Siegfried Kaltenecker Klaus Leopold

A SHORT INTRODUCTION
Flight Levels
 Dr. Siegfried „Sigi“ Kaltenecker is the joint managing director
of Loop Consultancy, specialising in agile transformation
& self-organisation (www.loop-beratung.at). Over the
course of the last 25 years Sigi has been involved in over
200 enterprises in various industries. The lessons he learned
during his journeys also inspire his books Kanban Change
Leadership (co-authored with Klaus Leopold) LINK: , Leading
Self-Organising Teams and Self-Organising Enterprises.

[email protected]

Dr Klaus Leopold, computer scientist and creator of the

Flight Levels Model, has more than ten years of experience
as a top management consultant. He advises companies
worldwide on how to act agile on the market. Klaus is the
author of Rethinking Agile, Practical Kanban and co-author
with Sigi Kaltenecker of the standard work Kanban Change
Leadership. He is co-founder of the Flight Levels Academy,
and he publishes his current thoughts and experiences in
the world of Flight Levels and organisational development
on his blog www.LEANability.com. You can follow Klaus on
Twitter at @klausleopold.

[email protected]

English version of the German mini-book "Flight Levels.

Eine kurze Einführung", published by dpunkt.verlag GmbH 2021
Translation: Mike Freislich
Graphic Design: Kinga Klimek

This publication is protected by copyright. All rights reserved. The use of the
texts and illustrations, even in part, without the written consent of the publisher is
contrary to copyright law and therefore punishable by law. This applies in particular
to reproduction, translation or use in electronic systems. It should be noted that
the software and hardware designations used in the book as well as brand names
and product designations of the respective companies are generally subject to
trademark, brand or patent protection. All information and programs in this book
have been checked with the greatest care. The authors cannot be held liable for any
damages related to the use of this book.

Copyright © 2022 Loop Organisationsberatung GmbH

Klaus Leopold Siegfried Kaltenecker

Flight Levels
A SHORT INTRODUCTION

Translation: Mike Freislich

Contents

01 What is "Flight Levels"? 4

02
Five activities 9
2.1. Visualise the situation 9
2.2. Create focus 10
2.3. Establish agile interactions 10
2.4. Measuring progress 13
2.5. Implement improvements 14

03
Three levels 17
3.1. Flight Level 1: Operational level 17
3.2. Flight Level 2: Coordination 18
3.3. Flight Level 3: Strategic Portfolio Management 20

04 Interactions between the Flight Levels

4.1.
4.2.
Work System Topology
Define Flight Items and describe Flight Routes
24
24
27

05
Introducing Flight Levels 32
5.1. Clarify where you are starting from 32
5.2. Create focus for improvement 34
5.3. Build a guiding coalition 34
5.4. Engage people 37
5.5. Apply an agile approach 39
Foreword
"Ten Years After" was the name of the British rock band that caused a
sensation in the 1960s. If the band were still around today, they would
be the ideal cast for a little serenade. After all, it was exactly 10 years
ago that we wrote our first book together, "Kanban Change Leadership".
A lot has happened since then. More books, articles, lectures, community
events followed, but above all a multitude of customer projects in
which we were able to apply and expand our findings. It is in line with
the culture of continuous improvement we envisaged back in 2011 that
we have consistently moved from the level of agile teams towards
agile organisational development. The Flight Levels summarise this
movement without creating an authoritarian theoretical construct
that is cast in stone. Rather, they represent an open model of thinking
and communication that gains fresh nuances with every practical
application and is discussed in detail by an international Flight Levels
community.
With this booklet, we want to introduce the Flight Levels model to a
wider audience. For this purpose we describe:

• the basic idea of different levels of flow and their importance for
organisations

• the five core activities that are applied at all levels

• the three levels: operational implementation, coordination, and

strategy

• the interactions between the individual levels i.e. the Flight Levels
System Architecture

• the introduction process, i.e. everything you should consider in

terms of change and leadership to take off with Flight Levels in
the best possible wa.

1
This booklet aims to create a solid foundation for Flight Levels
practitioners from all contexts. On the one hand, we want to provide
an entry-level, concise understanding of what Flight Levels offers, to as
many practitioners and managers as possible. And on the other hand,
we would like to provide experienced agilists with the most current
thinking around the topic. We are looking forward to the upcoming
discussions we wish to ignite through this publication.

Sigi Kaltenecker & Klaus Leopold

2
01
What is "Flight
Levels"?
Get the basic ideas
of the model
01 What i s " Fl ight Le ve ls" ?

3
01 WHAT IS "FLIGHT LEVELS"?

What is "Flight Levels"?

The origin of Flight Levels can probably be dated back to 2011 when
we were supposed to "make 300 teams agile". In doing so, we would
probably have instigated the greatest sub-optimisation of all time,
which would have resulted in doing more harm than good for the client.
Why? In the book "Rethinking Agile" by Klaus, one of the reasons for
the disappointing transformation results was that the dependencies
between the individual teams and products were not coordinated or
managed. These unmanaged dependencies exist not only between
teams that are supposed to deliver a product together - but they also
exist between the different planning horizons of an organisation: what
is decided strategically and then implemented operationally are often
worlds apart. Horizontally as well as vertically, the fundamental problem
is: people either don‘t talk to each other enough or they don‘t talk to each
other about the right things at the right time. If an organisation wants
to be able to act in a truly agile way, it has to look at all value streams
from strategy to implementation and bridge the often large chasms
that open up in each value stream between different decision-making
and implementation activities. The Flight Levels Model has developed
from these considerations.

