"LEADING THROUGH COMPLEXITY"
September 24 | Pre-conference Workshops
September 25 | All-Day Conference
John Coleman
Executive guide, product leader, creator of Kanplexity™ & Xagility™
Orderly Disruption
Objectives and Key Results. 𝝴volv𝝴𝞭.
Goals are better suited to work where no more than expertise is required. Aiming for 70-80% attainment of key results is okay for that kind of work. Unpopular opinion: No target percentage exists when more than expertise is needed, as we are still determining what we will learn.
In the wrong culture, OKRs are milestones and hard commitments for work where more is unknown than known—and communicating lousy news results in a 10-year career stall.
It's crucial to be open to alternative goal-setting strategies. Learn about creating malleable FAST goals (frequently discussed, ambitious, specific/measurable, and transparent) in a direction. Embrace the idea of evolving from the present with Plan, Do, Study, and Act. Try not to be so married to goals, particularly when you learn the goals are wrong.
Explore examples, tips, and traps on OKRs in the direction of travel. Attain unambiguous clarity with Planguage. Even if your malleable goals are wrong, being clear about them has merit.
Focus is good, but believe it or not, too much focus over time can cause a lack of balance. Consider the key value areas of Scrum.org's Evidence-Based Management: current value, time to market, ability to innovate, and unrealized value.
The environment (workflows, processes, and systems) and climate (behaviors, habits) can be improved. Culture is a result. Make change part of the work. Consider OKRs for change, but focus.
Learning outcomes
• Learn the inappropriateness of OKR percentages for complex work
• Discover John Coleman's guidance on OKRs done well
• Get a taster introduction to Tom Gilb's Planguage
• Write OKRs and seek feedback from peers against the guidance provided by John Coleman
• See your OKRs through the lens of the four key value areas of Scrum.org's Evidence-Based Management
Bio
John Coleman is an executive guide for timely humane effectiveness, adaptiveness, and ambidexterity. He mentors and trains executives to balance the short and long term. He and others host a new executive workshop series, "Management. 𝝴volv𝝴𝞭 —the X-Effect." John hosts podcasts on organizational change and product and is deeply involved in professional communities.
He happens to be a trainer with Scrum.org, Prokanban.org, LeSS, and Agile Kata. He is a co-author of Kanban Guide and Kanplexity. And he is a Flight Levels Coach. John is passionate about the problem space, product discovery, delivery, and value realization. John specializes in (de)scaling, measurement, and executive content.
