Step 1: Create a sense of urgency around a Big Opportunity

For the Kotter approach to be successful, you must be or recruit a strong leader at the top of the organization who has the authority to drive the change, and this leader needs to create a sense of urgency. This person has to convince the rest of the organization that the change being proposed is essential to the organization’s continued success. In many ways, the change leader serves as a field commander, rallying the troops and then providing direction, so that they can implement the change.

The problem is that most organizations don’t have field commanders with free time. The types of leaders who need to drive this change are usually CEOs or high-level managers. In large organizations, leadership is almost always tied up with strategic initiatives and financial concerns and is often unaccustomed to leading what they view as changes to operations — something they delegate to lower-level management. As a result, top-level leaders try to outsource this leadership role to outside consultants or change-management firms. Unfortunately, these outsiders, while they certainly have the required expertise, lack the recognition and authority to drive the change.

Don’t try to delegate change leadership to someone outside your organization, such as an Agile Coach (like me). Instead, choose a leader or build a coalition within your organization and give it the authority to drive the change. This same individual or group will take the lead on all eight steps of the Kotter change management approach.

Step 2: Build and evolve a guiding coalition

A guiding coalition is a powerful, diverse, enthusiastic team of volunteers from across an organization that serves as the social leaders of the change initiative. In enterprise agile transformations, the guiding coalition is typically called a center of excellence (CoE). The Scaled Agile Framework^® (SAFe^®), which is covered in Chapter 4, calls this the Lean-Agile Center of Excellence (LACE).

Expect your guiding coalition to represent roughly 5 percent of the overall transformation. For example, if you have 100 people involved in product delivery, the coalition may include about 5 people. If 1,000 people are involved, you’ll want about 50 people in the coalition, but a group of 50 probably won’t get much done, so break them up into smaller groups of no more than 9 people per group.

Divide the coalition into those who contribute ideas (everyone in the coalition) and a small subset responsible for driving the change. Remember that most of the people in the group have other full-time responsibilities. You want to get their opinions, but don’t expect them to serve as full-time change agents.

As you recruit volunteers for your CoE, try to achieve diversity. You want your CoE to include Agile Coaches, practitioners, and some domain and technical experts to connect agile to the larger organization.

Coalition members should follow these guidelines:

• Share ideas without trying to position yourself as an agile leader.
• Work with fellow members to craft ideas and try to solve complex problems about how to increase organizational agility.
• Standardize your ideas so that the organization can have a shared understanding of what the changed organization will look like.
• Align with Lean-Agile principles of continuous improvement and inspecting and adapting. The team should come up with an initial plan that everyone knows will evolve through its implementation.

Watch out for HiPPOs (highest-paid-person’s opinions)! The CoE’s focus should be on learning and on reaching consensus regarding the change initiative. The coalition shouldn’t be merely an extension of management that does what the CEO instructs it to do.

Step 3: Form a change vision and strategic initiatives

The first order of business for the CoE is to create a mission statement. Keep it short and simple, as in the following example:

Sandwich Shop Enterprises is an organization that develops a software program to compare the menus of different restaurants. We’ve created a Lean-Agile Center of Excellence (LACE), which is a full-time, cross-functional, self-organized team that is driving the change to improve our organization’s Lean-Agile mindset. We will provide guidance on Lean-Agile to the rest of the organization related to training, process improvement, tools, culture, and governance.

Next, create a whiteboard with the following three columns and brainstorm the CoE’s scope of responsibility in each area:

• Doing: List everything the CoE plans to do to achieve its mission; for example, leadership and team training.
• Not doing: List areas that are outside the coalition’s sphere of responsibility, such as managing teams.
• Success metrics: List measurements of success, such as the percentage of people who received agile team training or the number of agile teams.

Reach a high level of agreement on any major decision, such as the mission statement and the coalition’s responsibilities. Strong agreement among coalition members ensures consistent messaging to the rest of the organization.

