a new approach to making organisations more responsive

A new approach to improve impact

and speed of organisations

Our objective

To let organizations learn to cope more effectively with the speed and complexity of the

market environments they operate in …

… through a stronger flow of goal based action, in a larger group,

By stimulating a a stronger appetite for execution and results,

That drives more autonomy and co-operation, away from constraints that inhibit action

(complexity inside, distraction from goals, bottlenecks at the top…)

-2- © 2015 Pactify Software. All rights reserved.

Essentially because this own appetite for execution and results, is the only motivation

that allows both

highest possible performance AND personal satisfaction,

a combination that is not achievable by “carrot and stick”

Two ways to look at what an organisation really is


• Structures and boxes

• Roles, functions, processes inside the boxes

• KPIs & incentives to measure/control output

The passive interpretation The active interpretation

• A trigger for the flow of actions between

people that are interlinked in a network

‒ Flow:

‒ Top-down or bottom-up driven

‒ Can range from weak to strong

‒ Actions:

‒ Towards common goals or scattered ones

‒ Individual or in co-operation

‒ Network: hierarchical or unstructured

• Aimed at providing effective response to the

growing complexity outside (challenges/

opportunities)

Responding to complexity in today’s markets typically

creates more complexity inside


Complexity in the market Typical response is top down …

Faster changing customer requirements

More and more additional customer

requirements

Aggressive move from competition

New competitors with game changing

business models

…

More and stricter top-down targets

Additional structures

Additional KPIs and incentives

New processes, roles, rules

…

… resulting in less action (less

productivity) and less engagement, and

overall an ineffective response to

complexity

… creating complexity inside …

1 key condition: allow pure focus on goals and actions, away

from constraining complicatedness


To make the organisation more responsive, it’s key to shift

the “appetite for results”


Trigger more autonomy and co-operation from within the group (less top down mgt, structures, …)

Shift the “appetite for execution and results” down in the group

Provide a more effective response to the growing complexity outside (opportunities/ challenges)

Mobilise and steer a stronger flow of goal-based action in a larger group

How ?

How ?

How ?

Individual autonomy and team co-operation are the essential

characteristics of bottom-up drive


Autonomy Co-operation

The drive to take control over your actions

• Without waiting to be told what to do

• Without relying on a fixed incentive to tell them

whether to act or not

Going beyond our individual goals to achieve

more ambitious, common goals

• By helping each other

• By achieving trade-offs together

Result when really

co-operating

Incentive 2

Incentive 1

How?

• Helping each other

• Achieving trade-offs

together

Result when you

act autonomously

Result when you act only according to your

direct incentive or what you are told to do

Result of “working apart together”,

everyone only defending own goals

Continuous flow of goal-based action… on a large scale … with high satisfaction

Four barriers for people to accept autonomy and teams to really

co-operate … and the ways to break them down


Your direct incentive

Fear of not getting noticed/ rewarded

Complicatedness in the organisation

(Perceived) complexity of the

problem

Four barriers to autonomy and co-operation

Four ways to break those barriers

Focus on clear end (and next) goals

Make all contributions transparent

Immediate goal based feedback

Balance difficulty and skill for all

actions, for everyone in the team

… as it doesn’t stimulate taking the required “freedom to act”

… as it is not measured via your standard KPIs

… which doesn’t encourage autonomous action

… which may lead to fear of getting started on it

… to fight the distractions from structures preventing you

from going for them

… to remove fear of not getting noticed/ rewarded

… to keep you on track (the structure will not direct you

anymore)

… to avoid frustration or boredom and develop confidence to

tackle complexity

1

2

3

4

1

2

3

4

To make the organisation more responsive, it’s key to shift the

“appetite for results” down – BUT HOW ?


The appetite

for results

How NOT to do it?

• Top-down orders

• More structures, boxes, KPIs, incentives, …

• Fully worked out plans, “only” to execute

• Over-thinking it

• Trying to get aligned in 1 go, instead of gradually

How to really do it?

• Create curiosity and appetite at the start

‒ Go through problem solving together

• Focus on goals and “doing”

‒ Develop a (flexible and transparent) network of

people, goals and actions

• Let teams experience that they progress

‒ Transparency and feedback on all contributions

• Stimulate and steer growing project portfolio

Why do it that way?

• Not to create complexity inside

• To make results really stick, avoiding (predictable)

escalations after a while

• To tap into more energy and intelligence when

problems become complex

Result?

