What do you do when you are hired by an organization that professes to be Agile, then after onboarding, you find out it’s all talk, no walk? As an Agile practitioner, you may stumble into an environment where you see some “semblance” of Agile practices, but a closer look would reveal that they are only going through the motions and there’s no life in their practice, hence no results.
What do you do? How do you bring Agile to ‘Agile’?
Some time ago, I found myself in such an organization where Agile talk was prioritized over the walk. Buzzwords flew around like meteors and all the ceremonies were in place, but the entire culture appeared monolithic (read: impervious to change) yet if you asked, they’d swear they were doing Agile. You know just what I mean. đ
After a detailed reconnaissance, my diagnosis revealed an organization stuck in the old ways despite all the tell-tale signs of âdoomâ: asynchronous teams at each otherâs necks while overbearing management constantly breathed down the necks of everyone, plummeting innovation, loss of revenue and a high staff turnover. Earlier in my career, I would have just jumped in all gung-ho like the cavalry to save the day, but this time, professional maturity called for restraint. From my lens, it was evident that the pain of staying the same was not yet greater than the âpainâ of transformation; a premature intervention was likely to backfire, akin to helping a butterfly out of its chrysalis before its time.
So, how did I handle it? What was my strategy?
*Build Trust, your Foundation: I gradually morphed into the âsolutions manâ by making it a cardinal point of duty to help where I could. I worked on building relationships across the hierarchy, embodying the elements of both servant and system leadership. I demonstrated empathy to the teams, constantly prioritizing their well-being and development. With management, I was more subtle; I deployed the system leader mode as I prioritized understanding over being understood (Thank You, Professor Stephen Covey đ). This meant working to understand the organizational ecosystem, identifying interdependencies and systemic issues. Of course, lunches, off-hour cocktails and the occasional late-night hangouts were not off-limits either. I just bid my time whilst being generally helpful, building linkages and relationship across board. I also worked covertly to identify listening ears- allies or champions, if you will. Building trust meant building influence where it mattered.
*Find A Crisis, Use It: My swimming coach once told me that the best time to save a struggling swimmer is what he calls Omega Point- that point at which he is most willing to be saved having tried his best and failed. In this case, the Omega Point opportunity came when the growing internal crisis coalesced in the form of budgets being constantly overshot by as much as 300%. At the same time, the need to improve margins became glaring, highlighting the harsh reality that our business process needed urgent transformation. This crisis was a gift as it provided the sink or swim situation I needed to push for a much-need reality check within the company.
*âGiftâ Them a âMirrorâ: Having already built trust, my ally got me into âthe roomâ and I got the organization (read: management here) to take a reluctant but honest look in the mirror via a presentation, making no bones about the fact that the organization was on the highway to obscurity with the prevailing culture and practices. Of course, I had their attention now and they were willing and ready for the change I always knew they needed, so the once elusive buy-in was a shoo-in and the road to true Agile transformation was clear. The next step was getting a business unit to volunteer to be the prototype for true Agile transformation. The results of this âtest caseâ would ultimately secure even greater traction and buy-in to extend the transformation to other units.
*Unleash the Change: To start the liberation of the unit, I set about cultivating open dialogues by establishing a safe space for open conversations. I encouraged teams to voice concerns and ideas without fear of retribution as transparent communication is the bedrock of any Agile transformation that would truly empower teams and ensure organizational success.
The moral of my story? This strategic approach to Agile transformation became the launchpad that thrust the organization into an authentically successful Agile transformation journey and gifted me a guiding principle that has remained with me since: Timing will always be critical, as an Agile transformation journey might be too early, too late, or just in time.
So, tell me: have you had any encounters with organizations who were âdoingâ Agile yet were not agile? How did you handle the challenge?
Do share your experience in the comment section.