Every business is running after something called Agility without even understanding what it means. For many, the starting point to be Agile is to procure Jira license or build some boards/ paste stick-it notes all over the place or deliver something every 2 weeks even if that deliverable is a design document. And once it has been achieved, the celebratory cake reads – Yaay! We are Agile!
Like the ‘7S model of change’, there are “Hard Elements” like Structure or Systems which can be easier to implement. And that’s what the companies find easier to attack rather than looking for the “Soft Elements” like Shared Values or Style. Such things are difficult to implement but are needed to achieve success. How many companies look if their leaders remove their own opinions out of the equation, listen without bias or keep their personal feelings to themselves? Unless those are achieved, it’s always ‘doing agile’ vs really ‘being agile’.
Many of you may be fans of “Game of Thrones” and would have loved many of the memorable lines over the multiple seasons. 15 such quotes that relate to the real world of Agility and you can learn from those to help you be Agile.
It’s another way of saying – Shit hits the fan. It’s good to hear this in day 2 of a sprint instead of day 8. Find the issues which can derail the sprint, bring it to everyone’s attention and try to resolve it. Rather than just sitting on it for the snowfall to start.
Reason for not coming forth can be two fold, team thinking they can resolve it or team is afraid of how management would take it. It needs change at both ends for this to be resolved and achieve success in Agile.
You bring up an issue and the senior tech lead says – You know nothing. I am sure everyone has seen this some time in their career and the outcome often is – Winter has come.
Listening and Empathizing are key skills that we must build to be successful in Agile. This needs something called ‘Ego’ to be left aside and join every discussion with an open mindset. Something which isn’t easy to practice and equally difficult to make it a habit.
Quite the contrary, team is most productive when they are not afraid; i.e., they have psychological safety. And if they are afraid of fallbacks, they will never try to innovate or build something that could have been the breakthrough you were looking for.
This needs a strong support from leadership, and a constant guidance so that the team feels comfortable. And until they fail, they won’t learn and improve.
So true, makes me think of the ‘reverse bicycle’. Practicing Agile is difficult, at the slightest miss, your mind falls back to the old ways. It must be a constant process, always with conviction.
A simple example of that is a term commonly used in IT industry – Resource. Yes, it doesn’t mean a laptop or a desk phone, it means a person who is working for the company. Just using this word in my view breaks the first value of Agile Manifesto. I started my IT career hearing people being referred to as resources but make a conscious effort to never use that term. But when I am in a meeting with 20 people and the term is bring thrown around everywhere, there are times when I slip and use it as well. But there has to be a pull back mechanism to ensure that the mistake is caught and not repeated.
“I am on track to finish the deliverables BUT”
“Team is doing well BUT”.
No need to sugar coat. Share the bad news. Its much easier to handle a fire when its on a matchstick then let it spread into a wildfire. I have seen people handle issues which were their own making and get rewarded for it. A simple retrospective would help take care of this issue, but I find the appetite towards that low for the simple fact that the organizations support heroes. So it needs a cultural change to get out of this mindset.
Is it right? Well, it’s a line to avoid always. The team takes the decision and it’s not a lead or a hero of the group that takes the team across the finish line. We look up to the team to deliver the work, and if people start bringing the ‘I’ into the team, the goal is not achieved. Leadership plays a critical part in ensuring the right metrics are in place for the people to look for the ‘Team’ than the ‘I.
Perfect line for the management to keep an eye on. Are you still thinking something miraculous will happen and the sprint goal will be achieved? Are you ignoring the issues the team has come up with and advised – I don’t know what to do, just solve it. Well Ramsay said it right, you haven’t been paying attention and result is but obvious.
Do you have to go to every team meeting and announce you are the leader? NO, leadership isn’t about announcing your presence, it’s about doing the right thing so everyone really reveres you as the leader. Leadership is about going right by the team; it creates an aura which people sense and follow. A true leader doesn’t have to announce, it’s the pheromones that makes other realize that’s the leader to follow – just like the bees find the flowers.
This is a very strong person and does his job. Let me assign this to him.
Oh, he already has a lot in his kitty. That’s ok, he will still do it, let me assign this to him as well.
Have you seen this happen to you or you have been practicing this? Well, that person will reach the tipping point and rest is history. Respect the team and make the work sustainable! It’s very difficult from there to fail.
Does business see value in technical debt? The answer is – things are working fine, so why change? But should the technical debt be cleared? Hell Yeah!
Devote some time for technical debts. Align them with the functional work and make sure the same is clear. Else its like sitting on a time bomb, which you know will explode, but have no idea what the counter is set for.
Is Agile a magic bullet that solves all the issues we have been facing? Absolutely not.
Is chaos going to go away? No way.
But doing Agile the ‘right’ way will help ensure Chaos doesn’t result into failure. Many have tried Agile the ‘doing Agile’ way; failed and blamed it on Agile. But doing it the right will help the team succeed in Agile
The core fundamental of Agile, one of the mantras that helps you succeed.
Thought of an innovative approach to solve a problem team is facing? Worked out? No? Should you stop innovating? Now management feels you are a pile of trash as you failed. What they fail to realize if that small thing that you did and failed saved billions of dollars.
And as long as management isn’t willing to say – Now go fail again, things wont improve.
In continuation to the previous one. A leader that can achieve this is bound to reap the success. Treating mistake as a learning point and not a problem helps ensure team evolves and becomes better with time.
In teams, everyone looks up to the senior to bail the team of problem situations or come up with that next big thing. But they usually leave the brilliant junior person who had it all covered. We always have a way of doing things, which is mostly influenced by the successes we have had in the past. But that doesn’t mean it’s the best approach. Many times, we may cling on to past success rather than looking at newer ways of doing things. That’s where we need ‘small man’ to come with a fresh mindset, question the status-quo and help the team improve.
Technical excellence – One of the key points emphasized in Agile but often conveniently ignored. Its about the two woodcutters, one who kept cutting trees and the other who sharpened his axe before cutting the trees. When a team keeps working on stories and has no time to introspect or improve, you get into a stage where the productivity drops. But hey, did you get a comment from management that the team hasn’t allocated enough stories to keep them busy for 9 hrs daily? Well, that’s a sign that long term productivity is being sacrificed for short term gain.
We all loved Game of Thrones and many of these quotes have stuck in our hearts. If these quotes can be remembered in the context described above while executing the projects, then they can help implement Agile the right way.