Do you have agile people for your agile projects?

Being agile requires a different mindset

In mid-2018, Ron Jeffries, an original signatory of the 2001 Agile Manifesto, called for software developers to abandon agile. He said, “Too commonly, the ‘Agile’ approach a team uses has been imposed. Larger-scale ‘Agile’ methods appear actually to recommend imposition of process. These ‘so-called’ methods are pitched to the enterprise, and the enterprise is expected to ‘install’ them, or ‘roll them out'.”

What’s frustrating him – as it is with other signatories of that 2001 document – is that they’re seeing organisations who want to be more flexible in their approach to delivering projects make the same mistake they have always made. That is, trying to fix a problem with ‘standard’ training.

As has been proven before with other attempts to improve the way that projects are delivered, sending everyone on an agile training course (in this case) won’t change a thing.

What has been proven to work by those global organisations that others consider to be agile is that their people have developed flexible, growth mindsets and co-created cultures that are willing to try different things and aren’t afraid to fail.

In the Agile Manifesto, four principles were identified for those organisations that wanted to embrace greater flexibility. I have listed these below and highlighted the importance of helping others to build a growth mindset:

Individuals and interactions over processes and tools

The key to being successfully agile is not slavishly following a process (although some organisations seem determined not to let go of their waterfall manuals) or using it to shortcut existing systems, but in having a team of people who understand the value of the steps required, an understanding of each other’s personalities and an agreement on how the people in the team will work together honestly, respectfully and with discipline to get the job done.

Growth mindset people accept that ‘the way we deliver projects around here’ is continually evolving and needs to be challenged and changed. As Ed Catmull said in his excellent book Creativity Inc: “Anyone should be able to talk to anyone else at any level at any time.” This is especially true if the organisation is to remove barriers to swifter product (and value) delivery.

Working products over comprehensive documentation

The team understands that perfection can’t be achieved and that while it’s important to capture the information about what needs to be built, it doesn’t have to be a 100-page requirements document with 25 signatories.

They take a ‘published not perfect’ approach to delivery and focus on continual iteration. Fixed mindset people are focused on documenting perfection and having endless conversations, often stubbornly sticking rigidly to their point of view and not being open to the opinions of others.

Customer collaboration over contract negotiation

Growth mindset teams know that the customer is part of the project team culture and doesn’t sit outside of it. That they are at the heart of what’s being developed and that they can see regular progress. They don’t spend weeks ‘dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s’. They put their trust in each other to build a culture that does things in the right way.

The contract (if one exists) is never used as a weapon and instead merely provides a foundation upon which great relationships can be built and milestones achieved.

Responding to change over following a plan

Growth mindset teams know that change is important to meet the customer expectations. That planning is critical - but endlessly planning is not. That Microsoft Project will not always be the best way to display a schedule. And that managing risk will reduce uncertainty, but applying a corporate matrix with a thousand columns to each one is not always necessary.

Fixed mindset teams avoid change and actively work against it. They insist on lines of work breakdown structure before they’ll take responsibility and won’t waver from its completion.

Organisations that successfully make the transition to more agile ways of getting things done are staffed with individuals who aren’t told what to do.

They’re allowed to be flexible in their thinking and are personally invested in the culture that they’ve built. They respect each other’s way of working and set up their space based on that. They capture the ‘right amount’ of information in order to meet the customer’s expectations and relentlessly look for ways to add extra value.

According to the 2015 Standish Group Chaos report, only 39 per cent of Agile projects are considered successful and just like their waterfall counterparts, those agile projects that fail are held back by one thing – people.

To be more agile, individuals and teams need to be given the following:

• Insights into who they are and each other’s personalities (self-awareness and empathy)
• An agreement on what’s acceptable and what’s not (behaviours)
• An agreement on how they’ll work together (collaboration)
• An agreement on how they’ll find better ways to do things (innovation)
• Some principles they can hold each other to account to (culture)
• Regular ideas that further develop their thinking and skillset.

As Carol Dweck said in her book Mindset: “With the right mindset and the right teaching, people are a lot more capable than we think.” With an investment into building (or redefining) the cultural conditions where employees can be more self-aware about the mindset they need to adopt, any organisation can become more agile over time.