Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:00:00 Well folks, today you get to meet
Speaker 1 00:00:02 Ron and
Speaker 0 00:00:03 Lisa and hear what this podcast series is all about and why you care about it.
Speaker 1 00:00:09 You also get a chance to dive in as we explore making agreements that work with our first guest and organizational leader who will be crafting a real life experiment.
Speaker 2 00:00:20 Welcome to the Epic Agility Leadership podcast series with your host Ron Labio and Lisa Atkins.
Speaker 0 00:00:28 There's no doubt that we all recognize that globally in the corporate space, our world has changed, requiring us to adopt new ways of working that are more effective than the ways that we've always been familiar with. And the way that we work in organizations is evolving quickly, not only to new ways of work, but also to new ways of thinking about how we work. And these new ways of working require a different corporate culture that we've all been familiar with. And our behaviors as leaders and the capabilities that we leverage impact the success of that culture. And this requires a new way of leading,
Speaker 1 00:01:10 But we don't have to make up those new ways of leading. There are plenty of, quote unquote 21st century leadership books, videos, Podcasts out there. The work has already been done. In fact, the thought work is quite advanced. And why aren't we bringing those ways of working into our leadership as more of an everyday capability? Well, we think it's because we need practice and the courage to practice, especially when the stakes are high. I mean, let's face it, as a leader, it's not easy to change the way you work. There are a lot of eyes on you, so you may hear of a good idea in a podcast you listen to or a book you read and then you might think, but yeah, how do I actually do that? So our purpose in this podcast is to help leaders use the available material out there and experiment with just one idea that can make their business better and along the way, their leadership better. In other words, for you to gain enough confidence and guidance to try experiments yourself,
Speaker 0 00:02:17 The one big challenge that's really impeding our ability to be successful is complexity. Complexity in our world is growing at an accelerated rate alongside everything else that's changing in our environments, our marketing landscape, our client base, and their expectations, our employee base and their expectations and needs. There's so many things that are changing at an accelerated rate that really what's impeding us the most is complexity. And this strategy of planning and consulting experts won't get us the results it used to. And what impedes our success is this stuff that we don't know, that we don't know. And the only way to overcome that is to create an experimentation and learning culture in your organization through your leadership. So in this podcast, you'll realize that you can see something great come from something imperfect that we don't have to know at all before we can try and actually achieve something. Fantastic.
Speaker 1 00:03:18 So here's how we're gonna do it. We're going to interview a real live organizational leader twice. First to introduce us to the 21st century leadership concept or thing that they wanna try and the experiment they're going to do to give it a go. And then second to reflect on what we can all learn from their experience. So each podcast will have two guests, one starting their experiment and one finishing the experiment. So as we go along in this podcast series, you can see us as your personal coaches, as we introduce you to new ways of working. And as we through the experience of the real live leaders, help us all expand our leadership capabilities that make all these new ways of working work.
Speaker 0 00:04:08 Welcome to the podcast series and we look forward to working with you.
Speaker 1 00:04:14 So the topic we are going to move into is all about agreements. Agreements that are made in organizations. And what we're referencing is chapter 10 of the Lead Together book. So Ron and I wanna give enough of an idea about what's in that and what we mean when we say agreements before we move into working with our next leader.
Speaker 0 00:04:35 The chapter talks a lot about agreements, agreements between individuals as a team, making commitments and helping each other understand the importance of self-organizing and keeping those commitments aligned. When we typically get assigned tasks or we are delegating work, there's an implied understanding of what needs to be done. But what the other side of the fence really is all about here, and this is what these agreements really hit the the essence is to help team players understand what commitments they're making to each other because the impact on how each other fulfills those commitments really has a lot to do to contribute to the group's success as a whole.
Speaker 1 00:05:19 And of course, we know that if your group is gonna be successful with that, if your organization's gonna be successful with that, then as a leader yourself, you need to be successful with that. So we are into the big a word here, accountability. How do we hold one another accountable in useful humane, but also very clear ways that advance the forward momentum of the organization. So what I like about this chapter is that it talks a lot about creating commitments and accountabilities as experiments because we know once we start moving on something that something's going to change. Now what that also means is owning up to it when something does change and handling misses openly and transparently because there are gonna be times that we just miss. And what happens right now in many traditional organizations is people just put their heads down and they hide and try to pretend like it didn't happen. Well, we know what that gets us. So we're trying to reverse that trajectory.
Speaker 0 00:06:20 One of the underlying reasons why this is such a successful technique is because it kind of reinvents the way in which we decide to make agreements in most corporate spaces. We as an employee, make an agreement with our boss or our leader, where in fact actually those agreements matter most to the teams that we collaborate with and we work with. So these agreements are really about making things visible with transparency, and it's an agreement to the team and the team's agreement to the individual. It's not necessarily looking to the leader to coordinate, to organize, but this allows the team to self organize and self balance where peer pressure is really in a way a motivator, but at the same time, awareness of your team and their understanding of what you are trying to achieve also helps them help you. So this kind of integral way in which to make agreements together, ups and upscales, the team's ability to rely on each other, to have trust with each other and more importantly, to succeed together.
