Let’s offer four definitions starting with the dictionary one:
1
agile / adjective
able to move quickly and easily. “Hilary was as agile as a monkey”
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2
The ability to create and respond to change in order to succeed in an uncertain and turbulent environment.
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3
Agile is a set of values, principles, and practices designed to break down hierarchical silos to emphasise collaboration across multidisciplinary, self-managing teams, build relationships and trust, strengthen organisational capability, and support innovation.
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4
Agile is a mindset.
In some of our workshops to connect these definitions we run a short exercise as follows:
- individuals asked to write down the one word they think of when they hear the word “agile”
- group share their results
- individuals write down an animal they consider agile
- group share their results
- individuals write down a company they consider to be agile
- group share their results
- we dive into the characteristics of the companies chosen and ask why people considered those companies to be agile
This serves as a very useful starting point for further conversations particularly when working with leadership teams as to how to apply those characteristics to their own company
Further reading: