Agile Implementation Beyond Cosmetics

| WHITE PAPER
How to Change Culture and Embrace
New Leadership Paradigms Needed
to Implement Agile Sustainably
Agile
Implementation
Beyond
Cosmetics

2 | Agile Implementation Beyond Cosmetics © 2019 WALK
Yes, we know what has to
be done. But how do we
do it fluidly and efficiently
without disrupting our
operations or ruffling the
feathers of our people?
This is the cry of many companies facing the exponential
change in the way business is being conducted today. These
organizations are forced not only to adapt but to anticipate
change by rethinking the way they work.
Instantaneous gratification has become the norm for savvy
customers. The proliferation of new, technologically-
advanced companies is capturing shares of the market that
had always been stable. Traditional firms, striving to keep up
with their more dynamic colleagues, know what has to be
done to get on the right track. The big question is how to do it.
This paper describes our experience implementing Agile and
New Ways of Working in different industries and functional
areas, always in service of the company’s imperative to
accelerate business results. Our approach is uniquely
focused on changing the mindset of employees, injecting
them with genuine enthusiasm and awakening a sense of
optimism and self-worth throughout the organization.

Contents
1. Exponential Change: The Need for a New
Organizational Paradigm ..................................................................................................... 4
1.1. Profitable Growth, Innovation, and Digitalization ............................................. 4
1.2. Foundations of Agile and New Ways of Working ............................................. 5
1.3. First Movers in Agile ................................................................................................................ 6
2. Agile: Beyond the “Marketing Hype” ........................................................................ 9
2.1. Dual Organization ...................................................................................................................... 9
2.2. Agile/Scrum Methodology ................................................................................................ 12
2.3. Agile Leadership and Culture ......................................................................................... 13
3. Implementation: Making it Real and Sustainable .......................................... 17
3.1. Agile Diagnostic and Alignment .................................................................................... 17
3.2. Agile at Scale ............................................................................................................................... 18
3.3. Systemic Support ..................................................................................................................... 19
3.4. Agile Training .............................................................................................................................. 20
3.5. Measuring Impact .................................................................................................................... 20
4. Ready for Action ...................................................................................................................... 23
Case Study ................................................................................................................................................ 24
About the Authors .............................................................................................................................. 25
Bibliography ............................................................................................................................................ 26

1. Exponential Change:
the Need for a New
Organizational Paradigm
The speed of change in the business world is accelerating. The
average lifespan of a company listed in the S&P 500 index has
decreased by more than 50 years in the last century, from 67 years
in the 1920s to just 15 years today. Facebook, Uber, Airbnb, Dropbox,
Spotify, and WhatsApp did not exist in 2003.
In this context, companies need to become more flexible, more customer-oriented, and
faster at executing their strategies, to cope with three main business challenges: profitable
growth, innovation, and digitalization.
1.1.
Profitable Growth, Innovation,
and Digitalization
Today, anyone in a garage with a good
internet connection can disrupt an entire
industry. New entrants increasingly leverage
new technologies (e.g., big data, artificial
intelligence, virtual reality, blockchain,
machine learning) to interact with customers.
They use digital channels to immediately
and seamlessly deliver products and
services that delight customers. As a result,
customer expectations are rising and the
windows to capture new business opportu-
nities are narrowing. Hyper-connectivity
(e.g., 5G, IoT) is accelerating this trend.
Many traditional large organizations,
whose size used to be a source of
competitive advantage, are struggling.
They find themselves responding too
slowly to changing customer expecta-
tions. They have a hard time finding and
exploiting new sources of profitable
growth. Their traditional way of working
hinders innovation by promoting rules and
processes over experimentation. And their
digitalization efforts fail to gain traction due
to employee resistance to change.
1. Exponential Change: the Need for a New Organizational Paradigm

