Pattern for Agile Organizations

Bringing in S3

Adapt Patterns To Context

Adapt and evolve S3 patterns to suit your specific context.

Ensure that everyone affected:

• understands why changing the pattern is necessary (or helpful)
• is present or represented when deciding how to change it
• uses S3 principles as a guide for adaptation.
  

Run experiments with adaptations for long enough to learn about the benefits and any potential pitfalls.

Share valuable adaptations with the S3 community.

Create a Pull-System For Organizational Change

Create an environment that invites and enables members of the organization to drive change.

Change things when there is value in doing so:

• Bring in patterns that help to solve current and important problems.
• Don't break what's already working!
• Meet everyone where they are…
• …and let them choose their own pace.

Be The Change

Lead by example.

Behave and act in the ways you would like others to behave and act.

Invite Change

Clarify the reason for change and invite people to participate.

When making the invitation:

• be transparent about the reason for the change
• clarify expectations and constraints
• avoid coercion or manipulation
• acknowledge any skepticism and doubts
  

Include the people involved and affected in regular evaluation of outcomes.

Open Space For Change

Invite everyone to create and run experiments for evolving the organization.

• clarify the driver for change
• schedule regular open space events:
• invite all members to create and run experiments
• define constraints for the experiments that enable development of a sociocratic and agile mindset (e.g. S3 principles)
• review and learn from experimentation in the next open space
  

Continuous Improvement Of Work Process

Reveal drivers and establish a metrics-based pull-system for organizational change through continuously improving and refining the work process.

• introduce the principle of consent and Navigate via Tension to evolve work process in a team
• consider selecting a facilitator to guide group processes, and choosing values to guide behavior
• initiate a process of continuous improvement, e.g. through Kanban or regular retrospectives
• members of the team pull in S3 patterns as required
• if valuable, iteratively expand the scope of the experiment to other teams
• intentionally look out for impediments
  

Waste And Continuous Improvement

Waste is anything unnecessary for - or standing in the way of - a (more) effective response to a driver.

Waste exists in various forms and on different levels of abstraction (tasks, processes, organizational structure, mental models…)

Establishing a process for the ongoing elimination of waste enables natural evolution of an organization towards greater effectiveness and adaptation to changing context.