Thank you, Sergio and Carlos, and the Agile Days team at Santander. I appreciate the invitation. I also want to thank Evan and the Business Agility Institute for inviting us to participate as well.
I really appreciated Sanjeev’s talk, and he’s absolutely right about how critical the funding model is. But I want to get a bit more personal with you. I know I’m the last gate between you and the end of your day, as well as our sparring session with Sandeep in the Q&A. So, I hope to provide a slightly different context.
While Sanjeev focuses on the organizational level, I’m going to focus a little more personally with you.
About Me
My name is Pete Behrens, and I’m the founder of the Agile Leadership Journey.
Let’s start with a joke. An engineer and a leader walk into a bar. You know, that does happen sometimes. The leader says to the engineer, "Hey, the first one’s on me because your estimates have been rock solid." The engineer responds, "No, no, the first one’s on me because you never changed your mind." The bartender looks at both of them and says, "How about the first one on the house? Because both of you need to learn how to lie better."
The point is, engineers and leaders probably never have a conversation like that. But there is something I find in common between them. Having been both, I have a bit of perspective.
Engineers and Leaders: Optimizing Systems
As an engineer, I was trained to optimize systems—whether it was a database system, an elevator system, or a workflow system. The value stream, as Sanjeev just talked about.
As a leader, my job is to optimize a people system. Leadership, in many ways, is engineering. You may not be formally trained as an engineer, but you are shaping and optimizing systems of people.
Insights from the Business Agility Institute Report
The Business Agility Institute’s fourth edition report, released in the fall of 2021, highlighted a few key elements:
- The highest-rated organizations in business agility had four things in common:
- The board of directors led the transformation.
- Multiple business units were transforming.
- They scored high in three key areas, including value streams and funding models.
- They saw significant benefits within two years.
Now, what do you conclude from this list?
I might suggest that there’s probably very little business agility in the world if this is the requirement to get there. It’s incredibly challenging. You might look at it and say, "Well, I don’t have access to these things. I can’t impact them." And I would agree.
But hold on, because I want to show you that yes, you can.
Leadership is the Key to Business Agility
The Business Agility Institute also has a tool called the Profile Assessment Tool, identifying 86 behaviors that influence business agility—either positively or negatively.
Sixty percent of these characteristics are directly attributed to leadership. The remaining 40% are highly influenced by leadership.
My point is simple: leadership is the key to business agility.
Yet, common challenges arise:
- Leaders equate status with the number of headcount they have.
- Some leaders have lower maturity levels and negatively impact agility.
- Leadership development programs don’t focus on agility.
Unless leaders do their own work—their own transformation—we won’t see business transformation.
How Can You Make a Difference?
Raise your hand if you are the CEO of Santander. Probably not many in this audience. If you are, I’d love to chat with you.
Raise your hand if you are a business unit owner or manager. Likely, we don’t have many senior leaders in the room today. Is that a problem? Maybe. But it doesn’t mean you should stop.
How can you make a difference? That’s what we’re going to discuss.
Shaping Culture for Agile Ways of Working
Culture is like a coin—it has two sides: leadership and culture. You can’t separate them.
Another way to think about culture is as a shadow. You can’t touch it, but you can feel it, see it, and sense it. Top-level leaders cast big shadows, but local leaders—like most of you here—cast acute, direct shadows over smaller teams. In fact, most people leave companies because of their direct manager, not the CEO.
Small Leadership Changes That Shape Culture
Here are three real-world examples of leaders making a difference:
Amanda’s Reverse Sprint Review
Amanda, responsible for billing services, noticed traditional sprint reviews weren’t delivering value. So, she flipped the process—she had end users use the product while teams observed and gathered real feedback. A small change that led to a massive cultural shift.
Lars’ Flash Swarms
Lars, a research director, introduced “flash swarms,” bringing scientists together for intensive, short bursts of collaboration. This unlocked innovation in ways traditional research processes couldn’t.
Travis the Change Catalyst
Travis, a middle manager in a bank, influenced not just his teams but the CEO and executive team by focusing on relationships and incremental cultural change.
Final Takeaways
1. Without leadership agility, there is no business agility. But don’t wait for senior leaders to act—you can take action.
2. Be a catalyst for your team. Like Amanda, Lars, and Travis, you can shape culture through your decisions, behaviors, and mindset.
3. Be the Robin Hood of power. Challenge those above you and empower those below you. That’s how you start changing the culture in your organization.
Join the Movement
If you want to learn more, check out The Agile Leadership Journey. We also host the Relearning Leadership podcast, where we explore tough topics like control, change, and empowerment through real leader stories.
Thank you for spending time with me today. I hope this inspired you to take a personal leadership journey. Thank you very much!