'We are at War, Start Acting Like It'

Last year I had the opportunity to hear a fortune 500 CEO speak. His opening remarks were quite fascinating. He told the audience, ‘We are at war, start acting like it’.  From the moment he said those words, I was literally glued to my seat listening to everything he had to say. He further elaborated how overly polite we were; and that is why we aren't winning anymore. Are we really at war with our Agile journeys? The answer is no. Are we overly polite in our Agile journeys? The answer is emphatically yes. There is a cultural collision occurring in our Agile, and now DevOps, implementations that is not only being introduced, it’s being encouraged and nurtured. I see it each day, and I am constantly amazed at how failing organizations simply don’t get it. Honestly, I debated whether I should write this article. The premise of my entire leadership mantra is about being a result-driven journey leader who focusses on BOTH and not just one. The debate for me here is whether the intent of my article would be well received, or would it be misconstrued in our heightened global culture of not saying anything provocative (or in my mind REAL). I believe in fully transparent communications and actions that fuel what I dare to call a Divergent Agile Culture.

STOP BEING SO NICE

Agile is simply too nice. It shows too much respect. And the results speak loud and clear. Agile is failing. The people that say it isn’t failing are simply using Agile as their cash cow and have a vested interest in keeping their consultant business thriving or they are secretly running a hybrid agile shop. As we discuss the final part of my series on Agile failures, we are going to boldly talk about politeness, rudeness, and everything in between. Of course, we will throw a little Agile in the middle just to ensure I stay on topic.

I recently had the opportunity to oversee the external accreditation for a delivery operation that was the backbone for more than $2B/year of revenue. For me, the leaders and the people were so polite they were ineffective. While I loved the people, the culture, pretty much EVERYTHING about it…I didn’t love the failures. The failures were prominent. They were so prominent they were the elephant in the room that everybody saw but nobody dared mention. You could almost say the failures were a security blanket. So how does this all relate to Agile? Agile promotes a team environment, which I love. It also promotes consensus building, which is fantastic. However, and this is a big however, it simply stifles independent thought and (dare I say) divergent or open dialogue. Problems are consistently ignored or swept under the rug because the team only speaks to its weakest communication level. But David, we have retrospectives. Agile has this covered. Uh huh. In over ten years of experience of my Agile journey, I can count on one hand the number of effective retrospectives that I have attended where real problems were addressed in a way that a solution was found. Why can’t we solve problems in a way that keeps them solved? The answer for me is because we are too damn polite.

DIRECTNESS IS NOT A WEAKNESS

So, what is wrong with being direct? Can you provide direction without being rude? I think the answer might fall somewhere between sometimes and yes. The delivery of the message is important, but that doesn’t need to prevent it from being direct. Is there a time where rudeness is appropriate? Here is how I view it. After x attempts at failed communications you need to get the point across. If you are working in an ecosystem where that isn’t allowed, I would leave. I recently had a leader define a new word for me. He termed it clockers. Clockers are people who have stayed in the same role for way too long. In some cases, they have been rewarded for it through years of promotions and merit increases, but are technically doing the same role for the same company with the same level of effort (and probably not doing it well). Clockers, as defined here, typically don’t respond to polite communications. Clockers will respect you in the long run if you have a non-polite dialogue with them. If they don’t, they might need to be removed. In fact, if you refuse to have a direct conversation with a clocker, you should be removed. You are PART of the problem.

 SPEAK YOUR MIND

I recently had the BEST interaction with my current boss. I would say we had a very direct text dialogue that turned into a follow-up call. If I playback the text messages, they were very direct, and many people would consider them rude in some circles. What happened next might surprise you. Because we both chose to go there with a brutally honest dialogue, our follow-up phone call was almost comforting. We both acknowledged the gaps in our communication. We both recognized the needs that were not being met for either of us, and we both aligned on how to move forward. I must be honest here. None of that would have happened if we had been overly nice with each other. The communications would have been so diluted that our real elephant would never have been acknowledged…let alone addressed.

I’m currently working with an executive leader on a client site with what I would call a very direct leader. I tried the collaborative approach with him for the first week and got nowhere. Yet the deadlines were approaching fast. He simply was going to be the alpha male and was not responding to polite dialogue. I took a different tactic with him the second week. I actually out alpha male’d him. You would have thought we were going to come to blows over our very outspoken passionate conversations, but we actually established a quick mutual respect. Don’t get me wrong. He’s not going to change his style. I simply changed mine because the situation required it. I was refusing to FAIL.

If only Agile would refuse to fail. That has been the goal of my entire series. Agile has so much potential, but it’s lacking. It continues to lack; and we simply refuse to acknowledge it. The next time you want to avoid an Agile failure, I suggest you look at your personal communication style first and then your teams. Boldly suggest something different for communications. You might be surprised at how well the team responds. Please stop baking cookies and having potlucks for your Agile teams; start talking to them for REAL.

David Filer

‘The Divergent Agile Leader'

[email protected]

https://www.dhirubhai.net/in/davidfiler1