Establishing a clear line of site to Org. Mission and Team purpose, will help the individual understand and buy-into the need to negotiate and support strategic direction. Tools make this possible at scale. What people ultimately desire is inclusion and right to influence the setting of direction that determines their [shared] fate. Tools can reinforce awareness and resulting trust, as we exercise those new ‘rights’.
Unfortunately, David often sees clients pursuing Agile Transformations in reverse order. Clients buy the tech tools which are promised to house the Practices, and ‘Train people up’ on how to use the Tech, more so than realizing the Mindset. Organizations too often bypass the risk mitigation and learning enjoyed from pursuing change incrementally and Piloting Capability platforms. 
Instead, there is a risky bias towards a massive launch of too many ill-prepared Teams onto the Technology in association with an arbitrary Tech Project deadline. We can check the box on that status report, but we just demoralized 1,000s of people. Sad, but it happens.
Lean-Agile transformations take time, often 18 to 36 months, with proper investment, and are NOT a quick cure for severe problems that have accrued over many years.
I encourage clients to treat culture change like retirement investing. Invest for the long-term and maintain faith through short-term market corrections and set-backs. – David H.
Who certifies the certifier?
Interview candidates well!
As a responsible change Sponsor, we encourage you to work with very experienced coaches to prescribe a plan to manage expectations and buy patience from executives. The coach must have experience as a senior Leader driving Culture Change, advising Organization Design and structure adaptations, in addition to deep experience Training and Coaching [embedded] entire business units through a successful transformation – through clear Milestones.
Agile is a mindset which is focused on understanding organization capacity– biased towards Throughput and Predictability – and making objective customer commitments based on that [new] knowledge. Agile is skewed towards Delivery effectiveness. Be careful not to blend or confuse Strategic effectiveness (designing only the right things) with delivering effectively against that well vetted Innovation strategy.
Design-thinking and Leadership coaching must be pursued simultaneously, to realize a truly Strategic, Adaptive capacity, achieved by Leaders leveraging this evolving Lean-Agile system. Focus enables effective conversations and frees people up to participate. Leaders enable focus through constraint – not pursuing every idea possible, subjectively. Adaptive capacity rests on a foundation of objective experimentation within the shortest possible validation cycles. Customers must be invited in pragmatically to evaluate those innovation experiments. Practices nurture a collective mindset that is biased towards meaningful, ongoing inclusion of customers.
We have a viable business because we have delighted customers who know they were heard?
Agile is not a process framework. We do not DO Agile, we BECOME more Agile.
What we say frequently, reinforces thinking and corresponding [in]action. What we act upon, reinforces our thinking and right/wrong understanding of the original intent [what WE hoped to become]. Words matter because they shape belief. Belief is often disconnected from reality.
To maximize the value of your innovation and viability of your business, reflect often on shared reality, directly, with both Customers and Employees. The Agile retrospective is the pulse of customers and employees.
Suggestion: please stop saying “we DO Agile”. Substitute Agile with the word Adaptive, to break this habit immediately. Does it make sense to say “we do Adaptive”? Switch the Noun Agile for the Adjective Adaptive, reinforcing a “way of being together“.
Indicators that you’re realizing true Agility
Until you Intentionally Adapt your annual strategy in a Lean-Agile manner, by Including Program teams in the objective determination of Value and Effort trade-offs, you have not fully realized the benefit of pursuing and becoming an Agile [adaptive] culture. Responding instead of reacting, to unforeseen external / internal forces is the chance for leadership to prove commitment to People and the new, inclusive way of serving society. Responding means understanding our collective, synchronized abilities as an organization, and responding to the full extent of our shared ability. Reactions occur at the level of individuals and sub groups, with little reference to the system-wide capability to sincerely handle the challenge in the most effective way.
Conclusion
People are the Mind of the organization, not the tools an Org purchases. Tools include technology and delivery frameworks. The Tech has matured, including many aspects of the Frameworks. And yes, you can buy the Framework Training, but you cannot guarantee the mental-download of framework values into the Minds of individuals.
Too often, in a rushed reaction to market pressure or recent over commitment, companies strive for efficiency first, without realizing [or accepting] that people will become LESS effective, if we skip crucial steps in the introduction of new tools. For example, WHY are we trying to work in a new manner? Are we (all of us) aligned on the origin of the problems we’re experiencing or the missed opportunity to better serve customers? Is there full agreement on the urgency to resolve the issues or seize the opportunities? Do individuals and Teams at all levels agree with HOW we will collectively improve our situation?
We live in an era where it’s becoming quite apparent that mankind’s fate is shared on a macro level. Social media tech is expediting the pace of diverging opinion and aligning causes. When the arbitrary group boundaries we identify with are set out of artificial competition and fear, our personal pain and broadening awareness are later realized.
Modern technology will begin to fade unnaturally polarizing group identities, because we will start to see and honor the connection between everything in Life. – David H.
David approaches the needs of individuals and alignment of Teams by leveraging both Systemic change capability-enabling tools, as well as tools that engage the individual and create space to think. This holistic approach proves Leadership’s sincere concern and respect for people overall.
Please contact David for details and review his Blogs on these topics.
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