The Flight Levels Model is a thinking tool to understand WHERE in an

organisation you need to do WHAT in order to achieve the desired
results and/or improvements. To do this, it is not always necessary
to redesign roles and responsibilities or to create new organisational
structures. Rather, the question is: Where in the value streams can
we focus our attention to achieve a substantial improvement with
as little (structural) change as possible? To answer this question we
need to map out the organisation‘s work systems, together with their
interdependencies, as well as the work managed by each work system
and the route the work takes in order to produce value.

4
01 WHAT IS “FLIGHT LEVELS”?

Here is another request from the inventor: Please do not use the Flight
Levels model to restructure a company or to divide it according to
Flight Levels! (à la "We want the Spotify model")
The Flight Levels model is neither an organisational model nor a maturity
model, nor is it a hierarchy - Flight Level 3 is therefore not three times
better or more important than Flight Level 1. The beautiful illustration
you will see on one of the next pages is not an organisational chart!

In aviation, a flight level describes how high an aircraft flies. Depending

on the altitude, the level of detail with which you can perceive a
landscape changes. If you fly very high, you can see for miles into the
distance, however, you can no longer recognise every detail on the
ground. If, on the other hand, you fly low, you can almost see into your
bedroom window, but you can no longer see the extent of a city, for
example.
So each Flight Level has its advantages and special attributes, but
it also has its limitations in the scope of what the people on board can
recognise.
We find the same principle in organisations: Here, a Flight Level is
to be understood as a planning and design horizon. Accordingly,
we distinguish three Flight Levels that are not to be understood
hierarchically: the strategic level, the coordination level and the
team level. A comprehensive and similarly detailed picture of the
performance of different value streams in an organisation only
emerges when the perspectives of these three Flight Levels are brought
together, aligned and coordinated. Therefore, by applying the Flight
Levels Model mindset, it is possible to find out where the levers for
improvement lie within the organisation.
It is therefore not important with which methods, for example,
individual teams or departments work. What is important is how the
communication and cooperation between the Flight Levels as well
as between different units on the individual levels are organised.

5
01 WHAT IS “FLIGHT LEVELS”?

If improvements are made here, the entire value creation begins to

optimise - and that is, after all, our goal.
The real driver of improvement is not the 3 Flight Levels themselves,
but the five activities that are set in a continuous cycle on and between
the Flight Levels. These five activities are the air traffic control, so to
speak: they can be used to coordinate and improve the movement of
initiatives through the value stream.

6
01 WHAT IS “FLIGHT LEVELS”?

If an organisation wants to be able

to act in a truly agile way, it has
to look at all value streams from
strategy to implementation.

7
02
Five
activities
Learn what to apply
at all Flight Levels
02 Fi ve act ivi tie s

8
02 FIVE ACTIVITIES

Five activities

The following five activities should be applied continuously at all Flight

Levels if the goal is not "agile teams" but "true business agility".

2.1. Visualise the situation

In knowledge work, we have the problem that it is difficult to grasp what

is actually being done. At the end of a working day, there is not a half-
finished table somewhere, but rather an idea exists in someone‘s head,
documents are whirring through the cloud or a piece of code is waiting
on a computer to be processed further. That which is invisible often
causes misunderstandings, making the coordination of interdependent
people, teams or departments much more difficult.
Therefore, before we even think of solutions, the current situation
should become visible to all involved. The idea is to visualise the work
and activities that are to be changed. This way the people involved can
better understand how the work items and their related activities run

9
02 FIVE ACTIVITIES

through the organisation and what interactions there are between the
different departments and teams in the organisation.
In the agile world, the work is mainly visualised on boards - but
anything that can represent a situation well and make it easier to
understand is allowed.

2.2. Create focus

Fortunately, people will always have more ideas than they can actually
implement. But working on all the ideas at the same time doesn‘t help
much, because then everything takes longer to get done. For something
to be finished within an acceptable time frame, we need to focus on
a certain amount of concurrent work and implement it step by step.
This also helps to reduce dependencies and planning uncertainties.
Only when something is finished do we start something new - because:
Starting work costs money. Finishing work makes money.

2.3. Establish agile interactions

The point of managing dependencies, for example with the help of

product boards, is not the boards themselves. The important thing is that
the right people talk to each other about what they see on the board.
By "establishing agile interactions" we don‘t mean simply gossipping
over coffee. The reason we deliberately don‘t use terms like meeting,
standup, etc. is this: Most of the time, the problem in companies is
not that there are too few meetings. The problem is rather that either
nothing of substance is said in these meetings, no decisions are made
or after the meeting, all participants are just as smart as they were
before (this is then called "result-neutral"). That‘s why we now refuse
to tell people which meetings they have to hold, when and for how
long, in order to be agile. This does not necessarily improve the result.
Real communication means that there is an answer to an input - in
other words, there is an exchange. Ideally, the participants review the
information together and derive actions from it, if necessary.
So what is really important is the content and outcome of

10
02 FIVE ACTIVITIES

interactions, not their quantity or title. A few principles have proven to

be effective in communication:

• Let‘s make it short, but more often. This might sound like a bad
idea. It simply means that if people who share a common goal
communicate with each other at a higher frequency, they will
get feedback sooner and can respond to problems more quickly.
The more often these conversations take place, the shorter they
can be, or the shorter they will eventually become by themselves
because those involved learn to get to the heart of the matter
quickly and make decisions.

