In the
first installment of our article series on creating an agile culture, we focused on building a foundation of core values that rested on agility. In the
second piece, we highlighted ways to ensure your culture of agility is managed and maintained in a way that is most effective for your organization. This final article will focus on making use of agile leadership to complete the transition to an agile culture.
Tip #8: Create an Agile Leadership Ethos
The world has raised the bar on what it takes to be "A-Player" with the leadership agility required.
Define an agile leadership ethos for your organization and appraise your people against it. It could
follow the same superstructure of your core-values and emphasize the leadership and management
ethos you want from your leaders and managers throughout the organization (and, not least of all, your
senior leaders and managers, who are often some of your worst offenders not living up to your core values/using excuses). Make it clear that you expect the opposite, for them to be role-model examples
of not using excuses and living up to our core-vales with additional clarity of the behaviors everyone can expect from their leaders and managers. Perhaps especially emphasize the 5 roles of everyday agile
leaders:
- Chaos-Coach (coaching your people from disorganized-chaos to organized-chaos ... if you don't
no one else will!)
- Triage-Facilitator (facilitating your people from partial-triage to full-triage ... if you don't know one else will!)
- Insight-Trainer (training your people on new VUCA'ness coming at you and having the agility
required ... if you don't know one else will!)
- Luck-Consultant (being a subject matter expert in luck helping your people experience less bad luck by accident and more good-luck by design ... if you don't know one else will!)
- Journey-Architect (being the chief architect of your journey, helping your people do the work of crisis without a crisis ... if you don't know one else will!)
Tip #9: Become Students of Agility
AGILE is the new LEAN. It will be as big and it is already here. Make sure you don't fall behind. Become a student of agility and never stop training to orient, educate and engage your whole organization to also become students of agility, so that everybody, everywhere is an agile leader every day.
Tip #10: Institutionalize Everything in 100 Places
Did I mention, institutionalize all of these ideas in 100 places! (OK, 20 or 30!)
Through the development and careful inclusion of agility in your workplace culture, your company and people will become more flexible and responsive.
Contributed by Mike Richardson of Agility Consulting
