What would an Agility Guarantee look like?


Hey Reader,

I have a question for you.

Let's say you're in the market for some agility improvement service.

What kind of guarantee would help you differentiate between services that are likely to end up in agile theater vs ones that will guide you to improved outcomes?

Here's the thing - We've been buying (and selling) Agile "Features" for way too long:

  • Training (you're guaranteed to get a certificate of completion. Some even guarantee you'll pass the exam...)
  • Mechanics (You're guaranteed to have specific roles, practices, and artifacts in place)
  • Vanity Metrics (You're guaranteed to get twice the work at half the time... )

It's still pretty rare to buy (and sell) agility outcomes.

Improved innovation throughput. Improved time to realized value. Improved customer centricity.

And I get it. It's harder to buy and sell outcomes.

As an agility advisor, I can help you enhance your agility. But can I guarantee you'll be more agile? That's pretty hard.

So it's tempting to guarantee and focus on the "features".

But I think it's time to work harder. To be willing to explore ways to structure engagements around outcomes. Find a way to guarantee the right things.

So, back to my question - is there a guarantee that would help you navigate the landscape of agility improvement products/services? What would you be looking for?

Scaling w/ Agility

Are You Struggling to Scale Your Organization ? Need agility but dubious of process BS/dogma? I share reflective, pragmatic, principled takes on how to approach scaling your organization leveraging the essence (rather than theater) of product operating models, agile practices and frameworks, and business operating systems such as EOS and OKRs.

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