What are the reasons: Political instability, new trends, new technologies, competitors and a still unknown Generation Z make long-term planning almost impossible. Even employees seem to have the motto when changing employers: “After three years you can, after five years you have to!” to be taken very seriously.

Often the reasons mentioned force managers to opt for short-term success, as this is foreseeable and measurable. But how can you keep a balance between long-term and short-term success? In this article I analyze both types of success and summarize the findings in concrete recommendations for employees and managers.

Prepare: the marathon runner

Short-term success is like a sprint. With enough carbohydrates (energy) in your body, you can sprint quickly and be successful. Surely you have already walked such a route or at least ran to the next ICE to catch it in time. The consequence: short-term success and you have to take a deep breath first.

A marathon consists of different stages and often the runner cannot say exactly what weather or what obstacles await him on the way. That’s why he does the following: Exercise and keep fit. He practices sprints but also long runs and gathers experience with different weather conditions. There are stages in which he can run quickly and there are also stages which make it difficult for him to make progress.

Use energy correctly: the green sea turtle

I have a great story in the book: The cafe on the edge of the world ” found. The protagonist Casey is an avid swimmer and likes to snorkel on reefs. During such a snorkeling trip you will meet a green sea turtle and swim with it. But something exciting happens: The turtle, which seems so leisurely, has hung up as a skilled swimmer. Casey meets the green sea turtle again while snorkeling and watches it closely.

She notes that the turtle never fights against the current. She slowed down her movements and only paddled enough to stay in place. Only when the wave flows back into the sea does it use this current for itself and make a stretch. Casey, on the other hand, always tried to swim with the same amount of force.

We too have to struggle with difficult times in life when circumstances are not favorable due to the market or management. It sometimes helps to just wait and not waste so much energy. Use the time to think about the future and wait for the next wave.

Conclusion

Professional life is made up of phases of progress and phases of standstill or resistance. Use these phases for short-term and long-term success. Now I would like to summarize the findings in concrete recommendations for employees and managers

For Employees : Use good projects and high phases of the company to achieve short-term success. But then you can also use rest periods and standstill to read and to exchange ideas with technical experts about possible topics in the future.

Reading tip: Employability

For Manager : Use good market positions to be successful in the short term and implement customer requests quickly and flexibly. Use short reviews and vacation periods of the customer to change the company and exchange ideas with experts.

Reading tip: Agile management

Der Beitrag Maintaining a balance between short-term and long-term success erschien zuerst auf agile Companies.

• What are my very personal experiences in my life as a rebel?
• What best practices can I share – and what have been my biggest mistakes that others can learn from?

In the first step I would like to tell my very personal story about a change in which I was involved for a whole year. From this story I derive best practices that can help an organizational rebel in everyday life. The following story happened during the last 3 years in the course of my consulting activity. I don’t want to give any time periods because the company is supposed to remain anonymous. In the following, some details have been changed so that the company cannot be traced. Hired as a consultant, I found myself there in an environment of tradition and change.
Reading tip: SMEs between tradition and change

My very personal experiences

One day I received an exciting project. I was supposed to support a company for a year, to restructure a department and, in addition to consulting, also tackle the change with management and employees.

From one day to the next to a rebel

Change is difficult – hardly anyone likes it. Especially not in a group with fixed structures. But changes are essential to move a company forward. So I was called by a company to restructure a department with almost 100 employees. In 50 percent of my time, I helped the managers responsible to change the organization – the other 50 percent I took on important projects using agile methods. So I had come to change something – an organizational rebel – which perhaps not all employees received with open arms at first.

Planning, planning, planning and shut up

A very well-known agile mind and book author once gave me the tip a few years ago: “If you come in somewhere new, shut up and take a close look at everything.“That’s exactly what I did. In the first few weeks I was busy getting used to it, understanding processes and getting the seniors to explain the company to me. Together with the manager and his team leaders, we met regularly for one-day workshops on planning the new department. Especially at the beginning I listened carefully. I didn’t bring my own ideas to the table, but rather thought about how I can put the manager’s visions into concrete terms. Before I came up with an idea, I usually discussed it personally with one of the team leaders. By the way, if you want to read some theory, you can click on my article on organizational development.
Reading tip: Organizational development

The target image was created!

After a while, we had defined the target image for the department. We had to observe the following framework conditions:

• Compliant with the certified standard
• Compliant with processes in other departments
• Lots of people who don’t all want to work in an agile manner
• Different customers, not all of whom were enthusiastic about agility either
• highest flexibility with maximum stability

There were currently very large teams in the company that worked according to traditional methods. This should be changed. We had the idea to appoint two new team leaders and to form four teams from two teams. These are:

• Internal IT: automation and operation – Kanban
• Project team – large customer projects – complete self-organization and autonomy
• DevOPs: For medium-sized projects and agile (Scrum) customers – Scrum and DevOps
• Classic unit: small customers and customers with standard tasks – ITIL

Challenge accepted! To do this, we came up with a four-step model. Some of the employees were supposed to continue to work in the old organization, the other part slowly moved with the customers. It was important to us that the stability of the department was maintained. I created a graphic for this – I will go into the individual phases in more detail later. To explain: DevOps is an artificial word that is made up of the words Development and Operations.

