ACHIEVING & SUSTAINING BUSINESS AGILITY

Sathish Vaidyanathan(Director, Software Development, PayPal)

@sathivaid sathishvaidyanathan

People/ Talent

Processes

Culture

Products &

Services

Tools & Tech

Finances

Strategy

BUSINESS SPHERES

OF INFLUENCE

MACROECONOMIC

TECHADVANCEMENTS

NATUREGEO/

POLITICAL

7 BEHAVIORS OF AGILE BUSINESSES

LEADING DECISIONING COLLABORATING

TEAMING

EXECUTINGCELEBRATING TRACKING

LEADING : Leadership values set the stage for agility

• Inculcate transparency and approachability• Invite ideas, have an open-door policy

• Encourage situational leadership• Supportive vs directive behavior

• Create measurable experiments• Winning experiment could become strategy

• Disagree and commit• Unite as One-Team behind a Shared Goal

• Give and get approvals faster• Have facts ready, Provide easy approval tools,

publish a veto process

DECISIONING : Speedy decisions define the pace

• Break the status-quo• Take calculated risks, but act !

• Lean upon facts & data to make informed decisions

• But also go with your gut feel

• Don’t wait for the meeting or email response• Decisions can be made in the lobby, over

phone or over coffee

• Be equipped with industry & tech trends to help make decisions

COLLABORATING : Good relationships always come handy

• Network Heavily and Influence generously• Lean upon influencing skills to get help &

move faster

• Ask for help by creating empathy & articulating business value

• Manage dependencies and conflicting priorities with a ‘win-win’ mindset

• Negotiate , Give & Take

• Be open to change• Do not get married to a scope

• Pay it Forward• Ask the “How can I help you” question

TEAMING : Empowered teams carry out the agility agenda

• Set ground rules, but be flexible to change

• Empower people to make decisions

• Implement feedback loops from team members

• Build responsive teams, not just efficient ones

• Enable avenues to understand the customer and to innovate

EXECUTING : Focused execution is key to realize agility

• Break it down into small chunks• Deliver incrementally, innovate incrementally

• Pursue parallel options, so there is always plan B

• Have daily team and leadership cadence to assess execution

• Brutally prioritize• What was possible yesterday, may be impossible

today.

• Step outside your constraint zone to enable rational thinking

• Adopt a ‘Debate-Decide-Deliver’ mindset

• Communicate often – upward, downward, sideward

TRACKING : Visual tools help stay on top of things

• Mind Maps : Help assemble the clutter

• Walls & Post-it notes : • Communicate plan, progress & priorities

• Design & architecture posters:• Serve a quick reference

• White boards : Nurture rapid brainstorming & common understanding

• Build visual metrics monitoring and reporting tools

• Aid data driven decision making

CELEBRATING : Relaxing and Recharging as a team breeds agility

• Celebrate milestones• Accomplishments reinforce agility

• Pause & Propel• Take breaks. Unwind. Restart

• Spend time as a team, in both good & hard times

AGILITY is not optional

It’s IMPERATIVE