The Comotion Mendix Engineers have been hard at work tackling an important problem caused by the lock-down: how to enforce consequences in a bad joke competition. Check it out!
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We love this podcast. Masters of scale is a podcast hosted by Reid Hoffman, the co-founder of Linked-in. He interviews entrepreneurs (both social and business) about different aspects of scaling a successful startup.
I have found the discussions, and the way they are packaged, very useful and challenging. In this podcast, Reid interviews Eric Reis, the author of Lean Startup. They highlight a truth that has challenged me many times over the years. The best plans never survive first contact. Big business plans and extensive analysis can be impressive, but they can also just be wrong! As Reid says: stop writing and start testing.
Some of the key takeaways from the discussion:
The Lockhead "Skunkworks" was a great early example of iterating quickly and valuing outcomes over process
Applying the scientific method to your business development endeavours means thinking deeply about setting up your moves as scientific experiments. Be explicit about what hypotheses you are testing and design your first move to provide as much information as possible.
To "pivot" means to use emerging data and experience to change some fundamental part of your endeavour while staying true to the vision. This means that at crucial points in the process of building a startup - or a new business development venture - know when to change your approach if something is not working, while using the learnings already built up.
As Comotion, we often find ourselves in discussions about new business ideas and ventures. Software development needs to take an iterative approach to succeed, particularly when dealing with new ventures. There is a distinct temptation to assume that "if we build it they will come." For this reason, we make sure we operate on agile methodology, which focusses on getting working software out the door as early as possible - so that the learnings can be made as early as possible.
For this reason, we use a combination of low-code technology (in the Mendix Platform), and our own suite of growing products that help financial services companies to innovate. This includes comodash.io, that help companies include data insights in their workflows and product.
Business leaders must create responsive organizations. This means organisations that can adapt, self-correct, and resiliently overcome the challenges they face. This can be a complex challenge for business any leader.
The creation and enablement of self-organizing teams can be a useful tool in the hands of business leaders when building agile organizations.
Glenda Holladay Eoyang defines Self-organizing teams as those who are continually able to construct new patterns of interaction and behavior to achieve goals set out for the team. The advantage of self-organizing teams given a clear vision for the team and business lies in the team's ability to adapt with less resourcing or organizational support. The result is a business that can meet the demands of their environments at a higher velocity.
Conditions for Self-Organizing Teams Three conditions need to be met to construct self-organizing teams, according to Eoyang:
1. A Containing Boundary around the Members The containing boundary effectively allows the group to define itself as a team. The boundary can be as simple as a physical room or a clear set of responsibilities or outcomes for the team.
2. Significant Differences between the Members of the Team The differences between team members in the form of knowledge, experience, or power are needed to generate patterns of behavior necessary for the team to form and function.
3. A Transforming Exchange between the Members A formal or informal transfer of information, resources, or energy between the members of the team. The result is a change to the broader set of interactions within the organization.
In his book, Leading Self-Organizing Teams, Siegfried Kaltenecker illustrates the “4 i’s” support self-organizing teams need from the organization:
1. Information The information necessary for the teams to organize and reach their defined outcomes
2. Infrastructure Support in the form of technical infrastructure, physical space, and required resources.
3. Instruction Educational assistance team members might need to reach their outcomes.
4. Incentive A fair and attractive incentive as a reward for reaching outcomes.
Why Self-Organizing Teams are Good for Innovation Innovation is mainly about making new ideas useful. Within a market context, we find that value-creating innovations have a shelf life before the competitive market forces start eroding the value created by the innovation. Time to market is, therefore, a key element to innovation and it is within that context that self-organizing teams possess an advantage. Self-organizing teams have the freedom to re-organize at pace to reach pre-defined outcomes. The structure creates an environment with less friction to producing innovation.
Businesses that can adapt, self-correct, and resiliently overcome the challenges will succeed against the obstacles their eco-systems throw at them. Self-organizing teams enable business agility and push the company toward success.
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