Quick Reminder: Agile Is More Than a Method
You and your team want to work Agile? You’ve received the order to do so? You start working with Scrum or try your hand at Kanban or Design Thinking? Be aware: You are not just using methods.
Agile promises a lot, and rightly so: results are achieved faster and better, customer needs, their feasibility and business objectives are combined in a very good way. The employees’ know-how is used to the maximum, motivation increases. The organization gets agile and fast. Customers, employees and suppliers become more satisfied. Agile methods and instruments are easily understood, catchy and introduced quickly. The advantages seem obvious. So why is it still so difficult to introduce Agile in the company?
Sounds Good! Let’s Do It!
People and organizations usually change when they are dissatisfied: “We are not flexible enough, we are inefficient and too slow! We could be better. We must be better! We WANT to be better!” In searching for solutions, agile methods are attracting more and more attention. Agile will help us to finally improve our processes! However, in our great, impatient, yet hopeful anticipation, we like to overlook one important detail: Agile requires a certain degree of maturity and thus a certain understanding of organization. Otherwise Agile and its methods cannot work or at least cannot work well.
In for a Penny…
And so we are often “in for the penny”, saying “YES” to Agile methods. But we hesitate to invest the pound, refusing to see that Agile philosophy redefines central questions of how to run a business. Examples:
- Responsibility: Everyone participates in the success of the project or the company and wants to be responsible for it. It is necessary that people are allowed to take responsibility and that they do so./1/
- Motivation, trust & control: Everyone is self-motivated to use all their skills and abilities to contribute to the common cause. So more emphasis is laid on trust and less on control./2/
- Learning or failure: It is never possible to make accurate predictions because we live in a complex world of uncertainty. Therefore, failures are inevitable. This is good because learning and improving are only possible through failing. Everyone is willing to accept failure,/3/ the whole organization learns from it.
- Value creation & success: Not only quantitative or financial criteria are decisive, but also qualitative criteria are meaningful and add value (e.g. customer and employee satisfaction and learning success)./4/
These examples clearly show that Agile is based on very different values than efficiency- and instruction-driven, hierarchical and controlling organizations: corporate goals are defined in a completely different way and by others, and the paths to achieving them are also set very differently.
It is only natural that many of the “traditional” structures and management methods in the agile environment not only contribute less to good results, they even prevent them./5/ Therefore, if you want to solve problems successfully (!) with the help of Agile, you have to make the change on two levels: 1. Create structures by introducing and using agile methods. 2. Simultaneously integrating agile values by living and demanding them consistently and thus replacing the old values./6/
… But Sometimes Not In for the Pound
Of course, you can also use agile instruments without adopting the attitude behind them. Mind you, though, that will lead to conflicts. And these conflicts in turn could prevent smooth and solution-oriented processes. Exactly those processes with which we are actually trying to solve problems and achieve better results. Moreover, all this could become a very risky game because of the constant conflict-laden stress tests for teams, departments and whole organizations. All of them can get into dangerous imbalances, be distracted from their actual job and, in the worst case, become unable to work for longer.
To avoid this, we better NOT succumb to the temptations of agile methods. Instead, we should ask ourselves as openly and honestly as possible to what extent agile beliefs and values apply to us and others in our environment. Are we ourselves, our bosses, employees, colleagues, customers, suppliers (!) and stakeholders willing to give up control, to have trust in individuals and group decisions? To establish an appropriate culture of failure and learning? To give up privileges and status? Are we ready to face up to this challenge?
So, are we really prepared to set out to become a real agile organization instead of one that only scratches the surface? To say yes not only to agile methods but also to an agile world view? In other words: Are we ready to invest not only the penny but also the pound? Then and only then: Go for it!
Because then it will be worthwhile.
Notes
/1/ Generally within the scope of his possibilities, but especially within the scope of his role.
/2/ Control in the sense of checking the results is seen as an important organizational task, for which the group and not the individual is responsible.
/3/ Because the agile world view recognizes that this is the inevitable reality of life anyway.
/4/To prevent agile organizations from turning this into an empty postulate, this is built into agile working frameworks as a structural element, e.g. in the corresponding role concepts or feedback methods.
/5/ In concrete terms, this often means, for example, that diplomatic-political interference takes place, role definitions are softened through tactical-political gimmicks, or priorities are shifted outside the responsible committees, even though an agile process had been agreed upon. Whoever allows this to happen permanently puts positive results at risk. Because the major conflicts that are inevitable as a result lead far away from the goal of smooth and result-oriented processes.
/6/ This rule applies to every change, of course, but probably especially to agile change.
About the Author
Edgar is a management consultant, team developer and an (Agile) business coach based in Munich/Germany. He is a passionate team player. For a long time, he’s been working in publishing and IT. Today, he works across industries. What else? Married with three children, loves music, writing and reading. More info on: rodehack.de
