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Announcing LDP, the Leadership Development Program with PAS. For leadership at all levels of the organization, including Executives, Management, Coaches, and Contributors (especially knowledge workers and customer-facing workers).

Need

Many companies have so-called “agile transformations” in place. Despite these efforts, companies often remain challenged by linear, inflexible product development, find it difficult to respond effectively to changing customer requirements, or worry they are not keeping up with market changes.

Modern Leadership
The goals of Modern Leadership: Achieve long-term goals while responding effectively to change

The program addresses three core challenges that most modern organizations face:

  • Achieving key objectives sooner, despite changing conditions and priorities.
  • Responding effectively to change while still achieving long-term objectives.
  • Shaping the environment to prioritize, focus, and align actions.

Are you getting the desired results or ROI from your agile transformation. If you want better results, then this program is for you and your staff!

Approach

LDP centers around aligning action with purpose by focusing on what truly matters. It emphasizes building the ability to engage in effective conversations, facilitate problem-solving, create alignment, and activate the collective intelligence within an organization. It also introduces collaborative frameworks and enhances decision-making skills.

Benefits

The LDP will enable you to achieve what agility promises: better results and better alignment in the organization; integrate better ways of working; more flexible product development; and better collaboration across departments. The focus on on raising performance while lowering stress.

Would you like to increase probability of value generation and more successful project execution?

The Leadership Development Program with Personal Agility gives you actionable skills as it leads you on a journey to improve your performance and your organizations results.

Program Description

LDP is divided into three modules:

  • Module 1: Aligning Action with Purpose
  • Module 2: Leading Others (for Speed, Alignment, and Responsiveness).
  • Module 3: Shaping the Organization
Agile Leadership Development with the Personal Agility System
Agile Leadership Development with the Personal Agility System

By participating in LDP, executives leaders harness agility, transform their organizations into more agile, aligned, and innovative entities, and stay leaders. You will be able to shape your organization’s culture to prioritize, focus, and align actions for better results.

Your Next Move

Start now! Increase your impact and raise your team performance by contacting me, Peter Stevens!

Thank you for joining us at the Personal Agility Summit and celebrating the launch of our new book: Personal Agility: Unlocking Purpose, Alignment and Transformation

It was great to highlight so many practitioners from our community and to share the stories of people who are featured as case studies in the book! Thank you to all of our speakers and thank you to everyone who attended!

Get your copy of the Personal Agility book on Amazon now if you haven’t already: http://tinyurl.com/personalagilitybook

Enclosed is a replay of the Personal Agility Summit if you were not able to join live or if you would like to watch again: https://youtu.be/ykl7B6yPVtQ

Join Peter Stevens at an in person book signing at the Swiss Agile Network on March 2, 2023: https://www.agilenetwork.ch

As a thank you for your support at our Summit and Book launch, we would like to invite you to join us for the free training series as mentioned at the Summit – you can register for any of the below sessions using the registration link for each event. Please feel free to share with colleagues and friends!

FREE Training Series

February 22, 2023 – 10am EST Discover Your Path & Purpose – Maria

https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZwvduCorDwsGdJa2yElmvtk5L7Dcr4s1eXY

Our beliefs shape our behaviors which create our results. Uncover how your beliefs shape your behaviors which create your results and discover how the Personal Agility System can help you reach your goals and how you can experience more meaningful desired outcomes and shift into a more supportive, successful, happier and healthier life.

 

March 1, 2023 – 10am EST – Empower your People for Higher Performance – Maria

https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZAsfu6srjwsHdDSfJQGktM5_UM6tPEF3WNM

Empower your teams to create groundbreaking results while creating alignment in your organization. Discover how to create the mindset shift necessary to encourage more self organization in your teams while setting the groundwork for higher performance.

