Agile Businesses: Adrian Pyne Of Pyne Consulting Limited On How Businesses Pivot and Stay Relevant In The Face of Disruptive Technologies
An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis
Keep your eye on the ball: A key part of the philosophy of agility is focus on the value you are after. In complex Transformations its common for influential stakeholders to crawl out of the woodwork to add bits of scope to their advantage without using their budgets. And even within the valid scope some requirements are more important than others.
As part of my series about the “How Businesses Pivot and Stay Relevant In The Face of Disruptive Technologies”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Adrian Pyne.
A project professional for over 30 years, Adrian has led organisational transformation in 11 industries and in the public sector, in the UK and abroad. The author of books on programme management and agile governance and assurance, he has contributed to the evolution of programme, portfolio and PMO standards and is a regular speaker, visiting lecturer, blogger and researcher. Adrian is a Fellow of the Association of Project Management. More on his work and writing at his Agile Beyond IT newsletter.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series. Our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your ‘backstory’ and how you got started?
My start in the 1980s was thankfully the result of a disruptive technology. Software development had been via punch cards — a bit of technology archaeology. They were slow to use, cumbersome and prone to simple mistakes if you punched just a single hole wrongly. I had not the patience, so the advent of computer terminals and early networks opened the door for software engineers like me. I could code online; simple mistakes took seconds not hours or even days to put right.
Eventually I moved to managing software projects then telecommunications engineering. Digital telecoms emerged as another disruptive technology and companies shed thousands of engineers and managers, so I went freelance. Since 1996 I have led or rescued transformation programmes and built project delivery capabilities in more than 11 industries from aviation to mining to coffee! And in both commercial and public sectors. I see myself as a project professional.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lessons or ‘take aways’ you learned from that?
Funny? Well, I suppose we laughed afterwards. As a rookie software engineer, I used a language called Cobol. Yes, I am that old. Without boring readers, a Cobol programme had four divisions (parts). Three which identified the programme, the data and the files to be used and the fourth comprised the logic. The accepted coding technique was to write the first three then put a single logic statement in the Procedure division (logic bit). You could then ‘compile’ the programme and its data stuff to ensure it is correct before coding the logic bit. I did the first stage and all was well. I did the logic coding and checked through it and again ‘compiled’ successfully. Beaming I ran the programme. It duly ran to end, opening files, processing the logic and closing the files. Unfortunately, no output data was produced.
To cut a long story short first I checked the logic, then a colleague, then my boss. Dejected I went home and the next morning at once discovered my schoolboy error. The first line of logic remained ‘stop run’, which was the single line of logic used to test the data bit at the beginning. So of course, the programme ran to end, opening and closing files. But the ‘stop run’ first line meant that all remaining logic was ignored, and the programme did nothing.
It took some weeks to live that one down. I was far better at dealing with people than code, and probably explains why I moved into project management quickly! A valuable and long-lasting lesson.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story?
Of the many I could pay tribute to, the late and much-lamented Geoff Reiss stands out. The father of programme management and designer of project management software, Geoff was my guru from the early 1990s when I joined the Association of Project Management and ProgM, its programme management Specific Interest Group.
Back in the day Geoff would have been described as one of nature’s gentlemen. Today I will simply say that he was a superb, humane person. He led ProgM as an inspirational, collaborative leader. A single story cannot do him justice. Suffice to say that under his understated leadership he attracted some amazing people who were instrumental in the early evolution not just of programme management, but also portfolio management, project/portfolio offices and benefits management. Geoff especially supported my ideas on stakeholder management and communications planning.
He also facilitated collaborations between ProgM and other bodies such as the British Computer Society’s PromsG group. Ultimately, he brought together Malcolm Anthony, John Chapman, Geof Leigh, Paul Rayner (also much missed) and I to write the first edition of the Gower Handbook of Programme Management. Without Geoff I could not have been part of those amazing and innovative times.
Extensive research suggests that “purpose driven businesses” are more successful in many areas. When your company started, what was its vision, what was its purpose?
I am going to cheat in this interview because as an agent of change in one sense I am invisible. My company is not relevant, its what my clients and I do together that is important. It may seem strange but not all organisations are purpose driven, or rather, there are lots of purposes, sometimes conflicting and sometimes more important and beneficial to some executives than perhaps the organisation and its shareholders.
As a change agent my role has in part been to achieve focus on the value to be delivered through change then sustain that focus and energy — Kotter is still right about creating AND sustaining the energy of change.
Thank you for all that. Let’s now turn to the main focus of our discussion. Can you tell our readers a bit about what your business does? How do you help people?
