Back from a lovely break in Cornwall where I have been enjoying time away from work with friends and family. This gave me time to reflect on the Agile Cambridge conference I presented at prior to my leave.

This was such a laid back inclusive conference. Thanks to John Clapham who laid out some really great ground rules for the conference including, be bold in speaking to people you have never met, be inclusive and ensure people around you can join in the conversation easily and be considerate to others around you. Something everyone seemed to fully sign up to and something other conferences should consider too I think.

I had some really great conversations too off the back of the presentation Joseph Pelrine and I did titled ‘The Four Dimensions of Business Agility: Powerful insights for a digital future’.

This has got me thinking more about the organisational debt, we discussed in our presentation, that can occur due to a lack of organisational wide agility. Debts accrued through lack of vision or strategy, inefficient and out of date processes, org structures that promote silo mentality and hinder flexibility and under utilisation of talent and team effectiveness caused by too much management or leaders that cause, rather than remove, obstacles. I could go on but I think you get the gist. You know, the sort of debt that usually sparks organisations to invest in large transformation programmes as a way of paying off the debt all in one go? A transformation programme which the organisation can’t really afford and so is half hearted and only pays off part of the debt.

If organisations were more aware of organisational debt then maybe they could pay off in instalments and invest in continuous improvement instead? I think there is so much more to think about in this space.

By Lynda Girvan, Head of Business Analysis & Agility at CMC Partnership Consultancy Ltd