Embracing Agility: Transforming Culture Beyond Practices - Part 1

For an organization to embody agility, it must integrate agility into its vision and mission, continually learning from failures to build an Agile culture.

Thank you 🙏🏽 for the overwhelming support for my first article. I truly appreciate you taking the time to write detailed comments. Your feedback means a lot to me.

My writing mentor always said:

“Every reader deserves an article, and every article deserves comments.”

This creates a win-win situation for both readers and writers. To support this idea, I’m planning to introduce a section called “Editor’s Choice” 😆. This will help bridge the gap between us, ensuring it’s not just me posting and you reading and commenting, but fostering a continuous loop of engagement. As our community grows, I might not be able to respond to every comment, but I will make sure to highlight some of the best ones in each newsletter. 👍🏼

Now, lets jump into our new letter of the day.

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Embracing Agility: Transforming Culture Beyond Practices - Part 1

I originally posted this article on LinkedIn a while back and thought I’d share it here too. Since the content is growing, I’ll be splitting it into multiple parts. I’ll make sure to post the full article over several updates, so stay tuned!

In today's fast-paced world, it's common to hear organizations proudly declare, "We are Agile." However, it's essential to understand that "Agile" is an adjective, not a noun. It's about fostering agility, being agile, thinking agile, and feeling agile. Simply adhering to Scrum's roles, events, and artifacts doesn't mean you've achieved agility—it's an ongoing journey.

To genuinely bring agility into an organization, the values and principles must be deeply embedded in its culture. Imagine the organizational structure as a pyramid consisting of leadership, strategy, structure, process, and people. Agility cannot be applied only to processes; altering one part of the pyramid affects the entire structure and its surrounding culture. Agile is 10% theory and 90% practice, necessitating a mindset change. While training on Agile practices like Scrum might take an hour, embracing Agile's four values, 12 principles, and five Scrum values is a cultural shift that can take years. Everyone in the organization must adopt this mindset.

People can have two different mindsets, she says. Those with a “fixed mindset” believe that their talents and abilities are carved in stone. Those with a “growth mindset” believe that their talents and abilities can be developed. Fixed mindsets see every encounter as a test of their worthiness. Growth mindsets see the same encounters as opportunities to improve - Daniel H. Pink

For an organization to embody agility, it must integrate agility into its vision and mission, continually learning from failures to build an Agile culture. And also it just should not be a talk in the organization but daily news to thole company.

Here are some actionable steps to foster agility within an organization:

• Embed Agile in Leadership and Strategy Simply making Agile practices mandatory and hiring Scrum Masters and Agile Coaches is a start, but it's not the whole solution. Agile values and principles should be evident in every leadership meeting, not just through metrics and reports but through a visible Agile mindset. This approach encourages the entire organization to take agility seriously and integrates it into the organization's strategy and structure.

• Prioritize Agile Values in Annual Goals Agility shouldn't be the sole responsibility of Scrum Masters. Product Owners, developers, managers, and leaders must also demonstrate agile behaviors like collaboration, collective ownership, servant leadership, respect, and trust. Organizational goals should reflect Agile values and principles, making them a measure of annual priorities for everyone, including leaders. Every employee's annual goal reflects Agile principles.

A corporation is a living organism; it has to continue to shed its skin. Methods have to change. The focus has to change. Values have to change. The total of those changes is transformation - Andrew Grove

To be concluded…

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Editors Choice… for previous post

Aditya :- Absolutely true. You need to find a concrete reason for getting up early, like establishing a Sadhana (practice) that you enjoy. It’s important to answer the “Why” behind your early rise, especially when the rest of the world is still asleep. Your comment deserves a article. 😊

Siddhanth :- Thank you for your feedback. The article was actually incomplete, and I hesitated to write more, unsure of the response I would get. Now, I understand that you want more content, so I’ll be sharing more from now on.

Many people face the same challenge. Here’s a quick fix: regardless of when you wake up or go to sleep, set an alarm for 10 minutes (you can increase the time as you get used to the practice). Just sit quietly without worrying about anything. When the alarm rings, slowly get up and start or end your day. You can do this right on your bed every morning or before sleeping.

Bhagyshree :- Absolutely! Ayurveda refers to it as Dhinacharya, while modern medicine calls it the Circadian Rhythm. It’s a fascinating topic! 😊

Lokesh :- Thank you so much.

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