Why Agile is mainly a mindset change and why we need it.

Introducing Agile (both in large organisation and in small teams) is not easy and every time I need to explain that Agile journey is not only a change in practices, tools, hierarchies and so on, but it is above all a change in people’s mind that is reflecting in a change in practice, tools, hierarchies and so on.

As agilists (or want to be like that) we are used to listen and to say the word “mindset change” but sometimes we are wondering WHY this MUST happen.

"It is so easy to learn how to do a Daily meeting, why do I need to know about Agile values and principles?"

My experience (and also some lectures) confirms that even if mindset change is costly and require longer time, its effectiveness can increase improvements in your teams from 30% to 300%. So it is up you (as manager, company, leader...) to decide what outcome you want to achieve.

This article has the goal to explicit some “tough questions” and provoke this very point: “why, if you haven't got the right mindset, you cannot be a good agilist”. And this is also a message to the organisation that asked for being Agile but effectively sometimes are not able to create the situations to make it possible.

It will not be a trivial reading, and there are others on the web. However I hope you will like this new approach and I’m inviting you to add your comments and feedbacks to make this article more valuable. Finally I put some quotes to make your reading more intriguing.

IPR initial note: the images, the “Captain America” and "the Cap" brand are Marvel Studio properties.

Adapt to ongoing situations

Do you know that the first name proposed for the “lightweight methodologies” 18 years ago was “Adaptive”? This is what emerges in different interviews remembering when Agile Manifesto has been signed. Anyway, it is true that very often this is the first word thinking of Agile approach (the second usually is “flexible”).

Being adaptable is not hard bat it is not trivial neither. However the big ppoint is that being adaptable may have consequences: if needed "I should be open to do something I really don’t know how to do it” and so “I should be open to restart to learn something new” because “my competence is not the one my team needs in that moment”. A true jump off the cliff: is this sequence showing a reduction of my role in the team? Am I really willing to restart a training path from scratch?

Think carefully to this situation: I’m a developer but in this moment my team need to increase testing capability; am I open to go to my test manager and asked me to teach me how to perform testing? Am I open to learn a new job as a newbie? And is my company open to put me in the situation to spend time to learn a new job/competency because my team need it?

A quote to remember by Leon C. Megginson

“It is not the strongest or the most intelligent who will survive but those who can best manage change.”

Working on the edge of your comfort zone

Yes, the logic consequence of being adaptable is that sometime you should get out your comfort zone, or, much better: you should extend your comfort zone and, if needed, be open to work very close to the border of your comfort zone, and accept that you could cross the border from time to time.

Again this could be critical for people working in the same role for years, following the same well known, stable, safe procedures. Maybe for young people could be easier because they are living in continuous change also from the professional perspective. Anyway this is something you can learn, or maybe you MUST learn if you (and/or your company) are living in a VUCA (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity) scenario.

The role of the companies to make it happens is essential: if companies are leaving in the VUCA world they should be used to operate on the edge of their comfort zone. Are they open to do that? What can we do to make this feasible? How can we push leaders to help teams to trust themselves in this situations?

A quote to remember by John A. Shedd

“A ship is safe in harbour, but that's not what ships are for.”

Courage: the first value of Scrum (and not only)

Courage is a typical case of working out of the border of the comfort zone, is about doing something uncommon for a big purpose. IMHO it is not a case if this is the first of 5 Scrum values, even if this is true also out of Scrum (you can read about it in the 5th, 9th and 11th of Agile principles).

Courage tells to accept a sprint backlog at the limit of your capacity, tells you that tomorrow you can help testing team even if you are a developer, tells you to answer “Let’s try to figure out how to do it” instead “I cannot do it” when a new request is on the table. Practically, courage is the strength that keep you open to change, it is sometime the reason behind your decision as a team instead of your decision as individual.

Courage is also where fake agilists (people pretending to be agile) often can be identified. They are not really open to risk their position in the team or with the mangers, because they are focused on the actual status and they see mainly the risks of a change instead of its opportunities. Sometimes they are "followers" and not "leaders".

