Simon Sinek wrote a book titled ‘Start with Why’.
It changed how I thought about everything.
In the organizations that we work with, the objective is to be quick to change to meet the needs of our market.
When businesses can do this, they can adapt to change quickly and stay ahead of their competition.
That’s it. That’s the why.
Therefore, we are all on the journey to become more agile in our ways of working.
But, what is agile?
“marked by ready ability to move with quick easy grace”
- Merriam-Webster Dictionary
Move with…
quick
easy
grace
So, when it comes to agility, you now have the means to measure the current state.
When I join a new team, this is what I find out first:
Is the system easy to change?
Can we find out about a user need in the morning, put the change in the user’s hand by the afternoon… and rollback at night if something didn’t go right?
Can we do all this without chaos… in a graceful manner?
The answers to these questions, tell me everything I need to know about the challenges the team / organization is facing.
Notice, I’ve not mentioned any ‘Agile’ methodology or framework.
I haven’t mentioned Scrum / XP / Kanban / SAFe / LeSS.
That’s what I mean when I encourage you to start with agility first.
When we put methodologies & frameworks above agility itself, we put limitations upon the design of our process.
How to evolve an agile process?
Your first goal is to understand the needs and challenges of the business…
Then, design a process with your team to meet those needs and challenges…
And, start experimenting.
Improving the process based on results and new experiments.
You will always have the ability to measure progress:
Are we quicker?
Is it easier to change?
Are we more balanced or tripping over our shoelaces when making the change?
That’s it.
Let the process evolve…
You and your team will adopt and adapt so called ‘Agile’ practices and drop the ones that don’t work for them.
Starting with why, led me to starting with agility.
I encourage you to try this with your team today. It will set you on a joyous path… guaranteed.
Everyday, I talk to people about agility and the unique challenges.
I would love to hear your agile story and your challenges.
Here’s how to talk to me:
LinkedIn | Twitter | Schedule a call in my calendar