I saw the following post on LinkedIn from my colleague Maurice “Mo” Hagar –
"Fostering a new mind-set and creating a new culture is no easy feat."
https://www.strategy-business.com/article/Creating-an-agile-mind-set-at-PepsiCo?gko=20fae
Good read. I've done Agile coaching since 2005. Back then it was easy: stand up a Scrum team. Today we're doing business agility, at scale, across the enterprise, and that's not so easy. Because it's no longer about "Agile" and local optimization but about the "business"--mindset / culture and outcomes--as it should be.
There are two kinds of Agilists in the world: 1) those who talk mostly about Agile, and 2) those who talk mostly about the business. Don't mishear me; I'm all for all that "Agile" means. But the most important thing I've learned at IBM, my primary client for the past two years? "Show me results or I'll show you the door."
That sounds harsh but it's how the game of business is played—all professional sports, in fact. And many of us Agilists need to up our game. While we're talking Agile, all the execs hear is "blah blah blah." Because they speak one and only one language: $$$. If you can't go there go home.
You can view it and the replies here - https://www.linkedin.com/posts/mauricehagar_creating-an-agile-mind-set-at-pepsico-activity-6603998919653421056-1Clb
I have just a couple of responses to Maurice’s comment…
Since 2005…
I’ve been implementing agile since the late 1990s, so I believe Maurice and I are experientially on common ground.
To his point, I don’t think doing/going agile was ever easy. I remember implementing XP at Lucent ~2000 – 2001. We did it and had great results. But it wasn’t easy.
And I think that (scaling, digital transformation, DevOps, business agility, and other buzzwords/fads) make it that much harder. It’s always been a mindset shift and a culture shift play. Both things that are challenging regardless of the context or timeframe.
There are Two Kinds of Agilists…
So, if I get this right, we’re either agile-centric or business-centric, but not both? And it seems that we have to choose.
I respectfully disagree.
I think there IS a third option that some of us are balanced across the two dimensions. And that we can artfully maintain that healthy balance. In fact, I believe the Agile Manifesto principles inspire us to have that balance as well.
One thing I’ve learned from IBM…
First of all, IBM is certainly not a bastion of agile culture, thinking, and mindset. J I also don’t think Mo’s experience with one client should serve as a general model for the rest of us.
Of course, IBM adopted a “show me the results, or I’ll show you the door” stance. That’s the traditional stance for most large corporations. It’s not about the customer, it’s not about the people, it’s not about quality, it’s about generating results. Which is leadership-speak for delivering what I asked for when I asked you for it. And if you do that, ROI based on our big bets will certainly follow.
Except that it often doesn’t.
A huge part of that is the hubris of traditional leaders. Thinking that they know everything and not engaging their organization (the people and their ideas on purpose) in the journey.
As agile coaches/consultants, just because a client expects or demands that we behave one way doesn’t mean we have to reciprocate. I believe we have to give them what they need versus giving them what they ask for. In this case, I think we need to give them a very balanced dose of agile-centric and business-centric advice and counsel.
Because they speak one and only one language: $$$...
Then we need to teach them additional languages.
This is one of my own pet peeves when it comes to many agile coaches. We compromise our principles and remain silent because of the $$$.
And no, I’m not naïve. I do realize that “revenue and getting paid” counts. And that we need to be business & customer-centric. But not at the expense of lean or agile principles. Or how we create an effective culture for our teams.
You see, I think leadership is about so much more than simply the $$$. And if IBM is not, then I think that’s the real problem that impacts their $$$. And the last time I checked; they weren’t a role-model when it came to competitive innovation.
Wrapping Up
I hope this doesn’t appear to be too judgmental or harsh feedback for Mo or for IBM. I honestly don’t intend it that way. To be frank, I don’t care what Mo does with his clients. Nor how IBM chooses to conduct themselves from a leadership perspective. That’s totally his and their business.
But I did want to weigh-in because Mo also serves as a role model in our agile community and I wanted to provide a counter-point to his thoughts.
I think it’s high time that we change our position towards leader & customers. That is—
Executives need to start learning to speak languages other than $$$. And we, as agilists (coaches & consultants), need to help them to up their game to be more balanced. If we can’t do that, then we need to go home. And if they can’t do that, then they need to find another place to practice their myopic brand of leadership.
At least, that’s how I see it.
Stay agile my friends,
Bob.