• Communicate with foresight. "We started three weeks ago

and are already done with our part. Now you have to take over!"
When such sentences are uttered, there is usually a sense of
relief, because the challenges are being aired. Wherever people
or teams who are part of a system (need to) work together on
something, conversations should be looking ahead and keeping
each other in mind. For example, before one team gets started on
its part of a product, all other teams involved should know about
it and have enough time to organise themselves accordingly. It
may turn out that the start time is not ideal and that this would
cause delays further along in the process. It is a matter of courtesy
to say openly to the other parties involved: "This is what we have
in mind and this is what is coming up..."
Of course, you can talk about many things when time has no
consequence. But what are the most important agile interactions
that should take place at and between the different Flight Levels
if an organisation wants to learn, improve and eventually even
become agile? So far, we have identified four key questions
that can help to find appropriate communication formats and
content:

• Communication across the organisation: How do we create

11
02 FIVE ACTIVITIES

coordination in short loops?

• Communication about the work: How do we decide what to do?

• Communication about responsibilities and processes: How do

we decide how to do something?

• Communication about quality: How do we improve?

Please do not see these questions dogmatically! They make a lot of

sense in the context of many companies we have had the pleasure of
getting to know so far. But they are not the only permissible questions
and they are certainly not the only possible ones. Which questions and
which communication formats are subsequently useful depends on
the company in question. People in the aviation industry, for example,
like to ensure that aeroplanes stay in the air - so there are many other
appropriate communication formats around the topic of risk and
safety.
We don‘t mind if a company continues to use the term „meeting“ to
describe regular, results-oriented discussions. It‘s not about abolishing
meetings. What’s important is that these regular conversations
generate recognisable value, because converting oxygen into carbon
dioxide should not be the only purpose for conversations.
To ensure that everyone involved has the same understanding of a
particular communication format, it has proven useful for the invitees
and, where appropriate, key stakeholders to define the key features
together and record them in a canvas (a fancy word for "form"). This
makes it clear what the purpose of a communication format is and
what decisions are to be made in the process. This is also nothing more
than visualisation. If the rules change, the content of the form - sorry:
canvas - is updated accordingly.

12
02 FIVE ACTIVITIES

2.4. Measuring progress

If you work with the "Simsalabim!" method, your teams will jump
three times as high and five times as far - and in half the time! Agile
frameworks come with all kinds of promises. This gives the impression
that everything and anything has to be measured to have a total
overview - because that‘s the only way to react appropriately to the
market, isn‘t it?
For some companies, however, the metric "predictability", for
example, is secondary. At sipgate, an innovative telco in Germany, for
example, the lead time plays the main role. We were told there: "It‘s great
when we find out when our work is finished. But it‘s not that important
for us, because we have three deadlines a year: Christmas - we can‘t
postpone that - and two trade fairs. We should have something finished
by then.
Measurements are nothing more than a constant feedback loop:
they show whether we have come closer to a goal or not, whether we
have improved or deteriorated.
However, the meaningfulness and significance of measurements
depend on the company and the context. What is considered
improvement or progress is highly individual for each organisation.
Therefore, the Flight Level Model does not specify specific
measurements.
For meaningful measurement, the hype should not be the primary
motivator. The real power comes from a group‘s negotiated, shared
understanding of what should be measured, why and how, through the
communication process. Let‘s say the common goal is: higher quality.
If someone throws this goal around, everyone will almost certainly nod
in agreement. But as soon as they ask: "How can we tell that quality has
improved? ", a murmur will go through the crowd. Has quality increased
if the number of bug fixes has decreased? Do we notice it in the positive
feedback from customers? Or by the decreasing number of calls to the
support hotline? There are many indicators for better quality. But which
ones are really meaningful and relevant must be defined again and

13
02 FIVE ACTIVITIES

again through conversation.

It becomes even more difficult with a huge hot air balloon called
"agility", which is inflated by countless expectations and interpretations.
For one, agility means delivering faster to the market - another finds tree-
hugging agile. Before everyone else in the organisation is bothered with
a confusing, off-the-rails transformation, a common understanding
should first be found in this broad spectrum of definitions:

"How will we notice in three months whether our

organisation has become more agile?"

2.5. Implement improvements

"We could take a look at this or that; we could see if this or that ..." - You can
have many nice conversations about improvements, but: the proof of
the pudding is in the eating. In other words: improvement only happens
when something is actually done. That is why it is so important to those
of us at the Flight Levels Academy to explicitly emphasise improving as
an activity in a continuous cycle. Improvement is an integral part of the
work, for which capacity and opportunities should be provided within
the respective work model.

14
02 FIVE ACTIVITIES

Most of the time, the problem in

companies is not that there are
too few meetings. The problem
is rather that either nothing
of substance is said in these
meetings, no decisions are
made or after the meeting, all
participants are just as smart as
they were before.

15
03
Three levels

Get an overview of
the operational, the
coordination and
the strategic level.
03 T hre e Le ve ls

16
03 THREE LEVELS

Three levels
What is so unique about the 5 activities mentioned above? They
are nothing new: similar cycles underlie Scrum, Kanban, Lean Startup
or Design Thinking, although they are always linked to the specific
mindsets and frameworks in these individual methods. Most of the
time, they are also limited to the work in a single team.
The important point for us is that the activities themselves are
completely independent of which "method" is used. It is quite simply
a cycle that leads to improvement. Now, what is special about the
Flight Levels Model is that this cycle is applied to all three Flight Levels
so that all planning horizons and activities are aligned and the whole
organisation achieves more business agility over time, by pulling in a
common direction (and not just producing agile teams). First, let‘s look
at what happens at each flight level.

