The Vision Onion for boosting Agility

During my assignment as Agile Coach / Scrum Master within a large bank in the Netherlands, I was thinking on why things people wanted to improve did not fly and flow was not up to the level it should be. That is when the Vision Onion popped up during my thinking proces as being one of the answers to this question.

Do note that there are lots of things that need attention and facilitation if you want to boost or create agility and high performance for customers. The Vision Onion is only the starting point, a very important starting point.

The Vision Onion has 6 rings and will help you to improve / activate agility within your work environment:

1. Customer F.O.C.U.S.
2. Business Vision
3. Department Vision
4. Product Vision
5. Team Vision
6. Individual Vision

Any business that delivers products and services, does so for meeting demand and wishes of their customers. So on the one hand you have your customers (outer circle) and on the other hand you have the (IT) professionals who deliver added value (inner circle).

For the inner circle, the professionals, to deliver value to the customers, to the outer circle, a step by step approach is important to be followed if you ask me. This approach can be followed in a couple of ways:

1. start with a business vision and from the department vision to the product vision and the team vision, find the correct professionals who are willing, capable and energized enough to add / develop value for your customer target group.
2. start with the professionals you already have on board and find their talents and motivators based on which they are willing and energized enough to add value to the customer target group and are willing to further develop their capabilities. In this approach people might leave a department or change their role either within a department or move to another department, which is a good thing to happen.
3. combination of 1 and 2.

In all these three scenario’s the starting point is the same: understanding customer demands, creating and maintaining happy customers.

Therefore the whole idea behind the Vision Onion is for everyone (from customers to individual (IT) professionals) to tap into the(ir) WHY on all levels of adding value to the customer (Start with the WHY from Simon Sinek).

Although the Vision Onion is not difficult to understand, the challenge lies in the thinking and behavior that people show on the work floor, specifically managers who do not (enough) understand how to boost agility, who are not equipped enough to take up their role as managers. If you are lucky your manager is aware that addressing the Vision Onion in every aspect of his or her day to day job is crucial, if you are not lucky and your manager does not understand the thinking and need of the Vision Onion, than you have a huge challenge not to loose (all) your energy in an environment where there are no clear directions or goals to work towards (Note: goals are derived from a clear vision).

Besides Vision, a couple of other main subjects are important that need attention and facilitation in order for change to happen, see below overview. These main subjects are important to make the following just as normal as eating, sleeping, driving, walking and so on and that is: coping with change, driving change, dealing with change, changing people’s mindset to become the change they want to see on the work floor etc. etc.

If you want to know more on how I can help you to discover your:

1. Customer target group(s)
2. Business vision
3. Department vision
4. Product vision
5. Team Vision
6. Individual vision

and how to use the Vision Onion to boost agility

and how not to loose your energy but get an energy boost,

then do not hesitate to give me a call or send me an email to plan in a call or video chat of max 30 minutes for free that will immediately help to boost your energy and your agility journey.

Thx.

Rgds,

Andy Joghi – “I cannot make a star of everyone, but I can make everyone shine”