Speaker 1 00:07:18 Alright, now let's see what our guest leader made of all of this when she read about agreements in chapter 10 of Lead Together. Hey, we are so excited to have with us today, Priscilla Dena Moritz, who's the head of the transformation at Phillips. Ron meet Priscilla.
Speaker 0 00:07:39 Thank you Priscilla, it's fantastic to meet you. Thank you so much for joining us on our podcast.
Speaker 3 00:07:44 Very nice to be here.
Speaker 1 00:07:47 So Priscilla, it's so great to have you. Let's let everyone else know who you are and let let them get familiar with you. So tell us a little bit about yourself.
Speaker 3 00:07:55 Thanks Rona, Lisa, will do, and great, great to be here. Indeed. I'm the enterprise agility lead at Phillips leading the Agile transformation. I do that together with a multidisciplinary team of eight to 10 great professionals from various disciplines. So not only agile, but also lean design thinking. Even our directors and copywriters are in my team. So we really build on each other's skills to, to make the agile mindset shift happen at Philips. And it is an a very interesting ride. Basically what what I do went through various stages. So now over a year at Phillips, before I worked for Shell went through, yeah, those stages of exploring, analyzing the current state, who is working agile, who isn't, where does it work, where does it not work, is it connected to a wider network, a wider team of teams, et cetera, has leadership playing their role. And that brought me actually to an advice going forward, which ultimately brought me in the team to where we are now. And yeah, it's just
Speaker 1 00:09:10 So great. You have such a big responsibility in the organization and I really appreciate how much care you take with that. FYI, everyone, I worked with her a little bit, so I have a little bit of a sense of, of how much care she takes with us, and I really appreciate it.
Speaker 3 00:09:26 And it feels also a bit like a mission, right? Philips is such a great company and with, with all the fantastic innovation over 130 years already. But yeah, we have had challenging times and that was not only the supply chain issues and and, and the war, eh, Ukraine, but there was also challenges with delivering on promise and, and being that that organization where roles and responsibilities are clear. So yeah, helping a bit there to, to demystify all of this and and really give handrails on how it could be better is, is really, it feels more like, like a mission and a, and a hobby then, then my real work.
Speaker 0 00:10:13 Well, that's exciting. And what it really is, is it's a huge opportunity and we're really excited to hear actually how you wanna apply a bit of a change to your team and your leadership style. And you had picked an idea of working on agreements from the lead together book, and that would be chapter 10. So before we get into your interest in your practical application of the idea, what ideas in that chapter did resonate with you?
Speaker 3 00:10:41 Yeah, well actually a lot. And I read it a couple of times over and over, and every time I read it, it it, it sparked other links to, to our current and future situation. But we often say when we think of agile organizations, like yeah, self-managing teams take accountability and ownership and, and leaders and power, right? But it is quite a, a difficult topic. Accountability and ownership and accountability and ownership and, and, and radical responsibility, how it is, how it is called doesn't go without mutual agreements in your team, but also across your team. That really stood out for me, like yeah, how explicit are you in your commitments? Right? And what also stood out for me, and I really loved it, is that treating every new agreement as a prototype, giving yourself and others permission to suggest changes as you learn. Because yeah, it might be that you have to dialogue right around what you're trying to solve and you, you commit stuff together and you even record it maybe, but then you find out new information and after, after a couple of days you learn that you might adjust a bit. So it's also about collaboration and not only committing at the start and then at the end and that you deliver to promise, but it's also that, that that co-creation Excellent. Where you learn.
Speaker 0 00:12:16 Excellent. So I'm curious, so how do you wanna apply this in your leadership style and with your, your circumstance? Tell us a little bit more about your, your, your situation, which you wanna apply this.
Speaker 3 00:12:27 Yeah, yeah. So I also looked for very concrete examples for, from the book because I think when you really apply and, and, and, and experiment with that, you have the highest chance of success. I took the example of Bruce Peters of Beyond Teal about using a personal commitment scorecard. And he calls his it a promise is made, promise is kept. And it's very simple and it, it, it sounds a bit like, is is that it? But I thought if I really do it, I might get some insights there. And it's very simple record the date of, of your commitment, right? You record the commitment itself and you record a date of completion and then every week you review your promises, commitments and action items, and you leave time later in the day to deliver on those commitments. And I thought, yeah, that really gives you the time to pause and to, to think, okay, am I running in the right direction still and did I keep to promise and what do I need to adjust to still make it happen?
Speaker 0 00:13:39 And so you're gonna work with this with your team?
