scaling and sustaining agility
TRANSCRIPT
Scaling and Sustaining “Agility”Tathagat VarmaKnowledgepreneurhttp://thoughtleadership.in
What is agility?The ability of a “body” to
• anticipate potential issues and avoid or mitigate them as required,
• sense, analyse and comprehend unexpected situations as they unfold,
• respond quickly and gracefully to unplanned changes,
• exploit unexpected opportunities before they dry up, and
• initiate potential game-changing ideas well-ahead of the market.
What is NOT agility?framework! process! method! tool!
So, what fosters agility?
Individual level
Growth mindset
Deep mastery
Self discipline
Deep passion
Continuous learning
Team level
Clear-cut goals
Team chemistry
Meaningful autonomy
Frequent feedback
Self organisation
Social fun
Organisation level
Sense of purpose
Radical transparency
Open communication
“Safe to fail” experiments
Reject groupthink
Conducive environment
Involved leadership
Strong culture
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/225064362_Kenyan_and_Ethiopian_Distance_Runners_What_Makes_Them_So_Good
How to scale agility?
Business alignment
Product vision
Clear goals
Scalable teams
Work agreements
Defined processes
Standard tools
Interim milestones
Quantifiable progress
Demonstrable “product”
Customer feedback
Actionable learnings
Closing the loop
Recap• Agility is an outcome, not an ingredient or a
recipe! Most importantly, achieving agility requires investing in people.
• Scaling agility entails overheads of process, methods and tools. However, if the underlying teams haven’t learnt to be agile at unit level, scaling them will only lead to more chaos!
• Sustaining agility requires nurturing a culture of transparency, autonomy, collaboration, experimental learning and business alignment.