The Process of Transformation

A strange thought occurred to me during a recent bible study. I found a lesson for Agile Transformation in Exodus. In the book of Exodus, God has miraculously freed his people from Egypt… only to promptly lead them into the desert. What is more, all Israel thought they were leaving Egypt to go to the Promised Land!

Many Agile Transformations seem to start off essentially the same way. We leave behind the tyranny of Waterfall for the Promised Agile Lands. But can we really go straight there? The people of Israel had been under Pharaoh for some 400 years. That is 400 years of eating, sleeping, working, and thinking like a slave! If such a people had arrived to the Promised Land… would they have been able to understand it? What about keep it maintained? Certainly they were strong enough for the work… But 400 years of being told what to do, would atrophy anyone’s ‘self-organizing’ skills! And the rest of Exodus shows the results of such atrophy. And, thankfully, how God worked Israel’s skill back into shape.

Consider your own Agile Transformations, especially the change in mindset! We would do well to bear the Exodus in mind. The journey to agility is not a speedy one. It involves learning and leveraging new organizational capabilities. Just as important, it involves the unlearning of many bad habits. The process of transformation cannot stop at mere behaviors, or where you set camp each night. The mind must be renewed. And that take time!