4 typical patterns of how managers understand Agile

I realize it's been quite a while since I last wrote an article specifically about #Agile. But a colleague of ours at SMP Strategy Consulting , Robin Zuern , and myself had an inspiring discussion last week which I briefly wanted to share here.

Let's start with a seemingly very simple question: Why has Agile become so uncannily successful over the last couple of years? Sure enough, you could point to the empirical evidence regarding the upsides of agile ways of working or to the general consensus that we live in a VUCA kind of world. But does that really suffice to explain the enormous success of Agile?

I'd like to propose a further explanation: One of the reasons for Agile's success is that it speaks to very different types of management styles and personalities. Loosely linked to the famous personality profiles, we distinguish four types of Agile (cf. the scribble below).

To be sure, these four types of Agile are somewhat of an exaggeration. But I'd be surprised if you didn't recognize some of these prototypical views related to Agile in your organization.

So, in a sense, just like any other successful social movement, the concept of Agile is flexible enough to accommodate a wide variety of different management styles and personalities. That's obviously key because, as has been shown by numerous different publications, your agile transformation won't be much of a success if you don't have the necessary buy-in from your top management.

While initially beneficial, the apparent consensus when it comes to the benefits of Agile can pose significant challenges further down the road. As a matter of fact, what we see when working with clients in the context of Agile is that the transformation focus has shifted over the last 1-2 years or so: From initiating the transformation (including dealing with so-called skeptics and critics) to sustaining the transformation by achieving a fruitful dialogue between the different types of Agile Aficiandos within the organization.

As always, I'd love to hear your thoughts and your feedback. And of course, feel free to ask yourself: Which type of Agile corresponds most closely to your own management style and preferences? Which one is the dominant type in your organization?