 

March 8, 2023 – 10am EST – PAS Event 3 – Agility is for Executives – Peter

https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZcsfu2qqD0rHdZxzDd-WRFXboCCK4zHWLLZ

The biggest myth of agility is it offers mostly disadvantages to executives. Not true! Agility represents hope for everybody, especially executives! If you have too many meetings, too much conflict in your organization, or everything moves too slowly, discover the secrets of how Agility can make you more effective! 

 

March 15, 2023 – 10am EST – PAS Event 4 – Boosting EBIT through Agility – Peter

https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZwrd-yuqj0jHNOsTS8nlm2g7kTtvrXk___E

“An agile transformation restructures the company to optimize for speed and value production.” Has your transformation lost sight of why you are doing it? Examine how Agility can, should and must improve your bottom line. 

 

March 22, 2023 – 10am EST Accelerating Business Results – Maria

https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZ0rf–hrj0oGdUTkK5hg8jC1C0qeUWe4di1

Discover how you can embrace the future of work and unlock new levels of efficiency and innovation to accelerate your business results while harnessing the power of Personal Agility combined with emerging technologies and discover the limitless potential of your business.

I am EXCITED to announce that the Personal Agility book is officially launching on Amazon today, published through the Business Agility Institute! Get your copy at a special reduced Kindle rate of for our launch and please share!
We are launching the book at the Personal Agility Summit today and hear all of the amazing stories and case studies and lives transformed by using the Personal Agility System –> http://personalagilityinstitute.org/summit

Join us for the Personal Agility Summit and the official launch of the Personal Agility Book!
We have a great lineup of speakers including Joe Justice, Alistair Cockburn, Pete Blum, Ben Sever, Jim H, Nayomi Handunnetti, Snehal Talati, Tariq EQ Amawi, Thomas Hubbuch, Jean-Yves Reynaud, Katrina Snow, Michael Longs, and other practitioners!
Peter Stevens and I are EXCITED to launch the official launch of the Personal Agility book – get your copy today on Amazon! Published through the Business Agility Institute!
Get the Kindle version for a special reduced price as we celebrate the launch!

Andreas Kelch is the Head of Sales and Marketing at Vivior for Vision Care in Europe. Under the motto, “better well-being through better health and better vision,” Vivior has developed technology to enable data-driven customization of multifocal lenses.

Previously, opticians just provided eye examinations, contact lens fitting and other services e.g., screenings; with Vivior they can for the first time measure the environment in which the person lives and works. Andreas works with local opticians, chains, buying groups and distributors to present the value of the Vivior approach and integrate Vivior’s system into the opticians’ own sales process.

The PAS Stakeholder Canvas played a key role in establishing a constructive relationship with their customers that was trust-based, goal-oriented and quantitatively measurable.

The Challenge

Andreas Kelch, Head of Sales and Marketing at Vivior AG
Andreas Kelch
Head of Sales and Marketing at Vivior AG

Andreas explained, “We have developed a new technology and a new product for opticians, and in 2020 we successfully acquired 80 customers, mainly in Switzerland and Germany. With the pandemic challenges and the associated online meetings and training, the integration of Vivior into the business processes of opticians has proven to be a problem.”

“Business processes vary from optician to optician. We wanted to understand our customers even better and developed a new customer management process. Integration with pricing models, customer approach and process flows proved to be particularly important. It is essential that the optician recognizes the added value of Vivior and adapts his offering accordingly.”

“As the pandemic subsided, our customers experienced a large increase in business which kept them busy processing orders. They were also confronted with labor shortages and other constraints, so there was little time available to deal with new technologies such as ours.”

Desired Outcome

“We saw potential in strengthening our personal customer relationships.”

“For a startup, the most important goal is traction. Getting eye care specialists and end-customers to use the product and confirm that customers also see value and get value from the product. This is an important confirmation to investors that their money is well spent.”

“We wanted to help the optician integrate our product effectively and successfully into their sales process. We wanted to strengthen our relationships with our customers and make sure they understood the value of what we and they are doing. We wanted measurable goals, so everybody could see that the goals are being achieved.”

Path to Success

“Within the new customer management process, we created a customer on-boarding process with defined steps so we can manage and monitor our own success.”

