97 Things Every Scrum Practitioner Should Know

Chapter 81. Agile Leadership and Culture Design

Ron Eringa

Agile development methods and specifically Scrum have become the mainstream way to develop software-driven products. In the 2019 edition of an annual global survey by VersionOne, 72% of respondents say that they are using Scrum or a hybrid that includes Scrum.

Of those using Scrum, 83% state they are either still maturing or are not mature at all at implementing Agile. For the past several years, the top three reasons for this low level of maturity are:

• The organizational culture is at odds with the Agile values.

• There is general organizational resistance to change.

• There is inadequate management support and sponsorship.

Developing modern products and services requires many skills and disciplines to work together. It requires an ecosystem that stimulates collaboration, knowledge sharing, and connectivity. In order to survive in this digital age, we depend heavily on teams that are driven by goals and their urge to create an impact. When a set of individuals becomes a team, they will change the way they make sense of their world.

As leaders, we need to update our leadership style and design an environment of safety for our coworkers to collectively take on more responsibilities and help our organizations grow more mature. Only then will we achieve what we desire by moving toward Agile to satisfy customers by continuously ...