Agile Transformation Leadership

There are still many organizations which are about to start their Agile organization transformation or considering it. All of these organizations are seeking a strategy to make their Agile transformation a big success. However, most of these organizations are lacking resources to determine which Success Factors lead to a fantastic Agile transformation. Therefore, they usually turn to major consultancy agencies and/or hire experienced Agile leaders to help them on their Agile journey. There is nothing wrong with this, of course. The intention is immensely important in any transformation process. So far so good, right? …..

What many haven’t considered though, is the fact that some of these consultancy firms lack the desired capabilities and hands-on experience in Agile transformation, while others have only recently jumped on the boat of Agile flow. They can bring about beautiful pitches on colorful slides about the benefits of Agile and how it should be implemented. They can help the organizations to shape the Agile transformation plans and roadmaps. However, these plans are written by people who are sitting high in the clouds, with little understanding of the reality on the ground. Therefore, those plans do not hold much water when it comes to execution. I think this story sounds very familiar to most of us. So, I am recommending to find the right Consultancy agency with capabilities on both Strategic level and Hands-on practical level.

Next, hired Experienced Agile leaders are brought from outside to help the company make the transition to Agile. Usually, these leaders have great knowledge and experience to lead the transformation. However, the majority miserably fail to change the organization effectively. Just to be clear, I am not talking about changing the IT delivery of Organization to “doing Agile”. When I am talking about successful Agile transformation, I refer to embedding Agile in the DNA of an organization. Many Agile leaders fail to bring the organization to that level and settle for just ”doing agile”.

The Question is then what distinguishes a Great Agile leader from mediocre one? Having seen a number of Agile leaders from both sides, I think there are three qualities which a great Agile leader needs to possess that will make the difference between failing and succeeding:

•  Humbleness
• Strong Belief
• Courage

Great examples can be found to illustrate these attributes, but I chose to do this by using a part of a movie to highlight the traits needed to successfully navigate the intricacies of a true transformation. Namely, the motion picture known as Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. This picture is pretty well known to movie fans, such as myself, and is a solid reflection of the mindset needed in order to overcome seemingly impossible obstacles.

Indiana Jones and the last crusade is the story of archaeologist Dr. Henry “Indiana” Jones (jr.) who, together with his father and lifetime friend, is in pursuit of the Holy Grail: The cup used by Jesus of Nazareth and is known to have been used in catching his blood during his crucifixion. At the same time, Indiana and his team are being hunted by the Nazi’s, who in turn are also looking for the grail. According to legend, the grail possesses a great power, both to give and to take life, and many believe that for this reason it must never fall into the hand of the Nazi army, who surely have sinister intentions with such power.

The specific scene, which I think is relevant here, is the scene where Indiana and his team arrive at the location of the grail but are captured quickly by the Nazi’s who have arrived before them. Before them lay bare the path to the holy grail, but those who would tread this path would be tested, as the path to the grail has been booby trapped. The Nazi army had sent many men into the narrow passage leading to the grail chambers, yet, none had survived as they had been cut to pieces before they could make it across. At this moment, the Nazi’s knew that they needed Indiana and his father’s research if they were to bypass the booby traps and since Indiana refused to help them willingly, they decided to make Indiana cooperate by shooting his father in the abdomen.

Seeing his father on the ground, desperately gasping for air, Indiana was trembling inside. He knew he had to do something, but he could not. Full of rage, Indiana Jones realized very soon that he was powerless against those Nazi’s. The Nazi leader tried to calm Indiana while still holding him at gun point: “you can’t save him when you’re dead. The healing power of the grail is the only thing that can save your father now. It is time to ask yourself what you believe, Dr. Jones.”

Indiana just stood there for a second, looking at all the machine guns pointed at him. Did he believe? He thought he did, but also knew that it didn’t matter if he believed or not. He knew he had to try, for his father, who always believed in the powers of the Holy Grail.

Here is where our Analogy with Agile Leader begins. Like Indiana Jones, when an Agile leader is hired to do the Agile transformation, he believes in his cause. He believes that Agile transformation can help the organization. However, similar to the trials of Indiana, he needs to walk through the Agile transformation journey, full of booby-traps, to reach his Holy Grail.

Humbleness

As Indiana started walking up the steps that lead to the narrow passage, he reached for his father’s diary. His father had spent a lifetime researching the Holy Grail and the diary contained the key to surviving the path towards it. As he flipped the pages of the diary, he came across a section, which detailed three challenges meant to test the worthiness of those seeking the grail. The first, known as “the breath of God”, contained a clue. Carefully taking his steps, he started reciting the clue: “only the penitent man will pass”. Again: “only the penitent man will pass”. Seeing the headless bodies of those who ventured before him, a drop of sweat trickled down the side of his head. “only the penitent man will pass” he repeated. As he moved deeper in the passage, he kept repeating “penitent” “penitent” and suddenly he remembered: “the penitent man is humble before God” “the penitent man kneels before God” “KNEEL!!” he screamed and quickly rolled onto the cold floor. In the corner of his eye, while rolling, he saw enormous razor-sharp disks extruding from the wall of the narrow passage. The disks had missed him by a hair’s length and Indiana knew that he was very lucky to be alive. Once on the other side, Indiana quickly locked the gears, which were apparently powering the disks. ( https://youtu.be/NkGTyndJC1w )

