It’s a new year, so here we go again!
When moving to an agile environment, it’s important that management recognizes they are creating a new culture that they themselves must ultimately drive. Not only do they need to create teams and allocate appropriate resources to them, but they must also empower them to be self managing. These teams need to be trusted to make decisions on behalf of the company without having to bring every little thing back for review. Being agile isn’t just something you develop, but it’s also a way to manage.
Naturally, management must still drive the objectives and keep their teams focused, but they need to be removed from the nitty-gritty workings of the teams. This is to also say that management needs to be prepared to accept mistakes, make corrections and be willing to let their teams reassess and move forward. The key to successfully being agile is for management to realize it isn’t about managing, it’s about creating leadership within their teams and trusting in that leadership. Building successful leadership in their teams will enable those teams to take the company where it needs to go. Otherwise, you’re just building layers onto the process and calling it agility. It’s not.
