Prerequisites for agile journey.

Companies & people across the world are investing truckloads of money to be “A”gile.

There are many service providers (from Agile Industrial Complex) who are more than happy to make these companies “A”gile. These service providers have developed their own frameworks, their own tools, their own terminology, their own philosophies, their own roles, and even their own types of meetings. All agree that being "A"gile is a time-consuming, money-consuming, demanding, and exhausting journey. 

Surprisingly none of these service providers educate me on what prerequisites I and my team should fulfill before we start this arduous journey of being "A"gile.

Here is another thought.
If you and your team want to be 'a'gile (<> "A"gile) in your thinking and working, using a framework is not at all a mandatory thing. 
But before you start your agile journey, I will strongly recommend you keep these prerequisites in mind. 

Here are those 3 prerequisites.

1. Burning desire to do better in terms of the team's common end-objective.
   (This assumes that the team agrees that there should be a end-objective for the entire team, agreed upon by the entire team, rather than person-specific or role-specific objectives.)
   
   
2. Having an open mind and keeping curiosity alive. 
   (Those folks who prefer rote learning from various rule books or guides are less likely to fulfill this prerequisite. Using these Rule Books can be a great way to establish Rule Adherence of your team; not agility of your team.)
   
   
3. Willingness to maintain complete transparency.
   (Nothing can teach a team better than a transparent working environment. Displaying your team's Information Radiator in a common area where anybody can see it, magically changes the team's thinking. It will save you from bikeshedding. It will nudge you to ask the right questions, which will nudge you to take the right actions.)   

When a team (or an Org) is about to start its 'a'gile journey, I strongly suggest they step back a little from their busy schedule and spend some time together to give a thought about whether they fulfill these 3 prerequisites.  

If they fulfill, they are already at a jumpstart position.

If they don't, at least they will start working on it.
In fact, it will save them a lot of wasted effort, time, and also money.
When a team does not fulfill these prerequisites, all they learn will be some cargo cult practices from rule books and adherence to certain ceremonies of certain 'A'gile framework.