1.2.
Foundations of Agile and New
Ways of Working
Agile was born amid the software crisis back
in the 1990s, when businesses delivered low
quality software, with massive project delays
and significant cost over-runs. It started
as a set of principles applied to software
development and reflected in the Agile
Manifesto. The Agile Manifesto was written
by seventeen representatives of various
programming disciplines and emphasizes
the importance of customer centricity,
mutual trust, personal motivation, autonomy,
multi-disciplinary collaboration, and face-to-
face conversations.
Agile quickly evolved into various methodolo-
gies (e.g., Scrum, SAFe, FDD, Kanban, Crystal,
and Extreme Programming) with Scrum being
the most popular one (Exhibit 1). Over the
last 15 years, Agile has expanded beyond
software development into several functional
areas like IT, HR, Sales, Marketing, Finance,
and Operations. In parallel, there has been a
surge of other new ways of working. These
include, among others, Design Thinking,
Lean Start-up, Workspace Transformation,
and Smart Working.
Agile started as a set
of principles applied to
software development
and reflected in the
Agile Manifesto

1.3.
First Movers in Agile
Some born-digital companies, such as Spotify and Netflix, started out Agile and have
become more so as they have grown. In 2013, Spotify experimented with 300 engineers its
iconic scaling model based on squads, chapters, guilds and tribes (Exhibit 2). Today, Spotify
employs over 3,500 people, with 1,800 in Engineering and R&D working in 180 Agile teams.
Other companies, such as ING Netherlands, have reinvented their organization from
the ground up, moving from a traditional hierarchy to a more-agile model. In 2015, ING’s
management team decided to move aggressively, by asking 3,500 employees from their HQ
to reapply for 2,500 redesigned positions on agile squads. Today, staff at the ING HQ are
organized into 350 nine-person squads and 13 tribes.
Customer Focus
Continuous
exploration of
customer needs
and desire.
Experimentation
“Build, test, and
refine” in short
learning cycles.
Mutual Trust
Assumption of
good intent in
safe and open
environments.
Collaboration
Frequent,
short, effective,
and honest
conversations.
Self-
organization
Autonomy to
decide how to
achieve goals.
These New Ways of Working follow five key principles:
Exhibit 1: New Ways of Working - WALK Model
Agile/Scrum
Definition Impact
Incremental and interactive
framework for project management
which delivers value early and often,
with a particular focus on software
development
Delighted customers
Reduced time-to-market
Higher team morale
Design
Thinking
Human-centered approach to fully
understand the deeper needs that a
person or group faces in order to
create a truly meaningful and
effective solution
Innovation and creativity
Customer centricity
Simple, effective solutions
Lean
Start-up
Method to develop businesses and
products, using a Minimum Viable
Product (MVP) – a version which
collects customer feedback with the
least effort
Reduced market risks
No need for large amounts
of initial project funding
Workspace
Transformation
Rethinking of ﬂexible workspaces, to
accommodate the changing nature of
work and the adoption of new
technologies
Transversal collaboration
Employee connectivity
Higher productivity
Smart
Working
Employees can choose when and
where to do their work, in order to
improve their time management and
the effectiveness of their work
Work-life balance
Employee commitment

Exhibit 2: Spotify’s Model
SQUAD
Self-organizing
team with the skills
and tools needed
to design, develop,
test, and release the
solution they are
working on. Each one
has a Product Owner
(PO) who represents
the customer.
TRIBE
Collection of squads
that work in related
areas. Tribes have
100 people or less
(according to the
“Dunbar number”,
people can not
maintain social
relationships with
+100 people).
CHAPTER
People within the
same tribe who have
similar skills and
work within the same
general competency
area. They meet
regularly to discuss
their area of expertise
and their specific
challenges.
GUILD
“Community of
interest” which usually
cuts across the
entire organization,
where people share
knowledge and tools.
BBVA, another leading international bank, is also implementing Agile. In 2016, Customer
Solutions (3,600 people) adopted Agile using SAFe, the most common approach used by
companies to scale agile practices. In 2017, HR adopted Agile, with 600 people working
in Scrum and 900 people in Kanban. By the end of 2018, the entire HQ staff (33,000
people) was Agile.
Source: Spotify; WALK analysis
Tribe
Squad
PO
Squad
PO
Squad
PO
Chapter
Chapter
Tribe
Squad
PO
Squad
PO
Squad
PO
Chapter
Chapter
Guild

Companies need
to become more
flexible, more
customer-oriented,
and faster at
executing their
strategies

