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How Agile Is the Eurovision Song Contest?

 In just a few hours, the world will watch as one Eurovision song's performance is chosen winner of the Eurovision Song Contest in Baku, Azerbaijan. Then on May 18, 2013, just under one year from now, that country will present the next iteration of the song contest--the world's largest, non-sports, live TV show. The Eurovision stakes are high. The coordination is complex. And, the time to organize a complete iteration is short. Which begs the question: "How Agile is the Eurovision Song Contest?"

Self-Organization and Responding to Change

Tonight, twenty-six competing nations will each stage an elaborate--sometimes bizarre and sometimes moving--three minute song and dance spectacle within a timebox for all performances that comes in under two hours for the actual competition portion of the show. (Sixteen countries, including Switzerland were already eliminated in the semi-final rounds.) But more amazingly, broadcasters from each competing country self-organized the selection and promotion of their entry in less than 8 months. And, the host broadcaster had exactly one year to work with the Eurovision Broadcasting Union to arrange or create the necessary infrastructure for artists, broadcaster delegations and fans while producing the show. Is there any other event this size where the host discovers they are hosting only when the results for the previous year are tabulated?

Contract Negotiation or Collaboration?

This suggests a high degree of agility in the production of the contest. On the other hand, the contest is highly regulated and involves a huge degree of contract negotiation in service to keeping the contest going and keeping it fair. This suggests less agility in the organization, although the regulations and contracts are reviewed annually by a steering committee of broadcasters in a retrospective held after each contest. The professional jury remains out on this question of Agility, so perhaps we should open the lines for a call in vote in the comments below.
Broadcaster delegations begin arriving two weeks before the contest takes place to participate in a gruelling schedule of rehearsals which are crafted to create the illusion of surprise during the live show, but are designed to eliminate as much change as possible. (One example: only minor variations in hairstyle are allowed between the semi-final and the final, and no significant changes in costume are allowed.) Since last year, the traditional ceremony of the call-in results is being stage managed to produce as much drama as possible through statistical anaylsis. (The participating countries are no longer asked for their votes in "random" order, but are asked to call-in in the order which results in the most suspense with the tallies on the leader board.)
Cookie?

Delivering Value

I was ready to conclude that the Eurovision is not very agile after all--choosing to control change over responding to it.  But, I asked Oana Juncu (one of my favourite voices in the Agile community) for her thoughts.  Her reply? "The producers of the live event are driven to deliver value--which is the most important info in this discussion."
Well. The producers and the broadcasters do deliver as much entertainment value as they can, iteratively, and they deliver continuous value through out the Eurovision "year" which usually beings with the Swiss selection in late November or early December. So I'm willing to guess a lot of Agile thinking will be on display tonight during the Eurovision Song Contest. 
(I'm hoping for an Italian or Swedish win. But is it possible to beat Russian Grannies who bake cookies? I mean they actually bake cookies.  It's hard to go up against that.)

 

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Comments [3]

Kat, 26.05.2012 19:38 CEST

I only watch the finals and pretty much sit there and take the mickey out of every single act. Plus as an American living over here it is just mind blowing sensory overload like I have never seen before.

Fabienne Steiner, 29.05.2012 04:27 CEST

I got your call! :-) For all who don't know: I am not that a huge fan of this competition.
Agility is about continuos learning and not continuos change. Change is only implemented were it would create more value or happiness. Yes, happiness. Only a happy team creates the most possible value, because they are passionate about what they do and love their work.

Therefore, the interesting question for me would be, how do they manage their learning process across the whole Eurovision organization, probably starting with retrospectives in the participating countries. Who decides and agrees about adjustments and how? How are they implemented later?
To have a good concept in this area, would as well make sure all participants knowledge is growing kind of equally over the years (highly agile!). Which eliminates risk partially on the hosts side, which is a different one every year. Because eliminating risks, can contribute to increased value as well.

steve.holyer, 04.06.2012 20:14 CEST

@Fabienne This is Zurich calling. Thanks for pointing out that real value comes from continuous learning. I totally agree with you. And a happy team really does create the most value. That's an important value to encourage every day.

I know the participants study all the previous shows in order to create a three minute spectacle to prompt the happiest viewers to vote for their act. (The Swiss delegation often seem to make the mistake on stage of only copying the other acts they study while leaving real innovation behind. They have been somewhat more innovative in the selection process.) Each country organizes themselves to produce the highest value three minute performance, but it is unclear to me how much of this is created from the top down by the producers. I suspect the countries (like Sweden) who have fully embraced the wisdom of the community in their selection process and through social media and other means usually have more success than countries who dictate the selection process.

The body of Eurovision production knowledge has certainly been growing over the last 56 years. I do wonder again how much of this production knowledge is held by the team of Eurovision countries and how much is held by the producer and the outsourced production team that oversee a good portion of the broadcast year after year.

This year producers say they are now looking for ways to streamline the competition process to make it more lean and therefore less expensive and less risky for the host broadcaster.

@Kat it was fun watching the contest with you via Twitter this year.

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