Where 'sustainability' used to be a niche, contemporary developments, such as the increasing demand from companies for sustainability and new legislation in this area, are causing an enormous increase in Fairtrade issues. To be able to respond to this complex and dynamic environment, having an agile and effective organization is crucial for Fairtrade now and in the future. This resulted in the desire to switch to an agile way of working. As part of the strategy execution, Margit Verwer hired Summiteers to support the first agile working pilot within the Fairtrade Coffee team. In this article, Margit, MT member and project sponsor, and Yme Quispel, product owner of team Coffee, talk about the experiences with the new way of working and success factors that contributed to the implementation process.

The name Fairtrade will undoubtedly sound familiar to you. Probably mainly from sustainably certified cocoa, coffee and bananas. For example, Fairtrade Netherlands is daily concerned with making a difference in the areas of fair trade, human rights and sustainable development. The outside world's interest in these themes is also growing enormously, and so is the pressure on this organization.

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Execution Strategy

In response to this pressure, Fairtrade Netherlands developed a strategy and was looking for a way to ensure that strategy realized would be. Something we like to do. Because the issues of the day prevailed at Fairtrade, it was important to develop a way of working that helps focus and prioritize. Together, we came up with a variant of agile working that is a good fit for Fairtrade.

Agile can sound very hip or scary, but it's basically a simple and, above all, pragmatic way of project management. When all the preparation has been made, such as sharpening the vision, goals, and cutting projects into bite-sized, SMART-formulated chunks, the approach provides an immediate overview and effectiveness. You know exactly how much capacity is available in the team and the team then works more productively and focused in short sprints. That sounds good, of course, but like any habit or behavior, you don't switch from one day to the next, let alone the entire organization's switch. “If you want to achieve behavioral change, it helps to be able to challenge the group from outside,” says Margit. “It was crucial that Summiteers guided us through this. I don't know if it would have been as successful without strange eyes.”

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From pilot group to ambassadors

“The advice to opt for a pilot with one product group, instead of several, turned out to be very wise,” says Margit. “First gain experience with one group, learn from it, celebrate successes and then gradually implement it with the rest.” After all, such a switch in working methods can cause quite some resistance in the organization, says Yme. But the pilot in team Coffee was successful. “We now feel much more like a team and are more focused,” adds Margit. “What was really nice to see was that Yme as product owner and Lashinda as scrum master for the Dutch team shared the experiences after the pilot and really stood there as ambassadors. We are now speaking to the rest of the organization from experience because we have proven that it works.”

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The importance of content urgency

“To be honest, we could have managed better expectations about the time investment together. At the beginning of the process, the team members were somewhat overwhelmed with the requested investment of time,” says Simone Halink, management consultant at Summiteers. At the same time, the pressure contributed to the success of the pilot, Fairtrade mentioned during the evaluation. Because team Koffie had a tough job organizing an important B2B Coffee event, all tasks on the backlog during the rehearsal period were urgent. “It was a great start to organize the event according to the new way of working,” says Yme. A clear distribution of roles and the many tasks was important so that everyone knew who was responsible for what. “The organization ultimately ran like a smooth machine, so we created a successful and well-attended event together as a team.” So the lesson shows: urgency in content is important. Important conversations that need to be had are also being held.

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All the qualities you need for change

When we talk about reasons for success, we want to give the drivers of the pilot and team Coffee a huge compliment. From the start, it was clear that this team had the qualities to make this change. At Summiteers, we therefore admired how Fairtrade took up this pilot and had the open discussion about it. First of all, there was already a strong shared vision and support from the organization and the MT, complemented by strong individuals who were in the right place. You can never underestimate the importance of a great scrum master and product owner, they have a major contribution to the success of agile working. “Lashinda was really good at involving people in the team and challenging the meticulousness of the work processes, but did it in a very good and fun way,” says Margit. “Yme also played a very nice role as product owner. He has a clear vision of what needs to be done, knowledge of the annual planning and is also good at translating and cascading that to the team.”

There was also increasing mutual cooperation between Margit as sponsor and product owner Yme. “We already worked well together, but have now found a better balance,” says Yme. In the collaboration, the method provided more focus and tangibility between the layers. Setting clear frameworks and then empowering the team is the success of agile working. It provides more ownership over the work and a clear picture of the bigger picture that is being worked towards.

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Open to learning and development

What was striking is that this Fairtrade team was incredibly open to learning and development. Feedback points were seen as learning opportunities and even when the conversations became more difficult or personal, they could talk about anything. “I think the open attitude has been very important,” says Margit. Sometimes it took a few words to fully find each other, but everyone sat open at the table with a willingness to take the next step together. “The role of Summiteers, in this case of Simone, Jules and Dolf, was very important in this,” says Margit. “By both setting out the frameworks, planning the route and using it as a sparring partner at multiple levels. Summiteers is both strong on a strategic level and adept at agile working. I think that combination is very important. They take a look at what we need as an organization, supervise the implementation and make adjustments where necessary.”

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A successful pilot spreads like an oil slick

Team Koffie has now paved the way for the rest of the organization and we are looking ahead. “It has been a great process and we are really happy with it,” says Margit. “We now want to take this step by step further in the organization. In addition, we particularly closely monitor the resilience of the organization. We'll start with the next product team from the summer to the end of 2023 and use 2024 to embed it across the organization.” In addition, it will be easier, because the first team can provide support to the other teams. From there, the oil slick occurs. “Team Coffee will continue to work like this and in the meantime, we will help the other teams to embrace the way we work,” says Yme.

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About Summiteers

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