I mentioned earlier that I went freelance as a project management consultant in 1996. Until about twelve years ago I led transformations or the building of project management capabilities for organisations. Then I changed the business model to purer consultancy. Analysing project delivery problems, advising and helping my clients to deliver projects more effectively by creating environments in which projects can succeed.
At the same time, I increasingly saw ‘agile’ being thrown around as a buzzword. Like Ecommerce some years earlier it was seen by some as the coming thing, by others as the magic bullet. And like the early days of Ecommerce a lot of people were getting agile expensively wrong. Having always maintained an interest and a watching brief over development methods, and of course managed them. Understanding the Agile Manifesto and its developments into Scrum etc. were easy enough to grasp.
Where my interest and commercial opportunity combined was where agility was being adapted — mostly disastrously — to project management. So, I set out to make getting project agility right the core of my business. It also became my professional focus with many lectures, blogs, articles and ultimately my book Agile Beyond IT as outputs.
Which technological innovation has encroached or disrupted your industry? Can you explain why this has been disruptive?
Not all disruptors are technological. Given my previous answer perhaps not surprisingly the disruptor relevant to me is Agility. Although agile working predates it, the 2001 Agile Manifesto gave shape to agile software development approaches such as Scrum, XP and so on. It remains the most coherent description of what agility means, in four values and twelve principles.
Agility has almost become ubiquitous for software development. Evidenced by it being core to the UK Government’s Digital Strategy. But agility has long moved beyond IT, today you can find agile marketing, agile engineering, agile construction and agile project management. Whole companies have adopted and adapted to agile business operating models. Just look at sector disruptors such as Amazon and Tesla. They have agility running through them like words in a stick of rock. Non-agile organisations in threatened sectors need to adapt or go the way of buggy-whip makers.
Just one other word, agility runs in parallel with another key trend that is impacting business models. I refer to the projectisation of work, even of business-as-usual activity. Put these two together properly and you have a powerful new operating model. How’s that for disruption?
What did you do to pivot as a result of this disruption?
Being a consultant and in my fifties it was easy. I had reached a point where I was fortunate in being able to pick and choose the people and organisations I wanted to work with, and the type of work I wanted to do. So, I decided to align my passion for getting project agility right, with my commercial model. Work should be fun if possible and mostly, it has been.
Was there a specific “Aha moment” that gave you the idea to start this new path? If yes, we’d love to hear the story.
My brain seems to be wired to adapt, I LOVE change and dealing with it. I had always maintained an interest in methods and how to flex and adapt them for different projects and organisational settings.
Agile software development engaged my attention in 2008 while consulting to the UK Department of Work and Pensions. Some IT suppliers were using agile software development methods and I became very interested in both them and the Agile Manifesto. Then in 2011 I read the UK Institute of Government report System Error, which paved the way for agile software development to become key to the coming UK Government Digital Strategy. It was not so much a light bulb moment but a warning siren. I could see how misinterpretation of agility could lead to mistakes, which alas rapidly transpired.
One quote that worried me was in the section ‘Agile projects’ which said Projects should be “modular, iterative, responsive to change and have users at the core.” Most of this is fine even fantastic, but the seeds of confusion between project management with software development agility had been sown. Just for example, saying that agile projects should be iterative is strongly implying — if not defining — that agile projects can ONLY have iterative life-cycles. Which is dangerous rubbish. Agile software development usually is iterative. But IT enabled projects don’t just deliver software but do something with it. E.g. train people, change operating processes and so on. These activities are commonly serial, or to put it another way, waterfall.
I was both enraged and energised by the opportunity to help organisations not waste investment in agile projects.
So, how are things going with this new direction?
More than 10 years on it still forms the basis of both my client work and professional interest. I suppose you could say that both have culminated in my recent book, Agile Beyond IT. I have poured my own experience and that of colleagues, plus much observation and research into it.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started this pivot?
Ah now that is a difficult one, mostly as I am lucky enough to choose who I work with, and I have worked with some talented business leaders and professionals. That said let me tell you about an airport which I think is still the busiest single runway airport in the world. The COO wanted a higher performing and leaner project delivery capability. When we discussed the organisation and especially the leadership culture he had built, agility immediately sprang to mind. Unfortunately, the airport’s owners previously had bad experiences with Agile and the ‘A’ word was taboo.
Our answer was to build an agile delivery capability but not labelling it as such. In this case Shakespeare was right, this agile rose by any other name smelled as sweet.
What would you say is the most critical role of a leader during a disruptive period?
Without doubt to establish, communicate and maintain both a clear vision for the needed Change, to sustain the energy of that Change and to build Trust so that even the skeptical or fearful will follow.
