Today, flexibility is more important than ever. The economic landscape is constantly changing, the consumer market is increasingly demanding, one crisis seems to follow another, rules and regulations for businesses are constantly being adjusted, and we haven’t even mentioned the tight labor market.
It’s clear that being flexible in your business is no longer an option; it has become a requirement to remain successful. Of course, it is not as simple as saying we need to be flexible. There is much more to it. Flexibility must be inherently present in the way of working and in the setup of each project.
As project managers and consultants, we get to know many different companies. This means that we regularly adapt to a new environment and also encounter very different environments.
Flexibility and change processes require the support and involvement of your stakeholders.
Support: Support from your stakeholders means you are not standing alone. Your vision is embraced. Less struggle and more results—that is a win-win.
Involvement: Your stakeholder can not only support your vision but also actively promote it. Your stakeholder has contacts within the company, employees who can be brought along to support your vision for change.
Every initiative needs a team, a coalition, that transforms the initiative into a project and collaborates on its realization. Maintaining a coalition is a lot of work; it requires regular contact, surveying progress and opinions, setting up communications, and maintaining relationships to create the shared sense of working together towards a common goal.
Creating a clear and compelling vision is essential for a company undergoing a change project for several reasons:
Provides Direction: A clear vision serves as a beacon for the entire organization. It helps align efforts, resources, and initiatives towards a common goal, ensuring everyone is moving in the same direction.
Inspires and Motivates: A compelling vision inspires employees and stakeholders by painting a picture of the desired future state. It taps into their ambitions and ignites enthusiasm and commitment to the change process.
Promotes Alignment: During times of change, employees may experience uncertainty or resistance. A clear vision clarifies the purpose and rationale behind the change, helping employees understand how their roles contribute to the bigger picture. This alignment minimizes confusion and enhances engagement.
Creates Focus: Change projects often involve multiple moving parts and competing priorities. A well-defined vision provides focus by identifying the most critical objectives and priorities. It helps filter out distractions, ensuring the organization can concentrate on what truly matters.
Facilitates Decision-Making: When faced with choices or challenges during the change process, a clear vision serves as a decision-making framework. It provides criteria for evaluating options and determining the best course of action that aligns with the desired future state.
Enhances Communication: Effective communication is key to successful change management. A compelling vision provides a powerful narrative that leaders can use to communicate the purpose, benefits, and progress of the change initiative. It creates a shared language and understanding that resonates throughout the organization.
Builds Trust: Change can be unsettling for employees, stakeholders, and even customers. A clear and compelling vision builds trust by demonstrating leadership’s commitment to a positive future outcome. It instills confidence by conveying authenticity, transparency, and genuine concern for the well-being of the organization and its people.
Successfully implementing a transition requires a strategic roadmap that is both comprehensive and adaptable. A good partner to set up and maintain this process ensures that your other tasks also get addressed before they become a crisis. Together with that partner, you can break the route into manageable segments, work out specific steps, and set a timeline.
The roadmap aids in decision-making, setting priorities, and communicating your change project to stakeholders and your teams.
Despite the change they themselves are part of, a good roadmap provides your teams and stakeholders with the guidance, certainty, and security they seek.
That is why, as consulting project managers, we are eager to be the partner that not only helps you develop the transformation but also ensures that you can continue with your daily tasks.
Of course, a change project is not accomplished overnight. Given the duration, it is conceivable that parameters might change, circumstances might be adjusted, or the team might head in the wrong direction during execution. Therefore, it is important to establish the right Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). These are ideal for tracking a change process. Together with your trusted partner, you set up the relevant KPIs. These are then regularly evaluated and serve as recommendations for adjustments. By using data as a basis, we ensure that your project stays on course, adapts to challenges, and seizes opportunities where possible.
The teams work hard to keep your projects on track and reach milestones. Recognizing these achievements is essential to maintain momentum in your trajectory.
Recognizing teams is important to:
Maintain a Positive Attitude: A positive attitude among your teams leads to much better results. A negative attitude is contagious and will negatively impact the entire team’s performance.
Increase Energy: Just look at what recognition does to your energy. It goes up. High energy leads to more job satisfaction and better productivity.
