How to keep Agile fresh

What do you think about headlines such as “The end of Agile”, “Post-agile thoughts”,  “Agile for Waterfall Projects” ? If Agile is about adapability and doing things smarter, then  these headlines are worth skipping because they distract us from the motivations and principles of agile. Let’s take a day off from all debates.

Leading organisations are the ones that evolve fast from rules-based methodologies to frameworks governed by principles and context. It is getting a little old and suprising to observe prolonged discussions about merits of Agile.

Here is the first controversial proposition - maybe we need to stop using the word agile in order to save the agile manifesto from becoming a pretty ad on the packet of cigarettes.

Unfortunately, as Dave Farley points out, it has become taboo not to embrace agile. The issue goes deeper than that. Agile branded methodologies have become an easy way of avoiding cultural change. Let's remind ourselves, with the systems thinking hat on, that “the easy way out usually leads back in”.

Let’s be honest, some organisations have hacked their way through agile adoption. The efforts of agile coaches, scrum masters, process coaches and lean six sigma analysts are watered down by the irreversibility of  decisions. Common explanations for the status quo are - “date is non-negotiable”, or “this is just how funding cycles work”.

Some still grapple with Agile. Assuming many people are capable, you already have agile capability inside your organisation - it is just that the capability might be tranquilized by some aspect of leadership, or blocked by politics of legacy command-and-control structures. 

The biggest problem with agile adoption is a misplaced attribution of training - training does not equal transformation. It is a common enough proposition that agile transformation starts from leadership. Organisations that struggle with Agile are the ones that do not pass the authenticity test.

Transformation must include element of a cultural revolution. Organizations often shoot themselves in the foot when some form of agile methodology is adopted blindly. Beware of methodologies that come with "door stop", bible like manuals. If it is too complex to remember and comes with a lot of jargon, it is likely that you may be being sold an "agile product", but no the transformation. 

“You must not fool yourself, and you are the easiest person to fool”. 

Agile transformations fail through one of two routes:

1. when people protect legacy structures and politics, or / and

2. when the agile is adopted in such a way that it robs teams from flexibility  and ownership (e.g. when you simply replace one process with another without meaningful transformation).

The promise of Agile has been a speed of change, and is often translated into even more aggressive reverse engineered deadlines. Delivering to such sky high expectations without a cultural change results in a failure.

"Success cannot be planned. It is played. You win in chess by playing." - Common nonsense in business | London Business School, Jules Goddard, Fellow at London Business School.

Old ways of business process industrialisation are based :

• delegation and punishable failure.
• managerialism iseeking to guarantee an outcome
• treating each other as a means to an end

In contrast, modern winning organisations work on the basis of horizontal collaboration assisted by radical transparency and “fail fast” principles. These characteristics are a distinguishing factor of teams where agile cultural revolution did take place. Complexity in all aspects of our lives is much greater today.  

As with any other operational excellence, avoid “door knob polishing”.

The agilist voice, from inside the complexity, does not prescribe any methodologies. It does, however, call out the need to embrace the scientific method. You cannot be Agile without embracing the scientific method.

Transformation should start with a fundamental change in how organisations think about employees. In modern organisations people are not human resources, they are resourceful humans (Jules Goddard).

Above all, throw out all fads and simply concentrate on empowering people and achieving high team morale. 

The measure of morale must be independent. There is an element of a Schrödinger's cat paradox when trying to open the Pandora's box of measuring morale. You are better off allowing experiences to broadcast themselves, as opposed to relying purely on personal judgement or surveys.  Only radical transparency can keep bias to a mimimum.