Agile is easy, change is difficult

“There is nothing new under the sun.”
‍Ecclesiastes 1:4-11

The concept of change is not new – humans have dealt with change since the start of time. Whenever existing processes and methods are challenged by new ones that show better ways of doing things, people working in these organisations become apprehensive.

For organisations that truly embrace agility, the payoffs for both the firm and the employee are considerable. There are, nonetheless, real concerns that employees may have during the transition:

• What will this change mean for me?
• How will this new approach affect my day-to-day work?
• How does it affect my reporting line?
• How will my performance be assessed under the new approach?
• If we are removing waste in the system, will I still have a job when we’re finished?

The Agile Manifesto recently celebrated its 15-year anniversary, and yet there are many organisations that are only now considering whether to embrace Agile.

Before you jump on-board the Agile train and hire a consultancy like Nexxt to manage the transition, we recommend you consider the various challenges you may face during your adoption of Agile:

• Changing our organisational culture (this is, by far, the most important one!)
• Changing our IT culture
• Adopting Agile technical practices
• Using existing tools in an Agile manner
• Adopting new Agile tools
• Adopting management and governance practices that support Agile ways of working
• Avoiding the Agile Sandwich
• Avoiding the Agile Island

Our recommendation is that organisations Think Big and Act Small:

• Think Big: it’s the organisation that needs to be agile, not just a single team
• Act Small: start with one team, then another, and seek to learn and course-correct as you go

“The acorn contains all the knowledge it needs to become an oak tree, but it doesn’t grow overnight.”

Nexxt has upcoming one-day workshops for anyone who wants to learn how to incorporate agile and lean thinking into their organisation’s daily work practice.