YOUR AGILE TRANSFORMATION KEYS Agile... · 01. Agile as an Enabler Agile is not a goal 02. An...
Transcript of YOUR AGILE TRANSFORMATION KEYS Agile... · 01. Agile as an Enabler Agile is not a goal 02. An...
YOUR AGILETRANSFORMATION KEYS
You are a leader and part of an Agile Transformation in your organization. If you are normal, your organization’s Agile Transformation is not
delivering the results that you expect. After years of research, working with organizations like yours, training, and certification of thousands of
leaders worldwide in Agile Leadership, we have a solution.
A WHITEPAPER FROM SHIFT314
PAGE 2 of 16© COPYRIGHT SHIFT314 2020
fter almost twenty years, success with
Agile has remained challenging and elusive. Our
“Agile Transformation Keys” provide specific
guidance on how to steer your current
transformation away from failure and accelerate
it towards success.
We offer you the keys to unlock the success of
your Agile Transformation. Our keys will have
you rethink your approach and redirect your
transformation to produce tangible and
extraordinary improvements in organizational
results.
Agile represents a new way of working together
and leaders are the ones that have the most
A difficult time with the shift to the new way.
The typical techniques and behaviours that
have rewarded our leaders in the past won’t
work in an Agile organization, and they won’t
work when trying to bring Agile into an
organization either. Everyone who aspires to
become an Agile organization desires a higher
level of organizational high-performance
labelling “business as usual” to be
low-performance. The unfortunate trend has
been that thousands of leaders have failed trying
to replace “business as usual” by using a
“business as usual” approach. These answer
keys provide leaders a new way to lead others
and be successful in their Agile Transformation;
to go beyond “business as usual” and to lead a
high-performance organization.
YOUR AGILE TRANSFORMATION KEYS
01. Agile as an EnablerAgile is not a goal
02. An Evolution program Replace your rollout plan
03. Iterate where the interest is Don’t mandate Agile
04. Improve daily work Avoid the big organizational transformation
05. Include the Agile Mindset Not just doing Agile
06. Start with the Leaders Don’t start with teams
07. Focus on Culture and the People Beyond Tactics & Strategy
PAGE 3 of 16© COPYRIGHT SHIFT314 2020
KEY #1
AGILE AS AN ENABLERAGILE IS NOT A GOAL
Although no one intends it, many Agile
Transformations end up with “Agile” as a
goal. Most leaders we work with have Agile
mandates and quotas for a percentage of Agile
coverage, and declare Agile as a way to go for
portions of their organizations. Most times, a
top executive whose career depends on pushing
Agile on everyone to achieve an arbitrary quota
is leading the Agile Transformation.
At first it sounds hard to believe but as we work
with our clients, it becomes clear that no leader
wants “Agile”; they don’t want DevOps, Lean, or
Digital. What leaders of organizations want
instead are the benefits that come from these
programs; not the programs themselves.
We asked thousands of leaders from around the
globe involved with Agile what they really want,
and the answers across industries and countries
are consistently the same:
1. Speed
2. Responsiveness to Change
3. Work Productivity
4. Engaged and Happy Employees
5. Team Effectiveness
When we create initiatives or transformation
programs about rolling out Agile, we distract
leaders with secondary goals typically in conflict
with the organization’s primary goals and
purpose. Essentially, when we create such
programs, we impede the organization’s ability
to achieve organizational goals; something no
leader wants to be responsible for.
Agile is a means, not a goal. A racing team never
makes changing their vehicle a goal. Achieving
the fastest race time is the goal, and any
modification to the vehicle is a means to achieve
the goal.
The solution is deceptively simple. When Agile
is no longer a goal but a means to a goal, people
will include Agile only when it
would deliver value in
achieving the organizational
goals they already have.
Once Agile is no longer a goal,
conversations about including
Agile come up only in the
service of improving the
organization’s ability to achieve its goals. Once
we take off the “Agile Blinders” we create a
space for the exploration of what will better
serve the organization. We can start having real
conversations about what will help us and what
will get in the way.
