Think of Agile also as having a collection of practices to help you continuously learn about and optimize the work delivery system you have built.

In this article, I’ll show you how to help your team adapt and optimize your work delivery system for your circumstances and your people.

Benefits of Agile Working

If you choose to run this taste-test, the best possible outcome would be a better performing, more satisfied team producing higher quality work at a quicker rate. You may see work flow faster. You may see inconsistent flow smooth out. You may gain predictability or consistency in quality.

As a minimum, I’d expect the time you invest standing outside the flow of work, in a curious, exploratory state of mind, to yield learning about your team’s performance and processes.

Prerequisites and Principles

Before we start, though, let’s look at what you need in place to succeed:

• Is there enough trust among the team that they can engage comfortably in candid discussions about current work practices and outcomes?
• Is there enough autonomy and agency in the team so that as visibility increases, they have freedom, procedural and psychological, to make changes in pursuit of improvement?
• Does the team have a common, shared vision of what “good” looks like?

Have all that? Great! Let’s get to it!

How to Establish a Continuous Improvement Habit

1. Make your system visible to everyone by creating a dashboard

What kind of signs that things are improving are you expecting? How will you make that visible? An online whiteboard might be a good place to start prototyping a dashboard.

2. Imagine the desired, optimized future state with your team

Engage the team in some divergent thinking. How will you know the system is running optimally?

3. Imagine stories of the road to the optimal future

What are some plausible stories of how the system came to be optimized? Represent those stories on your dashboard – perhaps as a flow diagram.

4. Decide what to try

Choose one or two ideas for what to measure and what to change to focus on to begin with. Set a date for a “retrospective” session, where you’ll take stock, reassess and adjust course.

5. Let the system run and use the dashboard to track it

After you take the actions you decided on, carry on with business as usual for a bit. Keep the dashboard visible and updated. Encourage the team to add new information that seems relevant. Remind the team of the intended improvements often – say, at regular team meetings.

6. Retrospective – look back, learn and adapt

When you meet for the retrospective session, you’ll have a rich supply of new information to learn from. Even if you haven’t observed the improvement you’re aiming for, you’ve strengthened your position by learning.

7. Repeat

Feed your learning into another round of increasing visibility, imagining the future and deciding what to try now.

Avoid Common Pitfalls

I’ve made it sound simple, I’m sure – that’s because I have the advantage of not knowing the particulars of your situation. Here are some tips and tricks to avoid common pitfalls.

1. Value learning over output

“Achieving failure” happens when an improvement plan is executed perfectly but nothing improves. Switch to seeing improvement as a journey rather than a destination and make sure to celebrate every new bit of learning as a victory gained along the way.

2. Be ready to change your mind

Keep coming back to observation over assumption. If your observations prove you wrong, celebrate! You’ve just learned something that could shift your perspective and lead to a breakthrough.

3. Consider details and keep the whole system in perspective

Over-dissecting and systematizing measurement can lead to a can’t-see-the-wood-for-the-trees problem. Bring your perspective back to the whole system from time to time.

4. Take one step at a time

Be patient: making too many changes at once can lead to negative outcomes. Prioritize a small number of the most promising changes, do them one at a time, and leave other ideas for later.

What's Next?

Set your intention for experimenting with a change and share that intention with your team. What outcome are you intending to gain? What will you observe when you have gained it? Then set a time with your team to lay the foundations of your continuous improvement habit and get cracking!

For more on agile working, see our article Let’s Get Agile!

For a different view on agility, one that focuses on adaptable leadership, check out The Agile Leader.

Tip of the Week

Action Programs, or Industrial-Strength To-Do Lists

By Melanie Bell, Mind Tools Content Editor

Managing a team is complicated. So many projects, tasks, and people to manage as they do them! A typical to-do list isn’t cut out for that kind of complexity.

If you aren’t already familiar with the concept, meet your new best friend for organizing your team’s tasks: the Action Program.

Action Programs are like lists with a twist. And instead of having to do everything on the list yourself, you delegate some of the items in your Action Program to your team.

They have a bit of a learning curve, but they’re worth it. Here’s how you create one, in a nutshell.

• Start out by making a list of everything that your team needs to get done.
• Then, go through it and remove any items that aren’t really important.
• Group actions together into projects. If you’re onboarding a new team member, for example, everything related to getting them up to speed can go under one heading.
• Next, prioritize your projects – and create lists of completed, delegated and upcoming actions.

There’s a bit more to Action Programs, and our article on this topic will guide you through the process of creating one. Try it out next time you find your to-do list getting a bit too long!

Pain Points Podcast

The world has become more volatile, unstable, complex, and even ambiguous – or “VUCA.” Originating in the military, this acronym has been adopted by the business world to describe the difficulty of making decisions when the goal posts are constantly shifting.

As a manager, how can you steer your team through the challenges of operating in a VUCA world? Join the Pain Points team this week to hear their thoughts, experiences and advice on this critical topic.

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News Roundup

This Week's Global Workplace Insights

Is the Big Tech Dream Job Over?

BBC reports that the “tech job bubble,” renowned for high salaries and perks like onsite laundry, dining and games tables, may be bursting.

In 2022, software companies began cutting perks, and then jobs. While tech roles were once considered among the most desirable and lucrative of professions, their status has fallen.

BBC reporter Alex Christian notes that 23,670 workers were laid off in the sector in January 2024 – and some of them are looking for jobs in other industries. Tech isn’t as flexible as it used to be, either, with more companies mandating a return to the office at least part of the week.

Right now, AI-related jobs are growing, but other areas of tech employment continue to shrink. What will be the next big thing?

Charismatic Leaders Are Making a Comeback

The Conversation reports that charismatic leadership, after a few decades of being out of favor, is experiencing a renaissance. High-powered business figureheads like Elon Musk have become more popular, leading to situations such as electric car company Tesla offering him a $55.8 billion pay deal. How did this happen?

German sociologist Max Weber originated the concept of charismatic leaders – individuals whose “star quality” gave them a kind of influence that most individuals can’t achieve.

The 1970s saw the rise of “savior CEO” narratives, and early 2000s business scandals and the 2008 financial crisis led to their fall. But after that crisis, companies’ fortunes rose – and their leaders were credited with that success, making them household names.

Charismatic leadership may be seeing a resurgence – but there’s room for many styles of leadership, and The Conversation suggests we should remain wary of any one person gathering too much money and power.

See you next week for more member-exclusive content and insight from the Mind Tools team!