Lena Ross: Enabling Agile Change

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Lena Ross is an experienced change consultant, speaker and author who is at the forefront of building agility and empowering change.

In this wide reaching interview, we ask Lena about traditional change management models and explore why and how she has moved beyond them. From discussions around psychological safety, iterative and agile engagement and developing empathy with design thinking techniques, this is a fascinating deep dive into the world of an agile change practitioner. Watch the interview now:

Find out more about Lena Ross via her website here, which includes links to her books. You can also explore the Agile Change Leadership Institute.

Some of the models Lena referenced are described below.

Personas

Personas were noted as part of a human centred approach and a broader Design Thinking toolkit. In particular they helped to inform Journey Mapping below.

Find out more about Personas and add it to your Latticework of Mental Models here.

Journey Mapping

This was an important model for Lena, both to help to empathetically understand the current state situation and in describing a potential future state solution to stakeholders. This was a key

Find out more about Journey Mapping and add it to your Latticework of Mental Models here.

Psychological Safety

Lena pointed to Psychological Safety as a fundamental requirement that lies behind successful change campaigns. Which led to her use of the next mental model.

Find out more about Psychological Safety and add it to your Latticework of Mental Models here.

Agile Methodology

There was discussion about 'big A' versus 'small a' agility. Lena noted that Agile Methodology is the big A variety and, while practitioners argue that it inherently includes 'small a' agilit

Find out more about Agile Methodology and add it to your Latticework of Mental Models here.

Lean Thinking

We quickly referenced Lean Thinking, not least for it's reference to the 'Minimum Viable Change' model.

Find out more about Lean Thinking and add it to your Latticework of Mental Models here.

Design Thinking

Design Thinking techniques were referenced several times in the context of co-design and collaboration. Lena particularly described her experience of using Journey Maps, and a lesser extent a

Find out more about Design Thinking and add it to your Latticework of Mental Models here.

SCARF Model

The SCARF Model has been a long term approach for Lena in her dealings with leaders during transformational change. For her, it was the practical side of developing Psychological Safety.

Find out more about SCARF Model and add it to your Latticework of Mental Models here.

ADKAR

Lena cited ADKAR as one of the most popular 'step approach models' used by change managers in 'stable environments'. Lena felt that they had their place, but tended to use them as part of her

Find out more about ADKAR and add it to your Latticework of Mental Models here.

Agile as a Capability

Mental models

We don't feature this model in our collection (yet), but it's one of Lena's that she has found incredibly useful to support managers to enable agile transformations. See her discussion of this model near the end of our interview and see her description of it on her own blog here.

And again, a final reminder, find out more about Lena Ross via her website here.

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