We run “Why” workshops to help organizations
establish the ‘why’ of their Agile
implementations. When the ‘why’ lines up with
organizational goals, the shift to Agile is
appropriate, purposeful, smooth and effective.
By establishing why people want Agile, we
maintain the organization’s focus on its key
goals.
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PAGE 4 of 16© COPYRIGHT SHIFT314 2020
Although no one intends it, many Agile
Transformations end up with “Agile” as a
goal. Most leaders we work with have Agile
mandates and quotas for a percentage of Agile
coverage, and declare Agile as a way to go for
portions of their organizations. Most times, a
top executive whose career depends on pushing
Agile on everyone to achieve an arbitrary quota
is leading the Agile Transformation.
At first it sounds hard to believe but as we work
with our clients, it becomes clear that no leader
wants “Agile”; they don’t want DevOps, Lean, or
Digital. What leaders of organizations want
instead are the benefits that come from these
programs; not the programs themselves.
We asked thousands of leaders from around the
globe involved with Agile what they really want,
and the answers across industries and countries
are consistently the same:
1. Speed
2. Responsiveness to Change
3. Work Productivity
4. Engaged and Happy Employees
5. Team Effectiveness
When we create initiatives or transformation
programs about rolling out Agile, we distract
leaders with secondary goals typically in conflict
with the organization’s primary goals and
purpose. Essentially, when we create such
programs, we impede the organization’s ability
to achieve organizational goals; something no
leader wants to be responsible for.
Agile is a means, not a goal. A racing team never
makes changing their vehicle a goal. Achieving
the fastest race time is the goal, and any
modification to the vehicle is a means to achieve
the goal.
The solution is deceptively simple. When Agile
is no longer a goal but a means to a goal, people
will include Agile only when it
would deliver value in
achieving the organizational
goals they already have.
Once Agile is no longer a goal,
conversations about including
Agile come up only in the
service of improving the
organization’s ability to achieve its goals. Once
we take off the “Agile Blinders” we create a
space for the exploration of what will better
serve the organization. We can start having real
conversations about what will help us and what
will get in the way.
We run “Why” workshops to help organizations
establish the ‘why’ of their Agile
implementations. When the ‘why’ lines up with
organizational goals, the shift to Agile is
appropriate, purposeful, smooth and effective.
By establishing why people want Agile, we
maintain the organization’s focus on its key
goals.
“Agile”is a means,
not a goal.
PAGE 5 of 16© COPYRIGHT SHIFT314 2020
KEY #2
AN EVOLUTION PROGRAM REPLACE YOUR ROLLOUT PLAN
There are two significant problems that
arise when there is a “rollout plan” for
Agile Transformation. The first is the word
“rollout” and the second is the word “plan”.
Using the word “rollout” reveals an underlying
belief that leaders can manipulate and control
the organizational system and the people in it
like a piece of machinery. This traditional and
simplistic approach does not recognize the
substantial operational complexity of
organizational systems and assumes that one
can predict or engineer human behaviour. When
transforming the organization, a leader’s goal is
to elevate beyond the traditional mindset, and
Agile is the opportunity to do so.
A transformation is a fundamental shift in
functioning that comes from changes to mindset
and practice. Agile is a new mindset and
practice. Using a “rollout plan” is a traditional
business model and a mindset contrary to Agile
itself. You can’t use “business as usual” to go
beyond “business as usual”.
Using the word “plan” impedes the very progress
intended with Agile. When we look at the
definition of Agile in the Agile Manifesto, we see
that there is more value in “Responding to
Change over Following a Plan”. To achieve
high-performance, healthy Agile teams always
have plans yet they place much more value in
responding to feedback, lessons, new
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information, new ideas, and innovation.
When we do new things, we always learn more
about how and what we should do as we go
along. When Agile teams create their plans, they
hold full intent to “Respond to Change”
and adapt as they make progress
on what they do and how
they do it. Agile teams
quickly adjust their plan
in real time to
capitalize on
everything they learn
along the way.