When the future seems so uncertain, what is the best way to boost morale? What can a leader do to inspire, motivate and engage their team?
After graduation I worked in retail management with a company called Rumbelows for a while. My role was opening new stores and rescuing failing stores. One day I suggested to the Personnel Director that sales would increase if staff felt they were valued, or words to that effect. The prevailing culture being the opposite. He looked at me as if I was a malignant alien life-form. I soon left for IT and am still enjoying a great career. What of Rumbelows? Well, they disappeared not many years later. Funny that.
And if Covid 19 has taught us anything it is that even if they are working remotely you have to engage with your people, not just manage but lead them, albeit in different ways than before. Let them know they are valued, keep them focused on what they need to be doing — and why. Let them know they are being actively managed but also being looked after.
How? Keep talking to them, individually and as teams. Discuss how what they are doing is contributing to the goal, helping customers and so on. Listen to their ideas and their grumbles and take them seriously. If you don’t agree with something let them know and explain. Remember the old exchange.
‘You are not listening to me!’
‘I am, I just don’t agree with you…. because….’
That ‘because’ is important.
Is there a “number one principle” that can help guide a company through the ups and downs of turbulent times?
You only have to look at history to realise that adversity is when great leaders truly shine. Whether it is Julius Caesar outnumbered almost 10–1 at the Battle of Alesia (in modern France) 52 BCE, Winston Churchill for the UK in the second world war or the numerous examples during the Covid 19 pandemic. Always remember that even great leaders make mistakes. What is important is how they respond to them.
And I must cheat again by saying a two-part principle that also happen to reflect agility very well; keep your eye on the big picture and your feet on the ground.
Can you share 3 or 4 of the most common mistakes you have seen other businesses make when faced with a disruptive technology? What should one keep in mind to avoid that?
Fear is a big factor in disruption. Carol Osterweil in her new book Neuroscience for project success: why people behave as they do, explains how we are hard wired to react fearfully to Change. Such fear often makes even Boards behave irrationally, or in a knee-jerk manner, or not in an integrated way, perhaps even in a scattergun manner. E.g. blindly cutting costs instead of focusing investment.
If you don’t believe agility is a major disruptor, remember what I said earlier about agility, Amazon and Tesla. Add to that evidence such as from PA Consulting in 2021 that agile businesses are more profitable. These suggest that a considered, deliberate, integrated move to an agile business model is not just defensive, but for survival.
Such transformations bring two other gurus to mind. Kotter and Abrahamson. Kotter has long shown that it is not enough for a Board to start transformations. Board level people are busy, their attention may be taken elsewhere and a crucial investment in Change languishes in favour of something in their operational comfort zone. A Board MUST sustain the energy of Change, i.e. maintain their leadership, their engagement. Remembering also what I said about the increasing projectisation of work. Boards, and those aspiring to them MUST become more familiar and comfortable with project-based working.
Another common behaviour when faced with major change, arising from disruptors or just strategic change, is throwing the baby out with the bath water. I have seen two companies merge and the management of one simply thrown away. Abrahamson suggests you should find out what works, what is good and build on it. The response to the merger should have been to seek out the best talent. Intriguingly, within a year a significant number of those made redundant were brought back as consultants. I wonder what that did to the bottom line?
Ok. Thank you. Here is the primary question of our discussion. Based on your experience and success, what are the five most important things a business leader should do to pivot and stay relevant in the face of disruptive technologies? Please share a story or an example for each.
A simple question with so many possible answers. But my five are:
Share the vision: In 1962 John F Kennedy shared an incredible vision with the American people and the world; “to send a man to the Moon and return him safely to the Earth.” He went on: “We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things not because they are easy, but because they are hard. Because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we’re willing to accept. One we are unwilling to postpone.”
It excited people, their pride and raised morale, Greatness is not a catchphrase. His vision stimulated technology and industry and sparked much controversy. The space race was well and truly on.
Contrast that with this; “I feel just like a mushroom…kept in the dark and fed on manure”. Its an old company joke but well founded on the bitter experience of many. Such behaviour by so-called ‘management’ is pretty much guaranteed to demotivate people, reduce their morale, creativity and productivity. Its true that sometimes the outcomes of disruptive change can be unpleasant, e.g. redundancy for some, but consider this. You are on a train which halts in the middle of nowhere. 5 minutes pass then 10 then 15 with no announcements.
How do you feel?
Now consider this, you are on a train which halts in the middle of nowhere. Immediately the train manager explains there is a hold up, what it is, what is happening and that the delay could be 15 minutes, 20 at most. Updates and confirmation of the delay time are given regularly.
How do you feel?
