Many people mistakenly approach an Agile transformation like any other project, as if there are clear start points and endpoints. However, an agile transformation is a journey of many changes; It involves changing mindsets in how you do and view work in new ways. It requires the company to adjust processes and procedures, sometimes even department structures, to support these new ways of reaching your goals. People need to discover how to break their work into small, incremental, valuable pieces.

Agile is a way of being. Agile includes a set of principles and values that guide thoughts and actions. As described in the Agile Manifesto, Agile involves learning as you go, pausing at regular intervals to reflect and adjust to make continued improvements. The goal of Agile is to use these transformative values and principles to improve how your teams/department/company operates, always striving to be a little better than the day before.

If you find you are stuck thinking about your company’s Agile transformation as a project to be completed and measured in these terms, you will become frustrated. An Agile transformation is a journey that creates something… and then takes another step forward, each time discovering new areas for improvement. When this happens, stop and review the Agile Manifesto. Ask yourself, in what ways is my department/team/company putting these new Agile values and principles into practice? What benefits have we begun to realize as a result of how we approach and perform our work in this new environment? Compare these observations to how your company operated before you started your Agile transformation journey and recognize the positive improvements that have occurred along the way. Only then can you look ahead with confidence and begin to see the real progress you are making with each step along your transformation journey.

The second reason Agile transformations struggle is a lack of clear vision and compelling urgency. Most people are comfortable staying with the norm. Few people thrive on the unknowns and challenges that come with change. To motivate and bring people together, they need a clear, compelling vision explaining the change’s proposed benefits. The same is true when leading an Agile transformation. People need to know why this transformation matters to the company and themselves. Employees must understand how the company will benefit and how they will personally benefit. A clearly defined vision for the transformation will make them listen.

Once they are listening, stakeholders and team members will take hold of the idea and work to make the Agile transformation a reality. They must be enthused. The only way to do this is to ensure your vision is compelling. It must connect to people’s heads and their hearts. The combination of information and emotion will draw people into supporting your transformation efforts.

Finally, to ensure Agile transformation is accepted wholeheartedly, it is imperative to explain the urgency of implementing the transformation in terms of its bottom line. Ask these questions to determine the urgency; Does your company need to improve your product delivery speed to stay ahead of your competition? Do you need a way for your product delivery to keep up with the expanding company growth? Are you struggling to create products that excite your customers, so you want a better way to get early feedback from them? Whatever the reason for your transformation, there needs to be a clear articulation of why it is imperative to begin immediately. That sense of urgency keeps people focused and moving forward when the transformation gets difficult. If people in your company involved in the transformation cannot answer, “Why does this transformation need to happen right now?” then chances are your Agile transformation will struggle.