Insights in this article come from Jennifer Ashton, People & Culture Director at BT Group, and Riina Hellström, Founder of Agile HR Community, who delivered a session at our recent London in-person meetup focused on busting the myths of Agile Transformation in HR.
If the last few years have shown us anything, it’s that HR can move far quicker than we sometimes give ourselves credit for. When the pandemic hit, HR teams mobilised at pace – redesigning work, supporting wellbeing, enabling remote operations – often without labelling it as “Agile”.
And that’s an important point.
In many organisations, Agile maturity doesn’t always come with Agile language. Jennifer reflected on her experience at Amazon, where teams were operating with deep Agile maturity – yet nobody was explicitly talking about Agile. It was simply how work got done. Fast-moving, highly collaborative “hives” of activity delivering value at speed. For organisations earlier in their journey – particularly traditional or heavily hierarchical businesses – distinguishing what Agile is becomes more important. Not rigid frameworks, but clear anchors – ways to differentiate what true Agile working looks and feels like in practice. Because ultimately, Agile in HR is not about rituals or ceremonies. It’s about business impact. It’s about challenging systems, not just refining policies. It’s about moving beyond “nice HR” into systemic change – keeping pace with the organisation and, at times, disrupting it for the better.
Securing senior leader buy-in
One of the evening’s central themes was the challenge of securing senior leader buy-in for Agile transformation.
At the heart of this sits a deeply human tension: control.
Agile shifts decision-making closer to the user, the customer, the employee. And that can feel uncomfortable for leaders who are used to owning outcomes and directing activity.
Common fears that surface:
“I’m losing control”
“Where do I add value?”
Ego can creep in – often unconsciously. Empowering teams requires a profound mindset shift. It means stepping back from day-to-day control and trusting others to deliver.
Riina describes this shift as Leadership Identity Transformation.
Leadership Identity Transformation
Leadership in Agile environments moves from:
- “My tasks, my silo” → to system-wide delivery
- Working on things → to working on the system
- Owning decisions → to enabling decisions.
It also requires governance evolution – redesigning how oversight, accountability and escalation work without re-introducing bureaucracy.
This transformation stretches leaders.
Letting go can feel like making yourself redundant. But in reality, the opposite happens. Leaders create the space to focus on what truly matters – shaping systems, removing barriers and enabling performance at scale.
And teams? They step up.
Freed from micro-management, they begin operating as they were always meant to – empowered, accountable and closer to the work.
Organisational challenges of Agile Transformation in HR
Agile doesn’t hide problems – it surfaces them.
It was a sentiment that drew plenty of agreement in the room, with leaders recognising the pattern in their own organisations.
When organisations begin working in more Agile ways, it can feel as though everything is getting worse. Friction increases. Bottlenecks become visible. Dependencies start clashing.
But these issues already existed. Agile simply makes them impossible to ignore.
From an organisational effectiveness perspective, this visibility is a strength.
Both Riina and Jennifer drew attention to the fact that many HR teams find themselves operating in partially Agile environments, which introduces its own tensions:
- Dual governance models running in parallel
- Clashes with non-Agile stakeholders
- Frustration within Agile teams blocked by traditional processes
Paradoxically, that frustration can be a positive signal. It often indicates teams are thinking and operating differently – and are now constrained by legacy systems.
Riina described organisational tension evolving as Agile maturity grows.
How tension evolves as Agile maturity grows...
First, tension within the team, then…
Tension between team and manager
Tension between teams
Tension between departments
Finally, tension across the organisational portfolio
TOP TIP: To help ease tension, try using an Impediment Board
One practical mechanism to manage this is an Impediment Board – a visible space where tensions and blockers are raised.
In traditional organisations, the heaviest friction often emerges from highly structured functions such as Finance or Legal. Yet as leadership shifts from siloed task ownership to system stewardship, they gain the capacity to start unpicking these barriers.
Riina highlighted that one of the biggest sources of tension – competing resources and siloed prioritisation – can be eased by taking a portfolio view of work.
Example: Setting up a People Planning Board
One organisation’s approach to easing tension with a portfolio view of work was to set up a People Planning Board.
They had a visualisation of every initiative showing:
- What work was happening
- Where it sat in the system
- When it was likely to land
- Who was involved
This transparency enabled them to negotiate competing priorities and plan according to capacity.
At its core, the above is a portfolio management approach – making all work visible so it can be sized, prioritised and resourced realistically.
But it isn’t instant.
It typically takes four iterations before the portfolio begins functioning effectively.
Jennifer added that prioritisation itself can be one of the hardest muscles for HR to build. Saying “yes” comes naturally. Saying “not now” – or “no” – does not. She emphasised the need to deprioritise.
Unlocking this often requires reviewing performance frameworks too. If reward structures incentivise volume over value, prioritisation will always struggle.
How to measure whether Agile Transformation is working
Finally, Riina and Jennifer were asked about measuring the success of an Agile Transformation in order to demonstrate value. So how do you measure whether Agile transformation is working?
Despite the temptation to build complex KPI suites, the answer is often far simpler. Are you delivering? Faster? Better? With more value?
The proof, as the saying goes, is in the pudding.
Jennifer noted there are supporting indicators you can look to:
-
Reduction in siloed working
-
Engagement scores vs non-Agile teams
-
Attrition trends
-
Absence rates
But these are only signals. Ultimately, the success of Agile in HR is demonstrated in its ability to deliver meaningful outcomes more quickly, more effectively and more sustainably for the business.
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Jennifer Ashton
People & Culture Director at BT Group
Jennifer's career spans global organisations and fast-growth start-ups, including Sainsbury’s, the BBC, Amazon and BT Group, as well as Boston-based tech companies. Today, Jennifer is People, Culture & BT Group Inclusion Director, supporting the Consumer Division at BT Group and partnering with senior leaders across marketing, commercial, product, brand and strategy. Alongside this, she leads BT Group’s inclusion agenda, bringing a practical, commercial lens to the barriers colleagues raise and the realities customers face, with a focus on helping teams make inclusive choices in everyday decisions.
Riina Hellström
Founder, Agile HR Community
Founder of Agile HR Community and Agile Enterprise Coach, Riina has 25 years of experience in HR, strategy, and change, and 15 years of pioneering Agile HR. She is also the co-author of the definitive guide Agile HR: Delivering Value in a Changing World of Work.
