Top 3 Reasons Why Organizations Focus more on Agile Practices than Principles & Values
- They think it’s “one and the same”
Based on experience, observation, and several interesting discussions, I found out that people often are confused distinguishing Agile practices versus the actual principles & values. They think that “doing Agile” and the same as “being Agile”. People, especially leaders, assume that the organization already “knows it” but actually doesn’t execute or embody these principles & values.
Let me give you an example:
A lot of Scrum Masters I see often ask, “Why aren’t we actually standing up on our Stand-Ups (daily Scrum) and why are we deviating from the three questions we should ask? (What did we do yesterday, what are we doing today, what impediments/blockers do we have?)
While these are definitely good questions to ask; the real question — based on a principles & values perspective would be: “What is hindering us from respecting the timebox and openly collaborating with each other, so that we could focus on getting our work done? This brings about much more meaning and insight rather than spotlighting on the mechanics and techniques that make us “Agile”.
2. It’s easier to teach (plug & play mentality)
Another good reason why organizations or “change agents” gravitate towards practices over principles & values is that it’s easier to teach (and digest) prescribed and tangible techniques versus intangible but essential values.
Take for example the Agile value of Openness. What is easier to teach — how to be open and transparent to all team members (which can get personal if team members are not open to change) or how to flesh out sub-tasks of the Stories during Sprint Planning? No matter how you look at it, people often lean on the tangible over the intangible. Organizations tend to neglect the “touchy-feely” stuff and try to “perfect” the techniques and practices that come with it.
Also, organizations which are new to Agile tend to think that it is mostly a “plug-and-play” framework. Executives and management think that “running” agile practices and ceremonies will solve the company’s biggest problems. From my observation, some think that it will immediately solve issues and bottlenecks that they currently have. This is a false notion that isolates and limits Agile to being just a framework, and not as effective as it should be.
3. It limits resistance (less conflict within the organization)
Last, but definitely not the least, is that teaching, fostering, and reinforcing Agile principles & values just creates more probability for conflict. Connected to the Openness value example I stated earlier, organizations have a harder time coaching these intangible values because it opens up the “human aspect” of Agile. Once this happens, organizations are vulnerable to have more heated debates and battles.
Say for example a manager tries to shoulder-tap the team directly and “shortcuts” the process so that his immediate need is taken care of. How do you prevent this from happening? A Scrum Master might have a conversation with the exact manager or with the Product Owner for him to have that discussion with the manager. But more probable than not, that discussion would create disagreements and broken relationships if one or both parties are not open to collaboration and constructive feedback.
With this “risk” at hand, people tend to focus more the process and just “getting Agile right”. With early stages of Agile adoption, most of the teams may even brag that they are “being Agile” and that there’s no need to improve; even if the values and principles are clearly undermined.
In conclusion, further discussion and collaboration needs to happen for organizations to achieve real transformation and agility. Practices are indeed important — not because of how they are executed, but WHY they are executed. And that “why” comes from the principles & values they stemmed from.
What do you guys think? Do you experience the same challenge of organizations focusing on practices over principles & values?
How we can change the focus from practices to principles & values?
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