BBC 2017 Speaker Series – Consultants: Adrian Reed

In anticipation of his presentation at Building Business Capability in Orlando, Nov. 6-10, 2017,  we asked  Adrian Reed, Principal Consultant / Business Analyst at Blackmetric Business Solutions, Ltd., a few questions about pursuing business excellence.  Check out his interview in relation to his BBC presentations entitled, Systems Thinking: A Crucial BA Skill in an Uncertain World and Making the Message Stick: Powerful Communication in a Distracted World.

Q: In what ways do you help your client organizations handle business transformation?

A:  In a whole variety of ways.  Sometimes, we’ll help by providing customized training to help teams get up to speed quickly.  Other times, we’ll be on client-site working hand in hand with the client to identify the problem and assess the likely solutions.  We often find clients have an initial idea of what the solution ought to be; this way we can help establish whether there are better/cheaper/quicker options!  It is all about arming the client with the information that they need to make informed decisions so they can realize value.

Q: Can you describe the challenges you face or have already overcome in establishing more robust business transformation capabilities for your clients?

A:  Culture can be tricky.  As a consultant, culture is perhaps more visible than to someone that is ‘inside’ the organisation, but changing it is crucial.  Often there is a culture which is resistant (or at least semi-resistant) to certain types of change.  Ensuring there is engagement, co-creation and a conscious effort to cultivate a culture change is crucial.

Q: What are your top suggestions for companies looking to become more agile?

A: I think increasingly the value is in organisational agility.  This involves asking bigger questions about the cultural change that will be needed to support and underpin an agile organisation.  It involves getting the organisation ready rather than just ‘bringing in’ a set of techniques and hoping it’ll work. It involves understanding the philosophy and values just as much (if not more than) specific techniques.

Q: What’s the most valuable thing you’ve learned in the past year?

A: Professional communities, networks and networking are more powerful than I ever imagined.  I have had the opportunity to collaborate with people around the world–and it is conferences like BBC that help create those connections.

Q: What do you see as the most important goal or trend for business analysts and other professionals to keep in mind?

A: Don’t feel constrained. Business Analysis is a creative leadership role, whether we consciously know it or not.  We lead and influence without authority, we innovate and analysis is becoming seen as a far more strategic role.  We need to keep up the momentum, help increase recognition and continue to work as a community to elevate the profession.

Q: What’s the latest method/process/tool you’ve implemented to help your client’s business’s operate more effectively? Have you seen any results yet?

A: Possibly not the most recent, but one that I really enjoyed: A problem solving framework that enabled stakeholders to analyse the problem situation before jumping on a solution.  The initial take-up seemed positive!

Q: If you could go back 5 years in time and give some professional insight or advice to yourself, what would it be?

A: Be resilient: There will be (many) days when it’s hard.  But analysis isn’t always a popularity contest… sometimes stakeholders will dislike the situation in the short term, but once they see the value, they will become your biggest allies!

Q: Sneak preview: Please tell us a take-away that you will provide during your talk at the Building Business Capability (BBC) conference this year?

A:  I’m running a workshop that discusses systems thinking in the context of business analysis.  I will be sharing (amongst many other things) how a Causal Loop diagram might benefit us.

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 Don’t miss Adrian’s presentations, Systems Thinking: A Crucial BA Skill in an Uncertain World on Monday, November 6, 2017 from 9:00 am – 12:00 pm and Making The Message Stick: Powerful Communication in a Distracted World,at Building Business Capability on Wednesday, November 8, 2017 from 10:25 am – 11:25 am. Click here to register for attendance.