With full force against the wall

After a few weeks I got into my first project, which I was supposed to do in 50 percent of my time. I was a project manager for a large client. There was a program manager above me and two sub-project managers below me. So I did what I had learned in the target picture and organized this project as agile as I could.
One aspect of this agility was to give the sub-project managers a high degree of freedom and autonomy in their task execution and to keep their backs free as Scrum Masters. I also saw myself more like a lawyer in front of the client and the program management. Unfortunately, it only occurred to me too late that my project was completely out of line with the ITIL-oriented line of the program and, despite its success, was perceived by the program manager as uncontrollable and chaotic. ITIL is a way of organizing IT and is often not easy to combine with agile methods.
Better: Unfortunately, it wasn’t until much too late that I realized that two worlds were colliding. Agility paired with an ITIL-oriented line of the program let my project step out of line. Despite the success, the program manager perceived the change as uncontrollable and chaotic.
In order to protect his project, after three months I was suddenly allowed to put on my hat and “go” – the unit was again organized in the classic way. So I did it! I was kicked out of my first project after three months. Fortunately, the manager of my department was behind me and decided to just give me a new project. There was just me as a project manager and a team. The predecessor should train me. By the way, if you want to read more about the establishment of Scrum in traditional companies, then I have a free whitepaper for you here!
Reading tip: Agile in the Waterfallworld

Networking can help – the Change Board

However, two months passed between the old and the new project and I was able to devote myself to the change. After I got home quite early on the day of the exclusion, I was in the office all the earlier the next day. I used the next time to have a short one-on-one conversation of 15 minutes with 40 of the 60 employees and made notes. I formed clusters and had roughly summarized the wishes and suggestions of the department at a glance for the manager.  Now we formed the change board, which consisted of the following types of employees:

• Strong skeptic against change
• Knows a lot of people
• Is very committed and has lots of ideas
• Team leader of other departments

At the first attempt, we presented a plan to the change board and the new teams. Together with the board, we filled a backlog with tasks. A sprint took place every two weeks and every employee was allowed to take tasks from the change board. Each of the ten participants helped. Team leaders from related departments were invited to provide feedback. After four sprints, we had completed all preparations and could start the change. Each phase was represented by exactly four sprints of two months each.

With a new approach and classic methods

Now I started my new project, which I was supposed to carry out alongside the change. It was another big customer with an innovative technology stack. This time I adopted the same method as the previous one and continued the project in exactly the same way for the time being. I wanted to achieve exactly the status quo. I apparently managed to do this and slowly gained the trust of the team – including that of management. So I devoted 50 percent to change and 50 percent to classic project management.

Persevere and do marketing

Now it was time to persevere and continue the sprints of change. Every week there was a status meeting and every two weeks there was a review and retrospective. Participation in the Change Board was voluntary and I saw my job in motivating people to keep going. We worked our way forward sprint by sprint.
In the course of my project, in addition to the change, I moved more and more from the classic project system to Jira and we carried out the first small sprints. I now had more trust in the company and was slowly able to make the project a little more agile.

Every change also has an end

Every change has to be completed at some point. The first phases were mostly a technical changeover as well as the move to the new offices and the relocation of the employees. Later on, coaching and finding your way around in the new roles came in particular. It was also possible to volunteer for a team. However, the last 25 percent of employees had to be persuaded to switch to the new organization. I accompanied each and every one of them individually and tried to help.

It goes on: After agile comes virtual

Now the change is over and I have to say: It was fun and we all think we did a good job. The change is also officially completed and other departments may follow. I didn’t pack my things afterwards, as might have been expected, but instead took on another mission for the manager: the company set up two new locations.  I was supposed to coach the company’s first virtual team, which is spread over three locations. But this should be a topic for a new article.

Conclusion: best practices for the organizational rebel

The change was a lot of fun and I was looking forward to the next task. Now I derive my do’s and don’ts for organizational rebels from my experiences. First and foremost, a change agent should see himself as an advocate of change, i.e. defend it again and again, instead of preaching like a priest.  Networking is also important in order to attract the opinion leaders in the company. Furthermore, work should be done on the status quo, because a classically run company will not become Google or Spotify overnight.
It is also important, especially at the beginning, to first listen and gain the trust of the employees. As a rebel, you shouldn’t realize your own ideas, but see what the company management really wants to achieve. Of course, it doesn’t always have to be 100 percent agile. ITIL organizations can also be agile and are very important for certain customer projects. Always remember that you are between tradition and change. Much that rebels want to change may even have guaranteed the success of the last few years.
Let’s get to the Dont’s. It is important not to polarize, but rather to stay in the background. You should also not pursue your own goals, such as wanting to make everything agile. Of course, I wanted to try out the LeSS framework, but that just didn’t make sense for our customers. Incidentally, the LeSS Framework is a method of scaling Scrum. If you want to read more about agile scaling, go to the article here.  A change is also not a matter of a few days and takes time. We invested a year in the change. It is also important to pick up all employees and take them with you, otherwise you will lose the opinion leaders of the company and you, like me, will be thrown out of a project. A great saying that I have used again and again in Change is:  Grass doesn’t grow if you pull on it. People need time to slowly adapt to the new situation – because the job means securing livelihoods for everyone. I have summarized my findings in the following figure:

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Digital specialists in job advertisements

Nice that Handelsblatt states: “Especially in times of digitization, the demand for qualified personnel increases daily and companies try to attract new talent through active sourcing (i.e. direct contact with external candidates), job exchanges and personal contacts.“So we are looking for numerous partly new and old job profiles, which, however, are often not precisely described or writable.
The magazine Impulses warns of rash shots: “When it comes to digitization, many companies reflexively think: I need an IT specialist. But that jumped too short.“In an interview with the magazine, Thomas Bockholdt therefore recommends:”You need good project managers with an IT affinity who are able to motivate and inspire others. To take away their fear, to make it clear to them: Change does not bring uncertainty, but security. Because only with one change can we still be safe tomorrow.”
The magazine Handelsblatt therefore recommends setting a new focus especially for advertisements: “A job advertisement not only has to list requirements for the applicant, but can also exude a positive, inviting corporate culture by being attractively designed, containing all the important information about the company and the position and, above all, presenting the company’s advantages.“The magazine too Sales economy says: “It’s like in sales: if you want customers, you have to reach them and convince them of yourself. They really rarely come on their own and only if the brand is excellent.”