“The first step in this process is to meet with the optician to understand his situation and help him understand what steps are necessary to be successful with our product. The next step is to analyze the processes in terms of process and price integration within his store. A systematic customer approach also proved to be very important.”

“The next step is to define and commit to a series of additional steps, including training their employees to understand the use of our product and know how to take advantage of it. Together with the customer, we set a measurement target for monthly Vivior usage. We provide an individual action plan for the entire team for easy visualization and tracking of the solutions provided. Upon completion of the customer management process, the optician is certified as a Vivior vision expert. A nice benefit for our customers to celebrate and share.”

“Once the customer agrees to buy our product, we meet and interview them using the PAS Stakeholder Canvas. We tailored the questions to our context. The canvas asks questions about goals and challenges, and the conversation offers us an opportunity to share our insights. Based on their goals, they define their “customer commitment” – what they need to do to be successful.”

Actual Result

“Sometimes the customers are a bit surprised about the questions. They did not expect us to talk about their own concerns. This doesn’t happen very often in a sales process. It was very important to emphasize confidentiality. After that, it was no problem at all. There was never a fear of sharing anything.”

“The customers appreciated that we offered this consultancy service to them. They appreciated that we did not leave them alone and that we cared about their success. The interviews were well received as they were perceived as a service to get their problems solved.”

Defining Measurable Results

“Every active customer now has an action plan with an integrated commitment to concrete usage goals. We can make visible to everyone involved how important the technology is to them. The commitment is important both to the customer and to us. The customer sees the value they get from the product and hot to differentiate themselves in a competitive market. We can define and meet our scaling goals.”

“Our relationship with the customers is now stronger. They understand us and our product better, too. The benefits are more clearly perceived and their commitment to use our product is high. We also have opportunities to learn how our product could be improved to make it easier to use and more valuable for our customers.”

 

 

© 2022 Peter B. Stevens and Maria Matarelli

Extracted from: Personal Agility: Unlocking Higher Purpose, Alignment, and Performance, by Peter B. Stevens and Maria Matarelli.

Katrina is an experienced Project Manager with a Masters Degree in Digital Marketing and a background in Communications. She has successfully worked in a variety of industries from television to advertising and Start Up. Juggling being a mom as well as looking to advance her career, Katrina began using the Personal Agility System to clear the chaos while trying to balance both family and work while working from home during the pandemic. She was able to identify and focus on “What Really Matters” and her story inspires hope for working moms everywhere. Katrina is ready to use what she has learned with Personal Agility to help others clean the chaos on the path to success.

Challenge

“My situation can best be described as I was a working mom striving to do the best I could in work and home life while breaking matriarchal cycles without completely burning out. My life is still a work in progress as there is always room for improvement and new obstacles that I need to navigate, however I am able to see my strengths and weaknesses and more importantly, communicate them to those around me. Applying Personal Agility showed me how to get out of survival mode and into success mode in all areas of my life and stop the burnout before it happened.”

“Prior to using Personal Agility: 

  • I was constantly on overdrive
  • I didn’t understand my triggers 
  • I couldn’t foresee my burnout
  • I couldn’t hold myself accountable in ways that weren’t damaging 
  • I was poorly communicating with those around me – personally and professionally 
  • I felt like I was living in complete chaos 

I knew what I needed to do but could not get myself to actually take action. 

I felt like I was drowning in complete chaos – and I needed to breathe. 

I was perpetuating the same cycles – and they needed to break. 

I was burning out regularly – and I needed to rest. 

Worst of all, I always had a disappointed feeling and was hyper-critical of myself  – and I really needed to let go.”

“This was me on any given day, even before experiencing back-to-back job loss. I just believed this is who I was. A type-A, go-getter, professional juggler of all things, reliable all the time to everyone, never saying no — AND feeling that being exhausted and broken was totally normal.”

