The agile reformation has been my passion and livelihood for over ten years. I strongly believe in making work more sustainable. The global economy is highly complicated, and it takes intelligent and conscientious people to transform it one cubical at a time. I spend my time writing extensively about agile and corporate culture. Over the years, I experienced many of the ugly realities of being a business person; the lack of job security, erratic behavior from vendors and clients, regulators with good intentions, and plenty of colleagues who act in bad faith.
The business world resembles being shipwrecked and trapped in a lifeboat. After days of hunger and thirst, each survivor attempts to cannibalize the others or throw them overboard to the sharks to save themselves. Rescue is elusive, and the ocean threatens to destroy everyone. The agile movement is a friendly shore to find refuge. Unfortunately, I see business organizations ignore this kind of relief and remain adrift. I have given this plenty of consideration, and I have a few informed opinions about why organizations prefer to be shipwrecked.
Inertia is a concept from physics, and Issac Newton first described it as the ability for an object at rest to remain at rest or an object in motion to stay in motion. You expend energy to overcome the force of inertia. In business, this energy equals the expenditure of time and money, which are precious resources. The corporate culture of most organizations attempts to minimize the wasteful use of time and money, so inertia builds up and acts as a weight on the organization's ability to change. People are content to avoid rocking the boat and terrified of risk, and being shipwrecked is preferable to rowing to safety.
Fear is another factor. Companies have to generate a profit and meet the expected profits of their investors, creditors, and shareholders. It puts pressure on leaders to wring as much money out of the organization. Lay-offs and outsourcing are necessary tools in this process. What it does is create a level of uncertainty and fear in an organization. It forces people to ignore inefficiency or waste because exposing it might lead to unemployment. Thus, agile with its rapid cycle times and inspection heightens fear in the organization. People who are afraid have two choices; they flee the company, or they fight. It is the people who remain behind who throw sand in the gears of change. To them, the status quo at an organization is preferable to changes that are threatening.
Fear and inertia create a cycle of dysfunction within an organization. I must also point out poor leadership as the third piece of the triad. Those individuals struggle to keep promises and prefer hoarding information and resources. You point out problems to this kind of leader, and they politely ignore them and often like to fire the messenger who brings them those problems. It is about control for those people, and anything which is a threat is resisted. Using the Pareto rule, 20% of your leadership team creates 80% of your waste and inefficiency. Agile is good at finding these people, but out of self-interest, they will fight back.
Combined, fear, uncertainty, and poor leadership create an environment deeply resistant to agile. It is just like being lost at sea. I will continue to educate and train others about making work more sustainable, satisfying, and sane. With a bit of luck, more of the shipwrecked will find friendly shores.
Until next time.
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