Get Clarity
I believe the number one reason for failure or waste is a lack of clarity or understanding. If you get clarity on something, it gives you the freedom to decide if you want to do it or not. If something is ambiguous, you may agree in principle but you don’t know what you’re really getting yourself into.
Clarity: OKRs
Firstly, what are your Objectives and Key Results (OKR)? How do you set and communicate goals and results in your organization? Because you want people to move together in the right direction, you need to get clarity.
KPIs
What are your Key Performance Indicators (KPI)? How do you want to measure value that demonstrates how effectively your company is achieving key business objectives? Because you want your organization to evaluate its success at reaching targets, you need to get clarity.
Structure
What does the clarity in team design or structure of the organization look like on portfolio, program, product, and service layers? We need a shared understanding of which individuals or teams are responsible for what.
Governance
What does the governance of the organization look like? How do we manage our budget, dependencies, risks, or quality? What are the inputs, outputs, and artifacts?
Metrics and Tools
Because we want to manage our system of delivery, what are necessary metrics and tools of the organization and how can they get clarity?
Get Clarity
Remember, if you expect others to commit to something, regardless if it’s a process or a deliverable, we need a shared understanding.
Because we want the freedom to decide if you’d want to do it or not – and the knowledge of exactly what you’re getting into, even if you at first agree in principle – it’s important to remember the number one reason for failure or waste is a lack of clarity or understanding.