Build Trust: By recognizing teams for their achievements, you demonstrate trust and foster loyalty. This, in turn, contributes to motivation and high energy.
Note that celebrating results does not always have to be elaborate. Even without tangible rewards, recognition often contributes to the motivation of a team.
Recognitions should not become a competition within a company, as that is detrimental to the organization. It is important that recognition is proportional to the achievement.
A change project in your company has a significant impact. On your team composition, on managing communications, on promoting a vision, and much more.
At Konato, we take the heavy lifting off your hands; we manage your projects so that you can continue to focus on your most important tasks. Each of our consultants brings a wealth of experience and expertise. These help you deliver your projects efficiently and with high quality.
May we be your partner to successfully deliver your projects, increase your flexibility, and support your competitive strength? Let’s work on that together.
What a summer we had! Alongside the work we had some really fun moments here at Konato.
Quiz night kept our minds sharp and the table football tournament brought out our competitive side.
Some mocktails during lunch and afterwork drinks were excellent opportunities to chit chat about both work and life.
Thanks to everyone for making this summer a great one.
As we move into the fall, we’re taking the energy and connections we’ve built over the summer with us.
Let’s keep the momentum going as we head into the rest of the year, ready to tackle whatever comes our way.
Today, flexibility is more important than ever. The economic landscape is constantly changing, the consumer market is increasingly demanding, one crisis seems to follow another, rules and regulations for businesses are constantly being adjusted, and we haven’t even mentioned the tight labor market.
It’s clear that being flexible in your business is no longer an option; it has become a requirement to remain successful. Of course, it is not as simple as saying we need to be flexible. There is much more to it. Flexibility must be inherently present in the way of working and in the setup of each project.
As project managers and consultants, we get to know many different companies. This means that we regularly adapt to a new environment and also encounter very different environments.
Flexibility and change processes require the support and involvement of your stakeholders.
Support: Support from your stakeholders means you are not standing alone. Your vision is embraced. Less struggle and more results—that is a win-win.
Involvement: Your stakeholder can not only support your vision but also actively promote it. Your stakeholder has contacts within the company, employees who can be brought along to support your vision for change.
Every initiative needs a team, a coalition, that transforms the initiative into a project and collaborates on its realization. Maintaining a coalition is a lot of work; it requires regular contact, surveying progress and opinions, setting up communications, and maintaining relationships to create the shared sense of working together towards a common goal.
Creating a clear and compelling vision is essential for a company undergoing a change project for several reasons:
Provides Direction: A clear vision serves as a beacon for the entire organization. It helps align efforts, resources, and initiatives towards a common goal, ensuring everyone is moving in the same direction.
Inspires and Motivates: A compelling vision inspires employees and stakeholders by painting a picture of the desired future state. It taps into their ambitions and ignites enthusiasm and commitment to the change process.
Promotes Alignment: During times of change, employees may experience uncertainty or resistance. A clear vision clarifies the purpose and rationale behind the change, helping employees understand how their roles contribute to the bigger picture. This alignment minimizes confusion and enhances engagement.
Creates Focus: Change projects often involve multiple moving parts and competing priorities. A well-defined vision provides focus by identifying the most critical objectives and priorities. It helps filter out distractions, ensuring the organization can concentrate on what truly matters.
Facilitates Decision-Making: When faced with choices or challenges during the change process, a clear vision serves as a decision-making framework. It provides criteria for evaluating options and determining the best course of action that aligns with the desired future state.
Enhances Communication: Effective communication is key to successful change management. A compelling vision provides a powerful narrative that leaders can use to communicate the purpose, benefits, and progress of the change initiative. It creates a shared language and understanding that resonates throughout the organization.
Builds Trust: Change can be unsettling for employees, stakeholders, and even customers. A clear and compelling vision builds trust by demonstrating leadership’s commitment to a positive future outcome. It instills confidence by conveying authenticity, transparency, and genuine concern for the well-being of the organization and its people.
Successfully implementing a transition requires a strategic roadmap that is both comprehensive and adaptable. A good partner to set up and maintain this process ensures that your other tasks also get addressed before they become a crisis. Together with that partner, you can break the route into manageable segments, work out specific steps, and set a timeline.
