Knowledge at Work - Episode 5

This episode focuses on Agile methodology, 17 people came together to create this manifesto which includes a set of values and principles.  We are going to talk through each one then talk about how the concepts could be applied to a professional service firm.

Before we get into the manifesto itself, I would like to highlight how it was crafted.  These 17 people worked together on February 11 through 13 2001 in Snowbird, Utah.  The group is made up of leaders in software development.  They were so frustrated with how their talent was working that they came together to craft something to fundamentally change how their business operated. 

If we want to improve how our organizations operate, we need to invest the time and attention to move to a better solution.  We can learn from this example, but we also need to recognize we are dealing with organizations with much deeper histories than these technology companies. 

The authors open their manifesto with value statements intended to help people know what to value in their efforts.  To be clear this is not a specific set of rules to follow, I find the word uncovering especially important.  The authors recognize that change is needed, but that they do not know what the exact tactics will be.  In a nebulous environment it is best to give guidance instead of specific mandates. 

The authors created 12 principles for others to follow. 

Again, I know we are not delivering software, but if we shift that wording to actionable information, it makes more sense.  Our focus needs to be on our clients and constantly delivering value to them.

The words early and continuous are critical in this.  We often say accounting isn’t a medical profession so we are not typically talking about life and death decisions. But for our clients helping them take advantage of opportunities is critical. 

We know that clients are going to bring forward information late in the process.  Having systems that allow for change helps you stay ahead of the game.  The other part of this principle is equally important, we can help create advantages for our clients through the work that we do. 

The important thing is applying the abilities to change and adapt to your clients needs.  This methodology is called Agile for a reason, a main focus of it is flexibility to quickly change and evolve.  The first two principles touch on this through continuous delivery and being open to change. 

This principle is visible in the accounting profession transition towards Client Advisory Services.  Working with clients more frequently allows continual access to their financial data.  If we only talk to the client once a year it is more likely that they will forget to tell us something.  More continual service and attention allows for more work to be done earlier in the process.

Again, we are seeing this focus on agility and smaller chunks of work.  

This is another example where changing a couple of terms helps make this more applicable to professional service organizations.  We can read this as Client Relationship Managers and talent working on projects must work together daily throughout the project. 

This can be done through the daily meeting or it can leverage technology. Most accounting software has some ability to communicate progress.  Making the best use of these tools allows the organization to know where things stand.  When we are all busy removing the need for status updates creates more time to get things done. This also allows talent and management to focus on actual issues rather than spending time talking about where in a process specific things are. 

This principle speaks to providing autonomy to your team.  If you hire the right people and give them the right tools you do not need to micro-manage them. 

Another thing I would like to point out is the environment and support needs to be what THEY need.  Their needs might be different to yours, to get the most out of people you need to recognize these differences and respect them. 

I would like to talk about a specific need that talent and management will have.  The accounting profession has a history and focus on learning.  Organizations need to support their management and talent through continual learning.  In addition to the CPE requirements your talent and management need support to grow. 

In our last episode we talked about the negative impacts of email.  This principle builds on that and is another example of the benefit of spending time talking rather than typing. 

The other part I would highlight is that this is focused at the team level.  Teams should be groups that are working on a common problem or project.  In an accounting firm this could be a tax team or it could be a team focused on a specific client.  Finding the right balance and rhythm for teams to meet is critical so information can be shared while also ensuring there is time to complete the work. 

As this applies to a firm it may be beneficial to look at schedules and find times for team meetings that allow your talent to come to the office on a regular schedule for things that can not be done virtually. 

Progress is measured through providing actionable information to your clients.  This can come in the form of a tax return or audit or other engagement.  But I would remind you that from your client’s perspective the information you provide should allow them to make decisions. 

Knowing when clients will need information to make decisions is a powerful tool to create value.  There will always be client requests that surprise us, but we can be best prepared for those if we carefully manage the deadlines we do know about. 

Of all the principles this one feels especially relevant to today.  With retirements and more being expected of professional service firms there is a real strain on our people resources. 

We talked in earlier episodes about managing workloads and client loads for the organization.  These are critical steps to making sure your organization is sustainable. 

The idea of pace is a critical one.  Most professional service firms have some cycle that dictates part of the pace of the organization.  Tax season being the easiest example of this.  To use another sports analogy you need to think about what works best for your people.  Should you do sprints followed by rest or are your people better at maintaining a marathon pace which might be a bit slower but lasts a longer duration.  You will likely have a mixture of these people.  Find ways to balance them out and get the most out of both groups.  To take this example one step further if we think about knowledge work as a form of mental exercise it makes sense that our talent will need to train to get better. 

Pace dictates that we will go into the hard zone then we come out and rest before going back in.  Burnout happens when we don’t take these breaks. 

I really like this one.  Successful organizations pay attention to good results and put things in place to help achieve that. 

We again see the word continuous; this methodology leans heavily on doing things over and over again to produce results.  Especially in a rapidly changing world it is critical to design your organization around constant review of what is and is not working.  The technical aspect of this is equally critical, when we discover technical errors we need to correct them quickly so we do not end up needing to fix a larger number of things not done correctly. 

When we are pressed for time and resources limiting unnecessary work becomes critical.  Fixing errors is unnecessary work.  Focusing on quickly catching and correcting prevents wasted time fixing more mistakes. 

When we are time and resource constrained it is more critical to eliminate things that do not drive results.  Nothing is more demoralizing than working on something that is not used. 

This principle to me talks to the need to get the right people the right tools and deploy them on the right missions.  If any of these things are not there you risk wasting time and resources. 

This is another principle that points to best leveraging your software to take away as much busy work as possible.  Status updates are a key part of this. Crafting the best possible set of statuses allows work to flow easily and for issues to be identified.  Taking time to craft a list of statuses and communicating their definitions has huge potential to simplify that part of your systems.

Self-organizing teams is a concept that may be difficult for organizations to implement.  Most professional service organizations are organized around service lines.  One of the concepts attached to self-organizing teams is a switch from pushing work to people to allowing them to pull work to them.  One way of doing this is having a work que that staff can pull from.  When a team is needed it is created by the people who are drawn to that project. 

This can be difficult when people all want to work on the same projects.  But that difficulty can also be seen as an opportunity.  If you have a team drawn to a specific type of work that could be a good indication that you should target more of that work as an organization. 

Creating a pull instead of a push environment also allows talent to fill their available schedules.  You can end up with more skilled people pulling in simple work when they have a smaller window available. 

This points to the concept of working in the business and working on the business.  Working in the business is doing the client work, working on the business is looking at how you do the work and trying to improve process. 

Something I would ask you to consider is the interval.  It is easy to think of this as a re-occurring calendar appointment.  BUT if your organization has a different cycle you may want to do this more often during busier times. 

Having more time spent working on the business during busy times may feel counterintuitive.  BUT this is the time where changes can have their largest impact.  Sharing a better way to do something after you have done all that work for the year is pointless.  Alternatively, if you can share this knowledge when more people are doing that work the results can be multiplied.