Syngineering: Building Agility into Any Organization: A Do-It-Yourself Guide for Practitioners

'Whether you are leading, sponsoring, or participating in corporate change, Syngineering can help you understand the specifics of your organization's circumstances and determine the right approach to build in agility. Chocked full of practical tools with solid guidance throughout. From the common-sense idea of using the organizations' own language to the critical relationship between culture and design, as the 4 detailed approaches for change for each of 4 generic cultures found around the world, sets this book apart from others.' Naomi Stanford, Author of Organization Design: The Practitioner's Guide

A New Comprehensive Framework for Building Agile Practices into Any Organization Regardless of Its Culture. In the disruptive volatility and complexity of today's business world, yesterday's problem-solving is no longer adequate. Organizations must have agility: people and process capabilities that can respond quickly to shifts in the external world. Syngineering, the term the authors have coined for how to meet this challenge, combines the best aspects of human dynamics, organization design, and the applications of technology. It replaces expert problem-solving with ‘design thinking' and several other agile practices where employees collaborate in questioning, experimenting, and learning what's needed as they develop meaningful and sustainable solutions. The book provides a framework and processes that can analyze the current environment and deliver the most effective design and change approach to fit the desired strategy and culture. Case studies from three different culture changes bring the methods to life. This practical and hands-on guide is for anyone working to improve organizational agility and performance. Gain agility, align and thrive.

Rich and his partners at Syngineering Solutions help organizations resolve performance issues. These often involve the organization's culture and behaviors so solutions must involve senior executives in creating the needed broad engagement, psychological safety, and honesty. Some of Rich's higher-visibility projects include organization designs for Shell's Sakhalin II mega-project, Gulf of Mexico Shelf Division, and North Caspian Operating Company design. He was a change manager for Shell's implementation of a global technical function, the merger of US and International Shell's research and development groups, and initiation of a global major projects group. He lives in Maryland, US.