Simplifying Scaling With Fractals and Snowflakes
You don't need to be a specialist in every framework when you understand the underlying patterns. Fractal thinking lets you zoom across Kanban, OKRs, and SAFe.
Can you dance at all parties? Be the expert at the intersection? Sounds like an oxymoron—Jack of all trades, master of none.
Beyond the fact that you need to be curious, open-minded, and a lifelong learner, I have a trick for you.
You don’t need to be an expert in every snowflake when you’re a snow expert.
Once you understand the pattern of a Fractal, you can zoom in and out.
Focusing on the underlying principles of the practices/frameworks you’re using will make grasping new ones much easier.
Pattern-matching will help you see the similarities and you will be able to focus your learning effort on the differences.
You can then consider whether the new patterns can be useful in other contexts.
Here are some examples of how I’ve done this:
I’ve seen the similarities between OKRs, EBM, and Agile ways of working to help me get up to speed on OKRs much faster, but also to improve OKRs with emphasis on Agile and Evidence-informed thinking.
I’ve helped leaders see that flow is a useful lens at all levels and that Kanban can help see and improve flow for individuals, teams, groups, portfolios and the enterprise.
I’ve helped portfolio leaders move from push/tell/centralized control planning in strategy deployment (OKRs) to decentralized control with alignment through patterns used in PI Planning.
Once you start to see Snowflakes and Fractals, I promise you’ll start to see them all the time…
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Yuval Yeret helps product and tech leaders move from agile theater to evidence-informed delivery. Work with Yuval →