Recently, I was asked what is an agile mindset? My reflex, after teaching a number of Agile 101 classes, was to start first the the Agile Manifesto and it’s 12 Principles. While that is an good place to start, I paused and thought a bit deeper. Reflecting on my many years of being agile, I landed on four characteristics of an agile mindset.
- Acceptance
- Bias for action
- Fearlessness
- Service
Acceptance
Accept that we can’t know everything at the outset
Any knowledge work, to which we apply agile, is complex. It is a fantasy to think that we can know all of the customer needs, requirements, and design elements when embarking on delivering new value. Harder still is develop a plan to deliver that complex work, outline and mitigate all the possible risks, and still hit a scheduled date and budget. As wishful as these endeavors are, outdated management principles tell us that this is how to be efficient, effective, and productive. Once we have a plan, we derive a sense of comfort, even though that plan never survives it’s first contact with the enemy (reality).
No plan survives first contact with the enemy.
Reconfigured concept of Helmuth von Moltke’s original
An agile mindset allows us to accept that we can’t know these things from the get go. That acceptance frees us from the tyranny of silly predictions. It allows us to try and learn, rather than guess and fall short, wasting countless hours of productivity explaining why.
An agile mindset allows us to hypothesize, experiment to test our hypothesis, analyze our results, and determine our next hypothesis. In doing so, we are getting frequent feedback, learning quickly, and making better, more informed decisions. If our hypothesis doesn’t survive the test, then we learn and pivot, having wasted far less time, money, resources than if we had marched toward executing a fallible plan.
Accept that we don’t have all the answers
Given the complexity of our work, it is inconceivable that any one person has the answer to all problems, challenges, and risks. An agile mindset accepts that the whole is greater than the sum of it’s parts. In a self-organizing agile team, my teammates are as dedicated as I am to delivering our commitments. Using our collective expertise, we can resolve the obstacles in our path, or we can enlist the help of our leaders who share our agile mindset.
With this acceptance, we are freed from the tyranny of having to be “right” and “on” and “expert” all the time. We:
- Listen and learn from our teammates
- Are vulnerable and build trust that leads to high-performance
- Have others’ back and they can have ours
- Are all be winners
As an agile leader, I can discard the weight of being the “go-to answer person” and being mired in the day-to-day management of work. I can now expend my efforts coaching my people to a higher level of capability. I can raise the portcullis of my functional silo and work with my peers to resolve long-standing systemic challenges, broadening my sphere of influence and having a more substantial impact on the organization.
Bias for Action
Now that we have acceptance, we are free to experiment and be supported by our teammates and agile leaders. Conducting small experiments cost less than large projects. Decentralized decision making gives us a level of autonomy we would not have in a traditional, hierarchical organization. Our agile leaders understand the importance of communicating the vision, direction, and appropriate guardrails. Armed with these tools, I can act….quickly. I can speed up the creation of value for our customers while being accountable for my commitments and actions.
Fearlessness
Some people might say that acceptance breeds resignation. I disagree. When you can accept yourself and things around you as they are, you can act. Exercise the control you have, make decisions, and change your circumstances. You are not a victim. You are a victor!
Small experiments reduce risk. Having collective expertise and support to draw on reduces risk. A bias for action gives you more control and reduces delays and risk. With less risk, there is less to fear. An agile mindset is a fearless mindset. I don’t mean reckless, thoughtless, or careless. I mean mindful, thoughtful, and respectful…fiercely fearless.
As an agile leader, I have cultivated trust with my people and peers through my coaching and support. Now when there are difficult conversations to be had, I no longer spend the days and nights before agonizing over how to deliver that message. I have honest and direct dialog that leads to higher performance and even greater trust.
Service
To have an agile mindset means to be of service to others, always. We:
- Deliver value in service to our customers
- Take on our least favorite tasks in service to our team in order to meet our commitments
- Put our titles and egos to the side, roll up our sleeves to get the teams what they need to meet their commitments
- Forego our pet project in service to another initiative that will benefit the organization more
- Serve our business partners and they serve us because they are in the thick of it with us and have a greater understanding of the effort needed to deliver value
- Become servant leaders at all levels of the organization and we serve each other
Summary
These are the four characteristics that connect and build on one another to create the strong neural pathways of an agile mindset. Adopting and practicing these characteristics will give you such a sense of relief and freedom. You, your team, and your people will grow in capability, satisfaction, and achievement. Start small and focus your efforts on these four characteristics. You will not regret it and you will not look back.
My best to you on your Agile journey.