Leadership Involvement

Why should you use this method?

• Involve leadership and satisfy curiosity
• Report to leadership without wasting project time
• Gain decision freedom without involving leadership all the time

How can you involve leadership in a sprint?

Everyone in the organization is always very curious about what is happening within the innovation teams. I get that! The sprint teams are working on exciting projects. The uncertainty of any innovation project additionally adds to why leadership wants to be updated and involved constantly.

However, this is not very beneficial for you as a sprint lead. Reporting to leadership can be time-consuming. That should not be the case because every hour you did not spend on the customer is lost time. But of course, if you don’t keep leadership up to date, this might harm the project going forward since you will need their buy-in.

1. Fight for freedom of the team

• Ensure the team has the power to make these decisions without involvement from leadership. A great way to do this is to agree on the types of decisions where leadership has to be involved, for example, based on the budget being spent
• Show the leadership team the flow of the sprint process and set up a meeting with them around the more significant milestones
• Actively involve them instead of simply reporting. Tell them how they can help you. Where do you need their input?
• Agree on a short reaction time. Agree with the leadership that they will make themselves available within 48 hours

2. Add value through reporting

Plus, if you present your innovation project the same way as any other project, how will you stand out? How will you show that what you are working on is disruptive? Leadership should get in a different mindset when it comes to innovation. They should not stay in their execution mindset. That won’t help the outcome of your sprint. Below are some ideas on how to achieve that:

• Be creative. How can you use what you already have? Have the meeting in the war room to take them through the critical elements and conclusions within the room. Even when you created a digital war room, this works. Avoid creating PowerPoint decks just to show to leadership
• Avoid vanilla. Dare to have a strong point of view. You want a reaction. You want interaction. Dare to push the boundaries. Dare to make bold statements. At allcause, avoid blended, plain presentations. Shake things up!
• Think about the objective of the meeting. It shouldn’t just be to inform leadership. How will this meeting help you? How can you get the most out of this? What do you need from leadership? Everyone in the meeting has the same goal, and that is a successful outcome of the sprint. So, use this moment and ensure this meeting is adding immediate value to the project