One Thing That Organizations Miss In Driving Successful Agile Transformations Posted on : Mar 29 - 2021

Purdue University produced an insightful infographic emphasizing that for the first time in history, there are five generations working side by side: traditionalists, baby boomers, Gen X, millennials and Gen Z. Each generation holds different motivational values, and these differences contribute greatly to how values are manifested into behaviors. In turn, this creates unique challenges and opportunities for organizations seeking greater agility to meet fast-changing market demands.

Erin Meyer, in her book, The Culture Map, emphasizes how different every individual is — even if individuals have been working in the same environment for years, they have a unique style and set of preferences, interests, aversions and values. One missed opportunity in agile transformation efforts is enabling better leadership through motivational values.

A leader’s lack of clarity around motivational values poses a significant challenge in driving agility, especially for those who lack leadership experience. For example, in agile ways of working, the product owner role can be responsible for driving prioritization, improving decision-making, championing value delivery and creating alignment among senior leaders and team members. Individuals who transition into this role often receive some level of training, coaching and mentoring with experienced agile professionals. This might enable product owners to build fluency for their role, but it does not build the leadership skills needed to drive agility in the organization. To drive successful agile transformations, leaders must know what they value and learn to express those values authentically.

Know your values.

Stacey was a young, energetic, high-performing and well-respected senior financial analyst. Due to her track record, she was appointed as the product owner, leading a complex project to redesign the enterprise financial reporting process. For this project, she reported directly to the vice president of the financial planning and analysis group. I was her coach, and we had regular coaching sessions where the topic was often about becoming a successful product owner; however, our third session took a different turn. She mentioned she was having trouble with one of the leaders, Alicia, who challenged every decision she made. She was frustrated. Stacey felt she was doing everything a successful product owner would do yet constantly being undermined by Alicia. She was so successful in her previous role as an analyst, so what had changed? View More