Transitioning to Agility Thinking
From the PMI Global Insights Blog
by Cameron McGaughy,
James Turchick
Whether it’s in-person or virtual, PMI events give you the right skills to complete amazing projects. In this blog, whether it be our Virtual Experience Series, PMI Training (formerly Seminars World) or PMI® Global Summit, experienced event presenters past, present and future from the entire PMI event family share their knowledge on a wide range of issues important to project managers.
View Posts By:
Cameron McGaughy
James Turchick
Past Contributors:
Kimberly Whitby
Johanna Rusly
April Birchmeier
Nikki Evans
Dalibor Ninkovic
Dr. Deepa Bhide
Morten Sorensen
Tao Chun Liu
Jonathan Spiteri
Chris DiBella
Nic Jain
Tyler Norman
Nicholas Sonnenberg
Tam Abaku
Klaus Nielsen, MBA, PMI-ACP, PMP
Karen Chovan
Jack Duggal
Catalin Dogaru
Priya Patra
Josh Parrott
Scott Lesnick-CSP
Antonio Nieto
Dimitrios Zaires
Ahmed Zouhair
Carmine Paragano
Te Wu
Scott Bain
Katie Mcconochie
Fabiola Maisonnier
Erik Agudelo
Paul A Capello
Kiron Bondale
Jamie Champagne
Esra Tepeli
Renaldi Gondosubroto
Joseph Musiitwa
Mel Ross
Laura Lazzerini
Yonela Mfeya
Kim Essendrup
Geetha Gopal
David Summers
Carol Martinez
Lisa DiTullio
Tai Cochran
Fabio Rigamonti
Archana Shetty
Geneviève Bouchard
Teresa Lawrence, PhD, PMP, CSM
Randall Englund
Kristy Tan Neckowicz
Moritz Sprenger
Mike Frenette
O. Chima Okereke
David Maynard
Nancie Celini
Brantlee Underhill
Claudia Alcelay
Sandra MacGillivray
Vibha Tripathi
Sharmila Das
Michelle Brown
Gina Abudi
Greg Githens
Joy Beatty
Sarah Mersereau
Lawrence Cooper
Donna Gregorio
Seth Greenwald
Bruce Gay
Michele Mattera
Wael Ramadan
Fiona Lin
Somnath Ghosh
Yasmina Khelifi
Erik Rueter
Joe Shi
Michel Thiry
Erika Kiely
Heather van Wyk
Jennifer Donahue
Barbara Trautlein
Julie Ho
Steve Salisbury
Jill Diffendal
Yves Cavarec
Rose James
Drew Craig
Vinay Babu Tarala
Stephanie Jaeger
Diana Robertson
Zahid Khan
Benjamin C. Anyacho
Nadia Vincent
Carlos Javier Pampliega García
Norma Lynch
Heather McLarnon, CSPO
Lissette Indhira Pimentel Sosa
Emily Luijbregts
Susan Coleman
Aneliya Chervenova
Michelle Stronach
Sydni Neptune
Louise Fournier
Quincy Wright
Peace Opuruiche Echeonwu
Nesrin Christine Aykac
Ming Yeung
Laura Samsó
Lily Woi
Jill Almaguer
Mayte Mata Sivera
Prof. Éamonn Kelly
Marcos Arias
Karthik Ramamurthy
Michelle Venezia
Yoram Solomon
Cheryl Lee
Kelly George
Dan Furlong
Kristin Jones
Jeannette Cabanis-Brewin
Olivia Montgomery
Carlene Szostak
Hilary Kinney
Annmarie Curley
Dave Davis
Recent Posts
Presentation Recap: Sustainability in Project Management
Presentation Recap: Measuring and Managing Enterprise Portfolio Health
Elevating Leadership Through Community: Reflections from the PMI Global Summit 2025
Why the PMI Global Summit Series Africa Is a Classroom of Urgency
Presentation Recap: Women in Project Management - Breaking the Glass Ceiling
Categories
Agile,
Agility,
alignment,
Ask the Expert,
Benefits Realization,
Best Practices,
Bonding,
Business Analysis,
Calculating Project Value,
Capital Projects,
Career Development,
Change Management,
Cloud Computing,
Collaboration,
collaboration,
Communications Management,
Complexity,
Congress 2016 Ask an Expert,
Construction,
Curiosity,
Digital Transformation,
digital transformation,
Documentation,
Earned Value Management,
Education,
EMEA,
EMEA Congress Reflections,
Engagement,
engagement,
Ethics,
Events,
Extra Info,
Facilitation,
forecasting,
future,
Generational PM,
Global Congress 2016,
Global Congress 2016 - North America,
Global Summit,
Global Summit 2023,
Global Summit Series,
Good News,
Government,
Healthcare,
Human Aspects of PM,
Human Resources,
Identity,
Information Technology,
Innovation,
Kickoff,
Leadership,
Lessons Learned,
Mentoring,
Metrics,
Networking,
New Practitioners,
Nontraditional Project Management,
organisations,
Organizational Risk,
PM & the Economy,
PM Think About It,
PMI,
PMI Congress,
PMI Congress NA 2016,
PMI EMEA Congress 2018,
PMI Global Conference,
PMI Global Conference 2017,
PMI Global Conference 2019,
PMI Global Congress - 2016,
PMI Global Congress 2012 - North America,
PMI Global Congress 2013 - EMEA,
PMI Global Congress 2014 - North America,
Pmi global congress 2014 - North America,
PMI Global Congress 2015,
PMI Global Congress 2015 - Ask the Expert,
PMI Global Congress 2016 - EMEA,
PMI Hours for Impact,
PMI PMO Symposium 2013,
PMI Pulse of the Profession,
PMI Training,
PMI Virtual Experience Series,
PMIEMEA17,
PMIEMEA19,
PMO,
PMO,
PMXPO,
Portfolio Management,
Procurement Management,
Professional Development,
Program Management,
Project Delivery,
Project Failure,
