Limericks
ART to Art
I get inspired by many advanced students,
Organizations that hire them are so prudent.
They are not just book-smart,
They make adaptiveness look like a piece of art.
The questions come in thick and fast,
These people are not from the past.
I have been where they are,
So, for me, it is like getting into a car.
I do enjoy the curiosity,
And the eradication of velocity.
These people make a difference on the front line,
And for them, I have no redline.
Except for the pure badge collector,
Who are just internal decorators,
Who want the exact certifying body story line,
Even if it is inferior to local wine.
One not-so-advanced student in an advanced class asked why one of my practice questions referred to a CTO (Chief Technology/Transformation
Officer),
It was not mentioned in the Scrum Guide; hence, they did not need
to know.
Enthusiasts appreciate supplementary content,
As it helps with their ascent,
Especially when it makes sense,
And allows them to come off the fence.
It is like a dart,
Moving from ART to art.
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Teal Meal Deal
What's the Teal Deal?
Did they get Spiral Dynamics and AQAL Integral in a Meal Deal?
Let's go back to a world where Teal is wood,
And stop all that nonsense under the hood.
From Agile through Teal,
To a product spiel.
Thought leaders go polemic,
Like it is endemic.
Beware of vultures,
Copying ideas from different cultures.
Looking for a feed,
As though they are in need.
Beware of product coaches throwing dice,
Claiming they have the keys to Paradise.
Focus on success, performance, results, and all critical stakeholders,
Before short-term rewarding shareholders.
This includes customers, users, and employees,
Make them long-term devotees.
Transformation is a load of, you know what,
It will get you into the wrong spot.
Listen to people who have clear ideas,
But not panaceas.
Look at how to inspire action,
To avoid a results fraction.
It is a long road,
The only road.
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Outsourcing Enforcing
Horizon was the name of a problematic UK Post Office System,
All across the UK, it left many a sub-post-master victim.
Outsourcing the operation of core systems is for fools,
And still, they teach it at poor management schools.
The more the outsourced systems cost,
The less transparency there is about faulty data spots.
After 24 years, a TV drama summarized the scandal,
Post Office Limited needs to look at itself to find the vandal.
In the TV drama, it seemed like Post Office Limited went opaque,
Instead of giving sub-post-masters a break.
In all that time, Post Office Limited and the supplier folks got off scot-free,
One even got knighted,
While sub-post-masters got blighted.
Never outsource the operations of something as precious to
your organization as the crown jewels,
It is about in-sourcing what's most important, unique, and
inspiring instead of acting like tools.
In short-term outsourcing deals, suppliers get squeezed for
costs,
It is no wonder that quality gets lost.
Sunk-cost-fallacy takes over,
Is it even possible for executives to stoop lower?
Lack of transparency is what toxic systems do,
They leave doo-doo on your executive shoe.
There is no authentic behavior in some organizations to work with; moreover,
Sometimes, it is better to start all over.
Sub-post-masters are guilty until proven innocent to Post Office Limited,
Not for long, the sub-post-masters are not dim-witted.
The sub-post-master victims have strong support,
It will be interesting to see what happens in court.
I hope Post Office Limited properly settles,
It must look after the sub-post-master petals.
Accountability at the top is about taking the blame and passing on the credit,
Be authentic, and let your successors be ready to pass on the merit they inherit.
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Not in Scrumland Anymore
Advanced Scrum does not feel like Scrum.
The product and the people ferment like a nice rum,
Events and accountabilities are hardly boasted,
As great results get toasted.
It is more like the original rugby set piece,
Which leads to many a release.
Potential value flows,
Everybody rows.
Experiments abound,
Discover to deliver is all around.
The product gets more emphasis than the process.
And the organization avoids losses.
Scrum is simple,
Let us make the process a pimple.
Not many things in Scrum are rules,
Search for the word must to find
the jewels.
We assume so much to be mandatory in Scrum,
Few things are needed for a rhythm drum.
Most people who reject Scrum at the organizational level,
So potent is the spell of these disablers they stop chances for any effectiveness or agility to revel.
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Space Invaders
Agile haters are like space invaders,
They hang around with terminators.
Kanban helps effectiveness, efficiency, and predictability,
But, like Peter in the garden, it denies agility.
Product folks admit some are trying to change Agile from the inside.
But cannot be seen to be on their side.
Some of them are product enthusiasts.
