1.
How to Navigate a WUCA World with
Personal Agility
Peter Stevens

2.
Who is out there?
• Please type your name, location, what you do and who you do it for
into the chat

3.
Meet Peter Stevens
“Mr. What Really Matters”
HB-DGI photo courtesy of Hervé Girard

4.
Where were you when
the lockdown order
came?

5.
I was finishing a workshop on
Executive-Led Agile Transformation

6.
Uncertainty dominated
Image courtesy of seanfoneil-at-flickr CC-BY-ND 2.0

7.
How is
shopping
different in a
chao2c
situa2on?
Image courtesy of Richard Burlton/Unsplash

8.
Shop!
Photo Peter Stevens

9.
How do you navigate a VUCA world?

10.
How do you navigate a VUCA world?
VUCA and
Agility

11.
How do you navigate a VUCA world?
Risks And
How To Reduce
Them
VUCA and
Agility

12.
How do you navigate a VUCA world?
How to Apply
Agility in Any
Context to
Master VUCA
Risks And
How To Reduce
Them
VUCA and
Agility

13.
How do you navigate a VUCA world?
VUCA and
Agility

14.
What is VUCA?
UncertaintyVolatility
Complexity Ambiguity
Image credits: unsplash.com

15.
What is Agility?
Image and metaphor courtesy of Vibhor Chandel

16.
IMHO the first sentence represents the Agile mindset

17.
IMHO the first sentences represents the Agile mindset
Learning
Collaboration
Purpose

18.
Agility is
Purpose
Learning Collabora1on

19.
How do you navigate a VUCA world?
Risks And
How To Reduce
Them
VUCA and
Agility

20.
Simplified explanation from an investment banker:
Investing in options means taking a position
Time
Out–Money--In
Image © 2009-2019 Peter Stevens
Licensed CC-BY-NC-ND

21.
Hold that position for a period
Time
Out–Money--In
Image © 2009-2019 Peter Stevens
Licensed CC-BY-NC-ND

22.
If your assumptions are correct,
you profit
Time
Out–Money--In
Image © 2009-2019 Peter Stevens
Licensed CC-BY-NC-ND

23.
If your assumptions are wrong,
your investment is gone for good
Time
Out–Money--In
Image © 2009-2019 Peter Stevens
Licensed CC-BY-NC-ND

24.
Risk depends on duration and impact if it occurs
Time
Out–Money--In
Longer Duration = More Risk
BiggerInvestment
=
MoreRisk
Image © 2009-2019 Peter Stevens
Licensed CC-BY-NC-ND

25.
What happens if your planning rhythm is slow compared
to the volatility in the world?
Time
Out–Money--In
Image © 2009-2019 Peter Stevens
Licensed CC-BY-NC-ND

26.
How to reduce risk
Time
Out–Money--In
Image © 2009-2019 Peter Stevens
Licensed CC-BY-NC-ND

27.
1. Shorten the duration
Time
Out–Money--In
Image © 2009-2019 Peter Stevens
Licensed CC-BY-NC-ND

28.
2. Reduce the financial commitment
Time
Out–Money--In

29.
Scrum pioneered short iterations to reduce the risk of
product development
Shippable
ProductVision
Maximum 30 days
Image © 2009-2019 Peter Stevens
Licensed CC-BY-NC-ND

30.
Vision
Potentially
Shippable
Product
Every sprint, the Scrum Team reviews their progress and
direction with stakeholders
Maximum 30 days
Review:
Product with
Stakeholders
Image © 2009-2019 Peter Stevens
Licensed CC-BY-NC-ND

31.
Vision
Potentially
Shippable
Product
This enables fine-grained decision making about what to
do next…
Maximum 30 days
Review
Product with
Stakeholders
What
brings
value?
Planning:
What to do?
How to do it?
Image © 2009-2019 Peter Stevens
Licensed CC-BY-NC-ND

32.
Shippable
ProductVision
Potentially
Shippable
Product
…and virtually eliminates delivery risk at the end of the
project
Maximum 30 days
Review
Product with
Stakeholders
What
brings
value?
Planning:
What to do?
How to do it?
Image © 2009-2019 Peter Stevens
Licensed CC-BY-NC-ND

