Grow and practice an agile mindset by exploring these topics
This is an article for those looking to build a clear picture and a firm narrative of what an agile mindset is, and the practices that embody it. It’s by no means comprehensively exhaustive, but it should help map out a few steps for a learning journey that will take you far beyond agile as seen through a framework of roles, events, and artefacts.
In his 2019 article “a new perspective on the Agile Competency Framework”, Jonathan Kessel-Fell further refines the Agile-Lean competency so that it also includes mindset & behaviours, and people & influence. We need to be exemplars of an agile mindset, and we need to energise people in the way that we present these ideas.
What is an Agile mindset?
My preferred way has long been to define an agile mindset as:
“Described by four values, defined by 12 principles, and manifested through unlimited practices” – ICAgile
In his new book Change.: A practitioners guide to Enterprise Agile Coaching, Simon Powers asserts that in the dark old days an agile mindset could only be described through reference to the iconic and grammatically challenged green master.
Do or do not. There is no try. – Yoda
Simon helps us better define what an Agile mindset is through three beliefs: the complexity belief; the people belief; and the pro activity belief.
Here are five areas you can explore to build familiarity with to better understand these beliefs. Confidence with these will help you build stronger connections with others around articulating what it is to embody an agile mindset.
The Complexity belief
This is the belief that many of our problems are complex, that in tackling the problem we change the nature of the problem itself. Where there is complexity, the relationship between cause and effect cannot be known up front.
The Cynefin framework for sense and decision making is the go to for exploring these concepts. There are many good articles on Medium to explore Cynefin and find good illustrative examples.
The conclusion to working within the complex domain is that experimentation is needed to navigate complexity.
The People belief
This is the belief that with purpose and the right environment trust and self organisation can arise.
The sense and decision making patterns from Sociocracy 3.0 provide methods for approaching complex problems. The patterns for enablers of co-creation and peer development would be good next areas to explore.
The principle of equivalence, that people affected by a decision should be involved in co-creating a solution, can feel mind boggling and overwhelming when thinking in the context of large networks of interdependent teams. Liberating Structures provides many methods for facilitating large groups.
Open Space Technology provides a structure for liberating inherent action and leadership in groups of any size. Wise Crowds provides a structure for tapping into the wisdom of large groups in rapid feedback loops. Conversation Cafe is a structure for engaging everyone in making sense of profound challenges. There are plenty of resources and ideas out there in the wild around virtual liberating structures.
These Core Protocols will help you build facilitation skills that support psychological safety as groups of people co-create their experiments.
The Proactivity Belief
This is the belief that will likely resonate most strongly with anyone coming from a Lean background. One of the four foundational principles for Kansan is to agree to pursue incremental, evolutionary change.
We must be proactive in the relentless pursuit of perfection. Note, relentless over continuous.
There are an unlimited number of practices in this domain. Here are 7 tools and techniques from the Lean body of knowledge. These help explore the current reality – starting where we are at, not where we want to be.
Once the current reality is known, experiments can be crafted. Hypothesis driven development is a useful approach to design an experiment.
The Virtual Agile Coach provides a engaging canvas that could spark good inspiration for facilitating experiment design with groups of people.
I hope that this has been a useful spring board for anyone looking to explore what it is to really have agile mindset, and ways we can help grow it within the areas that we work. Would you add anything, remove anything, or any advice for others in their learning journey?