In our experience working with large, blue chip corporations
around the globe, there is a big “hype” around Agile. We
often find that behind huge communication campaigns and
marketing efforts, hundreds or even thousands of individuals are
confused. They are mobilized to follow a set of new processes
and “ceremonies” and they get trapped in them without actually
understanding the depth of the cultural change that lies behind
Agile and these New Ways of Working.
2. Agile: Beyond the
“Marketing Hype”
2. Agile: Beyond the “Marketing Hype”
2.1.
Dual Organization
Agile is one of the solutions that organiza-
tions have found to overcome the limitations
of the traditional hierarchical structure. As
we all know too well, most large companies
have developed and promoted an organiza-
tional structure that is pyramidal, has
multiple management layers, concentrates
authority on the top, relies on rules and
processes, and is made up of several units
representing the different businesses and
geographies where the company operates.
This sort of structure increases the distance
between the company and the customer.
Digital-born companies are not constrained
by such heavy structures, which allows
them to be more customer-focused.
On one hand, the traditional structure is not
able to cope with the demands of speed
and adaptability of today’s business world.
On the other, most corporations find it
difficult to replace this structure in the short
term, given its weight and inertia, coupled
with the fact that it is the basis of the
company’s current operations.
Our proposed approach to deal with
this dilemma is to implement a Dual
Organization following John Kotter’s
philosophy. In a Dual Organization, a
network (or liquid) organization is created
and operates in concert with the traditional
hierarchical organization. The network
organization is made up of small, multidis-
ciplinary, self-managed teams that operate
in short planning and execution cycles,
with an absolute focus on the customer,
tolerance to mistakes, and an
intrapreneurship mindset (Exhibit 3).

The final objective of a Dual Organization is
to recover the company’s relentless focus
on the costumer. In many enterprises of
family origin, this is referred to as recover-
ing the “founder’s mentality”: the mindset
typically embodied by a bold, ambitious
entrepreneur who had a clear vision and an
absolute focus on the customer.
In order to staff the network organization,
a voluntary approach is recommended so
that the network is built around genuine
energy, commitment, and enthusiasm.
To get things started, a more directive
approach might be needed, since people
are still unfamiliar with the new organiza-
tional concept and dynamics.
The individuals who decide to join the
network continue to fulfil their role in
the hierarchy. Therefore, when they are
working on the business as usual, they
subconsciously embody the desired mindset
and behaviours of customer centricity,
experimentation, and intrapreneurship. At
the beginning, they often face increased
workload and some level of confusion, but
soon, the experience pays off in the form of
more individual and collective productivity.
Implementing a Dual Organization does
not imply an organizational redesign.
Redesigning an organization tends to be
a painful process, triggering fears from
employees and demanding significant
time investment from leaders. A Dual
Organization, instead, keeps everyone
focused on what moves the needle –
changing mindsets and behaviours.
Exhibit 3: Dual Organization
Hierarchy Network
Internal focus, Slow response,
Complexity, Process-heavy
Customer orientation, Fast
response, Flexibility, Creativity
Operating
in concert
Source: Harvard Business Review; WALK analysis

In a Dual
Organization, a
network organization
is created and
operates in concert
with the traditional
hierarchical
organization

2.2.
Agile/Scrum Methodology
Agile/Scrum is one possible method to
implement the dynamics of the network
organization. It is usually implemented
together with other New Ways of Working,
and it demands a profound cultural change.
The Agile/Scrum methodology helps to
systematize the desired mindset shifts by
turning them into habits. Originally conceived
for the world of software development, it
necessarily must be adapted to the specific
organizational context at hand. A common
error is to be too rigid in the implementation
of Agile/Scrum processes and roles rather
than seeing it as it is: a tool to drive the
implementation of New Ways of Working and
the associated cultural change.
A solid Agile/Scrum framework should
combine six key elements (Exhibit 4):
Scrum Team
Multidisciplinary, self-governing team with 5-7
members. The team can deliver on its mission
end-to-end and has autonomy to decide how
to achieve its goals.
Sprint
The team works in fixed length sprints of 2-4
weeks. Before each sprint, in the Sprint Planning
meeting, the team builds and commits to the
Sprint Backlog, the list of action items to be
completed during the sprint.
Product Increment
After each sprint, the team delivers a Product
Increment, a new functionality ready for
market release.
Review
After each sprint, the team carries out a
2-hour review (or demo) with the appropriate
stakeholders. This systematic feedback
loop uses mistakes as a source of learning
(“fail fast”).
Retrospective
After each sprint, the team members carry out
a 2-hour retrospective, where they discuss
“what worked, what didn’t work, and what can
be improved”.
Product Backlog
Throughout the sprints, the team works on
a Product Backlog, a value-ranked list of
product features. The backlog is dynamic and
is systematically updated after each sprint,
based on customer feedback.
Exhibit 4: Agile/Scrum Framework
Product
Increment
Sprint
Review
Scrum
Team
Sprint
Backlog
Sprint
Planning
Product
Backlog
Sprint Retrospective
Source: Scrum.org; WALK analysis