Step 4: Enlist a volunteer army

Kotter’s fourth step is about creating a mass movement around your change initiative. How you accomplish this goal largely depends on the size of your organization:

• Small organizations: If your organization is small, consider hosting monthly “lunch and learns” — optional meetings during which coalition members give presentations about the overall change vision. Free pizza or sandwiches are usually an excellent motivator to help increase attendance.
• Large organizations: In a larger organization (thousands of people), communicating a clear vision across several CoEs can be challenging. Consider establishing a guiding CoE in the largest location, preferably the location with the most managers (not necessarily the most practitioners). Remember that the Kotter approach is top-down, so work on coaching more managers to drive change. The guiding CoE can standardize the ideas among all CoEs to ensure consistency across the group.

Try to keep your CoE meetings fun and informal. Lunches and morning breaks are usually the best times to have productive, creative discussions about organizational change management. Keep meetings festive, as you would an office birthday party, substituting the cake with bagels, pizza, or sandwiches. Avoid scheduling meetings late in the week or late in the workday. Late Wednesday mornings are often a good choice, because they provide everyone with a break in the middle of the workweek.

Don’t overtax your army of volunteers. You’re asking people to add to their workload without shirking their regular job responsibilities. They may need to expand their energy and expertise to 120 to 150 percent above current levels, which is what often happens in a well-functioning system, but try to remain consistent with an agile mindset — respect your people, give them the freedom to be creative, and enable them to make an impact.

Step 5: Enable action by removing barriers

When you’re driving a change initiative, remove any barriers that may get in the way, including hierarchies and inefficient processes. Kotter recommends creating a dual operating system (see Figure 10-2):

The basic structure is self-explanatory: hierarchy on one side and network on the other. The network side mimics successful enterprises in their entrepreneurial phase, before there were organizational charts showing reporting relationships, before there were formal job descriptions and status levels.

—Excerpt from Accelerate: Building Strategic Agility for a Faster-Moving World by John P. Kotter

Your organization can maintain the traditional hierarchy while your CoE, army of volunteers, and influential members of the hierarchy form a network of entrepreneurs and leaders who work to make large-scale changes. This strategic network doesn’t have a typical command-and-control structure. Instead, it focuses on individuality, creativity, and innovation.

In a sense, Kotter is suggesting that you split your organization in two. The one side holds your management, organizational structure, and legacy ideas (hierarchy). The other side should run like a startup organization (network). It should be free to make, and to some extent, break the rules.

The CoE is part of the network, but be sure to include people who have the authority to make changes.

Although you want corporate leadership to be part of the network, don’t let the network become the executive arm of the hierarchy, merely following orders. People will be willing to volunteer and take on extra duties when they believe that their ideas will have a real impact on the success of the organization, but they’ll be less likely to volunteer if they’re being “voluntold” what to think and do.

Step 6: Generate (and celebrate) short-term wins

John F. Kennedy popularized the saying that “victory has a thousand fathers but defeat is an orphan.” In most organizations, everybody wants to be on the winning team. In fact, if you have a lot of wins, you’ll have an easier time recruiting volunteers, even those who were early skeptics. Nobody wants to miss out on a chance to contribute to the organization’s success in capitalizing on a Big Opportunity.

Whenever your organization makes even the smallest step forward on its path to becoming more agile, celebrate. This is no time to be modest. On the contrary, have an “arm in the air” fireworks display to communicate your win to the rest the organization. Don’t be afraid to fist pump even your modest wins. People have a much higher tolerance for listening to good news and self-promotion than you might think.

Also celebrate individuals and not just the entire team. Call out some of your most valuable contributors as a way to reinforce their commitment to the change. Acknowledging people’s contributions is one of the easiest ways to keep people motivated and engaged.

Step 7: Sustain acceleration

After a few wins, a team begins to gain momentum, but many CoEs become satisfied with their contributions and take their foot off the accelerator. They may even disband before they make a real impact on the organization. It’s at this stage where Kotter pushes for getting everyone thinking about sustained acceleration. In fact, this is one reason he made “accelerate” such a big part of his updated change management approach. Sustained acceleration is about maintaining a steady string of wins, which Kotter refers to as “sub-initiatives.”

