How can you apply agile values to any industry?

During my tenure at Dell, while acting as an Engineering Project Manager, I realized the significance of putting people above processes and machines. Open communication, active listening, and prompt feedback were encouraged in our workplace. Our team had the authority to set its priorities, resolve issues, and use the available resources in line with its objectives. This human-centric approach was not just about earning trust and due respect but also delivered innovative alternatives leading to successful ventures.

From my experience working in the digital marketing industry. Encouraging teamwork, idea-sharing, and using helpful tools such as Trello or Asana for organization. Embrace experimentation and encourage evidence-based processes, testing new ideas and analyzing results to improve strategies. Set realistic and timely goals that align with business objectives and remain adaptable to industry changes through flexible strategic planning. Prioritize customer value and gather feedback to refine strategies towards delivering greater value. Iterate campaign development, testing and optimizing smaller campaigns before scaling up and using data-driven decision-making to guide choices.

Empowering your team is universally applicable across industries because it fosters a sense of ownership, responsibility, and motivation among team members. Regardless of the field, when team members feel trusted and are given the autonomy to make decisions, they tend to perform better and innovate. This approach encourages problem-solving, collaboration, and a proactive mindset, which are qualities valued in any industry. Empowering your team is a versatile leadership strategy that not only improves individual and collective performance but also drives adaptability and resilience, making it valuable across a wide array of industries.

Working on products instead of comprehensive documents was valuable for me in the course of my job in the tech industry. Our approach focused on providing practical working solutions targeting real needs instead of engaging in comprehensive proposals. We determined what should make up an MVP, divided projects into manageable sprints, and reached out to customers for their feedback. This enabled us to deliver value at a fast pace while keeping our documents brief enough.

Note the change of the value from software to product, and indeed this value is applicable to any organization. I would change it to “working thing of value” if we are going to change the original.

To apply the agile value of "Working product over comprehensive documentation," prioritize delivering functional solutions. Define a Minimum Viable Product (MVP), work in small iterations, involve users for feedback, and document essentials. This approach fosters agility and customer-centricity. (Note: Agile principles promote adaptability and customer satisfaction by focusing on practical results rather than excessive documentation.)

In my tech career, I have come to believe that customer collaboration is more important than contract negotiation. Instead of sticking to rigorous contractual arrangements, we made efforts to understand customers’ specific needs and foster partnerships. We involved customers in planning and reviewing. Adopting a highly flexible method of operation also helped us build confidence, deliver value regularly and finally complete projects successfully.

As a Change Agent in the aerospace industry, it is crucial for me to establish customer/supplier collaboration early on. This helps me to understand their pain points and proactively improve their processes and quality deliverables. I always emphasize to my team on the importance of continuously improving our stakeholder relationship by promoting a culture of collaboration and effective communication. This helped me to create space for customers and suppliers to communicate openly, and honestly and to form meaningful connections with one another.

For me, this principle in the Agile Manifesto is emphasizing that organizations need to be able to change quickly. This means that when change happens, a new plan can be formulated and communicated quickly. In software products, I like to think that this can be fulfilled through the just in time delivery of requirements and designs to minimize the rework that happens when change happens. In non-software organizations, the question should be asked "what can we do to minimize rework when change needs to happen?"

Over the years, I have learned that reacting to change is more important than sticking to the plan. It has been a matter of welcoming change, learning from it, and using it as an opportunity. We embraced the need for change, were aware of trends, evaluated, prioritized and implemented changes to measure their impact. It not only made us more resistant but also drove constant improvement and innovation.

Emphasizing the ability to respond to change instead of rigidly following a plan is essential in any industry, especially with the ever evolving world we live in. Companies face unexpected twists, evolving customer preferences, and unforeseen obstacles. Prioritizing adaptability allows organizations to stay nimble, seize emerging opportunities, and tackle unforeseen challenges.

Agile embraces uncertainty, uses iterative development, prioritizes customer feedback, and fosters a culture of continuous improvement. It's not just about being flexible; it's about making flexibility a core part of your mindset, processes, and culture to thrive in a dynamic world.

It’s important to note to the agile manifesto was written specifically for software development. Vectors fact the full title is the agile manifesto for software development. We can manipulate the words and make it a applicable to other organizations or products and services, however, the original intent was clearly for software development. That said, I have yet to see a place where it cannot be applied. Regardless of type of work, type of organization, people, process technology… really anything.