“I was constantly struggling to prioritize, taking on multiple small jobs and getting paid far less than my worth, and sometimes not getting paid at all. We were struggling financially because of this. My job loss, right after having a baby, and my husband’s back injury put me in a state of constant survival mode, thus making terrible decisions, really bad career choices and drowning in utter chaos.” 

“I was also struggling with the mental anguish of being a working mom, stay at home mom, or some insane hybrid, because either way, there was a struggle financially, mental, and emotionally and it was consuming me.”  

Desired Outcome

“My desired outcome was to get out of survival mode, get into success mode, live life at a sustainable pace while dissolving my pre-wired cycles and see where and how I was contributing to the chaos to get it under control. I wanted to set boundaries and hold myself accountable in ways that were not damaging. I needed to reset my work priorities, stop working with toxic clients, and refocus my career goals.”

“I also wanted to find space to nurture myself and not feel depressed or guilty or neglectful to my friends and family. And finally, I wanted to see how others around me were contributing to the chaos and to be better at communicating with each other about it and ultimately stop my burn out before it starts.”

Actual Result

“I did achieve this desired outcome and so much more. I found that I was doing it all and not doing it all, at the same time. Teaching those around me to treat me like I did not have a human capacity. That I am everlasting and do not need support and that I will take on all responsibilities at all times. I was teaching people to treat me like someone who doesn’t matter, like a machine who just constantly produces. These realizations allowed me to identify and align with what really mattered to me and recognize what I (and others) were doing to contribute to the chaos.”

“The tools and techniques of the Personal Agility System that most helped you achieve my desired outcome included The 6 Questions of PAS, What Really Matters (WRM), PAS Priorities Map, and PAS Breadcrumb Trail. I also surveyed other working moms and did some ancillary studies on environmental behaviors to gain a better understanding of my full situation and see how others handled similar challenges.”

“The Personal Agility System helped me achieve my desired outcome by having a clear visualization of what is ahead. Being able to see what could complete in a day, week, or month was life changing. It allowed me to see my life and work balance, or lack thereof in real time. It made the chaos clear and communicable. I could understand what actions of mine were teaching people how to treat me, and working to do better so they (and I) can be better to me.” 

“I could better identify what I was doing to create burnout for myself, then I would rearrange my priorities and communicate where I saw the burnout would likely be so that I could avoid it. I was able to remove bad (abusive/non paying) clients and make room for better clients and better pay, and set boundaries with those that I continued to work with.”

“My triggers also became more clear. I could see where something would trigger me to perpetuate matriarchal cycles and I would work to disrupt them in a positive way. As an added bonus, my health started to take a huge upturn, something I never thought I would have time to focus on was now in the top 3 of my priorities. I was able to manage time in a way that allowed a space for me to nurture myself.”

“Professionally, I found toxic impediments and removed them. I communicated my value with current clients and re-negotiated contracts. I reset professional goals using a great strategist who helped me re-build my resume and showed me proper job searching and follow up. I also stuck to my non-negotiable time boundaries.” 

“Personally, I was finding behaviors that would totally derail me and I found better habits to replace them with. I was communicating with my family more effectively about what I needed and where I needed them; while making myself matter in health and happiness – I don’t think I would have even noticed these areas were suffering if I didn’t have it on my Priorities Map. I was able to visualize where I needed my family to hold themselves accountable for the overall function of the household.” 

“I realized that I was the roadblock to my success – How I treated myself and how I showed others to treat me. I was in control of the chaos the entire time – I still am, just in a clearing way as opposed to a creating way. I was too damaged from holding myself accountable for everything, that I couldn’t hold myself accountable for the right things. Working in small increments was the best way for me to get started and then VROOM, I was off, with a whole new perspective on what really mattered and how I was going to make those items my priority.”

Path to Success

“For others that may want to repeat my success, I want you to know that the chaos does not happen overnight and you will not clear it overnight either, but having a system that you trust to support good decisions and encourage processes and communication will help you keep the chaos under control and the burnout off the horizon.” 

