“Often, there’s a real lack of clarity about where we are now. And it can be a very uncomfortable, painful set of truths that people don’t want to face. But to create progress, you need to face uncomfortable truths and understand where you’re starting from." - Natalie Field

In this episode, we’re joined by Natalie Field. Nat recently commenced as CEO of Informed Decisions and has accrued a wealth of portfolio leadership experience over the course of her career. Highlights include serving as the Chief Digital and Data Officer for BUPA Asia Pacific, Chief Technology Officer at Belong, and General Manager of the digital portfolio at Australia Post.

Nat is a customer-centric leader with 20 years of global experience in innovation, customer, product, digital, data, and technology. A catalyst for change, she has worked across multiple industries, including health, telecommunications, and services. She has a proven track record of leveraging digital, data, and technology to increase the impact of existing business models and unlock new growth opportunities.

She is recognized for her ability to work across organizational silos to create an ambitious vision and bring that vision to life in a way that creates customer and commercial growth while focusing on operational excellence.

Her passion for leadership and accessing excellence in others is combined with a fierce determination to exceed expectations.

During our conversation, Nat delves into the realities of leading large portfolios and navigating executive roles. She shares hard-won lessons about balancing quick wins with long-term vision, building outstanding leadership teams, tapping into their strengths, and using metrics to drive strategic outcomes. Through candid reflections, Nat offers valuable advice on creating clarity, building resilient teams, and managing the delicate balance between purpose and progress. Her approach to leadership is shaped by a clear focus on empathy, transparency, and aligning people with purpose.

In this episode, we cover:

• (00:00) Introduction
• (04:02) Where do you focus first when you take on a new portfolio?
• (10:15) Why try to bring the biggest naysayers closer?
• (13:46) How do you balance the tension between sustainable change and rapid results?
• (19:43) What role do you feel metrics play in strategy?
• (27:31) What about purpose?
• (35:58) What stereotypes did you have about the role of a CEO back when you didn’t have it?
• (43:03) What’s the secret to sustaining energy for the vision in the face of day-to-day reality as a leader?
• (46:58) How do you pick your advisors?
• (51:31) Can you provide an example of using a strengths finder to inform your leadership approach?

References:

• Good to Great - Jim Collins
• The Five Dysfunctions of a Team - Patrick Lencioni
• Reality is Broken - Jane McGonigal
• The Power of Full Engagement - Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz
• Gallup StrengthsFinder

"Real strategy deployment empowers teams to act on strategic intent with ownership and clarity." - Karl Scotland

We’re joined by Strategy Deployment expert Karl Scotland in this episode.

Karl helps businesses become Learning Organisations through outcome-oriented, continuous transformation, engaging everyone, everywhere.

Over the last 20+ years, he has been an advocate of Lean and Agile approaches to achieve this, working with companies including the BBC, Yahoo!, EMC Consulting, Rally Software, Cisco, SDL, Legal & General, Allegis, HSBC, Bank of America, Vocalink, Sky, and Irwin Mitchel.

During this time, he has been an early adopter of XP and Scrum, a contributor to Agendashift, and a pioneer of using Kanban Systems and Strategy Deployment for product development. He is a founding member of both the Lean Systems Society and Limited WIP Society, active in the Lean and Agile community, and a regular conference speaker. As a result, he was awarded the honorary Brickell Key Community Contribution Award at the 2013 Lean Kanban North America conference.

Our conversation explores Karl’s journey with Strategy Deployment, particularly how he learned and applied it during his time at Rally Software. He explains how models like the X-Matrix help to align aspirations, strategies, and tactics by visualizing and connect strategic decisions to tangible actions. Karl emphasizes that strategy deployment is a continuous, evolving process that requires ongoing feedback and adaptation rather than a static plan. He shares how using Strategy Deployment at Rally fostered collaboration, benefited from customer involvement in strategic planning, and enabled the organization to make more informed decisions about what to prioritize and what to stop doing.

Karl also introduces us to the “TASTE” model he has developed as a framing model for understanding the state of a group’s strategy deployment:

• (T)rue North - What direction are we trying to head in?
• (A)spirations - How are we defining success?
• (S)trategy - How are we going to get there?
• (T)actics - What are we actually going to do?
• (E)vidence - What leading metrics will indicate whether we’re making progress?

In this episode, we cover:

• (00:00) Introduction
• (08:05) What led you to Strategy Deployment?
• (15:42) What is the connection between Strategy Deployment and Big Room Planning?
• (30:45) What happened when you brought real customers into your strategic planning events?
• (38:52) How would you describe the difference between Strategy Deployment and Participatory Budgeting?
• (48:20) What is the thinking behind ‘acting in the present?’
• (54:20) What advice would you give someone starting their Strategy Deployment journey?

Cast:

Karl Scotland

Eric Willeke

Mark Richards

References:

• Karl's Blog
• Hoshin Kanri for the Lean Enterprise - Thomas Jackson
• The Art of Action - Stephan Bungay
• Good Strategy Bad Strategy - Richard Rumelt

"So on any given day, I'm just managing those planes and flight patterns and trying to make sense and create that sequencing of road maps. Or at least highlight, hey, you're not going to achieve that, because this strategy over here in this portfolio isn't even thinking that way” - Christine Babowicz

When we decided to start inviting guests to join us, we were passionate about finding people with real lived experience to share their hard-won insights and wisdom. We were very grateful when Christine Babowicz agreed to join us as our second guest, and she certainly brought plenty of wisdom.

Christine currently serves as Head of Global Execution Excellence at MetLife. She joined MetLife almost nine years ago after spending time at Intel and Adesa. Initially serving in a PMO capacity, she became involved in the launch of MetLife’s Global Lean-Agile CoE 6 years ago. It quickly became a pull-based global agility and ways of working transformation.

Her role has recently expanded into partnering with Enterprise Strategy and 16 portfolios across MetLife to bring their AI strategy to life, focused on creating differentiated experiences for their associates and customers.

Over the years, she's spoken at various Agile Conferences and SAFe Summits, and her topics show her passion for leadership empathy during times of change. She was also a founding member of Raleigh-Durham Women in Agile. Recently, her leadership style and transformation efforts have earned her the Triangle’s Business Journal 40under40 award.

Our conversation takes us through her journey as a change leader over the past six years. Christine shares the challenges of forming an Agile PMO amidst established practices and how her background in lean thinking shaped her approach. We discuss the importance of translating between old and new methodologies, building empathy and trust with stakeholders, and focusing on the problems portfolio leaders face rather than the solutions the textbook provides. She also shares the value of grounding conversations across portfolio boundaries in the organizational mission and a deep understanding of business processes.

As a leader, she highlights the privilege of these transformative roles and the importance of staying humble and prepared when navigating such complex landscapes.

In this episode, we cover:

• (00:00) Introduction
• (05:44) What was it like forming an agile PMO in the middle of a very project-centric world?
• (11:01) How do you navigate the translation between the old and new worlds?
• (15:21) What triggered your transition to portfolio?
• (21:03) With 16 portfolios, how did you pick where to start?
• (24:50) What was your first step once you found your leverage point?
• (30:08) What’s critical for a coach trying to connect with portfolio-level leadership?
• (35:27) What secrets have you found to enabling change across portfolio boundaries?
• (39:56) As a change leader, how do you make it safe for your team to tackle challenging conversations?
• (47:28) Have you found recurring patterns that enable scaling of your change efforts?
• (52:46) How do you help leaders balance aspiration and obligation?
• (59:52) What parting wisdom would you share?

Cast:

Christine Babowicz

Eric Willeke

Mark Richards