- 26 October 2020
- Posted by: Erkan Sarıkaya
- Category: AGILE
– The dollar will hit 8 TL, a gram of gold will hit 500 TL
– See? I told you so.
– If you had listened to me, this wouldn’t have happened.
– Production is a must,
– The education system has to change, period.
– I told you… and I’m still telling you.
– Look how many defects the product has.
– It turned out the way you said, and the quality wasn’t there.
– Didn’t I tell you?
– We have to do this. There’s no other way.
– Yes, you did.
If you keep telling the truth about the future and nobody believes you, again and again, and then when it comes true you say “I told you so”, what you’re experiencing is Cassandra syndrome.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cassandra_(metaphor)
You can read up on the story; my message comes from a different angle.
Organizational Agility in a Crisis
In times of economic crisis, how should we look at the agility of organizations?
We talk so much about agility, yet in the big picture, at the organizational level, it feels like we are failing.
Team agility is the second priority.
Our first priority is the agility of the organization.
How many times have I told you? 😉
So why isn’t it working?
Why Isn’t It Working? 3 Main Reasons
Here are 3 possible reasons:
1- The Cassandra Syndrome:
Are you also paying attention to the negative scenarios? (sense & respond)
2- Blind faith in the odds: (Blind confidence)
Trend analysis and quantitative statistical modeling tools are very important for effective decision-making, but now we need to question the validity of the assumptions behind those models. (“a developer’s gut feeling”, intuition, insight)
3- A reactive approach to change:
This one is for the manager who, on average, spends only 3% of their energy on looking ahead from the organization’s perspective.
Dear agile leader, please dedicate 20-50% of your time to genuinely preparing for the future, finding meaning and purpose, and setting and adjusting the course of the mother ship.
A leader does not have the luxury of saying:
“there is uncertainty”,
“we don’t know”,
“crisis”,
“global problem”,
“let’s see what happens”,
or “we are waiting”. (know where to go)
What Should an Agile Leader Do?
Instead, here is what you can consider:
- Find the “hidden cost” in changing environmental factors and eliminate it.
- Prioritize using a Value x Cost and Risk analysis.
- Plan for negative scenarios.
- Prepare your 3-month OKRs. (Objectives & Key Results)
And …
for a shared understanding and an organization with agility at its core, think about these questions:
- How can I increase the workforce’s capacity to respond positively to change?
- How can I create a strong, effective working environment?
- How can I push all employees to have courageous conversations with each other and with their leaders?
For 4 Values and 5 Principles of Agile Leadership, click here.
You can also access the publication I’m commenting on via the link below.
https://intercostos.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/PUTHENVEETIL.pdf
Erkan SARIKAYA
Enterprise Agile Coach
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Author: Erkan Sarıkaya — Enterprise Agile Coach, founder of GONEX. He writes on enterprise agile transformation, Scrum, and agile leadership coaching. Learn more on our About Us page, or read his other articles.