project kickoff,
Project Planning,
Project Requirements,
Reflections on the PM Life,
Risk Management,
Risk Management,
ROI,
Roundtable,
Scheduling,
SeminarsWorld,
Social Impact,
Social Responsibility,
SoftSkills,
Stakeholder Management,
Strategy,
Sustainability,
Teams,
Techniques,
test,
The Moon,
Tools,
Training,
Translations,
Videos,
Virtual Experience Series,
Virtual Teams,
Volunteering,
war
Date
This week I launched a TED-style set of talks on agility with one of my clients. The inaugural talk was on the history of agility thinking which goes back decades if not centuries before The Manifesto for Agile Software Development.
As part of the talk I highlighted some of the drivers that are forcing us to move that way as well as some things we need to do and/or recognize as we transition to being more agile, and some basic guidelines to follow to keep us learning to be more agile.
So here here are my thoughts on transitioning to agility thinking.
The Drivers
So what`s behind the move to agility? Simply put, the modern world. The issues facing modern organizations are shifting from discrete problems to what are known as “holistic messes.” Traditional hierarchies are intrinsically ineffective for the speed of decision-making that is needed to manage at the pace of change we now face; the very speed that is needed to solve these holistic messes. So what are holistic messes?
Traditional management and its accompanying models are premised on the notion that we can use the past to predict the future. This was the era of 3-5 year business plans where change was slow and at times imperceptible. But the world is no longer like that.
We need to recognize, as Rod Collins like to say, that attempting linear extrapolations from past successes—which may have been a successful formula in recent times—is no longer a practical guide for managers or workers in a post digital world. Simply stated, the digital revolution has thrust us suddenly and rapidly into in a new world with new rules.
These messes exist at the problem, product, organizational, and societal levels.
Some of the other phrases and words used you may have seen to describe this new reality include:
- Complex adaptive systems
- Chaos
- Volatility, uncertainty, complexity, ambiguity (VUCA)
- Increasing pace of change
Mindset matters
There is a great book by Dr. Carol Dweck called Mindset: The New Psychology of Success on the two primary mindsets, a Fixed Mindset versus a Growth Mindset as shown below:
Posted
by
Lawrence Cooper
on: September 22, 2016 09:45 AM |
Permalink
Comments (6)
Please login or join to subscribe to this item
Karthik T
Senior Engineering Manager| Nike
Bangalore, Karnataka, India
Karen Chovan
CEO| Enviro Integration Strategies
Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada
Great one Lawrence! Mindset is critical in so many things, but I'd say especially so in leadership and change.
Lawrence Cooper
Creator, Lean-Agile Strategy| AdaptiveOrg Inc.
Kanata, Ontario, Canada
Karen - thanks and I agree it starts and ends with our mindset. And our mindset is a choice we make every day in every interaction.
Nice summary on Agile; I could share this with a variety of people who would all understand it.
I especially appreciate your quick reference to Agile dogma. The unwillingness to adapt is ironic, but it is observed with striking regularity.
Tobe Phelps
Director of Digital Experience| Central New Mexico Community College
Albuquerque, Nm, United States
This is a great approach and explanation to Agility thinking. There is so much confusion over the Agile term and what it means for an organization.
Lawrence Cooper
Creator, Lean-Agile Strategy| AdaptiveOrg Inc.
Kanata, Ontario, Canada
Wade - please do share. I noticed that as well with some who honestly believe they are exhibiting agility by sticking to their framework, method, or practice as all costs. Saw a great way to describe it on twitter - we are agile, except in our process. :)
Tobe - indeed there is a great deal of confusion, A good friend of mine says that the worse thing you can do is to give something a name. In this case agile is an adjective, not a noun. It's why it was called The Manifesto for Agile Software Development and not The Agile Manifesto as it is commonly referenced (unless they mean the manifesto itself exhibits agility :) ). The authors understood the difference and one of them says (can't find the reference any more) says he wishes they had used the term adaptability instead.
Please Login/Register to leave a comment.
|
Fiction writing is great. You can make up almost anything.
- Ivana Trump
|
