Transformation & Change108

What About the Human Intelligence?

What about the human intelligence? Margarita Yonova and Alize Hofmeester

Alize Hofmeester, Margarita Yonova-Popova

April 14, 2021

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In the era of virtual working and agile transformations, what about the human intelligence?

Evelyn, CEO of a big company, sits at her desk staring out of the window. At the beginning of 2020 she kicked-off a digital transformation in her organization. After some very successful pilots, a substantial part of the organization has been transformed into new self-organizing structures and models. Even the office has been totally refurbished to facilitate the new methodologies, rituals and meetings. Then COVID-19 transformed the World. Looking at the empty offices she wonders what happened. “We were well on our way”, she thought. “Yes, we moved into agile structures and digitalized everything we could. We changed our way of working but we are still traditional thinkers. We followed the assumption that our people would change seamlessly. Nothing less is true.” She wonders: “How to move forward?”

Imagine you are Evelyn. What would you do? When you reflect on your own situation or the situation your company is in now, you maybe recognize a bit of what Evelyn is thinking? 

Most of the organizations who start a transformation to become more business agile focus on infrastructure. Talking with companies we hear that tribes or self-organizing teams are introduced and Agile methods and rituals are implemented in parts of the organizations. 

We often hear that organizations struggle with the way of leading this new way of working, that it is difficult to move from control to trust. We have identified a new purpose and new behaviours but who knows and cares about role modeling them? How are people able to change and learn new behaviours if they are treated and rewarded the old way? A department may be virtual and self-organized, it is still a department. 

Going forward we cannot go back the old way. Going forward there is no new normal. There will be always something coming out of the eco-system impacting our business and personal lives. Going forward we need to think beyond the structures and our own organization, department or team. We need to look at the whole system. We are part of it and we have an impact on it.

During our session we take you on our journey. A journey that is not only about digitalization, structures and frameworks. It is about people. Get practical examples to experiment with on your journey to the future of work in which we all have an important role to play and to act upon.

About Margarita Yonova-Popova

Photo of Margarita Yonova-Popova

Agile Transformation Coach @ Erste Group Bank AG

Margarita is an Agile Transformation Coach, part of the HR team at Erste Group Bank AG and has 9 years of experience in organizational effectiveness, change management, and cultural development.

In her role as an Agile Transformation Coach, Margarita has a strong focus on people, culture and leadership. She specializes in coaching agile teams and agile transformation initiatives beyond IT, predominantly in the retail banking area, HR and operations. She is highly passionate to support the HR evolution towards agile practices and mindset.

Margarita is co-founder of the Agile Hub at Erste Group as a community of practice to support teams on their agile journey and to raise awareness about agile across the organization.

Margarita is a strong believer that behind every successful organization there are great people with strong capabilities, courage and innovative minds. Therefore, she sees her purpose as an Agile Transformation Coach in enabling a healthy environment for teams to learn, co-create and collaborate in a better way.

Follow them on LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/margaritayonova/

About Alize Hofmeester

Photo of Alize Hofmeester

People & Transformation Executive, Author of Purpose Driven People - Creating Business Agility & Sustainable Growth @Twinxter

As a passionate People & Transformation Executive, Alize Hofmeester helps organisations to stay relevant to their customers, by reshaping their future way of working and facilitating a fresh mindset that leads to companywide flow and business agility. 

Alize is considered a true visionary and thought leader in the field of business agile transformations. By unlocking the infinite human potential within an organisation, she is able to ignite new ways of working and thinking in large and complex organisations.

One thing is for sure: only changing the structure or implementing a new model does not make your organisation Agile. Alize strongly believes if you are able to facilitate the right environment where people can experiment, learn and improve, magical things will happen. That means that everyone in the organisation has to be willing to be involved and wants to build this new aspired environment.

After a successful career in banking, management consulting, healthcare and recruitment Alize started a new chapter as founder of Twinxter and creator of the People Journey Circle©.

Follow them on LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/alizehofmeester/

Presentation Slides

Summary Transcript

Introduction

Alize: Welcome, everybody, and thank you for taking the time to be with us, to listen to our story. Hopefully, we can also answer some of your questions.

The stickies still cover the walls. Some have fallen down, but no one picks them up because the office is empty. Evelyn, the CEO of a large company, sits at her home office desk and stares out the window. At the beginning of 2020, she kicked off a large agile transformation in the organization. They were well on their way. They had changed a substantial part of the organization into new agile structures—tribes, squads, circles, squares. They had also digitalized much of the organization. The office had been completely refurbished to facilitate new methodologies, rituals, and meetings.

And then COVID hit.

Looking at the empty offices, she wonders, What happened? We were so well on our way. We changed everything. But what are we really doing differently? And now, in this virtual setting, I feel like I am losing control.

Like Evelyn, you may have had similar experiences. These experiences are not only due to COVID; we also experienced challenges before. That’s where I met Margarita two years ago at the Business Agility Conference in London. We discovered that we share the same purpose—to promote the importance of the people perspective in every change and transformation.

