Put on the Captain’s Resilience Hat
We ponder about the approach to reach the shores. Performance impact of any organization, be it small, medium, large, or mega, depends a lot on the team members, the managers, vendors, suppliers, sponsors, and many more.
To hone the seven agilities to an optimum level, we feel that the winds that bring you to the safe shores are the qualities of:
- listening,
- promoting group thinking,
- hearing without interruption,
- being aware of one’s surroundings,
- environment on the first level.
As part of our research, we have come across many similarities of our inference with many industries. One such is the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics article2 “Agile Development Methods for Space Operations.” Their conclusion is that Agile has more benefits over traditional methods since the process is iterative, continuous, and integrated. The result is a more productive and effective team and product.
As a Proof of concept (PoC) of the model, Marguerita Cheng, CEO of Blue Ocean Global Wealth, Washington, D.C., USA, says: Bringing It All Together to reach the Personal Agility Lighthouse (PALH™) safely: “There is a confluence of factors that prompt the need to be agile (pause and pivot) to stay relevant. All of these macro trends mean that our profession has to be agile and think of different ways to deliver advice. Financial planning is about controlling spending, managing credit, reducing taxes, increasing savings, protecting family and assets, and building wealth for the future. This process entails gathering financial information, establishing life goals, evaluating a client’s current financial status, and developing a strategy to help them achieve their life goals. An exceptional financial advisor is a master of the seven pillars of PALH™ model who can readily identify his or her clients’ needs and provide them with exceptional service and advice that takes into account a rapidly changing financial landscape.”
To read more about Marguerita Cheng’s article, please visit http://agilitydiscoveries.com/articles/ or https://www.iris.xyz/contributor/raji-
and-michal
Personal Agility happens at the leadership level as well as at the individual level. It is all about mindsets and attitudes of leaders mostly. Although it is easy to understand, it is very difficult to implement and master. Personal Agility always works at some level. This level can be tested and checked against one’s ability through the PALH™ Index, a reflection and contemplation valuation tool where leaders and individuals can learn more about himself/herself. There is very slim chance of it not working. However, not every project in an organization gets done the same way. There is also the unexpected. Individuals react in different ways for different storms that hit them unanticipated. This model works when:
- The more agile and lean the environment is, the easier it is to use the model.
- The model itself will improve the agility environment anyway.
Application of Personal Agility to the Agile World
Personal Agility naturally applies to the agile world and to an agile organization. This is a perfect fit where people and the personal agility flavors are consistent with the agile culture.
Build your backbone culture with
Personal Agility!
Leaders who strive for excellence and high levels of project performance are able to achieve better outcomes by following the Agile Manifesto values and the seven agilities. These need to be propagated throughout the whole organization and not be confined only to the delivery streams. Executives and teams can build an agile culture. Progress can be measured by using the seven agilities as well as the PALH™ Index, a self-analysis (see Appendix) tool to gauge and hone the weaker which are below par flavors of an individual. Such organizations are able to achieve a high agility stage where project performance drives value and tremendous outcomes.
Figure 11 below is our explanation and adaptation of project performance indicators taken from a white paper about organizational agility from the Project Management Institute.3 It shows how success is impacted by a high agility stage. The average percentage of projects completed on time, on budget, achieving business objectives and forecasted Return on Investment (ROI) is significantly greater in organizations reporting high agility than those reporting low agility.
Figure 11
Application of the Personal Agility to the
Waterfall World
Personal Agility does not normally apply in the waterfall world. People who are guided by the seven agilities can feel some frictions when experiencing the waterfall culture. There are two choices then. Either they will move to another organization or they will change the organization they are in now. Many times, these people and leaders who have a high PALH™ Index (see Appendix) lead the transformation of organizations toward agility. When the level of frictions becomes too high they start looking for opportunities outside of the company. It is very important in every organization to recognize the team members who have such a mindset and high PALH™ Index (see Appendix). Executives who aim for high agility can follow the PALH™ model and apply it at an individual level in order to prepare future leaders who will transform the organization into the agile world.
Our Perspective:
We can see a lot of organizations where product/project teams are agile and upper management
is waterfall.
We have never seen an organization where upper management is agile and product/project teams are waterfall.
Personal Agility helps to make upper
management and product/project
teams agile.
Therefore, the inference and deduction that we have landed upon is that the Personal Agility works better in the agile world as individual’s values and the organization’s culture lead to high levels of project performance. At the same time waterfall organizations can be treated as a challenge for individuals who achieved a high level of PALH™ Index (see Appendix). These people usually become leaders who are responsible for game-changing transformations. Individuals with a high Index in the agile world are able to deliver maximum project performance. Individuals with a high Index in the waterfall world can either drive an organization toward high project performance and have the opportunity to create a new culture or they naturally move to organizations that are already in the agile world. From our perspective and research, it is very uncommon to be in the middle.
The most important and noteworthy item for healthy organizations is to recognize, adapt, and adopt the Index, measure it and apply to any project, program, or portfolio in their organization. This would bring out the optimum results in our opinion. Summing up and reaching the shore with the seven agilities guiding the light with the navigational aid of the Index, the higher the level of the Index, the higher the level of project performance that can be achieved.