A quote to remember by Eleanor Roosevelt

“Do one thing every day that scares you.”

Failure culture

Another important consequence of working close to the border of your comfort zone is that you can fail from time to time. However it is important to understand that this failure is completely different from a failure if you are working INTO your comfort zone, where everything is under your control and well known. But remember that even if failure is acceptable in tough situations, it must produce learning and growth: it is not acceptable a continuous failing.

The right agile question on this perspectives are: Are you open to learn new skills with the chance to fail while doing this? When you are children this is perfectly acceptable, is this true also when you are a grown adult? And what is your consideration about some else failing while working out of his/her comfort zone.

Again the role of the organisations is critical. They want to move to agile, the ask people to be brave, but they must create situation where failing is safe and promote these situation so people are aware that company trust them also because their ways of failing.

A quote to remember by Will Smith

“Fail fast, fail forward”

New leadership model

Leadership role is essential because you cannot motivate people in working as described above if you cannot give them a common goal (vision) and create the condition that make it happening as described above. But as a leader you should be open to completely change your role and your actions.

Modern leaders are not commanders, they are persons who can create conditions where their team (other "persons" and not "resources") can give the best results, aligned with the strategy they define. But keep in mind that all situations described above can be applied to leaders’ role too. This is leaders' challenge: face the double change looking at his/her activities and looking at the team.

Moreover as a leader of knowledge workers team, you should accept team empowerment, you should accept to take a step back from taking some decisions and play with emotion and experience more than with skills and knowledge. You should accept to be a “servant leader”, a person that is recognized for his/her value to help the team and not for his/her personal achievements. Finally you should accept to share successes (and not only failures) with your team.

A quote to remember by Steve Jobs

“It doesn't make sense to hire smart people and tell them what to do; we hire smart people so they can tell us what to do.”

Why do I need these to move to Agile?

If you arrive reading here, you can easily understand the answer to our initial topic “why, if you haven't got the right mindset, you cannot be a good agilist”. The answer is simply that if you are not really open to follow any of the above attitudes, you cannot be truly agile. This has a strong consequence for the companies too: if they are not able to put their people in the condition to explore the above attitudes, they cannot be truly agile.

Even if you are performing the 3 questions during your Daily, this will be purely mechanics and not real change, and it will not be so effective for yourself and your company as it could be.

A quote to remember by Michael Sahota

“Doing agile is not being agile.”

Conclusion

I think at this point you have realised that my favourite image of the agilist is Captain America (or Batman if you are a DC fan). I'm going to explain reasons behind that.

The Cap has not real superpowers (like flying or x-rays from eyes), he is stronger than the average but he is not like Hulk that can move mountains (maybe the Cap could raise a motorbike). So why is he a so loved superhero? IMHO because of his mindset and the courage to do actions beyond his comfort zone, in a continue testing of his limits and with some failures that help him to grow and get a better/stronger person, finally because he is a model for his team-mates and for the others. This is exactly what a hero is and does. This, with given proportions, is exactly what an agilist is and does. (last but not least, what about the great "A" on his helmet!)

But what if my team is full of this kind of persons?

Keep in mind that being agilist doesn't mean being experts or leaders, so in a team of agilists competition is for the team and not among members that instead are always proactively involved in improving as a single team. This means they can work at the best and collaborate in synergy to achieve great goals and produce great outcomes. And this is the kind of team every manager would like to have.

A quote to remember by Captain America

"As long as one man stands against you, you'll never be able to claim victory."

NOTE: quotes with the help from goodreads [https://www.goodreads.com]

Corrado De Sanctis is Agile Coach and operates in UK as Agile Engagement Manager for Tata Consultancy Service (TCS). Corrado has been working in some of the largest transformation processes at international level in Finance and Utility. Project Manager with almost 20 years of experience, he has been promoting Agile since 2012 and has different certifications at team and enterprise level. Corrado is a known member of agile community in London where he manages "Digital Transformation in London" meetup group and he is speaker on Agile themes. In his "short" free time, he uses to practice triathlon.

DISCLAIMER. All comments here are personal notes and cannot be related to Tata Consultancy Service in any way.