Agile leadership for the future

Agile Leadership for the Future
© Giles Lindsay
Agile Leaders Meetup
26th August 2020

About me…
agiledeltaconsulting.com
Giles Lindsay:
25 years working as a Software Engineer
Former CTO and now CEO of Agile Delta Consulting Limited
Fellow (FBCS) - The Chartered Institute for IT
Fellow (FIAP) - The Institute of Analysts & Programmers
Fellow (FCMI) – The Chartered Management Institute
Certified Enterprise Agile Coach
Certified Disciplined Agilist
Certified Scrum Coach
Member of the Advisory Board of the PMI Disciplined Agile Consortium
Mentor for the Women In Technology Group.
Member of the International Working Group for the ISO standard for Agile

Purpose of this talk…
…is to look at some the
challenges that are limiting agile
leadership from being truly
successful in the workplace…

How is agile perceived today?
As a cult or ideology?
As the goal?
As just ‘about doing’ and not ‘about
being’ agile?
As being too prescriptive and
bureaucratic?
As being fake?
As only about implementing parts of the
process?

How is agile perceived today?
A tool for software development only?
All about scaling and brands and
methodologies and transformations?
As the whole answer?
As a tick in a box exercise?
Just about qualifications?
As Agile Theatre?

Organisations aspiring to be Agile…

Surveys by Deloitte and McKinsey:
More than 90% of senior management in
technology organisations, are giving high
priority to the mandate of making
organisations… Agile.

McKinsey global agile survey:
80% of respondents have undertaken digital
transformation initiatives over the past 5 years…
a mere:
16% reported a success…
but only:
3% claimed successful sustained transformation.
McKinsey & Company (2018). Unlocking success in digital transformations:
https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/organization/our-
insights/unlocking-success-in-digital-transformations
Adventures with Agile (2019). Raconteur Enterprise Agility publication. p7.

The results from respondents who did report a
success (the 16%), point to 5 categories, in order
of importance, all of which make a transformation
more likely to succeed:
* Leadership
* Capability building
* Empowering workers
* Upgrading tools
* Communication

Large delta between aspiration and reality…
Too many organisations claiming to be agile, when
clearly they are not.
Right leadership required to bring about required
changes to improve on that 3% score.

Wherever you are on your agile journey…
Agile leadership is:
The practice of creating change that helps build a
truly agile organisation.
The craft of creating the right context for self-
organisation.
About building an environment where agile teams
collaborate, learn from each other, get quick
feedback from users and are focused on quality and
continuous learning.

What is Agile Leadership?
These leaders focus on:
Culture
Ownership
Mindset
Feedback
Long term goals

Who is an Agile Leader?
Think of the role of the Agile Leader as a
placeholder for whatever you decide to call the
role.
A critical role and function that is a key part of
any modern organisation.

Putting Agile Leadership into practice…
Agile leaders need to:
Be present
Inspire creativity and innovation in your employees
Adapt to any situation as it happens
Be resilient and creative
Continuously learn and embody a growth philosophy
Let go of what doesn’t work
Connect the dots

Agile Leadership Effect…
It has an effect on two levels:
Structural Level
Behavioural Level

Leaders Managers
• Mobilise people and
resources
• Explain the vision
• Focus on goals
• Take risks
• Sell it
• Go against the grain
• Motivate
• Inspire trust
• Foster ideas
• Innovate
• Mobilise people and
resources
• Explain the vision
• Focus on tasks
• Mitigate risks
• Tell it
• Go with the flow
• Approve
• Expect control
• Assign tasks
• Use what works
Perception of Leaders vs Managers…

The Challenges…

Challenge #1
Where organisations wrongly claim
to be agile...

Where organisations wrongly claim to be agile...
Agile is often applied to organisations that have no substantive
claim to any kind of agility.
Many organisations being called agile, even though they are
managed through traditional bureaucracy.
Over-eagerness to self-identify as agile, has created fake agile or
agile theatre among organisations.

Where organisations wrongly claim to be agile...

Where organisations wrongly claim to be agile…
Agile in name only applies to organisations that are only
implementing parts of the agile processes...
To avoid uncomfortable scrutiny, organisations may cover
themselves in… agile camouflage…
These organisations are simply:
doing agile without truly being agile.

Where organisations wrongly claim to be agile…
Claims by organisations calling themselves agile, can never be
genuine, if they do not have the right leadership embracing that
agile philosophy and set of values…
This is a substantial hurdle to overcome…

Challenge #2
Where agile is for the software teams only…

Agile Manifesto and Principles originally written for
the context of software development.
Agile Manifesto is less than adequate as a definition
of Business or Organisational Agility.
Agile processes just for software teams run into
conflict with other parts of that business, that are
less flexible to change.

Senior management often become confused asking:
“Isn't agile just for software only?”
Non-agile leaders think all that's involved is the
software teams learning a new framework…
Being able to manifest agile values at all business
levels, is critical for the agile leader to succeed.