Generalist and specialist

The problem is often that there are hardly any training formats that do justice to the rapid developments in the digital sector, so that we have to rely on training in the company. This creates a wild, mutual poaching within the digital economy, which the  The need to invest in employee loyalty increases dramatically (source Sales economy ).
The question remains whether one should look for generalists or specialists. In the following figure I would like to show the generalist on the one hand and the specialist on the other.

In the first step we see the specialist. This often has a unique benefit and a clear USP. He can solve complicated problems and is easily searched for in almost all job advertisements. e.g. SQL expert, Java JEE programmer, ….

In the second step we see the generalist. He is an all-rounder and his area of responsibility is difficult to recognize and describe. I often see this in positions where consultants are sought. Since you want to set up the consultant broadly so that he can always find a place with the customer, this is very popular.
In addition to this generalist / specialist, I also looked at the level of experience. For this I came across the terms Streetsmart and Booksmart. Read more in the article on digital minds what practical experience and theoretical experience mean for a digital specialist.

Agility in a job advertisement

So the question now arises how do companies get digital specialists? There is no question that they cannot avoid a classic job advertisement. But how can I bring the necessary agility into one. The magazine Career bible represents the following top mistakes of job advertisements:

• The companies hardly go into it  concrete employer characteristics  on.
• They predominantly use  interchangeable attributions  like “worldwide”, “leading”, “international” and “innovative”.
• They don’t make it clear what they’re actually doing  different from other companies.
• You don’t ask  differentiating abilities of the applicant, but only according to standard characteristics such as “open-mindedness”, “commitment”, “ability to work in a team” and “flexibility”.
• Your job advertisements are from a craft perspective  written unprofessionally.

Now the legitimate question is: and then how do you do it better? I have to t3n found some answers, which I have cited and summarized in parts and presented here:

• Introducing a company like a startup
• Job advertisement like one Optimizing a website for SEO on a keyword
• No extravagant titles (Head of Heads, Head of Agile, Senior Expert of extreme Things)
• Humorous and entertaining spelling (not: a big world market leader, …)
• Don’t talk about the company, talk to the applicant
• Call to Action: Apply and get started right away; Get started with us!
• Prepare the job advertisement visually well

Additional tips on visual preparation can be found from Career portal Monster :  Text alone is no longer enough. A successful structure and a attractive design  of advertisements are the alpha and omega of accurate recruiting. The magazine gives the following three tips:

• Accompany testimonial statements with text through video interviews
• Make the location and workplace clear with a slideshow with photos
• Simply explain complex issues with infographics.

Conclusion and recommendations

Recruiting in times of digital change has not changed fundamentally, but there are some new requirements and questions that companies have to address. With more diverse job profiles, however, it is necessary to differentiate more precisely who you actually want to hire. This raises the question of generalists or specialists. While one can proceed very agile and is ready, the other can be used more for a specialty.
Of course there is the T-Shape Professional, which brings the perfect balance between specialist knowledge and general knowledge. Of course, someone is not just a generalist or just a specialist. Certainly everyone will delve into something or think outside the box.
Now such digital specialists are still being sought using traditional job advertisements. However, it has been shown that these change somewhat and are more like a pitch. The applicant should be addressed and found in the ad. So the job advertisement is more like: Can you do this, that and that, we are a cool company, do you fit in with us and do you want to work with us?
Reading tips :

• Agile HR
• Digital HR
• Rock your recruiting

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Generation X

If you look at that Portal Absolventa, one finds the following definition: For the so-called Generation X this is professional advancement the most important goal when looking for a job. At least that is what the study results of the personnel consultancy Robert Half read. According to the survey, this generation of 30 to 50-year-olds is also characterized as ambitious, individualistic and ambitious. The members of Generation X are well educated and work in order to be able to afford a materially secure life. In contrast to its predecessor generation, Generation X does not place work before other needs, but rather sees them as a means to an end.

Generation Y

To this she says Website Gründerküche : The representatives of Generation Y are considered to be comparatively well educated, often with a technical college or university degree. You grew up with the Internet and mobile communication, and you lead a technology-savvy life. Generation Y also differs from previous generations in terms of their attitude towards work:

• Generation Y particularly likes to work in virtual teams.
• She is suspicious of deep hierarchies, hierarchies by title anyway.
• Millennials are optimistic, confident and have little faith in the government.
• Fun and, above all, a deeper sense of purpose at work are particularly important to millennials.
• They also want to work independently on projects and realize themselves.
• The term work-life balance was almost invented for Generation Y: Hardly a generation attaches more importance to this eternal balancing act. But it’s less about free time and more about self-determination: the Gen Y representative wants to define himself when he works where.

Generation Z

Generation Z is currently only entering the labor market, so few well-founded facts are known about them so far. That’s why I’m going back to the definition in Portal Absolventa use: Today’s young people who will enter the labor market in the next few years belong to the so-called Generation Z. They are the generation that completely includes digital technologies grew up: Internet and smartphones are a natural part of her life – both at work and in private life. Unlike Generation Y, Generation Z differentiates more again between work and personal life. Fixed boundaries and clear structures are clearly wanted again. Taking the business laptop home with you after work is not an option. Self-realization is no longer only sought in work, but above all in work leisure and in social contacts.

Generation management in hybrid teams

If you look into that Book by Klaffke,  you read: “Happy cows give more milk.” This supposed and much-quoted farmer’s wisdom is gaining more and more supporters in business life in the figurative sense. From a common sense perspective, there is a lot to suggest that people who feel comfortable at work actually do better and walk the famous “extra mile” more often. Ultimately, this should have a positive effect on the success of a company – also in a monetary sense.
The point is to lead each of the three generations properly and to optimally align the company with them. But how does this work and with which instruments can this be done? Not all of the three generations like working in the home office and agility cannot solve all problems as an egg-laying pig. And now there are hardly any teams that consist exclusively of one generation.  Generation management is therefore increasingly becoming an important management tool.

