When Agile Isn’t Agile
Organizations often miss the true essence of Agile, reducing it to just a set of methods rather than embracing it as a mindset or culture. This misunderstanding is like following a recipe perfectly but failing to understand the principles of cooking. In the same way, many organizations don’t grasp the “why” behind Agile, leading to failed transformations.
Agile in Name Only
A story comes to mind about a cook who always cut the leg tip of a lamb before roasting it because his mother did it. Years later, he learned that she did it because her roasting pan was too small, not because it improved the dish. This illustrates that without understanding the reasons behind actions, you miss the point. Similarly, many companies claim to be adopting Agile but still practice traditional methods, like rigid plans and steering committees, which are contrary to Agile principles.
Contrasting Agile with traditional Waterfall planning, which involves detailed upfront plans, reveals that Waterfall is not suited for uncertain environments. Agile embraces uncertainty, focusing on iterative processes and continuous feedback, which is essential for navigating unpredictability.
Uncertainty Is the Norm
Projects rarely go according to plan, and uncertainty is a natural state in complex organizations. However, many management cultures still emphasize strict deadlines and detailed planning, mistakenly believing this will ensure success. This approach often leads to excessive documentation and meetings aimed at reassuring higher-ups rather than progressing the project.
Organizations should accept that uncertainty increases with the rapid growth of digital assets. A significant portion of work involves managing these assets and connecting disparate pieces of knowledge, rather than producing tangible outcomes.
Agile as Heuristic
Agile thrives on simple, adaptive heuristics or rules of thumb, especially when dealing with incomplete information and uncertainty. This approach advocates small, incremental steps with frequent feedback to steer projects in the right direction. Agile principles are applicable to any project, not just software development, as they are fundamentally about managing uncertainty and complexity.
Agile and The Intuition Gap
In Agile environments, workers often rely on intuitive judgment developed through hands-on experience and close interaction with their work. This intuitive flow allows them to make rapid decisions without needing detailed justifications. However, higher-ups, removed from daily tasks, often demand detailed explanations, creating an “intuition gap.” This gap can lead to misunderstandings and misinterpretations of workers’ decisions, wrongly judging them as incompetent due to their reliance on intuition rather than detailed plans.
Unwritten Is Not Undone
Because intuitive decision-making processes are often unwritten, higher-ups might assume insufficient action, leading to unnecessary interventions. These interventions can disrupt intuitive workflows and cause more harm than good. Trust in the process and in the team’s abilities is crucial to leveraging Agile’s full potential.
Agile Mindset
An Agile mindset involves trusting the process and the people, accepting uncertainty, and supporting intuitive workflows. Agile reduces uncertainty by providing actionable insights and promoting iterative progress. Workers close to the action develop valuable intuitions that guide their decision-making, often more effectively than detailed plans.
Conclusion
As complexity in the workplace increases, the traditional demand for detailed justifications becomes impractical. A scalable approach involves decentralizing decision-making, empowering workers, and trusting Agile processes. This enables more effective handling of uncertainty and allows teams to operate with intuitive flow, ultimately leading to better outcomes.