Agile every day: a natural state

Last week, I took part in an internal Agile community discussion (via web-/tele-conference) in which I spoke on the topic of using Agile techniques in my daily life.  The given topic name was “How Agile are you?”  The idea being that we can draw parallels between using Agile in every day situation can inspire or motive the more effective use of Agile techniques in projects.

In preparing for the session, I focused on my own daily activities and approach, rather than how I try to shape the teams in which I participate or how things “work” in my family.  (As in, “Physician, heal thyself.”)  I found it interesting, mostly because rather than needing to search for elements of “agility”, they seemed to pop up every where I looked.  For example:

• Meetings get dynamically reprioritized, resulting in both schedule shifts, resizing, and delegations
• A task backlog has items added, recast, and undergoing shifting priorities, with some dropping due to “overcome by events”  
• Both meetings and tasks have generally evolving scope as more information emerges
• Large deliverables grow in size and scope, evolving to ‘done’ via a series of iterations
• Feedback (both provided and received) on evolving deliverables changes their direction, both gently and radically
• Frequent and effective communication (both oral and written) is part of the path to success 

I could go on.  And on.  And on.

What I couldn’t find was evidence of an approach that was dominantly plan-driven.  To be clear, there were plans, many of them, in various levels of detail that represented a certain prioritization.  But these plans were consistently subordinate to the reality of the day and were constantly reevaluated to reflect an evolving context with both long- and short-term priorities.

I thought more deeply about this and whether or not I could consider myself to be unusual.  To be fair, that could be an possibility.  I have a relatively senior role at work in an dynamic industry.  And so I looked around.  Every time I found someone who I thought might be operating in a plan driven way, perhaps due to a specificity of tasks or a regularity of schedule, I looked closer and when either zooming in or zooming out (in space or time), I found the need for adaptation and flexibility.

The particular type of adaptation and flexibility required varied greatly, due to circumstances.  Clearly, (so-called) knowledge workers experience the most need for agility.  However, among those in the service industry, some sort of agility is required for success.  (Ask anyone who has tried to deliver a service strictly according to an inflexible plan and you will receive stories of failure.)  And while manufacturing requires following strict plans in certain ways, the most successful manufacturers are those that can adapt their assembly lines and process rapidly to meet shifting market needs.

Thus, it’s my contention that being “agile every day” is easy because it’s our natural state.  Flexibility, adaptability, and communication are among the essential elements of humanity.  

The unnatural thing is attempting to over-plan the future, to fail to respond to change, and to value process adherence over human/contextual interactions.