Why Lean is Bigger Than Agile: 5?Thoughts

A few days ago, I heard about an adoption question regarding Lean and Agile. The question was: “Why has Lean such a comprehensive adaption in the blue-collar world, but is Agile not that widespread in the white-collar world?”

As an Agile enthusiast, this question intrigued me. I see many benefits in Agile for that white-collar world, but I also see a staggered implementation. That made me think about what was happening. I discovered five causes that prevent a wide adoption of Agile. In this article, I share my thoughts about this topic.

Where it is meant?for

Lean is designed to be used in manufacturing. Its design goes back to Japan in 1936 when Toyota got its first truck contract from the government. It had to do something to optimize the processes. At that time, Kaizen was born and later transformed into the Toyota Product System (TPS) and The Toyota Way.

In 1988, the ideas and tools Toyota used were rebranded to Lean by John Krafcik. He wrote an article titled “Triumph of the Lean Product System.” This article states (a) Lean manufacturing plants have higher levels of productivity/quality than non-Lean and (b) “The level of plant technology seems to have little effect on operating performance.” According to the article, risks with implementing Lean can be reduced by: “developing a well-trained, flexible workforce, product designs that are easy to build with high quality, and a supportive, high-performance supplier network.”

So, Lean can be implemented with a significant risk reduction in situations where it is developed. Agile, on the other hand, isn’t designed for a broad range of situations.

Agile goes back to 2001 when a group of software developers discussed improving their working methods. They lent some ideas from Lean and formed the Agile Manifesto.

While the manifesto is a great starting point, it focuses on software development. For example, one of the values states:

Working software over comprehensive documentation

The principles behind the Agile Manifesto are called the Twelve Principles of Agile Software and focus on how software development works. Of course, these values and principles can be easily rewritten to a broader white-collar solution, but that isn’t very common.

So, Lean has a significant advantage when it comes to adaptation. It is meant for the place we try to adapt it: the blue-collar world. We have to make some meaningful translations for Agile to a broader perspective.

Choose the proper framework

I will not talk about how easy it is to transform an organization into Lean or Agile thinking. It is way easier to choose how to start when starting with Lean.

Because Lean consists of multiple practices, you don’t have to start with a complete organization overhaul. Check where you can improve something and start with a Lean practice. If you, for example, find a lack of coordination between team members, you can start with a day-start meeting. If that solves your problem, you can just move on.

There are many easy-to-implement practices from Lean that you can start working with without the need for a complete organizational transformation. This makes it easier to create. You can start anywhere in your organization with a slight improvement.

Within Agile, there are numerous frameworks. Today, we counted over 50 of them. But which one is the right fit for your organization? Implementing a framework is a complete transformation of the way you work. Making the wrong discussion feels like a costly mistake.

When you look at the diverse variety of Agile frameworks, all for different aims, it is almost impossible to start with the right one. But those frameworks also make you feel you must choose and stick to one.

Ease of implementation

Lean consists of multiple practices instead of complete frameworks. That makes it easier to start. You start solving an issue and try to see if that helps your organization. Subsequently, you just move on.

Of course, you don’t have to implement the whole framework to be Agile, but frameworks like Scrum have an end note like:

Scrum is free and offered in this Guide. The Scrum framework, as outlined herein, is immutable. While implementing only parts of Scrum is possible, the result is not Scrum. Scrum exists only in its entirety and functions well as a container for other techniques, methodologies, and practices.

I think this is true, but it also causes uncertainty within organizations. It feels not okay to implement parts, but the whole framework is so much work. So, you must ask yourself, do I need Scrum or a solution? This kind of paragraph gives me the feeling that implementing Scrum should be a goal. This kind of paragraph keeps white-collar companies from starting.

Agile feels way more complicated to implement because you must understand the Agile mindset and framework. And if you start within a large company, you also require multiple frameworks. Scrum, for example, is great if you work with a team, but when you have multiple teams, you need another framework to align those teams.

Every framework has its roles with responsibilities and tasks. Roles you have to fulfill within your team. Of course, Lean has roles: a Sponsor, facilitator, Leader, and Team. But working with Agile, you quickly find yourself defining many roles.

