Project 52: Week 6 (1/1/24)

Our reflection and invitation ...

To "hold change" or "hold space" is to hold both people in and the dynamic energy of, a room, a space, a meeting, and organization, a movement.

To hold change is to make it easy for people with shared intentions to be around each other and move towards their vision and values (facilitate), and/or to navigate conflict in a way that is generative and accountable (mediate).

~ adrienne maree brown, Holding Change (opening, page 7)

"We tend to want to see the others through our own eyes. The path to understand is to see others the way they see themselves, not the way we want to see them."

~ as quoted in Just Hospitality, God's Welcome in World of Difference; Letty M. Russell, Edited by J. Shannon Clarkson and Kate M. Ort

"With one voice let us sing today; In unison both praise and pray

~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together, A discussion of Christian Fellowship

Welcome to Career Accompaniment: Week 6

Agile planning

What do we mean by Agile Planning?

Agile planning is not an exclusive term … and … what we mean by the phrase is a joined-up planning approach that works on three interconnected levels.

• Level 1 holds our “big picture” goals - inspirational, long-term, not usually time-bound, and not necessarily quantified or assessed.
• Level 2 holds our medium-term goals - things we can achieve in, say, three months with quantified measures of success.? Each Level 2 is directly linked to a Level 1
• Level 3 holds our immediate goals - the value we can deliver in the next 1-2 (4 max) weeks. Each Level 3 goal is directly linked to a Level 2, and hence to Level 1

Agile planning can be instrumental in developing and delivering both personal career development journeys and personal learning journeys.

Why is this valuable?

• Virtually everything we do under an Agile Plan can be directly linked to a big, long-term goal
• We can commit to measurable results every three months (or so) in all our major goal areas
• We can deliver value daily, every week - directly connected to long-term intent and medium-term goals.
• Everything is visibly and transparently connected and joined up, top to bottom
• We are flexible, and we learn: we reset short-term goals every 1-2 weeks and our medium-term goals every quarter, respectively. If they evolve, we can also reset big-picture goals annually or on longer cycles.

Why is this Agile?

• We deliver measurable value every day, every week, every quarter
• We are constantly learning, inspecting, and adapting the plan
• We create an excellent context for inspiring, motivating work for ourselves and the teams we are part of

What makes a good Level 1 goal? - Inspiration

Level 1 inspirations are clear statements of our “big picture” intent - often drawn from our sense of personal inspiration

• Concise - we invite people to use five lines or less (shorter can be better)
• Compelling - capturing our sense of urgency and importance
• Big Picture - focus on the big idea. Include detailed targets only if they are essential
• Accessible - using simple language in your “native language” - literally or figuratively
• Value-creating - expresses the value we want to create for ourselves, stakeholders
• Visible - we invite people to put L1’s where they can be seen and “touched.”On or above a workboard if we use one (physical or digital)Other conspicuous places for relevant teams - post-its, desktops, wallboards, mirrors, dressing tables…..

What makes a good Level 2? - Workstreams and medium-term goals

Level 2 crystallizes medium-term goals that deliver significant value for you

• For each Level 1, what major work streams must be done to deliver value?
• Major chunks of valuable work we want to deliver over, say, three months
• Workstreams that are persistent may be thought of as Level 2 workstreams
• Workstreams may give rise to concrete goals each quarter
• Many people - and teams - plan quarterly to set L2 goals and packages of value
• We can review and revise the results quarterly

What makes a good Level 3? - Delivering results in small steps - today

Level 3 breaks Level 2 down into values we can deliver in the next few days or weeks

• For each L2, what are valuable L3’s we can do in the next few days or few weeks?
• Make sure each L3 delivers real value (even small) to yourself or others
• Make sure an L3 can be completed in a few days or less
• Be clear and record the success criteria of each L3: how do we know it’s “done”?
• Make sure that in one 2(+)-week cycle we can reasonably deliver the L3’s we plan
• Make L3’s visible and linked to L2’s: using your favorite tools in your way
• As we work on and complete our L3’s, we create a way to move them visibly….
• From “To Do” to “In Progress” to “Done”.
• Technology can help with this
• As we think of them, new L3’s can be stored for the future in a “backlog.”

Agile planning - so what?

Agile planning helps us deliver what we want to achieve - in small steps.

We keep focus on the big things - and also see progress every day

Agile planning helps us learn fast from experience, change quickly, and ultimately lead and drive change

Agile planning keeps work manageable and sustainable - we constantly work on stuff that matters but on a manageable scale

Agile planning - now what? Lived examples, running the system

Gerald Doyle can help you create experimental models of Agile Planning in practice.

Running the system involves working in (roughly) quarterly and shorter cycles, usually 1-2 weeks.

Technology helps to create, maintain, and use an Agile plan. Simple and more complex tools are available, starting from common basic document types like text processors and spreadsheets. Gerald can help you select tools and run lightweight, simple experiments in Agile planning.

Please be invited to Week 6 of our year-long series of installments, introducing our framework perspective Tri Cosain, Irish Gaelic for three pathways: inspiration, learning, and career.

We are pleased to accompany you on this journey.

Monday, 1 January 2024

Gerald Doyle,

P.S. Click here to read Project 52: Week 5

Tri Cosain materials are developed with my colleague and friend of 40+ years, Scott Downs.

Copyright Scott Downs and Gerald Doyle, 2023

Residing in Chicago, Gerald Doyle provides ministry placement research and consulting for Career Services at the Catholic Theological Union and career services and coaching to students, families, and community members at Wolcott College Preparatory High School. He advises several edtech companies, including Upkey and GetSet Learning; he has also joined TSI - Transforming Solutions, Inc. in their Higher Education and Career Services practice.

Scott? Downs, a former investment banker, management consultant, and entrepreneur, now works as an Agile coach, seeking to call forward great leaders and great organizations based on great cultures. He is a consultant with Expleo Group and is an associate of the TrustTemenos Leadership Academy.

Scott and Gerald are co-founders of Tri Cosain, a practice that weaves inspiration, learning, and career for leadership in life and work. Gerald and Scott co-authored 9 Questions for Leadership in Life and Work, Conversations of Inquiry, and several other volumes in the Tri Cosain series. Their work embraces equity, inclusion, diversity, and well-being as foundations for personal leadership.