Generation management X

On the Generation Z website you can find the following tips: Generation X workers rate work as a central part of life, but show a particular interest in a balanced relationship between professional and private life, whereby they always act for their own benefit. In private, Generation X tends to strive for an individual orientation and alternative lifestyles.
Clearly regulated working hours, a good salary and career as well as long-term security are important here. These generations are also said to have a high respect for hierarchy. So it is about that work as a necessity for the private  Realization is seen.

Generation management Y

Here shows that Magazine heap some exciting points on:  The young generation wants to be taken seriously, right from the start. She wants attention, recognition and challenging tasks that are fun and at the same time make sense (depending on the individual attitude, there are differences in weighting). Getting all information is important, as is having freedom of choice. Modern work equipment is a matter of course for Generation Y and supports working in teams and networks. Appropriate remuneration and individual development opportunities are of central importance.
Ergo, a lot here points to home office, flexible working hours, team events, agile teams with many role and project changes. Agile leadership is certainly recommended here. Above all, it is important to find an individual solution for each employee. So deadlocked processes and assembly line annual meetings are not effective here  Method.

Generation management Z

As mentioned earlier, not much in-depth data is known about this generation. However, it is currently evident that a different approach is primarily necessary. So puts the Young heart agency clearly :  More and more HR employees and recruiters are looking at ways to address Gen Z. Clever HR colleagues try out many exciting ways. Be it the application via WhatsApp, influencer marketing, the selection of a suitable manager via time-delayed video interviews, digital events at high school or personnel campaigns via Snapchat.
There are numerous studies that show that the requirements for Gen Z are largely the same as those for Generation Y. Personally, however, I cannot really believe this – some of the existing studies also indicate significant differences.
So can be found in the magazine the world :  Keywords in job vacancies such as work-life blending, i.e. the mixing of work and leisure, have a negative effect on young people. “Clear after-work hours” is now again an effective lure. Further calls the world as green:  That has nothing to do with laziness, but with the fact that work is possible anywhere and anytime in the digital age. ”If you are not careful, life will only consist of work.
After a little googling, I have an exciting one Study from Bremen  found. I have noted the results briefly and concisely in bullet points below:

• Overall, the working atmosphere is the most important criterion.
• Clear tasks, clear boundaries and a strict separation of professional and private life are important.
• A well-equipped workplace is desirable – no desk sharing and no open spaces.
• A clear structure and regulated work packages are important.
• By the way, older generations have to get used to the fact that their statements from Gen Z are immediately checked for correctness via smartphone.
• Hierarchical authority matters little to Gen Z. However, she is willing to show respect for experiences, arguments, and authentic behavior.

Conclusion: every generation is different

X, Y, Z – 3 generations have recently entered our job market at the same time. Each of the generations demands individual values and working environments. While Generation X comes with regular working hours and a focus on private life, Generation Y focuses on the search for meaning and self-realization. The result are new working models and agile methods that are conquering German offices. But now Generation Z comes and wants to turn it all around again? Time will tell! It remains exciting to see how Generation Z will be integrated into the existing models and how this generation will shape the world of work. But now I’m also interested in who my readership is: Which generation do you belong to?
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The skills of the individual employees are decisive for the success of the company and form the supporting framework of the respective company. HR management (HRM for short) or HR marketing is therefore a crucial discipline that is of significant relevance for the sustainable success of a company.

In order to find agile employees, on the other hand, you need agile HR – that is, personnel marketing and personnel recruiting that does not react, but rather acts purposefully, flexibly and actively on current economic conditions. Agile HR can therefore refer to both agile human resources (the agile employee) and agile HR management. In this case, the latter is treated under the term.

Agile HR for the company

You probably know job advertisements with titles like “Agile Software Developer Wanted”. But what defines such an agile employee and how does HR have to define itself in order to find motivated, flexible people for the company?

The agile employee no longer acts within the classic positions that used to apply in companies. Rather, agile staff in connection with a flexible, passionate willingness to perform brings skills that “go beyond the box”. Agile HR must therefore be aware of the changing circumstances in order to find the agile employees of tomorrow and thus to install agility in the company in the long term.

Agile HR as a discipline

In the meantime, companies are realizing the enormous relevance of a good HR department. There are clearly measurable values here, unlike in the finance department, for example, but not necessarily. The KPIs are clearly defined by the CFO, but HR’s contribution to value can only be read between the lines in places.

However, companies today do not fail in many cases because of a poor order situation. Rather, it is the omnipresent shortage of skilled workers that creates immense difficulties for companies. More efficient employees are worth their weight in gold. This applies to people, just as it does to machines in industrial companies. But of course it’s not just about the amount of work that the (agile) employee creates – it’s also about the value that is earned in the respective time. Agile systems offer opportunities here to optimize processes on a sustainable basis. Thus, of course, more and more importance is attached to HR management in the company as a discipline and the competence of HR is included in long-term planning.

The agile career

How do you create an agile career? Gloger and Häusling provide the first approaches with the definition: Instead of the strictly linear organization of companies, there should be agile teams consisting of agile employees. In this team, the employees contribute their extensive competence and experience without having to fear leaving any area of competence.

While a linear system prevails in the classic corporate structure, which has few or no options for agility, modern, agile companies are based on more dynamic organizational models that rely on interdisciplinary teams and managers for the meta-organization of the respective teams – based on the Scrum framework.

The role of HR management

As the illustration from Gloger & Häusling 2011, p. 35 shows, HR is of course also faced with new tasks in the course of the agile organization. Personnel management has to recruit employees who fit into agile systems as a personality not only because of their professional competence, but also because of their character. The focus is on team performance, goal and meaning-oriented action, as well as cooperative behavior.

Agile HR must therefore find personnel who take the original definition of the term HR (human resource) to absurdity. Management’s view of employees as a static resource that can be compared with a machine must be transformed into promoting the respective talent in order to set agile processes in motion and to be one step ahead of the competition.

