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Agile requires a pivot of mindset.  In an accelerating VUCA world, the 3rd and longitudinal dimension of journey orientation has become the primary dimension around which we must reframe our approach to translating agile strategy and agile execution into traction, avoiding wheel$pin, which can cost us a fortune.   For that pivot of mindset, we must simultaneously understand the microscopic ... Read More »

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The journey to mastery is through complexity. Often voicing the KISS principle, “can’t we just keep it simple stupid”, Dabblers, obsessives and hackers bounce off complexity getting stuck in stupid simplicity this side of complexity, which can be the KISS of Death! Masters understand the nature of the journey and keep moving through complexity, to the other side and mastery ... Read More »

While organizational agility is a timeless problem, today’s reality is placing new and unfamiliar demands upon us and our skills. It is asking new questions of our executive strengths, which are  being tested in new ways. To pass the test, we need new answers. Where do we get those new answers? That was a question I constantly asked myself as ... Read More »

Don’t get dunked by the future.  Go on the transformation journey to mastery as an agile enterprise with the agility operating system required. Read More »

Translating agile strategy and agile execution into traction on your desired trajectory of profitable growth, avoiding wheel-spin, requires an Agility Operating System that is up to the challenge of VUCA these days. Read More »

I have been mind-mapping for years and years using some of the earliest software applications back in the 1990s. I love sharing the power of mind mapping, at least how its aligns for me with my personal productivity process and system for agile productivity. Find out about the basics here: Wkipedia: Mind Map Find a list of Software Applications here: ... Read More »

GREAT videos from David Allen, my favorite personal productivity thought leader. Read More »

The first of the 5 Roles of Everyday AGILE Leaders … we must be the Chief Chaos Coach, coaching our team from the majority pattern of disorganized chaos to the minority pattern of organized chaos. Disorganized chaos is a pattern of behaviors the majority find themselves in as a self-fulfilling/self-defeating, vicious cycle and downwards spiral. Organized chaos is a pattern ... Read More »

There are 5 attributes of Agility to change your relationship with. These are the 5 realities of our agility challenge and the 5 reasons why the majority of leaders, teams and organizations are stuck in the fragile majority unable to join the agile minority. They become the 5 roles we must fulfill everyday, knowing that if we don’t, no one ... Read More »

For the Fragile, VUCA is full of threat, which can rapidly unfold as a breakdown journey. Probably bigger, faster and sooner than you worst nightmare! At least, that’s the only safe assumption. “Only the paranoid survive”. For the Agile, VUCA is full of opportunity, to architect a breakthrough journey. But its like playing high-speed 3D chess! Read More »

See the official Navy SEAL Ethos/Creed at the Naval Special Warfare Command Website:  Navy SEAL Ethos/Creed         Definitely worth reading the whole thing.  My favorite parts are: In times of war or uncertainty there is a special breed of warrior ready to answer our Nation’s call. A common man with uncommon desire to succeed. Forged by adversity, ... Read More »

Luck is huge in Agility. Is VUCA causing you to be experiencing more bad luck by accident than good luck by design? Many teams are mired in a “stuff happens” mindset. Not AGILE Leaders, who understand how to get luck on their side as a reliable factor by stacking the odds in their favor. Help your team change its relationship ... Read More »

In a VUCA world it is inevitable that we will always be learning from hindsight, but it can be very expensive and, at the extreme, terminal. Every time you learn from hindsight, I invite you to look in the mirror to ask yourself if you could have learned that from foresight, a lot less expensively … if you had been ... Read More »

Is VUCA defaulting you and your team into partial-triage? So busy working in dis-organized chaos that we aren’t working on organizing the chaos?  So busy working in crisis management that we aren’t working on averting and preventing crises?  So consumed in reactively triaging short-term operational VUCA that we aren’t proactively and preemptively triaging long-term strategic VUCA? As a result, we ... Read More »

Is VUCA defaulting you and your team into dis-organized chaos? That can be endemic in the majority of small and large organizations alike, for different reasons. The majority of small organizations are often under-organized, hair-on-fire and seat-of-the-pants, in which VUCA creates whiplash resulting in dis-organized chaos. The majority of large organizations are often over-organized, bureaucratic and rigid, unable to keep ... Read More »

One of my favorites for times of VUCAdversity: “If you’re going through hell, keep going!” (Winston Churchill) Read More »

I love explaining the 5 Roles of Everyday AGILE Leaders, especially to CEOs and Executives, challenging them … if they don’t step up to also being the Chief of these new 5 Roles, nobody else will!  For instance, if they don’t step up to being the Chief Facilitator of their team to be doing full-triage (which only a minority do), ... Read More »

TRIAGING well is essential for AGILITY and avoiding FRAGILITY.  Fully triaging your full agenda of time-horizons and altitude-levels, working “IN” and “ON” your business as an and-proposition.  Too many leaders default into Partial Triage, partially triaging their agenda, working “IN” or “ON” as an or-proposition, too much of one at the expense of the other, either way around.  Be honest ... Read More »

How is your TRIAGE? Full or partial, with full or partial situational awareness? Covering your full agenda of time-horizons and altitude-levels? We can’t afford to lapse into partial triage, either way around. Working too much “in” our journey and not enough “on” or too much “on” and not enough “in”. Either way around, on an offshore drilling rig, partial triage ... Read More »

Like many of my Shell International colleagues, I first learned about agility working on oil and gas drilling rigs as a Petroleum Engineer, onshore and offshore. Aged 21, helicopter out, helicopter back, week on, week off, when you’re on, you’re on, 24/7. Often in the middle of the night, freezing cold, horizontal snow driving in your face, high seas, hundreds ... Read More »

Agility is a 3D challenge and too many leaders, executives and CEOs are stuck in a 2D mindset.  You can’t solve a Rubik’s without solving all 3 dimensions simultaneously.  Most importantly, we must pivot to the 3rd and longitudinal dimension of Journey Orientation to solve the Rubik’s cube of your agility and your future. I love explaining the nature of ... Read More »

Think fighter pilot to remind you to always be finding ways to shrink your Organizational OODA Loop for a higher clock-speed of fast-cycle teamwork.  I love explaining the OODA Loop training of a fighter pilot.  Observe, Orient, Decide, Act.  Other things being equal, the fighter pilot with the stronger, better, faster OODA Loop wins. We go into a dog-fight every ... Read More »

Think modern jet fighter plane to remind you to always be finding the agile middle as an and-proposition.  It never ceases to amaze me how mired we are in or-thinking and how easily our conversation-flow derails into an or-proposition of this-or-that, rather than an and-proposition of this-and-that.  I love explaining the and-proposition design principles of a modern jet fighter plane, ... Read More »

What’s the QQC of your Conversation-Flow? Agile or Waterfall? Agile Conversation-Flow becomes Agile Cash-Flow! Waterfall Conversation-Flow becomes Waterfall Cash-Flow! … Down the drain if you aren’t carefull! You show me an enterprise with poor QQC of Cash-Flow and I will show you one with poor QQC of Conversation-Flow. Over talking about some things, under-talking about others and not taking realer-actions-sooner ... Read More »

Which camp are you in? In the last global survey on agility I saw from McKinsey in October 2017, their estimate of the agility advantaged minority had risen from 12% to 22%. That’s still a very small minority, which means it’s a great time to join them! Read More »

The best way to triage is visually.  We can process visually so much faster and comprehensively than we can any other way.  There is a reason why “a picture is worth a thousand words”.  There is a reason why a cockpit is a very visual place … plus the control room of a nuclear power station … plus the driving ... Read More »

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