Who's Driving the Bus?

There are many things I liked about the late Ray Charles. Not only was he a fabulous musician and performer, but he had the capacity to laugh at himself and even capitalize on the fact that he was blind. Ray played a cameo role as a blind bus driver in a movie a few years back, and in his signature scene, he announced, "Next stop, Sunset Boulevard... I guess it's Sunset Boulevard..." Very funny in a comedy, but no so funny if that's the driver for your organization's transition to agility.

The phrase "make sure the right people are on the bus" is a frequently quoted expression in the Agile community that conveys an abundance of wisdom in the context of building and sustaining agile teams. I'd like to suggest that we can expand this metaphor from the team to the organization, and that for an enterprise to successfully transition to agility, it is of supreme importance that the right leader is driving the bus.

Grass-roots or even "middle management" agile initiatives can only go so far until they run into organizational impediments that limit their success and, quite possibly, threaten their long-term survival. This is especially true in larger enterprises with complex organizational structures. In order for such an organization to move beyond the state of perpetual struggle, issues that are almost certain to be politically sensitive will have to be dealt with. This requires leadership that knows where the enterprise is going in terms of its agile practice, understands why it is going there, and is unquestionably positioned in the driver's seat.

Just who this person is will vary from company to company. It could be an individual, but as is often the case with product ownership, the responsibilities of this role might also be performed by a "virtual person" comprised of a handful of tightly-knit individuals whose skills complement each other and who speak with one voice. The important thing is that there is an active and respected apex of leadership that transcends any localized interests.

If "apex of leadership" sounds a little heavy-handed for an agile organization, consider that although agile approaches are bottom-up and team-centered, lightweight frameworks and "rules" have arisen that serve to guide the team. Similarly, high-level organizational leadership can facilitate and expedite during the course of a transition to agility without being dictatorial. Part of that leadership's responsibility does, in fact, include ensuring that "the right people are on the bus". It also includes, among other things, funding adequate training and being committed to responding when organization-level impediments are raised. This still qualifies as servant leadership, in my opinion -- just on a large scale.