• More autonomy

• More co-operation

• … in a larger group

?

The appetite is

(almost)

always here,

but how to get

it down ?

Continuous flow of

goal-based action …

… on a large scale …

… with high satisfaction

? Co-operation Co-operation

Au

ton

om

y

Co-operation Co-operation

Our 4 step approach to shift the appetite for execution and

results down


On board the group Trigger the appetite Sustain focus on

goals and actions

Let teams

experience their

progress

• Everyone (50-60+

per program) on a

simple platform

• All equal in

contributing to co-

operation

• 1 simple language of

goals and actions

• Web based, real time

• Present agenda/

problems in the group

• Transfer autonomy by

going trough problem

solving together

• Avoid distraction (separate

focused platform)

• Always a clear, next

milestone in team

• Avoid being stuck: balance

difficulty with skill in team

• Timely pace milestones

• Make all contributions to

result transparent

• Feedback from group’s

own direct input as

• Let the group communicate autonomously on plan and

progress (give them first shoot before “ordering how”)

Sustained drive for execution and results in a large group

More autonomy and co-operation

Mobilise and steer a stronger flow of goal-based action in the group,

to respond more effectively to outside challenges

1 2 3 4


Time

A dynamic and transparent network of people, goals and actions to

monitor continuous flow of goal based action

Objectives

hierarchy

Project

objectives

Strategic

objectives

Overall

objective

Sponsor

The PMO / moderator

Milestones & actions

Key principles:

• Essentially simple so the whole group is involved, not only the PMO or some front runners

• Clear goals structure (overall objectives and immediate next milestones)

• Communication is “flipped” around: teams tell the sponsor and the PMO, not vice versa

• All engagements and contributions are transparent (no hiding, opportunity to shine)

• Supports all the workflow of teams and the communication to the sponsor (steerco)

Strategy formulation/

expectation setting/ forecasts/ analyses/…

Individuals & teams

Our comprehensive approach to making

organisations more effective


Higher impact

=

More results, faster

Involve more

people upfront

(problem

identification, goal

setting,...)

(not only the top)

More autonomy

and

co-operation

in execution

Trigger curiosity to

participate

Have autonomy to

execute accepted

Get away from organisation

constraints to focus solely

on goals, milestones and

actions (in network above org.)

Provide transparency on all

contributions

Give systematic feedback on

group behavior twds goal

Always balance skill &

difficulty (“Flow”)

Hold the focus in

teams (away from

distractions)

Make them

experience

progress twds

goals, together

Develop, in a larger

group, more

appetite to

participate

(to take ownership of

problems&

opportunities)

Sustain, in the

larger group, the

appetite to

realise results

(from start to end)

Present high level direction

and questions openly, not

fully worked out solutions

Trough interactive, open

process of info exchange and

idea shaping untill they are

meaningful to the one

accepting autonomy

How? How (concretely) ?

There are several issues in how companies typically try to achieve

their objectives


The objectives of the organisation:

?

Concrete initiatives to

execute strategy:

How to get there, the

strategy:

Overall direction:

The “Organisation”: structures, incentives

(carrot & stick), rules, roles, …

The “People”: behavior, skills,

motivation, …

These issues become even worse when objectives change

• When something hits you from the outside and a significant, strong response is needed

?

• Too complicated

• Changing too often

• Not fit to tomorrow’s unknown problems

• The top predefines all projects in

detail and then pushes down

• Not enough organic and bottom-up

in terms of evolution

• Not enough spontaneous action

• Often disengagement from not being recognised or

not wanting to be recognised

The effect of the network is visibly changing behavior

towards more autonomy and co-operation


More co-operation across structures

• Beyond individual incentives & goals

• Towards common goals

Essentially because

There are less barriers to action

• As focus is only on goals and action

‒ You automatically start thinking how to get there, not

constraint by distractions

‒ More “natural” to help each other & make the tough

choices needed to realise the goal

• Because everything is transparent

‒ No hiding, opportunity to shine

People start experiencing progress together, which is the

best source of motivation to perform

• Better than what carrot& stick can bring

• Helped by immediate feedback, while doing: confirmation

or immediate signal to modify course of action

More individual autonomy

• To not wait to be told to act

• To go beyond structural incentive

Project administration seen as required,

positive “communication”, rather than a

“hassle”

Change in behavior

Essentially the focus on goals and actions only is what enables

autonomy and co-operation


Over focus on structures can lead to

distractions or constraints to act and co-

operate autonomously

When the focus is only on goals and

actions, people “spontaneously” see and

plan how to get there.

