The Telenet Transformation: Rewiring an Organization for Flow
In the complex landscape of organizational transformation, companies often struggle to move beyond surface-level changes to achieve genuine agility. Through the lens of Telenet's journey, we explore how one of Belgium's leading telecom providers evolved from rigid structural models in 2019 to its now fluid, value-oriented operating system. This discussion draws from an in-depth interview with Barbara Arnst, VP of agile transformation at Telenet, who shared her insights with Team Topologies co-author, Matthew Skelton.
The Structure-Strategy Disconnect: A Common Transformation Blind Spot
A recurring challenge in organizational transformation is the disproportionate focus on strategy while neglecting operational design. As Barbara Arnst observed from her more than 20 years’ experience in strategy consulting, scale-ups, telecoms and private equity:
"Leadership typically invests heavily in crafting strategy—the 'what' of business—while paying insufficient attention to how work is organized. Yet this organizational design is often the greatest source of friction and inefficiency in large enterprises."
This insight drove Barbara's dual pursuit of practical transformation at Telenet and academic exploration through her PhD research, creating a powerful feedback loop between theory and application.
From Spotify to Stagnation: The Limitations of Model Adoption
Telenet's transformation journey began in 2019 with the adoption of the widely-popularized Spotify model, implementing the now-familiar tribes, squads and chapters structure. However, after two years of committed implementation, the organization found itself struggling with:
Excessive interdependencies between teams
Consistently slow delivery timeframes
Failure to achieve core transformation objectives
Despite embracing agile ceremonies and principles, the organization found itself "tied in knots," unable to deliver the speed and responsiveness that originally motivated the transformation process.
The Team Topologies Turning Point: From Teams to Systems
In 2020, Telenet's transformation took a pivotal turn when Arnst and Skelton began collaborating around Team Topologies concepts. Several principles resonated deeply with the challenges they were experiencing:
Limiting cognitive load on teams
Thoughtfully managing interdependencies
Establishing clear team roles within the broader ecosystem
However, this exploration led to a critical realization: while team-level changes were valuable, the entire organization wasn't wired for flow. The traditional silo-based C-level structure remained fundamentally incompatible with team-level agility—revealing that transformation required a more comprehensive approach.
Solution: The Enterprise-Level Rewiring
Rather than focusing exclusively on team structure, Telenet expanded their transformation scope to apply team patterns at the enterprise level. This systems thinking incorporated four interconnected dimensions:
Organizational structure
Decision rights and authorities
Governance flows
The Fractal Operating Model: Tribes as Micro-Enterprises
Telenet developed a distinctive "fractal" organizational model with three types of ‘Tribe archetypes’, each consisting of 10 to 15 teams, with specific role to play and responsibilities:
Customer Tribe Archetype (Yellow): Value stream-oriented team-of-teams responsible for delivering concrete customer outputs
Platform Tribe Archetype (Blue): Internal-facing team-of-teams supporting other Tribes with capabilities and services
Enabling Tribe Archetype (Purple): A team-of-teams responsible for defining the enterprise level operating model architecture, orchestrating priorities, detecting gaps and enhancing overall organizational effectiveness
The key innovation in this model was the concept of holistic accountability. Each Tribe functioned as a "micro-enterprise" with multidimensional responsibilities. For example, the "Billing Experience Tribe (part of the Customer Tribe Archetype) maintained comprehensive ownership across:
Platform maintenance and security
Customer experience and complaint resolution
Forward-looking innovation and partnerships
Finance and Strategy as Enablers: Leading from the Center
Perhaps most revolutionary was Telenet's mindset shift regarding Finance and Strategy functions. Rather than operating as top-down controllers, these departments transformed into service providers:
Leading from the center rather than from above
Orchestrating and connecting rather than directing
Facilitating cross-tribe collaboration while preserving customer tribe ownership
This approach fundamentally reimagined the relationship between centralized functions and value-delivery teams, creating a more fluid ecosystem of collaboration.
Lessons from the Journey: Beyond Reorganization
Arnst emphasized that transformation is continuous rather than a one-time reorganization. Telenet's experience has been shared at multiple Enterprise Technology Leader Summits, showing the evolution of their approach over time.
Key principles that emerged from their ongoing journey include:
Systems thinking: View the organization holistically rather than focusing solely on structure
Cognitive load management: Apply this principle to both team design AND change management team-of-teams
Leadership mindset shift: Move from power-based siloed thinking to networked ecosystem thinking
Sustainable change: Embed transformation capabilities in the organization's fabric rather than running isolated programs
Continuous adaptation: Create mechanisms to sense and adapt to ongoing changes in technology, regulations and market conditions
Looking Forward: Sustainable Evolution
Telenet continues to evolve its approach (moving toward "version 3.0") while maintaining core principles that have proven effective. Their current focus includes:
Developing ambassadors to scale transformation across the organization
Embedding adaptability into the organizational DNA
Creating formal mechanisms to address challenges systematically
Conclusion
The Telenet transformation demonstrates that achieving true organizational agility extends far beyond adopting a particular model or implementing team-level changes. Success requires a comprehensive rewiring of how work flows through the enterprise, how decisions are made and how value is ultimately delivered to customers.
While every organization's transformation journey will be unique, Telenet's experience offers valuable insights for leaders navigating similar challenges. By embracing systems thinking, managing cognitive load, and shifting leadership mindsets from control to enablement, organizations can build more responsive, adaptable structures capable of thriving in today's rapidly changing business environment.
The most important lesson may be that transformation is never truly complete. As Arnst noted, "The goal isn't to reach a final state, but to build an organization that can continuously sense and respond to change." In this perspective lies perhaps the true meaning of organizational agility.
About the author:
Barbara Arnst, VP at Telenet and Team Topologies Advocate
Barbara is a transformation leader and lifelong learner with a 25+ year career spanning both business and academia. She is currently VP at Telenet, leading the company’s Agile Transformation. Previously, she was a Principal at Bain & Company, a Partner at PE firm Gimv, and COO at Groupon, an internet scale-up.
Connect with Barbara here.
