An agile planning process involves embracing uncertainty, encouraging experimentation, and sharing accurate and complete information. It’s not about delivering solutions to customers but embracing the experimentation portion of the feedback loop that will inform future iterations. To start with, an organization must identify the impact of the new version on customers and its business capabilities. Then, it must determine the assets and capabilities needed to make the change. After that, it can move to the next step: incorporating it into the planning process.
Embrace uncertainty
One key to adopting an agile strategy is embracing uncertainty. The agile mindset encourages teams to focus on creating value rather than delivering a product. To achieve this, teams must work together in an environment where change is the norm. This mindset promotes effective risk management and encourages employees to embrace uncertainty. However, embracing uncertainty will require a few changes in your current workflow and mindset. Here are some ways to embrace uncertainty and foster an agile culture in your team.
First, companies must be able to handle uncertainty. Consider the recent global pandemic. It tested the company’s strategic approach. An annual budgeting cycle can be stressful, but a global pandemic can lock down cities. This type of uncertainty requires agility to determine priorities, avoid crisis paralysis, and fuel progress. For example, in the pharmaceutical industry, vaccines are developed faster than ever. This means that organizations with agile strategies are better equipped to face disruption and stay ahead of competitors.
Encourage experimentation
To achieve radical change, you must enable your team to engage in experiments. The most successful companies conduct thousands of experiments a year. They embed this process in their culture and use data to make decisions about new products and services. To encourage experimentation, empower your team to make risky decisions and to be comfortable with failure. Encourage your team to experiment by empowering them to think critically and creatively and by ensuring that they understand that some experimentation can have a strategic impact.
To promote innovation, encourage experimentation in all aspects of the company. A company’s creativity and innovative ideas are greatest when teams are actively engaged in creating solutions. A culture that encourages strategic experimentation inspires employee creativity, fosters initiative, and brings change to the company. The best way to inspire experimentation in your company is to set simple goals and encourage people to test new ideas quickly. Experimentation can improve all aspects of your business.
Ensure you’re following the agile mindset for development
When you’re working on a complex project, change is hard to navigate. The slightest change can feel like a chore, not worth the effort. And if you’re doing things the old-fashioned way, you’re prone to mismanagement. But 60 to 80 percent of project failures can be attributed to poor requirements gathering, analysis, or change management. Agile mindsets are geared to work in turbulent environments. Agile strategy emphasize embracing change as a way to build a better product.