Embracing an Agile Mindset

FountainBlue's October 6 Front Line Managers Online program was on the topic of 'Embracing an Agile Mindset'. Please join me in thanking our panelists. 

Our esteemed panelists represented a wide range of backgrounds and experiences, but they had much in common:

• They thought, spoke and acted with agility and focused on the needs of the organization, the teams and the individuals.

• They embrace continuous learning and bring a positive attitude and leadership/management style to their organizations.

• They are exceptional and positive communicators with inspiring messages that connect and empower.

Below is a summary of thoughts and strategies on how to adopt an agile mindset.

Know Yourself

• Embrace both your strengths and your weaknesses.

• Work with people not-like-you and embrace opportunities to see the world from *their* perspective.

• Connect with and lean on the team to help you know yourself and become a better version of yourself.

Develop Yourself

• Be flexible and adaptive, especially in ways where you don't feel comfortable.

• Nurture yourself so that you're bold enough to do the uncomfortable in order to learn and stretch.

• You don't have to have deep understanding and knowledge for all things, but it would benefit you and others if you embrace opportunities to learn and grow.

Nurture the Team

• Emphasis the 'what' rather than the 'who' when there's an issue, inviting all to brainstorm on how to improve outcomes next time.

• Communicate and connect with transparency and authenticity, working with individuals and with the team, and working on the team dynamics.

• Consistently practice open and respectful discourse within your team, with a focus on delivering results.

• Leverage updated information on customer needs, market trends, technology availability, team dynamics, etc., to help you team proactively think, speak and act differently.

Respect the Flow

• Adopt a growth mindset and a positive, can-do attitude, making it contagious for the team/group/organization to adopt.

• Set the target requirements, offer the tools and processes, provide examples, model the way, but don't insist on the adoption of agile technologies and mindset.

• Make the plans, work the plans, but flow with the inevitable curve balls which may shake up those buttoned-up plans, embracing them as learning and growth opportunities.

Push Through Together with Resilience and Resourcefulness

• Agilely work with the team to deliver results with resilience and resourcefulness, in alignment with corporate mission, vision and values.

• Manage expectations so that they are realistic, emphasizing successes and learnings, even when there's an overall 'failure'. 

• Proactively plan a pivot, in alignment with market trends and business imperatives.

• Nurture a culture which embraces failure as a learning opportunity.

We ended with a brainstorm on how to help everyone embrace an agility mindset:

• Lead by Example

• Communicate Clearly

• Understand where they’re coming from

• Collaborate

• Share your experience

• Learn their perspective

• Encourage innovation

• Know the history/context

• Market trends

• Business Case

• Training

• Understanding the roadblocks

Embracing agility is a difference maker, and we hope these thoughts help you personally become more agile, and introduce more agile, flexible perspectives in the workplace.