This question is quite relevant and should be: does the organization need and want agility? How can we then implement it and express it?
Three phases to start an agile transition: the purpose (why), the context (because), the practice (how).
Defining the purpose for agility
This clarification sets the basics for the transition to lighter work modes, and the ownership and socialization of this transition by the company’s management will guide the way forward.
The vision and purpose of the new way of working must be clear from the beginning of the exercise to guide actions, implementation, execution, and measurement of results. Objectives such as predictability, quality, cost savings, rapid return on investment, adaptation of the product, innovation, faster delivery, or simply joining the trend are relevant and underline “the why”.
The first step is to understand what agility is, its values, the principles that underlie it (the nature and value of human interactions, the value of feedback loops, and the nature of complex tasks), and its practices; then compare them to values, principles and way of working of the organization. The apparent differences tell us the magnitude of the task and actions to be undertaken to facilitate the transition.
One of the strongest predictors of success in transforming an organization to agility is the commitment of the organization’s leaders (formal and informal) to the principles of agility and obtaining the adherence of the entire organization.
Establishing the context, an ecosystem, favorable to agility.
Agility cannot simply be inserted into an organization for instant results, whether in the form of a step-by-step process or an all-in-one scaling system. The true business agility – sustainable agility – depends on a thriving agile ecosystem composed of of teams, of all teams at all levels of the organization.
Agile Teams
The journey to sustainable agility usually begins with one or two teams, which are empowered to make decisions and self-organize, and spreads from there. The teams produce and deliver small amounts of work in short cycles and then adapt to the changing needs of the customer based on customer feedback. They create, learn, and then create again.
Agile Leadership
Agile leaders, on the other hand, recognize that the people are their power and that their participation is crucial to success. They give self-organized teams the means to make decisions and foster a culture of collaboration. They focus on transparency, making a conscious effort to share information throughout the organization. Such an ecosystem is essential for organizations seeking sustainable change. The managers are looking for significant changes.
Meaningful change – sustainable agility – relies on an ecosystem that supports new ways of working that extend from the team level to the executive level.
Some important elements of the ecosystem surrounding Agile Teams – such as users and stakeholders, operations and infrastructure, architecture, governance, procurement – and their attributes that are either synergistic or antagonistic to agility, must be taken into account and improved to maintain an ecosystem that supports agility.
The choice of agility mode
It is not a question of choosing between Scrum and Kanban, or whether SAFe or LeSS are the best alternatives for scaling. It is a question of considering the context of the organization, teams and individuals.
Individuals must understand agility as well as the vision and goals of the organization, they must be able to identify themselves with this and map their added value contribution to this vision and objectives. The creation of teams for the execution of tasks would thus be facilitated and self-organization would become an evidence according to the organization’s value chain. These autonomous teams decide how to express their agility in relation to their context and habits. Do we want to work iteratively, in a continuous flow, or create our own model of agility?
Anyway, the aim is the implementation and exercise of agile practices and the inspection and adaptation through continuous improvement.
The practices facilitate the evolution towards a new way of working
The why, the environment, the practices, are the essential elements for the transition to agility, and it is practice and consequent experience that modulates the organization and its business agility.
Agility practiced in a theoretical sphere makes it an agile entity but does not make the entire organization agile. It is agility in silos, the same silos that we wanted to eliminate arise again in a new shape. Is this form of “agile silo” acceptable? Back to the starting point.
A team that embraces agility as a way of working is as agile as the environment and the network in which it operates. That is, the agility of a team in an environment that is not agile will suffer. In general, when an agile project doesn’t work, we have a tendency to introspect what is wrong with agility and forgetting to examine the project surroundings (extrospection).
Therefore, to begin the exercise of evolution towards agility by one or more teams is good, but the pollination of agility towards other teams (upstream and downstream) must be imperatively preceded and accompanied by the evolution of the ecosystem.
Closing remarks
The culture of the organization will be shaped by new work models, the constant practice of agility and continuous improvement, thanks to the adaptation of the work environment guided by a new vision and objectives. Thus, agile values will take their place in the culture of the organization.
An agile transition is guided by fit for purpose agility, shaped by fit for context agility, and run by fit for practice agility.
Agile Ways 