Dear Executive... Inconvenient Truths about your Agile Transformation
Heidi ?? Araya
Hire my AI Sales Assistant | Tired of losing leads? I help service businesses to accelerate growth through AI-powered process improvements | ex-NASA | Patented Inventor | Keynote Speaker
Most companies now either have jumped onto the Agile bandwagon, are considering it, or even in the middle of hiring consultants to help them “transform.” However, only 6% of companies think that they are “highly agile”, according to a 2017 Deloitte study . I’d like to convey a few thoughts to the executives and leaders considering an agile transformation, based on over 10 years of experience with many transformations and years sitting with executive leaders.??
Dear Executive,?
The vision and support for this transition is not something that you can outsource. It is not something “those people over there do.” It’ll change everything about the way the business operates, and it’ll be challenging but rewarding at the same time. So read on for some thoughts…??
It is a large effort for most enterprises. Undoubtedly, the larger the company, the more challenging the transition. Evolving from a business that operates like a machine (deliver pre-planned things and try to sell what we’ve built), to one that operates like a living organism (try experiments; inspect outcomes) is a huge shift in all ways --?management style, organizational structure, how the work is done, and what information is needed in order to succeed. It will not be easy, and it might take years, not months. Some companies start to transition several times, quit, and start again, sometimes years later. It is even more challenging for public companies, due to pressure of short-term stock market results.?It is a continuous journey, not a destination.
The current culture will likely be the biggest impediment. It is easy to force and push people to execute rote practices and tasks, but this is exactly the opposite of what will help the company succeed, and it will be a false sense of progress. Not everyone will be ready all at the same time! Leverage those who are ready , and use them as a launch pad to show successes. Use them as champions. Showcase the things they did to get where they are.
There is no one size fits-all. You cannot ‘install’ agility via a framework. The vision comes first for what business challenges it solves, or opportunities it can provide. Many companies start with a big bang approach, when it might be better to set up a few teams, give them the support they need, find and resolve the challenges that come up, and discover incremental ways to improve.
Provide the clarity of mission.?You, the leader, must provide a vision in your organization for the problems agile solves for your business as well as the business outcomes you want, not practices that people follow in their day to day work. Why is making this change not only good, but an imperative for the business? What will happen if we don’t change? (If you cannot answer the last question, start there).
Support. Leaders go first. Without executive buy in, deep understanding, and continuous support at all levels, the effort will fail. Everyone, from top levels down will need training and coaching to understand how it will impact their jobs and teach much-needed skills. Alignment on “this is the way we work” is required. Meet regularly with the transformation team or coaches and find out what they need in order to be successful. Send out a regular communication about the transformation efforts and accomplishments. This is about surviving, thriving, and remaining competitive.
Everyone must exhibit a drive for continuous improvement. If leadership does not regularly reflect on what went well, and what did not, then why should teams? What does a continuous learning mindset mean for the leadership team? Set regular and productive retrospectives for all levels. Look for second order problems (“what are the conditions that led to this and how can we fix those conditions?” Rather than “why did this occur,” and merely fix that first level problem). Don’t make continuous learning empty words.
Use guiding principles and enabling constraints, not rigid rules to follow. Things like “quality over speed”, “focus on finishing over starting something new,” “sustainable pace,” “understanding customer outcome before starting,” etc. Rules cannot cover all scenarios.
A mindset shift will be challenging for many. Agile is about ongoing collaboration, openness to learning and failing, experimentation. People who think they know it all and are not willing to try something new, eventually won’t fit into the organization. Make the desired outcomes clear for the leadership team and all managers, and you, the leader, should support them through the effort through training and coaching.?
Your best people will leave if you don’t work on making their lives better. People want autonomy, mastery, and purpose at work . A paycheck, snacks, and ping pong tables are not primary motivators. Oftentimes, without the desired autonomy and purpose, they leave for the competition. (1) Annual engagement surveys are not enough… Make sure that people have ways to surface their biggest impediments, listen to them, and act upon them. In some companies, these impediments to delivering work effectively and efficiently existed for years, causing disengagement and reduced productivity. Sadly, everyone knew about these, but usually no one ever gathered the organizational themes and measured the actual impact. (2) Push decisions to the lowest level possible. Invitations are engaging, as are decisions. Invite your organization to uncover and solve its biggest challenges via OpenSpace .
