Agile Principles for Business & Technology Leaders

Managing Chaos and Complexity

I was first introduced to "Agile" several years ago as a Product leader amidst a fast paced technology organization. My exposure and subsequent apprenticeship culminated with leading +20 folks across 3 product and technology teams. I loved helping organize the chaos and complexity and found Agile (inclusive of Lean & Srcum) to be helpful in doing so.

After three years I thought I had mastered the practice. Little did I know I hadn't even grasped the underlying Principles. 

A deeper appreciation for Agile principles

Those Principles landed in a lightning bolt epiphany while recently reading Jeff Booth's book, The Price of Tomorrow (one of my 2019 book highlights: https://www.amazon.ca/Price-Tomorrow-Deflation-Abundant-Future/dp/1999257405). In the book Jeff talks about the concept of "error correction" and compares our ability as humans versus machines to execute this task. It was in that moment that I connected several subconscious dots that helped me further articulate the value of Agile mindsets and cultures.

Agile as a framework for error correction

1. "Agile" is the iterative and incremental development, testing and measurement of hypotheses to create and quantify value.
2. Hypotheses are inherently based in assumptions and are therefore rife with speculation of what may not be true in the future.
3. Hypothesis development by nature, therefore, incurs and exposes us to risk (read, future errors).
4. The larger the hypothesis, in other words the greater number of unknown assumptions, the longer it takes to validate whether the hypothesis is true or not.
5. The longer it takes for validation, the greater the risk of travelling significant distances off-course.
6. A 2 degree deviation from the ideal course over hours or days is drastically different than that same 2 degree deviation compounded over weeks, months or years.
7. Therefore, Agile, done well, aims to decrease risk by chunking hypotheses into their smallest possible statements and tests. When we're right we have evidence to rely on to build the next small incremental iteration, when we're wrong, we are able to error correct much earlier.

As I mulled this new picture of Agile over in my mind there was a more profound insight that struck me. The process described above is straight forward and relatively simple - yet I continue to observe leader's and team's struggling to effectively implement an agile mindset, framework and culture.

Leading an Agile team or organization

My hypothesis, is that the true challenge of Agile has to do with a leader or leadership team's ability to transform the cultural norms required for this type of ethos to thrive. 

1. An Agile culture must allow for brutally honest challenge and discourse - this is the sharpening stone upon which every hypothesis must be cast.
2. An Agile culture must place more value in small incremental, directionally correct, data quantified learnings versus large scale, long term implementation plans.
3. An Agile culture must create perceived value in the concept of error-correction. This means team members must be able to set out on a course that results in failure.
4. This failure is only acceptable under the principle that the learning abstracted and re-applied to the system will be exponentially more valuable when compounded upon itself and other learnings compared to if that team member were to play within their designated safe sandbox.

Your Experience with Agile

1. What's your experience with agile, scrum and lean methodologies been?
2. What resonates from the description above, what would you add?
3. As a leader or manager what has helped you educate and shift your team's culture to an Agile mindset?