A common impediment I hear when introducing Agile ways into an organization is “I don’t have time for...(fill in the blank with any Agile related practice).” It’s a universal refrain from Agile neophyte managers and team members alike. It’s also a myth.
I'd like to share some thoughts that I believe support the claim in the title of this post. At least in the spirit of what an Agile way of working could mean. […]
Start with why? Absolutely yes. But don’t stop there. “Why” isn't enough. “Why” is only part of the story. A good story has a beginning and an end. A coherent “Why” bridges the gap between start and finish. [...]
One of my favourite Agile principles is "Simplicity--the art of maximizing the amount of work not done--is essential." When introducing Agile ways of working into an organization, you can either wrestle with a raging bull or work like an assiduous ant. Go small or stall. […]
In my last post, I touched on ORSC's Third Entity as a tool to uncover and address the relationship gaps that can exist in an organization undergoing change. Gaps that include fuzzy reasons for change, lack of vision partnership and a status differential that perpetuates the hierarchical divisions between management, staff and the layers in between. Gaps that can impede, halt and even regress the progress and effectiveness of a system-wide change like moving to agile ways of working. But why do those gaps exist in the first place?
Change is hard enough without fear in the air. What do we fear? What fuels fear? How will we know when fear has been driven out of the system? [...]
In this day and age of questionable employee engagement, can there be such a thing as "too much engagement”? Are employees and staff suffering from engagement fatigue? Or is it akin to communications where you could never over-communicate?
When I discovered Agile ways of working and its related growth mindset, I started to see parallels between the martial arts and the Agile mindset. I knew Agile and especially Scrum and Kanban were heavily based on the Japanese Lean Thinking that evolved from the Toyota Production System (TPS). My martial arts background and specifically Karate elevated my understanding to the next level.
As more and more technology teams experience benefits with Agile ways of working, the Agile community and the organizations they serve are looking for the next frontier. Some have branded this as "Business Agility". Others have coined it the "Agile Enterprise". This is reminiscent of the leap from Lean Manufacturing to the "Lean Enterprise" in the 1990’s. A leap that’s still in mid-air with mixed results almost 30 years later.
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