Understanding Organizational Inefficiency

It was truly a pleasure to do an episode for Credibility Nation where I had the chance to discuss organizational inefficiency . This is a topic that is often overlooked and is not considered when making the transition to a more Agile Framework. Most companies lean on Agile to solve the inefficiencies and are often disappointed to discover that Agile, if not applied correctly, can magnify and even increase the problems teams are currently facing.

I specifically remember working with a group who requested that I do a one day onsite visit followed be a Scrum Alliance Agile Foundations Course. The purpose for bringing me in was to use Agile/Scrum as a tool to reduce the amount of time that they were spending in meetings and to help them regain focus on the work at hand. On the surface, this sounded like a very good idea! But... There were a few minor details they forgot to mention:

• The company of just under 100 people had 24 projects all in flight at the very same time.
• Team size was reduced to three or less per team in order to get the most qualified "resource" to have their hands on the project.
• The people with the best skillsets were often asked to divide their time and work on up to 10 different initiatives at a time.
• Testing was not done by the developers, but was performed by a separate offshore team.
• In total across their current products, there were several hundred outstanding defects that needed to be addressed.
• Senior Leadership was very upset that the product owners could not qualify a five year plan for release forecasting.
• Absolutely zero money generating products have been delivered in the last 18 months.
• The teams at this point feel like Agile is overhead when we all know that it is the silver bullet solution to solve all of our problems.
• Time based estimates are not accurate and we need to get to the bottom of all these inefficiencies.

Now we can officially exit the twilight zone. Nightmare right? The most sad part was that the organization insisted they were doing "the agile". The teams all insisted that this "the agile" was the guilty party that made them work nights and weekends just to get things right. Some people call this Agile in name only. I refer to it as NOT AGILE.

The coaching and foundations course were the PERFECT recipe for what they needed, but not until their house was a little more in order. We had work to do to help them understand why things were in this place of darkness and how we were planning to help them got to a place of light. Change is HARD. Especially when people feel like they have already made the change and things just got worse.

The truth is, we all have an opportunity to GROW (Goals, Reality, Opportunities, and Will) when this happens in our implementation. We need to set SMART goals and tick off the boxes until we can get to a place where organizational shift yields true culture change in a place where psychological safety thrives. None of the issues listed above were difficult to address, as long as we remember the five Scrum Values, "Use the FORCE":

1. Focus - Focus on what we will NOT be doing and always remember, Outcome over Output. It only matters that we deliver things that yield the greatest impact.
2. Openness - Being transparent and open in all communications allows team members to have confidence in what they commit to do and allows for realistic expectations.
3. Respect - Respect the people and the process. Find ways to uplift others.
4. Commitment - Always do what you say, and say what you will do. Finish what you commit to. Make goals at both the sprint and product level and hit them out the park!
5. Extreme Courage - Do not be afraid to say no. Speak truthfully and with confidence.

These keys will help you be ready for Agile and all of the efficiencies that come with it!