# The Future of Agile Roles: From Discrete Roles to Integrated Accountabilities: transcript Automatic transcript of the published podcast audio. Recognition errors are possible. Speakers are unlabeled; do not attribute a passage to Yuval or a guest without checking the audio. Episode: https://yuvalyeret.com/scaling-ai-podcast/the-future-of-agile-roles-from-discrete-roles-to-integrated-accountabilities/ Source RSS GUID: substack:post:166725821 Source: published Riverside RSS audio enclosure Transcription: faster-whisper base.en, English ## Transcript [00:00:02] Is Agile dead? What is the future of Scrum, Agile? Are we in the face of this illusionment? [00:00:09] What is the path to enlightenment? How will we eliminate the Agile theater that accumulated [00:00:15] for many years of unsustainable Scrum Agile adoption growth? Specifically, what is the [00:00:21] future of Scrum Master's Agile coaches? Welcome to the Scaling with Agility, the podcast [00:00:28] for leaders who aim to close the curtain on all the Agile theater BS and instead use a [00:00:32] principle, nuanced approach to agility that achieves outcomes and drives impact, unevalure. [00:00:41] So what is the future of Scrum Master's Agile coaches? [00:00:45] More and more leaders are starting to see these as accountability rather than discrete rules. [00:00:51] They realize that the sort of leadership Scrum Master entails should be integrated rather [00:00:56] than provided by a dedicated. The Scrum Guide for Leaders goes into the considerations in [00:01:03] more depth. That's a companion that I wrote a couple of years ago to help leaders understand, [00:01:09] get ideas, some patterns for how to use Scrum, how to map Scrum to Gary Manizet. [00:01:16] One example is the VP of Engineering in the growing startup who decided to take on this [00:01:20] RTE role, which is essentially the Chief Scrum Master for the Agile release train, since they [00:01:26] felt it was up to them to provide this leadership. Remember, Scrum Agile capabilities does not [00:01:33] equate Agile roles. Remember, Scrum Agile capabilities does not equate Scrum roles. [00:01:42] This way of thinking is supported by the 2020 Scrum Guide update that changes the language [00:01:48] from Scrum roles to Scrum accountabilities. [00:01:51] Safe also sees itself as a dual operating system. The transparallel to the organizational structure, [00:01:59] which means that the Scrum Master and other roles should be seen as accountabilities. [00:02:05] And when leaders take these new ways of leading and showing up to heart, [00:02:08] it creates a healthy and sustainable level of agility. But getting there requires [00:02:14] support and coaching. Sometimes you do need someone dedicated to agility. Sometimes you don't, [00:02:21] it really depends on the situation of the team. There are situations where no one is passionate [00:02:26] about organization performance, self-agility and development. In this context, the right [00:02:32] move is, or might be, to have a person dedicated to these accountabilities. [00:02:37] But most of the time, these people are brought in to become part of the leadership team of a [00:02:42] larger group, rather than a team level role. So what does the reduction in force of Agile roles [00:02:48] that we're seeing out there in the industry mean? Is laying off all Agile roles assigned to the [00:02:53] company as achieved Agile Nirvana? Sometimes it is. Sometimes it is. What we're seeing right now in [00:03:00] the market is more often one of these scenarios. First one might be that the company woke up to the [00:03:09] reality that they are doing Agile rather than being Agile and see the Agile roles as part of the [00:03:14] problem. Companies that believe in their Agile way of working and have achieved the reasonable level [00:03:20] of agility want to continue to improve. But when looking to extend their runway in the current [00:03:26] microeconomic environment, they make the tough but necessary decision in their view to spend less [00:03:33] on the future of work on more and more on doing parent work. Another scenario we often see is [00:03:40] changing leadership and the loss of a formal or informal edge of champion that leads to a shift [00:03:45] in perspective about Agile. I had a chat yesterday with a client of mine that shared with me they are [00:03:53] going to switch roles from a sort of a COL role for their organization to a role more focused on a [00:04:02] specific challenge that the company is facing now. Their belief, their assumption is that the [00:04:10] work that they've done, the stewardship that they've provided to the organization to nurture the [00:04:19] agility culture, the approach to self-management and adaptability that is strong enough in the [00:04:30] organization that regardless of who comes to replace them, the culture would be sustainable, [00:04:37] the stewardship culture would be sustainable. And indeed, I've seen situations where that is the case. [00:04:44] But a lot