Strategies for leveling up
First, a note about risks. Systems generally face multiple risks to their continued performance and fitness. At each level, the greatest risk is different, and though the risks from lower levels have likely been mitigated, they have not been eliminated. The risks are listed below for each level.
You need to execute all of your level’s strategies past a certain threshold to move up. However, no strategy is ever one-and-done:
- The strategies are incremental. The lower-level ones should be “baked in,” and you might go deeper with some.
- If you let lower-level strategies slip, the ones at your current level won’t deliver maximum benefit, and it will be much more difficult to reach the next level sustainably. Your system’s fitness might even drop a level.
- Every strategy takes minutes to describe and months to implement; expect to implement it using an iterative, test-and-learn approach.
To be effective, the strategies require a foundation: intentional leadership that actively builds and protects an explicit culture and way of working across the system.
You need to execute each of your level’s strategies past a certain threshold to get to the next level. This takes a lot of time and effort, which is why most systems advance one level at a time. Advancing two at a time requires expert guidance, appetite and tolerance for change, and supportive leadership for applying the strategies from both levels simultaneously.
How to read the following list:
- Start with the risk and strategies for your system’s level.
- Then read them for all lower levels, starting with Level 1.
- Familiarize yourself with the higher-level strategies, but you needn’t worry about executing them until your system reaches those levels. Some of them are not relevant or practical yet; the others go deeper on matters that you implement just enough to make your current-level strategies viable and practical.
Level 1: The system has some successes, but is unable to contribute adequately to achieving company objectives.
Greatest risk: Loss of the few key people who keep the system operational
Strategies for moving to Level 2:
- Manage the project portfolio with greater strategic control over committed and in-progress items.
- Design the way of working based on what matters most for achieving the vision and objectives.
Level 2: The system contributes to achieving company objectives, but not effectively and efficiently enough.
Greatest risk: Getting knocked off-course easily due to both interference from the outside and high levels of unplanned work
Strategies for moving to Level 3:
- Establish clear and appropriate decision-making across the system.
- Stabilize the system: create an acceptable and sustainable balance of demand and supply (outputs).
Level 3: The system’s results are satisfactory, but fully dependent on a few people who make all the high-impact decisions.
Greatest risk: chaos and breakdown due to big changes
Strategies for moving to Level 4:
- Increase contributor safety, real teamwork, and collaboration.
- Defer commitments and increase release frequency while controlling costs.
- Engage teams meaningfully, collaboratively, and efficiently in planning.
Level 4: The system is effective and efficient, but slower to achieve major outcomes than it needs to be.
Greatest risk: Breakdown of process and good habits due to loss of stakeholders’ trust and/or management’s patience
Strategies for moving to Level 5:
- Expand team ownership of major outcomes.
- Improve the inputs to decisions and the decision-making processes.
- Reduce the technical cost of change.
Level 5: The system consistently produces the results the company needs from it.
Greatest risk: Foundational changes to the system and its culture due to shifts in senior leadership
Remain at Level 5 by ensuring that the above ten strategies continue to be in play across the system. Invest in “insurance” against disruption to the system’s culture: continue building trusting relationships with stakeholders and executives, and help leaders of other company systems improve them.