Transition first.
Transforming to an agile way of working ain't easy.
I heard recently of yet another “agile stall” in a firm looking to transform their digital operations. Having learned from failing in corporate transformations, I get it.
Agile Transformations ought to start with a transition. A bottom up approach wins. It is a proven recipe.
As a seasoned agile coach, I've seen many organizations grapple with the transition to Agile. It can feel like a massive undertaking, especially when you're facing entrenched business processes and a risk-averse culture. But here's a recipe I've learned: Agile adoption doesn't have to be a revolution. It can be a series of well-planned, strategic managed changes.
The Power of Incremental Adoption
Instead of attempting a top-down, organization-wide Agile mandate, I advocate for a more organic, bottom-up approach. Here's how it works:
1. Identify Early Adopters: Look for teams or individuals who are already curious or frustrated with the status quo. These are your Agile champions.
2. Form Volunteer Scrum Teams: Allow these volunteers to self-organize into Scrum teams. This fosters a sense of ownership and enthusiasm.
3. Focus on Pragmatic Results: Emphasize delivering tangible, valuable results early and often. This builds trust and momentum.
4. Adhere to a Solid Economic Model: Ensure that your Agile teams are working on initiatives that align with the organization's broader goals and have a clear business case.
5. Celebrate and Share Successes: When your Scrum teams achieve wins, make sure they are recognized and celebrated. Share their stories to inspire others.
Empowering Product Teams
In my experience, product teams are often the ideal starting point for Agile transformation. Here's why:
● Customer Focus: Product teams are inherently focused on delivering value to customers. This aligns perfectly with the Agile principle of customer-centricity.
● Autonomy: Empowering product teams to make their own decisions within the Agile framework can lead to faster innovation and increased engagement.
● Market Orientation: Product teams have a deep understanding of the market landscape, which is invaluable when prioritizing and planning work.
Creating a Culture of Patience and Support
Agile transformations take time. It's crucial to create a culture of patience and support within the organization. Here are some tips:
● Provide Training and Coaching: Equip your teams with the knowledge and skills they need to succeed with Agile.
● Remove Impediments: Identify and remove any obstacles that are hindering your teams' progress.
● Celebrate Learning: Encourage a culture of experimentation and learning from mistakes.
The Ripple Effect
As your early adopter teams achieve success, their enthusiasm and results will start to influence others. Soon, you'll find that more and more teams are eager to try Agile for themselves. This is how a bottom-up approach can gradually transform an entire organization.
My Agile Recipe:
● Small wins over big bangs: Focus on incremental progress, not radical change.
● Volunteerism over mandates: Empower people to embrace Agile on their own terms. Guide this carefully.
● Results over rhetoric: Prove the value of Agile through tangible outcomes: working features, improved feedback from customers, and new profit.
● Economic sense over dogma: Always align Agile practices with business goals.
● Patience over panic: Trust the process and give Agile time to take root.
I may disagree with bottom-up as the focuses tend to shift toward teams mostly and keep the upper level process older and becomes somewhat a clash when meet in middle as companies would call it a compromise but non incremental approach. Volunteerism is good approach as it'd be an unlike a push and grasp the learning better as well as accepting. In order for the process to fully get into its sole adaption is by all levels collaboratively work in that environment, volunteering would be excellent but as more occasions that may not be the case. I wouldn't call it a big bang but a small product can be a good start. Teams from bottom may be considered a bit organizational siloed. Hope this helps.
-Cyrus