Learning and talent development and why facilitation and coaching are key at agile workplaces

Agile is an attitude and not a technique with boundaries. An attitude knows no boundaries. So you do not ask yourself 'can I use agile here?', but 'how do I behave agile in this situation?' or 'how agile can we be in this situation?'
Alister Cockburn, founder of the agile movement

Alister Cockburn calls himself a modern-day bard. He travels from continent to continent, to tell and share his stories of companies and organizations he visited.  According to Alister Cockburn, the key of agile is learning from each other and it is important that this process is facilitated by doing and reflection. Learning is actually a key by-product of a process, when you are producing a product or service for a client.  According to Alister Cockburn ‘Servant leader’ in this aspect is an outdated terminology. In an agile working environment Alister Cockburn is talking about the ‘Hosted leader’, somebody who is accepted by others.   Watch this video interview with Alister Cockburn

Agile is becoming the standard in both profit and non-profit organisations
Today’s world is asking another way of organizing. In case an organisation is run on a traditional hierarichal way, it might mean that the organisation might not exist anymore in three years to come due to a fast changing context and customer environment. In complex environment ‘best practices’ are not a standard anymore. Organisations need to continuously adapt and change their products or services.
A lot of people in today’s society do not accept the traditional, hierarchal way of working anymore. They want to have a certain amount of autonomy, they don’t like things to be told and they like to be appreciated for their talents. Therefore, many organisations are transforming to an agile and flexible organisation. 
Agile is based on four key principles;

• People and their mutual interaction are preferred  above processes and tools;
• Working results are preferred above comprehensive documentation;
• Partnership with the client is preferred above contract negotiations;
• Responding to change is preferred above following a plan.

Agile teams are multi-disciplinary and preferably as diverse as possible

Making mistakes is part of learning in an agile environment
An agile working environment is characterized by;

• Teams are self-organised (not based on hierarchy but equality) and have a diverse and multi-displinary composition. Each teammember has a special, different talent to contribute;
• The organisation operates in a complex environment. There are no standard best practices, the context is continuously changing and teams should love and embrace uncertainty;
• Agile teams are multi-disciplinary and preferably as diverse as possible;
• Recruitment is mainly done by the teams themselves with support of the HR-department;
• The working strategy is flexible, time-spans of implementation of part of projects or products is short and is reviewed regularly;
• Meetings and reviews are short and facilitated effectively, regularly with the help of an agile coach or scrum master;
• The client is consulted and involved from the beginning to the end in the development process. There are regular reviews with the client;
• People build their capacities by learning from each other. Limited resources are invested in training, but the more people formulate learning goals for each project and learn by doing and learning from other.
• There are no performance or job evaluations. People reflect on their own lessons and give each other feedback;
• Making mistakes is part of learning, there is a safe environment;
• Milestones are celebrated.

People reflect and learn from their own successes and mistakes

Changing role of the HR Department

One thing I know for sure - in the future talent is more than capital the key critical production factor.   Klaus Schwab, founder of the World Economic Forum

Klaus Schwab is talking about the 4th industrial revolution.  Watch the video, explaining why talent is becoming so important and why people should focus on a life long education;  

The role of the HR-Department is changing in an agile working environment, since recruitment is more delegated to the self-organised teams,  feedback and performance evaluations are done at the team level and training becomes less important since team members learn from each other by doing and reflecting.

Therefore the HR-professional in agile working environments will move more towards becoming;

1. An Agile coach for agile working teams;

2. A developer and facilitator of defining people’s purpose, why they feel connected to the organisation;

3. An employee experience designer in assisting the employee’s journey and growth in the organisation;

4. Trend translator in transferring trends and developments to employee in the organisation;

5. Working happiness developer in facilitating the happiness and comfortable work environment for each employee in the organisation. 

Facilitation and learning development will be one of key needs at the agile workplace

The need for facilitation, coaching and learning will become key in the agile working environment. The need for external training will be minimized and people working in agile workplaces will continuously set learning challenges and goals when they implement project. Therefore, organisations need to invest in capacity building of scrum master and good facilitators.  In the Dutch publication Agile HR you can read more about the changing role of HR professionals in agile organisations. 

Are you an organisation in the transition phase of making your organisation more agile and if you would like to conduct a pilot workshop on talent development, diversity and inclusion, you can contact me;   Simon Koolwijk,  e-mail.   faccom@xs4all.nl    I am an experienced facilitator and agile coach in the non-profit and international development sector and am familiar with working in context in an agile working environment.