“We CAN be agile in a crisis”

Interesting comments from someone in this week’s sessions. I wonder can you relate to it? The example is from a business (non-IT) team.

Attendee:

“We CAN be agile in a crisis.” 

“We forget about the silos and get stuff done.”

“But then we revert back to lots of red tape. We’re very cautious and slow and have a low risk appetite.”

I’ve often heard this type of comment from teams I work with and yet it’s always struck me as strange.

This is the pattern I wonder if you’ve seen or can relate to:

😍 Good people 

😍 Working across disciplines (or specialties)

😍 CAN collaborate well, share knowledge, solve problems and deliver solutions (value) quickly 

😍 In spite of the organisational red tape 

😍 In a crisis

🙈 But then they CHOOSE to not work that way when things are “back to normal”!

Surely the “normal” process should be to do everything that way?

I say CHOOSE deliberately!

Someone in the organisation or the team itself is making a choice about ways of working 

And sometimes people, in frustration, define those choices as red tape. 

Red tape is often a well intentioned attempt to mitigate risk.

I’d like suggest it’s actually too risky to only have business agility when there is a crisis!

Over and over again I work with leaders and teams to help them:

– Understand the reasons for the red tape.

– Choose what red tape is still valuable and what should be cut away.

If you are in a team that is doing work, and yet are struggling a little with the “normal” ways of working 

I want to encourage you, there are ways you can improve!!

Perhaps we should chat?

#leadership, #productmanagement, #continuousimprovement, #agile