Don’t Wait to Course Correct Your Agile Transformation

One of the biggest mistakes that leaders can make in “going Agile” is to assume that “Agile” is a process change, or like other “rollouts” or change initiatives that they have undertaken in the past. It is not like Y2K. It is not like Sarbanes Oxley. It is not like Lean Six Sigma.

It is like none of those, because for Agile ideas to work, people not only need to learn new things, but they need to change how they think.

If you dismiss that, you guarantee failure.

Agile transformation is not about execution: it is about the mental models that people have

Think of it this way: Suppose that you want your kids to become more studious. Do you think that sending them to training in how to study well will make them more studious? For some it might, but for most it will not, because their mindset is not studious. They not only need to learn new techniques, but they also need to change their values about what is important to them, and embrace new behaviors across the board.

Agile is like that, because while other transformations were about new processes, agility requires that people not follow a process: it requires that people learn to think for themselves, to make contextual decisions. They need to give up the rules, and make good judgments. That is the only way to behave in an agile manner, reacting quickly to change.

At this point you might be inclined to give up: “I can never get my people to change at such a fundamental level.” But you can, if you are smart about it. Change is possible, if you address all the aspects that would block change and are persistent. People not only need to learn new patterns, but they need to have new incentives, and sense new expectations from their leaders. And they need continuous reminders and nudging.

Agile is not a new process: it is a new climate.

It is critical to create the right mental model early

Giving people the wrong training, the wrong surveys, the wrong consultants—these all squander the confidence that is so essential for success.

If you approach Agile transformation in the wrong way, you invest precious social capital in ways that will not pan out. People hear that there is an Agile transformation, and they sigh and say to themselves, “Another initiative that will disrupt my work,” but they go along with it. But if after six months or a year things are not going well, and it seems that what they have been trying has not really helped, they will feel dispirited and depleted, and will be increasingly skeptical of changes in the direction of the initiative.

And if you have given them training, and it was the wrong training, they will not want to take more training. And if you have given them surveys, and these were the wrong surveys, your people will not want to take more surveys. And the same is true of talking to consultants: your teams will not want to see one raft of consultants replaced by another and another. So starting off in the right direction is important.

Don’t wait!

If you sense that you might be going in the wrong direction, now is the time to do something about it! A wait-and-see approach will be costly. 

Waiting means that people are investing time, energy, and confidence in something that will not work.

Waiting while going in the wrong direction means that you are actually descending into the chasm, from which climbing out might be impossible

Waiting means reducing your chance of ever being able to attain actual agility, which is necessary for survival in today’s environment.