The Agile Stimulus Package

Why go agile? Specifically, what is incenting your organization to embrace agile? What is the impetus for change? As you consider this, additional questions will emerge: For example, do you need to be all-in on agility, or can it be selectively applied? And if agile can be selectively applied, what are the conditions or circumstances where it makes the most sense?

The following diagram is an adaptation of the Stacey Matrix (from Strategic Management and Organisational Dynamics by Ralph.D. Stacey) that I’ll gradually annotate to address these questions, building up to a key conversation that you need to have:

This diagram denotes three types of work, two of which are characterized by the levels of uncertainty that are present:

Predictive: Work where the path to success is clear. There is a shared understanding and agreement on what is valuable and how to go about delivering that value.

Emergent: This is complex work where the path to success lacks clarity, at least at the outset. Typically, there are multiple options available, both in terms of what is considered valuable and how to go about delivering it. Experimentation and frequent feedback are required to learn what is truly valued as well as triangulating on the correct path for your team or organization to use to deliver that value.

Finally, there is chaotic work, which are urgent problems or issues that arise that demand immediate attention. You can’t predict exactly when or what problems or issues will arise, but if you haven’t budgeted peoples’ time to address these issues (which can be done to varying degrees, according to your needs) you will disrupt planned work.

Many organizations have traditionally recognized and used approaches to deal with predictive and chaotic work, but they are now increasingly contending with emergent work because the rates of business and technological change have increased. Today’s hyper-competitive business climate is driving organizations to reliably deliver faster than ever before, at less cost.

Consider the implication of that last sentence for a moment. Are you facing these demands? If so, does this indicate that competitive demands and goals of your organization are disrupting your status quo, demanding significant improvement?

If your answer is yes, then you need to consider what agile has to offer. It helps you to tackle the drivers and influencers that are increasingly transforming work to be emergent in nature:

The key conversation that you need to have with respect to agility is how much, if any, of your work is emergent in nature. Agility is all about increasing your ability to rapidly validate your hypothesis about what is deemed valuable while simultaneously determining the best path to deliver that value. This is done by delivering smaller changes with greater frequency. It’s all about being responsive and adaptive, where teams and organizations are continuously learning and improving in an increasing complex, competitive world.

I’ll continue to explore this topic in future posts, continually annotating this diagram in different ways.