The digital age and the exponential growth of technologies are increasingly forcing organizations to set up their working environment in a flexible and agile way. The corona pandemic has added to this in the past three years. According to Dave West, CEO of Scrum.org, an Agile way of working is more important than ever. This brings us to the question: ‘How do you as an organization deal with the acceleration of digital trends?’
With all the changes, events and uncertainties of recent years, the true face of the agile capability of organizations is emerging. What works and what doesn’t and how can you deal with this as an Agile professional? We asked Dave West and talked to him about his take on ‘The True Face of Agile’.
Innovation and impact
‘The current digital age makes an Agile way of working inevitably’, West begins his story. “All digital trends – which have only been reinforced by the corona pandemic – all create opportunities as well as challenges. Everything is possible these days, which means that opportunities are endless, but work is also becoming more complex at the same time.’
With this complexity, West is referring, among other things, to the changing view of work today. Where in the past we worked from scarcity, now we work from abundance. It is no longer just about efficiency and effectiveness, but about innovation and making as much impact as possible. How organizations are built has also changed drastically: organizations no longer consist of diverse people, each with their own specialism and goals, but of cross-functional teams that work together towards a goal.’ flexible and agile attitude of organizations.
Exploiting opportunities through clear goals
What does this flexible and agile attitude mean in concrete terms for organizational structures, team models and the daily actions of employees? West: “In any case, technology is the last thing organizations should worry about! It’s about creating a working environment in which you give people the space to work Agile.’
According to West, creating an Agile working environment is about people, as his story shows. ‘And that is also what The True Face of Agile means to me,’ he explains. ‘If you leave out mass production, industrialization and organizational structures, you eventually come to the core of organizations and that is the people. People are the driving force in an organization. Agile working in 2022 is therefore about building a team with different skills that can achieve a goal and that is open to being guided and supported.’
Agile, including Scrum, is inextricably linked with the digital age. “The technological opportunities and challenges within an organization always require continuous improvement within an organization. And that improvement always comes down to people,” he explains. “As long as they are presented with clear goals, they will remain motivated to implement those improvements and opportunities will be used.”
Structure in which people are central
The view on working worldwide has therefore changed due to digitization. ‘This complex and continuously changing world requires a structure of organizations in which people, both employees and customers, are central,’ he says. “It is therefore no longer a question for organizations whether they want to work Agile or not, but especially how they should do that to stay afloat.”
Who is Dave West?
Dave West is CEO of Scrum.org, a global organization that helps organizations, teams and people solve complex problems. In his role as CEO, he works with partners to increase Scrum’s overall market position.
Dave West will speak at the annual Agile Consortium conference on November 17, 2022, about his view on ‘The True Face of Agile’. Interested in attending his presentation? Register before 30 September to take advantage of the attractive Early Bird rate.