Leading an Agile transformation is like change management on steroids. It can be very complex, ambiguous, chaotic, and overwhelming. With an Agile transformation, you’re not just trying to manage a change event. You’re also trying to implement a new culture, new way of leading, new capabilities, new processes & practices, new roles, new communication & collaboration channels, new talent management, new structure and design, new performance measurements, etc., etc.!
The reason a lot of agile transformations really struggle is the organization gets caught up in quickly jumping into implementing the more well-known Agile tactical team practices such as Scrums, Sprints, Backlog, etc. Obviously, there’s nothing wrong with starting new practices in the smaller team project management. However, an Agile transformation needs a much bigger viewpoint, especially if the team plans to scale up the Agile implementation to the whole enterprise.
If organizational leaders only think about implementing the new methodology and practices, it doesn’t give enough attention to the Agile principles, mindset, behavior, and leadership that must be in place for the Agile practices and processes to work. It’s a complete shift in mindset and behaviors that organizations can sometimes neglect. They may be more technically and tactically inclined and focused on using the different Agile tactics to increase delivery speed as soon a possible.
Implementing an Agile Transformation
Consider scrum masters who have worked in waterfall for many years at older companies, with a lot of structure and detail, already ingrained in their culture. They try to run a short scrum standup meeting and are supposed to let the team members give the typical stand-up input: what they did yesterday, what they’re doing today, and what impediments they may experience. They should then ask how they or other team members can help with the impediments. However, I’ve seen scrum masters grill their team members and try to dig deeper and deeper. The meeting runs way too long, the team members are stressed, and the Agile way gets misinterpreted as having big brother watching you even more, ready to judge you or call you out.
A Difficult Culture Change
You may have a new Agile team that is comprised of people who are not as socially inclined as other employees. They’re used to more isolated working conditions with little or no communication and collaboration channels. Then you tell them they will now be communicating and collaborating in a small team environment as well as connecting more with the business side. Oh, and they have to stand up in front of a group to report their work every day. You’re asking your employees to work at odds with their ingrained behaviors and culture from their organization, their functions, and many, many years of working a certain way.
Many of the scrum team members and scrum masters may roll their eyes when you talk about learning how to lead an Agile transformation and become a good Agile team member. You can talk about the practices and behaviors they must learn in order to connect in a way that speeds up product delivery time. However, if you don’t teach them the proper mindsets and behaviors and show them by example, they will keep falling back to their old approach, and the Agile implementation will just become confusing and frustrating for the employees and the leaders.