This blog is the second of a series on designing Operating Models where location is irrelevant.
Part one | Part two: Step 1 | Step 2 | Step 3 | Step 4 | Steps 5 & 6 | Step 7
The remote:af Operating Model Design Process
The remote:af Operating Model Design Process is a set of activities, conducted syncronously and asynchronously over a 2-8 week period (depending on scale, complexity and muscle memory), to ensure that the way that work flows through teams and is governed is optimised for the goal of the system. The first iteration takes longer due to the work necessary to map the landscape, but subsequent design iterations are far more efficient.
Operating Model Design can be performed at an Enterprise or Team of Teams level, in this set of blogs we are referring to the former.
%20v1.0%20(4).jpg)
There are seven steps in the process, supported by the remote:af Operating Model Design Canvas, which we will describe in separate blogs:
- Step one - understand the landscape
- Step two - agree on design principles
- Step three - identify and challenge constraints
- Step four - design the flow of work
- Steps five and six - design the operating rhythm and agree on governance
- Step seven - detailed design and implementation
Learning remote:af operating model design
This process has been built on a wide theory base and over a decade of experience providing advisory services to customers; working with the wonderful people in the team - principally Gendry Morales, Kim Ballestrin, Tony Ponton, Phil Gadzinski, Farnaz Vahab and Kent Burley; from brilliant conversations with industry leaders such as Dave Snowden, Sonja Blignaut, Zhen Goh, Jabe Bloom, Kevin Behr, Troy Magennis, Alan Jefferies, Matthew Skelton, Manuel Pais and Nigel Thurlow; and, from a range of formal learning - Cynefin, LeSS, Scrum, SAFe, LeSS, Kanban and many others. It’s a synthesis of ideas hardened through practice as such it’s not really something that is possible to teach as a training ‘course’, rather something that can be learned through participation in the process.
The intent with remote:af Operating Model Design is to help organisations to build their own competency in operating model design, supported by an accredited method guide who has:
- Completed a learning program
- Participated in a design process led by an experienced facilitator;
- Executed the process with support from an experienced facilitator; and,
- Supported someone else through the process.
It will be one of a set of ‘higher order’ patterns in remote:af aimed at disrupting management consultancy. Other higher order patterns in development include:
- remote leadership;
- remote governance; and
- remote strategy design.
If you’re interested in learning more about the process of accreditation then please get in touch. We’re looking to build a community of method guides - people with experience leading or coaching teams of teams who are comfortable facilitating in ambiguous environments and can lead challenging conversations with executives to build better workplaces.
Next Steps
We will be running an introductory class in remote:af operating model design for our existing guide community in August. To be a part of that class you'll first need to jump on a guides course to learn the core patterns of remote:af.
Continue to
