerous transformations, Fillié and Boer offer helpful advice on resolving such challenges as changing the organizational culture, coping with teams that deliver at different speeds, coordinating dependencies, and distributing Agile practices.
One of the hallmarks of a mature Agile team is continuous learning. “But,” asks author Jeff Dalton, “do Agile leaders know how and what to teach?” Dalton argues that after decades of “vo-tech” style learning, it’s time for a return to “the collaborative, interpersonal, and analytical skills that ... are so important for successful Agile adoption.” He introduces the Agile Performance Holarchy.
Bob Galen tells of IT leaders who turn to him in frustration as their Agile adoption efforts sputter. Why won’t their teams take the initiative? Why do team members wait to be told what to do? Galen has some uncomfortable news for these clients — it may not be the team but the leader who is at fault.
Jesse Fewell discusses the debate between proponents of a “culture-first” approach to Agile transformation and those who favor a “structure-first” strategy. He describes the pitfalls of each and makes the case that Agile adoption succeeds best when leaders “encourage a conversation that incorporates both perspectives.” He offers three tips for bridging the divide, then introduces the Agile Leadership Canvas.
This article focuses on “Leadership Agility.” The author has done extensive research on leadership and created a leadership development model that works exceptionally well in companies undergoing an Agile transformation.
Based on the demand for Agile skills in the workplace, it is quite clear that leaders across the globe are coming to rely more and more on Agile principles and practices to achieve their goals. What makes some of these leaders successful with their Agile adoptions while other leaders seem to struggle?