Why should associations tap into agile methodologies?

Associations of all shapes and sizes are focused on meeting or exceeding the needs of their members, and agile can play a vital role in achieving this goal. Agile, in a nutshell, is a set of frameworks that focus on business outcomes through a focus on adaptability, flexibility, and balance. Agile thinking across an association can lead to greater transparency between business and IT teams, serving as a unifying language and process. It can reduce development time, bottlenecks, and, most importantly, cost.

What type of leadership style works best for agile teams?

Agile leadership focuses on communication, commitment, and collaboration, with a “one mission” philosophy. This type of leadership is designed to improve a team’s quality of thinking, resulting in better, quicker feedback and an internal drive toward innovation. Agile leadership fosters a culture of enablement by encouraging ideas from any part of the association. Teams are empowered to make decisions on the scope of work, planning, prioritization, and course corrections.

Is executive buy-in needed for agile to work?

Executive and mid-management buy-in are critical to harnessing the power of agile methodology. “Going agile” is a cultural shift more than just adoption of tools and process. It requires leadership to socialize their commitment to change and provide motivation to stakeholders, allowing them to take on risk. Having leaders understand the paradigm shift will give them a better roadmap for agile implementation. And once agile principles are implemented, executives should lead any organizational and role changes required to ensure continued success.

[This article was originally published in the Associations Now print edition, titled “Accelerate With Agile."]