There are multiple factors driving the changes in our organisational processes. Our team is expanding, local teams are growing, and our evolution as an Agile organisation is continuing – and as always, ensuring we are client-centric remains at the core of what we do.
To oversee these developments and drive further improvement in our processes, we have created a new position – Organisational Agility Manager – which will be held by Ieva Gradeckienė. Ieva moves into this role from her position as Head of our Quality and Process Division, in which role she led our adoption of Agile and spearheaded initiatives for improving organisation cohesion. We caught up with Ieva to learn more about her new role, discuss the company’s ambitions in terms of organisational development, and hear her personal take on life at Staticus.
How did you get started at Staticus?
I joined Staticus as a Quality Coordinator. At that point, I was the only person responsible for the quality assurance system and there was no dedicated quality division, so I was just part of the Business Process Development team. Then in 2018, our Quality Division was created, and since then our team has grown to 4 people. I became Head of the Quality division, along with being responsible for company-wide processes.
Tell us a bit about your new role, and how it differs from your existing one.
In my previous role as Head of the Quality and Process Division, I basically had two different focuses. Firstly, I was responsible for everything related to quality, which could be QA, inspections, or engaging with clients on any quality-related questions they had. Secondly, I was responsible for improving the company-wide processes within the company – basically, any processes that involved more than one team. In particular, I led the adoption of Agile methods within Staticus.
I have taken the second part – company-wide processes – into my new role, and I will no longer be responsible for quality-related issues (a new Quality Assurance manager is being recruited). In my new position I am responsible for our business agility strategy, for the adoption of Agile principles and methods, for ensuring processes are aligned with the company’s strategy and goals, and for creating a culture that enables us to learn quickly and share knowledge.
Why has the company decided to create this new role?
Our adoption of Agile was an important part of our strategic cycle from 2020-2023. For the next period (2024-2027), the aim within the company is to continue our transformation and enhance our ability to flexibly adapt to changing market conditions.
Compared to others in the construction sector we already have a lot of fresh perspectives, including our adoption of Agile, and we see that this approach brings huge benefits in terms of client-centricity and increased flexibility.
So far, we have been able to create Agile cross-functional project teams. We understand that having these cross-functional teams is a good start, but if we want to grow we now need to focus on business agility.
And business agility is much more than just having Agile teams, and having the correct methods and tools. It’s more about having autonomous teams that feel very strong ownership of the projects. It’s about value stream management, by which I mean focusing on efficiency in each value chain to ensure the smooth flow of information and products through the whole value chain.
What excites you the most about your new role?
I’m very excited about starting this new role because the topic of agility interests me a lot. And I love the fact that the role has 4 distinct focuses, each of which I find truly exciting.
Firstly, there is ensuring that our Business Agility strategy is implemented successfully. Agility, and our ongoing Agile transformation, have been identified as important pillars for the next strategic cycle (2024-2027), so it is my job to make sure the strategy we decide on gets implemented.
Secondly, I’ll be working with all the teams in Staticus – project teams, market teams, internal project teams – to help them adopt Agile working principles. I will be coaching them and helping them in other ways like facilitating retrospectives. And this will go beyond just Agile. If we see that a team needs other methods, for example, LEAN, or the company decides that we need to adopt some no new ways of working – not only Agile – then I will help with this. That’s why the job title is not simply Agile manager, but instead, it is Organisational Agility. Because the activities go much wider than just Agile.
Thirdly, I am responsible for ensuring that our processes are aligned with our strategic directions – what we call value chain management. We have recently shifted from a hierarchical structure to one based on 4 different clusters – Growth, Realisation and Operational Excellence, Strategy Compliance, and Organisational Development. I am part of this latter cluster, which is led by Ilona Guobyte, our Chief Organisational Development Officer.
So, my role is to work with all processes that are related to more than one stakeholder. In other words, if there is a process that affects two divisions (for example, installation and design), this process goes through me. My job is to ensure there is alignment between the stakeholders and that everything is moving in the same direction as our overall strategy. On the other hand, if there is an internal process that only affects the design team then I am not involved – that team works autonomously to improve the process themselves.
And the fourth part of my role is to ensure that the culture of our organisation is conducive to fast learning and the rapid flow of information. I will be working in partnership with our People division to support this. We want to ensure we have a culture that supports knowledge sharing, and where there are clear career paths for each employee, a good work-life balance, and learning tracks that ensure each employee knows that they have the right competencies.
What is your vision for the team’s growth in terms of organisational agility?
The vision I have is aligned with the company’s – to increase client satisfaction. And to achieve this, we need engaged employees who know why they are working here, what our purpose is, and how they can contribute to it. This is where my strategic focus on organisational agility comes in.
When I see the plans we have, I feel very proud to see how unique we are within this industry. We are already quite different from other companies in the construction sector. At Staticus the culture is more like that of a startup. We are very young and have a fresh approach. And with the new changes we have planned it will be like a revolution in terms of how different we are from others.
With the help and support of other team members and partners, I want to help create very strong teams that are self-organised and autonomous, and who focus not only on the project’s deliverables but also on the team’s development. We want to be people’s first-choice employer and have an organisational culture that continues to grow. It is very important to us that our people don’t just hit numbers, but grow as professionals and lead the industry into a sustainable future. And we want to ensure our leadership team is capable of driving this culture of business agility.
What personal aspirations do you have as you take on this new role?
It’s no secret that I like to talk a lot, and really enjoy working with people. So I am excited about this side of the role – encouraging them to try new things and seeing how people’s mindset changes over time.
With these kinds of processes, there will always be some resistance to change. Plus, we are working in a sector where change tends to be slow. But step by step I can see how everything evolves and progresses, and it’s very satisfying. It’s always interesting to see how people react when they start to see the benefits.
And personally, I have my own targets to keep diving deeper into this topic of agility and to get further training. I would like to learn more and gain certifications.