How to build agility into

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How to… build agility into your working practices

s a very experienced project manager, it seems to me that everyone in the community is talking about agile. You may have noticed this, too.

Regardless of whether you are a project manager or not, there is a lot you can learn from the principles of agile project management. So let’s take a look at some lessons I think are most valuable to managers and professionals, as well as project managers.

By the way, if you are a project manager, you can apply many of the ideas behind agile without adopting a formal agile methodology, such as Scrum or Kanban.

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Customers first

This concept isn’t original to the agile mindset. But it’s good to remember that your customers need to define the benefits for what you’re doing. So, identifying the right end-customer is key. It will also be your customers who decide whether your product, service or project is successful... or not.

It follows that you should only do things that create or contribute value for your customers, clients or other important stakeholders. Everything else is superfluous. This is an important filter in any new initiative. Multitasking is as dangerous for organisations as it is for individuals. Develop new capabilities and components one at a time. Decide what one thing will offer the greatest incremental value, and prioritise that for your next piece of work.

Incrementalism is at the heart of an agile mindset

Demonstrate that each new process, function, capability or product works, before moving onto Shutterstock

You don’t have to be managing a project to put the principles of agile to work

By Mike Clayton

the next incremental improvement. Make your demonstration to your customers or stakeholders. Demos, pilots and prototypes are a great way to reduce risk and learn as you proceed. They can also help you to win customer and stakeholder support.

As far as possible, start with what works and adapt it. Form a new base and iterate. This approach allows you to remain flexible and responsive to changing needs. Environments, needs and resources change. The ‘old’ approach to projects is to lock down specifications early and fight to control changes. But the agile way is to keep your commitments as low as possible, so that you can adapt quickly. That way, you can welcome change.

A new way of working

Prioritise communication and team-working above a rigid adherence to process, or a blind adoption of tools and methods. Gather a small, dedicated team and put them in one place, where they can talk, rather than email each other. Look for ways to delegate more responsibility for outcomes, rather than set lists of tasks. And empower team members to take the lead on problem-solving and decision-making.

Aim to maximise the simplicity of what you are doing, as far as it is consistent with maintaining value. Avoid excess effort and waste by keeping the brief tight, and constantly reviewing what you’re doing and how you are doing it. Then get out of the way of the people who are doing the work. Your job is to serve the teams and the people whose job it is to deliver value. Let them fine-tune their way of working. Mike Clayton is a speaker, management trainer and author of 14 books. He recently launched a new YouTube channel offering free management courses. See j.mp/MgtCourses