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Get to know Aligned Agility’s Director of Technical Agility – find out his simple steps to set your organization up for transformation success, why external consultants can be pivotal for change, and how he describes agile at scale to his mother.
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Tony has worked in the IT industry since the 1990s, when he started out at Bank of America before moving into a government role. In the decades since, he’s delivered numerous application development projects in roles such as lead developer, project manager, system analyst, and scrum master, to name a few.
As our Director of Technical Agility, with a self-described “big mouth”, he develops teams and people, helping them become more agile, accountable, and collaborative in their everyday interactions. All in the service of achieving greater business value for organizations.
Tony fell into the agile consulting world when he saw a widening chasm between business partners and their teams. “It was as if the business partners were speaking Italian and the teams were speaking French,” he says. “Being technical and an extrovert means I have a special skill set to fit in the middle.”
Prior to his IT career, he played professional football, and applies some of that sports thinking to his agile consulting work. “When you're working on a team you want to see them improve; you want to win. In football you have a common goal – it’s the same with agile.” While in football you’re focusing on making only one team succeed, an agile enterprise is another beast entirely.
When asked to describe scaling agile in its simplest terms, he says: “The way I explained it to my mom is this: imagine you’re making dinner for the family this week and there’s just four of us. Sounds fine, right? But what if you have to cook dinner for 120 people. How will you organize it? What will you need? What’s the plan? And what roles will everyone need to take?
“Agile at scale is about trying to organize human connections to make it a better experience for everyone. It’s about moving forward, letting smart people do their work, but in a much bigger kitchen.”
With that bigger kitchen cooking on all cylinders, an agile approach enables organizations to get business value out to customers much faster and receive feedback just as quickly. But it’s more than that, Tony says. “It’s also about being an organization where people want to stay–one that works towards a common goal and that’s in-tune with the customer. We always seem to be talking about processes and tools, but the focus really needs to be on the people.”
But agile isn’t only for large enterprises. For SMEs, agile provides them the opportunity to grow. The trick is maintaining the enthusiasm and innovation of a small company as you scale. “It’s easy for large companies’ edges to become dull,” says Tony. “With start-ups, the energy is high, there’s a clear common goal, but then it often turns into a large, bureaucratic environment. Agile provides you with a framework so you don’t lose that, so you’re still moving forward, just with more people. It lets you do even bigger things.”
Tony knows all too well that agile transformation isn’t easy. While organizations often know change is vital, he comes up against a lot of resistance. “It’s against human nature,” he says. “Often people tell you, ‘We need change, and if everyone did it my way it would work’. We all have blind spots, and a big part of a transformation consultant’s job is helping people see them.”
External agile experts can make a big difference in helping organizations overcome those challenges. Tony shares an experience that emphasizes just how pivotal this outside influence can be. One of Aligned Agility’s scrum masters went into a business and took over a team. “At the end of the sprint, the team hadn’t met its goals,” he says. “We have a saying, ‘Sometimes you win, sometimes you learn’. And she told them, ‘This sprint, we're learning. This is what happened and this is how we're going to make changes.’ But then management wanted to know who was to blame. She said, ‘If you want to blame somebody, blame me. But wouldn’t you rather give the team a chance to fix this and move forward?’”
Reiterating the fact agile transformation is a learning process is a big part of what Tony does. “When I go in and help teams, I always explain to them, this is not nirvana or a pill to fix all of your problems. Everything that we do in agile is an experiment because each one of us works differently. What’s important is to instill that agile mindset, provide that transparency, and try to build the trust between partners.”
“When I go in and help teams, I always explain to them, this is not nirvana or a pill to fix all of your problems. Everything that we do in agile is an experiment because each one of us works differently.”
It’s important to remember, however, that there’s no such thing as a typical agile transformation. “Every place I've gone to, it's been different, and that's what makes our job so interesting,” says Tony. “That said, you usually find there's a fundamental communication issue between the people at the top and the people at the bottom. No agile tool in the world’s gonna solve that. But some agile practices and a mindset change might. So what we try to do is put in something that will drive better behavior.”
Who you should include will vary between businesses, although Tony likes to get input from as many people as possible – “from the bottom layer all the way to the top”. And how long it will take to see results isn’t an exact science, although in his experience you should see behaviors changing on a scrum team level after anywhere from three to six sprints. “At the organizational level, it's never-ending, but to see it take hold, typically, it takes about two program increments (PIs). That’s when they start working the kinks out, they start seeing their problems, and you start seeing behaviors change.”
This experience is how he knows that a seemingly small act, like facilitating communication, can make a huge difference. “At a pharmaceutical company I worked with, there was a breakdown between the teams and management. I put one of the senior leaders in the middle of a room on a chair with the teams around her and told them they could ask her any questions they wanted. One thing they asked was, ‘What did you do in your previous job?’ We found out that she was in construction. For whatever reason, knowing that made her more human to everybody. And suddenly the team flourished.”
Agile transformation isn’t easy, but there are some simple steps organizations can take to set themselves up for success. “The first is to have conversations and realize there’s a problem,” says Tony. “Second, know that agile transformation is a journey and an experiment. Third, try to find a common language in your company. Fourth, have leadership, not management: set out what you’re about, where you’re going, and communicate it with enthusiasm. And finally, don’t be afraid to fail. Don’t see failure as being unsuccessful – see it as a learning opportunity.”
