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Tips to Start Agile in a Hostile Environment - Part 2

By Mishkin Berteig President, Co-Founder of Berteig Consulting This is Part 2 to a two-part series by guest author Mishkin Berteig. The original version of this article can be found on his Agile Advice blog. Although Agile methods are very popular (particularly Scrum), there are still many organizations or departments which may not yet have official support for adopting Agile methods formally. In some cases, management may even be hostile to the concepts and practices of Agile methods. If you are interested in Agile, you don't have to give up hope (or look to switch jobs). Instead, here are some tips to start using Agile methods even in hostile environments. Read "Fearless Change" I can't recommend this one enough! Read "Fearless Change" by Mary Lynn Manns and Linda Rising. This is a "patterns" book. It is a collection of techniques that can be applied to help make organizational changes, where each technique has its own unique context of use. Lots of research and experience have gone into the creation of this book and it is a classic for anyone who wants to be an organizational change agent. Patterns include basics such as "Do Lunch" to help build trust and agreement with your ideas for change or "Champion Skeptic" to leverage the value of having systematic, open criticism of your change idea. Don't Call it "Agile" This isn't really a "tip" in the sense of an action item. Instead, this is a preventative measure... to prevent negative reactions to your proposals for change. The words "Agile" or "Scrum", while they have their supporters, also have detractors. To avoid some of the prejudices that some people may hold, you can start by _not_ calling your effort by those names. Use another name. Or let your ideas go nameless. This can be challenging, particularly if other people start to use the words "Agile" or "Scrum". By going nameless into the change effort, people will focus more on results and rational assessment of your ideas rather than on their emotional prejudices. A minor variant of this is to "brand" your ideas in a way that makes them more palatable. One company that we worked with, let's call them XYZ, called their custom Agile method "Agile @ XYZ". Just those extra four symbols "@ XYZ" made all the difference in changing the effort from one where managers and executives would resist the change to one where they would feel connected to the change. Get Some Training Okay, some blatant self-promotion here: consider our Certified Real Agility Coach training program. It's a 40-week program that takes about 12 hours/week of your time for coursework. The next cohort of participants starts in June 2015 and we are taking deposits for participants. This training is comprehensive, top-notch training for anyone wishing to become an organizational change agent focusing on Agility.
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About the Author Mishkin Berteig is the President and Co-Founder of Berteig Consulting Inc. He has been Mishkin Berteigtraining, coaching and consulting for organizations adopting Agile methods since 2001 and is committed to helping individuals, teams and organizations apply Agile methods. Mishkin is a Certified Scrum Trainer, and qualified to deliver OpenAgile and Agile Project Management training. He has developed and delivered Agile training both in public and in-house seminars for over 3000 people in Canada and abroad. Courses have been as short as three hour intro-style and as long as five day boot-camp-style, and audiences have ranged from junior team members to senior executives. He has also assisted organizations of all sizes to make the transformation from traditional methods to Agile/Scrum methods (Extreme Programming, Scrum, Lean, OpenAgile). Assistance includes Agile Engineering Practices, Agile teamwork, Agile project and product management, Agile management and executive management.