Five ways in which Agile mindset can help organizations to not only survive but thrive

As the world struggles to deal with the highly volatile and uncertain circumstances presented by Covid-19 pandemic, it makes the case for adopting agile mindset stronger than ever before.

Agile values, principles and mindset shines when it comes to solving problems in the complex domain that has unknown unknowns such as dealing with the pandemic. We see the world embracing the agile values of Transparency, Inspection and Adaptation, Focus, Respect and Collaboration as they respond to this unprecedented situation. Imbibing this mindset is helping the world today and would help organizations as well to survive and thrive tomorrow.

Transparency

Transparency in these times is critical. The fact that Heads of nations and states are conversing often with citizens, CxO executives are reaching out often to employees, relevant data is published officially daily to alert people speaks volumes about the efforts made to bring in transparency and it helps to check false information flow and keep the morale up.

Transparency in agile world means significant aspects of the process must be visible to those responsible for the outcome to share a common understanding. All stakeholders whether internal or external appreciate transparency. Employees welcome transparency in their work, in things to come, so keep those townhalls and information sharing going. Customers benefit from transparency in terms of the knowing and giving feedback about the progress made. Iteration reviews, daily standups and information radiators that radiate information that matters go a long way in building trust through transparency.

Inspect & Adapt

The response given by the world for the pandemic such as implementing time-boxed measures such as lockdown, quarantine and reviewing it periodically, learning from it and deciding next steps is iterative and incremental. Learning from experience and adjusting the response is the new normal as we see people working from home for business continuity, schools conducting online classes, and people discovering new ways of staying fit and sane while at home.

Scrum frequently inspects the progress toward a goal and the process, or the product is adjusted. Solving any complex problem (such as software development), it’s extremely important to give and receive feedback as iterative and incremental way of working helps value maximization. Extending the same concept to scale, experimenting with initiatives, learning from it and then expanding it to reach a larger scale.

Focus

Everyone is focused on wellness of people and business continuity by making it their topmost priority. Everything else took a second place, taking clear decisions on people over money etc.

Focus is an important aspect in scrum where everyone focuses on the work of the Sprint and the goals of the Scrum Team. When organizations and teams focus on a few most important initiatives, it brings in a lot of energy and quality into outcomes. Especially the leaders as well as business stakeholders can imbibe this mindset to ruthlessly prioritize the most valuable items rather than calling everything as urgent and important.

Respect

While staying back at home, a lot of us have renewed respect for the team that makes our lives easy as absence of their help amplifies their contribution in one’s eyes when one picks up additional responsibilities. People are also taking out time and special efforts globally to show respect to the pandemic warriors in personal and professional lives. The realization that a plethora of people bring the required skills and material to the table to make our lives meaningful would go a long way in making the world a bit more humane.

Scrum Team members respect each other to be capable, independent people, respecting individuals’ opinions and contributions. In organizations Diversity is a reality today, however inclusiveness still remains a choice, and today, as organizations choose to be inclusive, they grow and transform. Respect is an important ingredient to inclusiveness. Respect for the diverse people that work together as a team and bringing in empathy to accommodate differences in gender, geography, age, skills and so on will lead to real meaningful business outcomes.

Collaboration

Today’s times have seen an extra ordinary collaboration across boundaries. Cross Functional Teams coming to life, where everyone from community bringing different skills be it celebrities, influencers, expertise on economy or health, political leaders, enterprises with their community outreach is helping to fight this common enemy of the world.

Collaboration within the team and with stakeholders is maximized through scrum events. Collaboration is at the heart of ways of working needed today. In the uncertain scenarios that we face today, it’s natural to bring forces together from multiple places, without assuming that a single person will have all the answers. Working towards self-organizing teams that are empowered and feel safe to bring all perspectives regarding the solution to the table is the key towards achieving the outcomes. Collaboration with the ecosystem, be it vendors, partners, customers, employees or stakeholders is the need of the hour.

Organizations that embrace this mindset of being transparent, inspecting and adapting, keeping focus on the right things, respecting everyone’s opinions to be inclusive, and collaborating will survive this situation at hand as well as prepare to thrive in the coming days.

Image by StartupStockPhotos from Pixabay