The transformation to agile HR

But how do you convert an HR? Company-wide processes and entire career paths have to be changed. So far-reaching changes are necessary in the company. I would like to present a best practice in the following.

In the first step, the knowledge about agility is conveyed to your own HR team and agility is made palatable, so to speak. Agility is therefore first lived in the shadow of your own team. After this has been successful, this can be communicated to management and the first niche projects can be undertaken with opinion leaders in the company. So agility reaches the niche first. After a few successful projects, skeptics can also be included in the process, according to the motto: “Now you just do the Scrum Master!” After these have also been infected by the spirit, the cultural change in the company takes place automatically.

Reading tip : Recommendations for action on the shortage of skilled workers in SMEs

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Agile leadership

For executives, leadership in an agile organization means in concrete terms: the pyramid is upside down, hierarchical leadership thanks to power is replaced by serving leadership thanks to a role model. Managers who define themselves through specifications and controls, rigid target systems and motivation bonuses, fixed processes and professional authority are now faced with the challenge of having to rethink leadership (Source Heap ).
The pyramid is upside down and agile managers lead differently. If you use Google, you will find many principles and values behind agility and leadership. I would therefore like to exemplify the Article by Haufe and quote the principles from the Google study in the article as an example of agile leadership:

• Be a good coach.
• Empower your team and then don’t worry about every little thing.
• Show an interest in the success and wellbeing of your people.
• Be productive and focus on results.
• Be a good communicator and listen to your team.
• Support your employees in their career development.
• Show a clear vision and understandable strategy.
• Have the necessary professional skills to advise your team.

Overall, agile leadership demands various principles from managers. Appelo once portrayed this quite well as a being with many eyes, which has to direct the focus on many things. If you take a closer look at the principles, you will notice that an agile manager is in great demand. Read on for more mine Article on agile leadership or look in the book of Boris Gloger .

Digital Leadership – Agile Leadership only digital?

Now a new word reaches us: digital leadership. First of all, like agile leadership, this is a collective term for leadership principles in the digital age. If you look at the first article, both terms are often congruent in many places. But why actually digital leadership? That says about that Research project of the Crisp:

A number of high expectations are projected onto the new generation of executives. In addition to a large number of desired characteristics, the digital leader primarily maintains a constructive and continuous exchange with his own IT department, actively informs himself about IT innovations and thinks disruptively with a view to new processes and business models.

If you take a look at my articles on digital leadership, you will find numerous principles, which again are often congruent. However, there is one crucial point: there is now a digital change, which demands numerous new trends and, above all, more know-how and digital competence from executives. In addition to the being with many eyes, a manager now has to understand a lot of theories and trends. Topics such as remote guidance etc. also come into play. For more, you can check out mine Article on digital leadership or in that Book by Petry watch.

Digital leadership expands agile leadership

So it should be managed even more individually and the manager should familiarize himself even more deeply with topics related to digitization. But how do you lead more individually? There are also numerous pages on which a situational leadership is explained. In short, that just means that you lead every employee with the right methods. There are broadly nine methods of leading people.

Digital leadership – the manager’s tools

In the following I would like to briefly explain the 9 management tools that a manager can use. He has to juggle with these daily and alternately for each employee. The management methods differ fundamentally in the autonomy of the employee in the search for and completion of tasks and in the eye level with the manager. This is shown in the following figure. I don’t know if these are complete and 100% correct. I am currently researching it myself and will update it every now and then if there is new knowledge. If you discover an exciting source, please let me know using the comment function.

Variant 1: Strong hierarchy

Controlling leadership is probably familiar to most readers. The boss follows and checks every step the employee takes. In this form you have the least autonomy and each task is assigned by a superior.
Conducting leadership is the equivalent of controlling leadership, only the control is less strong. The conductor of an orchestra sets the pace, but not how to play the instrument.
Delegating leadership has the greatest autonomy and the boss completely passes a task on to the employee without instructions on how to do it. This usually happens between department and team leaders. There is enormous autonomy, but there is no eye level.

Variant 2: Medium hierarchy

Steering leadership is the targeted distribution of tasks. The boss passes on a task, but no longer says how to do it. Basically, you can compare this to a project manager who is authorized to issue instructions.
In coordinating leadership, the boss only makes sure that all tasks are somehow done and no longer assigns them specifically. So he is more likely to vote that the tasks are done. It could almost be a product owner.
Collaborative leadership works through things together. This can be compared to a team that works on a project and has a team spokesperson, who only steps in and gives instructions when necessary. So he supervises rather than actually leads and helps the team. One can even say that this could also be a kind of Scrum Master.

Variant 3: Little hierarchy

Instructive leadership is typical for the integration of new employees. One employee is trained and instructed by another. This state of affairs often does not last long. As in all of the following examples, the team leader is part of the team.
Motivational leadership aims to maintain performance, i.e. motivation, and takes care of the well-being in the team, so to speak. That too could be a Scrum Master.
Participatory leadership is behavior that involves the rest of the team. So there are democratic elements and team decisions here.
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Conclusion

It doesn’t really matter whether it is agile or digital. It is becoming increasingly strenuous for managers, as they are expected to have high emotional skills as well as professional skills. On the one hand, they should drive digital change at high speed and, on the other hand, lead each employee as he or she wants with great flexibility. In the end, it turns out that behind digital leadership there is actually an increasing expectation of agile leadership around digital topics and even greater flexibility in the selection of management tools.
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What actually is a shortage of skilled workers?

Wikipedia says: As Skilled workers shortage This describes the state of an economy in which a significant number of jobs cannot be filled for employees with certain skills because there are no suitably qualified employees (skilled workers) available on the labor market. So is there currently a shortage of skilled workers in medium-sized companies?

