Beyond Budgeting: A Guide to More Adaptive and Human Organizations

I have been doing a bit of work with finance teams and hearing complaints about the budgeting process overall. 🤑💸

So this inspired me to get the new book on Beyond Budgeting. A topic that has been on my reading list for a while.

This version is a lightweight version that is designed for execs or anyone in learning more about modern contemporary.

My key takeaways from this book

🔨 Adaptive agile ways of working will hit a glass ceiling unless the budgeting and funding process is addressed. This might be hard as people might fear losing some control that they perceive to have.

🫂 Tradition management and budgeting is built on two misconceptions. Firstly that we can predict the future and secondly that people cannot be trusted. Bjartr Bogsnes argues that both of these fallacies have been disproven with events much as the global financial crisis in the late 2000s and Covid where people were sent home to work remote in many cases and just got on with it.

🎯 Forecasting, target setting and resource allocation should all be separated. Different types of performed indicators and shared targets can be used instead, and should be relative to the competition and measured and reviewed regularly. Guidelines can be put in place around correct expenditures.

Some quotes I liked from the book.

"Trust is free. Control is not. Do the math" - indicating that bureaucracy costs in terms of wasted time and people's energy.

The Change Formula by David Gleicher also caught my attention

Dissatisfaction x Vision x First Steps > Resistance

If you've been feeling pain with the budgeting process and would like to discuss the concepts from Beyond Budgeting further or require some assistance in this space, then please reach out.