With a backpack full of experiences and stories, we want to share our insights with you today.

About Us

Alize: My name is Alize Hoffmeister, and I want to introduce myself through my purpose: Gather a team, set up the expedition, sail the waves, and explore beyond horizons. It’s not about discovering new landscapes, but about seeing things in a different way.

For me, key elements are team, trust, and moving forward to share and tell stories. Finding my purpose changed my life and work, helping me find balance. Purpose makes you unique—whether as a person or as an organization. It brings focus and ensures that the work you do truly matters and aligns with your mission. It’s a bumpy road, but it’s fun, energizing, and creates flow.

Because of my purpose, I had the courage to change. After ten years of working in agile transformations at ING, I decided to move on and founded my company, Twinkster. With Twinkster, I help organizations find their own ways of working and thinking—because every organization is unique, and agility is not a one-size-fits-all solution.

I also wrote down my experiences, as well as those of other organizations and individuals, in my book, Purpose-Driven People: Creating Business Agility and Sustainable Growth.

But I’m not here alone. I’m here with Margarita.

Margarita: Thank you, Alize. Hello, everyone! I’m very excited to be here today. My name is Margarita, and I am an Agile Transformation Coach at Erste Group Bank, currently based in Austria.

Alize knows well that my deep purpose and passion as an Agile Transformation Coach is to go beyond agile frameworks and terminology. Instead of overwhelming teams with structures, roles, and jargon, I focus on helping people embrace change in a way that fosters better collaboration, innovation, and co-creation.

I am also the co-founder of the Agile Hub at Erste Group, which reflects my deep belief in the power of collective intelligence. Communities built from the bottom up serve as an energy source for greater business agility.

About Erste Group

Before we continue, let me say a few words about Erste Group. We are one of the leading financial service providers in Eastern Europe, with over 200 years of history, more than 16 million customers, and 45,000 employees. We are proud to have one of the most modern pan-European banking platforms, George, which now has over 6 million customers onboarded across six countries.

Despite heavy disruptions in the banking industry, one thing has not changed: banking is about people. Our deep purpose is to provide prosperity to our customers and help them build financial health. With this purpose in mind, many of our teams embarked on a journey towards more modern, agile ways of working. This journey aims to improve how we collaborate and, ultimately, how we serve our customers.

The People Perspective in Agile Transformations

Alize: When we talk about transformation—whether big or small—we often focus on the visible aspects: AI, digitalization, agile frameworks. However, beneath the surface, there is more at play. Transformation is not just about visible structures but also the invisible aspects of change.

That’s what we want to share with you today—our experiences and what you can do to make transformation a journey that involves everyone, leveraging the full power of human intelligence.

How does that resonate with you, Margarita?

Margarita: Absolutely! When we started experimenting with agile practices in our organization, we quickly realized that it wasn’t just about setting up tribes and scrum teams. It was a deep shift in people’s beliefs and approaches to work.

That’s why we want to share examples of how we support our teams on this journey and reflect on key change principles. These principles, in our experience, are critical to unlocking the power of human intelligence.

The Challenges of Agile Transformation

Alize: Going back to Evelyn at her desk, she sees the benefits of agile transformation—whether at the organizational, commercial, or workforce level. Agile transformation helps organizations become more adaptable, as we saw during COVID.

But even companies that experience these benefits also face challenges:

  • Leadership: Agile organizations distribute leadership through self-organizing teams. This requires a shift in leadership mindset.
  • Mindset Shifts: What does it really mean to change a mindset?
  • Silos: Does agile truly break silos, or does it just shift them?
  • Sponsorship: Organizations with strong board-level sponsorship are better able to embrace agility.
  • Culture: We all live in our own bubbles. Research shows that while 98% of CEOs believe their organization’s purpose is well understood, only 35% of employees agree.

During my years in agile transformations, I have identified key elements that truly make a transformation work. These elements might not seem new, but the way we approach them in an agile transformation is different.

Previously, transformations were about moving from structure A to structure B. But real transformation is not just about structure—it’s about mindset and behavior.

Margarita, would you like to highlight some of these elements?

Key Elements for Successful Agile Transformation

Margarita: Three elements are particularly important:

  1. Communication: Instead of framing change as starting from zero, we should recognize and leverage existing practices and experiences. People should feel that they are part of shaping the future, not just reacting to it.
  2. Community Building: Transformation should not be imposed from the top. It should be co-created with employees, giving them a voice and active role.
  3. Learning and Experimentation: Agile is about continuous learning. But experimentation should have a clear purpose—what hypothesis are we testing, and what outcome do we seek?

We’ll now dive into real examples of how we’ve applied these principles.

Conclusion

Alize: This was not a success story—it was a story of real experiences. Our call to action for you: imagine your future, live your values, harness collective intelligence, and keep learning.

Margarita: Go beyond the tools. Focus on people, collaboration, and outcomes. Agile is not about implementing frameworks; it’s about fostering an environment where people thrive.

Thank you for joining us today!

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