Transparency is key. Make the problems of the business visible to employees. Do customers find the features hard to use? Is quality an issue? Is revenue falling? Share this information with the organization to inspire them. Closed-door decisions and lack of key information are sure to help the transformation go backwards. Use storytelling format to make the information accessible and memorable. Sixty-three percent of stories are retained versus 5% of facts alone.?Use a wiki. Work out loud in company online channels.
Agility has many facets, each with its own domain?knowledge. All of these concepts will be new to your organization and people will require training in all these areas. The investment is significant, but the payoff will be even greater.?
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It is a journey of continuous improvement. Agile transformation is not a project with a start and finish. It is a journey of continuous learning. Your organization will need to continue to evolve. This is the danger of setting fixed processes, without regularly inspecting what’s working and what is not. The implementation of a framework does not grant one a magic agility wand.?Try making one step to improve at a time, and reflect on it at a pre-set cadence (quarterly, for example).
It’s a long and hard journey: Why it’s still worth it for you
Leaving a Legacy. You can leave a legacy of an amazing place to work and enviable culture (even if you don’t spend your entire career there!). It’ll be a place of rich collaboration, true innovation, and interesting work at all levels. The people whose lives you have positively impacted may follow you, if you ever decide to leave.?
Delivering products & services that delight. You will be working at a place where everyone wants to have your products, solutions, or services. Not only that, but you will be leading the team that makes it happen. You’ll be at the forefront of an enviable organization.?
Company survival. I’ve personally seen several companies die a slow death while struggling to understand market and customer needs, or prioritizing new features over quality or stable architecture. If you want your company to not only survive but outstrip its competitors, re-imagining the way the company works is required.
It is a moral imperative to change the way we treat people at work. Industrial age practices and management dehumanizes workers, treating them like cogs in a machine. Worker engagement is low . Most workers today have a completely different perspective and want meaning and purpose to their own existence, while contributing to their employer’s purpose also.
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2 年Great writeup Heidi Araya it is not always easy for Leadership too to be honest. Too many moving parts all at once and the pressure of shareholders and the stock market. A mindset of radical responsibility at every level is key.
Agile Leader | Project Management Professional | Scrum Master | Product Owner | TS Clearance
3 年I just invited my leadership to read this prior to our consultations. Thanks!
Scrum Master - NAB
4 年I disagree on one point that 'Command and control' is a problem. C2 is not the issue but the underlying Command (or Management) philosophy. When you look at Organisations that operate in truly VUCA environments (military, police, emergency services) they all have a strong C2 nature with well defined hierarchical nature. Its the Command philosophy that either restricts or enables these organisations. Understand how thing like auftragstaktik (mission command) alters the way C2 applies provides us with greater understanding of how to truly enable teams and individuals.
Manager at Deloitte
4 年Extremely well written article and thank you for sharing! Unfortunately I have experienced all the above during transformation journey. Two additional thoughts - business is not separate from IT. It's not us versus them. It's all of us and we are one family. In addition, inadequacies will bubble up during this journey. Leadership needs to be able to address these without putting them under the rug. For example- Inadequate skill sets to support a team must be addressed. Lastly, we want to transform for a better tomorrow so there will be some tough decisions that need to be taken today. If transformation is very smooth then more than likely it's not being done right. Be prepared to have some tough conversations!
Inspirational article, Heidi! Whatever the exact wording of a company is to starting changing the way they work and bring something to the market their customer really benfit from and value, all people are needed and there is no easy way, no copy & paste, no best practice. Every organisation, every team in an organisation and every individual has to find their way in getting agile. This can be a real challenge, this can be really tough, this can be really scary and frightening. But that is okay! Nobody is perfect in anything from the beginning, we have to accept that we all need to learn, to prctice, to experiement and by doing so we get betting in the doing and the outcomes. ;-)