The roadmap aids in decision-making, setting priorities, and communicating your change project to stakeholders and your teams.
Despite the change they themselves are part of, a good roadmap provides your teams and stakeholders with the guidance, certainty, and security they seek.
That is why, as consulting project managers, we are eager to be the partner that not only helps you develop the transformation but also ensures that you can continue with your daily tasks.
Of course, a change project is not accomplished overnight. Given the duration, it is conceivable that parameters might change, circumstances might be adjusted, or the team might head in the wrong direction during execution. Therefore, it is important to establish the right Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). These are ideal for tracking a change process. Together with your trusted partner, you set up the relevant KPIs. These are then regularly evaluated and serve as recommendations for adjustments. By using data as a basis, we ensure that your project stays on course, adapts to challenges, and seizes opportunities where possible.
The teams work hard to keep your projects on track and reach milestones. Recognizing these achievements is essential to maintain momentum in your trajectory.
Recognizing teams is important to:
Maintain a Positive Attitude: A positive attitude among your teams leads to much better results. A negative attitude is contagious and will negatively impact the entire team’s performance.
Increase Energy: Just look at what recognition does to your energy. It goes up. High energy leads to more job satisfaction and better productivity.
Build Trust: By recognizing teams for their achievements, you demonstrate trust and foster loyalty. This, in turn, contributes to motivation and high energy.
Note that celebrating results does not always have to be elaborate. Even without tangible rewards, recognition often contributes to the motivation of a team.
Recognitions should not become a competition within a company, as that is detrimental to the organization. It is important that recognition is proportional to the achievement.
A change project in your company has a significant impact. On your team composition, on managing communications, on promoting a vision, and much more.
At Konato, we take the heavy lifting off your hands; we manage your projects so that you can continue to focus on your most important tasks. Each of our consultants brings a wealth of experience and expertise. These help you deliver your projects efficiently and with high quality.
May we be your partner to successfully deliver your projects, increase your flexibility, and support your competitive strength? Let’s work on that together.
Last tuesday we gathered at the Meadow Club in Antwerp, Belgium, for an exciting afterwork event. This well-deserved break was again a perfect blend of sports, relaxation, and camaraderie 😊 We kicked off with an hour of padel. Our colleagues took to the courts with enthusiasm, showing off their skills and competitive spirit. After all the intense rallies and thrilling points, it was time to unwind. The refreshing drinks served were just what we needed to cool down.
Time for some barbecue! Typically, this is where we’d mention how lovely the weather was, but given that we live in Belgium, you can imagine how that turned out. 😉 But what the event lacked in sun, was made up by the accommodation, the food and the good company! #mycolleguesarebetterthenyours
Here’s to many more such memorable events in the future, where we can come together, celebrate our achievements, and create awesome memories. Cheers to the Konato family and a big thank you to the team that organized the event!
Technovate 2024, een platform voor innovatie en technologie, bracht dit jaar enkele van de meest vooraanstaande denkers, opinieleiders uit de IT-wereld en visionairs samen om de toekomst van kunstmatige intelligentie (AI) te verkennen. Een van de meest opvallende sprekers op het evenement waren Fiore Fraguelli en zijn collega Simon Uytterhoeven. Ze zijn toonaangevende autoriteiten op het gebied van AI en innovatie. In hun inspirerende keynote, “AI Beyond the Buzz“, deelden ze hun diepgaande inzichten over de rol van AI in de moderne samenleving en benadrukten ze de cruciale rol van menselijkheid in het tijdperk van technologische vooruitgang.
De presentatie opende met de uitspraak: “AI is innovatie op steroïden!“. Ze legden de nadruk op hoe snel de technologie zich ontwikkelt en illustreerde dit met een treffend voorbeeld. Slechts twee jaar geleden was het hoogtepunt van AI een video van Will Smith die spaghetti at. Of was het andersom? Vandaag de dag hebben we Sora, een AI-gestuurde entiteit die niet alleen hetzelfde kan doen, maar met een aanzienlijk betere kwaliteit. Het duo wees erop dat hoewel de basis van tekst-naar-video al in 1956 werd gelegd bij Bell Labs, onder leiding van wetenschappers John Pierce en John R. Pierce, dat de vooruitgang in AI-technologieën vooral de afgelopen jaren exponentieel is toegenomen.
