Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast: Agile storytelling from the trenches

Building Bridges—How Cross-Department Champions Drive Agile Adoption| Simina Fodor

May 14, 2025

Simina Fodor, a career rebel with a passion for bold moves, shares her inspiring journey from HR to Agile delivery. She emphasizes the power of starting small and building informal networks to drive Agile adoption. Simina discusses how she identified and empowered champions across departments, creating a supportive community that facilitated a smooth transition to Agile practices. Her patient and strategic approach laid a strong foundation that ultimately led to a successful organizational transformation, proving that grassroots efforts can lead to significant change.

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ANECDOTE

Slow Start to Agile Transformation

Simina began Agile transformation by informally promoting Scrum within the organization using case studies from other companies.
She built internal support over years before launching an official Agile pilot with simple daily standups and task boards.

ADVICE

Focus on Agile Champions

Focus on change champions who want to pull change rather than push change onto resistors.
These champions act as multipliers by spreading Agile adoption organically within their areas.

ANECDOTE

Building a Coalition of Champions

Simina created a community of Agile champions across departments to support change when leaders began discussing more responsive delivery.
Early signs of organizational readiness included leadership contemplating faster product-market fit and efficiency.

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Simina Fodor: Building Bridges—How Cross-Department Champions Drive Agile Adoption

Read the full Show Notes and search through the world's largest audio library on Agile and Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes.

Simina shares her experience leading an enterprise Agile transformation from her position in Project Management. Rather than pushing for immediate, wholesale change, she started small - seeking out interested colleagues, sharing case studies from other companies, and gradually building internal support. This patient approach took years before the organization officially embraced Agile and Scrum, but created a strong foundation of champions across departments. When business needs finally demanded faster releases and better responsiveness to change, Simina had already established a community of practice ready to support the transition. She began with a single pilot team implementing just daily standups, which then expanded into a full Agile program that ultimately facilitated her transition from Project Manager to Scrum Master.

Self-reflection Question: How might building informal networks and starting with small changes create a more sustainable foundation for organizational transformation than top-down mandates?

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About Simina Fodor

Simina is a career rebel with a passion for bold moves. From HR to Agile delivery, she's ditched the rulebook to inspire others to build careers that ignite passion. No apologies, no detours—just fearless pivots and real talk about creating work that truly fires you up.

You can link with Simina Fodor on LinkedIn.