A Scrum team has three roles: Product Owner, Scrum Master, and Developer. But when you scale the way of working in your organization, you require something like SAFe (Scaled Agile Framework). SAFe consists of four levels. The roles are the same on the team level as the Scrum team. Although…

• On the Programme Level, we added a Product Manager, Release Train Engineer, Customer, Business Owner, System Architect/Engineer
• On the Solution Level, we add a Solution Manager, Solutions Architect/Engineer, and a Solution Train Engineer
• On Portfolio Level, we added the SAFe Programme Consultant.

In other words, working with Scrum and Safe describes 12 new roles in your organization!

Education

Lean has an easy-to-understand training curriculum. They use a ‘belt system’ to define the level of Lean knowledge gained. Like a Yellow Belt for beginners, a Green Belt for meditating knowledge, and a Black Belt for individuals who master Lean.

Of course, there will be a difference in the quality of the training, but the levels remain the same. When you look at Agile, there are courses for different roles. But also for each framework. Then, there is a difference in levels per training.

Scrum.org, for example, uses PSM-I, PSM-II, and PSM-III to show the level of Scrum Master knowledge (PSM stands for Professional Scrum Master). ScrumAlliance uses the Certified ScrumMaster, Advanced Certified Scrum Master, and Certified Scrum Professional Scrum Master for their levels.

But that is 3-on-3, so comparable. Well, there are differences. The Scrum.org certification is valid for the rest of your life, while the ScrumAlliance certification has to be renewed every two years.

And that is only the Scrum Master! There are also courses for different frameworks like Scrum, Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe), Large-Scale Scrum (LeSS), Nexus, Scrum@Scale, etc.

So, to implement an Agile approach, you need a lot of knowledge and education to get started.

That Is What Those IT Guys Are?Doing!

As mentioned earlier, Agile has its roots in IT. While the Agile Manifesto is still talking about software development, people in the organization see Agile working as something you require for software development, not other white-collar work.

With some background in IT, I experience that people outside IT sometimes see us like magicians. They have no understanding of what we are doing. We type some characters on our keyboards, and the computer performs some tasks magically. And let’s face it, that is scary like hell!

And that is precisely what makes it so challenging to get that Agile mindset out of IT. Employees outside the IT department see Agile thinking like magic. They believe they must follow education at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry to understand what is happening. They keep seeing Agile as something the Harry Potters and Hermione from the IT department master, not for themselves.

And let’s be honest, with all those frameworks, roles, levels of knowledge, and training institutes, we don’t make it easy for someone outside IT to understand the real power behind Agile: the right mindset!

Conclusion

This article started with the question, “Why has Lean such a comprehensive adaption in the blue-collar world, but is Agile not that widespread in the white-collar world?”. I believe there are multiple reasons for that. The five things I described in this article can be solved easily if we’d like to. We have to stop making things complicated.

Start with a revision of the Agile Manifesto. If we want a broad adoption of Agility in the white-collar world, we must re-write the manifesto for a wider audience. We have to remove the relationship with software and start building a relationship with value, building a relationship with working more customer-centric. We must ensure we deliver the best products and make individuals more important than processes and tools.

Furthermore, we have to stop selling frameworks. A framework can help, but they started to be so complicated that you almost need a Master’s Degree to implement and use them. Go back to the basics. Agile is about value, minimizing waste, collaboration, communication, and people. We don’t need a framework to communicate or collaborate. We don’t need a framework to add value and minimize waste. Likewise, we require the right mindset between our ears!

The framework is not the goal; the outcome for the customer, stakeholders, and employees is the goal.

That will help us choose solutions that bring us closer to our objectives and give us options to use instead of frameworks to implement. That allows us to adopt the agile mindset instead of doing things because the book’s writer tells us to do that.

Make sure we are not magicians with complicated tools no one understands but create a clear mindset. Start with a clear purpose; from there, the ways of working will emerge, not vice versa.

I hope this article will start the movement of Agility and purpose to help more organizations become flexible, resilient, and adaptable to change!