Ducks in a Row: Agility and You
by Miki Saxon
I am not a lover of trendy terms, no matter how hilarious Dilbert makes them, and I’ve found they turn off a lot of people — from workers to bosses.
One of the newest to hit the trendy list is “agile” in all its various forms.
What became trendy agile was born 15 years ago.
The term originated in the Manifesto for Agile Software Development in 2001. It was a specific approach in a specific sector, but soon its core principles – moving quickly to build a minimum viable product, using iterative development to improve it on the go, with testing and feedback built in at every stage rather than just at the end.
Just how ubiquitous has agile become? It was used by Walmart CEO Doug McMillon last fall in a memo to employees to describe the future (and justify layoffs).
“Our customers are changing. Retail is changing and we must change,” McMillon wrote in the memo obtained by The Associated Press. “We need to become a more agile company that can easily adapt to shifting customer demand.”
Many companies talk about becoming agile and a large number of them think a quick and easy means to that end is to lay off the older and bring in the younger.
They couldn’t me more wrong. It’s not age that makes one agile, Salesforce CEO Mark Benioff isn’t young, it’s MAP.
Your MAP is responsible for how you lead, as well as the values that underpin your company’s culture.
If your MAP isn’t agile, or willing to change to become so, there is little hope that your company (or department or team) will be agile.
Hat tip to Wally Bock for pointing me to this article.
Flickr image credit: Martin Pool