Celebrate wins but never declare victory. You don’t want to be the team to throw a party with the big banner that says “Agility accomplished!” Instead, focus on smaller, more discrete wins and act as though victory is just beyond your grasp. Celebrate when someone in your organization has received agile leadership training or when you release your first product delivered using an agile mindset. You need to celebrate a steady stream of these sub-initiatives as fuel that will accelerate your overall agile transformation.

Step 8: Institute change

As the network part of your dual operating system gathers momentum, point out the connections between the new ways of thinking and working and the organization’s success, so the changes you’ve implemented become strong enough to replace old habits. It’s at this point your change initiative transitions from becoming a movement to becoming the organizational culture. Think of it as achieving critical mass — the minimal size or amount of something to spark change and maintain its momentum. Your CoE should begin to push these agile principles, values, practices, and behaviors into the very culture of your organization.

Maintain your organization’s dual operating system. You can keep your organization’s hierarchy in place while nurturing networking through communities of practice to ensure that the dialog that drives change in your organization continues. If the networking part of your organization’s operating system disbands, all you’ll be left with is a hierarchy, which tends to lean toward a control culture that resists change.

Remember that organizational changes are always uphill and against the wind. The best change agents usually have more patience than passion. Respect others and work to make small incremental improvements. Above all, enjoy the process. People are much more likely to join your effort if they see you having a good time.

Improving your odds of success

If your organization is using the Kotter approach or something similar, here are a couple tips for improving your odds for success:

• Make sure the agents of change have the authority to make changes. What often happens is that an executive delegates the change initiative, which works only if the organization has a strong control culture. If your organization is more collaborative, people will have a tough time accepting one person as the change leader.

• Think of change as ongoing. People who use the Kotter approach often think of it as eight sequential steps at the end of which you have a big change, almost like a deliverable. In reality, change is something that constantly churns throughout an organization.

  Don’t think of change as one big event; think of it instead as a part of the normal workflow.

Recruiting a change evangelist

To take a fearless approach to change, you need to recruit a change evangelist who can establish an emotional connection with the others in the organization the change will impact most. Look for someone who has the following characteristics:

• Someone within the organization, not an outside coach or consultant. An insider is much better positioned to connect emotionally with others in the organization.
• Empathizes with those who may be the biggest skeptics. Someone who has a history with the organization, has seen changes succeed and fail, and understands the emotional factors that have led to past success and failure is likely to have the requisite empathy.
• Is respected and well-liked by her peers.
• Is passionate about the change being considered (in this case, transforming the organization into an agile enterprise).

A change evangelist makes an emotional connection. She understands both why people are likely to resist the change and why they should embrace it. She acts as a bridge from skepticism to faith, which is a difficult role to play.

Changing without top-down authority

In many ways, Fearless Change is much more realistic than top-down methods, regardless of whether the change is being driven from the top or bottom. Why? Because top-down change often fails for the following reasons:

• Lack of executive buy-in: Other members of the leadership team don’t believe in the change, so the change initiative lacks impact. One of the only surveys on this topic suggests that the lack of executive buy-in is one of the most common reasons for a failed transformation. (See the later section, “Seeing how culture can sink agile.”)

• Lack of follow-through: The CEO or other change leader initiates the change and then gets busy doing other things. With nobody in place to drive the momentum, the change stalls. Even in a strong control culture, people respond to change on an emotional level. The people who have the authority to make big changes don’t have the time to evangelize to individual teams.

  Your change may be at great risk if a champion goes missing!

• Unaddressed fears: Even when you have a strong change leader rallying the troops, that person may encounter resistance at all levels of the organization due to fears among employees and leadership regarding how the change will impact their jobs.

Regardless of whether you have a strong change leader in the upper echelon of the organization, Fearless Change may be the best approach. You can connect with people on an emotional level and use that connection to gain acceptance and start to recruit advocates.

Making change a self-fulfilling prophecy

Ovid’s Metamorphoses includes a poem about a young sculptor named Pygmalion, who created a statue so beautiful that he fell in love with it. When he tried to kiss the statue, the goddess Aphrodite willed his beautiful sculpture to life. In the poem, Pygmalion created something beautiful, and his expectations brought the sculpture to life.

