"Agiling in place" - Tales from agile managers

One of my favorite responsibilities is facilitating the Agile Leader Onboarding sessions.  In these events - I get to talk to managers and leaders about the agile values and principles, how agile frameworks add value, and about how managing and leading people is very different in an agile environment.  Inevitably we get into great conversations about what needs to be done differently, and what we can start doing now - today - to reinforce a shared agile mindset and help our transformation move forward.  Every session - we end it with a challenge for the participants - try one thing.  Try one different thing with your team members, your partners or peers to help reinforce an agile mindset.

About two weeks later - we get the each group back together and ask them "Ok - what did you try?  What did you observe?  What did you learn?"  Then we sit quietly and wait for someone to speak up.  Without fail, I hear stories of managers and leaders who did do things differently, and are really excited about what they observed because of it.  Here are just a few of the examples we've heard over the last year...
 

Challenged the team with an outcome - not an assignment...

Upon receiving a "fire drill" from above - one agile manager decided to try something different.  Even though he thought he knew exactly what needed to be done, instead of instructing his team on what to do - he challenged them to solve the problem.  He explained the desired outcome, put up some simple guardrails, offered to pressure test their thinking as they went, and gave a time-box in which to come back with a solution.  He gave them 3 weeks figuring that would be about how long it would take to work through the problem.  Three days later - the team came back with a solution that was not only different than what the manager was originally thinking, but a better solution.  Instead of saying "go do these tasks" he said "go solve these problems" and was delighted with a faster, better solution.  Agile mindset at its finest!

Team Retrospective results in process improvement and team happiness...

An agile manager recently implemented a regular team retrospective, in which the whole group paused for a couple of hours and reflected on how the team was delivering value, what was impeding them from becoming more effective, efficient and engaged, and what things they can do differently to improve how they deliver value.  During one such retrospective, it became apparent that that the team's customers were pretty universally getting tripped up in the same process step.  The team decided to take action.  They discussed the "what and why" of the step and realized that it wasn't value-added for the customer to complete that step - it was all internal facing.  They imagined what would happen if the team took ownership of that step, instead of making the customer do it.  They considered the risk to this change (there was none, and confirmed as much with their risk partners and their up and down-stream partners) and the reward (fewer frustrated customers, smoother workflow, minimal additional work for the team) and took ownership of improving the process within days!  Not only did the team get the benefit of fewer frustrating (for everyone) conversations with customers and a more efficient workflow, they also felt empowered by solving their own problems!  Talk about an example of an E3 team (effective, efficient, engaged)!
 

Tell me what you think you should do...

During a recent one-on-one with a direct report, an agile manager decided to change their typical approach to problem solving.  As the direct report was outlining a problem, with the expectation of being told what to do to resolve it - the manager smartly channeled their inner David Marquet and turned the situation into an opportunity for empowerment.  Rather than pontificating on how to solve the problem - the manager simply asked - "What do you think you should do to resolve this?"  After some blank staring and some "well, er... I...", and a deep cleansing breath, the team member began brainstorming potential solutions, with the manager pressure-testing, offering things to consider and suggesting resources.  The one-on-one wrapped up with a challenge to "I'm around if you need to bounce a solution off of me - but tell me how it worked out at our next one-on-one."  Fast forward to the next touch base - were the team member proudly shared the results of the solved problem, and rather than asking for this agile manager to solve the next problem - began brainstorming and pressure testing ideas for the next solve!  Talk about an empowering environment!

I've said it before and I'll say it again - you don't have to be doing agile to be agile.  In each of the real-life scenarios above - none of the team members were on scrum teams.  There were no Kanban boards in evidence.  These are managers and leaders engaging with their team members based on our shared agile values and principles.  These are managers who are helping their team members to feel empowered.  These are managers who are being agile.   These are managers and leaders who are actively helping us to transform, even though they aren't necessarily involved in one of the active transformation work streams.  

These are just a very small sampling of stories that I hear every time I get to talk to agile managers.  I love how they are not only embracing the values and principles themselves, but also encouraging others to embrace and live the mindset!  I have NO doubt there are more stories out there - not only successes, but also learning!  Remember - these are experiments - trying something new doesn't guarantee positive results every time - There are lessons to be learned from the one thing tried- but didn't get desired results!  That's ok!  We learn, adapt and move forward. 

We all win together.