When working within a
complex system such as an
organization of people, it is very
unlikely one could predict how to shift
the organizational system towards higher
performance. The level of complexity of an
organizational shift is very high because of the
enormous number of permutations between
human relationships, group dynamics,
operational interactions, and external
influences. The Cynefin Framework by David
Snowden and his call for an emergent approach
is an invaluable source of insight. In complex
systems, success comes when leaders shift from
a paradigm of “We have got this” to “Let’s
continue to discover how to move forward”.
To unlock high-performance, replace your
“Rollout Plan” with an “Organizational
Evolution” program. Use “Inspect & Adapt”
cycles and small “safe-to-fail” experiments
(which we like to refer to as “safe-to-learn”
experiments). Design these experiments to
understand more about the
organizational shift and with the
lessons learned, continue to
adapt and evolve towards
the desired state.
The key to
organizational
evolution – like any
other complex project -
is learning. The Agile
Manifesto is about
“uncovering better ways of
working”. To leverage the essence of
Agile to succeed, leaders confident with a clear
vision must invite and inspire others to help
them learn how to achieve it together.
The key to
organizational evolution
– like any other complex
project - is learning and
adapting.
PAGE 7 of 16© COPYRIGHT SHIFT314 2020
KEY #3
ITERATE WHERE THE INTEREST IS DON’T MANDATE AGILE
Agile has proven to be an effective
approach to how people organize
themselves around any kind of project to
increase performance; it is not just for software
projects anymore. Agile is a best practice to
support business agility in a broader sense.
Many leaders keen to maximize operational
efficiency and performance of their
organizations have taken steps to begin
initiatives to have the whole organization do
Agile. The conclusion assumes that if Agile is
such a good thing for all, that it would be best if
everyone standardized on it immediately.
Decades of practice in organizations have
demonstrated that mandating Agile turns out to
be detrimental and counter-productive. In fact,
the very act of mandating Agile is contrary to
becoming Agile; that’s like trying to use water to
make things dry. Mandating Agile is a “business
as usual” behavior trying to improve on
“business as usual”; it is easy to recognize the
paradox and conundrum.
Research in trends today reveals considerable
“resistance” by people involved with Agile
Transformations, with very rare exception.
People in these transformations aren’t resisting
Agile, they are resisting the change because
mandated change typically adds work, adds
ambiguity, and can sometimes be scary. In
contrast, the Agile mindset aims to involve
people in efforts to improve how things work.
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The Agile mindset is about improving people’s
working conditions so they can reduce the
amount of work, be adaptive, and be successful;
people typically embrace, not resist Agile. The
truth of the matter is that mandating Agile is
NOT AGILE.
Mandating means making people do something,
in fact, you are forcing them.
An Agile approach to change
would be to include and
empower the people in the
process of change.
Instead of a mandatory “big
bang” approach where every person and every
team has to move to an Agile way of working,
start with those individuals and teams keen to
make a change. What leads to big shifts in
organizational performance is to include the
people and use an iterative and incremental
approach to evolve towards Agile – which is
what Agile is all about, anyway. Team by team,
the organization will move piece-by-piece,
where it makes sense, incrementally, towards
better ways of working for long lasting change
and far better results.
INVITEGet started with the people who are already
excited about making a change and help them
be successful. Everyone wants to be successful.
Some people need more time or want to see
how it goes for others first. As a leader, make
that OK, so nobody is lesser for sitting and
watching first. When they see others improve
their performance, they will usually do so
themselves.
ITERATEHelp the team start with the Agile practices that
make sense to them – not everything. Then help
them evolve and extend what
they are using over time. As the
team iterates, they evolve their
work practices as they learn
how to work better together
and with other groups. There is
no value in mandating a team to use a practice
that does not help them.
INCREMENTLaunch teams with Agile incrementally and
enable them after they feel they are ready. As
your teams change and produce results, they will
inspire others to do so. As a leader, manage your
rate of change to balance the gain of maximum
benefit from each increment without stagnating.