The Scrum team has three
key roles:
Product Owner
Individual with the mandate to maximize
the value delivered to the customer. The
Product Owner prioritizes the team
backlog, gives feedback in the reviews on
behalf of the customer, and decides when
product increments should be released to
the market.
Scrum Master
Individual who facilitates team meetings and
supports the gradual adoption of the Agile
methodology.
Development Team
Individuals with the ability and authority to
define, build, and test the solution they are
working on. There is no internal hierarchy
between them.
There are two additional roles outside
of the Scrum team:
Agile Coach
Individual who supports one or more Scrum
Teams in their most critical and complex
meetings. Using facilitation and coaching
techniques, he facilitates a profound cultural
and leadership change.
Sponsor
Senior executive who gives mentoring and
guidance to several Scrum Teams. He helps
teams to take a step back and understand
the implications of their work in the entire
organization. The sponsor holds no formal
authority over the teams, which means that he
must interact with them in a horizontal way.
The beauty of the Agile methodology is
that it naturally unlocks the three sources of
people’s intrinsic motivation, according to
Daniel Pink: purpose, autonomy, and mastery.
Purpose comes from satisfying client needs
and adding concrete value. Autonomy comes
from self-government. And mastery comes
from using one’s expertise and learning a
new way of working.
To ensure that the methodology taps
into employees’ intrinsic motivation, its
implementation needs to match the pace of
the associated cultural change. Usually, the
mindset shifts take longer to occur than the
adoption of new ceremonies, processes,
and roles.
2.3.
Agile Leadership and Culture
Agile demands a cultural transformation and
an evolution of the organization’s leadership
style to embrace a completely new
leadership paradigm. Senior executives,
starting with the CEO, must be the first
ones to change. They must drive the
cultural transformation by walking the talk,
role-modelling the desired mindsets and
behaviours, and creating an environment
where people can flourish working in this
new way.
Agile leaders should evolve their style in
three ways:
Servant Leadership
Committed to serving others by:
Empowering and trusting others. Fostering
a culture of conversations. Offering support,
coaching, mentoring, and encouragement.
Helping to bring out the best of each person.
Showing genuine concern about people’s
needs and feelings. Expressing direct recogni-
tion for individual and team contributions.

Inspirational Leadership
Committed to energizing the
organization by: Inspiring passion and
motivation to achieve higher quality and
performance. Creating momentum for
change. Engaging the organization around
a shared vision, built on common values
and sense of purpose. Unlocking people’s
intrinsic motivation. Creating teams with
joint accountability for success.
Bold Leadership
Committed to leading a meaningful
business transformation by: Carefully
managing the trade-offs between innovating
for growth and preserving the business as
usual. Reading the context and understand-
ing people’s motivations. Maintaining
“positive tension”. Keeping the big picture in
mind. Encouraging constructive challenge.
As with any cultural transformation, Agile
requires profound personal mindset shifts.
Otherwise, people easily fall back into
their old habits. As shown in the iceberg
metaphor (Exhibit 5), although mindsets
are not visible, they are the main drivers of
behaviours.
For Agile to take root, five major mindset
shifts must occur:
From “Victim Attitude” to
“Protagonist Mindset”
Being proactive. Behaving with energy,
motivation, and conviction. Taking
ownership. Focusing on what the
person can do, instead of blaming
others or the environment.
From “Organizational Silos”
to “Systemic Leadership”
Working towards a shared goal and tapping
into collective intelligence. Avoiding “artificial
harmony” or “dysfunctional conflict”.
Letting go of individual agendas. Managing
conflict productively.
From “Knower” to “Continuous
Learner”
Perceiving mistakes as an opportunity
for learning. Listening with curiosity
and eagerness to learn vs. focusing on
“defending a point of view”. Stepping out
of the comfort zone.
From “Internal Focus” to
“Customer Focus”
Focusing on the customer. Asking for
customer feedback systematically.
Challenging the status quo and fostering
innovation in order to create the
best solutions.
From “Fear of Shame” to
“Psychological Safety”
Where people trust each other and can
be themselves. Creating an open and
safe environment where people can be
themselves. Feeling comfortable sharing
points of view and dissenting. Encouraging
diversity and inclusion.