“Working in small increments on What Really Matters and then building out your Priorities Map from there will help you take a step back from your current situation and be really honest with yourself – you don’t have to have it all, not right now and maybe not ever. And that is totally okay.”

 

© 2021 Peter B. Stevens and Maria Matarelli. Excerpted from Personal Agility: Unlocking Higher Purpose, Alignment, and Performance

 

Pete Blum is a United States military veteran, an entrepreneur and a professional in information technology, operations, marketing, project management, and business continuity/disaster recovery. He has been a trainer, mentor, and coach to both civilians and military personnel, nationally teaching technology, social media, and entrepreneurship. His passion, mission, and focus is helping others in business and in their personal lives. 

Pete spent 11 years in the U.S. military working in logistics, operations, and information technology. After honorably completing his years of service, he transitioned into civilian life to follow his love of information technology. That first year out, he had 7 different jobs. Eventually he found a great one, but later due to the constant outsourcing, going to the cloud, and transitions that happened in the information technology industry that ended as well. His transition began again.

Situation

Another thing stemming from the military life that sticks with you even after you become a civilian is the engrained traits of sacrifice and service.

“In my case it was a desire to help future transitioning veterans have an easier time with transition than I did. I found myself facing a continuous cycle of work transitions, volunteering, and lack of a positive work-life balance. Most importantly, lack of focus, transitions, and spreading yourself too thin has a hard impact on families, the time they spend together, and finances as well.”

Desired Outcome

“My desired outcome was to either break the cycle of repeatedly transitioning as if I were still in the military by finding a great job or to start a business that fulfilled my passion of helping others while providing the stability to take care of my family and allow me to spend those precious moments with them. I missed out on those moments while in the military and deployed. I wanted to never miss those moments again.”

Actual Result

“In embracing the Personal Agility System I have found time freedom, allowing me to spend more time with the family and focus on those treasured moments.”

“I have become an entrepreneur with the ability to fulfill my passion of helping others. I can now work hard, create, shape, and guide others personally or professionally in finding their own stability and success. Being an entrepreneur has also given me the ability to be financially free.”

“The Personal Agility System absolutely helped me! Starting with what really matters and where do I spend my time, I discovered what was important to me the most was not what I was focusing on. My work-life balance was not balanced at all.” 

“This ties significantly into life in the military as well. As an active duty servicemember or as an entrepreneur you’re always on a mission, a timeline, an objective that has to be completed before everything else. Sleeping, eating, family… who has time for that? Personal Agility is certainly the cure!”

“In my case family has always been a priority, however after annotating my daily life using the Personal Agility System I discovered even I could do better.”

Path to Success

“The Personal Agility Priorities Map is one of my favorite tools that helped me get things where they should be in my personal and even professional life. It helped me with prioritization, lack of focus, the fact that I was volunteering too much and spreading myself too thin. And now I always remember to use the “life is the ocean” metaphor and make those continuous course corrections.”

“I now have the ability to share what I have learned through the Personal Agility System to help transitioning military and veterans find the same personal freedom that I have achieved. Many of them start over in a new career or industry. From the “life is the ocean” metaphor and finding their path, to all the other tools that PAS offers I know from personal experience that they can have the same positive results for their lives, families, and finances as well.”

© 2021 Peter B. Stevens and Maria Matarelli. Excerpted from Personal Agility: Unlocking Higher Purpose, Alignment, and Performance

PARC Badge
PARC Personal Agility Recognized Coach Badge

Today we are excited to announce the first recipients of our Personal Agility Recognized Coach™ (or PARC) designation, Liviu Mesesan and Adelina Stefan. As a result, you may be rolling your eyes and thinking, “Just what the world needs… another certification!” Why did we create this recognition anyway? The answer lies in the mission of the Personal Agility Institute.

Early on, we recognized that The Personal Agility System wasn’t just another way of getting things done. It often serves a pathway to deep and enduring transformation for the people who apply it. For example, Sharon Guerin turned her life around, thanks to PAS and the coaching and support she received from Maria. Her case represented potentially millions of cases, and this inspired the mission of the PAI.