3.1. Flight Level 1: operational level

Let‘s start close to the ground. The first level belongs to the teams
that do the daily work - in product development, in marketing or sales,
in customer service, in HR or the legal department, etc. The first level
belongs to the teams that do the daily work. A team can optimise itself,
or rather its workflow, by consistently performing the 5 activities.
It doesn‘t matter what methods a team uses to develop products or
deliver services, for example - agile or otherwise - because the Flight
Levels Model is method-agnostic. There is usually more than one team
in a company and each prefers a different way of working. In a single
organisation, you will therefore find differently designed Flight Level 1
systems. So we cannot prescribe here what each of the 5 flight level 1
activities should look like. A team of lawyers will probably have to pay
attention to different things in their processes and choice of focus than
a team of mechanical engineers or software developers.

17
03 THREE LEVELS

However, to generate customer value, these individual team systems

usually have to cooperate in some way - "no team is an island". If you
ignore this and focus your optimisation efforts locally on individual
teams, you run the risk of global system sub-optimisation: Yes, you
get a high-performing team. However, the overall performance of
the organisation - i.e. the performance of all teams taken together -
will remain the same in the best case. Much more likely, it will even
decrease.
Welcome to the world of systems thinking! Local optimisation
usually leads to global sub-optimisation. The reason is dependencies:
There will always be some remaining. These dependencies must be
managed - that is the task of Flight Level 2.

3.2. Flight Level 2: Coordination

For a product or service to be created or delivered, several teams

usually have to interact to achieve a valuable result. In most cases,
there is already a lively exchange between these teams, but these
interactions should also be goal-oriented. So the trick is to get the right
teams (Flight Level 1) working on the right thing at the right time.
At Flight Level 2, we, therefore, zoom out from the individual team and
visualise the value stream, i.e. the way a product takes shape from its
conception until it is delivered to the customer.

18
03 THREE LEVELS

At best, this is a simple end-to-end mapping of the value stream, but

in reality, we encounter three variants of Flight Level 2 systems:

1. COORDINATION OF SEVERAL TEAMS

An online dealer wants to simplify the trade of used cars on
the internet. Six teams are involved in the development and
implementation of the platform. In regular conversations between
representatives of the individual teams, it is clarified who has
to coordinate with whom, when, at what point and how, so that
value can be created for the customers. Again, we are method-
agnostic, because for coordination it is completely irrelevant in
which way the individual teams deliver.

2. END-TO-END PARTIAL FLOW

Even if several teams work together, this does not necessarily
mean end-to-end coordination in the sense of an entire value
stream. Simply because sometimes several teams together only
implement a self-contained section of a much larger product
or project. Conversely, a single team can represent a complete
Flight Level 2 system if it has end-to-end responsibility for an
entire product. This is usually the case in small organisations.

3. COORDINATION OF MULTIPLE FLIGHT LEVEL 2 SYSTEMS

The larger an organisation is, the more value streams there are, of
course - for example, in the form of different products and services.
Accordingly, in a larger company, you will usually see more than
one flight level 2 system and there can be dependencies between
these value streams. For example, if something is changed in
one product, something often needs to be changed in another
product. In such cases, the various boards on which value streams
are visualised are brought together physically or virtually to make
the dependencies visible and thus manage them.
This is where operational portfolio management comes into
being.

19
03 THREE LEVELS

3.3. Flight Level 3: Strategic Portfolio Management

For a company, there is ideally a strategy - i.e. an idea of what position

the company wants to occupy in a market (or different markets) in the
long term and how the people in the organisation can achieve this goal
together. Usually, developing and defining the strategy is considered a
top management task. But the most beautiful strategy is of no use if
only one side has a precise idea of where the journey should go. Flight
Level 3 is therefore essentially about answering three questions:

1. What is our strategy?

2. What outcomes do we want to achieve in different time horizons

- for example after 3 years, in one year and within the next 3
months?

3. What actions can we derive from this for the immediate future
(enter markets, launch products, start initiatives, etc.)?

These are questions that should be asked at regular intervals - and

indeed, top management should not ask themselves these questions
alone. To answer these questions, mutual connections and continuous

20
03 THREE LEVELS

communication between all three Flight Levels - strategy, coordination

and operational implementation - must be established. This means
that "backward mapping", which often takes place at the end of the
year, is no longer used. This is replaced by "forward mapping" - the joint
planning of manageable steps and the ongoing checking of results at
short intervals.

WHAT IS NOT PART OF FLIGHT LEVEL 3?

Even though the vision and the strategy are important starting points:
Their elaboration itself is not part of the Flight Levels Model. In other
words, while we are concerned with how the strategy is operationalised,
we are not concerned with finding and formulating the strategy itself.
Whether a company should conquer the Latin American or the Asian
market next cannot be answered by the Flight Levels Model. But once
the strategic decision has been made, thinking in terms of Flight Levels
helps to implement the strategic sub-goals.

21
03 THREE LEVELS

Usually, developing and defining

the strategy is considered a top
management task. But the most
beautiful strategy is of no use if
only one side has a precise idea of
where the journey should go.

22
04
Interactions
between the
Flight Levels See what work
system topologies,
flight Items and
flight routes are
about
04 Inte ract ions be twee n
the Fl ight Le vel s

23
04 INTERACTIONS BETWEEN THE FLIGHT LEVELS

Interactions between
the Flight Levels
Good, so you know what is meant by Flight Levels. But how do you
manage and improve the interactions between the Flight Levels? Three
steps are necessary for this:

1. Definition of the work system topology: What work systems

currently exist in the organisation? How are these systems
connected?

