How did this team adapt to Agility so quickly?

It was their third two-week Sprint, and they were reflecting on the deliverables completed ahead of schedule. They efficiently planned the next two weeks’ work, gaining confidence from their team lead that their plan prioritized the most valuable outcomes for the business. Remarkably, they accomplished this planning in just 20 minutes.

So how did this team implement an Agile framework and achieve such success in less than two months? The short answer is that they fully embraced the framework. Let’s explore their approach in more detail to understand their success with Agile Transformation Services.

They had a coach

Since I’m writing an article about the success of a team I coached, we don’t want any proverbial smoke blowing; however, having a coach as a source of knowledge and experience helps establish a new way of working more effectively. Picking up a new recipe isn’t the only ingredient to a masterful meal; an experienced chef can guide a new crew through the kitchen.

Bringing someone into the team with Agile knowledge is an excellent way to achieve Agility quickly, and an experienced Scrum Master will facilitate and coach. Hence, they are in high demand, and this team has a great Scrum Master.

Desire and Self-Aware

Knowledge alone is not the only element for a team’s successful transformation to greater Agility. The desire to change needs to be there for change to happen, and that desire also needs to match the team’s ability to be self-aware. If they desire to be in a different state, they must also be willing to reflect on where they are now to understand their journey ahead. 

People and teams often find change difficult because they may fear self-reflection and consider themselves ahead of where they are, making the journey longer than expected. 

That journey is a backlog of changes, and being self-aware of where you’ve come from and where you are now, will make it much easier to plan for where they’re going.

Transparency, Honesty with Compassion

Changing how we work is enormous. It impacts our day-to-day working life, affecting a significant part of our lives. That may seem self-evident, but I say it because it is a statement we should not take for granted.

This team was able to raise and talk through any of the knowledge gaps they found while getting up to speed. They learned faster by creating an environment that made them fearless to put their hand up and acknowledge what they did not know or understand. That transparency also meant they found it easier to work through the parts of implementing Scrum that felt abnormal relating to their work.

People that embrace being transparent and honest with each other will see a change made faster. However, teams that can do that with compassion will also have a positive experience in the transition and therefore be more confident that the change will stick. 

Foundational Training

Having a coach or experienced Scrum Master brings valuable knowledge to the team. However, establishing a solid foundation through group training is crucial for setting the squad up for success with Agile Transformation Services.

The team quickly realized early in their journey that they were “doing Agile” rather than “being Agile” during their Sprint Review. This level of self-awareness typically emerges later in the process, making their early recognition exceptional.

While they had the Scrum framework manual, understanding what it truly means to “be Agile” required foundational training. This early training was key to their realization.

Foundational Agile training remains valuable throughout a team’s journey. You may encounter moments of clarity and gaps in understanding at any stage, making continuous learning essential.

Team Establishment

Straight after the foundation training, this team set aside an entire day to establish themselves via a team kickoff workshop. This workshop allowed time for the team to choose an Agile framework that suited them and their work and set the recurring events in place. They also decided on the group’s roles, clarified their high-level road map, defined a social contract, and gave themselves a name. 

By setting this time aside, they knew how they would work together and what they would work on, specifically, and they had established a cadence to achieve their goals. One of the most significant benefits is also simply connecting as people.

Define their mission

Everything we’ve established above is “how” the team would work, but the final piece to this team’s success was that they also had clarity on “what” and “why”. 

This team implemented Scrum because it was a tool they needed to do the job, but having a clear mission statement was what guided their decision-making. Clarity on what you’re doing and why you’re doing it will steer any team in the right direction.