of the time, all we've relied upon is agility by mandate, by inflicting a process change [00:04:55] on people. If that has been the approach of the transformation leaders or even scrumsters and [00:05:02] agile coaches that have been encouraged or even told to enforce a process, the moment we take [00:05:13] that away, that would be the moment that we would lose momentum about the agility. [00:05:24] So in those types of environments, when the agile champion leaves, this would lead to a shift in [00:05:31] perspective and investment in agility. Another scenario is companies where people in agile [00:05:39] roles are making an impact, but either don't care or struggle to provide transparency to this [00:05:45] thing in a way that will resonate with business people, think the CFO. In the current context, [00:05:51] this isn't a very sustainable strategy. And that's why I've been talking recently so much about [00:05:58] focusing on outcomes and impact and connecting whatever it is that you're doing, whatever activities, [00:06:07] deliverables, events, artifacts, connecting them to expensive problems that the organization is facing. [00:06:16] So my recommendation to you, if you're in one of these agile or generally enablement roles, [00:06:22] whether you call this scrumster, RTE, agile coach, product ops, I recommend you focus on a couple of [00:06:29] things. I suggest what I've seen work is people that focus on improving the effectiveness and [00:06:38] results, the outcomes and impact created by your, by your team, your edge or list and your [00:06:45] whole organization in a way that is impactful to the business. Ideally in a quantifiable way, [00:06:53] try to find, to understand what is the constraint? Where would an investment move the needle for [00:07:00] things that the business cares about? This is where things like evidence-based management [00:07:06] can come in handful or the work on outcome mapping or impact mapping for whatever use. [00:07:11] We have a lot of tools that help us connect to value. Let's do that for our work as well. [00:07:16] Let's not focus on agile as a checklist. Let's focus on agility is a way to drive outcome in you. [00:07:24] It might be frightening. It is a frightening time for Agilis. But you, despite what you think [00:07:34] you might hear, one thing you should consider asking your team, your stakeholders, your leadership [00:07:40] is the question that is used in Netflix, the keeper question. How hard would you fight to keep me? [00:07:47] The answer in the conversation might be tough to hear and maybe you should start with asking [00:07:51] it yourself in front of the mirror. But it will provide the transparency and need to [00:07:57] inspect and adopt your focus. Are you a keeper? What should you do in order to become a keeper? [00:08:06] If you're in a big organization with the formal or informal agile role community of practice, [00:08:12] I recommend you make this a topic you work on together. How do you become [00:08:17] a keeper role in the organization? What are the shifts? What are some things [00:08:23] you just stop doing in order to become keepers? The optimistic in me hopes that as a community, [00:08:32] we will use whatever is going on right now as a wake-up call. That will positively impact what [00:08:38] we focus on and the value we bring to organizations. So that we focus less on training, certification, [00:08:47] the vanity of agile, whether that's story points, burn down charts, talk a lot about it. [00:08:56] You know my perspective there. But instead that we will start to focus on outcomes, [00:09:01] start to focus on how do we find the right mix of enablement, support, leadership. [00:09:12] Essentially what we're talking about here is the sort of leadership we want to see in an organization [00:09:17] driving a Julie. My opinion is it's pretty clear and I've seen that in organizations that I work. [00:09:27] We will see fewer people in agile roles. I think if you look at the team level or even group level [00:09:37] roles, we will see we will see instead of people in these roles, we will see these as accountability [00:09:45] that the leaders, existing leaders of this group, stick on. Whether it's team leaders, program [00:09:53] managers, development managers, VPs, those people will start to take on more and more of the [00:10:01] strong mastery, agile coaching, accountability, and will provide leadership to the organization. [00:10:08] And this would be complemented by organizational level, strong mastery, coaching, agility capabilities. [00:10:19] The larger the organization, the more it makes sense for it to have an internal consultancy, [00:10:26] shared service in agility or for information, it's hard, you want to call it that. I think [00:10:34] that's what I've been seeing in more and more organizations and that's where I've [00:10:39] banked the future of their agility, accountability is going. You've been listening to the scaling with [00:10:46] agility podcast, I'm a valier.