#TALK

The Mental Leaps at Ericsson 3G

Ways of Working in the Networked Society - how we made the transition to Lean, Agile & Flow "stick".

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In this session, I’ll share how we made three very important mental leaps to make the transition to Agile and Lean ”stick” including concrete examples of what we have done.

Leap #1: From Methods & Tools to Principles & Mindset Tools and methods can work in some contexts and not in others. If you have your own principles and mindset, then you can adapt or create your own methods and tools that fit your context. When realizing this, we made a mental leap from a focus on methods and tools to a focus on principles and mindset.

Leap #2: From Resource Efficiency to Flow Efficiency With a need reduce both costs and time-to-market we were looking for alternatives to “resource efficiency” focus (keeping people and equipment fully utilized at all times). We realized that our ability to innovate around state-of-the art algorithms for optimizing packet data flow in mobile radio networks is also applicable for our product development processes. We made a mental leap from “resource efficiency” to “flow efficiency”, i e a focus on keeping work items moving through the process without waiting times, delivering value as quickly as possible

Leap #3: From Scattered Experiences to Continuous Innovation We were solving problems as they occurred using task forces in fire-fighting mode, lacking corporate memory and a common direction. By creating a shared direction and a common purpose around the need to improve, we made the leap from scattered experiences to a culture of continuous innovation.

Ericsson is the driving force behind the Networked Society - a world leader in communications technology and services. Our long-term relationships with every major telecom operator in the world allow people, business and society to fulfill their potential and create a more sustainable future. With approximately 115,000 professionals and customers in 180 countries, we combine global scale with technology and services leadership. We support networks that connect more than 2.5 billion subscribers. Forty percent of the world's mobile traffic is carried over Ericsson networks. Net sales in 2014 were EUR 23.4 billion.