Discover the values for agility

The strength of the movement towards agility lies in the values. They form your anchor point. It is important to work together to discover what they mean for your organization and to make clear how far you are with them. For example, create your own manifesto and be inspired by the original Agile Manifesto from 2001.

Exercise: 

• Create a manifesto for your organization together with a group of colleagues.

• Take the six values for agility and place them on the left side of the manifesto. Or come up with your own values. You can also use icons instead of words. So be creative!

• Brainstorm about the values that come on the right side of the manifesto. These reflect where you come from. Choose the values that best match that.

• Now write or draw the values on the right side of the manifesto. Make sure that the right side in your manifesto also has a positive formulation. There is value in that side too. For example, the manifesto states: ‘fun’ above ‘sense of duty’, ‘doing’ above ‘thinking’.

• Which value from your manifesto do you find most important to tackle first? You can do this, for example, by placing cards with the values on the floor and voting with your feet.

• Discuss where your organization currently stands in the movement from right to left for this value.

• Conclude by determining the first action you will take to start the movement.

You can create this manifesto with multiple groups and also share it within the organization. Visualize it and print it on posters. Give it a central place in your building and a conversation about the manifesto and intended changes will start for sure.