Een van de meest indrukwekkende aspecten van het betoog was de nadruk op het behoud van menselijkheid in een wereld die steeds meer wordt beïnvloed door AI. “Mensen altijd eerst!” is het pleidooi. We moeten terug naar authenticiteit, AI moeten we daarbij zien als een middel om menselijke capaciteiten te verbeteren, niet om ze te vervangen. Ze deelden een citaat van NASA: Mensen zijn de meest kosteneffectieve, niet-lineaire, veelzijdige computers die in massa kunnen worden geproduceerd. Het draait niet om het vinden van AI, maar om het vinden van oplossingen die de menselijke ervaring verrijken.
We kregen een mooi overzicht van implementaties die Cronos AI heeft verwezenlijkt in verschillende sectoren. Dit zijn niet de minsten, het gaat over bedrijven als Puratos, International Logistics Group en de Vlaamse Overheid. Bij elk van deze klanten heeft Cronos AI met succes AI geïntegreerd in de bedrijfsprocessen. Deze implementaties variëren van zoeken naar ingrediënten en het interpreteren van veiligheidsinformatiebladen tot het verbeteren van de toegankelijkheid van informatie binnen complexe organisatiestructuren.
Maar wat brengt de toekomst voor AI? Het duo suggereerde dat AI kan dienen als:
Ze benadrukten het belang van het gebruik van data vanuit de organisatie zelf, in plaats van alleen te vertrouwen op de kennis van AI.
In een wereld die snel evolueert naar een diepere integratie van AI, ligt de sleutel tot succes in het behouden van menselijke waarden en het benutten van de kracht van AI om innovatie te stimuleren en problemen op te lossen. Het is niet genoeg om simpelweg de nieuwste AI-technologieën te omarmen. We moeten een evenwicht vinden tussen technologische vooruitgang en menselijke waarden. “Technovate 2024” kan wel eens het begin zijn van een diepgaande discussie over de toekomst van kunstmatige intelligentie en de rol ervan in onze samenleving. Het is duidelijk dat AI een krachtige tool is die ons kan helpen onze grenzen te verleggen en nieuwe horizonten te verkennen. Maar laten we niet vergeten dat, te midden van alle technologische vooruitgang, onze menselijkheid altijd op de eerste plaats moet staan.
Interesse hoe Konato uw bedrijf kan helpen bij het implementeren van je projecten, al dan niet met AI?
Neem dan zeker contact, we horen graag van je!
Vorige week was er bij ons dochterbedrijf Nine Yards een boeiende workshop over Domain-Driven Design en Event Storming ! 💡 Samen hebben ze de wereld van events en commands verkend en gebruik gemaakt van OpenAI-ondersteuning om de inzichten te verdiepen. Een inspirerende sessie die de creativiteit en samenwerking stimuleerde! Blijf geïnspireerd en blijf leren! 🌈🚀
Bimodel IT is a two-tiered IT operations model which was introduced by Gartner around 2014. It defines the two tiers as “Mode 1, traditional and sequential, emphasizing safety and accuracy, also referred to as exploitation. Mode 2 is exploratory, nonlinear, emphasizing agility and speed.
Each mode will require a different management approach. Processes, organizational structures and people will be different. The pitfall of this model is to just start splitting the IT-systems into these different modes. Splitting the IT-landscape in legacy systems, CRM, ERP, mobile apps,… . Two separate IT groups working at different speeds will not lead to organizational performance. This problem is already raised in many academic reviews on ambidexterity in organizations. It is the balance between exploration and exploitation which will lead to organizational performance.
This shows the need for a proper IT governance, organization structures, hybrid models combining best of both worlds. Forcing an organization into a ‘exploratory’ mode will result in organizational issues, impacting the performance of the organization. Don’t forget that ‘innovative’ companies like Apple have supporting processes which focus on efficiency otherwise they don’t manage the selling and delivery of million products each year. They succeed in combining the two modes and are not only ‘innovative’ as they bring their products into the world.
