I was talking with a colleague of mine the other day about their experience beginning an agile transformation at a financial firm. Their executive team asked to be informed about agility and they gave him a 3-hour limit to their availability.
They considered this THE opportunity to get all of the leadership in’s and outs about agile so that they could lead the effort effectively.
To be honest, I’ve heard this all before. In fact, I’ve heard these sorts of things for ~20 years from senior leaders, stakeholder’s, and executives—
I need you to fill me in on everything there is to know about Lean, Agile, Scrum, etc. and I only have about an hour.
We’re locked and loaded on an Agile Transformation. Can you give me the executive overview? The executive team and I can only give you two hours.
The most we can give you for agile leadership training is 4-hours. And that’s a lot considering our priorities, so let’s just make the best of it.
I Get It!
Truly I do. Executives are incredibly busy. And their time is valuable.
They’re used to getting quick briefings that net things out for them.
They’ve got everything on their plate.
So, I get it. They’re busy.
But all of that being said, we’re talking about an agile transformation here. One that will if done properly, will touch every aspect of their business.
One where the leaders need to, well, lead it. Where they not only need to be informed but participative. Where it will require them to shift every aspect of their focus, style, strategies, and efforts. And most importantly, they themselves will need to change.
I guess what I’m saying is that it’s…
A BIG DEAL, IMPORTANT,
AND IT REQUIRES THEIR FULL ATTENTION & ENGAGEMENT!
1, 2, 4, 8, 16 hours isn’t enough. Period. It’s giving it lip-service. Now, I don’t have the magic number of how many hours is enough. But a start is fully engaging in the process. Emerging yourself and your leadership team in it. Starting from the inside-out…by going first. Without artificial time constraints or excuses.
Wrapping Up
Leaders who are leveraging (Agile, DevOps, Business Agility, etc.) as an organizational transformation strategy need to get over the thinking that it’s trivial. Or that it’s for the rest of the organization to engage in.
It is not a 3-Hour Tour so invest the time so that your tiny ship doesn’t get lost in your agile transformations.
BTW: How many folks got the Gilligan’s Island reference?
Stay agile my friends,
Bob.