Resilience and Agility: how using Agile develops both

‘Surviving is the new success’.  Jerry Seinfeld talking to Tim Ferris

Resilience gets mentioned almost as much as agile right now.  Most people I know (and that includes me) feel like their resilience has been tested over the last 9 months.  Mid-way through a northern hemisphere winter and a prolonged lockdown,  I’m expecting to need more of that for the next few months.   We’d probably all love to be thriving right now, but for many, resilience is needed just to survive.  

As an Agile practitioner and advocate, I wanted to understand how this approach could help.  What’s the relationship of resilience, agility and the Agile approach?  Does the Agile framework help increase resilience? 

First, some definitions and distinctions.  Resilience = bending not breaking, like a tree in a storm.  It’s our ability to cope with adversity, maintain our stability, and bounce back.   Research and personal experience shows that it’s a finite resource.  

Our speed and ability to respond is agility - how quickly we can react, our ability to change direction - our manoeuvrability as individuals, teams or organisations.  

The Agile framework is an adaptive way of working created for fast-changing environments. Originally for software development, it focuses on understanding problems from a user perspective and developing prototype solutions in short iterations.  ‘Deliver value early and often’ is a common mantra.  

Agile has been used well beyond the software world partially because it’s well suited to tackling complex problems – those that are less predictable - as articulated in the Cynefin framework.  That can range from building an emergency hospital to supporting employees during a time of crisis.

As an approach, it works well for: 

·      High stakes problems requiring collaboration across different departments with many senior stakeholders.  Multiple Board level presentations, endless Powerpoint decks over many months just to get budget and scope agreed. e.g. launching a direct to consumer brand instead of current trading channels

·      Problems where the solution is entirely unknown at the outset – we don’t even know what resources and expertise will be required – e.g. the Patagonia outdoor clothing brand when they started to make product lines with organic cotton/recycled materials.

·      Wicked or sticky problems that are apparently contradictory and insoluble – with more questions than solutions e.g. how do we teach children when we can’t open our schools? How can we shorten our development cycle from 5 years to 1 year?

·      When the situation is changing so fast plans become obsolete quickly.  Last September, companies were looking at how to get teams safely back into their offices.  By November, those plans had been shelved.  

Agility and resilience are two sides of the same coin.  If you’re knocked off your feet, it’s hard to change direction lying on the floor.  Hence resilience is often thought of as coming first – absorbing the impact and steadying oneself – and agility second – responding nimbly.  

Actually, it’s less linear and more chicken-and-egg.   Higher levels of agility could mean you are less exposed to adversity.  The best way to deal with a hurricane or a punch is to avoid them in the first place.  This depletes your resilience less – allowing you to preserve your resilience for when you need it. 

Agile ways of working build resilience and agility. 

McKinsey research found that Teams using Agile cope better with recent crises than traditional teams.  Business units within the same organisation who adopted agile models pre-Covid-19 outperformed other teams across customer satisfaction, employee engagement and operational performance measures.  They continued their work quickly after the initial shock and re-aligned their projects with new business priorities. 

Anecdotal evidence supports this too.  People from organisations I work with, from consumer goods to aircraft manufacture, are adopting Agile because it allows them to manage people and projects with very unpredictable environments.   The more the organisation has adopted Agile values and practices, the better they are able to cope. 

Why do Agile teams have increased resilience and adaptability? 

·      Agile teams collectively evaluate and reprioritise their work.  On a daily and weekly/fortnightly basis, they openly discuss which tasks and projects have highest value to the business at that time.  They share information freely from users and the business and they adapt and focus their efforts accordingly. 

·      Agile teams track and review their productiveness & team dynamics.  They have dedicated roles focused on team effectiveness  and dedicated rituals like retrospectives– Scrum Masters, Agile coaches – skilled in identifying and promoting sustainable work practices.  

·      Agile teams are cross-functional, autonomous units.  They value differences in team members and high levels of trust.   This psychological safety is strongly co-related with resilience and performance [Amy Edmundson, Google project Aristotle].  Autonomy is also positively correlated with resilience, as is a strong sense of purpose. [Daniel Pink’s Drive]

‘When you’re going through hell, keep going.’ Winston Churchill 

I believe that there’s a broader reason why Agile is so useful to us right now.   Changes seem to come thick and fast right now, whether Covid related or otherwise.   Using a framework designed for this environment keeps us moving in a focused fashion.  

Keeping going purposely provides dynamic stability, a concept highlighted by Thomas Friedman   Think of a kayak in turbulent water.  If you paddle actively, push the boat ahead, it reaches a degree of balance.  It’s still a lot less stable than calm water, but it’s stable enough to steer the boat.  [I know this from personal experience, although a very long time ago].

Then you course correct as you paddle. The same is true in business – keeping going, taking action, learning as go - provides just enough stability navigate the current choppy waters.    

We need a sense of progress, even small amounts, to keep us motivated .  This is the psychological payoff that comes from using Agile practices.   

Even on sticky problems in difficult environments, this approach delivers enough progress to keep moving forward.    Small wins compound into big ones over time.  

Progress likes this builds resilience and confidence in our ability to cope.  Which might be just enough to tip us from surviving to thriving.  

If you’re thinking about using an Agile approach in your organisation and not sure where to start, drop me a message.