A Manifesto for Agile Change Management
Created at Lean Change Agent G(hent) in Belgium

A Manifesto for Agile Change Management

A few days ago Theresa Moulton of Change Management Review had me speak about Agile and Change Management at her 2nd Virtual Change Summit. As I was preparing my presentation, I thought it would be interesting to see how buzzwordy ‘agile’ has become and discovered that 37 out of roughly 1300 words in my Linked In feed was the word ‘agile’. 

Eye-balling the feed showed that every post, status update, or shared linked had the word agile in it. 

I remember my first foray into the agile world over 10 years ago when the word agile meant something. The early adopters of agile found 4 simple values and 12 timeless principles that reinforced their beliefs with a call to action for how they could improve their organizations.

It’s no secret that the goldrush is on to capitalize on agile marketing, agile change management, agile bathroom tissue replacement, and business agility, but I imagine it’s quite confusing for people new to agile to figure out how to sift through all the noise, marketing, and fluff to understand what the heck it means.

When I started learning about agile, there were 6 books, a manifesto, and the same 9 people at every meetup. It was simple. Today, there are 72 frameworks, and tens of thousands of pundits claiming expertise in agile so it’s no surprise that if you want to learn about what agile is, it’s confusing as hell.

I’ve had thousands of people through my change workshop, and there’s an exercise that instructs people to create an agile change manifesto that captures the spirit of the agile manifesto. The point of this post is to share a few examples for those that believe the future of agile change management has nothing to do with standards, frameworks, and process models. Sure, these things will emerge, that’s the beauty of a capitalist world, but they’re all missing the point.

The reason why I say that it because my change workshop generally attracts agile coaches, employees who’ve been tapped on the shoulder to make a change work, or leading edge ‘traditional’ change practitioners who’ve already worked in an agile way their whole careers without realizing it, but want to fill in a few missing pieces.

First, here’s the agile manifesto

  • Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
  • Working software over comprehensive documentation
  • Customer collaboration over contract negotiation 
  • Responding to change over following a plan

That is, while there is value in the items on the right, we value the items on the left more.

Now here’s a few examples of how people in my workshops have adapted that towards change:

From a group in Belgium:

  • Embracing Uncertainty over reducing risk
  • Facilitating Insights over telling people what to do
  • Overall collaboration makes complex problem solving possible
  • Co-creation over hierarchical decisions
  • Overall collaboration over local optimization

From a group in Finland:

  • Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
  • Everyday action over comprehensive documentation
  • Transparency and self-management over strict coordination and micromanagement
  • Responding to change over following a plan

From another group in Finland:

  • Understanding over techniques and tools
  • Collaboration over informing
  • Empowering people over managing people

From a group in Vancouver:

  • Results over structures and process
  • Team empowerment over hierarchy
  • Regular two-way communications over proclamations
  • Commitment to on-going educations/learning over one-time training

From a group in the US:

  • Pull over push
  • Touch over technology
  • Organic over scripted
  • Growth over perfection 

One group even made their change manifesto out of Lego:


What I love about this exercise, is that it gets people to think in their own context. We underestimate the power of personal meaning when it comes to change. We think that a set of standards and new certifications are going to help. They won’t.

If you’re curious, and serious enough, about wanting to learn about agile change management, don’t limit yourself to what your professional association says you should learn, go explore!

Where to Learn About Agile and Change Management

The first step is to learn about the history of why agile came to be by reading this and this. The next step is to find an agile meetup and talk to agile practitioners who’ve been doing this for over a decade.

Even better, attend an agile coach camp (the site isn't maintained as much as it used to be, but that'll lead you to a coach camp in your area) or an agile open space. Coach camps and open spaces are where the conversations are the deepest, and people attend because they’re passionate about agile, not because they’re trying to sell you something.

We live in the age of the expert. Google has made everyone a theoretical expert of all the things which is why there were 3 new frameworks invented according to my Linked In feed this morning.

The best way you can make the most of agile in <insert your functional area here> is to start with the history of agile, the manifesto, and how and why it's important to your organization.

That is only going to become a reality through meaningful conversations, and once that's done, you can build your own approach to change that based on substance.

Ron Leeman

Do you want to find out why I have 95% positive feedback for my Driving Change Management training? Yes? All you have to do is ask. I'm here eagerly waiting for you.

1y

Interesting read Jason Little. It's great getting people to write their thoughts on post-it notes and out of lego but what about when you get into the thick of a large complex change initiative and you have to start trying to keep to those principles? Yes, it might work but the nature of change, as you know, has a habit of giving you a good kick up the ar$e when you least expect it. Then it's all hands to the pump trying to sort the mess. There's no time to take a step back and keep to all those wonderful creative things you came up with during a training session (a whole different environment). I have stated this before and I will again from my article "Agile OCM - a game-changer or just another methodology? (2017) ... https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/agile-ocm-game-changer-just-another-methodology-ron-leeman/: "I am, and always have been, open to look at new ways to practice OCM. But in answer to my original question - a game-changer or just another methodology - my answer would be the latter (for now). I say for now because I will watch this space. For me it is about being “nimble, responsive and swift” in the way you work to achieve what is necessary to achieve." That view still stands today.

Like
Reply
Thiago Brant

Modern Management and Leadership | Organizational Design | Agility | Agile HR | Management 3.0 Regional Representative | Lego® Serious Play® | KCP | OKRs | Founder of Agilers, unFIX Brazil and Agile People Brazil

2y

Great reflection! Congratulations!

Like
Reply
Mariela Zuniga Gamboa

Human Resources Business Partner | Coach | PNL | Change management

5y
Like
Reply
Russ Lewis 👓

Transformation | Due diligence | Advisory | Coaching | Agile ways of working

5y

It's very powerful to have a group or a team write their own value statements in agile manifesto style.

Like
Reply

To view or add a comment, sign in

Insights from the community

Explore topics