Resistance to change is the phenomenon
when more and more organizations adopt agile as a business philosophy and
project management, what’s the root cause and how to overcome such mentality?
Learning agility: Company
has started an agile transformation. One of the most critical points organizations
ignore in their transformation journey is the ability to quickly learn from
failure or the ability to have an honest retrospective and take action. Agile
exposes bottlenecks almost every day - managers (teams) are not trained well to
deal with these situations which call for core leadership skills. This makes
the teams feel very un-secure and gives a cosmetic feel to the whole
transformation initiative.
Five-Step U-shape curve: Use the U-shape curve to explain to the organizations the stages
that they will go through in the process of adapting to change: Curiosity,
Frustration, Contempt, Illumination and Expertise. Imagine five steps in a U where
Curiosity and Expertise are at the top of the U opposite and in the same
sequence, then Frustration and Illumination middle of U again on opposite sides
and Contempt all the way to the bottom of the U. Once they know the game, they are more
willing to accept it, since it becomes an intellectual exercise, rather than a
power-play or touchy-feely thing.
Middle management resistance: The businesses are
cautious in adopting Agile. But main resistance is from present staff. This is
just in part to the fact they are required to change habits. In many cases, top level executives want
it, development teams clamors for it, but middle management resists it to the
very end. The really good upper management understands the results they are
getting, and why the need to change in product delivery approach. Those in the
trenches finally have the feeling of being treated as smart as they are. Middle
management is usually those left without a role during this transition. Now
that teams are self-managing, what do they do? Now that clients are more
involved with product development, what's there to bridge? The goal now is to look for places
where these people can still leverage on their talents, skills, and experience.
Could they be good coaches/scrum masters? Could they be more involved in
product visioning? Could they go back to doing technical stuff? Or plug in the
holes in the organization?
Deliver the right agile message: "Let's start where you are and we'll
equip YOU (team) to figure out how to get even better.”. It's important to
acknowledge that as humans we all resist change. It's natural. The decision
makers would not be personally involved in the change towards Agile, they are
expecting results, and resistance, if not reacted upon properly, can be risk. Focus on the changes that will happen
in terms of roles and what is the alternative. Resistance usually stem from
uncertainty and threat to careers, or focus on the faulty assumptions, the
antiquated scientific management theory, inappropriate analogy of software
development and manufacturing, etc. and then propose what they can
"experiment" on that may improve things, moving agile among them.
Resistance to change is normal, the
point is how to apply the right mindset, process and method to overcome
obstacles, there must be committed and continual engagement from the customer/
client/business. They must be part
of the WE. To deliver products/services exactly what customers need, with
outstanding quality, usability and experience.
1 comments:
Nice post, you give readers a lot to think about and I appreciate that kind of writing. Thanks for Sharing.
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