I recently recorded a video summary for IE Business School on how Agility helps drive a more human workplace.
Agile is a big buzzword these days.
Most people talk about it in the context of digital transformation, and it certainly can help drive that change, yet what is often forgotten is the opportunity to make the workplace more human. In a digital, 24-7 world, our humanity matters more than ever.
Of course, a major benefit of Agile is to make better work – better products and services that more rapidly adjust to customer expectations and improve satisfaction. Yet Agile can also make work better – in terms of the experience of the employee and their resultant engagement with the work.
Learning, finishing, empowerment are all hallmarks of agile. It is a mindset, a way of working, and a way of leading more than tools and methods.
So don’t just think Scrum and Kanban, think empowerment, empathy, experimentation, and finding the answers together.
Agile leadership is an opportunity for more human leadership. An egocentric approach to leadership still holds in certain areas, yet leadership, at its core, is about other people, how we may raise them up. So the hero leaders should be supplanted by the servant leader.
We still need people to be brave and resilient, but that doesn’t rule out humility. Humility is strength, not weakness, and research shows that humble leaders often result in higher team performance. They are more self-aware, recognize their own weaknesses, better recognize the strengths of others, and focus on objectives beyond their own self-interest.
Agile, agility, agile ways of working – is the golden opportunity for creating a more human workplace.