Book Review of "Deliver Better Results: How to Unlock Your Organization’s Potential" by Gil Broza

This book stands as an essential tool for senior leaders aiming to cultivate a thriving culture and develop robust, high-performing product development teams.

“Deliver Better Results: How to Unlock Your Organization’s Potential” by Gil Broza is a vital read for today’s business leaders, particularly in software development and project management. Published on January 17, 2024, this book is a testament to modern organisational challenges and strategies for improvement​.

The book’s foreword sets the tone, recounting a real-world example of a team in a multi-national financial services organisation struggling to transition from a feature factory mindset to becoming navigators of uncertainty. The book’s approach to transforming the entire product development team, not just the managers, signifies a revolutionary approach to organisational change​.

In the introduction, Broza reflects on his career in software development, highlighting the diversity in work methods and the challenges in aligning them to deliver value successfully. His exploration led to developing ten sequential and incremental strategies to improve a system’s fitness for purpose, grounded in real-world experience and extensive consultation​.

The book is structured to cater to different depths of reader engagement. Whether one seeks a quick overview or a detailed understanding of specific strategies, it offers tailored reading pathways. This structure reflects the book’s underlying philosophy that effective change requires a thorough knowledge of the entire value delivery system, a guiding model or theory for improvement, and a coalition of supportive leaders​.

Central to the book is the concept of ‘fitness for purpose’. Broza articulates five progressively better levels of system fitness, ranging from systems that barely contribute to company objectives to those that fully achieve them. This nuanced understanding of organisational maturity is a crucial strength of the book.

Now, let’s delve deeper into these five levels of system fitness, each representing a stage in the journey towards organisational excellence:

1. Initial Stage – Limited Contribution: Here, systems have occasional successes but struggle to contribute significantly to the company’s objectives. It’s akin to a ship with a compass without a clear destination. The efforts are there, but they don’t quite align with the grander vision of the organisation.

2. Emerging Stage – Inefficient Effectiveness: In this phase, the system contributes to achieving company objectives, yet neither effectively nor efficiently. It’s like having a map but taking longer routes. The direction is more precise, but the path is fraught with inefficiencies.

3. Developing Stage – Reliance on Key Individuals: The system’s results are satisfactory at this level, but they hinge heavily on a few key individuals. This is comparable to a relay race where only a few runners are strong. The team is moving forward, but the dependence on a select few creates vulnerability.

4. Advanced Stage – Effective but Slow: Here, the system is effective and efficient, yet achieving primary outcomes is slower than needed. Imagine a well-oiled machine operating smoothly but at half speed. The potential is evident, but there’s an unrealised capacity for speed and agility.

5. Optimal Stage – Full Realisation of Potential: This is the zenith where the system produces all the company’s desired results. It’s like a symphony orchestra in perfect harmony, every note contributing to a beautiful melody. The system meets and exceeds expectations, achieving the organisational mission remarkably efficiently.

Each level is a step in the evolutionary journey of an organisation. The transition from one level to the next is not just about implementing new strategies or tools; it’s about a paradigm shift in how every element of the organisation aligns with and contributes to its core purpose. It’s a holistic transformation, impacting everything from leadership styles to team dynamics, from decision-making processes to measuring success.

Chapter 1 of the book thoroughly explores the concept of ‘fitness for purpose’ of a value delivery system. This fitness is essentially how well the system aids the company in achieving its mission and objectives. Importantly, this concept is relative, acknowledging that missions and objectives vary from one company to another. The book introduces the SQUARE framework, which outlines six aspects of system fitness and offers a qualitative method for rating them, thereby assessing the system’s overall fitness level​.

The SQUARE model defines six key aspects of system fitness, each critical to assessing and improving an organisation’s effectiveness and efficiency. These aspects are:

1. Throughput refers to the amount of usable product or solution the system delivers in short periods. It’s important to distinguish between ‘usable’ and ‘useful’.

2. Outcomes: This aspect focuses on the system’s success in achieving valuable customer and business outcomes, including problem-solving, need-addressing, goal-achieving, and opportunity-seizing. It also encompasses the quality of the product or solution from the customer’s perspective.

3. Timeliness: Timeliness is about delivering outcome-producing results when they are still valuable enough. This isn’t just about meeting internal deadlines but also about giving in a timeframe that holds value in the eyes of customers or users.

4. Adaptability measures the ease and speed with which the system and its products adapt to significant changes, whether due to internal choices or external conditions.

5. Consistency: Consistency assesses the system’s continued achievement of its throughput, outcomes, timeliness, and adaptability. It varies over time, and the goal is to minimise variation.

6. Cost-efficiency: This aspect looks at the efficiency of achieving the system’s current throughput, outcomes, timeliness, adaptability, and consistency for the money spent. It encompasses all costs related to employees, contractors, and providers in producing these effects over time.

Each aspect provides a lens to view and improve a value delivery system’s effectiveness and efficiency.

Assessing these aspects of system fitness is akin to evaluating human physical fitness. Just as different individuals have different fitness needs and goals, each company’s system requires a unique assessment of its fitness for its specific purpose. For instance, an Olympic athlete’s training regime vastly differs from a person who exercises for general health. Similarly, the fitness for purpose in a business context must be tailored to the specific goals and environment of the organisation.

To effectively assess the system’s fitness, the book suggests working through three critical questions for each aspect:

1. What’s the practical and relevant optimum for that aspect? This involves determining the ideal state for each system element, considering the organisation’s unique context and constraints.

2. What’s the current state? This requires an honest evaluation of the system’s current status in each aspect.

3. How is the current state relative to its optimum? This is about comparing the current state to the ideal state, understanding the gap, and identifying areas for improvement.

It’s essential to approach this assessment with a balanced mindset - neutral yet critical, fair but not overly harsh. The evaluation should be based on tangible results and behaviours rather than perceptions or discussions about the system. This subjective evaluation requires thoughtful consideration and is supported by real-world examples in the book to guide the assessment process. The goal is to clearly understand where the system excels and falls short, providing a foundation for targeted improvement efforts.

Broza cautions against quick fixes. He emphasises the complexity of organisational systems and the need for systemic change rather than isolated efforts. The SQUARE strategies he proposes don’t target individual aspects but aim for holistic changes in the system’s work.

The middle of the book resonated with a sense of familiarity for me, as the theories and concepts discussed were ones I had encountered before. It balances, offering just enough theory to underpin and guide practical actions. This approach reinforces understanding and empowers application, making the central chapters both enlightening and actionable.

As the book reaches its culmination, it transitions into a detailed exploration of ‘Executing the Improvement Strategies’, a decisive guide on progressing through various fitness levels. This section is a roadmap outlining practical tactics and methods, each meticulously crafted to elevate the system from one level of operational fitness to the next, steering towards excellence and efficiency in execution.

In conclusion, “Deliver Better Results” is more than a guide; it’s a roadmap for sustained organisational improvement. Its focus on systems thinking, incremental change, and the importance of leadership and culture make it a crucial resource for any leader or team aiming to navigate the complexities of modern business and technology landscapes. The book’s practicality, grounded in real-world examples, makes it an invaluable tool for those seeking to understand and implement change effectively.