Ready to start your agile transformation or need support to get yours back on track? Tony and our other experts are here to help. Contact us today.
Tony has worked in the IT industry since the 1990s, when he started out at Bank of America before moving into a government role. In the decades since, he’s delivered numerous application development projects in roles such as lead developer, project manager, system analyst, and scrum master, to name a few.
As our Director of Technical Agility, with a self-described “big mouth”, he develops teams and people, helping them become more agile, accountable, and collaborative in their everyday interactions. All in the service of achieving greater business value for organizations.
Tony fell into the agile consulting world when he saw a widening chasm between business partners and their teams. “It was as if the business partners were speaking Italian and the teams were speaking French,” he says. “Being technical and an extrovert means I have a special skill set to fit in the middle.”
Prior to his IT career, he played professional football, and applies some of that sports thinking to his agile consulting work. “When you're working on a team you want to see them improve; you want to win. In football you have a common goal – it’s the same with agile.” While in football you’re focusing on making only one team succeed, an agile enterprise is another beast entirely.
When asked to describe scaling agile in its simplest terms, he says: “The way I explained it to my mom is this: imagine you’re making dinner for the family this week and there’s just four of us. Sounds fine, right? But what if you have to cook dinner for 120 people. How will you organize it? What will you need? What’s the plan? And what roles will everyone need to take?
“Agile at scale is about trying to organize human connections to make it a better experience for everyone. It’s about moving forward, letting smart people do their work, but in a much bigger kitchen.”
With that bigger kitchen cooking on all cylinders, an agile approach enables organizations to get business value out to customers much faster and receive feedback just as quickly. But it’s more than that, Tony says. “It’s also about being an organization where people want to stay–one that works towards a common goal and that’s in-tune with the customer. We always seem to be talking about processes and tools, but the focus really needs to be on the people.”
But agile isn’t only for large enterprises. For SMEs, agile provides them the opportunity to grow. The trick is maintaining the enthusiasm and innovation of a small company as you scale. “It’s easy for large companies’ edges to become dull,” says Tony. “With start-ups, the energy is high, there’s a clear common goal, but then it often turns into a large, bureaucratic environment. Agile provides you with a framework so you don’t lose that, so you’re still moving forward, just with more people. It lets you do even bigger things.”
Tony knows all too well that agile transformation isn’t easy. While organizations often know change is vital, he comes up against a lot of resistance. “It’s against human nature,” he says. “Often people tell you, ‘We need change, and if everyone did it my way it would work’. We all have blind spots, and a big part of a transformation consultant’s job is helping people see them.”
External agile experts can make a big difference in helping organizations overcome those challenges. Tony shares an experience that emphasizes just how pivotal this outside influence can be. One of Aligned Agility’s scrum masters went into a business and took over a team. “At the end of the sprint, the team hadn’t met its goals,” he says. “We have a saying, ‘Sometimes you win, sometimes you learn’. And she told them, ‘This sprint, we're learning. This is what happened and this is how we're going to make changes.’ But then management wanted to know who was to blame. She said, ‘If you want to blame somebody, blame me. But wouldn’t you rather give the team a chance to fix this and move forward?’”
Reiterating the fact agile transformation is a learning process is a big part of what Tony does. “When I go in and help teams, I always explain to them, this is not nirvana or a pill to fix all of your problems. Everything that we do in agile is an experiment because each one of us works differently. What’s important is to instill that agile mindset, provide that transparency, and try to build the trust between partners.”
“When I go in and help teams, I always explain to them, this is not nirvana or a pill to fix all of your problems. Everything that we do in agile is an experiment because each one of us works differently.”
It’s important to remember, however, that there’s no such thing as a typical agile transformation. “Every place I've gone to, it's been different, and that's what makes our job so interesting,” says Tony. “That said, you usually find there's a fundamental communication issue between the people at the top and the people at the bottom. No agile tool in the world’s gonna solve that. But some agile practices and a mindset change might. So what we try to do is put in something that will drive better behavior.”
Who you should include will vary between businesses, although Tony likes to get input from as many people as possible – “from the bottom layer all the way to the top”. And how long it will take to see results isn’t an exact science, although in his experience you should see behaviors changing on a scrum team level after anywhere from three to six sprints. “At the organizational level, it's never-ending, but to see it take hold, typically, it takes about two program increments (PIs). That’s when they start working the kinks out, they start seeing their problems, and you start seeing behaviors change.”
This experience is how he knows that a seemingly small act, like facilitating communication, can make a huge difference. “At a pharmaceutical company I worked with, there was a breakdown between the teams and management. I put one of the senior leaders in the middle of a room on a chair with the teams around her and told them they could ask her any questions they wanted. One thing they asked was, ‘What did you do in your previous job?’ We found out that she was in construction. For whatever reason, knowing that made her more human to everybody. And suddenly the team flourished.”
Agile transformation isn’t easy, but there are some simple steps organizations can take to set themselves up for success. “The first is to have conversations and realize there’s a problem,” says Tony. “Second, know that agile transformation is a journey and an experiment. Third, try to find a common language in your company. Fourth, have leadership, not management: set out what you’re about, where you’re going, and communicate it with enthusiasm. And finally, don’t be afraid to fail. Don’t see failure as being unsuccessful – see it as a learning opportunity.”
Ready to start your agile transformation or need support to get yours back on track? Tony and our other experts are here to help. Contact us today.
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