Bending nails

Over the past months I've enjoyed volunteering each morning building a house with my local Habitat for Humanity. The schedule is a bit odd, as they work Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday, 7am till noon. We started on this house the week of October 3rd with 2 weeks of their women's build " Heels to Hammers" with a slab. As of writing this we now have 2 stories built with all interior walls framed, trusses set, roof is on, windows are in and almost all siding is complete. 

With all volunteers, (and only working 4 mornings a week)this build is moving pretty quickly. Each day a new batch of volunteers comes in and does what they can to help a family to own their very first home. I have really enjoyed the focus, the fun and the passion of all these people!  There is a sense of accomplishment each day, where you can look and physically see the outcome of your effort.  

There is, however one thing I am starting to notice, there are a LOT of bent nails.   And I mean a LOT. 

All of us volunteers are swinging those hammers with gusto, making progress towards a new home for someone else, but many times those attempts at progress mean some bent nails. Sometimes, it may take 3, 4 or 5 attempts to get one nail in place correctly. What's beautiful, is the job foreman response to all these bent nails - is to cheer people on.  He realizes no one is an expert nail driver, and even if they were, bent nails happen.  Bent nails are a sign of trying, of progress and of learning. 

This made me think a lot of organizations/teams and how we view things we try but just don't work out.  

Trying

When I contrast a bent nail to a un-used nail, The bent nail represents an attempt.  While the new nails may be prettier, they are only representative of potential in the future. So many times I've seen individuals be blocked by fear and never try something. They may have a burning passion for something ( or a new product idea) and yet they don't take a chance and try to see if that idea is good of not. Organizations may want to try a new way of working, only to make little progress or stop before ever getting started.  I know I've had my share of attempts at things that didn't work ( and have the bent nails to prove it). Luckily I was surrounded by a team that celebrated trying to do something new, and grew because of it. 

Progress

In order to make progress, something must happen. I know this is ridiculous to say, but I've seen time and time where leaders want to move organizations forward while staying the same. In knowledge work, we rarely know with any degree of accuracy what exactly needs to be done/built/changed/delivered. So in order to make progress, things that didn't go well would be evidence of making progress towards a goal.  In the pursuit of delivering value, there should be a trail of bent nails. If you aren't willing to have some failures, you aren't really wanting progress.  

Learning

It's been said over and over again, but we learn by doing. By making repeated attempts at something and failing, we will get better. Each nail bent is progress towards the goal. Humans need to be able to learn to grow, and this applies to organizations as well.  In a recent organization we went through a transformation into a design we all felt was going to be successful, only to learn we were wrong. To be clear, I was wrong. But the beauty was that only after working that way for a few months did the learning begin to happen, and we made serious progress to a organizational design that was far better. 

No matter if you are building a product for a customer, responsible for your organizations direction and design, or simply building a home for those in need - enjoy the journey. We all stress far to much trying to be "perfect" when we really need to simply move forward. 

Note: I also highly encourage you to spend time giving back to an organization as a volunteer. Please look around your local area for a cause you enjoy and give generously. Yes, give money, but I'd encourage you to give time. The personal returns of physically being present and giving of your time are far greater than only mailing in a check. 

Does agile at scale need to be cookie cutter?

Recently, my wife and I (and our two little dogs) made a road trip across Kansas, Colorado, parts of Wyoming, South Dakota, a portion of Iowa and back through Missouri. We had an immensely enjoyable time stopping at National Parks and State Parks as well as kitschy roadside attractions. And while I was driving all those miles, it struck me that the diverse topography of these states had a lesson to teach us about agility.

The United States shows remarkable environmental diversity, even within a relatively small radius. Take, as an example the 3 photos below: All of these photos were taken within a 30 min drive of each other, and all in South Dakota

Badlands National Park, South Dakota

Black Hills National Forest, South Dakota 

Custer State Park, South Dakota

All three of these photos were taken within a 30 min drive of each other, and all in South Dakota. The top is in Badlands National Park all stark and dry, and looks like a scene from an alien planet. The second is in the Black Hills National Forest -Lush and rocky, mountainous with tall trees and clear streams. The third photo is within Custer State Park - a high plains meadow that supports huge herds of native buffalo and other wild game.  All three of these regions play an integral part in the ecosystems of our country. I think you'll agree it would be boring if all of the United States looked exactly the same. 

Sadly - many organizations want cookie cutter "sameness" of agility across the entire company.  

If you look at many efforts to "scale agility" across an organization, it seems to be a bit more about making sure everyone is using the same terminology, normalizing story points ( ugh), and falling in line. Scaling tends to be more in the form of compliance than about agility.  

Scaling agility isn't about conformity. So let's just stop it - ok?

