Kinetic Change™

Intent & Approach

An opportunity to reflect

​

Since the Agile Manifesto was written, the values and principles have become part of our identities. They are entwined in our belief systems. They define how we work. They inform how we treat each other. 

​

As a community, we also have been subject to identity politics. As we evolved individually and as an industry, we’ve built allegiances and moats. We’ve given in to tribal, sometimes near-sighted, thinking. We’ve had deep emotional experiences that reinforce those allegiances as we collaborated, learned and guided others.

​

Today, whatever version of agile you practice is likely being challenged by recent rhetoric and mass firings of coaches, scrum masters, and developers. Transformations have been failing at a high rate for nearly a decade. Many believe that the approaches have proven unfit for enterprise-level delivery. Others find them “old-fashioned” and irrelevant at the team level. Clearly, pressing forward as if nothing is wrong would be the definition of madness. 

Let’s celebrate the opportunity to reflect. 

Intention

​

With Agility4Q, we feel the time is ripe to gather with others who choose to lead the way forward.

Together, we can look at ourselves, sense where we are as a collective, and share personal stories that have shaped us. With Agility4Q, we intend to create a space where we can be open about our deep interests as they relate to the health of the industry, understand the conflicts, and choose our battles. Together, we can define the stories that may shape our future and work through experimentation.

Creating a quality holding space for dialogue

​

As two members of the Agile community, Erika Lenz (Kinetic Change) and Martin West (Janars) offer a mix of facilitation techniques for working with complex challenges and a new AI-informed facilitation platform that allows easier gathering and flow of data. 

While we want this space to be emergent, we have created soft scaffolding for exploration. Here are some questions to guide us:

• How has the problem statement evolved over the last two decades? 

• How does AI impact the problem statement? 

• What do the stories that shaped us teach us about this challenge?

• How will the stories that we want to tell shape our future? What’s the gap between now and then?

• What are the options for moving forward?

• What experiments might be generative and fit-for-purpose?

• What collaborations within the community can be formed to further the learning through these experiments?

Desired outcomes for those who select to lead

​

• Working as part of group, have personal time to reflect on your journey in a context of the collective journey

• Explore the use of AI as a neutral observer and source of feedback

• Contribute to collective thinking about stories we want to create together, and within that explore your interests

• Collaborate with other seasoned practitioners with broad diverse set of experience in software delivery

• Be part of the community evolving our mental models from a non-commercial perspective

• Be a leader in this community change

• An opportunity to form collaborative working groups or experiments with other leaders

Inspiration & language

​

We’re inspired by the rebelliousness and mutual respect of the early social movement born from lightweight software development methods. Through the inevitable mess of complex change, the values and principles have sustained us, fostered personal growth, created industries, and laid the groundwork for completely new ways of working. Let’s pull that thread forward into today’s cloth, with the understanding that a complex adaptive challenge requires both a change in perspective to identify issues and a change in approach to implement solutions. 

In the interest of avoiding buzzwords and the biases caused by language, we ask that all frameworks and named practices be left at the door. This includes the word “agile,” except in an historical sense. We’re looking forward now, at possibilities, so we’re going to use the word “adaptation” instead. 

The goal is not to “reimagine” or “promote agile.” It’s to prepare for the likely Cambrian explosion of new ideas, practices, and solutions. 

We’re looking for experienced co-evolutionaries to consider what building materials are structurally sound and fit-for-purpose in a world where exponentially increasing rapid change is the norm and human cognitive limits are tested daily.

Shaping the experience

​

The adaptive change workshops will use an AI-assisted facilitation platform called Janars. This virtual social experience is designed to guide participants through a series of progressive steps, each building upon the last, to create a comprehensive learning experience. Janars also safe-guards the data collected, for use during and after the experience.