Speaker 3 00:13:42 Yeah, definitely. So we already work with a, with a scrum board and, and we already include for example, acceptance criteria, definition of done. So we have the conversation often from, from what will we do next week? But then still do we come, do we really come back on it? That's one. And if the conversation is a bit tougher because someone doesn't, eh, take the responsibility of of delivering to promise, how do you deliver that feedback in a safe environment? There are a lot of eyes on us at the moment, like, okay, Philips is an agile organization, what are we going, what are we going to do right now? What are we going to do next? So a lot of questions and, and really balancing on where to react to where to really dive into, where to promise to more head deep dive and pilot and, and where to say no to is is also yeah, challenging. So it's not only the commitments in a team, but also the corporate commitments.
Speaker 0 00:14:54 Right. Thank you. And if you can give us an opportunity to, to, to put our feet in your shoes. So what specifically are you, like, are you gonna work with your, your team and what's the size of the team? What does your team do and how did you wanna apply your personal scorecards?
Speaker 3 00:15:12 I'd like to apply it with my team. We work in a biweekly rhythm. Okay. That helps. We, we make our more official agreements every two weeks. We record those in, in our sprint. But then what I'd like to do is, and that's new build in a progress review, not only with my team but also with with myself. And I'd like to coach others to do the same. Did I deliver to promise? And if not, and then explore and what was the miss and why did I miss it? And, and really make it a learning opportunity to improve and, and, and also role model others in the organization, right. That you can only self-manage and, and, and be mature adult to adult when you're really practicing with it every day almost. But then at least every week a review with yourself and with the team.
Speaker 0 00:16:14 So you're gonna demonstrate this to your team by showing them what you're doing for yourself as a personal commitment? Is that what you're doing? Oh, excellent. Yeah. Leading by example, yeah. Yes.
Speaker 3 00:16:24 Yeah. I hope so. Yeah, definitely, definitely. And, and, and by also testing and experimenting at this, it is also a real life example for the organization, right? It's not only a concept anymore. Yeah. Being accountable, being myself, managing what does it mean really a role modeling says more than words,
Speaker 1 00:16:46 So who knows what you're gonna encounter. I mean, it could be those things, it could be other things. So just to make it super clear for yourself, Priscilla, and for everyone who's listening, 'cause we're gonna come back in a few weeks and hear how it goes. So let's be clear about what, what is your field work that you are assigning yourself? What are you gonna do and buy when?
Speaker 3 00:17:08 Yes. So it's very concrete. Actually I'll make the personal commitment scorecard in my role where we work with, I like the, the, the visualization. It's, it's, it's very, for me, lively and and creative. Then I shared it with the team because if I only do it myself and they don't know then, then it's, it's, it's hard also, huh? To, to test an experiment. So I'll share it with the team on Monday, what I'm going to do, then track every commitment I make and also, of course to content. And, and when the commitment is is made, eh, that the promise is made. And then on Friday, next Friday, I will have a review meeting with myself first. Like, okay, did I really do what I said I would do? And if not, learn from it, have a reflection time with myself, but then also, of course with the team and ask their feedback, what, what promises did I keep or not? And did the team keep or not do the same the week after? And then we meet on Friday again, right?
Speaker 1 00:18:17 That's right. That's right. You have two weeks of experiment. Amazing. Excellent. I can't, I can't wait to find out what you and the team is gonna learn. And, and you know, as I work in organizations, I can see all of these not necessarily broken promises, but ones we just sort of forget or let's slide. And then over time that really builds up into a lack of delivery capability. So I'm just,
Speaker 3 00:18:43 It is so easy. So
Speaker 1 00:18:45 I'm like excited
Speaker 3 00:18:46 And that's why I wanna try. It's so easy indeed to break promises and, and when it's really made clear, then it's in your face, right?
Speaker 0 00:18:55 The nuance I really like is the way you're gonna be shaping culture with your vulnerability and your openness and your candidness, your responsiveness to feedback. And it really makes you an approachable leader and it helps with psychological safety because then they realize that you're giving them space to be human too, but at the same time, you're holding yourself and everybody else accountable, right? So it's not a laid back approach more than it's just allowing us to be humans, but at the same time to be focused at making sure that we collectively achieve great things. So that's beautiful. I'm, I'm really keen to see how that works.
Speaker 3 00:19:32 Yeah, yeah. Thank you so much Ron. And yeah, you gave me a, a great platform right. To to to shape this experiment and to, to go for it. So,
Speaker 0 00:19:43 Well, I commend you on your experiment. I'm really excited. Thanks for taking the leap. Yeah,
Speaker 1 00:19:47 Yeah, me too.
Speaker 0 00:19:49 Thanks for Priscilla for joining us and we're look forward to hearing your report in two weeks.
Speaker 3 00:19:54 Thanks so much.
Speaker 0 00:19:56 I want to thank you for joining us and we encourage you to join us for the next episode when we hear back from Priscilla about her experiment and what we can all learn from her experiences with agreements, making accountabilities and commitments that work.
Speaker 4 00:20:14 I.