No shortage of young professionals

If you look at current studies, there is actually a shortage of skilled workers in medium-sized companies not among young professionals, but especially in the senior sector. Also places like Big data experts and Industry 4.0 Experts, which are increasingly new professions, cannot be filled because there are simply not enough people.
It is also clear that companies like to hire people who can be deployed directly to the customer because they have already worked there. Training costs a lot of energy and money and companies are happy to forego these costs.
The example of consulting companies shows this quite clearly: the company’s major customer always has a need for new consultants. That means that every qualified consultant finds a place there immediately; which means that these companies hire for the whole year as soon as a good candidate applies.

Traditional HR under fire – skills shortage in medium-sized companies

The shortage of skilled workers in medium-sized companies costs according to the BVMW around 33 billion euros in lost sales or unrealized sales annually. Medium-sized companies react to this with a sustainable personnel strategy: The most important HR policy issue at the moment is to retain good employees. 63 percent of companies attach great or very great importance to employee loyalty. Preventing employee turnover even has a higher priority than recruiting new employees: At 45 percent, recruiting is only the fifth most important topic in medium-sized HR departments (source BVMW ).

How applicants are ripping off HR

In the Haufe magazine Prof. Dr. Kanning in his column : “How applicants rubbish HR” examines what actually happens in job interviews.

In many companies, the selection of personnel has the character of a stage play in which the advisory literature provides the script: the applicant knows what information to convey in his cover letter – exceptional suitability, high motivation, enthusiasm for a unique employer – and the company believes in to be able to recognize a good candidate from such a cover letter (source Prof. Dr. Kanning)

It shows that applicants are very well prepared for standard processes and know exactly what companies want to hear. As a result, the same processes are carried out over and over again, which always lead to the same candidates. He sums it up well with the following quote:

In the assessment center there is almost certainly a group discussion and all applicants scratch their hooves to be the first to run to the flipchart and structure the meeting.

Recommended action for agile HR: authentic and honest

This article got me thinking. If you look into the Brand one, you can find in the current special task “Consulting “the following: Who would have thought? Entire generations of HR professionals conjured up people; They observed and marveled at him, measured and weighed him, rewarded and punished him, placed him at the center of all their efforts – and in the end saw him more as a troublemaker than the focus. And now that we’re all just talking about technology, digitization, artificial intelligence, new tools and transformations, now of all times people have come back into focus. And this time we can’t get past him.
Especially the work in consulting and in medium-sized companies is based on people and a medium-sized company can often not offer as much in terms of money as a large corporation. I often had conversations with companies myself, and the same thing was kept coming back to me: exciting projects, well-known customers, great colleagues and short decision-making paths. After about 10 conversations, I asked myself: When will something new come? The tenor around me is also similar:

The jobs are all kind of the same. You are somewhere in IT, you are put to a customer all year round and you work there. Then you see each other again for the Christmas party. I don’t really care whether it’s company X or Y (respondent in the course of the article).

Application process vs. a casual conversation

However, one day I met companies that were different. Somehow more unprofessional, but authentic and honest. The interviews were more like a cup of coffee and an exchange of hobbies. The reason was: The tasks are so diverse that it is important what the applicant is willing to learn and how motivated he is. In practice, the current skills were mostly of secondary importance in the long term.

Work with us! We are flexible!

The arguments why you should work here were also different: They were companies that argued not with customers or teams, but with flexible work, home office and the compatibility of side projects and long trips. There was increasing internal attempt to renegotiate contracts with customers in order to provide a more agile environment.

Offer applicants added value

I think such behavior can be described as agile HR. An HR that understands the applicants of Generation X, Y, Z. What does he really want? Does he really want to travel in great planes with the Samsonite suitcase or does he just want to work one day in the home office every Friday? Medium-sized companies should reflect on values and try out concepts such as “Bring your own device”. You do not believe that a main argument for many of my respondents was to work on a Macbook instead of Windows.

Many service providers per customer

It’s about understanding the applicant and really offering them added value, why they should work for this medium-sized company. Many companies have their employees work for a large customer. However, this also includes many other service providers to which the employee can quickly switch and sometimes do the same job for more money. Agile HR must therefore find individual arguments that speak for its own company.

Tips for a more agile HR

I would like to conclude this article with some tips from Prof. Dr. Kanning, which go in a similar direction underpin. Companies can establish more agile HR, …

• … by realizing that compliance with formal standards when examining application documents says next to nothing about the suitability of an applicant;
• … by not asking pre-cut questions in the interview, but specifically addressing the requirements of the respective job;
• … by simulating real work situations in the assessment center and working with job-specific evaluation criteria and
• by no longer believing that they can intuitively recognize the right candidate even in poor selection processes.

In an article on Business insider Finally, I also found a nice quote. The author is frustrated that it is difficult for young professionals to find a job because they are always looking for long professional experience or high performers. She writes at the end of her post:

Be realistic at last! Invest in people who would like to work for you, pay them decently and you will get loyal, adaptive employees who will not go to the competition at the next better opportunity, but who are genuinely interested in learning from you and growing with you (Julia von Pidoll).

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Agile career

What actually is a horizontal career and is it also an agile career? Career bible says: “The horizontal career or Specialist career is characterized by the subject-specific development. ”
The problem is in the Computer week clear: Not everyone wants to be a manager and has an interest in spending his time on budgets, appraisal appraisals, and corporate policy skirmishes. In the IT environment in particular, there is a need to grow with technology and project topics and to position one’s own competence in the specialist world. Conversely, not every technically experienced employee is predestined to be an excellent disciplinary manager. The supervisor or the employee should recognize this themselves. This can easily lead to frustration because there are no other opportunities for advancement. The employee is then an internally recognized, but not an officially recognized expert in the company.
But what does it look like? There is a small example of this in the PM blog : For example, a career ladder for project and program managers might look like this:

• Project team member
• Project Assistant
• Junior Project Manager
• Project manager
• Senior Project Manager
• Program Manager
• Project Management Executive / Project Management Officer