Digital transformations will handle the questions how to reach this equilibrium, where to start? Focus first on the transformation of the legacy systems? Shift to SAAS-models? Which IT project governance to use? One size doesn’t fit all, therefore the management of an organization needs to be aware of these choices, a proper enterprise architecture will guide in this process. Key is the alignment of the business strategy with the IT-strategy. Digital transformation is not only introducing a mobile app into the organizations or start working in Scrum teams. It is about focusing on the right organizational change within the company.
– Nico Schaetsaert
Intelligent automation (IA) is seen as the next phase of process automation. A few years ago, robotic process automation (RPA) was introduced in many industries across Banking, Insurance, Retail, Logistics and Telecom. Although we see that many traditional RPA deployments are still failing. Reasons are complex business processes, including many rules, exceptions or even processes which are not known end-to-end. Introducing only an RPA solution will not solve this issue of dynamic processes. A proper process management is still needed in the organizations to make the process automation successful. A process centric view is still needed from the beginning, process analysis and optimizations are still part of the solution.
Besides this, the operational costs of a process automation are still increasing in organizations. Changing UI’s, processes, forms and documents will impact the automated tasks. The introduction of intelligent automation can solve these issues. These tools can recognize changes in forms, UI and processes by using AI and can correct the automated processes by using machine learning.
Intelligent process automation, supported by process management will become rapidly the next-generation operating model. We see that vendors like UIPath, Blueprism,… are adapting their tools, so the next phase of digital transformation can be started.
– Nico Schaetsaert
Sinds het begin van dit decennium is DevOps voor velen geëvolueerd van een hol buzzword naar een effectieve implementatie van een betere samenwerking tussen development en operations. Aangezien meerdere organisaties dit principe beginnen op te pikken, geven we enkel belangerijke ‘key takeaways’ mee:
DevOps draait om meer dan louter een snelle pijplijn om code in productie te krijgen.
Alhoewel een snelle time to market van nieuwe functionaliteit zeker een kernonderdeel van DevOps kan genoemd worden, speelt de menselijke aanpak een nog belangrijkere rol. Werknemers van beide afdelingen die elkaar met gelijkheid behandelen en openstaan voor samenwerking, vormen de kernwaarden van DevOps. Waar ruimte is voor discussie en directe communicatie, versterkt de samenwerking tussen beide partijen zodat ze meer als één team beschouwd kunnen worden.
Waar Agile methodologieën de afstand tussen IT en business proberen overbruggen, tracht DevOps dit te doen tussen development en operations.
In oudere denkpatronen zijn de verantwoordelijkheden van deze afdelingen sterk gescheiden. De ontwikkelaars schrijven de software. Wanneer deze klaar is, is het aan de systeembeheerders om de software aan de praat te krijgen en te houden. Aangezien continuous integration en continuous delivery meer en meer hun waarde tonen in het opleveren van software, wordt samenwerken alsmaar belangrijker. Deze samenwerking mag echter niet gezien worden als een noodzakelijk kwaad, maar moet zoveel mogelijk omarmd en uitgespeeld worden.
De vier pijlers van DevOps zijn allen even belangrijk om het volledige concept in evenwicht te houden
DevOps gaat in eerste instantie over mensen te laten samenwerken. Dit kan verschillende vormen aannemen zoals code reviews houden, documentatie schrijven, aan pair programming doen, … Binnen het DevOps team willen we een zogenaamde blameless culture kweken, waarbij in eerste instantie wordt onderzocht wát er is fout gelopen en niet door wíe.
Deze pijler is vergelijkbaar met collaboration, maar dan op teamniveau. Er doen vaak een aantal vooroordelen de ronde die ervoor zorgen dat teams niet goed kunnen samenwerken, zoals het gevoel dat sommige teams belangrijker zijn dan andere.
Tools kunnen de samenwerking bevorderen, maar het is belangrijk om in te zien dat deze een middel zijn en geen doel op zich. Indien men een DevOps tool aanwendt (Chef, Ansible, …), wil dit niet per sé zeggen dat men aan DevOps doet. Het is belangrijker hoe men een tool toepast dan welke tool men gebruikt.
