Continuous Alignment
— We continuously collect new insights, enact change and react instantly to changing conditions. We demonstrate progress and outcomes throughout. We process feedback instantly. This way, we are always aligned and up to speed.
Continuous alignment — Athletic
over responding to change — Agile
over following a plan;
At times ‘responding to change’ is not enough. After all, ‘only dead fish go with the flow’. Athletic Developers value proactive initiative and involvement over a reactive stance.
Continuous involvement further ‘touches’ these Agile principles:
“Responding to change over following a plan. Welcome changing requirements, even late in development. Agile processes harness change for the customer’s competitive advantage. ” — the Agile Manifesto
How to quickly react to changing conditions
We make better decisions when we are paying attention to what is happening, not by staring into crystal balls.
There is a tendency for leaders to stick to making plans and creating visions even whilst specialists are ‘in the thick of it’. They lose sight of what is happening right under their very noses, only to be notified of ‘escalations’ and to ‘charge in’ without adequately assessing the situation.
Organizational Debt
We know that when software grows fast, it becomes complex, slow, and unstable. In software, technical debt and regression are causing sleepless nights for programmers, managers, and entrepreneurs alike.
‘Software Regression’ occurs when something new is added that results in various unwanted or unforeseen events, which in turn results in newly discovered dependencies. This effect is best demonstrated by Mr. Bean, who just bought a new chair for this home:
The notion that ‘organizational debt’ is like technical debt but worse is not new:
When leaders are uncomfortable with the exposure of organisational defects, they‘ll ’turn the blind eye’, apply facades and treat only minor symptoms.
“But he hasn’t got anything on,” a little child said.
So how does ‘Athletic Development’ address ‘alignment’?
Where can we find examples of organizations and teams that excel on this level? What comes to mind? Michelin star kitchens? Hollywood productions? Formula 1? Emergency services? NASA?
In these scenario continuous alignment is ‘mission critical’. They have to get it right.
We are effectively attempting to trigger a ‘reset’ or ‘detox’ so we are not inheriting all sorts of ‘organizational debt’ that could get in the way of our mission — including debt our mission could potentially add.
Everyone, yes….EVERYONE! who has a stake or could be affected needs to be actively involved. Enabling this is not a minor feat. This is perhaps THE MOST challenging part of Athletic Development. It is extreme (or else it wouldn’t be Athletic). So the mindset required here is not to build your list of why it’s hard to achieve, but instead to work out how it CAN be done.
This newly formed team is called a ‘coalition’. It only exists for the duration of a mission. Athletic Development introduces two roles to support the coalition. They report to the coalition, not the other way around. So the flow of control is reversed. The coalition doesn’t report to anyone but itself. The coach provides direction, motivation, and support for the team, whilst the captain represents the team and facilitates tactical decision-making. Athletic Development provides a guide, including a checklist that helps the team self-organize.
So start by mapping out who should be involved or affected directly or indirectly. Then eliminate as much distance and proxies as possible. Come together as a team. It’s all about bringing the band together.
The team should align on this at least daily. At the start of the day, the whole team needs to know what it will set out to; where it expects to be at the end of the day. At the end of check-in, the team is up to speed and knows what it needs to focus on. Throughout the day, the team will instantly react to any new input and insights gained to ensure fast feedback loops, responses- and cycle times. If the team is co-located ‘osmotic communication’ is in effect.
At the end of the day, during the check-out, the whole team collectively reflects, inspects, and adapts. It knows what it ran into and shares how challenges were overcome. Any new learnings, insights, and newly discovered complexities are reviewed. The changes to the plan are administered so everyone is on track.
This way everyone is continuously aligned and up to speed.
Next up: “We SERVE and INVOLVE”.