The Personal Agility Institute strives to enable one million people and companies to change their life or work situation, measurably and obviously for the better.

Today, we have collected dozens of case studies of people who did exactly that: they made an important improvement thanks to Personal Agility. Usually coaching plays an important role.

The PARC recognition celebrates those who enabled the transformations. A PARC has worked with multiple clients who have transformed their lives, work, or companies. The clients  have gotten results for which they are thankful. These cases are publicly documented, written in close collaboration with the people involved, and validated by the Personal Agility Institute.

Announcing Liviu Mesesan, PARC and Adelina Stefan, PARC

Adelina Stefan, PARC
Adelina Stefan, PARC
Liviu Mesesan, PARC
Liviu Mesesan, PARC

Congratulations and special thanks to Liviu Mesesan, the first to receive the PARC recognition. Liviu pioneered the ideas that PARAs (Personal Agility Recognized Ambassadors) could share PAS through coaching. Two of his coachees have gone to become PARAs themselves.

Congratulations to Adelina Stefan.  Adelina’s work highlights the challenges faced by people in career transition.

Unlike most agile certifications, you don’t get the  PARC by attending a class or passing a test. The PARC is a celebration and proof that the holder has successfully enabled real clients to make important changes. We believe future clients can turn to a PARC with confidence.

Thank you to both of you! You are making our vision a reality.

How to become a PARC

The essential requirement for a PARC is to document and publish at least five case studies. Of course, an applicant must be a PARA, which means the candidate is also a trained coach. The candidate has assisted and people with their challenges using The Personal Agility System, and documented these transformations through case studies. They must publish their case studies on the PAI blog and may publish them elsewhere.

 

 

Michael Mrochern
Michael Mrochern, Chairman Vivior AG

Michael Mrochern is co-founder and Chairman of the Board of Vivior AG, a Swiss digital health start-up. Founded in 2017 by a group of experienced eye care professionals, the company offers a novel wearable device – the Vivior Monitor – to objectively measure visual behavior prior to vision correction interventions.

Michael formulated the problem: “The situation was really frustrating. We were bringing a new type of product to the market in health care. We knew this would be hard, but COVID-19 made our lives very difficult. We tried to position the product in three different markets. We had early successes with each and had secured agreements with major players. Then all these initiatives were put on hold due to the COVID-19 global pandemic.”

“This made it impossible to get additional funding for our projects, which left us in a difficult situation. We were good at raising money from investors, but the money got spent to keep the company afloat at a time we could not develop the product.”

“We were running out of money but our industry partners could not proceed. As a result, we were not meeting our revenue goals and the cash was burning.”

The PAS Stakeholder Canvas played a key role in enabling everyone to understand the positions of each board member and stakeholder as well create a common understanding of what really mattered. Thanks to this alignment, the board was able to agree on the best strategy moving forward, then implement that strategy effectively.

Challenge

“Our market challenges were compounded by our internal challenges. There was a difference of opinion between the founders and management about how to react to this situation. Two opinions became two camps: On the one side, ‘We have a product, we just need to find the right customers.’ On the other side, ‘No, we have customers, but they don’t seem to want the product. We need to adapt the product.’”

“We had focussed on being ready to ramp up, but information did not flow effectively within the company. We had a ‘my kingdom mentality’. We were set up to address the three market segments, but did not have the necessary strength in any of them. We were not able to say no to any markets.”

“The organization seemed frozen on making decisions. We were able to acquire new customers, but they were not using our product and our revenue depended on usage. We had lots of endless discussions that did not lead to useful results. Personality and ego were getting in the way.”

“There was a mismatch between the internal perspective and the investment perspective. Internally, we believed we were doing everything we could, but there wasn’t any progress to show the investors around our key success measures: usage and revenue.”

“We had a roadmap to enter our markets with strategic partners. The roadmap didn’t work any more, because everything was cancelled. The organization was not equipped to respond to the situation. We had three directions we could focus in. There were huge opportunities, all had challenges, and we need to focus on one of them.”

