Agile Mindset: Life is great, I work agile

As a Business Consultant, I mainly work in Agile organizations/projects. Personally, I find the principles of an Agile method very pleasant, in fact, you could say that I am an Agile evangelist. Nevertheless, I see many organizations struggling enormously with the Agile method and you could even wonder whether it is wise to (start) working Agile at all. There’s nothing wrong with the traditional waterfall method, right? No, certainly not, if a waterfall method fits the culture, projects, and environment of the organization, there is nothing wrong with it and I advise you to continue with it. If an Agile method is better suited, because, for example, more agility is required for changes, it makes sense to consider a transition.

There are plenty of lists on the internet that describe Agile (transformation) pitfalls. I won’t do that to you, I also don’t like writing a Ctrl+c Ctrl+v story. I prefer to give examples from my own practical experience.

Mindset and expectations of Agile working

Where things sometimes go wrong is creating the right mindset and expectations within the organization. Agile requires a different style of working, is not an obvious way, and takes effort to implement. It would be quite special if an organization undergoes an Agile transformation or works Agile without a fight. After all, Agile working is a continuous process of improvement and that starts with changing and making mistakes, recognizing them, and adapting to them.

Agile mindset 

Many organisations forget that the framework and processes come later and are less important than the Agile Mindset. 

What is this mysterious agile mindset? 

• Focus on Business Value: focus less on the fixed plan that was defined months or even years ago. Instead, focus on the value you want to deliver towards your customers 
• Pride and ownership: be proud of what you are building and feel responsible, as a team, for what you are doing 
• Embrace change: change, whether good or bad, is part of life. Nowadays, change comes often and fast, and by not resisting change but embracing it, you don’t trail behind the competition. You are part of the innovation on the market 
• Collaborate and learn: create a learning environment. Knowledge is one of the key assets of any good team. By creating an environment where learning is promoted, teams are able to experiment, fail fast and keep delivering optimal business value. As Henry Ford once said: “The only thing worse than training your employees and having them leave is not training them and having them stay.” 

The goal of agile is to quickly deliver business value. This means changing more than just your delivery teams. You need to shorten your decision-making cycle, empower your teams, and instil the agile mindset within your entire organisation. 

To be truly agile, focus on these three pillars: 

• Agile culture: not only your delivery teams, but the entire organisation needs to be on board and support the new way of working 
• Innovative strategy: meet digital disruptors head on and understand how to evolve your core products and services before your competitors do
• Effective technology: make technology work for you. Don’t become dependent on the limitations of technology stacks, but use technology to enable your business value delivery 

That’s where our transformation teams come in. Devoteam strongly believes that having a team to support you through your different transformation activities can enable you to deliver the value needed to retain, attract and satisfy customers. 

Buy-in

Where things also go wrong frequently is the buy-in within the organization. Does the organization want to change? I don’t mind sleepers, as long as they’re on the track. In general, Agile does not work as well if employees in the organization have ideas such as ‘Agile is just stupid, I like to use my own method’, or ‘Let’s do something that is at odds with the Agile mindset’ or my favorite the famous ostrich technique ‘What I don’t see isn’t there’. All it creates is a self-fulfilling prophecy. Therefore, do not impose a working method, make sure that everyone participates and has a say. A transformation only works if everyone has an intrinsic motivation to do so.

Change takes time

We clap our hands twice and now everyone is working Agile. It’s a bit obvious, but unfortunately, it doesn’t work that way. It takes time and effort to change, some changes happen faster than others. People have no evil intentions when they continue to do the same. We like to stick to structure and what we know. Take a look at how often you or someone else sits in the same place for work, dinner, or any other routine. This also applies to other habits that were normal in the previous method. If you are used to daily reports, predictive planning, and crystallized solutions, it is difficult to suddenly step away from this. Go back to what goal these resources are trying to achieve, how this can also be achieved with the new working method, and guide people step by step. Make the new way of working the new normal.

Adjusting the organizational structure

We clap our hands three times and now the organization is Agile. It would be nice if this could be done. An organizational structure and working method go hand in hand. The new working method must be synchronized with the organizational units, roles, authorities, and responsibilities. The allocation of budgets and project financing must also be geared to this. Make sure this becomes an integral part of your working method.

Not every project is an Agile project

But we work Agile, right? Yes, but that does not mean that you can always apply the same project management method. Sometimes a different project method – such as waterfall or a combination with Agile – is better. If a project has a fixed deadline, scope, resources, and quality, please don’t manage it as an Agile project. That’s asking for trouble. What you can do is apply an Agile mindset, in which other Agile principles such as transparency predominate. The most important thing is that everyone understands and accepts how the project will be executed.

Managing teams yourself

I don’t think that’s what they meant when they coined the term autonomous teams. To make autonomous teams possible, you have to work in a result-oriented way. State what you want and let the team decide how they will do it. Support the team with the necessary resources, knowledge, and job satisfaction to make this possible.

Agile is the bible

Agile purists….. sometimes you would like to introduce them to <<add your favourite torture device here>>. If you can’t work in the spirit of Agile, but try to use it as a one-size-fits-all, then you haven’t quite understood it. The starting point should be that you should tailor Agile working to your organization and not the other way around. I myself am a proponent of the ‘fit-for-purpose’ approach. Only apply what works for your organization. Important side note: don’t forget to describe the method well in a ‘Way of Working’ document since you cannot Google it.

Me, myself and I

Agile working is not something we only do internally, but also externally. Unfortunately, I sometimes see this going wrong in practice. Internally, Agile working is reasonably well organized, but if there is a need to collaborate with another party, flexibility and transparency are suddenly hard to find. The new working method does not take chain collaboration into account, which results in us falling back on our old habits. Include chain collaboration in your working method and organizational structure. In chain collaboration, recognizing, naming, and creating consensus in the event of conflicting interests and solutions – based on flexibility, trust, and transparency – is the key to successful collaboration.

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