News is often circulated that companies are laying off employees in Agile roles. what’s the matter?
For many years, I have been coaching companies and leaders to help them view similar roles, such as Scrum Master and SAFe RTE, as responsibilities fulfilled by the leaders involved. I am attracted to this). See the Scrum Guide for Leaders.
One example is when the VP of Engineering at a growing startup decided to take on a SAFe RTE role (Chief Scrum Master of the Agile Release Train) because he felt it was up to him to provide this kind of leadership.
Remember: Scrum Responsibilities = Scrum Roles
This way of thinking is supported by the 2020 Scrum Guide update, which changes the language from Scrum Roles to Scrum Responsibilities. SAFe is also considered a dual operating system in parallel with the organizational structure. This means that the Scrum Master and other roles should be viewed as responsibilities.
When leaders adopt these new leadership styles and speak their minds, healthy, sustainable agility is created. Of course, you need support and coaching to get there.
Sometimes you need someone dedicated to agility.
Moreover, there are situations where no one is passionate about the performance, health, agility and development of the organization. In this context, having someone dedicated to these responsibilities is the right move. In most cases, these people are brought in to become part of the leadership team of a larger group.
So what does layoffs in agile roles mean?
Is “laying off all agile roles” a sign that a company has achieved agile nirvana? Probably not.
My view on what we are currently seeing in the market is often one of the following scenarios:
- Companies are waking up to the reality that they are not doing agile, they are doing it, and they see the agile role as part of the problem.
- This is a company that believes in agile ways of working and has achieved a reasonable level of agility. They want to continually improve, but as they seek to extend their runway in the current macroeconomic environment, they make the difficult but necessary decision to spend less on the “future of work” and more on “doing business today.”
- Changes in leadership and the loss of a formal or informal agile champion lead to a change in perspective on agility.
- These are companies where people in agile roles are making an impact, but aren’t interested or struggle to provide transparency about that impact in a way that business people (think CFOs) can relate to. In the current situation, this is not a very sustainable strategy…
Now what?
If you’re in an Agile role (Scrum Master, RTE, etc.), you’ll want to focus on continuously improving the efficiency and results of your team (or ART) in ways that impact the business, ideally in quantifiable ways. . Take a look at evidence-based management to get ideas on what to focus on and what conversations to have with your team and stakeholders.
It may be scary, but you should also consider asking your team, stakeholders, and leadership the questions they use at Netflix. How hard will you fight to keep me here? The answers and conversations may be difficult to hear, but they will provide you with the transparency you need to examine and adjust your focus.
If you are in a large organization with a formal or informal agile role community of practice, I would recommend working on this topic.
My optimism is that we, as a community, hope to use this trend as a wake-up call to positively impact what we focus on and the value we bring to our organizations.
Finally, one of the hard truths about our role is that ultimate success comes when we are no longer needed. Moving between teams, contexts, and sometimes companies is part of this job we have.