Home //
Managing Complexity
PRESENTED BY
Esther Derby
Author of 7 Rules for Positive Productive Change. Co-author of Behind Closed Doors: Secrets of Great Management and Agile Retrospectives.
Every organization—whether it is 50, or 50,000 people—faces three broad sets of concerns. How it fits in the market, how it serves customers, how it makes money, what sort of place it wants to be. Leaders in the organization have to figure out what initiatives to invest in, and how to sequence and order work that flows into teams. They have to support teams, so they can do good work. And teams need to figure out the details of their work and how best to collaborate.
Traditionally, organizations have answered these concerns by setting direction at the top, decomposing responsibilities, and cascading objectives down through the hierarchy.The results is often fragmented effort, diminishing initiative, and important work that falls through the cracks.
I'll share a model that provides a way to address these concerns that maximizes the possibility of healthy self-organization, and adaptability.
The SEEM model distinguishes concerns from hierarchy, and allows managers and executives to think about their roles in a way that is more both more responsible and less reliant on narrow job descriptions.
I'll share the model, work through the domains, and then participant will have a chance to work with some scenarios to explore how concerns are met or not met, and the impact that might have on teams.
Esther Derby
I draw on four decades of experience leading, observing, and living organizational change. I work with a broad array of organizations. My clients include both start ups and Fortune 500 companies.
Based on experience and research, my approach blends attention to humans and deep knowledge of complex adaptive systems.
I have been called one of the most influential voices within the agile communities when it comes to developing organizations, coaching teams, and transforming management. My work over many years has influenced coaches and leaders across many companies.
Background
I started my career as a programmer. However, over the years I’ve worn many hats, including business owner, internal consultant and manager. From all these perspectives, one thing was clear: individual, team, and even organizational success depends greatly on the work environment and organizational dynamics. As a result, I have spent the last twenty-five years helping companies shape their environment for optimum success.
My formal education includes an MA in Organizational Leadership and a certificate in Human Systems Dynamics.
Follow me on Twitter @estherderby
More from Esther
ALL SESSIONS ↗Change by Attraction
Even if you don’t have change management in your job description, your job involves change. Change is a given in modern organizations as they respond to market and technology changes, make improvements, evolve new practices to meet new challenges. These are not simple changes on the organizational, group, or even team level. Often, there is no indisputable right answer, and responding will require learning and unlearning, trial and error. Whatever you do, it will interact with existing policies and structures, with unpredictable results. The answer is not more rigorous planning, more pushing, or more persuading. Instead, attraction works, taking an approach that is adaptive, responsive and engages people in learning and owning the new way.
Leaders at All Levels
Traditional definitions of leadership emphasize position, formal authority and power, vision, heroics. Those definitions might have been sufficient in another time. Organizations that need to respond to a fast-changing environment and desire continuous improvement require a different kind of leadership and a different kind of leader. In this talk, we'll explore a different definition of leadership, one from Jerry Weinberg: “The ability to enhance the environment, so that everyone is empowered to contribute creatively to solving the problem(s)”
Micro Shifts, Macro Results
It may seem paradoxical that something small leads to something big. Yet this is the case. Big changes can feel like an existential threat and cause major disruption. Tiny changes, working obliquely, evolving towards a more desirable pattern may lack drama, but get you where you need to go.
Two and a half days with the people writing the playbook.
Insightful sessions, inspiring ideas, and meeting your peers — the skills and methods that take your organization to the next level.