2. Definition of Flight Items: Which types of work are done in which

work system?

3. Description of Flight Routes: How does work move through the

work systems we have identified?

We call the topology, flight items and flight routes, the Flight Levels
System Architecture. This should be visualised and examined if you
want to work with the Flight Levels in a company.

4.1. Work System Topology

The Flight Levels are a thinking and communication aid that focuses
on improving the process organisation and is intended to make it
clear where which levers are available for solving a problem. With a
representation of the Flight Levels as in the illustration, you will not get
any further with this question in reality, therefore the warning once
again:
The pretty Flight Levels poster is not the blueprint for a Flight
Levels compliant organisational chart! In real life, things are a bit
more challenging: first, we have to find out which work systems exist
in an organisation at present. This means that we map the so-called
Topology step by step: We examine the organisation for existing Flight

24
04 INTERACTIONS BETWEEN THE FLIGHT LEVELS

Level 1, Flight Level 2 and Flight Level 3 systems. Next, and of particular
importance, is the question of which processes and dependencies
currently exist between these systems. From this, we can see how they
could be linked together to achieve more business agility.

WHAT IS A WORK SYSTEM OR FLIGHT LEVEL SYSTEM?

By a work or Flight Level system we mean: a section of the organisation
in which the 5 activities are applied. Referring to the figure on the next
page, such a section is represented by a box in the topology.

WHAT IS A WORK SYSTEM TOPOLOGY?

A topology generally describes the position and relationship of objects
to each other. The Work System Topology is a visualisation that depicts
which Flight Level systems are used in an organisation to do work
and how they are connected to each other.

Finding Flight Level 1 systems is quite easy (but not always!), because
here we can usually orient ourselves to the individual teams. Flight Level
3 systems always touch on strategy, so here too it is basically easy to
work them out.
The biggest challenge lies in identifying the Flight Level 2 systems.
Care is needed here, because it is precisely these hubs of coordination
that are the key to business agility.

25
04 INTERACTIONS BETWEEN THE FLIGHT LEVELS

The illustrated example of a working system topology comes from real

life and shows the Flight Level systems of a web platform for automotive
advertisements:

• Here we see that teams 1 to 12 (Flight Level 1) have to work

together on the "Core Experience" (a platform, hence Flight Level
2) and coordinate.

• "Business Intelligence" is a mixture of Flight Level 1 and 2 - we

often find that too. In this specific case, the "Business Intelligence"
platform was not a huge system with 50 people or more, but
one with only 15 people involved in two teams. These two teams
concluded that it didn’t make much sense to build two separate
team boards and another common board for coordination.
Together they are responsible for the entire value chain anyway.
So the two teams simply coordinate regularly in front of the Flight
Level 2 board.

• In the case of supporting services such as sales, marketing, legal

etc., on the other hand, it is again quite clear in this company
that these are flight level 2 systems because they each consist
of a single team. These departments show that working with
Flight Levels is not about a single section of the organisation, for
example, IT.

What stands out in this example is that all systems are connected to
the "Company Wall". Why is that? In this organisation, we see many
dependencies between the individual products. The Company Wall is
the place where the representatives of these products coordinate the
dependencies and the work to be done. We also see that the Company
Wall is a mixture of Flight Level 2 and Flight Level 3 systems because
strategic information is also managed here.
I hope it has become a little clearer that it is not a question of just
building a few boards. But it is also important to remember that there is
no right or wrong when it comes to Work System Topologies. You need

26
04 INTERACTIONS BETWEEN THE FLIGHT LEVELS

a first approximate overview of the existing process organisation. From

this point on, topologies (= processes) can be designed and thought
through according to different points of view - at Bayer, for example,
this is called a "flight simulator" [Flight Levels Academy 7/2020], others
even build "virtual organisations" in this way. A subsidiary of Bosch, for
example, wanted to become more agile in its processes without having
to initiate a complete reorganisation or transformation, which is much
more difficult within a corporate structure [Flight Levels Academy
3/2021]. If the company could have been reorganised from the ground
up, then structuring it by product teams would have made sense - but
that was complete science fiction due to the circumstances. However,
the sly foxes did the following: they designed the processes in their
Flight Level 2 systems as if a reorganisation had taken place. There
is now simply a board that corresponds to a product. "In front of" this
board, stakeholders from around the world come together virtually
to coordinate their work on the product across silos - while everyone
remains in his or her place in the organisational structure. So Flight
Level systems don‘t need to do away with existing silos, but they can
create a better connection between them. The aim is to focus on the
mostly invisible process organisation and make it visible.

4.2. Define Flight Items and describe Flight Routes

If we want strategy and operational implementation to connect across

the existing Flight Level systems, then the next question immediately
arises: which work is managed and/or coordinated in which system?
We refer to this work with the super cool phrase of "Flight Items"
(German translations welcome - "Flugobjekte" sounds weird, doesn‘t
it?). For example, the agreement may be that Flight Level 3 deals with
the definition of strategic outcomes, Flight Level 2 with the coordination
of epics and Flight Level 1 with the implementation of derived tasks.
That sounds very simple now. In reality, we experience it somewhat
differently: just because everyone nods in agreement to a new lexicon
does not mean that everyone understands the same thing for each of

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04 INTERACTIONS BETWEEN THE FLIGHT LEVELS

the terms. A classic is "epic": for some, an epic is something that is done
in three sprints; for others, it is projects that had a duration of up to
two years in the pre-agile era. This means that not only do terms need
to be found for the Flight Items - above all, it has to be defined what
exactly is meant by each of these terms. So the big task is not so much
to find the Flight Items, but rather to develop a commonly understood
nomenclature for them.
Once we know what work moves through our systems, another
question follows: How do the Flight Items move through the individual
systems? So we try to understand their Flight Routes.

