HOW TO BUILD AN AGILE MINDSET

“Failure is not fatal, but failure to change might be.”?John Wooden

Agile practices have taken over the technology industry and are rapidly picking up in other non tech industries ranging from manufacturing, health care and other service provision industries.?

The world has become fast paced, complex and uncertain and businesses can no longer justify investments and projects of long durations, sequential plans with strict change controls with big bang outcomes.?

Continuous, periodic outcomes — through tangible business benefits or improved end-user experience or availability of working solution — are often seen as the better criteria for measuring progress and driving value for businesses.?

This essence is what has made Agile popular. The success of Agile practices begins with the adoption of an Agile Mindset.

The Agile mindset (so, what is an agile mindset)

Agile is talked and used a lot easily attributed to flexibility, but then what having an Agile Mindset means is often not as clear. When dissecting this further, we refer to the Oxford dictionary definition of Mindset as,?‘an established set of attitudes regarded as typical of a particular group’s social or cultural values; the outlook, philosophy, or values of a person, frame of mind, attitude, disposition”.?

This understanding helps illustrates the different dimensions of mindset. We refer to an?Agile Mindset as a set of attitudes and beliefs that support working in an Agile environment.?Think of the Agile mindset as a way of thinking and a way of doing things.?

In an Agile webinar hosted by?HEBO CONSULT, the Agile enthusiasts dissected the Agile mindset to encompass three elements.

1.Way of thinking?– attributed to a set beliefs, principles and way of thinking

2.?Responding to change?— in uncertain and turbulent environment.?

3. Cultural adoption?– That you implement in order to adapt to norms. When you want to truly implement agile, it has to be a part of your organizations culture

In business, teams that have an Agile mindset focus on Innovating and delivering steadily, more customer value, getting work done in small, self -organizing teams that work together collaboratively with interactive network. Further, organizations that are Agile have shown the capacity to adapt quickly in a shifting marketplace.

The Agile values and principles

The four values of the Agile Manifesto are the foundation of an agile mindset. These values continue to serve as common ground for agile practitioners

We have broken down further these 4 Agile values and 12 principles in the video below

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