“Mandating Agile,
is not Agile”
PAGE 9 of 16© COPYRIGHT SHIFT314 2020
KEY #4
IMPROVE DAILY WORKAVOID THE BIG ORGANIZATIONAL TRANSFORMATION
Statistics reveal an extraordinarily high
failure rate in Agile Transformations. The
first challenge organizations don’t realize they
face is with the word ‘Transformation”, as there
is usually organizational fatigue around all large
change programs. Most change initiatives
usually miss the mark and cause just as much
harm as good because they begin without the
input and involvement of the people they affect.
In fact, they often interfere with getting work
done. As a result, most people are so well
conditioned that they will consider any
transformation initiative negatively and resist
consciously, or unconsciously.
The second challenge is that it is normal for
people to react with fear when they are told that
they need to undertake a transformational
change because it seems so daunting. This fear
works against you, as when people are in fear
they cannot function at their full potential.
There is scientific evidence that a reduction in
one’s psychological safety will reduce their
ability to reason. When leading knowledge
workers, it is critical to avoid fear as a product
or by-product of strategy.
In high performance organizations, improving
how things work is part of everyone’s job and
for most of those in the organization, it is their
desire. When you create a work environment
where people have the opportunity to improve
how the organization is functioning, you achieve
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long-term gains in performance. Effective and
powerful change comes from many small
improvements, not big dramatic changes.
Instead of investing in a large transformation,
make many small investments in time to allow
people to make things better in their daily work.
When all levels of management are focused on
improving the daily working conditions in the
organization,
performance will
increase. Change
becomes much more
natural and effective
when people work with
their leaders and
managers and
continuous improvement is integrated into
work. Learning cultures are a virtue of
high-performance organizations and this
approach embeds a learning culture in your
organization.
“Daily improvements
lead to big shifts over time.”
PAGE 11 of 16© COPYRIGHT SHIFT314 2020
KEY #5
INCLUDE THE AGILE MINDSET NOT JUST DOING AGILE
It is common that Agile Transformations
focus on Agile process and practices and
made structural changes that create new groups
to place people in cross-functional teams. It is
common to make strategic decisions on the use
of Scrum or Kanban and decided on either the
distributed, centralized or hybrid approach to
introduce certified ScrumMasters and Agile
coaches into the organization. In most cases,
Agile Transformations deploy new software to
support new Agile operations. It is likely your
Agile Transformation has done the same.
If this remains the scope of your Agile
Transformation, these changes will achieve
limited - if any - improvements in organizational
results. It is likely any improvement in
organizational results will not meet your
expectations. Almost all Agile Transformations
disregard the most significant part of Agile.
When you admire an incredible photograph,
you could mimic what the photographer does
yet as circumstances are always different, you
will achieve limited results. Without knowing
why they do what they do, you cannot achieve
their results. Something hidden underneath the
surface of the techniques, processes, and
practices of what the photographer does is the
reason for their success.
Agile is both “doing” and “being”. Leaders
typically support Agile initiatives with people
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“doing Agile” - which includes the techniques,
processes, practices, job descriptions,
organizational structure, and software. With a
focus on “doing Agile”, the “being Agile” usually
gets lost and Agile Transformations fail unless
both parts are included. Being Agile or the
“Agile Mindset” is the more elusive yet valuable
of the two parts and will produce the results
everyone aspires to.
If you are not sure what the Agile Mindset is or
how to introduce it, then what you are probably
leading is an “Agile Adoption”
program and will achieve limited
improvements in organizational
results. If you want to lead a
program to achieve substantial
improvements in organizational
results, you would require the organization’s
fundamental shift in mindset.
The mindset of being Agile incorporates how
people behave when leaders aren’t looking. It is
the values and how people choose to work
together. Agile is about placing value in people
and finding ways to help them get their work
done.
For a full explanation of the di�erences between
Agile Adoption and Agile Transformation, please
reference the book: Sahota, Michael, “An Agile
Adoption & Transformation Survival Guide: Working
with Culture”.
“Agile is both doing and being.”
