Why are Agile/Scrum practices helpful to an organization? There are really two “business results” that an organization should expect to get out of Agile. The first is a fast, predictable cadence of value delivery. A traditional “waterfall” project might spend lots of time up front specifying, designing, and producing the output before anything is shipped to …
How will change management be helpful to businesses as we begin the post-COVID reopening process? Change Management, when done right, should result in a more change-ready and adaptive organization. We are in an unprecedented time of change which is difficult for both employers and employees and nobody really knows what happens next. Approaching any business …
It can be difficult to dedicate time to process improvement when there are day-to-day tasks to be completed, but it is very beneficial. Process improvement doesn’t only result in increased efficiency in a work place, but can also improve employee morale and job satisfaction.
AJC’s Diana Muirhead has been leading projects and process improvement for many years in various settings. She has also trained as an Agile Scrum Master and is versed on applying Agile concepts such as Product Backlogs, Sprints, and Retrospectives in non-standard Scrum settings. Diana shares with us her background and ideas on process and projects …
As we look towards the end of the COVID-19 crisis, “Returning to Normal” is at the forefront of everyone’s minds and hearts right now. Welcome as it may be, we are all dealing with the changes this new challenge is bringing, both at home and professionally. Our Change Management consultant and ProSci Change Management practitioner, Charae Gibbs, shares her …
It should be noted that the first step in Improvement is to admit that you have things to improve! Once you think you can improve, in order to actually improve, you have to do something. After you do something, you can assess the results and realize you can improve again! In other words, focusing on improvement is a beautiful virtuous cycle.
OD has to do with being intentional about the organization’s evolution, understanding the talent you have, and building ways to ensure that talent stays and grows with you. OD is about the organization seeing its’ internal SWOT clearly, and about ensuring that clarity translates to effective strategic capability.
This describes AJC’s value of Foster Accountability. We have executed projects and change before and can help our clients’ teams create and visualize the path. At first, all they need to worry about is visualizing working with our team. We will help them create and follow the path so that over time, they will be able to see the path for themselves and can execute on their own the next time.
It is very important to note that helping others succeed does not necessarily feel good in the moment. Helping others succeed sometimes means having uncomfortable conversations. We are fans of having these conversations in an empathetic way. This is pretty nebulous because it’s hard to quantify what “an empathetic way” really means. Here is a pretty simple way to check if one is in an empathetic frame of mind when discussing uncomfortable topics.
Many of us have had the experience of asking for something specific, and not hearing back – for a “long” time, or sometimes ever! Great leaders, such as Pat Gelsinger of Intel, give advice to leaders, especially in a pandemic, to “Communicate, Communicate, Communicate.” At AJC, we are keenly aware of the frustration and stress …