On a second level, focus and thinking outside the box automatically bring forth self-worth and compassion for others. To arrive ashore smoothly we take the four values from the Agile Manifesto and look at them though the seven agilities binoculars. The agilities that show their guiding light to the safe shores are:
- Individuals and Interactions Over Processes and Tools
The agilities that would fit this statement are Political Agility and Emotional Agility. If processes and tools are seen as the way to manage product development and everything associated with it, people and the way they approach the work must conform to the processes and tools.4 If an individual is permitted to contribute their own exclusive values to a project, the results turn out to be invariably quite potent. This then is an agile environment, which is human-centric and quite readily explosive as with any situation where people are in the right, left, and everywhere. Therefore, even though valuing processes and tools have benefits, civil communications and behavior, where no politics and emotions run high, realize greater benefits for a project if you value individuals and interactions highly. - Working Software Over Comprehensive Documentation
For this value, we feel that Learning Agility and Cerebral Agility fit in perfectly. In a Journal of Software Engineering Research and Development article relating to this value of the agile manifesto, the authors say, “agile teams impose governance on their own activities”5 for this agile manifesto value. This most certainly means that no matter how much of documentation one has, when there is a crisis situation, one has to be bold enough to say “I don’t know” (learning agility). Going beyond the documentation to come up with a ready and apt solution (cerebral agility) to make things work the way it is intended to be; will save the day. - Customer Collaboration Over Contract Negotiation
Education Agility seems to weave right into this value. This is a true reflection of the sentence in the summary of the paper titled “The Relationship between Customer Collaboration and Software Project Overruns.” The main finding was that good collaboration with customers, facilitated by frequent communication, was associated with projects that experienced a lesser magnitude of effort overruns.6 In essence what this means is that education agility in our model refers to empathy applied directly to the understanding and comprehending of the customer’s thought process, and further needs. The real value in being empathetic and honing one’s education agility is to make sure that the customers’ mindset is what the collaboration should be directed toward. Once the inner wants of the customer are securely captured, contracts can then be negotiated congenially for which one needs to educate oneself to find these nuances through the workings of the customer. - Responding to Change Over Following a Plan
Change Agility and Outcomes Agility are where we find this value to be intertwining. In an article written by Cecil Williams and David Kessler, August 19, 2013, “No amount of thinking can replace hands-on experience with the real system”7 is a true testimony to this value. For the outcome of any endeavor to be at its peak, the real problems and changes happen during the execution. As such when one follows the plan in its entirety and not use change agility in the execution, there is bound to be rework, re-budgeting, and much more as injection of changes is inevitable in any space. Therefore, honing the outcomes agility to its desired height, the fourth agile manifesto value is of paramount significance.
To wrap it up from the individual to the corporate journey standpoint, as Figure 12 on the next page shows the cruise from Personal Agility to Organizational Agility,8 the seven agilities serve as the lighthouse to reach the peak of the project performance for any entity.
Figure 12
Personal Agility cannot be considered as a homeless island. It must be treated as a quintessential ingredient that should be supported by business domain skills and experiences. It should also not be confined to select teams, departments, verticals, or team members only. To improve organizational performance further it is advisable that all stakeholders master Personal Agility. Introspection is one way to conduct continuous self-improvement. This means asking oneself, what am I doing now and where is the path to improve myself. Once a path is found, retrospection follows to decide what to do next. The transformation of oneself geared toward the organization is profound when the introspection/retrospection circle is complete.
Analogies of the PALH™ model can be drawn from far, wide, and multidimensional spaces. To vet the appetite of the readers of this book, let’s take a peek at the eight practices of enlightenment in Buddhism. The 8-fold factors of Buddha9 have great applications to all of the seven agilities in our model. Talking about who our model benefits, it is for those who want to make a better organization be more successful just as these factors portray. To extrapolate a few of the 8-fold factors:
Right View. The right way to think about life is to see the world through the eyes of wisdom and compassion is what Buddha says. Change Agility in our minds is exactly that—to change per the situation and be wise and compassionate as you ride the change.
Right Thought. We are what we think. Clear and kind thoughts build good, strong characters, says Buddha. Cerebral Agility in our model is to think clearly even at a moment of dire stress or pressure.
Right Conduct. No matter what we say, others know us from the way we behave. Before we criticize others, we should first see what we do ourselves. Political Agility is right on target here where we do an introspection to hone this agility.
Right Effort. A worthwhile life means doing our best at all times. This is Education agility in our model which is to keep one’s acumen sharp to do the best in all kinds of scenarios. This hold true even when one has to put on the shoes of another to pick up the pace of the work to make a bad situation end successfully.
Right Mindfulness. This means being aware of our thoughts, words, and deeds. Emotional Agility in our model is what is portrayed here, where all of these come into play. This needs innovative handling to avoid collision and destruction of the organization as well as the employees.
Right Concentration. Focus on one thought or object at a time. Learning and being focused on the right mindset to want to learn more and to acknowledge that one does not know everything is synonymous to Learning Agility in our model.
All of the above brings forth Outcomes Agility in any organization no matter what the industry is or in which arena or space or geography!