The crisis is an Agile crash course
/I’ve been preaching Agile as a means of Trusting Technology for decades. Suddenly, it’s all the rage.
In tech circles, Agile was given a name in 2000 but existed long before. We were being agile—we just didn’t know it. Déjà vu today as millions of leaders are responding to the crisis with plan–do–check–act.
Doing is the best form of learning, but mastery of agile takes practice. And when you’re practicing in your day-to-day business, how do you avoid stepping off a cliff?
I’ve been involved in over 500 technology initiatives. Two principles have been at the heart of every successful one:
Confidence—taking rapid actions when you’re comfortable, and
Learning—admitting what you don’t know and being deliberate about finding the answer.
There’s a heck of a lot we don’t know right now, and agile offers some structure to dealing with uncertainty.
And finding opportunity …
Fujifilm Holdings Corp says it has developed a new test for the coronavirus that reduces the results time from five hours to two hours.
Formula 1 engineers have come up with a breathing machine for covid-19 patients.
Wall Street, where time most literally is money, are striving to recreate their lightning fast environment in a home-based model.
What examples of Agile have you seen?
Navigating your whirlwind
No doubt your business has been caught in a whirlwind these last three weeks. If you’re still there, consider agile to be a tool to help you think through your actions while you are taking them.
If you’ve reached some level of stability in the new world, consider what you’ve learned and how you will move forward from here.
I’ve been fortunate to have helped dozens of leaders in the last few weeks. Anything from a quick chat to extended support. If I can help you in the same way, just click here and we’ll do it.
Trusting Technology is a book about forming ideas, exploring opportunities with customers and colleagues, and building your future together. Order your copy here.
PS A reminder that I published “Operate a remote business at full function” last week. You can get your copy here.