Bedrijven moeten in hun achterhoofd houden dat ze blijven evolueren. Dit kan zowel groei als inkrimping betekenen waarmee de organisatie rekening moet houden (bij het uittekenen van teams, informele processen, …).
Het is niet altijd even evident om DevOps te introduceren bij cliënten of op projecten. Hieronder enkele valkuilen die een implementatie verhinderen of bemoeilijken:
Uiterlijke schijn
Wat we op het werkveld vaak zien is dat bedrijven een werkwijze of methodologie proberen aanmeten door de uiterlijke kenmerken ervan na te bootsen. Zo zijn er organisaties die afgebakende ontwikkelperiodes sprints noemen, ’s ochtends rechtopstaand vergaderen en hierdoor menen aan Scrum te doen. Niets is uiteraard minder waar. Net zoals bij agile methodologieën, is er bij DevOps vooral nood aan een mentaliteitswijziging. Enkele zicthbare trekjes overnemen volstaat niet.
Aparte teams
Het oprichten van een apart DevOps team kan logisch lijken, maar is in feite een contradictio in terminis. Hoe willen we namelijk een betere samenwerking tussen teams realiseren door nog een extra team op te richten? En nee, het volstaat niet om een andere naam voor dit team te verzinnen…
DevOps is geen methodologie of framework
DevOps blijft een behoorlijk abstract gegeven. Er is nog wel wat werk om de processen te formalizeren. Formele processen zouden kunnen helpen bij het opzetten van een omgeving die conform is aan de kernwaarden. Er zijn momenteel nog weinig concrete implementatiemiddelen waartoe iemand zich kan wenden als hij of zij DevOps wenst te gebruiken. Veel bronnen geraken helaas niet verder dan dat DevOps voor goed samenwerken staat. Het is dan ook sterk afhankelijk van hoe je omgeving eruit ziet waarin je DevOps wil gaan toepassen.
Conclusie, DevOps verandert fundamenteel de samenwerking van vandaag tussen Dev en Ops. Er zijn nieuwe skills voor nodig, nieuwe tools en nieuwe prioriteiten. Het is een continu proces dat tijd in beslag neemt en een nieuw perspectief over samenwerken vereist.
Time flies, as it’s already been five years since I started working at Konato.
During this period, I’ve had the opportunity to manage projects for various clients such as UCB Pharma, Digipolis, the Brussels-Capital Region, the Flemish Government.
What I love about project management is that I’m able to interact with both the business side and the technical experts to achieve projects as one team. I get to meet many different people with diverse skills, experiences, and personalities.
My colleagues would probably describe me as collegial, social, and someone they can rely on if needed, someone who values the competencies of team members and is a good listener. What energizes me at work are energetic team colleagues who are willing to collaborate and share the same goals. A good team spirit, with attention to transparency and openness is crucial.
My career as a project manager started coincidentally over 22 years ago at Brussels Airport. As an analyst, I was asked to coordinate the Y2K project and later to manage the implementation of new display technology in the then-under-construction new terminal.
It was a significant challenge to handle such large and ambitious projects without much knowledge, experience, or specific training.
Currently, I am working on various IT projects for the Flemish Government, particularly for the Flemish Tax Service (Vlabel). These include managing a Jira Cloud migration, implementing Jira Tempo Timesheet and Tempo Planner, a project on sending certain types of letters via Speos’ Easy2Mail solution instead of through the internal Mailroom, integrating the Real Estate Transactions service and the Valuation and Appraisal Department, and adjusting the systems for the new categories in the Automatic Relaxation Devices (AOT) effective from 01/01/23.
What I enjoy about working for a company like Konato is that I’m able to be part of a great team with dynamic people. Occasionally getting together for a chat and a drink helps to maintain contact with colleagues and meet new ones. The annual team weekend is always something to look forward to. At Konato, you have the opportunity to attend training and courses to further expand your knowledge and obtain additional certifications.
Input and personal suggestions and ideas are always appreciated.
Thank you Bart for this testimonial and your engagement in the team.
Happy to have you on board!