DC56: Why I wrote The Future of Agility report
And what surprised me
The report will be sent to subscribers of this substack by the end of the week.
Why I created the report
You have noticed that I have been absent from writing with my usual regularity. I have been busy researching, writing and preparing ‘The Future State of Agility’ report, and I am happy to say it is finally finished.
I undertook this partly because I had always wanted to make The Deeper Change Academy a research-based think tank but mostly because I wanted to know what on earth was going on with organisations, their crazy change strategies, and why so many Agile Coaches and Scrum Masters were being let go when their work is not complete.
Macro events
The results were partly expected and partly surprising. I did not expect or even think of some of the reasons why leaders were not taking on change programs. The macro-level events we see on the news have real-world and profound impacts on our organisations, affecting how much appetite leaders have for change. This is covered in detail in the report.
I wrote about this here:
No authority
I did not realise how many Change Agents in various roles have so little authority to enact the necessary changes to meet their responsibilities. Agile Coaches seem to have a lot of responsibility and no authority. It is little wonder that this role has been less than effective than we had hoped.
Chicken and Egg
The chicken-and-egg nature of agility adoption plays another key factor in the completeness or effectiveness of agile transformation work. It seems almost impossible to get right unless there are several attempts. Agilty simply cannot be adopted unless it is done in an iterative way using the agile mindset. This poses a problem for leaders and organisations who have no idea what this means.
It seems you have to be agile to be able to adopt agile.
Instead organisations do a best effort based on their current mindset, get shallow reslts, abandon the initiative, and then realise they actually need something to deal with rising VUCA, and then have another go, now that they are better informed and slowly they inch closer to having something that works. It usually takes many years and quite a few attempts.
Budgets
Another surprising find was that those in key change agent roles, such as Agile Coaches, had little information about how much money was available for the change program they were running. Many reported this was not available for the level in the hierarchy that they operated in, and some reported it had never been defined.
Again, this highlighted to me that there is a serious authority versus responsibility versus maturity issue for this role.
I wrote about this here:
What else is in the report?
The report covers many areas that affect change in detail, with each section having information, insights, recommendations, and a summary.
Combining the report with help
If you are interested in what is happening with organisations right now, this report, based on a detailed survey, many case studies, and many interviews, is probably a good start.
You can also supplement the report with help from me through training, strategic consultancy work, and one-to-one personal development.
Training
I have updated the Organisational Change Strategy Course and the more advanced Leading Organisational Change Cohort Program to reflect these insights.
Strategic help
I will also be offering my own services to a few clients who need help with the strategic implementation of their change programs, especially in the light of ‘going back to the office’ moves that many organisations are starting.
One-to-one support
I have two more places left for one-to-one client help, usually for leaders/coaches who are looking to grow their own capability.
My hopes
I hope that this report, the training on running change programs, and my strategic help for a few clients will usher in a new era of change that meets organisations and leaders where they are now and takes them to the next step in creating exciting, engaged, productive, and innovative places to work.
You can visit The Deeper Change Academy website to learn more or book my time.
How to get the report
As a subscriber of the Deeper Change Substack, you will receive a copy sent to your email before anyone else gets a chance to look!
Those not subscribed to these articles (I recommend you do :) ), you can download the report from The Deeper Change Academy website as soon as it is live.
Webinar
You are welcome to join the free webinar for a short presentation and Q and A on this report. You can join via:
https://www.meetup.com/adventureswithagile/events/306136508/
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