So why Agile?

This is going to be the first post of several on what it means to be Agile, from an organization right down to an individual’s perspective. I will be open and honest, and maybe a little controversial, from years worth of helping organizations worldwide to discover and implement what it means to be ‘agile’.

So where do we start?

Well, we should probably start with a question. Why on earth would you want to be Agile?

It seems that everyone is trying to be Agile these days, from large online retailers, your favorite clothing store, even the folks who made my glasses attempted to show some Agility.

But rather than just doing ‘agile’ because all of the cool kids are doing so, and renaming your teams, guilds and squads, and the like. Maybe, just maybe it would be better to start off with a problem. What is the problem that your organization needs to solve? Take it a step further, what is it that you need to do to delight your customer? You know the person who buys and uses your product.

Framing the world around these types of problem statements allows us to understand the need for change, and once you know the need, there is a sense of urgency.

Equipped with this newfound sense of urgency, we can apply methodologies and toolsets to our work to meet the need. No longer will we hear the ‘we need to be Agile’ comments drifting through the corridors of organizations. Instead, the whole organization will be focused on doing the right thing to deliver value to our customers. You will focus less on whether your teams are using a methodology correctly, and instead, begin to focus on delivering value early and often to your customer. You will start to focus on optimizing your outcomes by focusing on the end to end and driving quality using feedback from your customers.

By focusing in on those three guiding principles, you will achieve being agile, and your journey towards improving your outcomes will contain fewer headaches.

At Value, Flow, Quality® from Emergn, we aim to educate and improve the way that people work. Forever. Our learners are using VFQ to make an impact on their careers and organizations. Find out more about what we do on our website.