Embedding Agility at a Leading Global University

The Challenge

As a prominent research and teaching university in the Go8, this client boasts over 20,000 students, earns $1.4 billion annually, and employs over 4,000 individuals. Its historic success aims to maintain leading positions in technological and pedagogical advancements, enhancing its reputation both locally and globally.

Despite its high status, the university faces digital age challenges similar to many established institutions. Rapid tech advancements have introduced hurdles such as modernizing old systems, re-engineering processes, and minimizing excessive governance controls. A key issue was aligning individuals and teams to strategic objectives, ensuring focused, meaningful action.

IT teams and leaders, along with stakeholders, sought to shift from a reactive to a proactive, collaborative, and iterative approach toward value creation. By adopting the Value Stream model and adaptive leadership frameworks, they aimed to foster better collaboration and trust among academic, administrative, and tech teams. This approach exemplifies Agile Transformation Development, helping the university navigate and thrive amidst rapid technological change.

Our Solution

• Restructuring Technology into Value Streams and introduced ‘chapters’ to improve flow of value and shared learning.
• Began transitioning from project to product orientation, injecting specialized support to newly formed product teams.
• Strategic Landscape mapping to connect for leaders cross-organizational strategies to desired initiatives and demonstrate their execution pathways (or lack of).  
• Commencing the cultural shift and enabling system pull by connecting how people work, with what they work on.
• Rolling out and enhancing the approach to Objective Key Results (OKRs) at the senior leadership level to improve focus on outcomes.
• Introduced Strategic Roadmapping to link stakeholder strategy, through demand management to delivery execution.
• Establishing Quarterly Delivery Cycles (QDC) to improve clarity of alignment between strategy and delivery as well as improving the businesses’ ability to adapt rapidly.
• Use of Value Mapping on critical workflows and process to enable lean efficiency targets.
• Provided coaching for leaders to navigate and manage transformational change.

Outcomes

• 4 Value Streams Launched with 2 platforms in design
• ‘We quickly discovered and developed a Proof of Concept around program planning in 6 weeks instead of 6 months’
• Improved alignment between delivery teams and strategic initiatives
• Increased clarity in decision making
• Increased understanding of ‘noisy’ strategic landscape teams are operating in.
• Shifted operating models and ways of working to enable better workflows
• Increased focus on customer and outcomes