You did it! You made it through an Agile transformation. It likely involved some blood, sweat, and a few tears, but you can officially say that your company has adopted more nimble practices. Congratulations. Imagine us throwing confetti in your face. The sounds of party horns can be heard in the distance. Unfortunately, that’s where the celebration ends because now it’s about ensuring that the flexibility sticks for the long term.
How do you make it last, you ask? Read on, grasshopper.
Avoid rigid people
Agile describes not only processes but people. Don’t hire people that want to do just one job—unless, of course, you have infinite work for them to do in that one specialty (situations like that are rare).
If you’re building teams, look for “can do” attitudes, hunger for learning, desire for growth, and people who are genuinely interested in being a team player. You’ll find the results are more flexible resilient teams that can deliver on goals faster
In general, hire motivated people who always ask why and are problem solvers. People who just want to crank levers and go home need exhaustive requirements spoonfed to them or they won’t deliver the right solution. That makes your job harder and more expensive.
Avoid rigid process
Ask yourself fundamental questions about processes within your business. A good dose of skepticism is healthy here. Go out of your way to question legacy practices so you’re not hemmed in.
- Would you be faster without that legacy time reporting system no one knows why you use??
- Do you really need that extra approval that always delays your release?
- Do we really need to wait for the business to conduct User Acceptance Testing or could we perform that same testing internally on our team and release it sooner?
Think about the end product. Wonder how you can get the same level of quality while reducing rigid processes.
Avoid rigid tools
Again, flexibility is the name of the game. Avoid tools that cannot be easily changed or adapted to different circumstances. Don’t paint yourself into a corner.
Speed is of the essence. Tools that require excessive administration can slow you down. Tools that are difficult to upgrade or configure will slow you down. Tools that lock you into their process will slow you down. Don’t let a “tool” tell you how to work.
Empower teams to use the tools they need in the way they see fit even if those tools are just Post-It Notes and whiteboards. The ability to adapt to new circumstances without an onerous permission process opens up the possibility of the rapid evolution of business operations across the board, and that’s how improvement happens.
Avoid rigid documentation
Every complex operation needs documentation. “Just how much?”, is another question.
Always ask who reads documentation. Do they find value in it, or is it getting in the way? Does every single task need to be specified by a standard operating procedure (SOP)? Does your documentation constrain your employees and inhibit their agency and agility?
Required documentation for compliance reasons is important to get right. Other documentation could likely be shortened or abandoned altogether if no one reads it or gets value from it. Ask lots of questions and make decisions based on the answers. Deliver valuable documentation, but only if it’s valuable.
For software, building self-training solutions with good user interfaces, crystal clear tool-tips, and how-to videos can drastically reduce the amount of documentation you must write for training purposes.
For the record (pun absolutely intended), an office dedicated to overstuffed filing cabinets is probably no longer a necessity.
{insert image of endless file cabinets, or maybe a youtube video of something like that!}
Pursue a live feedback loop
Maintaining nimble business practices requires constant re-examination so things don’t calcify. Remember that a core virtue of Agile practices is to be adaptable in the face of empirical evidence. If a process isn’t working or could work more smoothly, and you have data that helps you understand why then be intentional about making necessary changes.
There are other benefits to being adaptive and quick on your toes. Making changes sooner avoids the probability that resources will be wasted, whether it’s time, money, materials, or labor.
Feedback refines processes.
Pursue extreme transparency
A policy of radical transparency within your organization can have many positive results.
Agile teams make empirically motivated decisions quickly, and knowing which decisions will lead to better outcomes is an inferential process. The best inferences are made on the basis of good evidence. Your team having the evidence they need hinges on transparency. Transparency entails giving your team the information needed to achieve their goals in the most efficient way possible.
Radical transparency also mitigates an unhealthy fear of responsibility in decision-making since decisions can be made with more available information reducing the likelihood of a bad decision or one that is based solely on one’s gut. Vestiges of a top-down, hierarchical structure may infect your organization and lead to languid decision-making and confusion about who’s responsible for what.
Transparency is the enemy of idleness and indecision.
Pursue hyperfocus
You may have fully implemented your Agile transformation, but, believe us, the work doesn’t stop there. Putting a new process in place is a completely different animal than maintaining it. Now is the time to USE the processes that you spent so much time figuring out how to implement.
Keep your teams hyperfocused on small goals that lead to the delivery of Product Goals. Focus on continuously creating outcomes that are usable and evaluable by stakeholders. Use that data to relentlessly push forward.
Remember: done is better than merely started.
Eliminate dependencies
Independence among teams and processes is crucial for functional nimble practices. Dependencies not only get in the way of smooth and timely operations but also create uncertainty.
Make sure you build your organizational structure to enhance business agility rather than get in the way of it. Maximizing knowledge and transparency among all members of a group remove hierarchical dependencies.
Eliminating dependencies minimizes risk and increases control.
Value time over money
Money is important for any business, of course. Agile businesses tend to spend money wisely, and the results can be seen in the speed by which their Product Goals are achieved.
Unlike money, time can only be spent once. It is thus the most finite of resources available to any business and should be treated as an extremely valuable commodity. Flexible, adaptable businesses understand this and act accordingly: time is more valuable than money.
Partner with People Who Have Been There
So there you have it. Nine ways to make Agile practices last within your organization. What’s that? Do you still feel unsure? You’d like to know more?
We here at Responsive Advisors have extensive, on-the-ground expertise in the area of Agile transformation. We understand the importance not only of implementing these practices but of reinforcing and maintaining them for the long haul.
Responsive Advisors offers services that benefit businesses of all types and organizational arrangements. We are practiced in the arts of holistic Agile transformation for large and small companies, establishing local communities of practice, building internal competencies, and working closely with management to establish new standards of performance. For organizations that prefer a more piecemeal approach, we offer an array of workshops for teams, managers, and executives.
Responsive Advisors can help your business develop and implement Agile practices that last.
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