This article explains how to transition from a traditional (waterfall) culture to an agile culture and details the pitfalls to avoid.

1. Changing to an agile culture doesn’t begin by diving in headfirst
The executives have spoken: “We’re going agile. We’ve hired the consultants, sent everyone to training
and installed all the right tools.”
But several months in, there are little more than quick wins and marginal improvements on key metrics.
Why the organization is not seeing returns on its agile investment ?
Do your people even know why the organization needs more agility? Has senior leadership made the
case for change? Have they emphasized why this change will strengthen the organization and move it
forward?

2. MANAGING THE SKEPTICS AND THE “YES BUTTERS”.
If your organization has been doing business a certain way for decades, people will be slow to jump on
the bandwagon. Many rightly will be skeptical: “This is just the latest process fad.”
If you are leading any kind of organizational change effort, be the change agent that generates support
by articulating and broadcasting the case for change. If you fail to do so, you’ll find rows of cubicles filled
with people merely complying with the new process, often complaining under their breath.
Minimize commitment. Many executives read about agility in a magazine and discover an all-consuming
conviction about a new direction. They will be tempted to go all-in: “We will be 100% agile by year’s
end.”
However, business experts caution us to minimize the amount of work with which we start. The greatest
companies limit their new ventures to small “tracer bullets” to see whether the idea has momentum;
they launch larger “cannonballs” only after collecting empirical data to support further investment. Trial
and error is the foundational approach for all of human advancement.
When organizations first implement agile approaches, they should use small milestones to gauge
whether agile initiatives are moving in the right direction.
MEASURE AGAINST THE MISSION.
Even if we’ve minimized the amount of agile change we take on, we need to measure whether that small
change is making an impact. If our strategy is customer retention, for example, we should confirm
whether our agile efforts are pleasing customers. If our mandate is to control costs, our metrics should
measure whether the agile approaches are helping us complete projects under budget.
MAKE GOOD MISTAKES
If you’re measuring against business objectives, chances are one or more initiatives will fail. A new
process will cause delays, or a new feature will upset customers. The temptation will be to resist
mistakes, criticize those who make them and revert back to old ways.
True agility is not the prevention of all mistakes. Be the change agent that celebrates the learning and
innovation that comes from the right mistakes in the controlled environment of small commitments.
Achieving strategic agility is more than just implementing approaches and applying process.
A change agent must pay attention to our human tendencies to barrel forward without buy-in and
employ the discipline needed to grow step by step.
Contact: Yves Zieba, Greenspire Advisory Ltd.