Transforming an organisation is not the same as transforming a team

How do you approach an organisation wide agility transformation? It may seem overwhelming and it seems like there is no clear way to start. The best advice, just start!

First, make some audacious assumptions! The best thing about assumptions is that they can be changed, can be proven true or false and allow you to get going.My most favourite assumption is that everyone was well established and skilled in their current roles, so the transformation  is about changing peoples ideas and approaches to agility, not about changing everything associated with the way the organisation works.

Next, don’t go agile! Going agile means polarising the groups that exist inside the organisation. Technology vs business, agile vs waterfall, agile vs DevOps. Why not use the best of everything and go HPT! Base the transformation on building teams of High Performing Teams (HPT).

The key is to transform teams based on large enterprise concepts (hotels, hospitals, airlines, military groups, emergency response units etc) which have to deal with high volumes of “units” or “transactions” and deliver high quality repeatable products/outputs with teams of diverse and cross supporting skills. Model the transformation on the ability of large groups of people with multivariate skills to work together to provide a high quality outcome in a rapidly changing environment.

Respect the most valuable part of any organisation – the People! Recognise that the transformation is about people first (changing the culture), then process (to support and reinforce the process changes), then tools to support and optimise the process/cultural changes).