But they might as well be the brown stuff evangelists,
Do you want to do the wrong thing right,
Or discover evidence for what is right.
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Wronger than Wrong
The righter you do the wrong thing the worse you become.
It’s a waste of time saying this to people under the thumb.
To be fair, the excessive focus of Agile on frameworks, processes, and theory
It has left most people dreary.
As a sponsor said to me once,
By focusing more on the process than the product, you become a dunce.
But very late in my career, I discovered the work of Tom Gilb on quality,
For many stakeholders, you cannot afford to not have for a value a quantity.
In some industries, such as aviation,
There is no room for deviation.
Maybe one of the reasons so much product functionality is not used,
This is because just-in-time attention to detail is just a ruse.
Unambiguous written agreement on the right thing,
It is as rare as lead on an aircraft wing.
Let us bring the work of Tom Gilb to areas where the cost of failure is astronomically high,
Then, the only limit is the sky.
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Game, Set, and Match
They say Scrum is dead, the game is over,
And what we need is a changeover.
But all approaches to more effectiveness,
They have the same defectiveness.
They all share a need for change at the top,
So the organization can adequately yield its crop.
Where simplification doesn’t mean people get fired,
Quite the contrary, new people get hired.
With a different set of behaviors and attitudes,
Top management will experience more gratitude,
If they clear the way, remove the weeds,
Along with other timely, humane,effective deeds.
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Outcomes Outdone
Adaptiveness coaches have no fear,
Meet me first to bend my ear.
Let us talk about the possibilities for your context,
Amongst engagement models, have a blot test.
Once you figure out the message,
You might feel more ready for a real driving test,
Be open to what you discover,
Impact Estimation Tables guide you to eventually feature on magazine covers,
The Value to Cost approaches,
It might also surprise your peers and coaches.
And even the worst forecast outcome,
might help avoid being outdone.
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Masks for Tasks
Let us do Agile and put on Agile masks,
With 97 percent recurring tasks,
Let's copy and paste tasks from last month,
And do all our planning upfront.
After all, we do not need to improve,
Or work at bottlenecks to get into the groove.
We are masters of what we do,
No one can tell us to look at the queue.
Managers tell us they love our board,
They don't realize it's the impediments board.
A real board, like life, is a mess,
But it also helps to reduce the stress.
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ART to Art
I get inspired by many advanced students,
Organizations that hire them are so prudent.
They are not just book-smart,
They make adaptiveness look like a piece of art.
The questions come in thick and fast,
These people are not from the past.
I have been where they are,
So, for me, it is like getting into a car.
I do enjoy the curiosity,
And the eradication of velocity.
These people make a difference on the front line,
And for them, I have no redline.
Except for the pure badge collector,
Who are just internal decorators,
Who want the exact certifying body story line,
Even if it is inferior to local wine.
One not-so-advanced student in an advanced class asked why one of my practice questions referred to a CTO (Chief Technology/Transformation
Officer),
It was not mentioned in the Scrum Guide; hence, they did not need
to know.
Enthusiasts appreciate supplementary content,
As it helps with their ascent,
Especially when it makes sense,
And allows them to come off the fence.
It is like a dart,
Moving from ART to art.
Copyright © 2017-2025 Orderly Disruption Limited. Offered for license under Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International, accessible at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/legalcode and also described in summary form at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/. By using MORE Executive SUCCESS In The Knowledge Economy Through Ambidexterity, Humane Effectiveness, Adaptiveness, and Timeliness, you acknowledge that you have read and agree to be bound by the terms of Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International of Creative Commons.
Frank, the Chief Transformation Officer (CTxO)
Frank was a CTxO (Chief Transformation Officer),
Transforming for some dough.
Many a peer would challenge where is the change,
And if they did, Frank adapted his range.
Frank replied, Well, it is on you to be the change,
Which made his peers talk more to colleagues to eradicate mange.
And interact more with customers for a better exchange,
After all, from the market, they didn't want to estrange.
Based on a true story, details changed to protect the innocent.
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The Non-Transformation Team and the Centre of Nothing
The transformation team has the power,
While the CoE (Centre of Arrogance, ahem, I mean Excellence) is but a flower.
Why do organizations with change play power games,
And put networks of teams in chains?
Installing change agents who have not a clue,
Instead of adding effectiveness glue.
They have a chance to help execs see sense,
But fear of being shown up as lacking intelligence.
