Flexible. Adaptable. Whatever it takes. These are the misguided words associated with the term, “agile” that once got the best of me. Prior to undergoing the Agile Management series at UC Berkeley Extension, I had heard the term, “agile” thrown out in meetings and hallway conversations. The majority of the time, I’d hear, “We’re an agile team. You have to learn to be more agile.” And this was usually a response by Management when a project spiralled out of control. Campaign deliverables would turn red hot and spread like wildfires until the team decided that this was a “state of emergency” and required the “all hands on deck” spirit and mentality. “We’ll get this done and delivered right away to the client because we’re agile.” Can do. Must do. And again, whatever it takes. In a state of upheaval, process is out the window. There isn’t such a thing as a contract or an “official” change order because we’re going to make an exception. Just check out Appendix XVI of the unwritten contract.

Amid the hustle and bustle, the team actively looks for ways to condense the already accelerated schedule, cuts costs by 50 percent, and works with only a handful of the allocated resources. Allocated resources in a heavily matrixed environment complicates matters further. Your primary resource on your hot project has now put you second or even third on his priority list because he’s busy with his own fires. With an increasing pipeline of hot projects in the burner, you now have a “complex environment” bordering along the lines of a “chaotic environment” according to the Dave Snowden’s Cynefin Framework.

In a complex environment, you are constantly in a state of flux. Your natural inclination is to probe, sense, and respond. You make decisions based on the cards you are dealt. Instead of being proactive, you are undergoing a reactive state where your antibodies are ready to ward off any endangerment to the project. The team is fatigued, frustrated, and inpatient. Managers tends to micro-manage the problem rather than approach it with an organized response. In the end, the team may just barely triumph or they miss the mark entirely. It’s a vicious cycle and a state that defeats the mind and body. Multiply this scenario in an agency across multiple accounts each with a handful of integrated campaigns and soon you begin to realize the “fire” which was once the exception, now becomes the norm. But we’re agile, right?

I begged the question of what the term, “agile” really meant and how people could so loosely throw out this term each time they were met with a flurry of panic. Inspired by my ever-changing environment and my career path as a project manager, I decided to embark on an experience that would save me from my job and help me cope with a complex environment. I’m not at all disheartened by this experience. In fact, it has helped me become a stronger project manager who is now more mindful to my surroundings and it has given me the ability to think with a more flexible mindset. Moreover, while I was once defeated in spirit, I found that taking the Agile Management series at UC Berkeley extension extremely therapeutic. It helped me demystify the smoke and mirrors behind the term, agile.

So what is agile and agile management?

Agile: able to move quickly and easily

Agile Management is the work of energizing, empowering and enabling teams to rapidly and reliably deliver business value by engaging customers and continuously learning and adapting to changing needs and environments. – Patricia Reed, UC Berkeley: Agile Management

“Agility is the ability to both create and respond to change in order to profit in a turbulent business environment,” according to Jim Highsmith. It’s about being nimble and quick to respond. It’s about building relationships and promoting dialogue. It’s about being open and transparent. It’s about people above process. As stated in the Agile Manifesto, it’s:

Individuals and interactions over processes and tools

Working software over comprehensive documentation

Customer collaboration over contract negotiation

Responding to change over following a plan

That is, while there is value in the items on the right, we value the items on the left more.

Oftentimes that’s where the misconception of “whatever it takes” lays, reiterating “…while there is value in the items on the right, we value the items on the left more.” Somehow the right side of the statement gets truncated in the heat of the moment and people begin pay homage to “people over process,” when in reality it should be “people above process.” These two ideas should not be separated; instead, they should go hand-in-hand when facing the fast and the furious. It’s realizing the difference and making this adjustment that will help people cope within complex environments and thrive on the fence of chaos.

Taking the Agile Management series and sitting in on a few eight hour classes helped me recalibrate the definition of agile and change my mindset. Now as I face some of the same challenges, the idea behind “whatever it takes” no longer gets the best of me.