Change Is Hard, But Good
Summary
The truth can be hard to swallow sometimes, but it’s better to know before you set off on a journey how tough you’ll find it. Transitioning to Scrum is hard, but worth it. Predict your path and keep going.
Change Is Hard, But Good
All change is hard, in any area of life, but change is hardest to deal with when you are unsure of the outcome of it. This is one of the reasons Scrum is difficult to transition to, but there are other very specific reasons too. Here’s some challenges you are likely to encounter and how to work though them, and around them.
Unknown territory
The fact is, you can’t accurately predict where Scrum is going to take you because your business is different to others businesses. While anyone can transition to Scrum the process, and the outcome, will be different for each. This means, if you start off thinking you know exactly what will happen and how your road will travel, you will be wrong, and that will create tension and problems. Have an open mind when you begin and understand that your transition to Scrum, your journey, may alter along the way as your business adapts and you find your feet with it.
The answer is somewhere in between
A major change being implemented in your organisation usually comes from either the top or the bottom and works down or up. If it comes from the top this will be someone in authority having a vision and everyone else following and putting it into practise. If it comes from the bottom it’s usually people working day to day with problems and seeing what will make things easier, then attempting to implement it. When you transition to Scrum, however, it needs to work from both ends and in both directions. Top-down will encounter tension from the ones who have to work this in, and bottom-up will encounter resistance from those who feel their noses have been put out of joint. And this is why everyone needs to be involve d in the process.
It’s worth it
There are many reasons why transitioning to Scrum is hard. Fast paced change like this often panics people and as workers have to negotiate a host of changes happening fast in working practices today, this may feel like a push too far. Transitioning to Scrum is one of the biggest changes you may have to make as it is drastically different to the way you’ve worked previously. You’ll have to juggle more. You’ll even have to unlearn what you knew and learn a whole new way. But if you can keep working through the tough transition you’ll find it to be worth it. Don’t set in stone the ideal way of working with Scrum. Don’t expect it to be plain sailing once it’s been implemented. And don’t stop learning. If you can see it through, it’s worth it. Employees will be freed up to do their work to a higher quality, moral goes up because employees see their work delivered to users faster, and this in turn creates further improvement as employees become more engaged. Time to market is reduced due to high productivity and all this creates a cycle of continued improvement.