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Organisational Development | Agile Leadership

Agility - Classic stumbling blocks and how to avoid them.

from Alexandra Jelen and Sabine Walter, Head of netzwerk managementberatung | coaching

Many companies that agile working The companies that are introducing agile work expect shorter development times, more innovative products or a shorter time-to-market. They are convinced that agile working will enable them to react faster to changes and maintain or restore their competitiveness. So much for the theory. Here, too, practice shows every day anew that there is more to it than painting a new organisational chart and renaming employees Agile Coaches, Scrum Masters and Product Owners.

Companies that already work agile in some areas know by now that the new form of work is not a blessing per se. It takes a lot of attitude change, planning and time to avoid the classic stumbling blocks and to really reap the benefits from agility that companies are hoping for. We give some recommendations on how to avoid these stumbling blocks.

Agility stumbling block # 1: Pilot first. Then roll out.

Established companies with a classic organisation - usually referred to as an "old economy" company -. Often introduce agile forms of work in individual areas at firste.g. in IT or digital product management. They are pursuing two goals with this: On the one hand, they want to develop innovative digital products more quickly. On the other hand, they want to familiarise themselves with the new form of work.

They thus step directly into the first pitfall and feel: Agility meets hierarchy. This often results in processes taking longer than before, because A lot of time spent in coordination, management of disagreements, conflicts and unclear decision-making powers. is lost. The user experience suffers as a result. There is too little time to deal with the customer's needs - a prerequisite for developing products that the customer will buy.

Principle: Agility cannot be introduced by a deadline and not only in sub-areas. Agility affects the whole company. This cultural change is a process of change. It can only be introduced top-down. The attitude behind the agile way of thinking and working must be lived by top management. Like any change process, needs also this Time.

The first three steps for all those who are thinking about introducing agile working, are:

  • Decentralised responsibility instead of decision-making hierarchy
  • Open communication and information transparency instead of a "knowledge-is-power" attitude
  • a constructive error culture

Agility stumbling block # 2: Agility is just another management tool.

Agility is more than a new way of working with new working methods. Employees and managers feel the difference to classic organisational processes from day one. 

Agility Is a Mindsetno tools. Someone who thinks and acts in an agile way is able to comprehensively perceive what is happening in his environment and to integrate it into his actions according to the situation. He is able to do what is required in the situation.

Principle: The more flexibility and creativity there is in the process, the clearer the structures must be. Only then will misunderstandings and conflicts not arise. The answers to the W-questions "who", "what", "when" need to be clarified before the new philosophy is introduced.

Agility stumbling block # 3: People change at the push of a button.

The new way of thinking and working brings many things which are of great importance to employees and managers. new are. This It is important to experience and learn. Only in this way can trust in themselves, the new form of work with its methods, in new decision-making paths and development and result processes. grow.

What is new, for example, is for managers:

  • Giving up decision-making authority and control
  • Build trust in staff and in the process
  • Lose status if applicable
  • Accepting help
  • Dealing with less planning certainty
  • Tolerating mistakes and seeing failure as an opportunity for further development

What is new, for example, is for employees:

  • Self-determined, self-organised and result-oriented work
  • Permanent transparency of own performance
  • Open communication and regular feedback, also in team settings

As is the case at the beginning of every learning process, many employees also experience their own insecurity and fear of not being able to fulfil set expectations.

Principle: In our experience, leaders are just as challenged in the cultural shift towards more agility as the employees themselves. Therefore, dear leaders, give your employees and yourself the time, that this process requires. And you perceive exactly how far, your organisation already is. 

Independent of the introduction of agile working, you can of course also do valuable "preliminary work" in a classically managed company with regard to the new way of thinking and working. This is for example:

  • Introduction of a Constructive error culture
  • Strengthening the culture of trust and thereby reduce anxiety
  • Person-centred, appreciative feedback give to build self-esteem and self-confidence in everyone
  • Realistic goals within the framework of a bottom-up process to agree
  • Accepting a "no" from staff and thus signal that they are of age, e.g. to set limits on workload or to point out unrealistic time frames
  • Give up control and Define team responsibility

You see, agility is not an end in itself, because agility does not automatically lead to more innovations, better products and a faster time-to-market. It is the people who think and work agilely. The core of agile working is the attitude. Every company can live this, even without proclaiming the word "agility" as a deadline.

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