You usually go see a doctor when you’re sick, injured, or have another health related concern. When you go see your doctor, they begin with a series of questions to narrow down the best diagnosis or course of action. Why do they ask about symptoms, lifestyle, and family history? Is it because they think you’ve already hopped online and are looking to confirm what you’ve already told them? No way. They ask you questions because you have first-hand knowledge of your situation; they’re just an objective observer seeking contextual details to narrow in and be able to determine the best course of action.
It would be hard to trust a doctor who’d ignored your description and contextual answers relating to the issue because we inherently recognize that context matters. You know how your body feels better than the doctor you see a handful of times every year. We know that our health is a complicated system in need of examination before applying theory or experience. It helps direct the path of diagnostics and allows the doctor to analyze the root issue. Without context, too much time would be spent on secondary or unrelated symptoms. This approach should parallel agile transformations but is too often ignored in favour of prescription. New leadership and agile coaches can learn valuable insights if they follow the example of great doctors. It’s too common for an experienced new-comer to immediately want to jump into solving the problem they were brought in to resolve, with little regard to the larger organizational norms.
The business world is saturated with a toolbox full of items ready to tackle any issue within an organization. It’s true there are common ailments which plague organizations, and commonly used remedies for those issues. Here’s why the temptation to simply prescribe a tool is problematic: Like humans, organizations are diverse and changing, so what would work for one organization, won’t work or will exacerbate the issue for another. Again, like humans, organizations require individualized attention – sometimes even to the departmental or team levels. An agile leader, like a good doctor, will analyze the individual attributes, gather as much contextual information as possible, and clearly communicate the plan of action before jumping in.
This analysis, information gathering, and planning takes time, patience, and transparent communication. Great leaders remember that organizations don’t just develop issues intentionally or randomly. There’s always an underlying, and often much pervasive, cultural element. Usually, it’s a result of some combination of necessity and time-sensitive deadline driven pressure. Finding the underlying issue will provide the key to unlocking the door to organizational success by allowing an assessment of the aptitude and appetite for change. Assessing this puts people ahead of the process, and makes any changes relevant and appropriate for the organization. It’ll also allow people to embrace change rather than run from or question it.
Leaders who fail to take this approach often become like the doctor who we all know just pulls out their pad and writes a prescription. This often leads to patients seeking a second opinion or worse, they stop going to doctors all together. Because of these negative reactions, any changes the leader will make, will likely create disengaged, disillusioned, confused teams which end up tarnishing the concept and effectiveness of agility regardless of positive intent.
The Moral: Great agile leaders and coaches don’t prescribe change, they listen, communicate and nurture it.