This scene remembers me of the humbleness that Agile leaders needs to show towards all layers in the organization, both on IT side as well as business units sides. If he enters the arena acting as a superhero that knows everything and can do everything by himself, he will encounter defiance from all corners, which eventually can make him paralyzed or get him sacked. The sharp razors of the organization will cut his arrogant head off, figuratively speaking of course. However, if he acts with humbleness he can reach far more. First, he can build relationships and allies as humble people are more relatable and quicker to earn the trust of others. Second, through these relationships he can gain more insights of how things work in this organization. With this valuable contextual knowledge, he can be nimble and adapt to get things done, with one condition: not compromising Agile values and principles. So remember, Only the PENITENT man will pass.

Strong belief

Indiana then continued to read about the second challenge: “only in the footsteps of God shall he proceed.” This sounded very familiar to him…..“the word of God” he mumbled while continuing to walk towards a well-lit walkway. Carefully removing the spiderweb covering the entrance of the walkway, he saw that the floor was covered in tiles containing letters. At that instance he knew what the challenge was “Proceed in the footsteps of the word of God….. the name of God…..Jehovah” he said. Confident that he solved the riddle, he leaped to put his foot on the letter J. The floor did not hold and before falling into a dark void, he managed to hold on to an edge. Scared out of his mind, he pulled himself up and quickly wondered what he missed. He recalled his biblical studies and said, “idiot, in Latin Jehovah starts with a I”, and he started taking steps “I, E, H, O, V, A, H” and he quickly made it to the other end of the walkway. ( https://youtu.be/arMXzgiZsJQ )

Similarly, Agile leaders know Agile and know the roadmap through the Agile transformation. However, they must walk through every step, which is righteous, and they have to stay loyal to Agile values and principles. They must not deviate from the right path, no matter how tempting it might be. It is very disappointing to see some Agile leaders are willing to compromise some foundations in Agile values under pressure. I have experienced some situations in which very experienced Agile leaders were tweaking the Agile deliveries, ignoring some of most important Agile principles. This usually happens when Agile leaders are under pressure of senior leaders in the organization, concerning commitment to delivery deadlines, Budgeting / Cost estimations or “compliance” issues. Stepping away from Agile fundamentals can have a disastrous impact on your Agile End-state and more importantly on the desired Agile culture. if you start to walk away from the right path, even just by a little, will be the beginning of an impending failure. So, remember to trust Agile principles and stay true to it.

Courage

Indiana was relieved to have survived two challenges, but knew he had to stay sharp as the third was the most difficult. As he continued, the passage became even narrower, making him crouch to move forward. Suddenly the passage ended and he came to what seemed an edge. Before him was a canyon 100 feet across and so deep that he could only see darkness as he peered down. He looked up again and saw an entrance on the other side. This final challenge was called the path of God. “only a leap from a lion’s head will prove his worth” he said as he read from the diary. As he looked down and up again, he thought “impossible….nobody can jump this…”. Suddenly a voice came from the passage behind him “Indy, you must hurry, come quickly”. Hearing this he knew his father’s condition was deteriorating and he needed to take the grail to his father as quickly as he could. Indiana took a few deep breaths and said “it is a leap of faith”. He thought of his father again and could almost hear him: “you must believe, boy…..you must believe”. So he put his hand on his heart, closed his eyes and ……took a step forward into the canyon…..

Expecting to fall into an infinite abyss, suddenly he felt the support of ground under his foot. Filled with both relief as disbelief, he looked below and could still see nothing but the infinite void beneath him, but somehow he was still standing. He took a deep breath and turned his body sideways to take a look at what he was standing on. It was a bridge, perfectly camouflaged against the canyon backdrop when looking at it from the front.

As an Agile transformation Leader, you need to have a Lion heart. You will encounter many situations in your transformation journey, where it seems impossible to overcome the gap. It is then when you need to show courage and stay on your path. There are many situations that you need to say NO to senior leaders and other stakeholders to keep them in the right path of Agile. The agile leader is not doing this to make a point or be inflexible, but this should be done with the purpose of educating these stakeholders because he has a responsibility to transform the organization towards Agile. These stakeholders may be far more senior in the organization’s hierarchy ladder. It might seem that by saying no to them and standing your ground, you have committed certain career suicide. However, you must keep the faith and stay loyal to the Agile principles and values. Without complete faith in your mission, you will not succeed. So, remember, only a leap from a lion’s head will prove his worth. ( https://youtu.be/sBBbq2g7yf8 )

 Walking across the bridge of faith, Indiana knew he made it. In addition, it was his faith, not his academic knowledge that brought him safely to the grail chambers. Before he knew it, he was standing in a room full of cups. Then he saw sitting there a knight, bearing the cross of Christ…….

To conclude, it is not only about how much you have seen and know about Agile, it takes humbleness, strong belief and lots of courage to bring an Enterprise to a high degree of Agile maturity. 

Special thank you to my brother, Co-author. who helped me with writing of this article. His writing skills are amazing. Also a my sincere appreciation to those colleagues who reviewed the draft of this article.