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!

Agile Manifesto

http://agilemanifesto.org

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.