Are you resistant to change?  One of the reasons people attend Collaborative Leadership Team’s courses is to learn a different way of working.  Many, however, spend the duration of the course trying to figure out how to make Agile and Scrum into exactly what they are doing currently.  Angela Johnson, Certified Scrum Trainer and Agile Coach shares information she recently learned about why change is so hard.

As someone who has transformed the way that they do work with Agile and Scrum, I seek to help others learn how Agile approaches are different from other ways of doing work.  The levels of resistance that I notice do not seem to be dwindling, but rather increasing!  Even in coaching situations where clients have not only actively engaged our team to help them change, but have given us permission to identify when they are not changing, heels dig in and defenses increase when people are held accountable to working another way.

The song that inevitably plays in my head is the Gear Daddies “Gonna Change”.  As the lyrics note, “I’m gonna change, just not today”.  I’ve always been a big believer in the fact that you cannot change free will.  If someone just is unwilling to try something different, there will be little success in asking them to.

I recently read an article by Kathy Caprino that suggests, maybe we’re just going about it all wrong – click here for article.

One thing that Kathy points out is that we tend to inundate people with information.  As if they would simply change if they knew all of the data.  Trouble is that this simple act does not translate into behavior.

Kathy goes on to share the Personal Motivation & Abilities, Social Motivation & Abilities plus Structural Motivation & Abilities that will enable change.  When I think about the people attending our Certified ScrumMaster classeswho want to learn how to be great Scrum Masters, I do think they have the best intentions to take what they learned back to their organizations and apply it.

Where I think things fall short, however, is in the Social and Structural aspects.  If the ScrumMaster does not have Social support for the new ideas partnered with any Structural Motivation or Ability in the organization, it’s unlikely that the new way of working will spread further than individual levels.

This is one of the reasons the Collaborative Leadership Team remains dedicated to coaching those clients who are willing to examine the way that they are currently doing work.  Agile and Scrum are all about delivering business value faster and delighting customers.  When we are not in the classroom, we are helping our clients out: assessing, mentoring and coaching.

Want to learn more about our Assessment or Coaching services?  Click here to learn more how your organization can benefit.