I had the opportunity to share my knowledge of agile with the management team today in the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) sector. I thought it is about how an organization responds to change and wanted to understand what agile means. I tried to go a little deeper to help everyone understand: –
What is agile? I asked everyone what it means to them. Responses included “being flexible,” “respond faster,” “move quickly,” and “adapt to change.”
These gave me the confidence to move towards organizational agility. Meanwhile, I asked them where they had heard all these terms. It helped me point them towards the “Manifesto of Agile Software Development,” highlighting how much the manifesto aligned with these keywords.
Since participants were from non-IT, and my understanding was that they wanted to understand where and how it is applicable beyond software development, I skipped the principles of agile software development. Nevertheless, I focused on organization agility, including supply chain, marketing, production, sales, vendor management, and many other functions within the organizational structure.
Next part – Why Agile
I asked why agile is within your organization, and there was absolute silence. There was the first sign; however, I ignored it and continued asking similar questions based on my assumptions. My questions were:
- How much time do you take to launch a new product?
- How and when do you find out that the product is not working?
- How do you respond in case of failure?
- What takes more time?
Participants became defensive and started looking at each other rather than exploring reasons. There was the 2nd sign for me that I was not moving in the right direction, and things were becoming uncomfortable. Somehow, I ignored this sign too.
What happened next was not something I wanted, but it happened.
In the future, one of the executives came along and shared with the crowd how exactly Scrum works. She kept talking about Scrum events/ceremonies and how they help in coming up with new initiatives (mostly software examples). Everyone liked it, and I was crying inside that whatever they are appreciating is not the goal; instead, the way to do it. There was no problem statement, only a framework. I felt terrible and wanted to stop, but could not. I wanted them to think deeper before jumping on any framework, but everybody was already there, and I was late.
Closing was worse
The same executive said a few things that were an eye-opener for me. I realized how dangerous agile could be. She said to be agile and not do agile, but again, she told agile doesn’t fit everywhere. She was referring to Scrum not fitting everywhere, but instead mentioned agile. I was clueless about how to respond and was afraid as well as interrupting her, as everyone was enjoying her talk.
In the end, she showed Stacey’s chart and pointed in the same way that I had seen in the presentation. Agile doesn’t apply in a complicated or straightforward zone but more for the complex zone. She mentioned nothing about Stacey either and ended up with the squad, tribe, and chapters.
My learning
Next time someone calls to ask what agile is, I think it’s best to clarify their intentions. Is someone going to use me to put forward their agenda? Do participants have a specific reason for looking into agile, or are they simply trying to understand what it entails? Or how well do they know about agile and Scrum? Are they referring to Scrum = agile?
If it is about exploring, it is better to share one of the approaches to being agile. Avoid discussing topics like organizational agility or business agility unless specifically asked.
How would you respond if you were in my situation and unsure what participants are looking for? Feel free to write to me.
The original post is here