Agile Acquisitions & Culture Change
Good Evening Agile Acquisition Aficionados, and welcome back to another episode of the Underground Digital Tiki Bar. Thanks to everyone who has been supporting my channel and providing feedback.
On today's episode, I want to discuss Culture Change. While most of my engagements originate around the a desire or need to adopt agile contracting capabilities or fix acquisition strategies, it all too often points back to culture.
The federal contracting process was not created in a day, it was created over decades of rules to replace bad decisions. The federal industrial base was not created in a day either. It was created as a reflection of what the Government was asking for. As a result we now have a cultural and organizational institution built around foundational beliefs.
Anything that does not meet this carefully constructed template is likely to be faced with opposition, reservation, and cynicism. To face this, pioneers needs to win the hearts and minds of stakeholders;
change through force is rarely lasting or repeatable. In my experience, the only way to achieve success with change, whether it is helping an organization adopt agile development practices, using new technology, or empowering product owners, is to start small. Take a page from iterative development, small demonstrable success over time delivers more than functional products, it delivers functional change through acceptance and ultimately buy-in.
Imminent failure is a great driver for change in that desperation allows for desperate measures, but it is also high risk and should be a last resort. Preemptively identifying low profile projects, for example, to implement virtual hosting, or iterative development will allow new users to fail fast and react quickly - greatly increasing the overall likelihood of success and establishing a baseline of credibility for future, larger endeavours. Most importantly, document, create case studies, and tell others about your success.
Okay, that does it for this episode. If you are enjoying these videos, hit the like button, leave a comment for future topics, and of course subscribe. Until next time, keep learning, keep doing; Cheers
#governmentcontracting #agiledevelopment #acquisitions #CultureChange
