How to Respond to Resistance to Agile Ways of Working with Ravi Verma

When I look back at 15+ years of experience with Agile adoption, one common theme seems to be ever-present– resistance to Agile ways of working. There were many “resisters” who were challenging to deal with – Developers, Product Owners, Scrum Masters and Agile Coaches, Stakeholders. However, there is one person who stands out the most. The one who gave me the most ulcers. The most challenging resister of them all. Me!

I resisted Agile ways of working. Before I evangelized them 😊I was once on the other side – a Development Manager with a team of 25 developers, under pressure to deliver a long list of features. I spent most of my time struggling with an unmanageable Microsoft Project Plan Gantt chart that refused to stay “balanced” for longer than a few hours before something changed.

When my UI lead tried to introduce Scrum to my team, I was the biggest resister. I thought it was a silly fad. “This too, shall pass”, I remember thinking to myself. Right? Wrong. Pretty soon, I was humbled and brought down to my knees and I revisited my understanding of Scrum and Agile ways of working with a beginner’s mind. This experience of having been on the other side as a “resister” has given me an interesting perspective on how to respond to resistance to Agile ways of working. And I want to share some thoughts that might help you if you come across a “resister” like me.

In this session, I will share a 9-step framework to respond to resistance to Agile ways of working that draws upon my 15+ years of lived experience with Agile adoption. Whether you use my framework or not, my hope is that attending this session will spark some new ways of being for you.

Speaker

Ravi Verma

Ravi Verma is a Scrum.org PST, a Certified Professional Co-Active Coach and a Certified ROI Professional. He is the founder and CEO of SmoothApps ( https://smoothapps.com/ )– an Agile Training, Coaching and Consulting firm and Al Dente ( https://aldente.cloud/ ) – a firm that simplifies the path to ROI Based transformation.

Ravi has 20+ years of experience in Software Delivery and consulting including 10+ years helping organizations with Scrum adoption. He has been a Scrum coach for organizations ranging from 10 people to 10,000 people in diverse industries including travel, banking, and healthcare.

He is a grateful immigrant to the USA and is trying to repay his debt to the country through his non-profits – Agile For Patriots ( https://agileforpatriots.org/ ) and Agile For HBCU, offering free Agile training, certifications, practical experience, mentoring and coaching to US Military Veterans and students and alumni of HBCU’s.

You can stay connected with Ravi’s latest ideas by following him on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/smoothapps/, subscribing to his channel on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCS-wBHXsQP4RacyX-R3ITQA and reading his latest blogs on https://smoothapps.com/