Without the right leadership, agile is often just a
couple of pieces of the process cobbled together…
No adoption within the rest of the business.
Intensifies idea that agile is simply: the coding part…
Agile refers to the ability of that organisation to
rapidly respond to change.

An agile leader brought into this environment
needs to find a way, to enable agility throughout
the whole enterprise and not only just for the
software teams.
This can be achieved by things like:
* Systemic coaching
* Sharing the why
* Learning from other organisations
* Introducing communities of practice
* Finding your organisational champions
* Creating the right ways of working…

Challenge #3
Where agile is disliked by the
command & control gang…

Agile to control-minded management, recognises
that a very big problem lies in control itself.
Execution and innovation, lies in giving greater
freedom to those doing the work…
Agile leadership thrives on transparency…

Dirty not-so-little secret of traditional management:
control thrives on non-transparency.
Agile leadership means exposing non-transparent
tricks that hierarchical managers play on their
subordinates, to maintain power.

Is it any wonder that agile leadership isn’t naturally
popular with the command and control gang?
Agile leaders need to assess if an organisation is
truly ready or not for agile…

The hardest lesson for this gang is learning to trust
the agile leaders and the talented people, then
recognising when to get out of their way.

Challenge #4
Where agile is constrained by bureaucracy…

There is still loads of pressure from the top-down.
C-levels should transform too…
C-levels still focusing on
- snapping their fingers,
- trying to become agile magically,
- and hoping for a faster time to market…
…which ultimately never comes.

Senior management doesn’t understand what agile is.
Think it might be some new kind of anti-bureaucracy
or voodoo, associating it with a lack of control or
management…
Believe they might lose of control of the processes
and products and not be able to make changes to
them as and when they see fit.

Senior managers often experience friction with new
agile ways of working…
They also lose sight of the real goal which is:
- achieving successful business outcomes
- not simply doing agile…
However it is not all their fault ☺
Mainstream agile has offered little guidance to those
people who have to change most…

Senior management cannot cope with the pace of
agile.
This agile WoW becomes re-diverted into yet
another company re-organisation…
This wrongly leads to a Way of Organising instead
of a Way of Working.

The Business Agility Report 2019 preface states:
“The report is a sobering account of the obstacles
along the way, particularly in larger organisations
that suffer from:
* Risk-averse cultures,
* Organisational silos,
* Bureaucratic layers,
* Workforce passivity,
* Traditional mindsets
and, above all…
* lack of strongly supportive leadership at the top.”

Agile leadership is harder than traditional leadership.
If you’re doing it right, you care a lot more.
Must help organisations understand that it is not a
new level of anti-bureaucracy and that they will not
lose control of their products.
Help support senior managers to become senior
leaders…

Genuine Agile Leadership = Living the Agile Mindset

Challenge #5
Where organisations have a fixed or
traditional mindset…

Organisations that are very agile often shy away
from the label Agile, or are moving away from a
particular brand...
Main difference between those that can claim to be
agile and those that can’t, is down to those adopting
an Agile Mindset as a part of the company culture.
Where organisations have a fixed or traditional mindset…

An agile mindset does not simply see things in a
polarised view i.e. Agile or not…
An agile mindset is that set of attitudes that
support a truly agile working environment.
This mindset is necessary for agile leaders to
cultivate high performing teams, who in turn
deliver amazing value for their customers.

Independent of terminology, labels, specific
proprietary processes or particular brands…
Agile is all about embracing that different mindset…

Agile is:
o Not a system
o Not a methodology
o Not a platform
o Not an organisational structure

When organisations have the right leaders and
mindset, it makes things come out right.
Conversely, if they don’t have the right leaders and
mindset, no benefits will flow…

The agile mindset is the environment
within which teams truly flourish,
enabled and supported by great
responsible leaders.
https://medium.com/@ruth_obe/growth-mindset-a3b13566a78d

If we want agile leadership to succeed
in the future, we need to collaborate,
evolve and overcome these 5
challenges in the present and no
doubt many others too.
https://medium.com/@ruth_obe/growth-mindset-a3b13566a78d

The journey for successful leadership…

Agile isn't just a methodology to implement within
the existing management framework.
Agile is all about working smarter, rather than
harder.
Not about doing more work in less time…
It’s about generating more value with less work.

Don’t do Agile if you simply want the benefits, you
have to be Agile.
When you have the right agile leaders, the teams
generate value for the organisation, as well as their
customers.
Our goal should not be just about implementing agile…
Our goal is enabling successful business outcomes.

Agile leaders are the key to
enabling people and organisations,
to have the courage, knowledge
and belief to be truly successful.

True Agile Leaders…
Embrace every aspect of agility.
Set a clear vision that their team can embrace and own.
Believe in their mission and live it on a daily basis.
Build a culture of self-organising teams.
Create an environment that allows agile to flourish.
Focus on what really matters - delivering value.
Help their team members take care of the customers.
Are awesome.

The Challenges wrap-up…

Final Question and have your say…
“What is agile leadership for
you and what are your agile
challenges?”
https://bit.ly/36hup4j
For more information:
giles@agiledeltaconsulting.com

Agile leadership for the future

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