Organisations are not agile

70% of the companies that responded to a survey wanted to make an agile transformation [1]. Nonetheless do only 49% of the respondents in the State of Agile report [2] reply that they apply Agile practices in the whole organisation.

And they do not - necessarily - do Agile. You might be wondering what this means in your context. There are so many agile coaches, podcasts about methods, webinars about Scrum, etc. People show up every morning for stand up in team after team. And has for a long time.

A picture too familiar to many. How about yourself?

Defining Agile and agile

So what is Agile? Agile - with capital "a" - is an iterative approach to software development and project management with articulated principles, values, methods, roles, processes and tools.

And what is then agile - with a lower case "a"? A lot of people can be agile. They don't even have to be software developers, but they are charactarised by an embedded trait or attribute by durability, resilience, speed, flexibly, attunement and preparedness.

Some years ago I was introduced to the Agile manifesto, and I was stunned by its simplicity. It outlines four values and twelve principles.

In huge comparison to all the tools, processes, coaches, consultants and people out there that claims to be the holy grail. Despite the fact that the agile manifesto itself states that one of its values is individuals and interactions over processes and tools. So - are you agile, or do you just do Agile?

How do these principles resonate with your organization?

Do Agile, but are not agile

Hence, you can do Agile, but you may not be agile. It is better to be agile and not do Agile. Usually characterised in start ups where you have group of people with a common goal that lean in, and give all their effort and energy. As the organisation grows - both in numbers and complexity - you also need Agile. Hopefully the Agile initiative is supported by the top management and has a clear mandate. It leverages self-organizing teams and roles like the scrum master, the product owner, technical experts, and end users.

The Importance of Being a(A)gile

The ability to handle the increasing velocity of change the organisation needs to adopt agility as an attribute, and - at the same time and to some degree - do Agile.

And that goes for the whole organisation. Not only the group, teams or departments that develop the products or services. The "other half" is a bit conservative, reluctant to change and are a bit cumbersome to adjust those nice processes that have worked for quite some time. Nevertheless do a lot of organisations boldly proclaim that they are agile - and do Agile.

Have you encountered situations where an organization claimed to be Agile but faced challenges in being truly agile?

The Complete Agile Organization

If the agile organisation is depicted as a wheel one half is development and R&D, and the other half is the rest of the organisation. It is nice and round designed for acceleration, adoption and speed.

Sadly enough, that is not the case. The shape that most organisations have for their wheel is a semi-circular wheel. Perfectly round half the way around the wheel, and flat the other half. In other words - not a comfortable one. On your journey some processes (run by development) will run along semi-smoothly, while processes run by the rest of the organisation will be felt like bumps that propagates out in the organisation.

And those uncomfortable bumps will slow down the whole organisation when it comes to reasearching, developing, produce, marketing, and sell your products - or services. In addition hinder its ability to handle and act on change, crisis and threats.

An agile organisation is better prepared for speed and challenges. However, the whole organisation needs to be agile and do Agile. Not just parts of it.

Conclusion

There is a discrepency when people and organisations say the are agile. As it is not the case for the whole organisation. Being agile and do Agile is important as it enables the orginasation to handle change and gain speed. The importance of not just doing Agile but being agile throughout the entire organization is evident.

In your experience, how can organizations bridge the gap between claiming agility and truly embodying it?

[1] - Doing vs being: Practical lessons on building an agile culture , McKinsey, Nikola Jurisic , Michael Lurie , Philippine Risch , and Olli Salo

[2] - State of Agile Report - 2022