Mindset shifts do not happen over-night.
They occur through a process of deep
personal reflection, triggered by a set of
several different stimuli and experiences. At
first, the person gains self-awareness of her
own habits, needs, fears, and motivations.
Then, she gradually perceives the need
and suitability for change. Finally, she feels
increasingly motivated to change and is
mobilized towards action.
This process of mindset shift is a necessary
and critical step, which can be supported
from different angles: structured dialogue
involving the entire organization, coaching,
role-modelling from leaders, individual and
team reflection, capability building, and
meaningful conversations. The mindset
shift usually kicks off during workshops
guided by leaders with the support of Agile
Coaches and is reinforced through the
experience of working in a new way and
receiving constant feedback.
Exhibit 5: Agile Mindset Shifts - WALK Model
Victim
Attitude
Organizational
Silos
Knower
Mindsets
Internal
Focus
Fear of
Shame
Protagonist
Mindset
Systemic
Leadership
Continuous
Learner
Customer
Focus
Psychological
Safety
Behaviours
From... ...To

Agile demands
a cultural
transformation
and an evolution of
the organization’s
leadership style

3. Implementation:
Making it Real and
Sustainable
In our experience, an Agile transformation takes 18 to 36 months
depending on the context. The scope can be the entire organization
or a relevant business unit.
Although there is no one-size-fits-all approach, the transformation usually starts with
diagnostic and alignment. Then, it expands through a scaling model that synchronizes the pace
of implementing the methodology to the pace of the associated mindset shifts. The transforma-
tion requires articulating various enabling mechanisms of systemic support, formal training, and
impact measurement.
3.1.
Agile Diagnostic and
Alignment
The Agile diagnostic assesses a wide scope
of elements: organizational alignment,
employee engagement, company vision and
values, company culture, and leadership
style. Various diagnostic tools can be used:
interviews, focus groups, culture surveys,
leadership assessments (individual or
collective), observation of team dynamics,
shadowing of key meetings, and analysis of
work spaces.
At its core, it has two main objectives:
Locate the Biggest Gaps in Agile
Mindsets, Behaviours, and Leadership
Capabilities
This information is needed to design
an Agile transformation tailored to the
company’s unique context and needs.
Identify Key Business Opportunities to
be Unlocked Through Agile
These opportunities have usually been
stuck due to organizational silos and lack of
customer focus. The most relevant ones will
be tackled by the first wave of Agile teams.
After the diagnostic comes an Executive
Team Alignment, with four main goals:
Strengthen Personal Connections
The team gets together for a couple of days
outside of the office. This creates the time
and adequate set-up to make emotional
bonds, revitalize the team’s identity, and
build trust. Trust is widely recognized as the
main driver of team effectiveness.
3. Implementation: Making it Real and Sustainable

