Several large corporates today are faced with the need for agile transformation, which is quite challenging to achieve. For enterprises that have been following traditional methods in managing their operations, the journey toward agile transformation comprises a huge shift in organizational culture such as workforce attitudes, core company values & mindset.

Given the pace of transformation & the constant pressure to adapt, it is not a surprise that enterprises are preparing and taking several efforts to become more agile. Sixty per cent of executives rate this as an important issue & ninety per cent rate it highly crucial.  

Furthermore, the work-from-anywhere culture is requiring employees to quickly adapt to new and advanced technologies & new ways of working, and therefore being agile has become the new normal and the answer to these issues.

In this article, we explore how to lead and manage a successful agile transformation in your organization and the importance of good communication with your employees to encourage and support them to adopt an agile mindset. Some best practices for driving agile transformations include:

Agile structures & processes should be redefined

Enterprises should first define their new, more agile structures as well as processes before commencing with an agile transformation plan. Defining agile structures as well as processes is a highly essential prerequisite for flexibility & speed.

To be more precise, firms with linear, bureaucratic structures and rigid chains of command most of the time ineffectively take decisions & as a result, struggle to become more agile. These kinds of firms work in silos & experience redundancies as a result of a lack of information, transparency as well a lack of robust employee communication plans.

For embracing agile transformation, firms should be switching to flatter hierarchies, adopting employee empowerment, come up with new decision-making processes & also building cross-functional teams.

Enterprises should rethink their Corporate cultures

For enterprises that are looking forward to achieving agile transformation in the workplace, it should first understand the significance of the role the employees play in the end-to-end process as it needs a complete shift in the behavior and mindset of the employees.

Both executives, as well as their team members, should be willing to work in cross-functional teams with a greater emphasis on important factors such as employee collaboration, self-management & knowledge sharing. Also, changing internal culture is one of the most consequential obstacles to transformation, and this accounts for the top 3 barriers to adopting & scaling agile. Hence, the significance of investing in culture on the journey to agility cannot be overstated and research has already shown that the firms where executives & employees develop the correct, agile mindset are more likely to succeed in their agile transformation journey.

Internal communications have to play a significant strategic role

Clear & transparent employee communication is always highly essential however, developing and building great employee communication is even more crucial in times of change & transformation. Therefore, employers should understand the pivotal role of IC departments in buttressing successful agile transformation.

Employees must align with the organization’s strategic goals

Employees’ alignment with the strategic goals is a core and important component in decreasing barriers to successful agile transformation. However, as per The State of Scrum, twenty-nine per cent of employees stated the lack of alignment as a major factor holding back agile transformation in their organizations.

Leaders & managers should act as role models

To successfully drive change, the leaders & managers of an organization should realize that agile transformation is neither just a project nor a new initiative but it is an ongoing journey that needs a new way of thinking which is different from the top-down hierarchical approach, fundamentally.

Agile transformation initiatives are likely to be unsuccessful without complete executive buy-in. But, leadership’s buy-in is not enough. The leaders as well as managers need to continuously act as role models to their teams & their actions, as well as behaviors, need to mirror the behaviors the employers look forward to seeing from their employees. Leadership & management should share their passion, and inspire & guide the implementation, and hence here, leadership storytelling via authentic leadership communication plays a significant role.

Cognitive overload should be removed completely

Another research shows that cognitive overload would be a major culprit for failure in agile transformation & this is why simplification of work practices, as well as new work tools, are highly imperative. Although networked & collaborative structures are a necessity for agile transformation, such kind of transformations could also lead to a rise in the need to coordinate teams, and resulting in an overwhelming number of meetings, emails as well as communications channels & this cognitive overload can dramatically decrease the productivity & result in huge information overload.

Knowing that employees have to spend hours and hours looking for relevant information that is needed to accomplish their jobs, agile transformation is only possible when this challenge gets removed completely.

Employee-driven communications should be encouraged

A sign of positive change in the workplace is an increase in employee-driven communication instead of only the communication that is always initiated by leaders, managers, or internal communicators. Every employee, at any point, should be able to start & lead a conversation visible to everyone related to their work and process.

Agile transformation teams should be completely able to collect feedback, opinions as well as concerns easily from the whole organization. Remember, only such cultures which support & drive open & honest communication in the workplace can be successful in agile transformation.