Desired Outcome

“We needed to get the company unstuck and create the willingness to try something new. I knew, if we kept on doing what we were doing, we would fail.”

“I believe successful companies have a good ear to their customers. We didn’t have that. We had a mindset of ‘we know better than the customers’, and we needed to change that into ’we are learning from the customers’. We needed alignment within the organization about the importance of learning. Individual efforts were not sufficient. Individually we heard, but the organization couldn’t react.”

“We wanted progress on revenue. We wanted progress on activations of our product. Things that weren’t happening. Most immediately, we wanted to create clarity on the need to focus and agreement on which market to focus on. We needed to figure out which opportunity was the right one to focus on and get full support from all the stakeholders on the new direction.”

Actual Result

“We got unstuck. We started really listening to each other.”

“We were able to create a common understanding of the opportunities and challenges. We were able to identify the possible routes forward then create a consensus around the best route forward. We were able to move forward with the full support of the board and no significant opposition.”

“We realized we needed to focus, although initially there was no agreement on what to focus on. We realized we had many opportunities. We chose to focus on one market, where we saw the most immediate potential. We were able to refocus without delay.”

“We began adapting the product and the company to the needs of the market and we sharpened our focus on the most promising market.”

Path to Success

“We engaged an outside coach to interview each stakeholder individually then lead us through a workshop together with the goal of deciding what to do next. The coach used the PAS Stakeholder Canvas to guide the conversation and understand each stakeholder’s point of view.”

“The interviews covered the objectives at hand, challenges, fears, frustrations, definition of awesome, and possible next steps. To conclude each interview, the stakeholder confirmed what really mattered from their perspective.”

“The workshop emphasized storytelling and listening. We made small working agreements, such as listening before we talk, asking before we tell, listening for understanding, and asking clarifying questions. Making small agreements in the morning enabled us to have conversations about real issues later in the day with minimal conflict.”

“The facilitation played an important role. One the one hand, people were worried that this would be a “feel-good, sing kumbaya” kind of event that would not produce any results. Having the authority in the room enabled us to make decisions, while having a neutral facilitator ensured constructive discussions.”

“We had identified a champion for each market segment and they spent the afternoon presenting the alternatives we could focus on. Each champion made their best case and we strove to understand their reasoning and the strengths and weaknesses of each one.”

“At the end of the day, everybody voted, which resulted in a clear recommendation. Even one of the other champions voted for the winning approach. The next day, the board ratified this recommendation.”

“The process of interviewing everyone by an outsider gave us a condensed, holistic and honest view of the situation.The process created transparency and alignment. We were able to see outside the system. We got confirmation about what we were thinking and feeling. It became clear what we needed to do.”

Conclusion

Before considering what to do, the board first built alignment on “What Really Matters”. The Stakeholder Canvas provided powerful questions to enable them to identify what they already agreed on. Finding consensus on “What Really Matters” enabled them to agree on the strategy moving forward.

“We were able to get all of our key stakeholders on board and in agreement on the direction for moving forward. We were able to implement the new strategy immediately with no significant resistance.”

“What made this effort successful? Getting all the key stakeholders and decision makers  involved, listening to them and having them in the room (at least virtually) enabled us to decide quickly.”

“Make the vision visible and ask people what they are doing to make it real. The same applies to activities: make them visible to ensure they are in alignment with ‘What Really Matters’”.

“After agreeing on ‘What Really Matters’ to the company, we wrote the topics on cards and put them on the wall where everyone could see them — it became the first column of our task board, just like in Personal Agility!”

This exercise set the stage to apply agility within the leadership team. We applied the basic principles of cadence, ownership, transparency and a focus on producing tangible results, sooner.

“We became responsive as an organization. Previously, individuals would hear things from the customer, but we were unable to respond effectively. Collaboration and talking to each other on a daily basis solved this problem. The company can now respond quickly to any challenges and problems that emerge.”