Co-create an Agile Vision
The team visualizes how Agile will unlock
value for the company. They also conceive
the Agile transformation as a platform for
their own personal growth, which energizes
and motivates them.
Co-create Behaviour Rules
Team members make explicit agreements
about how they want to work together.
They usually commit to high quality, high
performance, and a culture of conversations
and feedback.
Internalize Agile Principles
The team takes part in an introspection
about the implications of this new way of
working for their day to day. They reflect
upon questions such as: How much control
am I willing to let go? How should I evolve
my leadership style to be a servant leader?
3.2.
Agile at Scale
The right formula for scaling up Agile
depends on the circumstances of each
organization and the appetite and
commitment of its Top Management. There
are four elements to take into consideration
to implement Agile at scale (Exhibit 6):
Gradual Scaling Model
We believe that a “big bang” approach
offers limited options to “test and learn”
and, most importantly, does not tap into
employees’ intrinsic motivation, a critical
element of real and sustainable change.
We recommend a gradual approach, which
synchronizes the pace of implementing
the methodology with the pace of the
associated cultural change. Although it
depends on each specific organizational
context, it is reasonable to assume that an
organization can aspire to have up to 500
individuals in Agile after 6 months and up to
5,000 individuals after 18 months.
Deep Organizational Engagement
The implementation of Agile grows through
a “contagion effect” that is mostly driven
by key influencers and powerful communi-
cation campaigns. Influencers are people
who, having already experienced Agile,
role model the desired behaviours and
create emotional buy-in. Communication
campaigns get people interested and
excited about the new ways of working,
using compelling videos, speeches, posters,
and brochures.
Focus on Business Value
Agile accelerates business results by
focusing people with the right knowledge
and skills on the most valuable business
opportunities. This requires a systematic
view of the organization and a dynamic
pipeline (or backlog) of initiatives ranked
by value.
Consistency with Talent processes
In Recruiting, the organization should
look for people with a learner mindset
(vs. “knower”) and with the curiosity and
flexibility to learn and adapt to change.
In Performance Management, managers
should frequently give informal coaching
and feedback, including 360-degree
evaluations, and behaviours should be
given as much relevance as performance.
In Learning & Development, the company
should train people in key Agile capabilities
(see chapter 3.4.).

Exhibit 6: Agile at Scale - WALK Model
Focus on
Business Value
People focused on the most valuable
opportunities using a dynamic backlog
Consistency with
Talent Processes
Adjustments to
Recruitment,
Performance
Management
and L&D
Deep Organizational
Engagement
“Contagion effect” driven
by key inﬂuencers and
powerful communication
Gradual Scaling Model
Gradual approach that taps
into employees’ intrinsic motivation
4 2
3
1
3.3.
Systemic Support
An Agile organization more closely
resembles a living organism than a
mechanical structure. Moreover, it demands
a significant change in mindsets and
behaviours. Therefore, to make it happen,
it requires dynamic, adaptative, and
systemic support across various disciplines
Leadership Facilitation
Experiential and profound support to leaders,
with a strong emphasis in changing mindsets.
Delivered through leadership workshops
that combine plenary sessions, small team
discussions, and individual introspection.
Coaching and Mentoring
Continuous support to mindset and
behaviour changes, both at team and
individual level with a special emphasis
on Scrum Masters and Product Owners.
Agile Coaches give feedback to the team
about observed behaviours, help people
to prepare for difficult conversations,
and support team decision making with
thought-provoking questions.

Project Management
Definition of the project’s objectives, scope,
and approach. Continuous feedback to
teams on the content they produce and the
quality of their communications, helping
them to maximize their effectiveness.
Systematic follow up of project milestones,
overall status reporting, and coordination of
teams and meetings.
3.4.
Agile Training
Formal Agile training is a critical
complementary element to the overall
systemic support. New Agile mindsets
and behaviours demand a stretch from
employees in terms of their capabilities.
Trainings are a useful mechanism to support
employees in their learning progress
towards acquiring and mastering new
capabilities. There are four types of Agile
trainings, based on the target audience and
the objective.
Agile Principles
Targets the entire organization, including
people who will not necessarily adopt the
Agile methodology. The objective is to
build awareness and alignment across the
organization around the definition and the
relevance of Agile.
Agile/Scrum Methodology
Targets the individuals who will soon
adopt the methodology. The objective is
to help them understand and practice the
methodology fundamentals: scrum teams,
sprints, scrum master, product owner, team
backlog, sprint backlog, etc.
High-Performing Teams
Targets teams who have recently adopted
the Agile methodology. The objective is that
they evolve from a regular to a high perform-
ing team, along the lines of Tuckman’s
theory where teams go through four
predictable development stages: Forming,
Storming, Norming, and Performing.
Agile Leadership
Targets the management team. The objective
is that they learn to lead in a new way, by
influencing through coaching, mentoring,
and role-modelling, instead of using their
hierarchical authority.
Agile training is provided by external training
agents. Scaling up Agile to reach a critical
mass of people is done through a “train the
trainer” approach to ensure that a critical
capability-building muscle is developed
in-house. Technology is also used to
maximize the reach of the programmes
through online trainings and webinars.
3.5.
Measuring Impact
Measuring the impact achieved through
the implementation of Agile is critical to
ensure good overall progress, and to provide
real-time support as and where needed. For
instance, if a team is struggling to adopt the
methodology, if a person is failing to adopt
a new mindset, if an initiative is not gaining
traction… a solid dashboard should point this
out immediately. There are three elements to
be measured:

