Hi, Here's How to Boost Agility.

As Agile principles gradually expand from the field of software development to various industries, the essence of Agile is undergoing a significant generalization. From the original Agile Manifesto for software development to its current application in manufacturing, finance, healthcare, and other sectors, Agile no longer merely represents a specific set of practices. Instead, it has become synonymous with adapting to rapidly changing environments. Organizations across industries are drawing on Agile thinking, hoping to maintain competitiveness in a complex and ever-changing market through quick responses and flexible adjustments.

Agile is no longer just an external operational guide; it is a state deeply embedded within organizations and individuals. By enhancing this internal state, teams and organizations can respond to changes more calmly and effectively, thereby truly achieving the goals of Agile and avoiding regression or degradation during transformation. Atomic Agility makes Agile a lasting cultural force rather than just a management method.

Atomic Agility is guided by principles and supported by practices. By gradually reinforcing smaller units of Agile states, individuals and organizations can move toward a more Agile path. The practices (habits) listed here encourage everyone to discard them after a period of use and to incubate their own practices (habits) based on the principles. This collection of practices does not constitute a complete industry solution; rather, these practices are like stones thrown into a lake, hoping to catalyze more Atomic Agility.

Organizational Agile Transformation = Innovation Practice Promotion

Agile is a complex concept. Many organizations pursue the so-called “correct” agile process. However, processes, structures, and value analyses are only effective for a limited time and cannot sustainably catalyze agility. Additionally, organizational metrics and the description of causal objectives require that each approach and method can complete self-description in a relatively closed loop.

Therefore, the process of agile transformation within an organization is essentially the process of promoting and applying innovative practices. As shown in the diagram below:

graph LR
t[Trial Phase] --> p[Partial Promotion]
p --> l[Large-Scale Promotion]
l --> f[Full Promotion]

The process of continually incubating and promoting (leading to more applications) or failing (leading to fewer applications) is the essence of organizational agile transformation. Only practices that better adapt to the organizational environment will survive in this cycle of incubation and promotion. This incubation and promotion process is, in fact, an ongoing attempt to activate organizational agility.

Behind every attempt to promote organizational (or individual) practices is agility. The opposite of agility is clarity, certainty, authority, and caution. Any practice that is fully promoted throughout an organization also indicates its rigidity. However, other practices, as they strive towards full promotion, continue to nourish the organization’s agility.

This process allows for diversity. In organizations that do not tolerate diversity, agility becomes nothing more than a superficial facade.

Achieving a balance between more standardized, rigid promotion and more justified, individualized incubation and application is key. The practices listed below are merely suggestions for the early stages, where there is no clear direction. The principles described can be discarded during actual practice.

Key Steps

1. Focus on issues and pain points;
2. Incubate or apply new practices;
   • Software development practices (examples):
     • Requirements are unclear, and it’s hard for business and development to reach consensus, leading to inefficiency and frequent rework: Sand, Brick, and Diamond.
     • Requirements cannot be effectively split, progress becomes uncontrollable, and communication between business and technical teams breaks down, increasing risks: Ping-Pong Splitting.
     • Estimations are either inaccurate or too time-consuming, ultimately causing project delays or going out of control: Fibo Lite Estimation.
     • When facing uncertainty, project plans struggle to stay flexible, short-term goals and long-term vision are not balanced, and progress stalls: Dual-Beam Planning.
3. Define pilot practices, assign a number to each practice, and track content changes and promotion stages;
4. Enrich the content of different practices during the trial, and attempt to expand the scope of promotion;
5. Return to the first step.

Principles