Just get on with it

Just get on with it

“We need to become more agile,” I keep hearing in companies. Employees, often young ones, are then sent on training courses and return as qualified Scrum Masters and Agile Coaches. People practise SCRUM, introduce stand-up meetings and diligently stick up Post-its. If that does not have the desired effect, they bring in external consultants with even more experience and agility certificates.

Please do not misunderstand me: I am a consultant myself, I very much enjoy using physical and digital Post-its, and I advocate stand-up meetings and SCRUM.

But consultants, certificates and methods do not create agility when the company’s attitude, mindset and stance embody its exact opposite.

If I demystify agility and reduce it to the core meaning of the word, it means mobility in the sense of flexible adaptability to dynamically changing conditions. For organisations to adapt dynamically and quickly, they need above all a dynamic decision-making culture and an effective, equally dynamic implementation culture—#JustDoIt.

But if Post-its, stand-up meetings and SCRUM meet exhausting cultures of debate, a “we must also consult procurement and legal” attitude, and authorisation rules stipulate that decisions can only be made at the very top of the hierarchy, agility certificates and consultants will not help either.

If the sum of the “this is how we do things here” stories also says that decisions are made at the top and implementation subsequently fizzles out without consequences, I hear it again at the next strategy meeting: “We need to become more agile.” Groundhog Day!

It is the weekend again—hands up! Then on Monday, finally roll up your sleeves and, as Thomas Killmaier, a leader in rail vehicle maintenance in Kassel, would put it: #JustGetOnWithIt!