Acceleration of Business Results
Every initiative must have clear KPIs,
such as customer satisfaction, employee
engagement, time to market, number of
units sold, number of product launches,
customer retention, etc. The team itself has
the accountability to define the KPIs and
track their evolution over time.
Adoption of New Mindsets and
Behaviours
This is measured through observation of
team dynamics and through participants’
self-assessment. Technology can be used
to provide real-time results. For instance,
after each meeting, teams can use an app
to assess the quality of the meeting based
on pre-agreed dimensions, such as focus,
time management, quality of conversations,
support materials, etc. Every 4 weeks, the
maturity of teams is also measured across
key leadership attributes, such as “protago-
nist” mindset, decision making, customer
focus, etc.
Accomplishment of Key Milestones
Every initiative must have a clear roadmap,
with agreed milestones. Delivering committed
outcomes with high quality and on time is
an indicator of team effectiveness. On the
contrary, teams that struggle to meet deadlines
and quality standards should receive special
support of Sponsors and Agile Coaches.
It should be clear by now that Agile,
when properly implemented, delivers
major benefits. Increased innovation
and faster company digitalization result
in profitable business growth. Improved
business results are delivered along with
both higher customer satisfaction and
higher employee engagement (Exhibit 7).
Exhibit 7: Impact of Agile and New Ways of Working - WALK Model
Person
Protagonist Mindset
Customer Centricity
Personal Inﬂuence
Learning from Mistakes
GROWTH
DIGITALIZATION
INNOVATION
Employee Engagement
CustomerSatisfaction
Organization
Flexibility
Speed
Creativity
Efficiency
No silos
Trust
Team
Multi-disciplinary
teams (Scrums)
Short working cycles
(Sprints)
Authentic and
transparent
conversations

An Agile
organization
more closely
resembles
a living
organism than
a mechanical
structure

4. Ready for Action
Companies with a firm determination to rethink their way of doing
business can greatly benefit from implementing Agile.
Agile leads to impressive business acceleration. It unlocks value hidden in the
organization by breaking organizational silos, fostering a customer-centric mindset,
and encouraging experimentation. The business results come hand-in-hand with
a fundamental cultural and leadership transformation. People who experience
Agile first-hand are re-energized and get more enthusiastic about their jobs. Teams
experience a different way of working, which boosts their morale and their productivity.
Agile is not merely a method for improving business results, but a powerful tool that
brings out the best in people. Employees become better employees, better leaders and
better persons, at work and at home. A disciplined and sustainable implementation of
Agile, in synchronization with the associated cultural change, can be a giant step for your
company into the future.
4. Ready for Action

