Agile organisation transformations you don't see until you see them through
"You don't start seeing it until you realise it"
A nice think-through from Johan Cruijff. In slightly different words, it was put into words by a director with whom we have worked intensively this year around agile. He made this statement at the end of a working session with his management team. In it, they chose together to accelerate their agile transition. By this, he means that as MT, they were only able to set this ambition through the experiences of the past year. By experiencing for themselves the impact and meaning of agile teams and ways of working in their organisation, they learned to speak a new language, so to speak. A language that helps them to also set and further accelerate ambitions together.
We actually encounter this phenomenon quite often and especially when we hold an inspiration session for leadership teams on agile. You can explain the main concepts and principles of agile in 10 minutes but time and again we come to the conclusion that it doesn't really stick. It's almost like speaking a different language. And only when you learn the words do you start to see it:
A team is not a way of grouping different people under a manager, a team is a group of people working intensively together to achieve a common goal. The success of an organisation does not depend on a management taking the right decisions, but rather by enabling the people who work with customers every day to do so. It is not about planning very well and then "rolling it out", it is about being able to learn faster than anyone else. The challenge for organisations is not to hold very efficient meetings but rather to get different disciplines to work closely together, making many of those meetings unnecessary.
But yes, you don't start seeing it until you realise it. So are you looking for ways to make your organisation more impactful, become faster at launching new products and services that are really wanted, increase employee engagement and energy, and reduce complexity and endless meetings? Then above all, find a way to try out agile, on 1 team, on a specific project. Go try it out, experience what it can do for your organisation ....and above all, stay away from the inspiration talk.
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