Why You Suck at Scrum: Leadership

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When organizations decide they want to move to Agile ways of working, they sometimes are unaware of the magnitude of the change involved. They often overlook the need to include all levels of leadership in the change process, to determine how their roles may change, and to collaboratively work with this group to define the new ways of working. This oversight will eventually lead to a failure in adoption of the new way of working.

Here are some examples of what you may be seeing if you are struggling with your adoption.

Leadership not bought in, taking part because the larger organization decided to introduce Scrum

• When the different levels of leadership are informed of the intended change in direction to more ‘Agile ways of working’, they are normally not part of the conversation that led to the decision to make the change, and the direction is coming ‘down’ to them
• The response when handled this way is ‘here we go again’, a ‘new way of working’, ‘flavor of the month’ methodology is being dropped in our laps and we are expected to implement the change whether we agree with it or not. Oh and if it fails, it will be our fault.
• This immediate misalignment leads to a lack of understanding, or even a lack of interest in gaining understanding how these changes may be able to help them
• There is a wall thrown up against any potential progress that may have been achieved because it has been forced rather than arrived at collaboratively. Their leadership expertise was not consulted, egos are bruised, and progress grinds to a halt, leaving the organization puzzled as to why the shiny new framework was unsuccessful.

Looking for silver bullet

• For leadership that is part of the process to introduce the shiny new framework, they are normally looking for a silver bullet to solve all of their pain points. This is either because they were sold the new framework to be just that, or they are desperate enough for change, they do not take the time to gain the deep understanding of what will be required to achieve the results they are hoping for

Still command & control

• Leadership in the organization that is attempting to make the change to an ‘Agile way of working’ have been rewarded up until this point for their ability to ‘steer the ship’, ‘drive results’, ‘get the job done’, ‘making all of the important decisions’, and so on
• If performance rewards are not changed to align to the new way of working, how can we expect the leadership to change how they operate? Would you?
• If they have been rewarded for ‘steering the ship’, how can they be expected to empower someone on their team to take on that responsibility?
• If they have been the one expected to ‘make all of the important decisions’, will they be likely to allow anyone else to now make those decisions? Who will be held responsible if things go wrong? Who will get the credit if things go right?
• These leaders still hold onto all of the decision-making power, forcing all decisions to go through them in order to be approved. They will decide what to do, and typically decide how it will be done via a complex and time-consuming approval process. This in no way leads an organization to be able to pivot with any efficiency or low cost. This is not Agility.
• Organizations that fail do not understand this level of change that is needed, and therefore do not work with their leaders to make this type of change

No incentive to change

• If the organization still measures my performance by getting things out the door, and does not focus on how we do it, or what real outcomes were achieved, why should my focus change?

No desire to change

• Too many leaders have the view that they should just keep doing things the way they have always done them. After all, we have delivered things in the past using these methods, projects are just painful by nature, how could there be a better way if it’s been done this way for so long?

Not empowering

• What happens to middle management if we empower the teams to self-organize and manage themselves? Will my job be eliminated? Why would I support this type of change with that possibility?
• How can I support empowering my teams with more decision making authority if it means mine is diminished? What’s in it for me?

These are just a sample of common mistakes that are made surrounding the leadership perspective when organizations try to move to Agile ways of working. Leadership can have a powerful role in positive change, but it takes intentional inclusion of those leaders in the process, and a fundamental shift in their role if you want to see any real progress. If not, you will be fighting an internal battle you will never win, and therefore, never be able to move forward.

This is the second in a series of articles, if you missed the first one you can find it here: Why You Suck at Scrum: The Organization