Not Lean? Not Agile? Not a problem.

I've been trained as a yellow belt. I've taken some Agile courses on Lynda (highly recommend them, BTW). From my admittedly limited experience I can see how Lean/ 6-sigma works well in manufacturing and how Agile works well in software development.

I can also understand how they may be helpful strategies for pieces or components of transformative development in large organizations. Yet regarding either as THE means to the end of transformation seems to ask these methods to do more than they're designed to do. Then before one's yellow belt certificate has gathered dust, the next big change initiative meeting (complete with dinner because, of course, it is after hours) has been scheduled because, rather predictably, the last initiative failed.

One reason is that the tendency of C-suites to grasp on to trendy change operations often stems from a perception that transformation is needed ASAP and a fundamental misunderstanding of how to manage change. The marketing of change methodology training is very good; there is a sense that THIS, THIS one is the ONE! Give your people THIS tool with THIS training and boy oh boy, watch out! A few months later - we're still having this issue? I thought we fixed that. Let's organize. More training and resources? Why, when it didn't work the first time?

Oh wait, there's a NEW thing and it requires LESS training? THAT's the one we need for sure! We'll train the trainers then they'll figure out how to make it work on the trenches and oh boy, watch out!

This is more problematic than the derailment of transformation. The rush to sweeping change via the latest organizational technology without investment in sustaining resources also often leads to distrustful employees who roll their eyes while they accept the new initiative calendar invite because while they know this one is also doomed to failure, at least there is dinner.

After dinner a few people may leave psyched to work in a small, democratic group with a scrum master who they know will stay out of their way. Over the next few weeks they may even get something really amazing done. But what about over the next few months? Will more agile teams emerge? Will new initiatives be sustained by the leadership? What about over the next few years, when two members of that awesome team get hired away and no one else really ever got on board? Has the organziational culture embraced this new way of being? Is your culture able to sustain transformative development when the personalities that drive it go away?

Any tool, methodology, strategy is only as good as its user. In personal development, we are the users. We can kaizen our problems into their constituent components, using friends and family as supporting members of the team and SMART metrics to measure progress. We can apply agile techniques and get a accountability partner to act as our personal scrum master. But in the end unless we manage ourselves consistently, unless we're really, truly, authentically on board with the changes and the resources needed for engaging the means of getting them, we will fail.

The same is true for organizations. Unless those with the authentic power to sustain momentum and grant permissions actually do so, every new initiative will collapse. The resources will be used up; the old habits will re-root. Another dinner meeting will be scheduled with even more distrust and frustration as unintended plus-1s.

Take away: It may or may not be that Lean and Agile are the best fit for the types of change needed in your organization. Before investing in a lot of training in anything, make sure the tools are adequate for the tasks and vice versa. Part of the planning needs to be assessing the buy-in of those best suited to be champions: those in positional leadership and, perhaps more importantly, those who might be defined as charismatic leaders.

Action step: Find out who really runs the show. Who are the decision-makers both at the top as well as in HR, Finance, and in whatever department you are seeking to drive transformative change. THEN, via informal conversations, find out who helps or hinders initiatives within departments at all levels. You may be surprised who's buy-in you actually need to get to begin and sustain transformation and if you get it, any tool will likely work wonders.