Serhat Toptancı // Allianz Türkiye - Çevik Ofis Lideri
The benefits of rapid decision-making, adaptability and process-orientation as the world struggles with great uncertainty…
COVID-19, which took the whole world under its influence, showed that life can change in an instant and plunge everyone into uncertainty in an alarming way.
Whether you are in Asia-Pacific, Western Europe or South America, the problem is the same in today's world, the issues are common: adapting to change.
The beginning of everything: Reflex
Institutions with strong reflexes should have the organizational structure, human resources and culture that can easily adapt to these extraordinary situations.
They should be able to review strategic priorities according to changing needs, they should be able to adapt resources to changing priorities in a fluid way, and they should be able to delegate the authority to the teams that manage the processes in daily life.
While doing all of these, it is essential to progress at the same speed, otherwise you will have difficulty in adapting yourself to the change and you will have to throw in the towel.
As Allianz Turkey, we experienced exactly this in our Tribes with the Agile transformation. Let's talk about the reasons behind our rapid adaptation to the remote working process and the success of this experience.
The formula for our Agile Transformation HEY!'s success while working remotely
Ceremonies: Ceremonies in the Scrum method support the remote working of teams. If you implement the ceremonies in a disciplined way, you will have a team that produces work output, albeit from a distance, that has a command of the company's priorities and agenda, and acts together.
- Thanks to Grooming/Refinement and Planning, team members see the work transparently, set priorities together and learn about their responsibilities.
- Meeting through the Dailys every morning allows the team to find its own rhythm. This is a critical issue when working remotely.
- At Sprint Review meetings, members talk about their work and share it firsthand with the team. Having Tribe Leaders or our critical stakeholders/customers involved in this step makes a lot of difference. All team members can share the benefit they produce for the company.
- In Retrospectives, everyone evaluates Sprint and gives feedback to each other, in the Agile World's popular phrase "brutal transparency". This enables all team members to talk about their development areas even if they are far from each other and to establish emotional bonds with each other as a team.
Horizontal Organization: Organizations that are free of hierarchies and management levels are very important in order to accelerate processes and proactively make decisions in an environment of uncertainty. At Allianz Turkey, a new colleague is only 3 levels away from the CEO of Allianz. All Tribe Leaders are also members of the Executive Board. This form of organization enabled us to transparently announce the changing strategy to the teams and act quickly in an environment of uncertainty during the COVID-19 process. On the other hand, the needs of the teams could be evaluated by the Executive Board at the same speed.
Roles: The internalization of roles allowed us to work remotely without extra committees, meetings and arrangements. Tribe leaders focused on the agenda, Chapter Leaders ensured that everyone focused on our strategic agenda in the same way, focused on the development of competencies needed for the change process and the effectiveness of resources, our POs* ensured that the daily flow went in the desired rhythm and achieved high quality, our Agile Coaches ensured the adaptation of the teams and overcome the obstacles. They helped to eliminate and solve problems.
Agile Office: The inclusion of Agile Office within Human Resources has been vital for us to manage the COVID-19 process well. A communication line was established between the Human Resources team and Agile Coaches to solve the needs and take action quickly. Communication was top-notch. This was followed by activities where Agile Coaches and HR team met with team members and supported the team emotionally.
Technology: None of the items I have mentioned can be implemented without a good IT infrastructure. The infrastructure investment we have made for many years has enabled online work and processes to progress by providing continuity.
These points enabled the HEY! Working model to work in line with the plans of Allianz Turkey without any problems during the COVID-19 process. The statement of our teammate, “It makes me happy to wake up in the morning with a purpose and achieve small things in line with a plan” is proof that we are on the right path in our journey.
P.S. You can contact us by clicking here to share your experiences and ask questions about the agile working method.
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