The hold up is the same but passengers are far less disgruntled, thankful even for the briefings.
Even bad news can be sweetened. Which leads me to…..
Communicate intelligently: When I started out in projects people simply did not figure. Project management was about plans, risks, finance, change control etc. But it is people who deliver projects or not. And in the environment around a project there are people who may help…or hinder it. Managing stakeholders, mostly through communications, is best done with intelligence, in a systematic way. This is an old but still great story.
On 16th April 1995 a single digit was added to every phone number in the UK. A goal as simple to state as Kennedy’s Moon goal. BT’s PhONEday programme was the biggest of the providers and cost about £80m over four years. I was its communications lead, both internally and externally. We had a clear stakeholder and communications strategy and extensive and necessarily dynamic (agile?) plans. I spent £11m of the £80m preparing both our commercial and residential customers, and our people internally. Also to gain support and reduce criticism from the ‘influencers’ of the day, mostly in the media. Come PhONEday, awareness was higher than we dared hoped. Two postscripts. Firstly, one month after PhONEday we held a post programme party. The Group Managing Director made a brilliant and short speech. He said: “do you know what I have heard about PhONEday for the past month?………Absolutely nothing, WELL DONE!” Secondly, and more recently a social media marketing consultant friend re-worked my external communications plan for social media. He estimated that my costs would be closer to £4m rather than the original £11m (1995 value, about £20m today).
Keep your eye on the ball: A key part of the philosophy of agility is focus on the value you are after. In complex Transformations its common for influential stakeholders to crawl out of the woodwork to add bits of scope to their advantage without using their budgets. And even within the valid scope some requirements are more important than others.
Some years ago I helped mobilise a major Transformation programme for a supermarket, to be managed Agile. We established a Business Architect leading the Change panel. Together they ensured there was no scope creep and prioritised requirements from the outset.
Embrace Change during the journey: The Agile Manifesto is clear that change during delivery should be embraced. Quite right but adapting for projects I add a caveat……embrace change so long as it at least maintains or at best enhances value delivery. It sounds a bit of a platitude but I mean it.
As head of the Programme Office for a major retail bank’s transformation programme, I found that the IT project manager was struggling with some very active users who raised a high volume of change requests. Now you could say we were being agile as we developed requirements as we went along. But in fact there had been significant discovery activity. Our solution was twofold. [1] all change requests had to include justification and not just be a wish list, and, [2] there was an initial triage to match and prioritise requests against the programme’s goals. The volume was greatly reduced, and the project manager had more time to actively manage the project and its people. We lived agile change control.
Keep control like a parent teaching their child to ride a bicycle:
Agile leadership, sometimes called hands-off is a bit like a parent teaching their child to ride a bike. You may remember that point where the stabilisers were off and you had just taken your hand away from their back, or the saddle. Off they went, a little wobbly but growing in stability and confidence. What were you doing? Certainly you were not just standing there as they went into the distance. Perhaps to encounter another child on a bike, or a dog, a jogger or holly bush. Of course not, you are jogging along behind. Close enough to intervene if they call or at your judgement. Or to let them get on with it if no help is needed.
I had a small involvement in an agile managed nuclear engineering programme. Yes, agile nuclear engineering, you heard it here first. The programme was to solve some complex, highly dangerous engineering issues not encountered before. The executive level realised they had to allow the engineering team to be largely self-selecting, drawing esoteric expertise as needed, and to be self-organising. But management kept in touch in a hands-off manner.
If you give a team formed of the right people, a clear goal and clear operating parameters…..TRUST them and keep in touch.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
“I would pick more daisies”. There are a few versions of this but the relevance to me of the whole text is that its OK to make mistakes if you learn from them and that work-life balance is vital for health , a good life and your employer.
For the first, I was for many years fearful of error until a great boss coached me about learning from them. I am still learning, from mistakes and from experience.
As to balance, I found in my 40s (I am now 65) that you can do well for your clients and yourself by balancing work and personal/family time. I found I enjoyed work more, did better for my clients and felt so much better in body, e.g. though regular swimming and mental health.
Given the evolution of ways of working during and post-Covid 19, this is current but I won’t claim it’s the zeitgeist.
P.S. Don’t actually pick the daises or other wildflowers but definitely make time to walk among and enjoy them.
How can our readers further follow your work?
I mostly write articles and blogs on LinkedIn, including my Agile Beyond IT LinkedIn newsletter. Plus of course there is the book Agile Beyond IT.
Thank you so much for sharing these important insights. We wish you continued success and good health!
Agile Businesses: Adrian Pyne Of Pyne Consulting Limited On How Businesses Pivot and Stay Relevant… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
