Agile Explained in Simple Terms - Luke Nieuwenhuis

Luke Nieuwenhuis, VP of ABO Incentives at Amway explains how
Agile is a way of getting work done. We often overcomplicate it,
but it's really about how we get things done as an
organization.

WHY IT MATTERS
Our ability to move more quickly from one thing to another
(markets, projects, strategies, etc.) is paramount to our ability
to keep serving our customers.

On the ground floor, our teams can be very flexible. They often
know that what we're working on might not be the most important
thing - the struggle is to get the rest of the organization to
keep up.

EXPLAINING AGILE IN SIMPLE TERMS
Don't get caught up in the terminology (epics, features, sprints,
etc.) The more we can talk about agile in terms of the intent
behind the things we're doing, the better people will understand
it.

Our intent: focus first on the customer. What are their needs?
How do we know those are their needs? How do we go about
executing in solving those problems? How do we know our solution
has solved it? These are the questions that agile is helping us
answer.

CHANGING MINDS IS HARD
We tried to explain that we don't need to force "everything" into
one big launch, but until we showed people how it could work
differently, it didn't stick. The proof was in showing them it's
viable, and only after that did we really start to shift
thinking.

WHAT DOES IT MEAN FOR THE CUSTOMER
Their feedback has a greater influence on how we make decisions
and build solutions that help them run their business. The faster
and more often we incorporate their feedback, the more trust we
build with them.

The caution is to not over do it. At some point, too much change
makes it impossible to keep up with. If a tool you use to run
your business changes every month, it's going to be difficult to
be efficient and effective.

THE CHALLENGES
The relationship between the process of how we work and the
corresponding organizational structure. Today we are organized by
functions and departments, and when we have work to do we spin up
a project team and assign people to it. Getting to a place where
we have stable teams is critical. Most teams should be persistent
- and the work flows to the team.

The transition from a project-based approach to a flow-based
approach has a messy middle. It requires us to think differently
about how teams work, and at the same time, identify ways we can
do it in an organizational system that isn't completely designed
for it yet. The risk is that we think "agile isn't working"
because we haven't given the organization time to catch up with
this new way of thinking - and at that point the tendency is to
go back to what we've always done.

HOW A LEADER CAN HELP
When you get a new "project" or objective to accomplish, pause
before you spin up a project team. Consider what stable teams exist
(or should exist) in order to help you accomplish the work. Be
more aware of how agile is seeking to accomplish the goals /
work.