Chantal, a seasoned IT VP in nonprofit sector once asked me “When is the best time to start an Agile transformation?” I remember hesitating responding not because I didn’t know the answer. I hesitated anticipating the conversation to follow. I hesitated because I myself remember being in her shoes long ago hoping there is some ideal time when a perfect masterplan can play out. I finally answered transparently “There is never the right time. It will always be messy! You’re transforming people and… ” I wrestled grasping for the right words “… WE are messy.”

Here is a simple yet unfortunate truth: Transformations are MESSY! It’s not due to lack of planning, nor lack of expertise or experience, nor because our systems are complicated, nor because our processes are overgrown, nor because our budgets are limited, and many more reasons. All these factors do play a part of course. However, transformations are messy because of the most complex and predictable dimension… messy imperfect people living messy imperfect lives in a messy imperfect world. Our organizations are in some ways broken. Our products / services are in some ways broken. Our systems are in some ways broken. We ourselves are broken, especially now.

Yet with that also comes some good news: PERFECTION sucks anyway. In fact, we don’t need perfection. What we do need is continuous improvement. If you bought into some idealistic, perfect, crystal-clear, version of Agile… then invest time in seeing the whole picture of this beautiful, dynamic, business-growing, life-transforming, epic game changing concept called Agile. What else has the power to radically transform messy people, their beliefs, their fears, their hopes, and their passions. Perhaps you prefer to simplify Agile to a prescriptive set of practices or a clearly defined process. Perhaps you are frustrated that Agile is not a single clear thing. Good news is that in one way or another, we are all on our journey understanding what this Agile things is… or more accurately, in our journey of understanding ourselves.

Where does that leave us? No I’m not going to sell you some perfect approach to convince your stakeholders to buy into Agile. I’m not going to give you a set of perfect practices, that when introduced will fix everything. I’m not going to sell you a perfect Agile framework that will magically transform your organization, offer a great training tool, or promote a ground-breaking leadership training program. I’m not going to lie to you that solutions to your problems are simple nor cheap nor effortless. What I can however offer is some personal insight… a truth among many other truths.

YOU, as the change agent, are the person that has to change the most. Here is what we, change leaders, are called to do. Here is the essence of our purpose. Here is what are paid for. Here is what is both our privilege and our responsibility “We evolve business and organizations primarily by evolving people… but we do it primarily by evolving ourselves.” We listen to stories of failure and frustration. We emphasize with missed deadlines and product / service quality issues. We spend hours, days, weeks, and sometimes even years to understand technical aspects of solutions we never ourselves build. We test and try endless ways to communicate benefits of specific mindsets and approaches. We introduce and adapt ridiculous number of practices until one of them sticks. As organization, politics, alliances, and executive change over and over again… we start again and again and again. We question our own approaches and sometimes even our own sanity. We ourselves get frustrated, burned out, discouraged, mistreated, blamed, shamed, taken-for-granted.

I am here to remind you a very critical truth: We help GOOD people & teams become REMARKABLE. We create beauty and hope in the midst of imperfect, ugly, messy world we work in and live in. We impact people’s life, far beyond their workplaces and far beyond time we have with them. We create some sanity in otherwise insane workplaces. We are able to navigate complex workplace relationships, difficult politics, antiquated bureaucracies, and often overgrown egos… and all this often without any authority. Why? Half of the time we don’t even get credit for the improvements or practices we introduce or support.

We do it because WE CARE… because we want to help people we work with. And I really hope this is enough for you. Because no sane human being would want to trow themselves into this messiness and chaos and politics, often with no direct ability to control the situation, to exert both mental and physical energy to stimulate significant organizational and personal change, and often their success not being understood nor recognized till years after (if at all). Ironically yet intentionally we achieve profound change through a series of smaller efforts (stories), weaved over longer periods of change, and often not realizing the cumulative impact these changes have.

And even if our approaches are reversed; even if our efforts are forgotten; even if our successes attributed to those we help; even if our hopes were never understood nor achieved… We need to realize we radically changed people we coached and touched. And that my friends is more than enough. That is our ever-lasting LEGACY.