Learning about Creating Agile Organizations

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5 ๐„๐š๐ฌ๐ฒ ๐’๐ญ๐ž๐ฉ๐ฌ ๐ญ๐จ ๐‚๐ซ๐ž๐š๐ญ๐ข๐ง๐  ๐€๐ ๐ข๐ฅ๐ž ๐Ž๐ซ๐ ๐š๐ง๐ข๐ณ๐š๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง๐ฌ

by Cesario Ramos.

Many people seem to like a good โ€œ5 easy stepsโ€ format, so let me use this format for something thatโ€™s not so simple: Creating Agile Organizations (CAO).ย As you might know, CAO is not about frameworks or random opinionsโ€”so, hereโ€™s one way to evolve your organization in ๐’‡๐’Š๐’—๐’† ๐’…๐’†๐’„๐’†๐’‘๐’•๐’Š๐’—๐’†๐’๐’š ๐’”๐’Š๐’Ž๐’‘๐’๐’† steps:

1. ๐’๐ญ๐š๐ซ๐ญ ๐ฐ๐ข๐ญ๐ก ๐’๐ญ๐ซ๐š๐ญ๐ž๐ ๐ฒ

First things firstโ€”clarity. Define the objectives that matter most for your business. Then identify the desired capabilities you believe are needed to deliver on those objectives. Everything else follows from this foundation.

2. ๐ˆ๐๐ž๐ง๐ญ๐ข๐Ÿ๐ฒ ๐ญ๐ก๐ž ๐‚๐š๐ฉ๐š๐›๐ข๐ฅ๐ข๐ญ๐ฒ ๐†๐š๐ฉ๐ฌ

Where are you stuck? Whatโ€™s holding you back? Study your organization to identifiy capability gaps and prioritize the right improvements to build a foundation for design decisions.

3. ๐ƒ๐ž๐ฌ๐ข๐ ๐ง ๐๐ซ๐จ๐๐ฎ๐œ๐ญ ๐†๐ซ๐จ๐ฎ๐ฉ๐ฌ ๐ฐ๐ข๐ญ๐ก ๐๐ซ๐จ๐ฏ๐ž๐ง ๐†๐ฎ๐ข๐๐ž๐ฌ

Design your teams into product groups focused on delivering on a purpose and value proposition. Use CAOโ€™s proven organization design guides to drive decisions based on the capability gaps youโ€™ve identified. Take a ๐ฌ๐ฒ๐ฌ๐ญ๐ž๐ฆ๐ข๐œ ๐š๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ซ๐จ๐š๐œ๐ก by including all essential parts (teams, roles, processes) in your product group, and the design for optimized interactions between these parts.

4. ๐‹๐จ๐จ๐ฌ๐ž๐ฅ๐ฒ ๐‚๐จ๐ฎ๐ฉ๐ฅ๐ž ๐๐ซ๐จ๐๐ฎ๐œ๐ญ ๐†๐ซ๐จ๐ฎ๐ฉ๐ฌ ๐ญ๐จ ๐๐ฎ๐ข๐ฅ๐ ๐‘๐ž๐ฌ๐ข๐ฅ๐ข๐ž๐ง๐œ๐ž

Hereโ€™s where it gets fun: minimize dependencies between product groups with decoupled purposes and shared services so they can act as independently as possible. This makes your organization more adaptable, reduces bottlenecks, and builds resilience for whatever comes next.

5. ๐‹๐š๐ฎ๐ง๐œ๐ก ๐ˆ๐ง๐œ๐ซ๐ž๐ฆ๐ž๐ง๐ญ๐š๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฒ ๐š๐ง๐ ๐€๐๐š๐ฉ๐ญ

Roll out your product groups in phases, test the design in practice, learn from real-world results, and adjust as you go. Success comes from continuous improvement, not one-time fixes.

๐–๐ก๐š๐ญ ๐Œ๐š๐ค๐ž๐ฌ ๐‚๐€๐Ž ๐ƒ๐ข๐Ÿ๐Ÿ๐ž๐ซ๐ž๐ง๐ญ?

Wellโ€ฆ frameworks are useful, but not sufficient. The CAO approach uses proven methods and real-world experience to help you evolve your organization tailored to your goalsโ€”not someone elseโ€™s playbook.

Want to read more details and see whatโ€™s possible?

Download the free CAO Guide here.

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