Creating an environment for agile to thrive throughout an organization starts with three key activities: encourage unity, celebrate differences, and establish guard rails

Encourage Unity 

Agile teams do need to be united both in how they work together and in how they align to organizational strategy. But that doesn't mean they have to be the same. Strategic goals should drive deliverables, yet allow flexibility for discovery along the way. Each agile team will likely discover something new to delight the customer in the process of delivering towards those strategic goals

Celebrate Differences

The way one team works will be different from another–and this can be a powerful tool for learning in your organization. Good agile leaders highlight and celebrate these differences so that the whole organization can grow. Creating a learning organization depends upon these differences becoming shared openly, without fear of reprisal.

Establish Guardrails

Encouraging agile teams to "uncover better ways of working" isn't without risk.  As an organization you should have clear guardrails of what is in bounds and out of bounds for a team.  Without guard rails, teams could feel "anything goes"which can lead to disastrous results.  Co-creating these guardrails can be a powerful exercise where teams learn the bounds within which they can play, and can free up their collective creativity to deliver amazing value. 

Scaling Doesn’t Require Conformance

Turning agile teams loose to meet customers’ needs is powerful. At the same time, though, to quote Uncle Ben in the Spiderman comic series, "With great power comes great responsibility." 

Leaders can feel confident in giving teams freedom to make decisions by creating clear organizational goals that ensure teams are rowing in the same direction, allowing different approaches room to grow and learn, and setting clear boundaries where teams can uncover better ways of working. 

None of this is easy.

None of this is without risk.

But ultimately, empowering differences within a unified ecosystem not only brings humanity to the workplace, it also produces better products.

Why your agile transformation is likely going to fail

 

According to several recent articles, somewhere in the neighborhood of 75%-94% of all agile transformations will fail.  It's a startling statistic, and one I couldn't find a solid reference. It seems most people believe it to be true, but really hasn't been any studies to back up this claim. For the purposes of this article, I'm going to assume its fairly accurate - as it matches my experience and anecdotal evidence over the past 15 years. And yet, the business of agile transformation is booming. Demand for frameworks, training, and coaching/consulting services is rising.   As of this writing, on LinkedIn alone, there are over 24,000 job openings for agile coach in the United States.  Companies are clearly hiring for help in the pursuit to be more agile in the way they work.

So why do so many agile transformations fail?

Some of the main reasons would be:

1. You are trying to follow a framework

2. You have the wrong people.

3. You see a transformation as a light switch

 

You are trying to follow a framework

So many organizations seem to think that if they just follow a set of instructions, they will be an agile organization. This is especially true of large scaling frameworks - they look good ( and sell even better) but I'm not sure they actually deliver true results.  This doesn't mean that frameworks are bad, it just means they aren't the solution.   Frameworks are good places to start, but they shouldn't be considered a plug -and-play solution.  You can follow a framework perfectly and still be one of the least agile organizations.   Agility in organizations is about mindset, of the employees and the leadership - not about compliance with a framework.  Start with a framework if you must, then adapt it to fit your business goals and needs. 

You have the wrong people

Since agility in organizations is ultimately about mindset of people, it could be that you have the wrong people in your organization.   None of us likes to consider this factor, but I've seen it time and time again - where a person that believes everything must be planned in advance is put in a position to work in an agile area.  Leaders must consider mindset fit when making this type of transition, offer training and mentoring to help the individuals, but ultimately may need to make a decision to either move those people off that agile project or help them find a new role somewhere else. 

You see a transformation as a light switch

Many years ago, an agile training and consulting company I was working with went on a sales call with a major US retailer.   In the discovery call with the potential client, our team was laying out a transition strategy, an alignment of organizational goals for this transition, and a way to discover what might be the best fit for them as an organization.  Thats when the most Senior VP in the room said " I don't really want this rollout plan, I just want you to flip it ".    This leader saw a shift to agility for their extremely large organization as simple as turning on a light switch.  

Organizational change is hard, and takes time.    If consultants were brutally honest with you ( like we were with this potential client) moving  a traditionally structured organization through an agile transformation can take years, or even decades depending upon the size of the company. And since organizations are always losing staff and hiring staff, the process likely will never be " done".  Transformations are never finished.  Even after 4 years at my last company, we had made excellent progress, but will always have a ways to go. 

Wrapping up

Leaders should understand that starting a transformation will take serious time and investment, and still may not be successful.   Invest in the individuals in your organization constantly and consistently, and don't look for some framework to be the destination.   This is a worthy journey, that can produce an organization that is far more responsive to the ever changing world of business. 

Patience, focusing on the real goals of why you are making this shift, and ensuring you have the right mindset can hep you be far more successful.