PAGE 13 of 16© COPYRIGHT SHIFT314 2020
KEY #6
START WITH THE LEADERSDON’T START WITH TEAMS
When we approach Agile from a Team
Perspective, the role of the leader usually
becomes an afterthought. The usual approach to
Agile which is to train and coach teams to move
to an Agile process is backwards. Rarely do we
support the leaders.
The usual approach with Agile is to set up
autonomous self-organizing teams. The official
role for a manager in Scrum – the most popular
version of Agile – is nothing. There is no role for
a manager.
VersionOne’s research shows that 45% of
organizations report the “Lack of Management
Support” as a challenge experienced when
adopting and scaling Agile (VersionOne, 14th
Annual State of Agile Report). Often, their roles
become conflicted as they do their best to bridge
between the existing power structures and the
new Agile ones. With Agile, managers who are “in
charge” of the organization are being
dis-enfranchised and labeled as resistors.
The process level training for Scrum or SAFe
(Scaled Agile Framework) is meant for teams and
products and not for managers. Teams get
specific training and coaching and managers are
unlikely to have any significant help to make the
shift to a new way of working and being.
Managers are the leaders of organizations. They
are put in charge of what happens because of
their intelligence and experience. To put the
Agile Mindset at the forefront, have managers
lead and help guide the introduction of Agile in
ways that actually fit their organizational context.
Have them responsible for modeling the Agile
Mindset of learning by running experiments to
iteratively and incrementally change the
organization.
When managers - like teams - are provided the
intensive training and coaching
to support their jump to the Agile
Mindset, they would learn how
to create a healthy environment
for Agile, how to evolve the
organization and how to lead in a
new way. Ultimately, there will
be team level training and
intensive coaching, but this will happen as
leaders are able to support team transitions.
For both in-progress transformations and
established Agile organizations, a strong focus on
leaders is often the missing piece for unlocking
success and taking growth to the next level.
Starting with leaders will be the most effective
approach, however, it is better late than never.
When consulting with organizations, we have
found this to be a very practical and powerful
approach – Consciously Approaching Agile. We
have received extraordinary feedback on our
public training from managers around the world.
Managers can see not only how they play a key
role in the organization's future but how to lead
the new way of working and being.
6
When we approach Agile from a Team
Perspective, the role of the leader usually
becomes an afterthought. The usual approach to
Agile which is to train and coach teams to move
to an Agile process is backwards. Rarely do we
support the leaders.
The usual approach with Agile is to set up
autonomous self-organizing teams. The official
role for a manager in Scrum – the most popular
version of Agile – is nothing. There is no role for
a manager.
VersionOne’s research shows that 45% of
organizations report the “Lack of Management
Support” as a challenge experienced when
adopting and scaling Agile (VersionOne, 14th
Annual State of Agile Report). Often, their roles
become conflicted as they do their best to bridge
between the existing power structures and the
new Agile ones. With Agile, managers who are “in
charge” of the organization are being
dis-enfranchised and labeled as resistors.
The process level training for Scrum or SAFe
(Scaled Agile Framework) is meant for teams and
products and not for managers. Teams get
specific training and coaching and managers are
unlikely to have any significant help to make the
shift to a new way of working and being.
Managers are the leaders of organizations. They
are put in charge of what happens because of
their intelligence and experience. To put the
Agile Mindset at the forefront, have managers
lead and help guide the introduction of Agile in
ways that actually fit their organizational context.
Have them responsible for modeling the Agile
Mindset of learning by running experiments to
iteratively and incrementally change the
organization.
When managers - like teams - are provided the
intensive training and coaching
to support their jump to the Agile
Mindset, they would learn how
to create a healthy environment
for Agile, how to evolve the
organization and how to lead in a
new way. Ultimately, there will
be team level training and
intensive coaching, but this will happen as
leaders are able to support team transitions.
For both in-progress transformations and
established Agile organizations, a strong focus on
leaders is often the missing piece for unlocking
success and taking growth to the next level.
Starting with leaders will be the most effective
approach, however, it is better late than never.
