By Melina Jajamovich*

There is not a universal definition of “agile”. In fact, I would say that everything related to “agile” is essentially polysemic. However, I believe that a definition is a good starting point, so here there are my favourite definitions of “agile”:

• Agile is the art of “DOING” when you don’t know everything you need to do. It is the art of getting something done when the way forward is foggy and questionable – Pete Behrens.
• “It’s not about doing more work in less time: Agile is about working smarter, rather than harder. It’s about generating more value with less work.” – Steve Denning.

Currently, there is barely any bibliography of the subject in Spanish (neither translated nor developed by native authors). What’s your opinion on that?? It certainly makes you reflect, right??

Anyway, let’s not move away from our goal. An agile organization is that which…

• “Does” when it does not know everything it needs to know in order to “do”. It is an organization that has the art of “doing” when the road is foggy and questionable.
• It works smartly, (not harder). It is not about working more in a shorter period of time, but about adding more value with less work.
• It has an agile mindset. It has another way of being that results in another way of doing. Not only it is open to change, but it also encourages change.
• Fail quickly and cheap, and learn even more quickly! (I no longer know whether I read or invented this, but it certainly is the definition that I like.)

Does this sound familiar? Does it have anything to do with you? With your team? And with your organization?

Characteristics of agile organizations

In a 2012 report, the Agile Alliance reached the conclusion that those companies where agilism took over, had “something” in common: they understand the system as a whole; they adapt a catalyst leadership; they are based on continuous learning, based on experiments; they nurture an open communication style; they focus on long term commercial value and on their adaptation capacity; their members seek to master skills.

The same year, the white paper “Agile Enterprise”, by The Open Group, held that an agile firm is that which shows the following behaviours: experimentation; self-managed teams; communication and collaboration with the client; continuous improvement and respect towards people.

Is it a coincidence? Not at all. Both studies were developed based on the observation and analysis of multiple cases. In other words: they are not offering a dictionary definition, but providing empirical data which are even more valuable. So, what does this information mean? Shall we delve into it?

Agile organizations a customer-focused. In other words, they understand that the client is the boss and they do everything they can to “win its heart”. That is their main goal. And that defines the way they function, both in the inside as well as to the outside.

• Collaboration with the customer is key. We have to know what it wants at all times and we can only achieve that by getting involved. But, getting involve is not selling. It is about trust, trust, trust.
• Teams answer to a logic: they have everything they need to provide the customer with everything it needs. In order to do that, they must be small, self-managed and based on open and transparent communication. There are no hierarchies and no egos (or at least, there should not be). Everyone walks along, looking for a common purpose.

Teams stop being hierarchic structures where power are positions are distributed, and they become horizontal structures. What about the bosses? There is a hugeeee change in that. Bosses stop being bosses. Their place is taken by the customer. The boss becomes an agile leader. A leader that trusts its team and works as a coach, focusing on releasing the talent of the team members. The boss goes from micro-management to a purpose management… an enormous change! I would really like to keep on writing about this, but it will be developed in another post (I promise).

Agile organizations are big learners. This does not mean they go from training course to training course. No! It means that they have values and practices oriented to learning. Learning goes through the entire organization and nobody is left out. Everyone must learn and everyone must share what they learn. That way, people are motivated and the organization’s capital is improved.

Learning is achieved using three powerful tools:

• Retrospectives, which basically are about taking a break and analyzing what has been done so far, what went out well, what went out wrong, how do we feel. It is about learning by observing and reflecting in an honest, open and transparent way. Very simple, but very rarely used, and the thing is that in money organizations there is never time to do it. Anyway…
• Feedback, which is about understanding there are multiple perspectives and that “four eyes watch better than two”. We learn when we get feedback from our customers, and from everyone who is willing to contribute. A simple yet unknown practice for many. And well known, but unconfortable for others. We live in a society that prefers not to have feedback! Egos, egos, egos.
• Experimentation: the activity that enables us to try new things, knowing we have 50% chances of “succeeding” and 50% chances of failing, but 100% chances of learning. This demands a safe environment that accepts failure and has reliable metrics.
• Every structure oriented towards “agile learning” makes sense if it has an agile (distributed) form of decision making. Should this not exist, the only result is frustration and weariness. Or even abandonment. An agile organization capitalizes learning.

To sum up

An agile organization is that which manages to adapt to changes (and complexity) quickly and without pain thanks to an agile mindset. The goal is to win the customer’s heart. Using small teams to do everything that the customer values. Experimenting, failing and constantly learning. This results into happiness and productivity.

*Melina Jajamovich is a Trainer, Speaker y Coach.

Originally published at melinajajamovich.com