4 words to achieve Organisational Agility

Recently, I completed a 30 minute interview with Alistair Cockburn, in a conversation designed to talk about the Heart of Agile, Organisational Agility and 1st Conference. 

This is the second part of a series of 6 videos from that conversation, that are being published in the next few weeks. We hope it helps you understand why 1st Conference is structured around the Heart of Agile, give you some tips on how you can use Heart of Agile, and help you think about how you could get the most from coming to the conference.

We also hope it aligns with our goal of developing content that adds value over time and helps you to learn and develop your skills.

In this video, Alistair talks about the four words of the "Heart of Agile", and explains why they sit at the core of agility, and as an overlay for organisations to ensure they're finding the right balance to empower their people.

The series includes:

• Things you may not know about Alistair. link
• 4 words to help you to enable greater agility in your organisation (this video)
• Using Heart of Agile for self-education (link)
• How Heart of Agile can be the bridge to organisational agility. It's what 1st Conference is structured around! (coming on 10 Jan)
• An exercise that can drive collaboration (15 Jan)
• Alistair's advice on how to get the most out of 1st Conference (17 Jan)

The entire, unedited version will also be made available.

Don't forget that you can…

A quick summary of the video:

• The purpose of the Agile Manifesto, and the agile movement was to address some of the issues the workforce faced in the 80's and 90's. People felt over burdened by structure and rules that stopped them being able to work effectively and feel empowered as human beings.
• It's human nature and behaviour to create extra rules to try and define things, Alistair believes this is what has been happening with agile since its popularisation. The major players right now are:
  • Scrum - which is a team based structure
  • SAFe - which is an organisational based structure  
• As a part of the natural cycle, people are beginning to feel constricted and overburdened by the rules and standards imposed on them by these types of working methodologies. 

• At its most basic level, Heart of Agile is a response to this. These four words "Collaborate, Deliver, Reflect & Improve" is quite deliberately a radical simplification to take off the ropes and let people feel free. This is created to empower your people and create a much more effective workforce.
• The Heart of Agile is not an IT thing, it's just a happy coincidence that people from technology decoded it. It's designed to sit as an overlay for anyone or anything in the Organisation, a guide post and check points that are easy and simple for anyone to understand.

If you want to learn more about how The Heart of Agile can act as a bridge to Organisational agility, watch out for our next upcoming post in January. 

If you liked or have feedback on this story and interview, feedback helps me develop content that is better for you. Please reach out!

Ringo.Thomas@tabar.com.au or connect on LinkedIn & Twitter