33.
How do you navigate a VUCA world?
How to Apply
Agility in Any
Context to
Master VUCA
Risks And
How To Reduce
Them
VUCA and
Agility

34.
Five tips for applying agility to anything
• You’re the captain of your ship
• Coach yourself to do more of what matters
• What really matters scales for creating alignment
• Focus for speed
• Take care of yourself

35.
Five tips for applying agility to anything
• You’re the captain of your ship

36.
Imagine you’re the captain of a
sailing ship on course to Jamaica
Goal
© 2020 Personal Agility Institute LLC

37.
Stay on course by checking your
position from time to time
On course to
Jamaica
© 2020 Personal Agility Institute LLC

38.
What happens if you are
caught in storm?

39.
What happens if you are
caught in storm?
Urgent things
you have to do
© 2020 Personal Agility Institute LLC

40.
Your Life is the Ocean…
Where are we?
Where is
Jamaica?
© 2020 Personal Agility Institute LLC

41.
Your Life is an Ocean…
and Personal Agility is your GPS
Set course for
Jamaica
© 2020 Personal Agility Institute LLC

42.
Five tips for applying agility to anything
• You’re the captain of your ship
• Coach yourself to do more of what matters

43.
To get the right things done,
master three aspects
Doing Work
QuestioningSetting Priorities

44.
To get the right things done, ask yourself six questions
regularly
1. What
really
matters?
2. What did
I do last
week?
3.What
could I do
this week?
4.What is
important,
urgent or makes
me happy?
5.What can
I expect to
get done?
6.Who can
help?

45.
Personal Agility is a simple coaching framework to help
you spend more time doing what matters
Stuff done,
Closer to who
you want to be
Celebrate & Choose
Who you are,
What you did
What could
I do this
week?
What can I
expect to
get done?
What really
maNers?
Do
What is
important,
urgent or
happy?
Who can
help?
6 Questions
1 Recurring Event
What did I
do last
week?
🎉
Choose photo credit: Stockfresh.com

46.
© 2020 Personal Agility InsHtute LLC
Use the PAS Breadcrumb Trail to know you where are
Use the PAS Priorities Map to set your course

47.
Five tips for applying agility to anything
• You’re the captain of your ship
• Coach yourself to do more of what matters
• What really matters scales for creating alignment

48.
How to create alignment
among 400,000 people
• Every member of the Apollo
mission knew:
• We are going to the moon
• It’s not going to fail because of me
• If something goes wrong…
© 2020 Peter Stevens
Apollo 11 Ready for Launch

49.
Knowing what really matters
enables everyone to take the right decisions
• Every member of the Apollo
mission knew:
• We are going to the moon
• It’s not going to fail because of me
• If something goes wrong, remember
item 1
© 2020 Peter Stevens
Chandrayaan 2 Ready for Launch

50.
Five tips for applying agility to anything
• You’re the captain of your ship
• Coach yourself to do more of what matters
• What really matters scales for creating alignment
• Focus for speed

51.
Focus enables speed
Capacity
Demand
“to do’s”

52.
By stretching yourself too thinly, you work like crazy, but
things slow to a crawl
Demand
“to do’s”
Cap
acit
y

53.
Speed comparison
This is you working on one thing at time
1 week

54.
1 week
Speed comparison
This is you working on five things at once
1
2
3
4
5
20 weeks

55.
1 week
Focus enables you to match your planning rhythm to
the volatility
1
2
3
4
5
20 weeks

56.
By trying to do everything,
you don’t focus on what matters
Demand
“to do’s”
Cap
acit
y
Waste
Stuff That
Matters!

57.
Five tips for applying agility to anything
• You’re the captain of your ship
• Coach yourself to do more of what matters
• What really matters scales for creating alignment
• Focus for speed
• Take care of yourself

58.
A “Resource” is something
that makes you happy
• Breathe
• Get enough rest and exercise
• Be kind to yourself (and others)
• Do things that make you happy

59.
Would you like to learn more?
Reach out to one of our ambassadors
© 2020 Peter Stevens

60.
Questions?
Photo © leonardo viti - Fotolia