Humility: The Secret Ingredient to Modern Tech Agility
For years I’ve thought about how business and tech agility are inherently humble, and how this requires a significant rewiring of how our brains and teams work. Instead of driving towards an endless goal of perfection, what if modern teams practiced more humility? I believe when this basic quality is incorporated into both the individual and collective mindset, we can unlock greater success in professional achievements. In fact, I know it can. I’ve seen this work at Chick-fil-A.
Starting with Humility
First, let’s look at how humility is defined before connecting it to why it matters in modern business and IT. Merriam-Webster defines humility as “freedom from pride or arrogance.” Pride can also be referred to as ego. In his book Think Again, Adam Grant, an influential American author and professor says, “intellectual humility is knowing what we don’t know.” And in Ego Is the Enemy, author Ryan Holiday connects all these points by suggesting “if ego is the voice that tells us we’re better than we really are, we can say ego inhibits true success by preventing a direct and honest connection to the world around us.”
When working on a problem toward a solution, receiving negative feedback can feel unpleasant. And our ego is there to protect us from that feeling. But when a person is living in a state of humility, they approach problems with the recognition they are starting from an insufficient view of a situation. They know their opinion, history, or knowledge likely has gaps in it, which may lead to a wrong decision or outcome.
Rather than ignoring this reality, humility is the first step in finding ways to mitigate it. Being humble, in essence, is the foundation for adjusting our lives and habits to minimize the impact of being wrong…which ultimately leads to agility.
Applying an Agile Approach
Agility is the ability to adjust and adapt to changing circumstances or goals. It’s more than just a framework for business, but also a mindset and lifestyle. It’s essentially the scientific method. There’s a hypothesis, an experiment, an evaluation of the results, and acceptance or rejection based on the findings. To operate from this mindset, you must possess a level of humility to support it.
Bringing these Together
Staying humble and living with agility isn’t always a widely accepted path in business. There can be perceived negative consequences, such as wasted resources, increased processing time, or a reputation for being inefficient. But consider this story I read from Kim Scott’s book Radical Candor where she reflects on an interaction about Steve Jobs.
Scott was having a conversation with another influential leader, Andy Grove, where Grove made the comment “Steve always gets it right.” To which Scott replied, “nobody is always right.” Grove responded by saying “I didn’t say Steve is always right. I said he always gets it right.”
Do you want to be the kind of person who is always trying to be right? Or the person who always gets it right? The person who is humble enough to admit a mistake can make a miscalculation or a misjudgment, because in the end, they are more likely to get it right. Their agility allows them to accept feedback and suggestions, then adjust or pivot. Start with humility, then lead with agility.
How Humility and Agility Factor in at Chick-fil-A
Long before modern product management or agile mythology existed, Chick-Fil-A incorporated humility and agility. The Chick-fil-A culture has humility embedded in its foundation, which has led to many incredible accomplishments in the industry.
No better example of this can be found than in Truett Cathy’s own book Eat Mor Chikin: Inspire More People, where he tells the story of rebuilding the restaurant that burned down in the 1960’s. Truett took all the latest and greatest technologies of the day to rebuild the restaurant, and after it was completed, customers hated it. This would have been an obviously painful, and even humiliating experience. But because Truett cared more about getting it right than being right, he chose to sell the new restaurant to Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) and turn his focus to perfecting the menu, ultimately creating the chicken sandwich that is loved by so many today. That’s humble. That’s agile. That’s Chick-fil-A.
