The Marathon to Scaled Agile and Digital Transformation
Companies around the world have scaled up their digital capabilities at a speed faster than we've ever seen. While some leaders are keeping up with the demand for creating seamless technology functions and leading the employee experience successfully, many still grapple with how to organize teams to engage each individual, without leaving employees behind.
Scaling from waterfall to agile requires patience, flexibility, and shifts in mindsets and behaviors. Changing in a sustainable way takes time – quite possibly, years. This is a marathon, not a race. And it’s not for the faint of heart.
The advantages to a truly agile workforce will pay off in spades, even with a potentially long runway. More engaged employees will have increased success in problem solving because they design their work and are empowered to drive the work in a way that supports delivery. Even more, while every organization has political friction, scaled agile promotes across-the-aisle thinking, recognizing that solutions and great ideas come from all levels of an organization.
Consider the preparation and training needed for a shift of this magnitude. It’s akin to running a marathon when your only experience is a 5k race.
You’ve got a clear goal ahead of you in a marathon: run 26.2 miles, and cross the finish line. Some may be happy with completing the marathon (even if accompanied by a vehicle escort). Perhaps you have more aggressive goals: win first place in your division.
This requires special considerations:
Do I have the right people at the right times on my training team to get me to that finish line?
What about the tools I’m using – do I have the right shoes? Technology? Energy sources?
What do other professionals and experts advise on training?
Now imagine your marathon date has been rescheduled, to four months earlier. Your training schedule must be completely overhauled. Your work and personal life will likely be disrupted as well. This new training intensity increases your risk of injuries and stress. If only you had known…
Stress and panic due to disruption…sound vaguely familiar? The pain points of being blindsided by increased expectations in unrealistic timeframes are quite relatable. The digitization of our workplaces was accelerated in unimaginable ways in the last 18 months, faster than any of us could have anticipated. We had unrealistic expectations on ourselves and our teams – we cannot complete this marathon without the proper training, tools and preparation.
As we speed digital transformation, understand that it is a journey. If change occurs faster than people can adapt, there will be friction. It’s a long-haul with humans; it’s how we work.
You can accelerate the pace by focusing on changing leaders first, and then getting clear with your talent strategy. Furthermore, the degree to which you can augment internal people with external people will model different behavior and move them along.
The human machine does not switch gears easily. People will not be compelled to change because you ‘said so’ – you must understand the human system you’re trying to inspire.
Start by thinking about a few key focus areas:
Focus on skillsets that build collaboration.
In most large organizations, the work is divided into silos, which is counterintuitive to the cross-functional collaboration required in scaled agile. Here we’re organizing around the value chain, not a function. We wave goodbye to the ‘us vs. them’ dynamic, now we’re on one team and need to learn to work together. This means building on constructive conflict, transparent communications and clarifying messages. Most of us learn how to be polite at work, not honest. Leaders need to learn how to do this better in order to set the environment for scaled agile.
Retrain your people.
Einstein described insanity as doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results. The same could be said for managing teams through a scaled agile transformation. We want to work faster, more creatively and more efficiently. But the leadership and team requirements in order to do so are complex. Adding more work to existing teams with increased expectations of outcomes will only lead to failed outcomes. Prepare your employees through training and alternative learning experiences, with ongoing coaching to help shift behavior in real time while doing real work. The methodology, ways of working and mindsets required to truly operate in an agile way are much different than doing more work, faster in a linear way. Agile is anything but linear and requires turning the day to day reigns over to the employees who have to deliver the work.
Retrain yourself.
Leadership development opportunities will serve an integral role in scaling lean and agile practices. Generally speaking, leaders who are highly attached personally to managing and directing the delivery of outcomes instead of empowering their employees grapple with the threat of failing, which triggers greater risk. Greater insecurities rise from fear of failure, given that in this model, employees make decisions about managing the work. Scaled agile is not a hierarchical style of working. Conversely, a leader who is more focused on coaching, collaborating, empowering and inspiring their employees will maintain perspective and avoid the urge to “direct the work”. Scaled agile requires retraining patience, tolerance and a willingness to be open. Agile-adept leaders connect with the following: “I care about the outcome, I pay attention to it, I have energy invested in it, but I won’t take over the work. You’ve got this.”
Scaled agile in a ‘normal’ environment is challenging at best. Given the digital transformation companies have undergone this last year, leaders must recognize both the opportunities and setbacks that have propelled their workforce into scaled agile. As with any other ‘marathon’ preparation, once you’ve taken inventory of your skillsets and retraining yourself and your employees, remember:
Pace yourself. Give yourself the time you – and your team – needs.
Celebrate small victories and mile markers, because missteps are inevitable.
Humility and gratitude go a long way – gather strength from your peers and your pace setters.