How many of the below are familiar to you?
We know that we work in a complex environment where we make decisions based on what we observe. But for this super important initiative, the organisation demands a fixed due date for a fixed scope;
We embrace self-organising teams, but during crunch time someone from outside of the team takes charge to ensure that “things get done”;
The team wishes to improve their way of working, but we aren’t allowed to drop a certain tool that we all dislike;
The team drops the quality of their product to ‘cut corners’ when the pressure is on.
These are all signs of an organisation that says it wants to change (“We want to be Agile!”). But not really.
Imagine if an organisation advocates a new approach, provides training and coaching and voices that they firmly believe that the new approach is the way to success. What will happen when you switch to the old routines when things get rough? I can imagine a couple of things:
Some will be furious because they aren’t allowed to work the way they wish;
Some will be suspicious the next time you come with ‘something new’;
Some will believe that the organisation can’t be trusted;
Some will think the new approach is awful;
You did not profit from the true power of the new approach;
You will not make the deadline with that fixed set of features anyway;
You will not see an improvement in the performance of the team when someone is directing them. You will see the opposite instead, because people will wait for your instructions and not question them, although they are the experts;
Your organisation will be back at square one. All the energy and belief in your new idea vanishes.
Switching back to old routines during hard times only shows that you don’t believe in the new approach. Therefore please think twice before you adopt a new approach. Are you adopting it for the right reasons?