Agility is Inefficient
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Admittedly that was a bit of a click-bait title, but it is not too far from the truth. Agility is mainly about effectiveness. Yet, most corporations that are striving to become agile these days, do it for another reason, namely to become more efficient. But focusing on efficiency is extremely dangerous! Big companies that were praised for their extreme efficiency have gone bust or at least lost a lot of market share in the recent past. Certain management consultancies continue to sell their customers the same good old formula and advise them to become more efficient by optimizing their cost structures. These organizations, therefore, continue to build the same products, just cheaper. But people don't want those products anymore. Blockbuster, Nokia, Blackberry, text messaging, the taxi industry, local coffee shops, newspapers, Myspace, and many more are well-known examples. In this talk, Klaus will explain the difference between the two terms **effectiveness** and **efficiency** and show how focusing on the latter can lead to multiple bad consequences that you will probably recognize from organizations in your field. **Attendees:** <a href="https://gotopiachicago2021.slack.com/archives/C01UFC9P7GU" target="_blank">Join the #teams channel on Slack to send your questions to Klaus</a>
Transcript
Admittedly that was a bit of a click-bait title, but it is not too far from the truth. Agility is mainly about effectiveness. Yet, most corporations that are striving to become agile these days, do it for another reason, namely to become more efficient.
But focusing on efficiency is extremely dangerous!
Big companies that were praised for their extreme efficiency have gone bust or at least lost a lot of market share in the recent past. Certain management consultancies continue to sell their customers the same good old formula and advise them to become more efficient by optimizing their cost structures. These organizations, therefore, continue to build the same products, just cheaper. But people don't want those products anymore. Blockbuster, Nokia, Blackberry, text messaging, the taxi industry, local coffee shops, newspapers, Myspace, and many more are well-known examples.
In this talk, Klaus will explain the difference between the two terms effectiveness and efficiency and show how focusing on the latter can lead to multiple bad consequences that you will probably recognize from organizations in your field.
Attendees: Join the #teams channel on Slack to send your questions to Klaus
About the speakers
Agile consultant with 20+ years experience who's helped companies like LEGO, BP, Nestlé, and Jägermeister become more agile