Responding to Change over Following a Plan

This 4th core agile value is something I am sure we all have been experiencing for the past several months. We all entered March with lots of plans for the rest of the year, both on a personal and professional level. Towards the end of the month many of us still held on to the plans thinking this situation will end soon. Slowly we all have figured that it was going to take time and following a plan does not work and we all need to respond to the change.

Responding to Change over Following a Plan

It does not mean plans are unimportant, they always serve as a map of where we want to go. But relying just on that in a VUCA world will not work. VUCA stands for Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous. This is how we describe our world in Modern Management today. So what should we do...?

We should be capable to respond to changes. In situations like these even a plan B or plan C would not have worked as we would have never thought of such an eventuality. It is rather difficult to prepare, though we all knew something like this could happen, but its severity and the complex impacts it has on lives and economy would have been overlooked.

Let me take you through my personal story during this time of change. Last August I was out of my Full Time Job and instead of jumping into another one I decided to take some time to explore some new found opportunities in Media, Education and Movies.. I had luckily got a start in all three areas and they were always very close to my heart.

I created a plan and started following it. Small steps... one at a time. I attended an international Media conference that I was invited to, Made my first Stand up appearance and then made a trip to India as an invitee to attend the second largest Literary festival in India. All going good...

I spend 45 days meeting people and visiting schools and colleges and speaking at various events. Just to give you a background. Even last August I still had what we call stage fright, unable to speak to a live audience (this is one reason I mostly did videos). But by Jan this year I had covered 35 events as main speaker. Thanks to taking that plunge last year...

February returning to the United States this was the plan I had in front of me. The trip was very well received and I was all set to start a series of events and engagements and two potential movie projects in discussion and a book release planned for May when I will go again to India. And then comes Covid-19. What choice do we have? but stay at home...

Pivot. One very important thing is the ability to pivot, take the plan and without guilt be ready to Pivot. Get back to the drawing board, ask the tough questions... It is not easy, and it is painful, the road ahead looks so long... But slowly little rays of light get in through which you can see possibilities.

"How do I generate value during a change" was the main question in front of me.

When we look outside the plan we start seeing opportunities. Consulting, Coaching, Training.. Value that you can generate. I decided to set up an online learning platform during this time and that is exactly what happened. Fast forward a few months, we now have an LMS that has both Free and Paid Courses and over 1600 registered users. Not big, but taking into consideration the total shredding of old plans, this was ok.

The point I wish to make is we need plans, but there are limitations to what plans can do, it cannot evolve for a change without you being ready to respond. When we follow short iterative cycles with proper planning and reviews and preserving options, it helps you respond to change better.

Preserving Options is key because that enables us to pivot, change and charge back into action. But from where I was in February, I am still not out of the woods, but today I do have a different outlook of the future ahead than what I probably had a year back. The world has changed a lot and so have we. New skills to both survive and thrive is still being learned. And with it lot of things are being unlearned as well.

My personal recommendation is to embrace all the limitations that this change has forced upon us and at the same time open our minds to the possibilities. It is not easy, but only we can make a difference.

This week let us all do two things. One list all the potential changes we see coming (and have come) and against each write down how we might respond. Next list all the opportunities ahead of us and against each write the new skills we need.

Reading: This week it was John Kotter's ever relevant insightful book "Leading Change" as he takes us through the various steps involved in leading change within organizations. A must read for all Agile Transformation Professionals.

Podcast: My intention was to make a Podcast based on John Kotter's book but I saw this amazing Documentary on Netflix called 'My Octopus Teacher' and I had to make a small unprepared random episode on my reaction to it. A must watch Documentary.

Videos: There were two that I think makes sense mentioning here. One was a content creator's view of the documentary Social Dilemma

The other one is on Agile Thinking... stressing the need for 'Agile Thinking' to be considered next to 'Critical Thinking' and should be even taught to teens

Be Content; Be Penpositive....