Our challenges in agile strategy processes with OKRs
For 2023, I made a New Year’s resolution to formulate a few thoughts on a regular base in the area of tension between my perspective on the world and my work. I didn’t keep every month, but this is already the second post in the series. Join me on my journey …
I already wrote this in my last about Purpose: I still want and need to understand many things first. Today I am trying to approach the topic of strategy and OKRs. In doing so, I report on how the topic is dealt with in my environment and where the biggest challenges lie.
New processes of strategy development
stadtraum GmbH was initially active as a planning office. It soon added the sale of parking ticket machines and then parking space management. What strategy did the three founders follow back then?
Software development has been going on at stadtraum for about 15 years. I had the privilege to play a major role in shaping two of them. A side project became a separate business unit with over 30 employees. First and foremost mobilet as a digital ticketing solution for parking, public transport and visionary as a MaaS solution. But other digital products, some of which serve very specific niches, must be coordinated with each other and somehow manoeuvred through the strategic and everyday operational challenges.
Increasingly complex challenges and higher customer demands, especially in the digital world, require new forms of organisation and new processes of strategy development.
Tackling long-term goals the right way
If we have set ourselves a release date, but development keeps stalling or we haven’t taken things into account, we have to keep making new loops, the best strategy for a moment can be “close your eyes and get through it”. Changing things around, working more agilely, releasing smaller increments more quickly helps, no question about it. But with some projects or — excuse me — clients, that doesn’t work. They are not yet in this agile mindset. Although at the beginning of a project we always insist on naming the problems that a product is supposed to solve, in the end we find ourselves in endless discussions about the meaning and purpose of our actions.
It becomes a really big problem, however, when “close your eyes and get through it” becomes the permanent motto. It particularly blocks the setting of long-term goals. Strategy processes are not a short sprint but at least a marathon. This can go beyond the limits of pain for all those who like to work actively and dislike reflective work.
No strategy is also a strategy
Product goals are one example. Many development teams, including ours, ask for them. Or to be more precise — at least that’s how I understand it — they ask their leadership team for process responsibility to set product goals and to reconfigure them again and again. There are enough methods for this. OKRs are one example.
But what if no one takes on this process responsibility, if no one wants to facilitate the workshops three or four times a year? For me, strategy is not meeting somewhere offsite once a year, setting great-sounding goals and then losing sight of them after a few weeks. But not doing it at all is not a solution either.
No strategy from leadership is also a strategy. If teams had the freedom and, more importantly, the resources and skills to work on strategic issues themselves, that would be really cool. Tackled properly, it could develop into self-organised teams or even organisations. But unfortunately, many organisations are not there yet.
Traditional organisations are direct descendants of a patriarchal worldview. Their decision-making power is concentrated in a small and closed (predominantly male) leadership group that dictates its issue-oriented goals from above. But what does the right strategy process look like?
Above all, you have to learn to say no
In the business environment it is sometimes like in kindergarten. There are those people who want everything immediately. I then always come to the topic of empathy. Leaving aside the fact that empathy does not mean “putting me in your shoes” but “understanding you in yours”, which can only be a communicative process, we have to accept that many people simply cannot do this with empathy.
Those who struggle with empathy quickly cross boundaries. When I say no, I make my boundaries clear. Many people need to relearn to say no and to accept boundaries on the other side. Unfortunately, this skill has not been fostered much in our predominantly patriarchal business environment.
At the same time, I notice that organisations that are cooperative with others fare better. In other words, they don’t want to take over the whole world with their business, but instead engage in exchange with other organisations.
New management methods can bring a breath of fresh air
In Scrum teams we work with the role Product Owner. An important part of the training to become a product owner is to say ‘no’. The responsibility that comes with this is to defend the boundaries of the team. The task of Product Owner is to put themselves in front of the team. In this way, they do not become enemies of the other departments in the new way of working, but, if communicated correctly, become constructive discussants.
On the other hand, there are people whose responsibility it is to create synergies with other teams and departments or even organisations. They too have the right to say no, namely whenever the interests of the collective are at stake. Money is a good example of this. If there is no money, I cannot hire developers. But if a team needs new people to achieve set goals, it is difficult to deal with a no and makes it necessary to say no to the goals on the other side.
This makes it clear that strategy and goal-setting processes need multiple and repeated iterations. Hence, the initial reference to process responsibility and not to setting goals once.
Process responsibility in agile strategy processes
Integrated (strategic) leadership combines power and compassion into a charisma that inspires others.
In the end, we are back to the two central competences of our time, empathy and communication. Probably the most important qualities of people in strategic responsibility, or what do you think? What are the qualities that help you or your team to deal with strategic issues? What is your process for agreeing goals and developing and revising strategies?
This series of posts is aimed at feedback from my network and includes an invitation to discourse. As I wrote at the beginning, I still have a lot to learn and understand. Let’s explore topics around strategic utopias together.
You can find the original german version of this article on LinkedIn. I’m always happy to connect and discuss via LinkedIn.
