An ‘Agile’ mindset? What’s that?

My first introduction to ‘Agile’ was from an Agile-sceptic, “Rejo, it’s a bunch of people standing around in a circle, throwing a ball at each other and saying some stuff…”. Little did that person know that I would one day lead scrums and progress to advocate agile methods and principles in several projects. Some sceptics (at least the ones I have come across) view ‘Agile’ as a hippie-style get-together of people singing ‘kumbaya’, at work. Others complain of how ‘Agile’ lacks structure and how it will leave projects unfinished with an infinite loop of iterations. Criticism aside, the reason ‘Agile’ felt like ‘common sense’ to me was that it was not about following a rigid structure and set of rules, but it was more about bringing about a new wave of culture into our work places and new way of working together, that makes absolute sense in a world where there is increasing diversity in the workplace and where millennials are increasingly taking on bigger roles in organizations.

Diversity brings with it many perspectives and ideas. Millennial talent requires an engaging and collaborative environment with ‘equal voice’. Let’s combine that with the new technological innovations of the 21st century, which comes with unpredictability and challenges, and hence some of the current rigid structures or ways of working, in many organizations, will not be able to cope with this wave of change. While I applaud efforts by organizations to integrate Agile methods, it won't bear fruit (or may even fail) unless the leaders and people themselves have an ‘Agile’ mindset.

Let me highlight a few points here to portray what an ‘Agile’ mindset looks like. I am sure many of you reading this might come up with more examples, but for the sake of this article, I will limit myself to these 7 key points, which represent an ‘Agile’ mindset from my perspective.

1)    Don’t be afraid to fail-

This may sound cliché to a lot of people but honestly, how many of us can actually go up to our team and say, “We tried this new technique yesterday and it was a disaster". In a world where technological breakthroughs are happening at lightening speed or even when existing technologies are implemented in a new organization for the first time, we need to create a culture where people have the freedom to try new stuff and not penalize them for failing. Teams that know that their leadership and team mates have ‘got their backs’ will go the extra mile and may surprise everyone with results that exceed expectations. If we really want innovation and growth in our organizations, then we need to increase our tolerance for failure.

 2)   It’s never going to be perfect-

Perfection is an unattainable 'ideal state' and not reality. We can’t wait for everything to be in place and the stars to align, before we start working on something or even show some early wins/results. Many times, when I take on new projects, I do not have the full picture or all that I need right at the start, but I don’t just sit at my desk till I get everything I need. I run with what I have and accept that there are ‘unknowns’. My understanding of the work will grow with time, and I eventually produce tangible results at each step or iteration, during my journey through the project.

 3)   Learn to say ‘no’ the right way

Every team has that ‘yes’ man or woman, who takes on any work that comes across their path, from everyone. They are always busy, missing deadlines and infinitely stressed. The quality of work is also compromised when they take on more than they can handle, and it throws them off course. One example is when we work to achieve a deliverable and are given entirely new set of requirements from a client (halfway through the project), that was never part of the initial discovery and then we see people working ridiculous hours to achieve that additional ‘last-minute’ deliverable. In the end, no one is happy. The awesome thing about ‘Agile’ is you only take on work for an iteration that you are able to complete and there is some result /output that can be shown at the end of every iteration. This helps us to say ‘yes’ to work which our teams can commit to within a timeframe and ‘no’ to work that will throw us off our goals for that iteration. Any work that is outside of the ‘Sprint backlog’ or iteration scope, goes into a future iteration. A project is hence a sum of those iterations and this is transparent to everyone involved.

 4)   You can’t please everyone

One of my favorite quotes is from the book ‘Purpose Driven Life’- “I don't know the keys to success, but one key to failure is to try to please everyone”. No matter what we do or how good we do our work, we are bound to displease someone along the way. We can’t let the fear of disappointing others, hold us back from doing ‘what we need to do’, to get results. I remember, during a challenging work assignment, I had 2 weeks to train a group of key stakeholders, in a new system. A lot of people around me started prescribing how I should do my job, due to the fear that something might go wrong, that would negatively impact the client’s commitment to go-live. I had to politely tell them to take a step back and to let me do my job, while asking them to give me the support I needed. I am glad to say that within those 2 weeks, I took those client stakeholders through a journey where they embraced the product and saw how their target state business processes fit into this new technology. It took courage for me to resist well-meaning people around me who wanted to guide my hand on “how” to do my job, but I knew I had to trust myself to get the results, while resisting the temptation to please everyone around me.

 5)   Treat others like you want to be treated

We often see people posting online about how great they are with others, and how considerate they are etc., but when we get to know them up close we realize it’s not who they really are. We must understand that people we work with have feelings, hopes and aspirations, just like we do. Just like we would like to be treated with respect, they too require respect. Just like we have dreams to progress in our careers, they too would like to progress, learn and move forward. We need to walk the talk. Hence, the culture of our team or organization is defined by how we treat each other.

 6)   Learn to let go

We can’t control everything that happens in our team. Trying to make sure that everything goes right is not an excuse to micro-manage others. If we don’t trust people we work with, to do their job, it’s time we get a new team or a new attitude- more often the latter is what is required. When I get the opportunity to lead or assign work, I focus on defining the expected results and giving them the required support. Once they achieve the results, I ensure that they get the recognition for their work and are appreciated. As they say, we can’t hire smart people and tell them ‘how’ to do their jobs. When we let go of our need to control everything, we will be surprised by what our team can achieve and what we can learn from our team.

 7)   There is no ‘Crystal ball’

We can’t predict all outcomes and we can’t predict how a new product or technology will look like at the end of a (let’s say) 2-year project. In a world where there is no magic crystal ball to tell us what exactly the future holds, we need to start organizing our work into achievable iterations, where our clients can see results fast and early. Being agile, helps us to think in a way that enables us to see a large chunk of work as a set of tangible blocks.

I realize some of you reading this may have more wisdom to impart than what I have shared in this article, and being a person with an Agile mindset (which is a work in progress by the way) , I fully accept I don’t know a lot of things and I will continue to learn more as I progress in my journey.

Author-- Rejo Mathews, Senior Consultant / Agile Coach / PeX Leader / OCM Lead, IBM Canada

Contact- [email protected] or [email protected]