Hacking for Agile Change

The Tao of Coaching by

Esther Derby, Agile coach and consultant,

Make it a safe environment to experiment and try again, by sending a clear message that mistakes are valuable lessons.

When an organisation wants to become more agile, they look for ways to be responsive to external forces, be adaptive, deliver services and products to customers faster, think outside the box, and eliminate waste to improve effectiveness. To help them achieve this, they have recruited coaches and project managers who have experience in Agile software and product development. These projects using Agile practices alone will not make the organisation agile, as that also requires people with the right mindset and behaviours. Agile (yes, big A) project approaches will help, but will not achieve this alone.

The difficulty lies not in new ideas, but from escaping old ones.’
John Maynard Keynes

the focus is on the people side of change.

Understanding the ‘future of work’ helps us prepare ourselves with ‘future-ready’ capabilities and thinking.

to be agile is a mindset AND a skill set.

. Agile behaviours - how you ACT
Agile behaviours, at team or individual level, can be broadly described as behaviours that rely on collaboration, transparency, honesty, willingness to work outside the team or individual’s area of expertise, and where the team or individual is adaptable and open to feedback so they can continuously improve their practices.

mindset - how you THINK
Throughout the book, there will be numerous references to agile and lean practices, but it’s not exclusively about agile project application. Being truly agile starts with an agility in mindset. Such a mindset is open to learning and trying new things, is comfortable with uncertainty, is intensely curious, dares to experiment and is not frightened to fail.