Some external coaches act like leeches,
Instead of growing (proverbial) beeches.
With no interest in developing internal capability,
Such is the sad reality.
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It Is Not Agreed If It Is Not In The Minutes
There was a Chief Transformation Officer called Stephanie,
Her skills were to behold with her piano ivory and ebony.
She was the coolest exec with the coolest tech,
With tattoos and sleeves right up to the neck.
One day, she thought all was agreed,
Only to discover there was a creed,
If it is not in the minutes, it is not agreed.
The smile was soon taken off her face,
When she was promoted to a lowly and sad albeit well-paid professional place.
But now she gets to play piano where and when she wants,
Rather than fiddle around with slide fonts
Based on a true story, details changed to protect the innocent. At the time of writing, this was the second most toxic behavior I had ever observed.
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Glee on the Tree
Let us in the organization create some glee,
Remove muppet-like managers from the tree.
Encouraging people to take risks,
While not treating them as computer discs.
Have some tolerance for change resistance in non-management,
Instead of banishment.
It is okay for teams to have different levels of agility,
Not everything that moves must act so willfully.
Forcing everyone to use the same approaches,
It does nothing to eradicate impediments that spread and persist like cockroaches.
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Employer of the Year
Quite often, those who play table tennis at work fall for the trap,
Like those holding meetings in the work bar, even without opening a tap.
The dogs in the street know who will get fired,
When the next round of cutbacks makes more retired.
Employees should stop playing the game,
When management thinking is still quite lame.
And HR goes for the Employer of the Year,
When the culture is still full of fear.
Better to play out of sight,
Such is culture might.
But it is not right; instead of being uptight,
Employees and teams could be together so tight.
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Cough in the Trough
Agile today has gone to entropy,
Daily meetings feel like a bad copy.
WAgile takes its hold,
Preventing people from being bold.
Some question the pursuit of more customer or other critical stakeholder value,
And say it is all about looking better than you.
Doing the bare minimum to stay above the law,
Instead of pausing to sharpen the saw.
Snorting for individual bonuses at the trough,
Giving the organization a nasty cough.
I told you this was not a book for you,
Please leave and stop putting the organization down the loo.
Or listen,
If you want to glisten.
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Scrummy Dummies
Most Scrummy agilists still do not get,
The more backlogs, the more organization blood is let.
By having a product owner per team,
Maximizing value is but a dream.
It might seem efficient to keep people busy doing what they usually do,
But it’s like dumping customer value down the loo.
It is worth the loss of efficiency first to improve effectiveness,
Failure is not stemmed by protectiveness.
By encouraging people to do what is more valuable,
The customer comes to realize that the teams are more reliable.
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Time to Chime
People need a little time,
To help each other, invent and chime.
By fully utilizing (quote) resources (unquote),
Managers lose all three sources.
Lack of cooperation, collaboration, and invention,
Puts the customer in detention.
You may think teams with their own backlogs are more empowered,
That’s if conflict does not cause value to be devoured.
To deliver what’s less valuable gives power to the team,
But is not the customer supposed to be the theme?
Less backlogs,
Less to unclog.
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When Imitation Is Not Flattery
It is hard to knock organizations off their perches if you are only copying,
Duplicating solutions to other people’s problems is not quite jockeying,
Let’s end the search for quick fixes and for real change, start lobbying,
And instead of no-change agents, onboard and promote people for whom change is like hobbying.
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Flight Readiness
They had not investigated level two and three Flight Level Boards,
Had they done so, they might now be getting awards.
They got fed up with coaches playing games with coins, cups, and balls,
This is serious business; the coaches have no more business domain knowledge than the horses in the stalls.
Is it time for agility change agents to pivot to timely, humane effectiveness,
Or should we throw them out and get better externals to apprentice-coach our staff to readiness?
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Quinton is on
There was a recovering agile coach named Quinton who exuded humility and confidence,
He was inspired by Open Space at a big world conference.
How the hell can eight hundred people self-organize in twenty minutes,
Surely people have their limits.
Then he did OpenSpace twice a week,
Using a Work and Skills Marketplace where anyone could speak.
To decide on work for the next two days,
If it is not finished by then, it does not mean delays.
It worked so well that it was unique,
They dynamically reteamed twice a week.
Pairing and mobbing was the new way,
It seems like Quinton might have indeed helped to save the day.
Based on a true story.
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