Show me your Flight routes and I‘ll tell you what

makes your organisation tick!
What does it mean for example, if flight routes point mostly from the
strategic to the operational level, but never from the operational to
the strategic level? It could be that in this case a group of very smart
people know everything and prefer to give instructions to the rest of
the organisation. If, on the other hand, there are routes that run from
the operational level back to the strategic level, then it seems that
people from the coordinative and operational levels are involved in the
strategic decisions and there is an alignment between the strategy
and the results of the work. If the flight routes run mainly through
Flight Level 2 or Flight Level 1 systems, then this is usually a sign that
many decision-making powers and responsibilities are given to the
executive units.
Flight routes can be used to draw conclusions about the functioning
of an organisation. Unfortunately, many organisations are completely
unaware of their flight routes and their impact on operations.
Visualising helps to identify and understand the disruptions caused
by unfavourable Flight Routes. Just because there is a board on every
wall does not mean that anything has changed in terms of value
creation for the customer. Too often, the board on the wall becomes a
board that is top of mind.

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04 INTERACTIONS BETWEEN THE FLIGHT LEVELS

The Flight Levels are a thinking

and communication aid that
focuses on improving the process
organisation and is intended
to make it clear where which
levers are available for solving a
problem.

29
05
Introducing
Flight Levels
Explore the five
activities of Flight
Levels Change
Leadership
05 Intr oducing Fl ight Le ve ls

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05 INTRODUCING FLIGHT LEVELS

Introducing Flight Levels

From what you have read in this booklet so far, you should by now have
a good understanding of the essence of Flight Levels thinking and the
Flight Levels communication model: from the basic idea of five core
activities on three levels to the processes between the individual levels.
But before you can get started, you need to clarify a few other questions:
For example, the question of what exactly you want to improve; the
question of how you will design the necessary change process that
might lead to that improvement; or the question of what impact the
Flight Levels will have on your leadership and corporate culture. The
technical side of system design is only one side of the proverbial coin.
It is inextricably linked to the social side, without which an organisation
cannot take flight. The mirror-like connection between the technical
and the social perspectives is not least reflected in the fact that there
are also five core activities when it comes to change design:

1. Clarify where you are starting from

2. Create focus for improvement

3. Build a guiding coalition

4. Engage people

5. Apply an agile change approach

In the following sections, we would like to briefly describe each of these

activities and thus provide you with a guide for the entire introduction
process.

5.1. Clarify where you are starting from

What do you need to consider in order to effectively take off in the
direction of business agility with Flight Levels? What necessary

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05 INTRODUCING FLIGHT LEVELS

preconditions should be ensured for this take off? How might you win
over employees and managers for this journey? And what do you do if
your journey includes 30, 50, 100 or even more people? These are some
of the big question marks that arise when considering the Flight Levels
thinking and design model in practice.
Traditional change management provides clear answers to these
questions: define what your work processes should look like, draw up a
roadmap with a precise sequence of steps, assign a project manager
to ensure that they are implemented according to plan, and handle the
whole thing in a traditional project management manner. However, the
high rate of failed change initiatives and the rampant change fatigue
among employees suggests that you won‘t get very far with this classic
recipe. Even less so if you are interested in real business agility.
The good old principle "Drink your own champagne" (for friends of the
rustic: "Eat your own dogfood") points emphatically to the fact that
the path to company-wide agility should be designed in an agile way.
It is also not advisable to start with idealised future states or target
processes, but with the actual situation. How is work currently being
done? What is going well? What is not going well? And what should be
improved as a matter of priority?

It seems obvious to answer these questions with the help of agile

interactions. The retrospective format was once invented for this
purpose and has long been part of the standard repertoire of many
teams. Of course, you can also conduct individual interviews with
selected stakeholders. If your teams are already working in an
agile way, you might as well combine the results of the different
retrospectives. But you could also run a large group event and invite
delegates from various teams, departments and hierarchical levels
to a joint assessment. On the one hand, this enables direct exchange
between the most diverse stakeholders in your work system - which,
as experience shows, often leads to significantly different insights.
Consequently, you are promoting a culture of agile interactions from
the very beginning in order to consciously view the much-cited whole

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05 INTRODUCING FLIGHT LEVELS

elephant from different perspectives.

If this elephant is too big for you, then start small by comparing your
own view with that of selected colleagues. What do they see similarly?
What do they see differently? And where do you feel the strongest
pull towards joint improvement? Last but not least, you can of course
also call on the support of an agile coach for this. With professional
questions, such a coach can encourage "thinking out loud", provide
resonance to your answers and open up fresh perspectives.

5.2. Create focus for improvement

A mindful clarification of business challenges is also what gives

orientation to your journey towards business agility. Unlike in classic
change management, with the Flight Levels you are not aiming at
predefined ideal states, but at a solution to a current business problem
that is tailor-made for your situation. The shortening of time-to-
market, a better balance between operations and new development,
the reduction of costs through higher flow efficiency or the promotion
of innovative products and services are common examples in this
respect.

Becoming more agile is not a business challenge. The fact that agility
is fashionable right now and is somehow part of digitalisation anyway
should not be your primary motivation. Agility is a means, not an
end - which unfortunately is often confused. So take enough time to
formulate a clear "why". Your improvement initiative and the people
involved in it will thank you!

