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4 key elements to be implemented to build a truly Agile organization [#AgileElements #TrulyAgile #AgileOrganization]

1. Strategist Leadership Mindset
2. Nimble Culture
3. Lean Principles
4. Agile Methods

1. Strategist Leadership Mindset
Leaders of Agile organizations need to think about their organizations differently and update their leadership thinking and behavior, not just their processes. If you approach implementing organizational agility like you approach a system change, you are likely to suboptimize the impact or completely fail — possibly leaving the organization in worse shape than when you started.

The key takeaway is that leaders not only need the technical skills to transform an organization, but they also need a different mindset: They need to value flexibility. They need to be willing and able to change what they do and how they do it, and they need to be intellectually versatile and reflective.

2. Nimble Culture
Culture must reflect the organization. As you look at becoming Agile, you’ll want to tailor these elements to reflect your organization. When creating Agile organizations, it’s imperative that the culture and underlying agreements about how you think and what you value align with the organization you are trying to create.

These agreements will either support or undermine the overall transformation. Agreements could include topics such as “We put customers first,” “We’re transparent in our communications with one another and with our customers,” “We conduct rigorous experiments in appropriate areas of our organization,” and “We learn from everything we do.”

3. Lean Principles
Being lean is a systematic approach to making the system more effective and efficient. Lean thinking involves increasing efficiency, reducing waste and improving the value delivered to both internal and external customers. This requires continual assessment of practices and processes to ensure that “just enough” is done and that they serve the agreed-upon objectives and goals while delivering as much value to internal or external customers as possible.

If the customer is not requesting or paying for it, you should challenge why you do it.

4. Agile Methods
Agile software development, for example, is a process or methodology that focuses on customer value as much as possible. It requires cross-functional teams to come together and work in a committed way to develop features in fast iterations called sprints. A focus on customer feedback and time to value realization is key.

Agile organizations focus on driving strong partnerships with their customers and quickly adapting solutions to meet their changing needs. They identify minimal feature sets, prototype aggressively, test-drive new features and use incremental go-to-market strategies. New products and services are encouraged to fail fast rather than wait for perfection, which is elusive.

Building Agile Organizations: Adapting Faster:
thoughtLEADERS