When Culture Eats Agile for Breakfast.

Bad Culture is like canoeing over a waterfall.

I am very fortunate to have family and friends who are into musical theater.  For an aging high school theater nerd, it is always fun to sing along with a show tune while driving.  The funny thing about musical theater since the Second World War is that it has tried to tackle social issues.  “West Side Story,” addressed gang violence and racism.  I remember “A Chorus Line,” exposing me to gay characters.  Finally, “Hair,” had a rock-and-roll soundtrack and a fiercely anti-war message.  Over the weekend, I was running an errand, and the family was listening to the “Hamilton,” Broadway cast album.  I had an unusual emotional reaction, and then I began to think about my agile journey.  

One of the essential songs in the show, “Hamilton,” is “The Room Where it Happens,” where the characters Alexander Hamilton, George Washington, and Thomas Jefferson make backroom deals and compromises to keep the American republic moving forward after the revolution.  It is an excellent song about power and the practical matters of running a country.  It is also an ironic song because Hamilton’s rival Arron Burr jealously wants to be in the room where those compromises happen.

I thought back to a previous position where my manager would joke that I attempted to drag the company toward agile “kicking and screaming.”  The last two years of my career were so frustrating because I would propose solutions and fixes, but because I was not in the room with the decision-makers, my expertise was ignored or actively discouraged.  I would even complain to my manager that I wanted to be in the place where the decisions occurred.  Naturally, when I had my exit interview, I cited the firm’s lack of agile adoption as the reason for leaving.  Looking back at the experience, I realized my efforts were not going to gain traction because the culture of the firm was not going to value agility.  It valued tenure and experience over actually getting work done.  The stock market has rewarded the organization appropriately.  I was never going to be in the room where it happens because I had not paid the twenty-year commitment of time and adequately ingratiated myself with the other leaders.  Shipping software and delivering value was considered a threat rather than a virtue in that organization.  

The rough learning experience helped me grow and develop as a professional, but it reinforced the notion that culture is more influential than agility.  A dysfunctional culture or organization is going to actively fight against agile because agile quickly exposes the rot in the organization, and that threatens the careers of people who professionally benefit from that inefficiency.  People will quickly ally against any change, which is threatening.  The 14th State of Agile report echoed this state of affairs when they said cultural acceptance of agile is lagging because of leadership, not understanding it, and the organizational culture resisting its improvements. 

It occurred to me that unless you have senior leadership working alongside agile coaches and scrum masters, the rest of the organization will continue to do what it has always done through the force of inertia.  Even if I were in the room for decisions, at the old organization, it would not have made a difference because the leadership would not have understood a word I was saying.  So as a coach or scrum master, pay particular attention to culture because if they do not value the agile manifesto or principles, you are going to paddling against the current.  If the senior leadership does not understand agile, then you might as well go over a waterfall in a barrel.  

Agile works, but if you don’t have the right culture, you are up a dangerous creek.  You do not need to appreciate show tunes to get that message.  

Until next time.