Tessa Tierney, Telco transformation

Our Agile Boss in Episode 2 is Tessa Tierney, Product Director of Spark Telecommunications in New Zealand.

Nominated and introduced by Ammar Sagban for her inspirational agile leadership.

Sparks Agile Transformation has been a successful investment for the entire organisation. We chat everything from the original inspiration to the executive restructure into an agile squad and the unplanned benefits of shifting the values from "loudest voice wins to every voice matters.” We’ll also learn about the business leadership challenges to address in an agile transformation; including, moving the company to distributed decision making, redefining how value management is practiced to ensure ongoing commercial grit, shifting product portfolio management, the operational costs of transformation and the sustainable bottom line benefits to the business.

 “understand the value of your burn rate”

 “agile leadership is not for the faint hearted” Tessa Tierney

People Mentioned

• Tessa Tierney - Product Director Spark New Zealand

• Leadership Squad Spark New Zealand

• Simon Moutter - Managing Director of Spark New Zealand from 1 September 2012 to 30 June 2019 

• Ammar Sagban - Agile Coach Spark

Companies Mentioned

• McKinsey & Company 

• ING Bank Netherlands

• Spark New Zealand 

• Spark Diversity & Inclusion Blue Heart Pledge

Learning Resources

• McKinsey & Company ING Agile Transformation

• Edelman Trust Barometer 

Books 

• Twice the work in Half the time Jeff Sutherland 

• Dare to Lead Brene Brown 

• Leaders Eat Last Simon Sinek

Terminology

“Sheep Dip” - a common New Zealand term often used as a metaphor to explain ‘putting something into the centre focus’ or 'dropping you into the middle of a situation' often with no preparation. 

Note: There are approximately 27 Million Sheep and just under 5 Million Humans in New Zealand; hence, the common metaphorical references in their language. Sheep dipping is actually an agricultural process for medicating sheep against pests.