This week it is time for Chapter 3 of Great Big Agile, An OS for Agile Leaders by Jeff Dalton. Re-read Saturday is a day late this week due to holiday frivolity. To quote the philosophers that write candy commercials, “Sometimes you feel like a nut,” and it was time.
The second performance circle in the Agile Performance Holoracy is Providing. This circle tackles the factors needed to create a continuous improvement environment. Continuous process improvement is the most powerful change tool available for transforming a team or even a whole organization. Agile techniques such as retrospectives institutionalize the inspect and adapt approach to continuous improvement. The idea of continually making changes is not new, nor should it be controversial. What agile provides is more of a sharp focus on making changes sooner rather than later so it can influence the outcome of work before it is delivered. Getting the environment right is a necessary first step which this Performance Circle delivers using three halons. They are:
- 1. Equipping,
- 2. Contributing, and
- 3. Partnering.
While each of the three holons is integral to this Circle, I want to focus my comments on the partnering halon. Partnering reflects a set of behaviors that are often ignored in agile transformations. The idea that teams often have to work with other internal and external teams and organizations is either ignored or subject to much hand waving in an attempt to make it magically go away. At least for large products and programs, it never does and work often has to incorporate external vendors and teams of teams. One of the ten outcomes for this holon (remember all halons have 10 outcomes) is “verifying that agreement (the agreement between the parties) aligns with agile values and methods.” Simply put, contracts or even internal agreements between teams have to acknowledge how work will be done. If you are using agile, it HAS TO BE BUILT INTO THE CONTRACT – I am a bit passionate about this topic. Procurement and legal departments are rarely included in agile transformation efforts, therefore do not tailor agreements to work with agile mindsets. Agile mindsets and techniques are premised on trust between the parties. Without trust, experimentation and communication will be difficult. I have worked with a number of organizations as they sought to “do” agile with outside organizations without changing how they wrote the contracts. The mismatch of expectations generates significant amounts of friction, which requires huge amounts of oversight to control. Oversight requires effort that, while needed, does not directly translate into more features, code, or testing, but does translate into cost – more oversight, more cost. As a rule, more oversight creates more boundaries and reduces trust and transparency.
The Providing Performance Circle leverages the concepts identified in the Leading Circle in order to set the table. Part of the appeal of the Agile Performance Holarchy (APH) is the framework it provides. The APH provides a big picture view of how agile can work in complex scenarios.
Remember, buy a copy and read along.
Previous installments:
Week 1: Re-read Logistics and Front Matters – https://bit.ly/3mgz9P6
Week 2: The API Is Broken – https://bit.ly/2JGpe7l
Week 3: Performance Circle: Leading – https://bit.ly/2K3poWy
