The few words I use to present “agile” at the beginning of training sessions or during conferences. What is agility, agile? How to summarize it.

Empowerment

Agility is acknowledging the complexity of our world. Complex? many interconnections, many dependencies, very rapid technological renewals, everything is intertwined (etymology of complex) the world has become unpredictable, uncertain. Agility is a response to this complexity and what is this response? We must empower people. By empowering people we are able to apprehend this complexity as best as possible. A virtuous circle can also be created: by being empowered people are motivated, happy, and they are all the better at what they do. Don’t be reluctant, you take no risk in empowering people, you will only have better.

Effort/Value/Improvement

Only do what is useful, what has value. And take a step back at regular intervals to improve yourself. Always keep in mind the effort/value tradeoff, always seek to improve.

This second definition is very lean. So in doing what is useful, what has value, don’t forget “see the whole”: having coffee with your colleagues is useful (information sharing, relaxation, etc.)

There you have it, with these two cards in hand you are agile. :)