Leverage Evidence-Based Management, a scientific method, to enable organizations to achieve goals under conditions of uncertainty.   Organizations often believe in the certainty of their plans and see every deviation from the plan as a sign of failure. They view the organization as a machine for creating and executing plans instead of looking at it as a responsive organism, attentive to the changes in its environment. In a world of uncertainties, organizations need to be capable of reinventing themselves every day based on new information.   In Unlocking Business Agility with Evidence-Based Management, authors Patricia Kong, Todd Miller, Kurt Bittner, and Ryan Ripley use the framework developed by Scrum.org called Evidence-Based Management (EBM). EBM is an empirical approach that helps organizations use experimentation and rapid feedback to progress toward goals. This path is not always obvious or straightforward, but that is a benefit: in a complex and changing world, the path toward goals will always be uncertain. EBM helps organizations use new data to adapt their plan toward their goals.   Throughout the book, the authors present stories and experiences that illustrate how EBM can be applied to set better goals and then leverage empiricism to achieve those goals using feedback, learning, and evidence. This definitive guide will help your organization identify its true purpose, improve its ability to reach goals, and build a culture of trust, transparency, and growth. Clarify goals and demonstrate value, success, and progress using agile metrics Progress toward goals in uncertain and rapidly changing circumstances Embrace empiricism and experimentation to find solutions for complex problems Find real-world anonymized case studies on how to articulate goals and measurements in a way that fosters self-management and business agility   Register your book for convenient access to downloads, updates, and/or corrections as they become available. See inside book for details.

Table of Contents:
Foreword by Ken Schwaber     xi Foreword by Dave West      xv Preface      xix Introduction      xxvii   Chapter 1: Finding Purpose      1 Rediscovering Purpose      3      Goals      4      How Goals and Measures Influence Behaviors      7 How to Rediscover Purpose      10 Closing Satisfaction Gaps Creates Value      11      Customer-Focused Goals Enable Autonomy and Purpose      14 Improving Strategic Goals      17      Ask “Why?” to Uncover the Real Objective      17      Refocus “Internal” Goals on What Customers Need to Experience      19      Think About How You Will Measure Progress Toward Your Vision      20 What to Watch For      21 Moving Forward      22   Chapter 2: Using Empiricism to Progress Toward Goals      23 Understanding Value      25 Progressing Toward Goals in a Series of Small Steps      27      Taking Small Steps Toward Goals      29 Steering Toward Goals      32      Adapting Goals      34      Adapting Tactics      36 The Real Purpose of Goals Is to Foster Conversations      36 Losing the Plot and Finding It Again      37 What to Watch For      38 Moving Forward      39   Chapter 3: Becoming (More) Effective      41 Value Is Essential, but Frequency Matters Too      42      It Is Not Delivery Speed That Is Important; It Is Feedback Speed      44      While Focusing on Speed, Do Not Lose Sight of Value      45 Speed Is Not Enough; Teams Must Also Be Effective      46 Too Many Things at Once      48 Where Should Teams Start?      50 Beware the Efficiency Trap      51 Balancing Speed and Effectiveness      52 Cutting Corners: Sometimes Necessary, Sometimes Fatal      53 What to Watch For      55 Moving Forward      56   Chapter 4: Managing and Overcoming Expectations      59 People Who Largely Seek to Validate Expectations Are Often Disappointed      60 Transforming “Bad News” into Just “News”     61      Letting Go of Expectations      64      Expectations Can Be Stubbornly Held      65 Replacing “Meeting Expectations” with “Seeking Goals”      68 Stakeholders and Transparency      69 How to Define and Categorize Stakeholders      70 Escaping the “Echo Chamber”      73 Diverse Perspectives Counter “Groupthink”      76 What to Watch For      77 Moving Forward      78   Chapter 5: Separating the Signal from the Noise      81 Identifying Signals      82 Interpreting Evidence from Signals      84 Dampening the Noise      85 Bias Creates Noise      88 The Customer Is Not Always Right      90 Objectifying Narratives      92 Getting Unstuck      94 Making Decisions      96 What to Watch For      97 Moving Forward      98   Chapter 6: Applying EBM at the Product Level      99 Mind the (Satisfaction) Gap      100 When You Find Yourself in a Hole, Stop Digging      101 Not All Ideas Are Valuable      103 Replacing False Certainty with Experimentation      104      Using Strategic Goal Mapping to Form Experiments      106      Products Are Vehicles for Running Experiments About Value      108 Sometimes Teams Lose the Thread and Need a Reminder      110 Running Experiments and Measuring Results      111      Inspecting Results and Adapting Next Steps      114 Customer Experience Is Not Always About More Features      117 Sometimes You Must Say No      120 What to Watch For      121 Moving Forward      122   Chapter 7: Applying EBM at the Portfolio Level      123 Maximizing Output Does Not Maximize Value      124      The Problems Start with Misfocused Goals      126      Revenue and Profit Are Important, But They Are Poor Goals      127 Reconnecting Investments with Customer Outcomes      128      You Can't Have It All at Once      129      How to Measure Outcomes      130      You Do Not Know What You Do Not Know      131 How to Choose Between Bets      132      Make Small Bets      133      Kill Bad Ideas as Quickly as Possible      135      Propose Experiments      138      Evaluate Proposals      139      Make Sure All the Cards Are on the Table      140      Keep Teams Intact, and Bring Them Work      140      Separating Budgeting from Funding      141      Run Experiments      141      Evaluate Progress Toward Goals      141 What to Watch For      144 Moving Forward      145   Chapter 8: Applying EBM at the Organizational Level      147 Why Change Efforts Fail      148 To Initiate Change, Give People a “Why”      149 Assess Where the Organization Is Today      150      Empowerment Takes Trust, Transparency, and Time      152      Benefits of Empowering Teams      153      Measuring Empowerment      154      Growing Empowerment      155 Inverting the Organization to Support Empowerment      156      Reducing Context Switching      157      Growing Self-Sufficient Teams      158      Aligning Supporting Departments      160 Setting and Adapting Goals      163      Most Goals Can—and Should—Change      163 What to Watch For      164 Moving Forward      165   Index      167