The Tayloristic application of Agile

Over the last year I have seen so many Articles and Posts on how Agile is not working, how it needs to be changed / adapted to fit our real world or needs to change its name to make it more acceptable.

In almost all cases you can see that those involved had lost their original vision, where the organisations and people had strayed from the simple path of adopting an Agile Mindset and Culture into the dark worlds of applying standardisation without thought and the ongoing use of Tayloristic Management control.

With this in mind a large part of my coaching approach concentrates first on developing the right Mindset, based on the pure Values and Principles of the Agile Manifesto, and then I let those on the ground apply them through individual behaviours and collaboration, thus creating an amazing organisational culture where great things can happen.

Of course this approach can put me at odds with some Agile Transformations that follow the same Tayloristic Management thinking of applying a blanket framework, scaled approach or model that they think is best. For me this creates some of my biggest challenges, not only in being successful supporting the organisation's transformation to a new way of working, but also in helping them be successful in satisfying and retaining their customers in today's Digital VUCA world.

To support this, I am always on the lookout for articles or papers that help highlight this issue and in a recent article by Jordan Job (linkedin.com/in/jordanjob) I think I have found a 'golden nugget' of learning and inspiration for both organisations and the Agile Coaches that are supposed to be helping them.

One line in the article really stood out for me.

"Managers in Taylor’s model also had to build solid, caring relationships with their employees in order to win enough trust that the employees would listen to the manager’s instructions. This appears to be the biggest component of Taylorism that was missed when other companies began to adopt it. Many companies saw Scientific Management as a method to do more work with fewer people in less time. The result was that employees feared for their jobs and the Tayloristic systems self-destructed."

In that sentence you could quite easily replace 'Taylor' with 'Agile', especially in the 'why and how' of an organisation's Agile adoption and transformation. This is the approach that many organisations take, thinking that Agile is just another process, which can be applied in specific areas to save money and deliver faster, thus making even more money.

In reality the 'why and how' should be very different. The desires of our customers should be at the heart of the Why and the How should enable us to deliver these desires in today's rapidly changing, global and fragmented business environment, driven through the ideas, skills and experience of our amazing employees who know how to do their jobs well and are proud of the outstanding products they deliver.

Have a read of Jordan's excellent article and apply its learning to your own Agile transformations or in how you support them as a coach.