How do you achieve agility in practice?
Here are 4 lessons learned from a workplace where agile working is essential to avoid fatal accidents.
By Idun Backer
Briefly about agile
If you are familiar with the term agile, you probably know that it can be understood as a mindset or character trait that is more or less prominent among employees and in organizations. This mindset is made visible in practice through the ability to continuously interact, develop skills, structure, simplify and have the ability to quickly create value for your own company and for customers.
Despite the popularity of the agile concept in the workplace, many people still ask "how do we do it in practice?". So here are four learning points to help you and your organization become more agile.
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Agile in practice: Learning points from aircraft carriers
The focus on aircraft carriers is inspired by Karl E. Weick1, a renowned researcher in organizational psychology. He distinguishes between two types of organizations: The first is efficiency organizations, and includes most workplaces. Such organizations are characterized by efficiency being perceived as the most important enabler of earnings. The second type is high-reliability organizations, and includes workplaces such as emergency rooms, nuclear power plants and aircraft carriers. Such organizations are characterized by operating under high risk and therefore depend on agile or reliable work processes. You read about this in learning point 1. Learning points 2 and 3 concern how employees see the significance of their own work for the context, and the significance of the context for their own work. In learning point 4, the one-sided focus on productivity is thrown "overboard".
Learning point 1: Risk work requires reliable work processes
Imagine the aircraft carrier. Accidents almost never happen, despite the fact that the risk of accidents is very high. The reason is that employees work well together despite complex and demanding working conditions. How do they do it, and what can you and your organization learn? The most important thing is that every work process is well thought out and clearly understood by everyone. This requires that:
- the processes are trained together so that they become intuitive for the work group as a whole (training takes place primarily in the work situation and as a team activity)
- processes are continuously evaluated to ensure continuous improvement (conversations and debriefs are ongoing in the work situation)
Learning point 2: Actions are understood as contributions
Crucial to good collaboration is that employees understand their actions as contributions to a larger whole. In this way, all actions have an impact on the collective processes,
rather than functioning as isolated choices made by individuals. In efficiency organizations, people can often do their work without having to coordinate with others, and the consequences of "working on your own" are rarely fatal. In addition, it is less likely to be considered critical if employees are unable to understand and respond well to the events/value chains that happen and arise among them. To become good at turning actions into contributions, it is important to:
- frequently talk together about who will do what, when and why, and possibly how
- continuously reflect on how their own actions contribute to the context
Pros and cons of internal vs. external leadership development - read more here
Learning point 3: Mutual understanding is more important than shared understanding
Good collaboration also requires employees to develop and further develop a mutual understanding of the shared context and goals, and of each other's different tasks and perspectives. Mutual understanding involves understanding and respecting differences (such as roles, responsibilities, opinions and perspectives). In efficiency organizations, such similarities and differences are less likely to be clarified because it is often perceived as time- and resource-intensive, i.e. inefficient. The focus is more often on building a common understanding, or a shared "view", where the ideal is to work from similar perspectives and attitudes. Because people think and understand things differently, this can result in misunderstandings that turn out to be just as resource-intensive. You may have experienced it yourself, when your employees do something different than you wanted or thought you had clarified? You can prevent such misunderstandings and conflicts of interest and ensure mutual understanding of what is required to achieve agile execution by
- Continuously discuss work and common goals to clarify employees' different perceptions and what (co-)actions are required
- enter into conversations with trust, openness and attention
- close the conversations when you understand what it takes for each person to do their job well
Learning point 4: A joyful shift in focus
The most delightful thing about Weick is that he throws the focus on productive and unproductive work "overboard" and instead discusses the distinction between careful ("solid") and careless ("sloppy") work. The concepts do not only apply to how specific tasks are carried out, but also to how we as a community relate to, reflect on and develop holistic, reliable work processes. The term "solid work" draws the line back to agile, which is also about interacting, simplifying and structuring so that you have the implementation power to quickly create value.
Paradoxically, it seems that high-reliability organizations are at times more effective than efficiency organizations. Therefore, these learning points are important for all organizations seeking agility. Let's think about aircraft carriers a little more often.
