“Intelligence is the ability to adapt to change.”-Stephen Hawking
The traditional way of thinking has now become the old way of thinking. As the world is moving towards development, innovation has become a new trend. Curiosity is a part of human nature, so adapting and discovering new things isn’t very difficult. The same goes for organisations and industries; they are now inclined towards agility and change in their working environment.
What Does Agile Transition Mean?
Agile transition refers to transforming an organisation or industry from the traditional way to embracing gradual yet essential changes in the work environment to become more flexible, collaborative and innovative. Organisations now adapt to the dynamic changes in this fast-changing world and adhere to become more adaptable.
What is Agile Coaching?
An agile coach helps organisations, teams, and individuals change their traditional working methods to a more agile and modern practice. In agile coaching, the prime goal is to make the organisation or team more proficient, coordinated, and straightforward to ensure better results, services, and solutions.
An agile coach is responsible for incorporating agile teams in non-agile sectors, extend the agile methods all over the organisation, integrate the best tools, practices and techniques that assist the work in the industry and calculate the results of the agile transition.
Actions that might Disrupt Your Agile Transition
When your company is going through an agile transformation, some of the most common mistakes that leaders make can significantly impact your transition and disrupt, include:
· Not Putting a Priority on the Organization’s Culture
The culture of a company is one of the most significant parts of an organisation. Ignoring the culture while transitioning to agile can become an obstruction to the easy flow to agility. For a successful transition, changing at the team level will not be enough; how the executive sector operates and influences the company is equally important.
An agile transition can also impact the organisation’s culture and drive some significant cultural changes to increase profit and revenue and improve its conventional working system.
· Not Recognising and Investing in the Talents of Your Employees
The success of a company is directly proportional to the talented people working in it. To successfully go from waterfall to agile transformation, your company should hire competent people to secure the competition’s top spot. Here, it is to note that the right talent fuels the agile machine; therefore, organisations must invest in their employees to encourage them to take on agile roles and join teams.\
· Not Recognising that Agility is a Strategic Priority
Most companies limit the agile transition to one part or section of the organisation. Making one arm of your company agile and leaving the rest to operate traditionally might not help you in your company’s overall success. Starting from one sector and treating agility as a strategic approach, making the entire company gradually agile is the best game plan.
· Not Inducing Innovation in the Core of the Organization
Having a rigid framework in your company limits experimentation and exploration. Developing the right frameworks is an integral part of a company. Still, flexibility and adaptation should also be a part of it. A framework will help your company, and the individuals will not be afraid of a bit of trial and error.
Now that you know these missteps can mess up with your agile transformation, but fret not!
Here are some tips that you can follow to help make your agile transition easier:
5 Tips to Help You Obtain Agile Transformation in an Organisation
“In any given moment, we have two options: to step forward into growth or to step back into safety.” –Abraham Maslow
The core focus of an agile organisation is its customers. They implant customer-centricity in all their sectors. Five tips to help you tackle coaching agile transition in your company are:
1. From Traditional to Innovative
In a traditional company, people are taught to work like a machine and follow the rules. People get tired of following the same pattern and start drowning in complications. Encouraging innovation and experimentation is a part of an agile organisation. Employees are more open to ambiguity and embrace change more quickly in agile organisations. This way, the organisation can move from its traditional forms to more innovative and contemporary methods.
2. Be Creative Rather Than Reactive
Encourage the thinking of being more creative in any situation rather than reactive. Our mindset is set on a basic pattern, so adapting to new ideas and thoughts takes time. Coach the people so that, instead of seeing the world from someone else’s perspective, they get a self-authoring or creative mindset that helps us create our view of the world. Agile organisations focus on employing networks of autonomous teams and foster collaboration. It requires the leader to have a creative mindset and continuously tap into employees’ skills, ideas, and potential through trust, freedom, and accountability. It can only be possible by ensuring mutual acceptance at the workplace and respect.
3. Communication is Key
In coaching agile transitions, the main emphasis should be on communication. Communicating on what initiatives are being taken, reporting company progress and any changes that might have occurred determine its success. If there is a lack of communication in the organisation, it can notably hinder progress and transitions.
4. Embrace and Encourage Design Thinking
When coaching transitions, leaders must be ready to encourage and embrace change, including design thinking, which focuses on the organisation’s customers. To ensure better customer service and product results, the company should allow the need for design thinking.
5. Focus on the Agile Culture of the Organization
Shaping the culture of the organisation is the responsibility of a leader. Culture plays a prominent role in agile organisations due to the freedom and independence that agile organisations require. Leaders must be ready to undertake multiple cultural transformations in coaching agile transitions, such as building new behaviours and mindsets, installing new agile mechanisms, and promoting your team’s conviction.
Successful End-Product
When organisations make a successful waterfall to agile transformation, they help their company move forward and enable innovation and productivity in all of its sectors. Changing leaders’ mindsets and transitioning them to a new and agile way ensures their industry’s triumph.
“If everyone is moving forward together, then success takes care of itself.” –Henry Ford