When consulting with organizations, we have
found this to be a very practical and powerful
approach – Consciously Approaching Agile. We
have received extraordinary feedback on our
public training from managers around the world.
Managers can see not only how they play a key
role in the organization's future but how to lead
the new way of working and being.
PAGE 14 of 16© COPYRIGHT SHIFT314 2020
“Managers lead the shift in
mindset”
PAGE 15 of 16© COPYRIGHT SHIFT314 2020
Agile is about Doing and Being; success
with Agile includes the Agile Mindset. Agile
is about a shift in organizational culture. To gain
value from the new ways of working shown
through Agile, we require a new way of being: a
shift in mindset or consciousness representative
of a high performance culture.
“If you do not manage culture, it
manages you, and you may not
even be aware of the extent to
which this is happening.”
(Edgar Schein, Professor
MIT Sloan School of
Management)
Common of every transformation program is a
tight focus on tactics and strategy while ignoring
culture, or there is a low level of maturity in the
approach to culture itself. Without focus on
culture, the organization loses sight of what Agile
is about: the people.
Peter Drucker said: “Culture
eats strategy for breakfast.” We
add that: “Strategy eats Tactics
for afternoon tea.” To create a
transformational result, it is
essential to focus on culture
first - not as an afterthought.
We need to go beyond the
“If you do not manage
culture,it manages
you”
traditional approaches to culture and leadership.
“Research shows that while organizations expect
new leadership capabilities, they are still largely
promoting traditional models and mindsets”
(Deloitte, Global Human Capital Trends). A
values program is only a part of what is needed to
create a shift in your culture. An integrated
understanding of culture, leadership and
organizational evolution is required to create a
lasting shift in performance.
We unleash the evolutionary capabilities of
people and organizations. Through education,
training and consulting we shift consciousness
and mindset that enable new ways of working to
realize the extraordinary.
Contact us at - http://SHIFT314.com/
Download this WhitePaper at: http://SHIFT314.com/7
KEY #7
FOCUS ON CULTURE AND THE PEOPLE BEYOND TACTICS & STRATEGY
7
Agile is about Doing and Being; success
with Agile includes the Agile Mindset. Agile
is about a shift in organizational culture. To gain
value from the new ways of working shown
through Agile, we require a new way of being: a
shift in mindset or consciousness representative
of a high performance culture.
“If you do not manage culture, it
manages you, and you may not
even be aware of the extent to
which this is happening.”
(Edgar Schein, Professor
MIT Sloan School of
Management)
Common of every transformation program is a
tight focus on tactics and strategy while ignoring
culture, or there is a low level of maturity in the
approach to culture itself. Without focus on
culture, the organization loses sight of what Agile
is about: the people.
Peter Drucker said: “Culture
eats strategy for breakfast.” We
add that: “Strategy eats Tactics
for afternoon tea.” To create a
transformational result, it is
essential to focus on culture
first - not as an afterthought.
We need to go beyond the
traditional approaches to culture and leadership.
“Research shows that while organizations expect
new leadership capabilities, they are still largely
promoting traditional models and mindsets”
(Deloitte, Global Human Capital Trends). A
values program is only a part of what is needed to
create a shift in your culture. An integrated
understanding of culture, leadership and
organizational evolution is required to create a
lasting shift in performance.
We unleash the evolutionary capabilities of
people and organizations. Through education,
training and consulting we shift consciousness
and mindset that enable new ways of working to
realize the extraordinary.
Contact us at - http://SHIFT314.com/
Download this WhitePaper at: http://SHIFT314.com/7
PAGE 16 of 16© COPYRIGHT SHIFT314 2020
Michael SahotaThought Leader, Enterprise Coach, Author and Trainer.
Audree SahotaConsultant, Trainer, Consciousness and Personal Growth Coach, Energetic Healer and Author.
Ron LaudadioLeadership Performance &Executive Consultant, Conscious Agile Thought Leader, and Organizational Transformer.
Mar5,2020
Illustrations by Marc HundlebyA number of the drawings were inspired by the Bikablo publications, www.bikablo.com