Why true agility is innately human

There was a time when “Agile” was just a “phase”. Like parents, leadership would placate their teams, hoping that they would grow out of whatever they disapproved of. We’ll let them have their fun… for now.

Let’s go AGILE!

Then, suddenly, it seemed that (even if leadership didn’t quite believe it) this “Agile” thing was a good idea. Other teams and organisations that were doing it seemed to be doing well. Everyone wanted a bit of it. Let’s all go agile! The world cried.

Organisations everywhere needed to go agile. All over the world, expeditions were started; teams started hiking into the agile unknown. They needed to transform.

Some of these programs appeared to work. Some, not so much. The vast majority of organisational cultural transformations failed miserably. Many organisations have been through multiple transformations that have never quite lived up to the utopian ideals (or the price tag).

Now, when you turn up to work with a new team or organisation and state that you’re an “Agile Coach”, you can hear the eyes of the transformation-hardened teams rolling before you even arrive.

The dirty word.

Agile is a dirty word. A word associated with decades of upheaval. Years of “use this framework”, “play poker”, “use these points”, “estimate”, “don’t estimate”, “tell stories”, “map stories”, “whiteboards”, “sticky notes”, urg. It’s exhausting just typing it.

Agile is a dirty word. A word associated with failed projects and people just wanting to get on with their damn job. It gets in the way of doing the work and wastes time. It wastes time that could have been spent fixing those defects or refactoring that code. Things that could just maybe have saved that project.

Agile is a dirty word. A word associated with management telling you the best way to work. The business is changing everything under the banner of agility but is still expecting everything to be delivered next week.

Just saying “agile” can be a trigger. People care deeply about their work, they want to do their best, and it hurts when they can’t. And “agile” has got in the way of them doing their best. This is real pain for many.

They may have been the early adopters, optimistically jumping at the new shiny ways of working. Only to see it fail, feel that failure, and it still hurts.

Why the hell would anyone want to do this agile thing ever again?

Agile is dirty, but so are humans.

Sometimes, life gets messy. No matter how much you plan, things can go wrong.

You plan the perfect wedding day, but the best man loses the ring at the stag do (doing something he would rather forget), and it rains so hard the bride’s family are washed down the river in a landslide.

Or, the bridesmaid’s dresses are destroyed by the dry cleaners, and a rogue pack of escaped chihuahuas eats the cake.

Or, the groom is eaten by a poodle, the bride is sat on by an escaped African elephant called Barnaby and the guests all contract an as yet unknown virus from a rare breed of chihuahua.

Let’s face it, reality is a pretty messy place to inhabit. Human reality? Doubly so.

And at work, our teams are (unless you’re reading this in 2080 and AI-powered robots have taken over the world) entirely composed of humans. And every human brings their messy reality with them.

The fallacy of the work-life balance.

Here’s a reality check for you: You can’t (however hard you try) leave your life hanging in the cloakroom while you “get on with your job”. Being “professional” doesn’t mean not being human. And living is something you have to do to be remotely good at your job. I suspect that most of your colleagues have pulses (even the ones you strongly suspect do not).

Even if your organisation would prefer to employ an army of ultra-compliant robots with no sick pay, cigarette breaks or an incomprehensible need to make unauthorised use of the photocopier at the Christmas party; we don’t live in 2080, and there are no armies of ultra-compliant robots. It’s just us humans.

And you, in all your human glory, you bring all of your humanity to work every day you show up. If you are feeling extra perky, then all your perkiness will be with you at work. If you feel extra hungover, that hangover will be dragging you down all day (or week…).

Beautiful, messy humans.

There is simply no way of avoiding it; we humans are messy. And what’s more, we wouldn’t want it any other way. Our collective messiness, inconsistency, chaos, and humanity lays the foundation for the creative problem solving essential in today’s economies.

Today, to survive in an uncertain and chaotic landscape, we have to respond with ease to the challenges presented: market forces, political instability, or even global pandemics. When change is everywhere, responding to change is no different to breathing; if you don’t do it, you won’t survive.

Organisations that thrive today can embrace change and find serendipity in the chaos and opportunities in every challenge. This is true agility; this isn’t a fad or phase. It’s core to survival. Agility is about building systems that support and enhance the messy humanity that today’s teams are full of.

And what about tomorrow? Well, tomorrow, there will be armies of ultra-compliant robots. They will be fantastic at the repetitive, tedious, inhuman work. What will differentiate your organisation will be your humanity.