By Isaac Galang, Vera Delos Santos, Jaysel Bernado
At the heart of our culture lies a commitment to transforming ourselves to use agile ways of working and deliver results faster. Squad 3 is at the forefront of this evolution, pushing us forward with initiatives that create ripples of continuous learning and innovation throughout the Aboitiz Group.
In this final installment of Aboitiz Eyes’ Special Series spotlighting our Culture Pillar Squads, we explore Squad 3’s milestones — a journey that shapes the very fabric of our agile culture.
AGILE INNOVATION AND WAYS OF WORKING
The last squad holds the order of embedding the agile ways of working in the way things are being done and speed up innovation within the organization.
Agile can be practiced through the formation of squads working on a critical mission for the organization through the scrum framework. Squads are cross-functional teams composed of members with the diverse skills and capabilities needed to complete their mission. They are self-organizing, meaning they are free to choose how they work best.
Squads are typically small enough to move faster, but large enough to have the expertise needed to complete their mission. This makes them ideal for delivering complex projects in a timely and efficient manner.
Scrum is an agile framework that uses ceremonies such as sprint planning, daily scrum, sprint review, and retrospective as a way to practice the agile values. A squad practicing scrum is composed of the product owner, scrum master and the development members. The transformation happens when teams are allowed to experience this.
Here is a quick overview of initiatives on agile innovation and ways of working over the past year.
Squad Formation and Onboarding
Learning happens best by doing, and hence, Squad 3 of the Culture Tribe started out by identifying pilot squads who can test out what the squad formation is like and learn how to operate in agile. This journey would not be possible without the help and directions of the SBU leaders who trailblazed the adoption of agile in their teams.
A playbook was created to guide the teams in the process of squad formation. This includes an orientation on agile ways of working, a pre-onboarding session, and a two-half-day onboarding session where teams learn more about agile, the tools they will need, and the behaviors that will help them succeed in the new ways of working.
Squad Check-Ins
Another important aspect is a sense of continuation and checking in. Regular check-ins are conducted with the different scrum masters of the pilot squads. In these sessions, questions and challenges are raised and best practices are shared.
To date, there are 188 squads formed across Aboitiz under the different strategic business units. Their missions vary from providing new products to customers to creating solutions for greater efficiency.
GT Hackathons
To promote agile innovation across the Ggroup, a series of Great Transformation Hackathon sessions were conducted in partnership with UBX, Google, and Globe. The objective of these sessions is to learn how to innovate through the use of design thinking, to appreciate the future of work trends and understand how technology can be utilized to make work and processes better.
To date, various sessions have been executed for the Group, covering Aboitiz InfraCapital, AboitizPower, City Savings Bank, Aboitiz Land, and Aboitiz Construction. Overall, 251 ideas were generated during these sessions resulting in 24 project MVPs (minimum viable product) that are currently being worked on. Out of these sessions, 193 team members across the different SBUs have undergone the exercise led by this squad.
What’s next?
The focus of this squad remains unchanged moving forward. They are setting their targets into forming more squads across the Ggroup, and extending all the assistance that they will be needing. Alongside with this, a maturity assessment of the squads will also be done to track progress and check how their work is evolving. Continuous learning sessions will also be held for improvement and to ensure that squads will be able to close out their missions within timelines.
A knowledge base platform will also be created to house all the learnings of the squads which can be a useful reference material. This will help existing and future squads to learn from the best practices and experiences of others, ultimately benefiting the Group.
Another plan in the pipeline is to launch a Generative AI hackathon, together with the rest of the Culture Ppillar. Since innovation is an anchor of this squad, this will also be beneficial to the whole organization, making use of emerging technologies that can potentially help make ways of working more efficient.