5.3. Build a guiding coalition

If you have adequately captured your current situation and set a

focus for improvement, you have already achieved a lot. Additionally,
you need at least one sponsor who stands for the initiative as well
as committed people who implement it in an agile way. "You‘ll never
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05 INTRODUCING FLIGHT LEVELS

walk alone", could be the motto borrowed from Liverpool FC for this
leadership coalition that has proven itself in the introduction of Flight
Levels. The following table provides a key overview of the roles and
responsibilities relevant to this.

Experience shows that none of these roles, which are associated with
different responsibilities, should be neglected. In particular, we have
repeatedly observed attempts to introduce Flight Levels without a
committed sponsor that are almost always doomed to failure. At the
team level (Flight Level 1), such a bottom-up approach may well be
effective. But when it comes to cross-team coordination (Flight Level 2),
let alone the strategic portfolio (Flight Level 3) or a more comprehensive
system architecture (Work Systems Topology), someone with influence
in the organisation is needed who can secure the necessary boundaries.
Whether this is done by a single sponsor with decision-making authority
or by several (such as a management team) is not so important.
What is important is that someone keeps the focus of the Flight Levels
initiative and actively shapes the path to measurable improvements.
For us, sponsorship therefore does not mean agile rhetoric.
It also goes beyond the allocation of sufficient resources in terms of
time, money and attention. True sponsorship means that there are

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05 INTRODUCING FLIGHT LEVELS

one or more people who define the what and why of the improvement
and actively co-create the necessary change process.
It goes without saying that this definition does not come naturally
and similarly the group of people that shape the "how" do not fall from
the sky and just make it happen. We have had the best experiences with
the most diverse group composition possible, both for individual Flight
Levels 2 or 3 systems and for larger system architectures. A diverse
mix of people with different expertise, experience levels, leadership
skills and personalities, representing the silo-spanning and hierarchy-
bridging networking that we want to promote with Flight Levels as a
whole. In some cases, the sponsor (or one of the sponsors) is also part
of this mix, and in many cases at least one experienced Flight Levels
coach is there to provide professional guidance as an experienced
sparring partner.
However this group of pioneers is put together, it is often overlooked
that it needs time and opportunities to practice in order to develop into
a powerful change team. Mistakes are as inevitable as uncertainties,
which often reflect organisational issues on an individual level.

The figure above reminds us that two more change roles are needed
for their improvement initiative to succeed. First, the group of change
agents who go far beyond the core team and act as active multipliers

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05 INTRODUCING FLIGHT LEVELS

and ambassadors. And secondly, the even larger group of stakeholders

who are affected by the change in one way or another and ideally also
benefit from the desired improvement. It is advisable not only to identify
these two groups initially, but also to involve them appropriately. For
a sustainable improvement, their regular feedback and engagement
is indispensable. Resonating with the figure above, it could be argued
that we can only make progress with Flight Levels if the idea of change
becomes more and more widespread. Which finally leads us to the
question of how this can be achieved.

5.4. Engage people

The Liverpool FC motto could be adapted as "You‘ll always fly together",

when it comes to the concrete design of the change process with Flight
Levels. "During an organisational change", Daniel Mezick and Mark
Sheffield state emphatically, "you need employee engagement or you
will fail". [Mezick & Sheffield 2018, S. 106].
But how do you get as many people engaged as possible? How can
you turn the Flight Levels from an interesting idea of a few individuals
into a medium for the better coordination of many experts? And how do
you help these experts to create a more efficient process organisation?
During the course of the Flight Levels initiatives that we have had
the privilege of accompanying in the last few years, spanning a
wide variety of industries and corporate sectors, some trend-setting
responses have emerged. In the following, we would like to present
some specific interaction formats that have proven themselves useful
time and again. These formats include the retrospective, the work of
the change team, the sparring partnership with Flight Level coaches
and the regular coordination between change sponsors and those
responsible for implementation. They also include formats that provide
information, exchange and feedback on a broader level.
The format of the Flight Levels Introduction Workshop is of particular
importance. After all, this workshop pursues three essential goals:

36
05 INTRODUCING FLIGHT LEVELS

1. To engage a wide range of staff in an open exchange to get the

broadest possible view of current strengths and challenges.

2. To provide basic knowledge to make the thinking model of the

Flight Levels as tangible as possible.

3. Obtain feedback on the idea, achieve measurable improvements

with the help of Flight Levels.

To achieve these three goals, the introductory workshop is deliberately

designed as a large group event. The use of state-of-the-art facilitation
methods ensures that even 30, 50 or 100 people can interact in an agile
manner. A creative facilitation concept with presentations, reviews in
small groups, visualisation of the most important answers and cross-
group networking ensure a lively engagement with Flight Levels.
The broad arc of this large group event leads from the initial
clarification of the current situation, through the presentation and
discussion of the Flight Levels and ultimately to mapping, in which the
participants bring together the core activities of Flight Levels with the
challenges they defined at the beginning.
This workshop provides valuable insights for all stakeholders, but
especially for sponsors and change team members. Firstly, they can
check to what extent the analysis carried out in a small circle fits with
the view of a large group of change agents and stakeholders: Are similar
things seen as positive and as critical? Do the majority of participants
see the same things as particularly challenging? And how well do the
identified challenges fit with the focus for improvement set by the
sponsor? Secondly, feedback from a large group shows how promising
the Flight Levels approach seems: What connections do workshop
participants see between the organisational problems they identify and
the solutions offered by Flight Levels? How many critical questions are
raised? And what is the basic attitude towards the envisaged change?
In any case, the course of such a major event is a good litmus test for
the energy for change and reinforces the emotional momentum that

37
05 INTRODUCING FLIGHT LEVELS

no improvement initiative can do without.

