Executagility® Case Study: Gem and Jewelry Solutions Company
Introduction
A Gem and Jewelry Solutions Company that protects the public’s trust in the gem and jewelry market through research, education, and grade, reached out to Andrea Jones Consulting to help them instill Executagility Model® along with an Executagility® Mindset. The Client’s IT department was facing a significant backlog of technical debt work and they wanted to instill a capability around reliably executing high impact work in a dynamic organization with shifting priorities and consistent demand.
Figuring Out the Solution
AJC introduced the Executagility Model and the Executagility Mindset to two separate departments, IT and Information Security. Work included coaching teams on deploying the Executagility Model, explaining what an Executagility mindset is, how to work cross functionally and how to prioritize a seemingly endless demand. The teams were trained in a new method to prioritize high value work based upon criteria that the group aligned on.
AJC helped to design several Agile teams comprised of cross functional representatives and lead the teams through the process of creating and managing their own backlog and running Sprints and regular Sprint Standups.
Separately, AJC trained several business units and senior leaders on Patrick Lencioni’s Working Genius framework which resulted in a recognition of how individuals prefer to work and how to best structure work to deliver the maximum value by involving participants “genius” preference.
Goals
The backlog of technical debt was prioritized and through a series of time-boxed Sprints, significantly reduced. As a result, the AJC team was able to deploy the Executagility Model and Mindset to another problem area that existed between these two departments.
Two employees handpicked by the Sponsors, were coached and elevated to the role of Executagility Project Manager, taking direction from project sponsors, setting up and running Steering Committee, Prioritization and Sprint meetings. They handled all coordination and facilitation, ran Sprints, navigated blockers, coached the team.
The Client’s teams can now set up and manage their own Sprints and run regular Stand Ups and feel empowered to make decisions and develop and send their own communications.
Cross functional collaboration and sharing of project information is now the norm.
In the spirit of continuous improvement, Sprint teams participate in Sprint Review and Retrospective Meetings at the end of each Sprint, to discuss achievements, showcase results, and ask questions. From a retrospective standpoint, they discuss what went well and what to adjust for next time.
“AJC’s ability to tailor when needed and make small adjustments to the approach
and execution in order to achieve the desired outcome was impressive.”
Conclusion
With AJC’s support, the client was able to reduce their technical debt backlog and optimize internal operations. Team performance and work satisfaction improved, and communications with key stakeholders in multiple functions within the company are open and effective.
“Everyone from Andrea Jones Consulting, LLC was easy and a joy to work with.”