Elevating Agility from Zero to One
Samson Choong, Executive Director, Head of Agile Transformation, Bank of Singapore
Samson Choong, Executive Director, Head of Agile Transformation, Bank of Singapore
People started to practice Agile many decades ago. It can be traced back as far as the 1940s, when Kanban was first introduced. In 2001, the agile manifesto was written, and that became the tipping point for agile adoption around the world. Since then, many organizations have expressed interest in and invested in agile. Unfortunately, not every organization was successful in their agile adoption. There are many factors contributing to the success or failure of an agile transformation. I had led a few agile transformations in different organizations, some not so successful, some quite successful, and some very successful. I can share a few key learnings from my experience to help organizations increase their success rate on this journey.
Start From Where You Are
Most people think that they shouldn’t start an agile transformation if the people are not ready. This is the greatest myth: there won’t be an organization that is ready for agile and transformation. If there is one, the chances are the organization has already transformed. Any organization can start the agile transformation by starting where they are with what they are doing now. Do not waste time doing nothing but starting revolutionary change interactively and incrementally. Everyone should think big, start small, and move fast.
More With Less
Agile transformation is a journey. It will take time for change; do not rush. Give time for the organization and people to digest, build trust, establish a culture, and develop a mindset. Avoid swarming the people with all practices and tools. There is no shortcut to it; one big bang won’t work. Learn to do less to get more out of it. Prioritization is the key in this case; don’t always work on the easy one but find the sweet spot between impact and effort that can produce the highest value possible. Build a strong foundation on team agility first. Next, work on enterprise agility and ultimately set the organization up for success to become a truly business agility organization. No one builds a house without laying the foundation. One of the common mistakes of big organizations is that they scale agility too fast and too soon. As a result, problems are scaled rather than being agile.
Pragmatic Agile Approach
The organization must hire the right people to lead the transformation. It can be very costly for an organization if the wrong people lead it into doing the wrong things. There are some mistakes that are irreversible and will stay with the organization for years. Agile must be applied in context; there is no such thing as one size fits all. An organization shouldn’t force everyone to do agile the same way. Every business is different; we need to embrace diversity and inclusion. Therefore, we had to be pragmatic in our agile adoption. Do not apply agile blindly; we can be “same but different”. Pick and choose things that work for the team and the business context instead of sticking with the theory. Give the team the flexibility to decide what works for them according to their maturity level. As the team matures from Shu to Ha to Ri, they expect to increase their pragmaticism in their agile way of working. This enabled the team to be truly self-organized, self-directed, and a high-performance team.
Experimental Culture
Agile is about having a growth mindset. One of the ways to nurture a growth mindset is through experimentation. Developing an experimental culture unleashed the organizations agility. Agility will not happen by just talking; one should talk the talk and walk the walk. The organization must provide a safe environment for people to fail fast and fail forward. Stop boxing people up with a pre-defined boundary instead of setting them free to think and explore the impossible. Encourage everyone to think outside the box, even without a box. This is how the impossible becomes possible. Provide the space for people to fail fast and fail forward. Organizations that support experimental cultures can respond and adapt faster to changes.
Every business is different; we need to embrace diversity and inclusion. Therefore, we had to be pragmatic in our agile adoption. Do not apply agile blindly; we can be “same but different
Lead with Value
There is always debate between doing agile versus being agile. Which one comes first? It is a chicken-and-egg question. Culture follows values, practices follow culture, and outcomes follow practices. Therefore, agile must lead with value. The anchor of agility is value, not practice. One of the common mistakes is that organizations focus too much on practices and tools. Embedding the agile values in people is far more powerful than making them practice the agile methods correctly. The agile value will create the right mindset and culture to develop the right agile way of working.
Conclusion
Rome was not built in a day. Likewise, organizations will take time to elevate agility from zero to one. This is not a destination, but a journey. This journey will have ups and downs. Every win will move the team forward, while every loss will let the team learn something valuable that will help them do better going forward. The five key learnings I shared should accelerate your transformation journey and generate better outcomes that matter to your organization. Agile is for the people and by the people. People are at the center of agility.
