Pro Tips: Sustaining Agility
Project leaders can maintain a change-ready culture by fostering collaboration, empowering teams to solve problems and putting people first.
Change-ready teams can help organizations stay future-focused—and pivot quickly and seamlessly—to gain a strategic advantage. PMI asked project professionals: How do you sustain agility—and hold team members accountable so they’re always prepared to flex?
Make collaboration part of the change-ready culture
In our organization, agility is a way to resolve challenges. One of the efficient ways to have the team connect and maintain flexibility in our projects is collaboration. We have a strong commitment to support teams even in the most challenging projects. We work principally with the people adapting to change, emphasizing a change management culture and building a network to maintain the visibility of our ideas. It’s important to create a squad where all members are important. We strongly believe that we can achieve better results collectively than individually.
—Susana Molina, PMP, chief data officer and LATAM PMO, Veolia, Madrid
Forge a sense of urgency to empower teams
To foster agility and flexibility within a team, you need to lead by example. The key is giving the team a sense of urgency when it comes to being flexible, which can further support efficiency in business. For instance, I give continuous feedback to team members, making sure to touch upon their spaces for improvement and to emphasize the contribution of each and every team member. Being agile is a demonstration of talent and intelligence. It should not be seen as stressful, but rather a trigger for being efficient to support the business. The big takeaway: Empower team members to make sure that they feel like a key stakeholder in the solution.
—Marc Burlereaux, PMI-RMP, PMP, PgMP, program and delivery manager, Syncordis, Geneva
Put people first—then build momentum
You need to understand the motivation and change style of each team member. We are humans; some of us enjoy predictability while others can live with an intermediate approach where clarity and uncertainty are balanced. Others might enjoy risk and uncertainty. Having these insights and understandings allows me to facilitate communications, assist in the sprint goal definition and remove blockers whenever they appear. It also helps me to provide the assistance the team needs to be prepared to flex—whether it’s enhancing collaboration or recognizing and appreciating their contributions while building synergy—all of these factors help keep team members accountable.
—Carla Catalano, PMP, principal project manager, Microsoft, Santiago
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