“If I had to do this again, I would put even more emphasis on taking away the fear. Several people were uncertain and getting them to voice these uncertainties put everything on the table and allowed us to have real, meaningful discussions.”

“I would also spend more time on how we work together. Just because you have spoken to someone doesn’t mean you are aligned. The difference between cooperative and argumentative discussions is huge. A culture based on dialog makes it much easier to surface difficult issues.”

This is how The Personal Agility System scales to any level of an organization. Leveraging tools like the Stakeholder Canvas, constructive dialogue based on Powerful Questions and a shared understanding of “What Really Matters”, a company can focus on the right things and move forward with the support of their stakeholders.

 

© 2021 Peter B. Stevens and Maria Matarelli. Excerpted from Personal Agility: Unlocking Higher Purpose, Alignment, and Performance

 

“With PAS, the purpose became the focus and the driving force behind it all.” – Gabriel Chiriac

Job search is stressful and  often, people don’t have a plan B. All of a sudden, your daily calendar becomes empty, and you don’t know where to start. Finding a new job aligned with your own values requires hard work, perseverance as well as a positive mindset and openness to change.

Gabriel Chiriac is a Product Development Manager with 23+ years of solid background at high corporate level. After a successful career abroad, Gabriel found himself as many other professionals, laid off during the pandemic. He discovered PAS during his repatriation when he redefined his purpose in his career and rebalanced his life.

Situation

“I have been working for over 23 years in a large multinational tobacco company. Having started my career very young as a Quality Examiner in Romania and worked my way up to R&D as a Product Development Manager in Germany, I have grown during those years, enjoying what I was doing and managing my day-to-day objectives flawlessly. This seemed to be a typical success story until the company decided to close the site in Germany and let us go.”

Challenge

“Suddenly, it became obvious that I was about to face totally new challenges both professionally and personally. The warm comfort provided by years of routine was to be no longer present. To make matters worse, the pandemic came along. Returning to Romania after 9 years in Germany, I needed to readjust myself and align what matters to me and my family. While facing the unknown, the repatriation process proved challenging. I was disconnected from a full-time family life commitment, my former social network, the realities of the job market at home and the inherent cultural differences; all these required readjustment from my side.”

Desired Outcome

“My objective was to have a soft landing, readjust to my home country and family life and secure a new job. I have always been rational, and structured. Though I was very effective, working for so many years for the same company loosened my contact with the job market’s current realities. Additionally, spending so much time away from home and family affected both my social network and my work life balance.”

Path to Success

“With PAS, I was able to identify and spend time on my true priorities, from job searching related requirements through personal development and self-care. The biggest impact created with PAS was the initial coaching discussion with my coach around What Really Matters (WRM). Through it, I was able to set up my priorities and goals, and act upon them. Therefore, the purpose became the focus and the driving force behind it all.”

“With the help of my Coach, Adelina Stefan, I identified my development needs and acted upon them. I redesigned my professional brand to make myself and my skills more visible to recruiters, and secure more interviews.”

“With the PAS tools, I measured my progress on personal life tasks,  self-care routine and administrative challenges of home relocation.”

“Basically, with some very effective tools, you get clarity on your objectives, design your actions and achieve the results.”

Actual Result

“I became highly motivated and focused, and acted upon the identified development needs. I also enrolled myself in other courses such as: Agile fundamentals, Scrum methodology as well as upper-level German language. My professional branding documents and my CV were updated and met the current professional requirements. I was able to apply with more confidence to various new jobs. On a personal side, my self-care received its deserved importance and attention, and thus, improved the life balance.”

Support Tools and Success Factors

“Along with the know-how provided by my coach, the Job Description Canvas was very useful in jobs assessment versus one’s expectations. It enabled me to evaluate the potential roles’ challenges against my own strengths, and the terms of the job offers compared to my attributes.Last, the Stakeholder Canvas helped me prepare for interviews considering the objectives and expectations vs challenges, potential for growth and future steps.”

 

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