This article is written by Johnathan Brammall, Business Analyst and Agile Coach for the Government of British Columbia, Ministry of Citizens’ Services. All inferences, opinions, and conclusions drawn in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the opinions or policies of the Ministry of Citizens' Services or the Province of British Columbia.

“What’s happening? What do I do next? How do we get a handle on things?”

These might be some of the questions that are going through your head in a crisis. If you consider a crisis a wicked problem (as I do), you’ll find the situation easier to navigate using agile leadership. Agile leadership is about fostering a culture of learning, empowerment and collaboration which is aimed to produce organisations that can adapt to changing situations.

Agile tools and techniques are widely used because they provide results for many kinds of complex problems. Here’s a process for agile leadership that brings together these values:

  • Being intentional and transparent (focus on value and sharing)

  • Being focused on the needs of others (it’s not only about you)

  • Being collaborative in solving the needs of others (listening before and after)

  • Being focused on learning (experimentation is key)

  • Improving all that you do (iterate, iterate, iterate)

  • Building relationships that can respond to change (trust and trying)

Be intentional: Identify the crisis — what sort of problem is it?

For me, a crisis is a complex situation driving a need for change or a decision where the impact can only be known after implementation. The situation may be personal, organisational, or even broader. In a crisis, our environment, behaviours, processes, decisions, and priorities have changed or are changing. An example of crisis is the activity of governments navigating pandemics and outbreaks such as Covid-19, Ebola, or SARS. In all these situations, we have seen different decisions yielding similar results, or similar decisions producing wildly different results.

Evaluating evidence, especially if it’s done in a short time, is difficult and not something a leader should do alone. In a crisis there is urgency, which can include demands for efficiency

The Cynefin framework by Dave Snowden can help you identify the kind of problem you are dealing with. The Cynefin framework is a sense making tool that helps us check our common problem solving impulses by assessing the problem we’re facing and provides guidance on a strategy for the response.

Typically, collaboration provides value across many kinds of problems but fits best for complex problems such as a crisis. Agile principles and processes like sprints, backlogs, demonstrations, and focused experiments assume an environment where solutions must emerge over time because of complexity. The agile processes and tools can be used to quickly get everyone collaborating.

Focus on others, their needs, and their insight: You’re not alone

Once you’ve identified the problem, identify your collaborators:

  • Find out who has the problem

  • Find who else is working on similar problems

  • Find your team and who will work on the solution with you

Collaborate with these stakeholders as early and as often as is reasonable. Talking to stakeholders will provide key details that will differentiate this new problem from others you have handled and give new perspectives on causes and solutions to the problem. Collaboration checks your assumptions and sets expectations for your intended course of action.

Collaborate: Evaluate your evidence together

Evaluating evidence, especially if it’s done in a short time, is difficult and not something a leader should do alone. In a crisis there is urgency, which can include demands for efficiency. Resist the need for efficiency being your decision-making criterion. Collaboration is not efficient, but it can reduce wasted effort. It’s a trade-off that leaders must be prepared to make in times when we must act.

Crisis can drastically change expectations and receptiveness which will determine the value of your work. By acting you build trust; by listening and changing course you maintain it

Your collaborators will be able to provide insight while you focus on the potential value of the proposed solutions. As a leader you want to focus on outputs that have the greatest value, not simply the ones that are quickest or easiest to try with your team’s skills. Complex problems rarely have a single solution, and it is even rarer that a single person has a complete solution. Leverage the perspectives from your collaborators in order to guide your next actions.

Experiment: Try something, share, and be surprised

Success isn’t determined solely by leaders, but by the people affected by our actions. Being transparent about our actions enables feedback which will identify the next highest value work to be done.

The level of collaboration achieved with stakeholders provides a built-in feedback loop that indicates what is working and what isn’t; use it as often as you can! Be open to dismissing perfect implementations. Crisis can drastically change expectations and receptiveness which will determine the value of your work. By acting you build trust; by listening and changing course you maintain it.

Iterate: Do it all again

There is always a limit to the resources at our disposal, but the real resource for an agile leader is their team. If you remain committed to your collaborators’ needs rather than a specific solution, you’ll be able to pivot to success. Iterative improvement is the approach needed in complex environments. You and the team can always try to make the solution, your processes, and tools better with your next attempt.

Build relationships: If you can, start now

As leaders, we seek to inspire people to action and set them up for success. The success of any solution is measured by stakeholders, but as leaders our success is measured by building a team that can deliver and learn. Not every solution we deliver will be a success and we must make room to learn from failure. Building collaborative relationships sets everyone up for success by giving them space to learn, it gives them courage to try new things and teaches the team to focus on listening and not on solutions.

Most importantly, collaboration can begin today. Start building the relationships needed to enable trust, courage, accountability and learning. It’s hard to try things that might fail, even harder to do it openly. Collaboration done well creates a safe space that limits the impact of our fears and flaws as individuals, creating a group that has the best parts of everyone.  — Johnathan Brammall

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