Agile HR work

But why is the topic so relevant and why is it agile Personnel work necessary? This can be described in 2 words: Flat hierarchies. So says Andre Häusling in the Computer week : In agile companies, there are significantly fewer management positions with disciplinary personnel responsibility. Instead, there are more roles that require professional management of the employees. The managerial span of leadership increases, the leadership role changes. The decisive factor for employees is always the question of perspectives. They associate leadership with a higher salary and often see it as the only opportunity for a career. In the sense of the agile mindset, however, the success of an employee can no longer be measured by how many people report to him.
But what is the real problem? It all sounds easy! That’s how he puts it PM blog very well together: What sounds so simple and perhaps logical, is in reality a profound organizational and cultural change that has to take place in companies. And top management – as is so often the case – has to exemplify this change, actively support it and “punch through” against resistance.
Reading tip: Article on agile HR
So there is a lot of work for agile HR work and a cultural change in the mind is necessary. It will not be easy as an HR department to design and advertise an agile career and to get people excited about it. Especially when more and more experts are needed in times of digital change, such a career must be firmly anchored in the minds of employees! A permanent role change could be a best practice here. Maybe I’ll be a team leader for a few years and then a professional again to become a team leader again or I want to take it easy and just be a developer for a few years? There are certainly numerous approaches to an agile career. What are you aiming for?
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Scaling Scrum with frameworks

Scrum is widely used among agile development frameworks. The challenge here: Scrum is based on the work of a small team and does not initially provide any solutions for use in a large organization with a large number of teams. As a result of this need, various approaches to scaling agile procedures have emerged in recent years. In the following you will find an overview of the relevant frameworks, as well as an assessment of the measures and costs. To make the assessment easier, I have taken each employee at a cost of 100 euros per hour. So it’s like buying every employee in as a freelancer. Each framework tries in its own way to find an answer to the question: “How can you scale Scrum”. In the end, I had dialogues with agile coaches and Boris Gloger in order to be able to say how Scrum can be scaled.

Scaling Scrum with Scrum of the Scrums

The simplest approach to scaling Scrum is Scrum of Scrums. Imagine a project with six teams. Each team in turn consists of 8 team members. All teams hold their own daily scrum meeting. Thus, another Scrum Team, consisting of the Scrum Master of the first team, is formed. Experience shows from our experience that basically one Scrum of Scrums level should be formed per 6 teams, as shown in the figure.
Scrum of Scrums sounds simple, but this approach is much more than a simple division of teams, as experience has shown that work can often be redundant and a holistic view of the project is not guaranteed. A best practice is to hold the team meetings at different times in order to enable each team to assess the work of the other teams and then to discuss the whole project in a meeting of all teams (Scrum of Scrums). Here, for example, all Scrum Masters exchange information on the cross-team processes. This team also has a Scrum Master, the Scrum Master. Independently of this, it is also advisable to hold the dailies offset so that each team can visit the other’s daily and thus receive information from other teams. In the subsequent Scrum of Scrums, the cross-team problems are discussed.

Overall, Scrum of Scrums is a good approach to easily scaling Scrum. One point of criticism is that the strengths of a Scrum of Scrums lie mainly in the exchange and coordination between teams and less in overarching planning. A Scrum of Scrums is not a planning process in the actual sense, but a constant exchange. If a consolidated plan is required, this must be drawn up separately. My experience shows that this lightweight concept works for up to 6 teams, but with more teams it slips into a too high level of abstraction (scrum of scrums of scrums of scrums). This results in little effort for the introduction, but a high risk that it leads to problems when scaling with more than 6 teams.
Overall, Scrum of Scrums requires the following measures: Formation of a coordination team and coaching of these Scrum Master teams. This causes different transaction costs depending on the size. However, these costs are quite low in relation to the effort up to 6 teams, as each Scrum Master has to hold a few additional meetings here. If there are more Scrum levels, i.e. Scrum of Scrums of Scrums, additional full-time scrum masters are required to coordinate these teams. With 6 teams, Scrum of Scrums causes additional work for one team. At an hourly rate of 100 euros, that would cost 128,000 euros per 6 teams (8 people) and 384,000 euros for 12 teams (2 Scrum of Scrums of Scrums Team + one additional level). The effort increases extremely sharply with more than 6 teams and is therefore only in a healthy ratio in the cost / benefit ratio with a maximum of 6 teams. For further information, please also note this Book by Gloger .

Scaling Scrum with SAFe – Scaled Agile Framework

The Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) can be defined as a complex framework, which has its particular strength in the embedding of Scrum in classic company areas. This framework becomes complex because it has many roles, processes and practices. The core of SAFe is the stable organizational structure. Overall, the considerations are based on Toyota’s Lean House (Respect, Flow, Kaizen). The framework itself is divided into team, program and portfolio level. The teams organize themselves “almost as usual” according to a slightly modified Scrum on the basis of XP practices with a size of five to nine members, a product owner and a scrum master.

SAFe brings together teams at the program level in the so-called Agile Release Trains (ART). Five to ten teams (approx. 50-125 members) work together in a train and work on the challenges of a so-called program.

The last level is the portfolio level, which provides the programs with budget and targets (epics) based on considerations of corporate strategy and investment intentions. A distinction is made between business epics (customer-oriented) and enabler epics (technical solutions).

SAFe is not suitable for small and medium-sized projects. It entails a large number of specific solutions from the management level and a high level of effort for the introduction. However, it can coordinate a large number of teams and master even very large releases with the release trains without any problems. For a small number of teams, however, I would advise against a heavyweight framework like SAFe. This results in a high expenditure of time for the introduction due to the high level of complexity. The introduction of SAFe is usually worthwhile with a long-term implementation throughout the organization.
In order to implement the SAFe framework, far-reaching measures are necessary. While there are hardly any costs at the team level, committees and special teams must be formed for the release train at the program level. In addition, metrics for measuring the team level and the release train would have to be defined as well as another team for integrating the product. Further committees and the introduction of Kanban teams are necessary at the portfolio level. These are just a few of the steps you need to take. It quickly turns out that massive change management is necessary and that with 12 teams this effort is distributed over an additional release team, a portfolio team, 1 program team and an extra committee as well as 2 change management teams and massive design effort. These teams alone would cost more than 500,000 euros (with a team of experts at 100 euros per hour) without including the necessary effort in the conception. For this reason, the framework for 12 teams has no cost / benefit ratio, as there will be an incalculable amount of change costs. As you can read on many websites, however, the framework is worthwhile for a high number (50-100) of teams. Here it goes to Framework homepage . See this for more information Book of Leffingwell.

