I am required to do an ARC (Architecture, Routine and Culture) analysis of an organization or a model of agility of interest. And the requirement to answers all below questions:

1. What value does your unit add to your company and/or to the market? How would you describe the raison detre of your unit?

2. What are the main dimensions of your units culture? How would you describe the prevailing beliefs and values of your unit?

3. What are the incentives that most powerfully motivate people in your unit? What tangible and intangible rewards are they seeking?

4. Which adjectives best describe how your unit is designed? For example, is your unit egalitarian and decentralized or hierarchical and centralized? Is your unit autonomous or tightly linked with other units?

5. What are the important routines or activities in which people in your unit frequently engage?

6a. What is the profile, in terms of capabilities and values, of the right people for your unit? What percentage of your unit is made up of these right people?

6b. What is the profile, in terms of capabilities and values, of the wrong people for your unit? What fraction of your unit is made up of these wrong people?

7. Now that you have identified the main organizational components of your unit, you can think critically about which components fit together well and which ones interfere with each other. Use green to identify pairs of components that exhibit productive fit. So, if there is component of your units culture in box [2] that makes it easier to implement a certain routine in box [5], circle that cultural component, circle that routine, and draw a line connecting them. In addition, use red to identify pairs of components that exhibit interference. So, if there is an incentive in box [3] that is working against your units ability to add value in [1], circle that incentive, circle your description of your units value-added, and draw a connecting line. Please identify all the green relations and all the red relations in your unit.

8. Your final step is to consider a series of questions for your personal reflection and action as a leader on the accompanying page. Please take a first pass through the full set of questions, and underline those that strike you as most relevant to your current role as a leader. These are the questions on which you should focus most of your time. (Other questions are likely to surface as particularly relevant at other junctures in your career. ) The final question, on what you can do to increase the agility of your unit, is especially important. Please be sure to answer this one in depth. Please turn next to these questions for reflection and action.

Questions for Reflection and Action

9. Culture: A culture is strong when almost everyone deeply holds the same beliefs and values. A culture is weak when there is conflict or half-hearted commitment to official beliefs and values. Is your units culture strong or something else? But even if your culture is strong, it still might not be valuable. In other words, people in your unit may indeed happily hold beliefs and values that are not producing the results you desire. As a metaphor, think of happy Vikings on a melting iceberg. What can you do to make your culture strong and valuable? Do you need to make changes to incentives? Do you as a leader need to model new behaviors?

10. Incentive: Usually, leaders do not see the behaviors they desire from others because the incentives to engage in these behaviors are not strong enough. What is the one behavior that, if pursued consistently by the people in your unit, would produce the most valuable results? What tangible and/or intangible incentives can you establish to make sure that many people in your unit passionately pursue this behavior?

11. Design: A well-designed unit is one that allows important information to flow freely. Does valuable information flow freely into, throughout, and out of your unit? Or, are there many information bottlenecks? What can you do to improve the flow of knowledge and ideas?

12. Routine: A smart leader is always working on improving his or her existing activities and identifying the new activities that must be pursued in the future. But a leader who is smart and wise also thinks critically about routines that he or she must eliminate. As a metaphor, think of a gardener pruning a rose bush: The roses are most beautiful when he or she prunes the dead unproductive branches. What activities do you need to prune from your unit? What do you and/or others in your unit need to stop doing?

13. People: What is your strategy for attracting and developing the people who are best for your unit? What signals do you look for at the hiring phase to discern good fit? And what is your strategy for dealing with people who are bad for your unit? What signals do you look for at the hiring phase to discern poor fit?

14. Value added (important): In light of your analysis of your unit, what specific actions will you take to make your unit more agile? What can you do to empower your colleagues to innovate (explore) and execute (exploit) more effectively together and/or faster and/or more flexibly? Are there elements of IDEOs and/or 3Ms approach to agility that you can introduce into your unit?