The detailed review of the workshop process and the questions raised
in it represents a focal point within the change agenda of both sponsor
and change team. A mindful follow-up provides an important basis for
decision-making and further action.

5.5. Apply an agile approach

The professional preparation, implementation and evaluation of the

introductory workshop is undoubtedly an important stage of any
improvement initiative based on Flight Levels. However, it is only one
stage on the way to true business agility. Before that, there is a stage
of initial clarification, in which explicit agreements on What? Why?
Who? and How? are made. The focus of the introductory stage is on
the positive feedback that the Flight Levels approach makes sense not
only to sponsors and change team members but to a broad group
of potential change agents and stakeholders. What follows this stage,
therefore, depends on the outcomes of the workshop. Does it succeed
in arousing sufficient curiosity and interest? Do the key messages get
across? And do people see how Flight Levels can help THEM solve their
most important challenges?
These questions must be taken seriously and discussed by all
those responsible for change. A superficial "Yes!" does no one any
good. Instead, it is about the open exchange of experiences to be
able to make an informed decision. Do not strive for consensus here:
you should neither expect that a single workshop will lead to one
hundred percent agreement, nor that you will all come to the same
conclusions. Rather, check whether, given the inevitable concerns and
questions, you are sufficiently convinced that it is worth continuing your
improvement journey.
If this is the case, it is clear that your next step should be the first
draft of a Flight Level system or System Architecture to start from. For
this design, you can again refer to the five activities of a Flight Levels
system: visualise the current situation, create focus and define which

38
05 INTRODUCING FLIGHT LEVELS

forms of communication and measurement you want to use for the

desired improvement.
Before you put the system you have designed into operation, however,
you should "risk" another feedback loop. The use of a so-called
sounding board is a useful tool for this. Interested change agents
and stakeholders are invited to a short workshop where feedback on
the draft system design in the form of comments and questions is
encouraged. This workshop has several advantages: Firstly, it provides
transparent information before the official start of your first flight test;
secondly, it allows you to check the actual quality of your design; and
thirdly, through direct communication, you strengthen professional
understanding and pick up on the feelings about the change.
The purpose of a sounding board is not to defend your draft design.
Critical questions and suggestions for improvement are welcomed.
However, as long as there are no obvious showstoppers, you should
take these suggestions into your improvement backlog and take-off.
Viewed through an agile lens, all these stages can be seen as change
iterations, each pursuing specific goals:

• explicit agreements on the planned change initiative: Why?

What? Who? How?

• the building of a strong guiding coalition, i.e. the successive

networking of sponsor, change team, change agents and
stakeholders;

• exploring the Flight Levels model together to share knowledge

and create motivation for change;

• the drafting of an initial system design or architecture;

• the collaborative inspect & adapt of the respective draft systems

to avoid showstoppers and strengthen the guiding coalition for
operations;

39
05 INTRODUCING FLIGHT LEVELS

• the start of operations to achieve measurable improvements;

The following figure illustrates how such a process can look in stages.

It is in the nature of an agile approach that these stages can look

quite different. In one company it may already be difficult to reach
clear agreements, in another no sponsor is found or several sponsors
cannot agree. In a third, the change team doesn‘t really get going, and
in a fourth, you don‘t get the desired feedback from your introductory
workshop. Depending on the situation, you then need additional stages
and actions.
Accordingly, the core principle of regular inspection & adaption is
important and runs like a thread through the entire change process.
These feedback loops are all the more powerful the more people are
involved. Agile change does not happen by rolling out an expert plan
once it has been drawn up. Rather, it stands and falls with the co-
creative design by those affected.
It is therefore all the more important that the introduction of Flight
Levels relies on the commitment of those who work in the respective
system from the very beginning. To do this, you use different interaction

40
05 INTRODUCING FLIGHT LEVELS

formats to actively involve those affected.

The figure below shows which of the previously described workshops
have proven successful in the individual stages.

In summary, it‘s about getting as many people as possible on board,

or rather in the cockpit, to take off together as smoothly as possible.
Ideally, with each workshop, you will adopt a part of the culture of
improvement that you want to promote with Flight Levels as a whole.
The fact that you rely on the broadest possible coalition of helmsmen
and women strengthens this culture. The collaborative Inspect & Adapt
increases stability of change and minimises the risk of suboptimal
takeoff or heaven forbid a crash landing!

41
05 INTRODUCING FLIGHT LEVELS

The technical side of system design

is only one side of the proverbial
coin. It is inextricably linked to
the social side, without which an
organisation cannot take flight.

42
 For those who want to raise and develop
the potential for more business agility in
organisations.

The Flight Levels Academy - offers individual workshops and comprehensive

training for the practical use of Flight Levels. The aim is to support those who want
to raise and develop the potential for more business agility in organisations. This
is achieved through a worldwide network of Flight Levels Guides and Flight Levels
Coaches with practical experience who help close the gap between strategy
and operational implementation. The Flight Levels Academy also attaches great
importance to community building: Practitioners from all sectors can meet at
events such as the regular "Flight Club" and on online platforms of the Flight Levels
Academy to learn from and with each other.

www.flightlevels.io

You can find all Flight Club episodes on:

https://www.youtube.com/c/FlightLevelsAcademy/featured.

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