Scaling Scrum with LeSS – Large Scale Scrum

The basic idea of Large Scale Scrum is to adhere to sprint cycles and to carry out important Scrum events, such as Sprint Planning One and the Sprint Review, together. Each team has its own restrospective, but there is also a common retrospective for all teams. For horizontal coordination, there are joint product backlog refinements and inter-team coordination (e.g. Scrum of Scrums). The standard framework for up to 8 teams defines only one product owner, who should keep the overview. The Hugh LeSS framework was designed for further scaling. This also includes Area Product Owners who report to the Main Product Owner.

LeSS thus defines a simple procedure, hardly deviating from Scrum, and a scalable structure. The focus on a hierarchy of Chief Product Owner, Area Product Owner and Product Owner at team level also supports more than 8 teams without any problems. The Scrum of Scrums approach is expanded with the hierarchical structure of the Product Owner and thus provides a quick introduction for up to 16 teams, in my experience, relatively problem-free.
The measures for the implementation of hugh LeSS are the establishment of the joint sprint teams as well as a team that supports the integration at the end of the sprint – additional product owners are also necessary for the implementation. Experience has shown that with 12 teams, 4 additional product owners and one product owner with overall responsibility are required. This means that costs of 80,000 euros for the product owner and 128,000 euros for the additional team are necessary. Here is the Homepage of LeSS . See the book by for more information Vodde and Larman.

Scaling Scrum with Nexus, DAD, …

Overall, in addition to the frameworks mentioned, there are other frameworks such as Ken Schwaber’s Nexus and the disciplined agile delivery from IBM. Nexus is basically only to be understood as a guideline or open framework and the framework from IBM only as a collection of best practices. For this reason these are neglected. See this for more information Book from IBM.
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And which one do I take now? How can I scale Scrum?

In the course of researching agility, I looked at these scaling frameworks in detail and was amazed that I rarely see them in use – companies hardly seem to scale Scrum with them. I then evaluated the frameworks together with agile coaches and came to a surprising result: Actually, these frameworks were described by the coaches as pure marketing frameworks. People would be pushed into a framework and the actual freedom that Scrum had to offer was no longer given. For this reason, according to the coaches, the introduction of such frameworks was often canceled halfway and new solutions and approaches were sought. Also Boris Gloger got me into a dialogue said the following:

In my work, I have repeatedly made the experience that large-scale projects managed according to agile principles lead to significantly better results. However, there is more to Scrum than just a few principles. It has thus been found that agile frameworks such as SAFe®, LeSS and Co. are very complicated. However, Scrum should be simple and take just a few steps (Boris Gloger).

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The role of HR in digital change

To a large extent, digitization also means tool support for various tasks. For example, the applicant selection can be done through a Big data Tool can be met faster or large numbers of applicants can be evaluated, contacted and invited faster and more neutrally. But overall it sums up that too Human Resource Manager magazine very well together:

HR is an internal service provider in the company. HR is there to deliver excellent administrative performance for the departments. Point. This goal alone is a challenge, because, let’s be honest, where do the services such as personnel administration, the creation of job references, the recruiting process and the administration of further training really run smoothly and in a customer-oriented manner?

Digital HR – more than just HR with an internet connection

The thought of digitization often makes us think of the Internet, software, tablets and smartphones. What is true at first. How often do you check your smartphone during the day? 100 times? 300 times? We are now used to being able to access information at any place and at any time. Real-time, networking and automation are the focus of digitization .
From this perspective, one dimension of digitization in the HR context opens up to us very quickly: easy access to HR services and HR information. Digital HR means anytime, everywhere – mobile and simple. If we are honest, this is often wishful thinking for a good part of the processes and services that we provide from HR (source: Intraworlds ).

E-recruiting in HR

Our world is becoming more and more digital – that much is clear. This trend has meanwhile also reached personnel recruitment. “E-Recruiting” is what he calls himself here ( Working ABC ). E-recruiting (“Electronic Recruiting”) is the term used to describe personnel recruiting using computer and web-based media. E-recruiting usually takes place via online channels and platforms on the Internet and is therefore commonly referred to as online recruiting. The aim of this electronic form of recruitment is to simplify and accelerate recruitment and to reach the right target group ( Working ABC ).
But what exactly is this e-recruiting? If you search you will find examples such as social networks, online job portals, career blogs, apps and messengers. To the end Career ABC But the whole thing nicely together: E-recruiting is more than just creating your own career page and optimizing it for mobile devices. It is a comprehensive concept that not only regulates the application process on all relevant channels, but also internal processes from the applicant management system to online assessment centers and employee reviews.

Digital HR – the focus is on people

In all of this, people and employees must not be forgotten. Without them there would be no change and without change there would be no world of work 4.0. Who can pave the way here? Only HR! Does digital transformation and organizational development affect an important core competence of HR managers (source: Heap ).
So there Heap The following proposal for action for the new digital HR such as: First, areas of responsibility must be shifted away from the supervisor to the employees. The effect: decisions are no longer made across several hierarchical levels, results become visible more quickly.
So HR faces some new challenges and many unresolved questions. It is now up to the HR managers to solve them through experiments and constant trying out. In the battle for young skilled workers, agility, new concepts and, above all, speed become important factors for success.
Reading tip: Recommendations for action for the shortage of skilled workers
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