When you’re making a large organizational change, you can benefit from the same “Pygmalion” effect. You can create a self-fulfilling prophecy where your enthusiasm helps recruit others to make changes. This is one of the key roles of change evangelists. They need to have a contagious excitement that wills the change into existence.

Your change evangelist is the key player in Fearless Change. Look for someone who has the enthusiasm to bring the vision to life.

Looking for change patterns

In their book Fearless Change, Rising and Manns describe several change patterns — how people respond to change — and they present various techniques to address these patterns. Here, I present two change patterns I’ve found to be common in the organizations I’ve helped with agile transformations.

Recruiting innovators and early adopters

One strategy to accelerate change is to recruit innovators and early adopters and have them convince the late majority and laggards. The late majority is usually swayed by greater numbers of people, but anyone who resists change is likely to be more receptive when hearing about it from an enthusiastic supporter.

After turning a skeptic into a believer, recruit your new convert to become an advocate for change. Newly converted employees may be your most enthusiastic supporters.

Tailoring your message

As you speak with different groups and individuals, tailor your message to your audience. Don’t continue to sell to innovators and early adopters who are already on board. You may need to shift from sales to education and training or to recruiting your new advocates to help spread the word.

When presenting to the late majority and to the laggards, find out why they’re resisting the change. Maybe similar initiatives have failed in the past and they’re convinced that “nothing’s going to change,” or they’re afraid of how the change will impact them. After figuring out the reason behind their resistance, tailor your message to show that you understand and empathize and then present information that addresses their concerns. Let them know that it’s okay to be hesitant about the change.

Don’t ignore, dismiss, or make light of people’s concerns. However unrealistic the concerns, they’re still valid, because they reflect how people feel. Your job is to provide information and insight that alleviates the concern.

You can help convince the laggards by showing them that the proposed change is actually the best option (or the least unpleasant option).

Steering clear of change myths

In Fearless Change, Rising and Manns present several change myths (misconceptions) that can impair your ability to transform your organization. In this section, I present six change myths you’re likely to encounter as you start to transform your organization into an agile enterprise.

Keep these change myths in mind when you’re starting your enterprise agile transformation so you’ll be less likely to succumb to their influence.

Seeing how culture can sink agile

According to an annual survey conducted by VersionOne on the state of agile, the number one challenge companies face when they attempt an enterprise agile transformation is “Company philosophy or culture at odds with core agile values” (see Figure 10-3). Number four on the list is a “General organization resistance to change.” Further down at number six is “Insufficient training.”

Most organizations understand and are willing to embrace a more agile mindset. The real challenge is overcoming cultural inertia. The organization wants to adopt enterprise agility, but agile conflicts with a deeply engrained incompatible mindset.

Acknowledging the challenge

The first step to overcoming cultural inertia is to confront it. Many teams try to change culture through training. They think that once individuals understand agile they’ll be more likely to embrace it. Unfortunately, more training is rarely the solution. Even when all employees in the organization understand agile and appreciates its potential benefits, they often feel that it’s not a solution that’ll work in their organization. They lack faith.

If you think about it, this feeling makes a lot of sense. A lot of organizations have a strong control culture. Some of agile’s key values may be in direct opposition to long-established practices. A culture that puts a lot of emphasis on hierarchy and accountability, for example, is going to have a tough time embracing self-organized teams and distributed authority.

Prioritizing the challenge

When you start your agile transformation, make culture your number one priority. Agile teams always begin with the highest value items first. Training is number six on the list of common challenges, and culture is number one. It’s clear that you need to start with culture. Your effort here will make or break your enterprise agile transformation.

Build on your success. If you’re considering an enterprise agile transformation, you already have at least one agile team in your organization, and now you’re looking to scale agile to work on larger projects. Leverage the success of your existing agile team(s) to drive cultural change throughout the organization.

Gaining insight into motivation

Managers and developers often clash on the enterprise agility battlefield because their motivations differ. While management often embraces big organizational change and enterprise agile frameworks that promise improved productivity, quality, and customer satisfaction, developers often want management to get out of their way so they can do their best work.