Case Study
Case Study
Driving Innovation and Digitalization
Through Agile Implementation
A global energy company reviewed its strategic
plan to focus on growth and value creation
through three strategic imperatives: Innovation,
Digitalization, and Sustainability.
Agile and New Ways of Working were implemented
to address two of the three challenges: Innovation
and Digitalization.
The appointment of a new VP of Technology and
Innovation (T&I) was the perfect opportunity to
launch an 18-month transformation program, aimed
at accelerating the organization’s technological
leadership by becoming more agile and closer to
the needs of the business.
T&I had to carry out a new strategic and operating
model in a highly competitive and uncertain
environment, and it was imperative that a cultural
transformation be achieved. The main objective
was to change the mindset of its 300 FTEs, in
line with the new personal leadership style that
was required to operate in this new environment.
It implied becoming less hierarchical, promoting
transversal collaboration, encouraging more
delegation, and engaging in 360 dialogue.
The T&I’s transformation was structured in three
phases: cultural diagnostic, business alignment,
and implementation of a Dual Organization. The
implementation was done gradually through
role-modelling of Agile and New Ways of Working,
and a powerful “contagion effect”, starting with
the Executive Team, and growing in three waves
leading to the 300 FTEs participating in Scrums.
The project resulted in aligned BU’s strategic
objectives, adoption of desired leadership
attitudes, and substantial business impact: NPV of
20M€ and a reduction of time-to-market in more
than 30 critical initiatives.
Learnings from T&I were instrumental in extending
the scope of the transformation to another critical
area of the company driving digitalization: IT. IT had
a target of generating 300M€ in additional revenue
through digitalization within 2 years. Meeting this
target required managing two conflicting dynamics:
innovation, growth, and customer orientation
in Digital, as opposed to efficiency, control, and
internal focus in “traditional IT”. The project
implemented Agile at scale through cross-cutting
initiatives, with a special focus on the required
cultural change. It started with a 3-month pilot
within the Executive Team, followed by a potential
roll-out phase with a target of 700 FTEs.
In both projects, the key success factor was
adjusting the pace of implementation of the
methodologies of Agile and New Ways of Working,
to the pace of the associated cultural transforma-
tion. In order to drive the desired mindset shifts,
ongoing support was given to all employees through
individual and group coaching sessions, in addition
to shadowing of day-to-day meetings and real-time
monitoring of meeting effectiveness with an app.
A multidisciplinary team of business consultants,
leadership facilitators, and senior executive coaches,
was fundamental to provide the sort of systemic,
adaptative, and flexible support that was required.

About the Authors
About the
Authors
Horacio Hurtado
Co-Founder and Managing Partner of WALK. Former Senior Principal at A.T. Kearney.
MBA from Kellogg.
horacio.hurtado@walkleadership.com
Miguel Gowland
Co-Founder and Managing Partner of WALK. Expert in leadership development.
MBA from Cranfield.
miguel.gowland@walkleadership.com
Sergio Góngora
Partner of WALK. Former Senior Principal at A.T. Kearney.
MBA from MIT.
sergio.gongora@walkleadership.com
Ana Vilaregut
Consultant of WALK. Former Engagement Manager at McKinsey.
MBA from Columbia.
ana.vilaregut@walkleadership.com

Bibliography
- “Exponential Organizations” by Salim Ismail
- “Tribal Unit: Getting from Teams to Tribes by creating a One Team Culture”
by Em Campbell-Pretty
- “The Big Idea” by John P. Kotter (HBR)
- “The Age of Agile” by Stephen Denning
- “Embracing Agile” by Darrell K. Rigby, Jeff Sutherland, and Hirotaka Takeuchi (HBR)
- “The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: a Leadership Fable” by Patrick Lencioni
- “Leading Change” by John P. Kotter
- “Transformational leadership” by Bass Riggio
- “From purpose to impact” by Nick Craig and Scott A. Snook (HBR)
- “The tipping point: how little things can make a big difference” by Malcom Galdwell
- “Managing for Excellence” by David Bradford and Allan Cohen
- “Agile at Scale” by Darrell K. Rigby, Jeff Sutherland, and Andy Noble (HBR)
- “Lean Product and Process Development” by Allen Ward and Durward Sobeck
- “SAFe Distilled” by Richard Knaster and Dean Leffingwell
- “The New Product Development Game” by Takeuchi and Nonaka (HBR)
- “Principles of Product Development flow” by Don Reinertsen
- “Implementing Lean Software Development” by Mary Poppendieck
- “The surprising truth about what motivates us” by Daniel H. Pink
- “The founder’s mentality” by Chris Zook and James Allen (HBR)
Bibliography

Agile is not merely a
method for improving
business results, but a
powerful tool that brings
out the best in people

© 2019 WALK. All rights reserved.
About WALK
WALK is a global consultancy focused on producing meaningful business transformation
through leadership development and cultural change. Combining a team of strategy
consultants, organizational psychologists, and leadership facilitators, WALK works with
large organizations to ensure effective execution of their business initiatives. We do so
by aligning people with strategy and empowering them to embrace a new leadership
paradigm for the digital age. WALK’s solutions include leadership development
programs, alignment of executive teams, organizational engagement at scale, design and
deployment of a digital culture, and implementation of new ways of working.
www.walkleadership.com
WALK is a member of Oxford Leadership, one of the world’s most influential leadership
consultancies, with more than 200 consultants serving clients in 28 countries.

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