The need for a lighthouse: Implementing pilots as part of an Agile change journey

Agile ways of working are becoming more common, as many businesses appreciate that enabling small, persistent teams working iteratively towards clearly defined outcomes brings advantages in time-to-market, value creation and innovation. Becoming Agile is a journey, both for an individual but also for teams and organizations. A pilot project seems the obvious choice where there are significant uncertainties around the impact or requirements for large-scale Agile transformation.

However, I still see companies failing to implement these pilots in the most effective way, and many are missing out on key benefits or even suffering transformation delays as a result.

What makes an effective pilot?

My experience is that pilots have most direct impact on the business when they demonstrate in practical terms that Agile works. An organization which in the past has been uncertain about innovating its ways of working can dip a toe in the water to enjoy the benefits of an Agile experience, without threatening ongoing wider projects.

Next is the fact that running a pilot means that the team as a whole can learn about impediments and obstacles. This is helpful to the transformation team as well, since it gives them the freedom to observe blockages and issues within the business that would be painful to acknowledge if simply stated as facts, before an evaluative pilot.

A pilot should generate awareness and interest within the company: stakeholders will see that something new is happening and will want to understand how these changes affect the business as a whole. This visibility factor is key, and as we shall see, becomes a valuable feature of the well-run pilot - a lighthouse in this sense.

Lastly, the best pilots should in fact contribute tangible value to fund the journey and beyond, and manifest that this a real business initiative, and not an experiment.

Where do Agile pilots go wrong?

Implementing pilots for Agile ways of working is not always easy. I often see organizations struggling with getting an agile pilot identified, mobilized and turned into a success. Close collaboration with clients has shone a light that reveals four key anti-patterns, in terms of impact and frequency:

The planning phase

Searching for the perfect pilot may result in needless delays and a loss of momentum. Many organizations try to find a pilot that will tick every box: high impact, totally visible, etc… but this may take up too much time. Agile is a certainly better way of working, but it doesn’t solve everything. Expecting the pilot to somehow work wonders in every area of the company is unrealistic: instead, it must solve something tangible, in a particular way, for a certain part of the business.

Fear of failure

Even more dangerous than expecting wonders is starting a pilot with the team in a mindset of ‘failure is not an option.’ Of course, nobody wants to fail, but this attitude can stymie impact and innovation, and runs counter to the flexibility, openness and readiness to fail that Agile is built on. If a pilot ‘fails’ and the organization can learn from it, it is not a complete failure after all.

Different environments

Many organizations will already contain departments or groups who are working with Agile methods, for example in IT. Don’t cramp them or act as if everything is new. I have come across stumbling blocks with pilots initiated in a brownfield environment which has been set up as if it were a greenfield one.

Inertia

A fear of moving onto the bigger stage can sometimes creep in and disrupt momentum. If your team fails to move on promptly from the pilot stage, or runs too many pilots concurrently, inertia can set in and the true goal of changing the operating model of the wider organization is at risk of being lost.

Ensuring effective pilots

As usual in complex environments, there are few best practices that can be relied upon to work in every situation, or that can simply be copy-pasted. Here are some good practices that have successfully boosted recent pilots I supported, to get you started.

Define multiple pilots

This takes the pressure off an individual pilot and means your work can reach more diverse parts of the organization. Three is a good minimum to define at the earliest stages, as you can safely allow one to fail and still benefit from two successful pilots.

Go for the passion

Ensure you build at least one ‘emotional’ pilot. This is a pilot that, to put it simply, everyone thinks is cool. It appeals to people intuitively, they talk about it and spread the word. This means the pressure is off in terms of how it affects the bottom line — but few people mind this when the impact is strong and the feeling passionate around the pilot. Never underestimate the power of something that catches the imagination.

Find the perfect name and description

Agile comes with a strong reputation and stakeholders are likely to have preconceived ideas, and these may even be inappropriate or misleading. An effective fix can be to name and describe your pilot differently. Avoid the ‘Agile’ word itself if it helps — we are focusing on a particular subset of problems to solve, not implementing a new method for its own sake.

Make it visible

Involve stakeholders and the broader organization. Talk about the pilot, and let everyone see it. Surprisingly, but perhaps understandably, I often see pilots launched in virtual secrecy! There is no reason for this and it works to shut down the valuable energy that a successful pilot should initiate, harness, and then thrive on.

Start a movement

Build the energy for your project by making connections across the organization. The pilot team and stakeholders should show what’s happening, and spread the word. Energy is essential, and we should never be afraid of boosting our work at this stage. There will be plenty of time for critical evaluation later.

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Pilots are a start — and as they become more popular and widespread, it’s important to keep an eye on the issues and opportunities that come with their use. Ensuring you run your pilots effectively means understanding how they contribute to value, learning and awareness across the organization, and harnessing the power of Agile from the outset. With these factors in mind, a well-run and managed set of pilots can make the difference between delivering a basic agile implementation — or a game-changing revolution in ways of working.