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Can Agile Make Wherever You Work A Better Place?
A brief overview of agile
A nice way to start understanding the concept of agile and how it differs from bureaucracy is to watch this short fun videothat my colleague Steve Denning put together from 2011. Essentially, agile is about removing the typical bureaucratic procedures that are used to control people. Instead, what you’re trying to create is what entrepreneur Michael Sikorsky calls a “permissionless” structure.
What can you do from wherever you are? Darrell Rigby, co-author of “Doing Agile Right,” describes what he did personally to bring the concepts in the manifesto to life, as follows: 1
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Work in ways that make humans happy and successful. When I feel stressed, I will express sincere appreciation for the work of at least one person. Break large tasks into small steps and test solutions with working models. When challenged by an opinion different from mine, I will ask, “How could we test that?”
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Simplify and sequence activities to focus on the most valuable customer benefits. When asked to do work with little or no value to customers, I will explain what I need to do instead. Welcome and celebrate learning. When my predictions or opinions are wrong, I will laugh about them with others and change course.
Rigby’s recommendation that you can begin to bring Agile to life in a bottom-up way has big implications for tackling phenomena like burnout. The five main drivers are: 1
Excessive workload
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A lack of control over one’s work
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Poor relationships
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A lack of fairness
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A mismatch between the organization’s values and our own.
Back to burnout
Remember
Agile has a potential role to play in addressing all of these sources of burnout. Much of the excessive workload in traditional organizations consists of coordination and communication. By using technology and short cycles to manage work, the non-value added work can be reduced and people can use their talents for what they are truly motivated to work on. Agile by definition gives control of the work to the team, reducing the stress that comes from having no sense of agency. Rewards and recognition happen within the team, but are also supported because the Agile process produces results in short bursts, a natural way of creating the conditions for regular feedback. Better relationships and a sense of fairness are both encouraged by the transparency of the Agile process. And any values mismatches can be rooted out fairly quickly as the teams do their work.
Agile and Discovery Driven Growth go hand in hand. Now available, a Short Online Course that brings it to life Visit learninghub.valize.com to find out more
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