‒ Less hindered by the constraints of the

structures

And even more motivated once they

experience progress

• Towards a meaningful goal

• Together

To enable, we developed a specific tool and moderation approach

What is happening concretely on the platform for each project ?


De Im

Decided Implemented

Project

In team or

individually Formulate

objective

Ideation

Twds

sponsor

Do

Documented

Ju

Justified

Develop milestone plan

(”Sticks in the ground”)

Present to validate idea and

decision to start project

Develop action plan

focused on next milestones

Present recommendation and progress in

recurring steerco meetings. Changes

adapted live in the platform

Update status and timings of milestones and

actions

Update budget and impact measurements

Milestones

Actions

Develop target budget and impact

(*)

Add actions and milestones where

required

~20-30 mins each week

How to get started ? 3 guidelines


Help a single team to improve

performance on a single project

Support an existing program of change/

strategy initiatives

Develop an entire transformation

program to foster autonomy and co-

operation everywhere

A

B

C

Can start small, but is very scopeable and

scalable Focus should be on learning, not on methodology

Top down approaches are very rational and so

extensively described

• Plenty of literature on detailed methodologies

“More bottom-up” is essentially a learning

process without detailed approach steps to follow

• Only by doing, learning and improving, it becomes a

habit

Initially the learning is still controlled from the top

• Full transparency on agreed and aligned milestones

• Contained in terms of scope (# of projects)

The first idea’s come from where escalations/ bottlenecks occur most uncomfortably

First, screen the most important escalation events internally (i.e. where autonomy and co-operation

currently fail)

• Broad enough to all kinds of escalations (commercial, tactical, practical, operational, …)

Then, involve the relevant people, early enough, in an open debate to solve issues with them

Initial screens: navigation from program to sub-programs and

their sponsor and description


Subprogram overview: what are projects, what is last achievement,

what is next milestone and recommendation of team ?


Milestone heat map, per project


The project section: objective, summary, plan and progress,

budget& impact, attachments, gamification and flow


Workplace for the teams: the project timeline – add, modify or

change time directly in the graph (clicking, dragging)


Screenshot – My Progress, emailed weekly


Screenshot – Flow analysis of all tasks


Traditional program management has multiple interfaces that

increase complexity and constrain collective action


Sponsor

PMO

Project

manager

Team

member

Sponsor P

MO

Project

mgr

Team

members

Traditional program management: 3 interfaces Pactify: from 3 to zero interfaces

• Complicated, intransparent

• Lack of recognition below

• Gives only a perception of

control at top

• Unclear communication

• Hard to trigger action from the

top to the bottom

• Increasing gap between “what

we think is being done” and

“what really is being done”

• Doesn’t take pen

• Challenges

• Facilitates

• Guides

• Team & project mgr are equals in co-operation

• Everyone communicates transparently on plan and

progress (no hiding, direct)

• 1 common language of goals and actions

• Real insight in what is going on (or not)

• Much stronger learning on communication and

execution W

eb

pla

tfo

rm

The real

action is

here

Why would I as a participant, use a platform like this ?

1. It’s a responsibility

– You need to have a story at all times of how you will deliver or proceed

• First shot is yours, avoiding that someone else comes in to tell you how to do it

– Your team members depend on your communication and agreements in the system

2. It will also help you …

‒ Makes administration and communication more efficient and effective

‒ Forces you to think ahead and stay focused on action and progress, which will help you

eventually

‒ Focusing on the team story and not only your own will stimulate co-operation

‒ The CEO reads along, it’s your direct channel to him

‒ Your engagements will become transparent to all when realised (which is motivating!)

Some key differences with traditional methods for transformation


Traditional Pactify

You are told how to implement

Stacked program organisation, complicated

with 3 interfaces: sponsor/ PMO/ project

manager / team member (doing the actions)

The project manager is the key person driving

the work

Focus on progress and issues, not on

feedback and learning

Focus on reporting and data control

You autonomously communicate how you

want to achieve your goal

• At least first shots before someone “ordering

how to”

No interfaces: whole team directly to sponsor

Everyone on the team is equal in co-operation

Feedback and learning important, leveraging

direct inputs as source for comparing and

suggesting improve performance

Focus on team behavior and dynamic

a new approach to making organisations more responsive

Business

action complexity

pactify software

growing complexity

autonomy cooperation

individual goals

flow of actions

common goals

cooperation network