In anticipation of his presentation at Building Business Capability in Vegas, Oct 31, – Nov. 4, 2016, we asked Andrew Hobday, Guildmaster, Analysis Guild at IAG, a few questions about pursuing business excellence. Check out his interview in relation to his BBC presentation entitled, Creating the Ultimate Innovation Environment.

Q: What are your short-term goals for becoming more agile?

A: I now probably have more conversations with people about applying the agile mindset to things other than software development.  I am part of the Analysis Guild at IAG, a group of analysts that have come together from across a number of delivery platforms and projects to share tools, knowledge and experiences, and to hone and perfect their craft.  I’m trying to live the agile manifesto of ‘individuals and interactions over processes and tools’. A goal I’ve set for this is ensuring I speak with a number of Guild members, internal stakeholders, and external partners every week to learn more about their work and share insights and learnings.

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

A: It’s hard to pick one thing, but it’s probably the benefits of a ‘test and learn’ approach – particularly for complex challenges.  To conduct a simple experiment to test some of your assumptions can be hugely valuable and insightful and take you in directions you wouldn’t have initially thought of.

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

A: Start becoming immersed in design thinking and storytelling – they’re going to be huge soon and they require a lot of practice to truly master.

Q: What’s one question you wished you were asked in this interview but were not? And how would you answer?

A: What’s your advice to the next generation who may be interested in becoming BAs?

As you build your skills and experiences, ensure you balance your focus on analytical ability with creative ability. For example, ‘finding the right solution’ with ‘ensuring we’ve identified the right problem to solve’.  Getting the balance right will help you deliver value in your role as a modern-day BA.

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: Innovation requires a great culture, a robust end-to-end approach and the right people and skillsets to propel it forward.

For the benefit of organizations, I’ll provide a list of cultural elements I believe are important for an organization to be innovative.  For individuals, I’ll provide some actions to help galvanize your value proposition as an employee into the future.

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Don’t miss Andrew’s presentation, Creating the Ultimate Innovation Environment, at Building Business Capability on Thursday, November 3, 2016 from 8:00 to 8:50 am. Click here to register for attendance.