As we step into 2024, it's time to supercharge our journey with agility at its core! 2024 will be all about embracing change, fostering innovation, and staying ahead of the curve. Plenty of teams have asked me similar questions about where is agile headed or what should we focus on for 2024? I have summary of those thoughts here as well as practical ways to implement them:
Adapt and Thrive
Embrace change as a catalyst, encourage teams to view change as an opportunity, not a threat. Regularly review and adjust business strategies to respond to market shifts. Foster a culture where feedback and innovative ideas are welcomed and acted upon.
Agile decision making should speed up the decision-making process. Use data-driven insights and encourage a decentralized approach where teams can make informed decisions quickly.
Identify flexible workflows when implementing agile processes. Frameworks like Scrum or Kanban assist in keeping workflows flexible and responsive (minimal viable processes). Regularly reassess and adjust processes to suit evolving project needs and market conditions and never forget your teams collective skills. Sometimes our processes need to shift to enhance those (including Scrum and Kanban, your team might even invent their own).
Innovate Relentlessly
Cultivate a creative environment where creative thinking is encouraged. Hold regular brainstorming sessions and allow time for experimental projects or innovation processes.
Encourage risk-taking and promote a culture where calculated risks are encouraged and failure is seen as a learning opportunity. This mindset fosters innovation and out-of-the-box thinking.
Leverage cross-functional teams with a mix people from different departments in project teams to bring diverse perspectives. This can lead to more innovative solutions and approaches.
Collaborate Like Never Before
Enhance communication channels where we invest in effective communication tools that facilitate seamless collaboration. Ensure open and transparent communication across all levels of the organization.
Team building activities can strengthen relationships and improve collaborative efforts. Encourage informal interactions to build trust and camaraderie.
Shared goals and objectives help aligning all involved. Use regular check-ins and updates to keep everyone informed and focused on collective objectives. The more we work on in parallel the longer everything usually takes, so minimize work in progress.
Continuous Improvement
Encourage a learning culture by providing opportunities for professional development. Encourage employees to attend workshops, webinars, and conferences. We have plenty that can be attended publicly for a few of your team members or we can do private workshops to help with team building and learning at the same time.
Ensure iterative processes by regularly reviewing and refining said processes. Encourage feedback from all team members and implement changes to improve efficiency and effectiveness.
Reward innovations and improvements by recognizing efforts towards improvements and innovations, no matter how small, to motivate continuous growth. Always catch someone doing something approximately right (Ken Blanchard).
Tools for Success
Identify and invest in tools that enhance productivity and collaboration. This could include project management software, communication platforms, and analytics tools.
Provide adequate training to ensure everyone is proficient with the tools. Offer ongoing support to address any issues quickly.
Keep an eye on emerging technologies and trends. Be open to adopting new tools that can offer a competitive edge or streamline processes.
Customer-Centric Approach
"If you aren't servicing the customer directly, you better be servicing someone who is" - Lance Dacy. Regularly gather and analyze customer feedback. Use this insight to tailor products and services to meet their needs.
Engage with customers by building strong relationships with them through regular engagement and communication activities. Show that their feedback is valued and acted upon, use idea portals and community forums. You might even think of a lean coffee each month with the Product Development Team.
Ensure that every department understands how their work impacts customer satisfaction. Align business strategies with the goal of enhancing the customer experience.
Sustainable Practices
Implement eco-friendly practices in operations. This could include reducing waste, recycling, and using sustainable materials.
Engage in community service and ethical business practices. Encourage employees to participate in community-oriented projects, this is one of the best forms of team building (and its not even on our own projects, its about servicing others).
Balance financial objectives with environmental and social responsibilities. Aim for growth that is sustainable in the long term.
Be Resilient, Be Agile
Develop a resilient mindset, encourage a mindset that views challenges as opportunities for growth. Provide support and resources to help teams bounce back from setbacks.
Flexible business plans that are robust yet flexible enough to adapt to unexpected changes. If you look too far out, you have wasted valuable time in planning unknowns. If you don't plan early enough you run the risk of chaos. Find the right balance of the latest responsible moment.
Prepare for emergencies with plans in place for various scenarios. Regularly review and update these plans to ensure readiness for any situation. Plan for the things we know could occur so cooler heads have thought through the contingencies.
Celebrate Every Milestone
Regularly acknowledge and celebrate individual and team achievements. This could be through shout-outs in meetings, newsletters, or award ceremonies.
Create a culture of appreciation with a positive work environment where appreciation is a part of the daily routine.
Reflect and learn by using milestones as opportunities to reflect on the journey, learn from experiences, and plan for even greater success in the future. Have pre-mortems instead of post-mortems.
Happy New Year!
Another year is just part of the cycle. Notice how we tend to time-box everything in our life (even up to a year). The time-box is over for 2023. What have you accomplished? What did you want to accomplish, but fell short of in the end? What and where was the waste? What have you learned? What can you take away to do better in 2024 than we did in 2023? If you aren't changing and adapting, you aren't agile. This isn't change for the sake of change, this is lasting change that is built on empirical data of reflection and reality. Build your own improvement roadmap for 2024 and make sure to commit to high priority, high-value items.
In the end, agile teams strive to deliver the highest business value items, as early as possible, with the least amount of cost. This adage doesn't have to be applied only in Product Development. Apply it in your improvement strategies as well. We are here to help in any way, just reach out!
Happy New Year from Big Agile!
Contact us and talk through your vision with Lance. He has mounds of experience to help any size organization through their change efforts and efficiency plans.