Action Making people redundant With furlough ending, many organisations will make the difficult decision to make some of their workforce redundant. This is never easy, but by following best practice, the relevant laws and this playbook, the experience can turn out to be positive for all involved.
Insights How do I know that my organisation is creating customer value? All organisational activity should be about generating value for our customers. But few people are able to define ‘value’ as something that’s actually meaningful in the context of an initiative or a customer.
Action A Leader's Guide to employees Working Remotely Working remotely is the new normal for employees of service organisations. Whilst 'working at home' for some staff is familiar to many businesses, there are a new set of challenges when the whole company has to work remotely.
Insights Agile must extend beyond IT When challengers start to deliver value to your clients, IT are often given the digital transformation brief. But while those outside IT may see their role as merely looking on from afar and tolerating the noise, much greater benefit arises when the rest of the value chain works in the same manner.
Insights The new role of IT Leaders When the autonomous delivery team work directly for the Product Owner – who is generally drawn from the business – what happens to the IT Director and the ‘Heads of’ the traditional IT functions?
Insights Change and Transformation The terms change and transformation are used interchangably by many, but there is a difference. If Change is about improving an aspect of a business, then Transformation is about renewing the whole company. Change initiatives tend to focus on people, Transformation is about delivery of value.
Action Remote Work and Virtual Leadership Your newly virtual teams have newly virtual leaders, and some of your leaders may need help adapting to running a team of remote workers. It's a sound investment, for now, and because these are the same skills that you need them to have for the digital mastery you must embrace.
Insights Communicating...and silence is still communicating Many businesses stop communicating when faced with uncertainty, crisis or anxiety, but communication becomes ever more important. If you’re not actively communicating with your people, they’ll still be getting a message loud and clear – but not one you necessarily want them to hear.
Insights A Product-Aware Organisational Structure We believe that time-honoured organisational structures and funding methods are no longer relevant. In order to create a customer-centric business it's time to pivot the organisation and place Enterprise Architecture, Product Management and Engineering at the heart of the company.
Insights Organisational culture: shifting gears to accelerate change Organisations must pivot to respond to significant trading uncertainty. Their ability to pivot may be compromised by a lack of readiness in the change team and unhelpful behaviours amongst the staff. We discuss what must change.
Insights The Three Laws Building a customer-centric digital organisation that is focused on delivering value to your customers needs new and agile ways of working. Let's explore the Three Laws.
Insights The Law of the Customer Customers no longer line up meekly at our shop door, impatient to buy what you have to offer. You need a team who are constantly alert to discussions about your brand or products on third-party sites or social networks, and who build connections and understand what customers truly want to buy.
Insights The Law of the Small Team Small teams are essential to create a customer-centric company. With self-organising leadership and alignment to the overall product roadmap, they are given the autonomy to decide what to build, how to build it, and how to work together while building it.
Insights The Law of the Network Work flows smoothly and continuously. Instead of major programmes of work requiring significant capital investment, we move the whole company to an agile way of working where we continually respond to customer needs, and deliver increasing customer value.
Action An Individual's Guide to Working Remotely Working at home all of the time is a lot different from staying in one day to receive a delivery. It requires some behavioural shifts, but once you realise what needs to change, you'll feel more confident.
Insights Leadership Tensions Most workers today would agree that org charts cannot even remotely describe the reality of working life. Hierarchy works for setting up corporate contracts and paying taxes. Over-emphasis on formal structures reduces effectiveness and inhibits innovation. There are alternate structures.
Insights Chief of Staff Your CxO can’t do everything themselves. There is so much noise in the world. They need someone to help manage strategy and innovation and to improve the signal-to-noise ratio. A Chief of Staff works alongside their Exec as a force multiplier.
Insights People Matter Whatever our background, all of us are a diverse mixture of our past and present, with our own hopes and fears, abilities and weaknesses. Together we represent society, and by embracing the breadth of what we all offer then we are also relevant to and engaged with our customers.
Insights Autonomy, Mastery & Purpose Happy and productive people are those who are given the freedom to make decisions, those who have the confidence of being on top of their game, and those who are working towards positive outcomes. Our customer-centric world will thrive when staff themselves are focused, trained and empowered.
Insights What makes your team tick? Do you know what you need to do to get your team to perform at their best? Do you wonder why they bicker over seemingly insignificant matters? We've been using a workplace motivation tool to help our clients understand themselves and their teams better, and to unleash their potential.
Action Seven steps to effective delegation Delegation is one of the most powerful tools in your toolbox. It allows you to work on the things that will really take your business forward. But how do you get it right?
Insights Team Culture Research shows that team culture is not only strongly correlated with company performance, it is also a strong predictor of job satisfaction. A high-trust culture is important for creating a happy working environment and a high-performance organisation.
Action Attitude to Change Attitude to change is the difference between high- and low-performing companies – and individuals. One attitude is indifferent or overwhelmed, the other embraces all of the opportunity that change can bring. Informed leaders can use a positive attitude to drive the change agenda.
Insights The art of communication: making contact... and then what? Communication is a key leadership skill. It's easy to assume that if we know something and the context around it, then everyone else does too. Effective communication involves defining your audience, choosing the best messaging route, plus giving clarity on the expected action by recipients.
Insights In conversation - pragmatic Digital Transformation answers David Seacombe and Fortune Nwaiwu discuss digital transformation, why it is important and practical implementation. In the 36 minute conversation David answers a number of questions from Fortune, as he gathers information for his university dissertation.
