In today's rapidly evolving business landscape, transformation isn't just a buzzword—it's a necessity for survival. Offended by transformation? Tired of the “model of the day” that results in no real change? Well, when we say transformation, what we are really talking about is the necessity of being able to change. Adaptable if you like. After spending decades guiding organizations through this journey, we've observed a pattern: while many leaders recognize the need for change, their implementation attempts, especially in agile transformation, are rarely successful or long-lasting.
When David Sharrock and I launched the "Definitely, Maybe Agile" podcast, we had a simple goal: to cut through the noise surrounding agile and DevOps transformations and share practical insights from our combined experience. This blog post—the first in a series based on our podcast and other discussions—introduces our approach to building organizational capability for continuous change, a cornerstone of successful agile transformation. Along the way, we hope to introduce you to some new concepts or at least different views on old concepts.
The Acceleration of Change
The pace of technological advancement has increased exponentially over the past decade. Customer expectations have followed suit, with demands for faster delivery, higher quality, and more personalized experiences becoming the norm rather than the exception. Organizations that can't adapt quickly find themselves falling behind more agile competitors.
Yet despite the clear need for business agility, many transformation efforts fall short. Why?
The People Factor
The most common mistake I see in transformation initiatives is an overemphasis on tools and processes at the expense of people. All three are important, but organizations often invest heavily in new technologies and methodologies—from Scrum boards to CI/CD pipelines—while neglecting the human elements that ultimately determine success:
How teams collaborate and communicate
The cultural norms that guide decision-making
Leadership behaviors that either enable or inhibit experimentation
Individual mindsets about change and learning
No amount of sophisticated tooling can compensate for misalignment in these areas. As one client's CTO told me after a failed transformation attempt: "We changed everything except how we actually work together."
Beyond Best Practices
Another challenge lies in our tendency to seek universal solutions to complex problems. Leaders often ask me, "What's the best practice?" expecting a straightforward answer. But the reality is nuanced: all models are wrong, but some are useful.
What works for a Silicon Valley tech giant won't necessarily translate to your retail company or public sector organization. What succeeded in your marketing department might fail in operations. Context matters enormously, which is why building organizational capability for continuous change—rather than implementing a specific framework—should be the primary goal.
In the next post, we'll explore complexity theory and why it provides a valuable lens for understanding organizational change. For now, I invite you to reflect on your own transformation efforts: Are you giving equal attention to people, process, and technology? Are you adapting models to your specific context rather than applying them as rigid templates?
The toolbox for transforming your organization contains many instruments. Learning when and how to use each one makes all the difference.
